Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Okay I'm back (and it's a long one!)

Hey kids... sorry for the delay. So here's the update:

Reno/Tahoe: It was fun, as mentioned before. Not too many other exciting details. My sister and I rented tubes and floated down the Truckee River, that was super cool. I'd love to go back to Tahoe sometime.

Thursday: The drive from Tahoe to Portland. It took a lot longer than it was supposed to, but I got here, got the keys to my apartment and lease signed, and moved all of my stuff in. Ate dinner at Burgerville (a GREAT local place, the In N Out of Oregon if you will), then collapsed on the flor and fell asleep.

Friday: Went to the DMV, found out what I needed to get my Oregon Driver's License. Got my DEQ (clean air test)... $21. Ridiculous, it's free in Illinois. Although it's $50 in California, so I'm not doing that bad. Went to buy a new bed, my parents bought me one and I bought one for the guest bedroom as well. Did some unpacking, got my cable modem and cable TV installed, went back to the DMV to get my ODL and register my car here. Got a few things from Target, made my bed, got a little bit more settled in. Could NOT get my wireless to work, which became an ongoing project of the weekend, especially since I needed it for Tivo to work.

Saturday: The furniture day. Started at JC Penney at the mall where I got these GREAT new dishes that I've had my eye on for a while, and also a chip and dip tray and an oil dipping set that is absolutely stellar. PLEASE come by and visit, stay an hour or a month, I'd love to have you. I'm all about the guests. I looked at their furniture and found a few pieces that I really liked, but I continued looking. I went to like 5 more furniture stores and found a local places with really reasonable prices, great quality, and excellent service. So I picked out a sofa, a coffee table, 2 end tables, and a dining room table with 4 chairs. The dining room table is my FAVORITE, because it is "counter-height" (brand new, the guy special ordered it for me out of a 2 week old catalog). It's going to be really great I think. But he called me the next day and ALL of my tables are on back order. The couch he is going to deliver tomorrow (I haven't been home the last two evenings, when he's tried to deliver). So that was really exciting. My first big furniture purchase! Still could not get the wireless to work!


Sunday: Went to Sunset with my parents, they really enjoyed it. Then we went down to Woodburn to go to Wal-Mart and the outlet mall down there. We got lots of great stuff from Wal-Mart, just sort of the essential home items. We had lunch there, and went to the Kitchen outlet store, but I didn't find anything I wanted. We stopped by Fry's on the way home to return something from the Chicago Fry's and then headed home. After an hour on the phone with Linksys (with them walking me through stuff I had tried a million times before), they fixed my router. I needed a firmware update, which I had tried but wasn't able to install, but she finally showed me a "back door" to installing it. She had to ask a bunch of other people though. So YAY for wireless working. I started Tivo and could see that it was connecting fine, but didn't have time to set it all up that night. Saw a great desk in the Office Depot ad, including a bookcase and a filing cabinet, so stopped by there and got that.

Monday: A chill day around the house setting up furniture like the desk and getting things more unpacked. Finished Tivo, went to the Goodwill to get a black blanket to keep the light out of my room when I'm sleeping during the day. ;-) Chipotle is just opening up a block away from my apartment, so Keith and my parents and I went to Chipotle for a dinner. It was a free day for all food and drinks because it was like their "trial run". YUM. It was extra-good Chipotle. You know how sometimes it's way better than others? This was one of those great days. Stopped by Keith's house and saw it... very nice place. Got my renter's insurance and everything like that set up, and went to Intel to see Kendra around 11. We ended up looking for my cube which was already there and labeled, and ran into the hiring manager who knows us both. He asked me how I wanted my cube configured, so that was cool that I got to pick that out. I also met a woman from Northwestern (BME grad) who has the same job as me but works the opposite shift. SUPER cool. Tons of fun.

Tuesday: Went to Seattle! Went to Red Robin for lunch on the pier (I love watching the water and the boats), then went to Pike's Place for some fresh fish and flowers. I love getting flowers there, they're so pretty and cheap. Got sashimi grade tuna which will be soooooo yummy. One of my favorite things!! Then went to Ikea for candles, bookshelf, wine glasses, and some "art" to put on the walls. Anything is better than having the walls white. Which reminds me, I'm glad they are white now! When I moved in there were "accent" walls, some yellow and some burgandy, and they were like "we thought you might like them, but we can paint them back". And I was like "uhhh, yeah". So today they FINALLY painted them and they look so much better. Especially the kitchen, it was so dark and now it looks great. I'm glad that that is done. Tonight I've been putting together the bookshelf and getting pictures ready, etc. YAY.

More soon... hopefully more of interest, but at least you know what's been going on in my life lately!

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