Kristen landed a job today! She will be a research analyst for a background investigation firm nearby that does background checks for employers, banks, government agencies, and law enforcement. Training starts on Friday.
I'm really proud of us for getting hired in this economy, amid all the doom and gloom of rising unemployment. At least we know we're hire-able!
Monday, February 23
Sunday, February 22
Stuff! STUFF!!
Erm... we picked an apartment that is a bit too small for all of our stuff!
The shipment from England arrived on Thursday. Kristen went down to Eugene to receive it that afternoon. Then, after work on Friday, we picked up what was supposed to be a moving van. However, when the guy pulled it around front, it was a fairly large, diesel moving truck. That's internet booking for you, I guess. It was the same price as the van, so we just took it. Didn't have a choice because that was the smallest vehicle they had. But a wearying 2-hour drive to Eugene in that thing!
Saturday morning, we got up pretty early to start going through the stuff we had stored in Nanny's garage. The multitude of boxes from the England shipment, we just chucked right into the truck, but we wanted to have a brief sift-through of the things we put in storage over 5 years ago since we didn't fully remember what we had elected to hold onto at that point. Some stuff we set aside to sell at a yard sale. Some we threw away. Some we decided to keep storing at Nanny's until we buy a house (looks like we probably should have left a bit more there!). The rest we put in the truck.
We had to rush back to Portland because the truck had to be returned by 5. And that was after unloading it, filling it up with diesel, and then driving to the rental place in Tigard. We got to our place around quarter to 3, so we very quickly unloaded all the boxes into the apartment and then I took off in the truck while Kristen continued unpacking.
It is overwhelming how much stuff we suddenly have. And very few places to put it! We need to buy more furniture to store it, but that is going to have to wait. I went to IKEA today to get a stainless steel shelf to use in the kitchen. Little by little, we will get some bookshelves, a small computer desk, and some dressers for the bedroom. At this point, we've gotten to a reasonable level of order, though there are still boxes in every room. The closet on the back patio that I was going to use as a "brewing shed" is, at the moment, a multi-purpose storage shed instead. Eventually, we'll get it sorted out.
Tomorrow, I'll be riding my bike to work for the first time. Should be fun.
Kristen has three more "informational interviews" this week and will hopefully hear back from the company where she had an interview on Friday. They will be doing second interviews with the candidates they are most interested in.
The shipment from England arrived on Thursday. Kristen went down to Eugene to receive it that afternoon. Then, after work on Friday, we picked up what was supposed to be a moving van. However, when the guy pulled it around front, it was a fairly large, diesel moving truck. That's internet booking for you, I guess. It was the same price as the van, so we just took it. Didn't have a choice because that was the smallest vehicle they had. But a wearying 2-hour drive to Eugene in that thing!
Saturday morning, we got up pretty early to start going through the stuff we had stored in Nanny's garage. The multitude of boxes from the England shipment, we just chucked right into the truck, but we wanted to have a brief sift-through of the things we put in storage over 5 years ago since we didn't fully remember what we had elected to hold onto at that point. Some stuff we set aside to sell at a yard sale. Some we threw away. Some we decided to keep storing at Nanny's until we buy a house (looks like we probably should have left a bit more there!). The rest we put in the truck.
We had to rush back to Portland because the truck had to be returned by 5. And that was after unloading it, filling it up with diesel, and then driving to the rental place in Tigard. We got to our place around quarter to 3, so we very quickly unloaded all the boxes into the apartment and then I took off in the truck while Kristen continued unpacking.
It is overwhelming how much stuff we suddenly have. And very few places to put it! We need to buy more furniture to store it, but that is going to have to wait. I went to IKEA today to get a stainless steel shelf to use in the kitchen. Little by little, we will get some bookshelves, a small computer desk, and some dressers for the bedroom. At this point, we've gotten to a reasonable level of order, though there are still boxes in every room. The closet on the back patio that I was going to use as a "brewing shed" is, at the moment, a multi-purpose storage shed instead. Eventually, we'll get it sorted out.
Tomorrow, I'll be riding my bike to work for the first time. Should be fun.
Kristen has three more "informational interviews" this week and will hopefully hear back from the company where she had an interview on Friday. They will be doing second interviews with the candidates they are most interested in.
Tuesday, February 17
Things are starting to happen
*Yesterday, Kristen was invited for an interview (this Friday) at a firm in Wilsonville that does background investigations. A great relief to get an interview!
*Today, she had an "informational interview" with someone at PSU. Sounds like that might lead to something, but we'll see. Keeping our fingers crossed!
