Where to start…

Wednesday

I spent the day watching my cousin’s son (my first cousin once removed).  I generally have more than enough energy, but I think I was outdone by this little guy:

He went non-stop all day.  Legos, play dough, table tent, the playground, the creek, a movie, and more.  Nap time consisted of me pretending to nap while he pretended to nap until he deemed I was asleep, then he went back to playing with toys.  So naptime lasted about 30 minutes.

Thursday

I went for a killer ride.  I did some hill repeats on old Germantown Road with several sprints thrown in each climb.  Then I went up to the top of Skyline and marveled at the night and day difference between the way I’m climbing on a bike now compared with only 3 months ago.

I returned from the ride to find a job offer sitting in my email inbox!  Four months of non-stop job hunting paid off!

Friday

I accepted the job offer.  I start a week from this upcoming Monday.  My position will be Social Media Coordinator at Dotster, an internet domain/hosting company.  The position is a new one, and I’m really excited about it.  I’ll be working in their marketing department to leverage social media for marketing purposes.  I find it fascinating that this sort of position didn’t exist anywhere only a couple years ago, and it’s fast becoming a major marketing channel.  There are many unknowns, but also the potential for a ton of creativity in the position.

The company is based in Vancouver, WA so my plan is to try to find a place in N/NE Portland where the commute will be easy.  There are some great neighborhoods in that area too.

Saturday

What DIDN’T happen on Saturday?  I started out the day with the Team Oregon group ride.  We got poured on for a while in the morning, but it dried out fairly nicely for the three of us that decided to do the longer route.  The longer route included the back side of Logie Trail Road, which is a climb with a reputation.  For starters, it’s several miles long.  It goes all the way from Highway 30 near the Columbia River up to the top of Skyline.  The final kicker is that it’s steep.  Switchbacks near the top have grades probably close to 20%.  I’m proud to say I’ve now had the Logie Trail experience.  That is one heck of a climb.

Next up I went to check out a studio apartment in North Portland.  It’s a pretty nice place and I’d be happy there.  Now I have to wait and see where my application falls in line and if someone else will get first pick on it.

Next, I went to teammate Pat’s house to check out and test drive the car he’s had for sale that I’d been talking to him about.  The test drive was fairly uneventful as expected, save for the storm of the century that came out of nowhere.  I saw a black wall of rain coming from the west, but thought it just looked like a good rainstorm.  Two minutes later, the trees are blowing like a hurricane is coming.  A minute after that, it’s a torrential downpour.  The wipers are on high and can’t keep up with the rain.  In less than a minute the gutters are overflowing and the roads are becoming rivers.  I made it back to Pat’s place in the midst of the storm, and five minutes later it was done.  I’ve never seen anything like that in Oregon.  Probably at least a half an inch of rain in less than ten minutes.

But anyway, the car.  It’s a 2003 Kia Rio.  Pretty much one owner, and low miles.  It’s a tiny little economy commuter car, which is exactly what I was looking for.  It has a CD player, AC, and power steering, but that’s about it.  There’s not much to it, which means there’s not much that can break.  It drives pretty nicely and has enough power to get up to highway speed.  Perfect.  And it’s mine as soon as we switch over the registration and I pay Pat.

After the rain let up, it was like nothing had happened.  Partly sunny and maybe a little breezy, but you could tell that something wicked had come through:

Next I met up with Jim and Russell from the cycling team and a few of their friends for the Belgian Beer Festival in Northwest Portland.  It was a beer tasting with close to 40 different belgian style beers from local breweries.  This guy looked a little busy to be fully enjoying himself (bluetooth and a baby!):

After some tasting we went to Por Que No.  I’ve been wanting to make it to Por Que No pretty much since I got to Portland.  I’ve heard rave reviews about the food and atmosphere, plus my cousin Eric works there.  Eric was working while we were there, but he was scrambling around in the back of the kitchen looking busy and I never got his attention, so I had another employee say hi for me.  And the food was indeed delicious.  Lots of complementary flavors.

Today

Job hunting has suddenly turned into apartment hunting.

I’m also really enjoying watching the NHL playoffs on TV this year.

This afternoon I’m going to see my cousin Jessica in Annie Get Your Gun.  She normally plays a different part, but she’s the understudy for the lead role, which apparently she’ll be playing today.  Should be fun.

If it remains sunny into this evening, I think I’ll finish off the day with an easy ride.