Monopoly

We played Monopoly on Saturday night, a game I love. It wasn’t the greatest game. Matt got a dreaded yellow monopoly early on in the game and also blocked me from getting any monopolies myself. Then it was a long, slow decline for me. I would pass go, collect $200.00 and then pay it in rents to Matt so he could buy another house to charge me higher rent. “This is what it is like to be the working poor.” I complained at one point.

Matt with his winnings. Notice my stack of one dollar bills and mortgaged properties.

Project Priorities

I made a list of projects that need to be done for the house. It has 37 items on it. (and I just thought of two more) Then, I ran the list through CNN’s Prioritizer. It’s this very cool thing on their personal finance page. You pick up to 15 things (they made it for financial goals, but you can use it for anything) and put them in a list. Then you work your way thorough a series of choices picking which of two you find more important. At the end, your items are ranked with a score. I love it!
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In the time it took me to put 37 choices through the Prioritizer, I have already finished the following projects:
Knife holder, install (87.5%)
Plant evergreen huckleberry (78.6%)
Plant apple trees (64.3%)
Install towel racks (finished before I prioritized)
Put up hooks for bags in office (finished before I prioritized)
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The list of projects and their scores:
Kitchen
60% Shelving above refrigerator
15.5% Paint, Kitchen
Great Room
50% mail and key area
42.9% shelves, GR dining
35.7% guitar hanger
22.6% shelves, great room (stairwell)
20.2% white dresser, get rid of
13.1% paint great room
0% curtains, great room
Garden/Yard
92.9% dig bed 1
87.5% set up lettuce bed
57.1% dig bed 2
36.9% clothesline
21.4% hammock
8.3% buy Meyer Lemon tree
Bathroom
79.8% shower curtain
72.6% corner shelving
70.2% newspaper holder
34.5% above toilet shelving
Pantry
100% black shelf
92.9% shelving on long wall
77.4% paint pantry
57.1% shelving above freezer
50% clothesline
Office
40% small rug for floor
20% paint office
0% curtain, office
Bedroom
28.6% bedroom curtain
14.3% paint bedroom
6% new comforter
Storage
100% storage shelves
80% hooks for bags
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And here, just for fun, they are in number order:
100% storage shelves
100% black shelf
92.9% shelving on long wall
92.9% dig bed 1
87.5% set up lettuce bed
80% hooks for bags
79.8% shower curtain
77.4% paint pantry
72.6% corner shelving
70.2% newspaper holder
60% shelving above refrigerator
57.1% shelving above freezer
57.1% dig bed 2
50% mail and key area
50% clothesline
42.9% shelves, GR dining
40% small rug for floor
36.9% clothesline
35.7% guitar hanger
34.5% above toilet shelving
28.6% bedroom curtain
22.6% shelves, great room (stairwell)
21.4% hammock
20.2% white dresser, get rid of
20% paint office
15.5% paint, Kitchen
14.3% paint bedroom
13.1% paint great room
8.3% buy Meyer Lemon tree
6% new comforter
0% curtains, great room
0% curtain, office

The Fortress of Solitude

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We used to live behind a brown door. When Matt and I moved in together, we chose this apartment, another unique living situation. I still have the original Craigslist posting:
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"1 Bedroom Apartment with free parking near Metro Y, PSU, and OHSU; on Barbur Boulevard, with good bus service. Approx 750 to 800 square feet. Includes access to free washer/dryer. $575 per month, including water and garbage. Address: 3700 Barbur Building, 3718 SW Condor, Portland, ORMove in costs: $575.00 first month rent, $200 refundable security deposit, $75.00 nonrefundable cleaning fee, total $850.00. No application fee."
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It was cheap (very,) it was huge, it was close-in, I called. It turned out to be in this building:

which I was very familiar with. It's easy to recognize if you spend any time at all on Barbur Boulivard. I had no idea that there was an apartment in the building, though. It turned out that there were two, built to meet some mixed-use code. Marv and Dave Nepom, the father and son who owned the building, weren't all that into getting an optimal price for their apartments. They just wanted nice people looking for a unique place to live. I swear he said that to me.
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We lived there almost a year and a half, enjoying the views of Mt Hood and Downtown. When they built the tram, it was right down the street from our house. There were only two windows to the apartment and the dryer didn't really like to dry the clothes that well, but there was covered parking, a whole parking lot for when we had a parties, and since no one knew people lived there, it felt very secure. There was traffic noise from Barbur, but I had been living downtown at the top of a small hill that busses and motorcycles loved to race up, so Barbur was much quieter. Sometimes, it felt like we would be there forever, due to the crazy housing market. I will miss the Fortress of Solitude, and I am glad we had such a nice place, for so cheap, with such nice landlords, for so long.