*Also today, we got a call from the shipping company to let us know that our shipment will be delivered on Thursday afternoon.
*Thursday, Kristen will have to drive down to Eugene to accept the shipment (I can't get the day off work) because one of us has to be there.
*Saturday (or possibly Friday evening), we'll drive down to Eugene to pick up our stuff. There is probably some that we will donate to Goodwill. Not the stuff we paid a hefty sum to have shipped to the US, but some of the stuff that we stored in Nanny's garage a couple of years ago.
Busy week!
*Today, she had an "informational interview" with someone at PSU. Sounds like that might lead to something, but we'll see. Keeping our fingers crossed!
*Also today, we got a call from the shipping company to let us know that our shipment will be delivered on Thursday afternoon.
*Thursday, Kristen will have to drive down to Eugene to accept the shipment (I can't get the day off work) because one of us has to be there.
*Saturday (or possibly Friday evening), we'll drive down to Eugene to pick up our stuff. There is probably some that we will donate to Goodwill. Not the stuff we paid a hefty sum to have shipped to the US, but some of the stuff that we stored in Nanny's garage a couple of years ago.
Busy week!
Sunday, February 15
Our stuff
We finally heard from the moving company on Friday (well, Kristen actually had to contact them) and we have been informed that our shipment is due to arrive in Oregon by the end of this coming week. They will inform us of the exact date when it's a day or two away. We will have to pay a fee because customs decided to x-ray the container our stuff was in. Luckily, this is something we budgeted for.
I'm going to try to arrange to get the day off so we can drive down to Eugene. We're going to need a moving van. Really looking forward to getting our stuff back, especially my bicycle so I can start riding my bike to work.
By the way, the moving company picked up our stuff in England on Nov. 14th. Surface shipping takes a LONG time!
I'm going to try to arrange to get the day off so we can drive down to Eugene. We're going to need a moving van. Really looking forward to getting our stuff back, especially my bicycle so I can start riding my bike to work.
By the way, the moving company picked up our stuff in England on Nov. 14th. Surface shipping takes a LONG time!
Sunday, February 8
The Week That Was (and what a week it was!)
This week was quite a tiring one, but we now have a place in Portland! Here we are a week later and it seems like it was a month ago that we were last in Sisters. An incredible amount of progress in one week!
*Saturday: We got up fairly early to finish packing up our stuff from Jim & Judy's ranch in Sisters and then drive to Eugene. It was sad to leave after such a relaxing, therapeutic, idyllic stay in Central Oregon (we'll be back!), but by the same token, we were also excited to get the next chapter started. We said farewell and headed out, stopping at Sisters Coffee on the way. When we got to Nanny's house in Eugene, we spent the whole afternoon looking on Craigslist.com for apartments to view the following Monday. The Portland Craigslist is particularly vibrant and I think the only real way to find apartments in that town because it seems to be the only place people list them. There are new listings at least every hour or so.
*Sunday: More apartment hunting. We started looking pretty early in the morning and also made some appointments for viewings on Monday. Of course, this was also Super Bowl Sunday, so we could not let that go unnoticed. As a little break from apartment research, we went to Kristen's dad's for a Super Bowl mini-party. What a game (well, at least that last quarter and definitely the last 2 minutes)!
*Monday: Left for Portland around 8 in the morning because we had our first apartment viewing was at 10am; a place really close to where I would be working. It's not the best neighborhood, as we suspected, but we had to see an example of what a $1000 per month gets you in that part of town. It was a huge apartment, but quite disgusting. Maybe something I would have lived in during college. We took an application from the French landlord and got the hell out of there. Kristen was taking notes on the information sheets we had printed. On this one she wrote "Disgusting! Only if desperate!" That was for damn sure! The next appointment was at 11 and we had a little time to kill, so we drove to the Sellwood area to get a feel for what kind of houses were for rent there. There were a couple we could potentially view the next day, but after seeing them from the outside, we pretty much decided we did not want to rent a house there. Buy one, definitely. Rent, no way. The next appointment as at an apartment complex near the Waverley Country Club in Milwaukie, which is just across the county line into Clackamas county, so technically not in Portland (a point which I belabored quite a bit with Kristen). After viewing four different apartments, it was clear that we would get a lot more for our money there. It also happened to be a pretty nice complex with lots of amenities. And a straight 5-mile shot up to where I would be working (a nice bike ride, too). After this, the next appointment was at 2pm. We drove around a bit in the Hawthorne area and then stopped for lunch at the Cup & Saucer, a historic, trendy spot on Hawthorne Blvd. The 2pm apartment was in NE Portland; a 1-bed above a 3-car garage. It looked promising on paper and seemed like an interesting prospect. Turned out not to be the ideal fit for us. It would feel too much like being a guest in someone's house and it was way overpriced at $1000 excluding utilities. The decision was clear. We would go for the Milwaukie apartment, so we headed back down to the SE area. The manager at Waverley didn't think we'd have any trouble being approved for it. She would let us know the next morning. Nothing to do but to drive back to Eugene. Spoke to my soon-to-be manager on the way and found out that I would start the job on Thursday instead of Wednesday. Good news because that meant we'd have an extra day to move in.
