Our Pilgrimage to Portland

Here's a few updates about what we've been up to since we arrived in our fair city.  I've tried to limit the gratuitous food shots to a few hundred...so bear with me.  We'll get through this together.

1.  The drive up was fantastic.  Lots of gorgeous scenery, two pets who took the trip in stride (Murphy I am NOT talking to you!) and our very first client acquisition.  All in all it was seamless, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the 15 minutes of sheer panic I experienced when I realized I'd almost run out of gas on a mountain pass with the nearest gas station a few miles away.  Thank goodness for good cell phone signals and husbands who can keep crazy wives calm.  I slid into the glory that was a Shell station on fumes and took a picture of this Drama Queen while I filled my tank.  Murphy, you're fired.  I also vowed to pay more attention to that pesky little gas gauge.

The one where he squishes 30 pounds of cat into approximately six square inches of litter box and refuses to move for 13 hours.  He gets this dramatic flare from his father to be sure.  

The only photo of scenery I managed to take on the drive up...but she's a beaut ain't she?  I had a lump in my throat when I came over hill and saw these misty mountains.  It reminded me of drives through the Blue Ridge mountains growing up and I got a little misty myself. 

2.  Eric stopped in Northern California to dazzle a potential client with his vast knowledge of medical gas systems and naturally, he won them over.  He was back to said facility a few days later and wrapped up our first official job.  Thank goodness because at the rate I'm spending money on pizza and beer these clients can't come quick enough.

3.  Unpacking our truck from California was...Crazytown.  I was never so grateful for Eric's OCD as I was on this day.  Our moving truck was delivered the day after we arrived and parked on the street and on a hill causing our wall of boxes to collapse under our furniture.  Wheeeeeeee!  Eric had that nonsense unpacked in four hours and we were playing Tetris with our furniture that evening.  We had a 15 minute window of sunshine today and I managed to get some pictures of the new place so stay tuned.

4.  The house we landed in is working out great.  I think Eric was questioning my instincts the first night we arrived but all is finally well.  Our neighbor upstairs is moving in next week and all I can say about her is that she's a therapist, energy worker, and uses Native American traditions in her practice.  When she came down to introduce herself she wanted to make sure the drumming she does with her clients wouldn't bother us. I asked her if my curling up on the front porch to get some secondhand therapy would bother her.  You all know I love myself some therapy and some New Age techniques so in a word, she's perfect.

5.  The pets are settling in as well.  Wicket is her usual charming self and upon moving in only requested a few pillows strategically placed on our cold tiles to keep her bum warm.  She spends her days curled up in various spots throughout the house napping and avoiding the cats.  Murphy and Tucker are as adjusting nicely and spend approximately 23 hours a day sleeping on our bed...so nothing new there.  We've only had one incident so far where I considered dropping Tucker off down by the river.  He refused to come in one night and thought it would be fun to crawl under our fence into the neighbor's yard.  Since he's too dumb to find his way home I was forced to fetch him at 11 pm in my robe and Uggs.  Neighbors, you're welcome.  We'll try to manage that situation better in the future and I promise to wear pants next time.

Murphy, Tucker, and Strange Cat.  Strange Cat showed up a few days after we moved in and his favorite past times include sitting on the other side of the French doors and wailing loudly for MurphTuck to come play.  He seems affable enough but Eric's concern about Strange Cat possessing feline AIDS is keeping my strapping young boys from being able to join in the fun.  Basically this means the first day Eric's out getting clients for the day I'm kicking these two fatties into the yard to make a friend.  Let Strange Cat deal with their shenanigans for an afternoon I say!

The first day we were unpacking the truck my friend Rachel brought us lunch.  No less than three varieties of gourmet mac and cheese at that.  We love her and will be asking her to join our hand in marriage when next we meet.  There was a delicious mix of cheeseburger, chicken cordon bleu, and an over-the-top-to-die-for parmesan concoction to choose from.  Bliss.  Pure bliss.  

The aforementioned pizza and beer.  *angels singing*

A groovy sidewalk we found exploring the Hawthorne District.  This town is full of funky surprises like this.  There is art and inspiration every where you look 'round these parts.

My southern soul never fails to sniff out pork and my radar didn't fail us when we were at the Saturday Market in downtown Portland last weekend.  This family's sweet tea was like nectar from the gods.  Cajun fries!  And a pulled pork sandwich!   Eric had a gyro for desert but I failed to take pictures as I was too busy snatching it out of his hand to get a bite myself.  We listened to some live music, bought some groovy art from a local artist and had a fantastic time.  Next weekend's mission is to find the Farmer's Market.

Tree lined streets every where and misty ran falls almost all the time.

Heaven.

Our landlord owns a bakery here in Portland so when we pay rent we get a free cupcake!  This month's pick was the "Gorilla Cake" which was made of banana bread, peanut butter frosting, and chocolate frosting on top.  We agreed it was the best cupcake we'd ever had and that it might be safer to mail our check from now on because this could get out of hand.

Lest you all think all we've done is eat since we got here (you wouldn't be wrong...exactly) I'll be posting pictures of our house soon.  It's taken us a little longer than usual to get settled because we lost about 700 square feet with this move but we're all squared up now and I can't wait to show you where we spend our days.  See you soon!!!!

***My font went rogue on me halfway through this post and I can't figure out what happened.  At least it was quadrupled in size making it easy to read.  Kind of like a picture book for a five year old.  Thanks for bearing with  me.