Ridiculous

This is not what a dog does.  He stared at the squirrel on the right hand side of the photo for several minutes.  Weirdo.

Movember

Yep, the Doust grew a beard for the manly month of November.  In Portland, beards are very common.  When in Rome right??

Life Is Good

Happy November!  I can't believe it's turkey day time actually.... crazy.  Sometimes we feel like we just moved to this cool city, and other times, it comes so naturally that we don't even realize we've only been here five months already.

I have many posts to share, many photos and stories.  We are busy little bee's, with Eric travelling a ton for work, with me selling digital advertising (not enough hours in the day to devote to that actually), and with Sully being Sully.  We also are getting to the final details of our wedding targeted in June in Mexico.  Hopefully we have that sign sealed and delivered this week!  Whee!!

An Oregon Vineyard

Golf

I don't even remember when this was...August.  Anyhow we went out on a Sunday to watch the final round of a LPGA tournament with the Ropp fam.  It was interesting because I've seen a professional men's golf event in Chicago with Tigger, several seniors tourneys, but never a ladies tournament.  The chicks can bomb shots.  And I also know that the men folk like to watch these chicks.... these aren't the old school golf gals, these are full on golf donkeys.  I was dying laughing at one, who easily could have been posing for a Maxium shoot.  But I got yelled at by a tour official for taking photos, so I had to put the camera away.  Meanwhile cameras around me were snapping away left and right.  Meanies.  So we retreated to the fancy stands above the 18th green to have a cocktail and a seat in the shade.  Much better.

Annual Upstate NY July Trip

The always pretty Upstate sunsets and birds.... we caught our airplane bird from Portland the third week of July and spent 5 days hanging with the Doust clan.  Since we're so flipping far away now, Sully did not get to go.  He was spoiled though.  And future S.I.L. Julie and niece Makayla didn't get to make it either, and they were missed.

The best men brothers...honoring Ellen Doust

CAKE!!





Scott and Cindy

Pa John Doust



Barry and Suzanne



Pa and the grandkids



Mr Bagpiper at the golf tourney.  It was so hot out, he must have been dying.....



Mother Morrison

My Mom came out to visit us the end of July for 5 days and we had a great time.  The trip also began our love affair with the Oregon coast since we had not made that journey before we took my Mom.  We love love love love going to the ocean.  It's so pretty.  Anyhow here are some highlights of Cindy Marie's trip of fun including a sneak peak....

Oh the mountains of Portland all around....

And the vineyards of Oregon so so close....

And the beach life just an hour away.....

Portland is the city of roses

And grows yummy grapes

And is a great surfing area

Soon to be M.I.L. and S.I.L.

Our partners in crime - Isaac and Danielle

Sully loves going to beach but he won't go in the water - what a giant wuss bag.

Cute mother - daughter time.  Oh and this is where they filmed Goonies.

Yep and we did some of this too!!  Whee!

What Is Today's Adventure? Huh? Huh?

Hood To Coast Race

Hood To Coast Movie Trailer

Crazy, crazy, crazy.  Eric is running this weekend as part of a team of 12 in one of the hardest relay races called Hood to Coast.  (Click on the above link to see a 2 minute trailer for a documentary that was filmed about the race last year... very cool)  It is a 200 mile relay race, from Mt Hood (east of Portland) to the Pacific Ocean (running west to the coast).  There are 1250 teams.  Each team has two vans, following or going ahead of the runners.  Each runner runs 3 legs, ranging from 3 miles to 8 miles.  And those familiar with Oregon, knows it's hilly terrain.  Eric's first leg is Friday afternoon, then the long, hard leg at 1am, followed by the easier leg near the finish line on Saturday.  I am so proud of Eric for doing this race, running with his coworkers, with the American Cancer Society recognition on his sleeve!  Go Survivors!

Soccer

Eric is a soccer fan.... he played in high school, but as I've learned through him, the US professional teams are not nearly as good as the teams in Europe.  He loves to watch the European games on tv, and loved going to a soccer bar early in the AM on the weekends in Chicago with his buddy.  We never made it out to a game in Chicago (it was a pain to get to the stadium) but we can easily go to the games now in downtown Portland.

Eric's company is a big sponsor for the team here, so they have a "beer garden" area where you can stand or sit very close to the field.  We went several weeks ago when the Timbers (Portland) was playing the big rival, the Seattle Sounders.  The fan are c-r-a-z-y here... crazy.

Hi goalie

The men folk......

We had a good time and it was a gorgeous day too.  We had tickets to the LA Galaxy game, but Eric had to work late.... David Beckham was sad we didn't show up.

Heaven

Neighborhood - Update

In Portland, the city is divided into quadrants, from the river that runs north and south, and a highway that runs east and west.  So to know where things are, all addresses are have a SW, NW, SE, NE before the street name.  Each quadrant is cool, and has fun neighborhoods.  The NW and SW is definitely hilly, where as the east side is more flat, save for a couple of parks on hills.

 We live on the SW side, on a busy street unfortunately.  The rental housing market is hot here, so we had a tough time finding a rental (still own in Chicago - sigh).  Now there are things about Portland that's "off" and if you watch the show Portlandia on IFC, according to our friends, it's true to life.  And yes, we agree being newbies to the area.  One weird thing in our SW area, is there are no sidewalks.  It's sooooooo bizarre.  But our saving grace is a huge park only 1/2  mile down the street.  It's great.  It has two dog parks, tennis courts, a gym on the corner that we've joined, baseball fields, playgrounds, etc PLUS this awesome hilly, forestry area with a stream and hiking paths.  Sully goes everyday. 

Here is a camera phone photo from one of the high points in the park on the field where Sully gets his run on.  It's great! Well....minus the slugs in the forest....  BARF

And I kid you not, this disgusting thing was a good 4 inches long.  Unfortunately, I've seen bigger in a larger nature park on trails with Sully, where I felt like I was playing Frogger on Atari, except I was dodging stepping on slugs instead of getting squished by cars.  Eww.  (Shudder)


UPDATE:


This is the disgustingness I'm talking about........next to a size 8.5 women's shoe.....from yesterday.

Debacle Party

The second weekend we moved to Portland, we were invited to a formal party, in a parking lot.  Yep.  It's called "The Debacle" and coincides with the big Portland Rose Festival.  This "debacle" is for the police order of Portland, to raise money for their charities for children, or something like that. 

This party is hilarious, a party underneath a big tent, complete with a DJ, bottles of Jack on the tables, and amazing people watching.  Male donkeys in white tuxes, and female donkeys in interesting outfits, all eating, drinking, and dancing in the middle of a parking lot. 

Oh and it's cold at night in June in Portland........

One fun aspect is you must bring your own tableware, no plastic or paper.  So our friend Danielle and I got some awesome stuff at the dollar store, all put away and cleaned for next year's debacle.  And you bring your own wine/drink.  Food is provided.  How they raise money for charity is by bidding on the order of your table getting to stand in line for the food.  There are no ticket costs, but it's invite only.  Fun concept, and seems fairly easy to organize and pull together.  Every city should have a debacle party!

Isaac and Danielle.  By the end of the night, we found out we were going to another charity event together that same weekend.... watch out Real Housewives of Portland.