Coming to you live from... my couch!

Hello! Yes, it's been a week and a half since the last post. In all honesty, that's mostly because the last week and a half have been pretty uneventful. We now have furniture in our apartment (w00t!) and we also have cable and internet hooked up (double w00t!), so we decided to take a few lazy days for ourselves. :)

Work has been going pretty well. I had my first non-training "solo" shift last night which actually went pretty smoothly. I start my regular, full-time schedule tomorrow, which will be nice (so I can start getting a regular paycheck!). I'll be working days Friday-Monday, dinners on Tuesday, and then Wednesday and Thursday off. Besides working weekends, it's really not a bad schedule. Paul has Tuesdays and Thursdays off, so we still get some time together.

We actually got out and did something yesterday! A friend told us that Cathedral Park in St. Johns (which is in NoPo - North Portland, the 5th quadrant) was pretty cool, so we went and checked it out. It was way cool. It's all underneath the east end of the St. Johns bridge - one of many bridges in Portland, but the only steel suspension bridge. It is also thought to be one of the Lewis and Clark landing sites, so it's got some history. The arches all have a cathedral-like look to them, hence the park's name. It is pretty awesome in person, but hopefully the pictures are cool too.




Looking up from the base of one arch:




While we were there, we also got a preview of the misty Portland rain. We all know it rains a lot here in the fall and winter, but instead of heavy downpours, we generally get a constant misty kind of rain. It was misting/raining while we were out there, but it was actually quite pleasant. I'm sure I'll be saying otherwise when the temperature drops though!

We also hit Forest Park for a little while yesterday. This park is huge! 5,156.65 acres to be exact. It is laced with tons of trails for hiking, biking, horse-riding, etc. I don't remember the name of the trail we were on, but it was pretty cool.

Me and the Buckface:


The many shades of green:




The sun filtering through the canopy:


And a super psychedelic leaf on the ground that I just had to have for my desktop wallpaper:


Have I mentioned that I love this city?? There is so much cool stuff here, and we have barely scratched the surface. I think we will have several years of discovery to come.

We have decided that it's finally time to get some formal training for Buckley. He definitely loves our outings, however he's still getting used to apartment life. We love him to death, but he's been a great source of stress for us lately. He has a lovely habit of constantly grabbing things off shelves or counters that he isn't supposed to have - hats, socks, sunglasses, you name it - and forcing us to chase him around. Constantly. In fact just today he grabbed the last bite of my pb & j sandwich off the counter and devoured it. Not cool. And when we put him in his kennel, he barks. A lot. He also has some things to learn about walking on a leash and being polite with people. So, the doorman at our building recommended a trainer to us that has worked with other dogs in the building. He will work with us on our schedule in our home, which will be great. We have our first consultation with him on Tuesday, so I'll let you know how that goes!

You can still expect a post from Paul soon. He has been riding his bike to work (10 miles one way!) and I guess his route has some pretty sweet views of the city and beyond. He is going to take my camera one day soon and share some pics!

Love,
Jenny