October 18th marked twenty years to the day that I've been on LiveJournal. My introductory entry all those years ago is a distant memory. It's odd to go back and read that first entry and think about the people I mentioned. Of all those people mentioned in that first entry, I only still talk to maybe a couple of them. Every last thing about my life ( Read more... )

Today is our forty-third day of self-isolation due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It's been six weeks since Nicole and I left the apartment for more than local walks. What a fascinating month it's been ( Read more... )

We've owned Chip for a little under 7 months now. It's been great but it's also been a struggle. Chip is bonding with us and us with him. It's clear that he's part of the family now and everyone just adores his wild silliness. The struggle comes from his apparent anxiety. Whenever he's left completely alone, he gets worried and copes by barking. ( Read more... )

The Ides of March are upon us but nothing really interesting is happening. It's been a rather quiet series of weeks. Mostly, the front half of my week is taken up entirely by twelve hour shifts at work while the back half of each week is quality time with Nicole. It's been good and mild but ultimately not newsworthy ( Read more... )

Last week was a crazy week around here. Nicole and I finished up dog/house sitting for her friend and coworker but both of us came down with a cold so it was a rough beginning to the final week of October. Immediately after that, Ryan and his fiancé Kim hastily moved to Ohio from here in Portland.

Now, we knew this was coming. Ryan got laid off ( Read more... )

Nicole and I are about a week and a half into our two-week-and-three-day odyssey of dog sitting for Nicole's best friend. It's been exhausting. In my last entry, I talked about how having the dog here at our tiny apartment was grating on our nerves and that was only two days in. In the nights following, we couldn't get any sleep because the dog ( Read more... )

I'm a couple weeks late posting an entry and that's party due to a mysterious and hard-hitting virus Nicole and I caught. It started with a sore throat that developed into a fever and inability to function or even stand. We were overwhelmed for several days; both of us missing work. Once the illness wound down, a near-constant cough started and ( Read more... )

This'll be a quick entry since I'm feeling sick and I have work to be at in thirteen hours, so I'm gonna sleep and hopefully get better in time for a twelve hour shift. Who doesn't love getting sick right before the beginning of a new work week? Ugh ( Read more... )

I'm back from my short four-day mini-vacation to visit Jaci in Sioux Falls, South Dakota! It was a fantastic opportunity to get away from Portland and my normal life to simply recharge my batteries. We'd been looking forward to it for months and it feels strange that it's already come and gone and all that traveling was over in the blink of an eye ( Read more... )

Again, I've gone too long without making a journal entry! Two and a half weeks is just an eternity not to talk about what's up. Well, for me anyway. Let's get down to business ( Read more... )