*Tuesday: We proceeded under the assumption that we would be approved for the apartment. We didn't hear about it until fairly late in the morning, right about the time I had started sweating it a bit. The car was mostly loaded and ready to go. We had a definite departure time of noon because I had a 2pm appointment to go sign some papers at my new employer's office. I was cramming some of our belongings into the Audi when Kristen came out to tell me we were good to go. Whew! We finished stuffing the car with odds and ends that we thought we might need to get us going in the apartment. A couple of pots and pans, cutlery, bedding, espresso machine, clothes, etc. Then, off to Portland again. After filling out the paperwork, we claimed our new apartment, off-loading the little stuff we had managed to bring with us. Since we had absolutely no furniture, most importantly no bed, we took Kristen's sister up on her offer to stay with her again. She and her fiance, Mike, wanted to take us out for a Celebratory/Welcome dinner. They took us to PF Chang's. Yum!
*Wednesday: A day for continuing our "move-in" by populating the apartment with more stuff. We bought a TV at Mike's company, using a Friends & Family discount. Nice! That was in Northwest Portland. Then we drove to a Sleep Country USA near our apartment and bought a bed. Unfortunately, they could not deliver it until the next day, which meant we'd have a bit of a rough night's sleep, so we thought we'd go get a memory-foam pillow top to sleep on which we could then add to the bed when we got it. But first, we needed to get back to the apartment because we had an appointment with Comcast to set up our internet connection. He was an hour late and took a really long time to finish. By the time we were able to head out again it was 4.30. We had planned to go to Costco to set up membership, buy the pillow top (they memory-foam mattresses at a pretty good price), and then go to IKEA for other household items. Both of us were pretty knackered by this point, so weren't to enthused about the idea. Alas, we needed something to sleep on. Since it was getting late, we decided to just go to Costco. We got as far as setting up the membership, then discovered that they didn't have the pillowtop. To IKEA, then. Where we spent almost 3 hours, but luckily not as much money as we thought we would. It was about 8pm when we got back to the apartment. Almost bedtime since I had to get up at 6 the next morning for the first day at my new job. Didn't get much sleep because the floor was pretty hard, even with the pillowtop, and because it was the first night in the apartment, so we had all new noises and things to get used to.
Thursday: Woken by the alarm at an hour that I haven't been woken at for some time. Groggy as hell, but managed to get myself showered, fed, dressed, and to work on time. Good first day -- will talk more about it in another blog entry. When I got home, we needed to go buy more provisions and supplies, so we went to Fred Meyer (a supermarket/department store). Again, we spent almost 3 hours in there and quite a bit of dough. But, hell, we have to start pretty much completely from scratch. No furniture. No pantry items. No household products. All that stuff you accumulate over time and take for granted, we had to buy it a-new. We have food now, though! And the place was starting to feel a bit more like home.
Friday: Kristen had a lunch meeting with a longtime friend of her family. Also a first step in starting to network with people in Portland. Gotta reel in a job soon! That night, we cooked our first real dinner in the apartment. And we watched a bit of TV, sitting on the floor since we still don't have any furniture.
Saturday: Exercised in the fitness center. Then we headed into Milwaukie to explore a bit. Grabbed coffee at a local coffee spot, then peeked into a few thrift shops. The task for this weekend was to find a couch and a kitchen table and chairs. Then Jenna came by with a housewarming gift plus some bits and pieces for the apartment. After her visit, we went to some more thrift shops and furniture stores. Not much luck on our mission. Nothing that would really fit our needs or budget. Another couchless night.
Sunday (today): We had the first "Sunday Ritual" in the apartment, a nice, relaxing morning. Then it was off to continue hunting for furniture. We bought a couch at Macy's, on sale. No delivery until Thursday. Four more couchless evenings. No luck on the table and chairs. We found a good set at Sears, but the pieces weren't in stock. Then we checked several other places including K-Mart, where we found something do-able. Guess what? Not in stock!
