Update
I've been incommunicado for a while (as per usual) so I'll give some fairly brief updates, and y'all can pester me for more info if you want.
Vacation:
Spent a week at the coast with my lovely wife elith and half a week with julrosec - got to see the sights of Depoe Bay and surrounding areas. And by sights I mostly mean shops, bead stores, and galleries. Construction on the building next to your rented condo starting at 8 am every morning kinda sucks.
Following vacation, I spent two days at work frantically catching up, then went to Idaho for the weekend for a friend's wedding.
Plus side: saw my old roommate/best man (he was not involved in the wedding). Spent Saturday evening talking with another old college friend, and we've both changed a hell of a lot since I started college 10 years ago, but in good ways.
Minus side: stood in the rain for the half hour leading up to the 20 minute wedding. Really shouldn't have been driving INTO the thunderstorm. Saw people I hadn't seen in 3-5 years, and with whom I now have very little in common, and only tenuous connections from college at best.
Sunday: Stopped in LaGrande on the way back from Idaho to pick up a friend from Portland who was traveling with me. Between LaGrande and Pendleton, my car (which had a "slow, long-term oil leak) decided it had a fast short-term oil leak, ran out of oil, and snapped a rod. We called a tow company, he didn't get my callback number, and an hour later I called to see where he was. He had gotten pulled away on another job. We got two more numbers to call. First number, the guy was 2 hours the other side of Pendleton. Second number, the guy would be there in 40 minutes. He finally showed up about an hour later, and we got towed into Pendleton. Put 4 quarts of oil into the car, tried it, and the rod knock was bad enough to declare the car dead. Dropped it at a shop for checkup the next morning, and caught a ride with a friend back to LaGrande. Stayed overnight in LaGrande, realized it would be minimum of $3600 to fix a car that cost me $500. To the scrap yard it goes, and I get $100 back out of the deal. Caught a ride back to portland with two friends who were returning monday evening (which meant missing work Monday).
Tuesday night, I got introduced to Rock Band by cee_gee and macavite . Bass was claimed, guitar was claimed, and nobody else but Macavite was willing to play the drums. So I got drums, only to find out I'm a relative natural at it (feels easier than guitar, anyway). It's a horribly addictive game.
Vacation:
Spent a week at the coast with my lovely wife elith and half a week with julrosec - got to see the sights of Depoe Bay and surrounding areas. And by sights I mostly mean shops, bead stores, and galleries. Construction on the building next to your rented condo starting at 8 am every morning kinda sucks.
Following vacation, I spent two days at work frantically catching up, then went to Idaho for the weekend for a friend's wedding.
Plus side: saw my old roommate/best man (he was not involved in the wedding). Spent Saturday evening talking with another old college friend, and we've both changed a hell of a lot since I started college 10 years ago, but in good ways.
Minus side: stood in the rain for the half hour leading up to the 20 minute wedding. Really shouldn't have been driving INTO the thunderstorm. Saw people I hadn't seen in 3-5 years, and with whom I now have very little in common, and only tenuous connections from college at best.
Sunday: Stopped in LaGrande on the way back from Idaho to pick up a friend from Portland who was traveling with me. Between LaGrande and Pendleton, my car (which had a "slow, long-term oil leak) decided it had a fast short-term oil leak, ran out of oil, and snapped a rod. We called a tow company, he didn't get my callback number, and an hour later I called to see where he was. He had gotten pulled away on another job. We got two more numbers to call. First number, the guy was 2 hours the other side of Pendleton. Second number, the guy would be there in 40 minutes. He finally showed up about an hour later, and we got towed into Pendleton. Put 4 quarts of oil into the car, tried it, and the rod knock was bad enough to declare the car dead. Dropped it at a shop for checkup the next morning, and caught a ride with a friend back to LaGrande. Stayed overnight in LaGrande, realized it would be minimum of $3600 to fix a car that cost me $500. To the scrap yard it goes, and I get $100 back out of the deal. Caught a ride back to portland with two friends who were returning monday evening (which meant missing work Monday).
Tuesday night, I got introduced to Rock Band by cee_gee and macavite . Bass was claimed, guitar was claimed, and nobody else but Macavite was willing to play the drums. So I got drums, only to find out I'm a relative natural at it (feels easier than guitar, anyway). It's a horribly addictive game.