Author: Andy

But I don’t want to choose

One of the most difficult things about buying a house in Portland is that you have to actually choose a neighborhood. There are so many cool little niches around the city that it is impossible to choose the one and only place that is perfect for you. I harbor some resent for having to choose a place. At least it’s still easy to get around to the others.

The other difficulty is leaving our current neighborhood. I joke about southwest being a cultural void, but I love it out here. I’m close to work, family, parks, Hillsdale, Multnomah Village, and downtown. I’m really going to miss driving into downtown on Barbur blvd. and seeing Mt. Hood and St. Helens above the city as it sits on the river and sprawls out to the east. Driving home is just as cool though because you look into your rear-view mirror and get not only the cars behind you but often a few skyscrapers and the low slope of a snowy mountain. It’s really gorgeous, and a quick and easy journey.

Still, we can’t really walk to anything worth walking to. A methodist church, the Castle Superstore, Blockbuster, and a liquor store. I’ll miss Barbur World Foods though; it’s going through a fascinating renovation. I’m also going to miss the birds, the neighbors (some of them), and Barley and my excellent walking routes.

Anyway, time to stop opining and stark opacking.

Humorless Phlebotomist

When giving blood this morning, my phlebotomist was all business. No jokes, no side conversations, and no doddling. I suppose I appreciate it, but working with people that can work and joke at the same time is much more pleasant. Sure, she was efficient, but where’s the fun?

Needless to say, I bled quickly and got out of there. My attendant’s sense of urgency wore of on me. Well, sort of. After I finished my fresh donuts. I give blood on Thursday mornings because that’s when they have donuts.

Birthday at Edgefield

For Michelle’s birthday and a belated celebration of Doug’s, we all made a trip out to Edgefield for some food, beer, and golf. It was a great day for it, so we weren’t the only ones who though it would be a good idea, which meant our tee time wasn’t going to be until 5:30. Luckily, there is plenty to do, so we grabbed a lunch, wandered the grounds, visited the winery, walked the halls, and dodged wedding photographs.

Shortly before our tee time, we picked up our clubs (a wedge and a putter) and introduced Michelle and Debbie to the game (or mindset) of golf. Having never played before didn’t hurt their scores much, and both showed improvement throughout the course of nine holes. Jason, Doug and I, who had played before, showed no improvement and shot inconsistently. Still, it was a blast, and the pitch and put course is excellent.

Following our round of golf, we had dinner at the Black Rabbit. I think we were all surprised at how good the food was, and our rich food and desert finished of a full day.

ICQ again

To add to an already busy week, my ICQ account quit working and told me my password was incorrect. I’ve been using the account since my sophomore year in college, and in the 6+ years I’ve used it, I never changed the e-mail address listed with the account. It still had my old Western address which finally got the axe last year. I’m not sure if I didn’t change the address because I was lazy, or if I was suspicious of ICQ once it was acquired by AOL. Either way, I couldn’t retrieve my password because it was sending the hint to an expired account.

I finally created a new account once I realized that ICQ support wouldn’t reset it for me without any proof of ID. I don’t like having a member number that is so big. Makes me look like a johnny-come-lately.

So how close was I?

How Close Were You?
I had a nagging suspicion that our home wasn’t in an orange circle despite it being the second closest to date. A quick glance at ArcMap showed that we were not in an orange slice of ideal, but damn close. Now I just have to figure out what shaved off the rest of the circle.

Oh, we’re the red dot towards the bottom right. Its on what would be the outer periphery of the circle had something not removed it.

updated
Ok, we’re the house near the bottom right. The blue circles are restaurants, the blue area is the resulting “desirable” area from my project. I checked to see what was missing, and it appears that we’re over 1/4 mile from a park. Not by much, but that was the omission. We’re not in a “avoid” area, which is good.

Alberta, Alberta

Barley's new digs
Michelle and I found a house. We saw it at 12:30pm, made an offer at 4pm, and the seller accepted it by 5:30pm. It had been on the market for less than 12 hours. Portland is hot, but so is our new home

We’re going to be living about a block north of the Alberta Arts district. Within 2 blocks are a thai restaurant (though the locals say the other one down the street is better), a southern bistro, a taqueria, a sushi/tapas place, a wine bar, a donut/coffee shop, a fish & chips place, a locally owned video rental spot, a pizza shop, and more than I can wrap my head around. More will follow. There’s going to be a balloon tied to our mailbox, that’s for sure.

Here’s a piece about the neighborhood from last month and carried by several major papers, including my birthplace’s paper. And here’s a walking map and pictures of the neighborhood.