We're also still waiting for our England shipment to arrive. According to the shipping company's paperwork, we should be getting an ETA within the next couple of days. The plan is that when it arrives in Eugene, we will rent a truck to collect all of it plus the stuff we've been storing in Nanny's garage. But if that doesn't happen soon, we will just have to take an earlier trip to Eugene in our car to take some more stuff up here. There are some things that it would be really nice to have (like more than two plates, two glasses, and two coffee cups). To that end, Kristen will probably drive down on Wednesday.
It's pretty much llike we're "fading into" normalcy. Little by little, we're getting our things and setting up our lives here. We've really been looking forward to getting back into a routine. It's been a long two and a half months since getting back to the US. It can be pretty tiring to live out of suitcases and not having our own place. Thinking back to November 19th, when we arrived in Florida, it seems like it was such a long time ago. So much has happened since then. And there's more to come, I think! For one thing, we'll be sitting in a couch on Thursday!
PS - We finally got the deposit back from our landlord in England. Well, what was left after he had his way with it.
*Saturday: We got up fairly early to finish packing up our stuff from Jim & Judy's ranch in Sisters and then drive to Eugene. It was sad to leave after such a relaxing, therapeutic, idyllic stay in Central Oregon (we'll be back!), but by the same token, we were also excited to get the next chapter started. We said farewell and headed out, stopping at Sisters Coffee on the way. When we got to Nanny's house in Eugene, we spent the whole afternoon looking on Craigslist.com for apartments to view the following Monday. The Portland Craigslist is particularly vibrant and I think the only real way to find apartments in that town because it seems to be the only place people list them. There are new listings at least every hour or so.
*Sunday: More apartment hunting. We started looking pretty early in the morning and also made some appointments for viewings on Monday. Of course, this was also Super Bowl Sunday, so we could not let that go unnoticed. As a little break from apartment research, we went to Kristen's dad's for a Super Bowl mini-party. What a game (well, at least that last quarter and definitely the last 2 minutes)!
*Monday: Left for Portland around 8 in the morning because we had our first apartment viewing was at 10am; a place really close to where I would be working. It's not the best neighborhood, as we suspected, but we had to see an example of what a $1000 per month gets you in that part of town. It was a huge apartment, but quite disgusting. Maybe something I would have lived in during college. We took an application from the French landlord and got the hell out of there. Kristen was taking notes on the information sheets we had printed. On this one she wrote "Disgusting! Only if desperate!" That was for damn sure! The next appointment was at 11 and we had a little time to kill, so we drove to the Sellwood area to get a feel for what kind of houses were for rent there. There were a couple we could potentially view the next day, but after seeing them from the outside, we pretty much decided we did not want to rent a house there. Buy one, definitely. Rent, no way. The next appointment as at an apartment complex near the Waverley Country Club in Milwaukie, which is just across the county line into Clackamas county, so technically not in Portland (a point which I belabored quite a bit with Kristen). After viewing four different apartments, it was clear that we would get a lot more for our money there. It also happened to be a pretty nice complex with lots of amenities. And a straight 5-mile shot up to where I would be working (a nice bike ride, too). After this, the next appointment was at 2pm. We drove around a bit in the Hawthorne area and then stopped for lunch at the Cup & Saucer, a historic, trendy spot on Hawthorne Blvd. The 2pm apartment was in NE Portland; a 1-bed above a 3-car garage. It looked promising on paper and seemed like an interesting prospect. Turned out not to be the ideal fit for us. It would feel too much like being a guest in someone's house and it was way overpriced at $1000 excluding utilities. The decision was clear. We would go for the Milwaukie apartment, so we headed back down to the SE area. The manager at Waverley didn't think we'd have any trouble being approved for it. She would let us know the next morning. Nothing to do but to drive back to Eugene. Spoke to my soon-to-be manager on the way and found out that I would start the job on Thursday instead of Wednesday. Good news because that meant we'd have an extra day to move in.