5 Years

We celebrated five years of togetherness this Saturday. We celebrated in the normal manner of five year anniversaries. We went to see Spider-Man III. Not only that, but we got to start the line for the 4:50 show of Spider-Man III. From 4:00 onward we stood and looked out over, much as the first pioneers to Oregon must have, Pioneer Square Mall and the Moonstruck chocolate kiosk. I was fairly entertained because an escalator was not working and I got to watch people lurch down the slightly-larger-than usual escalator steps.And there we are five years in. See if you can guess the theme in this picture and the next two.

After Spider-Man III was over, we caught the Max back to our neighborhood (Kenton) and had some celebratory Thai Food at E San. We stopped for a picture of Paul Bunyan, who looks out over the Kenton Neighborhood. Actually, he is more looking toward Washington, and has his back to the neighborhood, but we are happy to have him just the same.

And then Matt got in on the picture too.

Have you guessed the theme yet?

Next was a short walk home to grab the car and a quick journey to Pix Patisserie for our celebratory dessert. We both got a Royale with Cheese. Yummy.

Did you guess the theme yet? It was nostrils. :-)

Cleaning

After we moved, we cleaned out the old place. I love doing the final cleaning before turning in the keys. First of all, it's usually pretty easy, because all the stuff is at the new place. Secondly, I always like to imagine the landlord coming in to the apartment I've scrubbed so well, and saying to himself, "This is amazingly clean! I won't even have to hire a cleaning service." The fact that I have no idea what happens to the apartment after I leave helps to perpetuate this fantasy.

So Matt and I scrubbed and scrubbed and vacuumed, etc. and we took one final picture before we left the fortress of solitude.

Moving

Patricia here:

Now is the time for all the posts that didn't get posted while we were without DSL. I've got pictures, oh yes!

Moving. After the hell of packing, the moving went rather smoothly. It helped that there were many people: Mom, Aunt Carol, Kelly, Tim, Jan, Chris, Matt and me. There is a special place in my heart for people who help with moving. We got the truck loaded up in no time at all--though moving is a time when you question why you wanted the 1950's metal and wooden desks. It also unloaded fairly rapidly. Though the passive voice of that sentence doesn't quite do the calorie expenditure of the movers justice. Some images:
Our old apartment, with almost everything packed.
Chris unloading his truck. See those things he is carrying. Those are our shelves. They will show up again under the category of "project"Mom prepping our post-move burrito feed.Tim and Jan Unloading the truck

After unloading stuff, we ate and everyone left. Matt had to study for a final and I started placing things. Here's what it looked like when I started:

That would be our great room taken from extreme angles. One from the door (the left picture) and one from the dining room corner (right picture)
And here is what it looked like 5 hours later.

Then I went to bed and slept the sleep of the dead and woke up and cooked the very first thing on the new stove:

And I got the kitchen in order. That was a little overwhelming. We had a big pantry in the old place which will be shelving in the new place (another project,) but the shelving isn't up yet, so where to put the stuff. It worked out, but for awhile it looked like this:It turned out to be a bad idea to pile all my kitchen items on the counters to try and find a place for everything.

At this point, we are pretty much unpacked, by which I mean switching into project mode. An example. We can't finish unpacking all the kitchen stuff until we have the pantry set up. Which means that we have to 1) paint and reassemble the metal shelf that I bought and 2) build some shelves on one of the walls. So the stuff that should be in the pantry is boxed somewhat neatly in the niche of the dining area (another area that needs shelves.) At the same time, I am much more interested in setting up the garden and so that is taking my spare time right now. I would love to take a bunch of time off of work to do all this, but the downside of working for a school is that the vacations are ample, but come at specific times. So I try and do a little every day. More on that later.

Also, I haven't quite gotten the hang of placing photos in these posts. I'm also unwilling to fiddle right now, so they look a little funny. So sorry.

We're back.

Hey, we’re hooked up again! Ah, what was life like before the Internet?
It’s been a while since I rapped at ya, but a lot has happened.
We got our DSL from Spirit One. They’re a tad cheaper and they’re very helpful, compared to Qwest. Unfortunately, three of our phone jacks and one of our plugs don’t work. We’re going to have to get those fixed during the 30-day warranty.
I’ve been exploring the neighborhood in training for an upcoming event. I’ve found the North Portland Tool Library, the local police station, a boxing gym (don’t worry, my neck has been feeling too good to subject it to that again), a park, a playground, the nearest library, a day care center (just in case we change what we’ve been saying for the past 5 years about having children), and the general direction of the speedway. Pretty slick.
I love the backyard. It’s very pleasant to sit out in the backyard and read. Well, there are the mosquitoes. But we’re either going to solve that with citronella candles or bats. (Mosquitoes are a superstitious, cowardly lot. So our defense must be able to strike terror into their hearts. We must harbor creatures of the night. Black. Terrible. We shall host BATS!; No one’s going to get that reference…)
I think we’re pretty unpacked. I’m even getting used to the new sounds in the house.