Over a year...

I told you I'd update this! Here are things that have happened since I last posted something:

1. We got a dog and named her Murph. Her first birthday is tomorrow. Check back in then for awfully cute pictures of her in a party hat.

2. I got a different job... & health insurance!

3. Our apartment got progressively dirtier.

4. 40-year record snows fell on Portland around Christmas time throwing off flights home, but we did make it back for a visit.

5. Dan & I were in the "worst day of the year" ride on Dan's birthday. It's an 18 mile route through Portland in February with food/drinks stops about every 5 miles or so. It actually turned into of the nicest days of the year so far.

6. Dan got a bad-ass internship!

7. I started volunteer teaching English to immigrants/refugees from various countries at a local community college. I like it.

8. We discovered that people outside of the Midwest... or maybe the Michigan/Ohio/Indiana Tri-state area...have no idea what Euchre is. (** I just looked it up on wikipedia & apparently folks also play it in the UK, Canada, Australia & New Zealand) Luckily, we also figured out that we have neighbors from Detroit & South Bend.

9. We took a trip down to Bend, Oregon & it was the best 2 days I've had in a good while. (I will post pictures once we get our "funsaver" developed. On our trip back we hiked at Smith Rock & stopped at the Timberline Lodge. The lodge has a somewhat interesting history as a WPA project, but is even more notable as the exterior of the "Overlook Hotel" in the Shining!

10. I have a round-trip ticket from here to Florida at the end of August. I will day dream every day until then about shrimp & margaritas.

So, yeah, the year went well. We both took May 1st off to celebrate the anniversary of the move. We drove by the 1st house we lived in here, went to a couple of parks, took in the city from 30 floors up at the Portland City Grill, and then got hot wings at Fire on the Mountain, the 1st place we ate the night we arrived. We tried to go see the Big Lebowski in theather, and that fell through, but we did run into some friends from earlier in the year.

That's all for now...hope you all feel caught up. Like I said above, check back in tomorrow!