*Tuesday: We proceeded under the assumption that we would be approved for the apartment. We didn't hear about it until fairly late in the morning, right about the time I had started sweating it a bit. The car was mostly loaded and ready to go. We had a definite departure time of noon because I had a 2pm appointment to go sign some papers at my new employer's office. I was cramming some of our belongings into the Audi when Kristen came out to tell me we were good to go. Whew! We finished stuffing the car with odds and ends that we thought we might need to get us going in the apartment. A couple of pots and pans, cutlery, bedding, espresso machine, clothes, etc. Then, off to Portland again. After filling out the paperwork, we claimed our new apartment, off-loading the little stuff we had managed to bring with us. Since we had absolutely no furniture, most importantly no bed, we took Kristen's sister up on her offer to stay with her again. She and her fiance, Mike, wanted to take us out for a Celebratory/Welcome dinner. They took us to PF Chang's. Yum!
*Wednesday: A day for continuing our "move-in" by populating the apartment with more stuff. We bought a TV at Mike's company, using a Friends & Family discount. Nice! That was in Northwest Portland. Then we drove to a Sleep Country USA near our apartment and bought a bed. Unfortunately, they could not deliver it until the next day, which meant we'd have a bit of a rough night's sleep, so we thought we'd go get a memory-foam pillow top to sleep on which we could then add to the bed when we got it. But first, we needed to get back to the apartment because we had an appointment with Comcast to set up our internet connection. He was an hour late and took a really long time to finish. By the time we were able to head out again it was 4.30. We had planned to go to Costco to set up membership, buy the pillow top (they memory-foam mattresses at a pretty good price), and then go to IKEA for other household items. Both of us were pretty knackered by this point, so weren't to enthused about the idea. Alas, we needed something to sleep on. Since it was getting late, we decided to just go to Costco. We got as far as setting up the membership, then discovered that they didn't have the pillowtop. To IKEA, then. Where we spent almost 3 hours, but luckily not as much money as we thought we would. It was about 8pm when we got back to the apartment. Almost bedtime since I had to get up at 6 the next morning for the first day at my new job. Didn't get much sleep because the floor was pretty hard, even with the pillowtop, and because it was the first night in the apartment, so we had all new noises and things to get used to.
Thursday: Woken by the alarm at an hour that I haven't been woken at for some time. Groggy as hell, but managed to get myself showered, fed, dressed, and to work on time. Good first day -- will talk more about it in another blog entry. When I got home, we needed to go buy more provisions and supplies, so we went to Fred Meyer (a supermarket/department store). Again, we spent almost 3 hours in there and quite a bit of dough. But, hell, we have to start pretty much completely from scratch. No furniture. No pantry items. No household products. All that stuff you accumulate over time and take for granted, we had to buy it a-new. We have food now, though! And the place was starting to feel a bit more like home.
Friday: Kristen had a lunch meeting with a longtime friend of her family. Also a first step in starting to network with people in Portland. Gotta reel in a job soon! That night, we cooked our first real dinner in the apartment. And we watched a bit of TV, sitting on the floor since we still don't have any furniture.
Saturday: Exercised in the fitness center. Then we headed into Milwaukie to explore a bit. Grabbed coffee at a local coffee spot, then peeked into a few thrift shops. The task for this weekend was to find a couch and a kitchen table and chairs. Then Jenna came by with a housewarming gift plus some bits and pieces for the apartment. After her visit, we went to some more thrift shops and furniture stores. Not much luck on our mission. Nothing that would really fit our needs or budget. Another couchless night.
Sunday (today): We had the first "Sunday Ritual" in the apartment, a nice, relaxing morning. Then it was off to continue hunting for furniture. We bought a couch at Macy's, on sale. No delivery until Thursday. Four more couchless evenings. No luck on the table and chairs. We found a good set at Sears, but the pieces weren't in stock. Then we checked several other places including K-Mart, where we found something do-able. Guess what? Not in stock!
We're also still waiting for our England shipment to arrive. According to the shipping company's paperwork, we should be getting an ETA within the next couple of days. The plan is that when it arrives in Eugene, we will rent a truck to collect all of it plus the stuff we've been storing in Nanny's garage. But if that doesn't happen soon, we will just have to take an earlier trip to Eugene in our car to take some more stuff up here. There are some things that it would be really nice to have (like more than two plates, two glasses, and two coffee cups). To that end, Kristen will probably drive down on Wednesday.
It's pretty much llike we're "fading into" normalcy. Little by little, we're getting our things and setting up our lives here. We've really been looking forward to getting back into a routine. It's been a long two and a half months since getting back to the US. It can be pretty tiring to live out of suitcases and not having our own place. Thinking back to November 19th, when we arrived in Florida, it seems like it was such a long time ago. So much has happened since then. And there's more to come, I think! For one thing, we'll be sitting in a couch on Thursday!
PS - We finally got the deposit back from our landlord in England. Well, what was left after he had his way with it.
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