December marks the one-year anniversary of purchasing the house Nicole and I are living in here in McMinnville, Oregon. It's impossible to believe it's already been an entire year. It feels like only a few months have gone by since we got here. But when you look around at this house and all the things we've done to it, you do start to get a sense ( Read more... )

Earlier this month, we had a pretty serious snow and ice storm. It was worse north of here, but it was still a major event. Probably the worst snow/ice storm to hit the Portland area since the crazy 2008 two-week snowstorm event. It started with a couple days of snow that turned to freezing rain which weighed down everything. Around our newly ( Read more... )

The software engineering team I work in at my job is very small and gets pushed around a lot. I think management doesn't totally know what to do with us or how to properly utilize us to do awesome things for the factory, so they let strange things happen. For instance, just as October ended, my team was told we'd have to pack up and spend three ( Read more... )

It's been a rough winter. I heard somewhere that people are trying to sue the groundhog for incorrectly predicting spring close at hand. Right up until April, we've had freezing mornings and snow here in the Pacific Northwest. There've even been days I've had to work from home because of the ice on the roads ( Read more... )

It's hard to quickly summarize what's happened to me over the last couple weeks. On the 27th of December, my mother's father-a humble and accomplished man named William-slipped away from this life; I believe due to complications from dementia. For a time, there was a delay and debate about a funeral but the extended family decided on a service and ( Read more... )

During the first week of the month, we had quite a snowstorm here. We don't normally get snow but once every few years we'll get maybe an overnight dusting that vanishes by noon-time. However this storm will probably go down as the worst snow storm in the Portland area since 2008's two-week blizzard.Things got off to a fun start when it began ( Read more... )

Outside of another wonderful Thanksgiving with my family, it's been another quiet few weeks around here. I gave my family their copies of the DVDs made from their old VHS tapes, and we even put a few on to watch. I'm so relieved that that monster project is done. The weather is really beginning to turn and last night, we got down to 10 degrees F (- ( Read more... )

Last week was a short work week. Only Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Every day at this job is getting better and as the people around me let the slack on my leash get longer and longer, I feel more and more encouraged. It's still a scary job and I don't really know anyone (The bunny suits only make it worse to get to know people) but there ( Read more... )

After a busy Monday running the last of my errands before I left Boise, I got all packed up and was ready to split early Tuesday morning. Jaci left for work--we had a rather unceremonious goodbye hug--and I loaded up my Geo and hit the road.. Once again, I leave Idaho not knowing when or if I shall return. As for the 450-mile drive itself, it was a ( Read more... )

Last Saturday night, my father hosted a tiny get-together with a bunch of his friends from work. Since neither my mother, brother or I knew these guys very well, we more or less hid from the "party" in our rooms. At one point, however, Ryan and I were unable to escape as everyone congregated in the theater room for a demonstration on how the whole ( Read more... )