30 minutes from home

Yesterday we drove to to Multnomah Falls--a great nature park in the town of Corbett. At only 30 minutes away from our home, it made for a nice day trip. The hike was only 1 mile, but there were 11 switchbacks and the path was steep. It was worth it, however, as we got to see one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Oregon.

Retreat

Just booked a retreat to the Columbia Gorge!

Katie and I will be celebrating 3 years together next month and, like last year, we've decided on a nice retreat to get away from city living to unwind. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll get to enjoy a complete lack of responsibility for a couple of days. Here's an image:

Looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend :)

Good timber does not grow with ease; 

the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees. 

--J. Willard Marriott

 

Getting Our Hands Dirty

This weekend Nick and I took a trip to the Home Depot for some miscellaneous supplies and got to work on projects around our home. For our backyard, we bought five bags of mulch to cover the weeds and mud. Nick spread the mulch around while I painted the white interior door we bought to use as my new desktop. We also bought a couple small chains to hang a light fixture that I'm using to grow my seedlings. I spent most of the day organizing our guest room/office, condensing the couple boxes we have left from the move, and hanging decorations above my new desk. We still have to secure the tabletop to the cabinets (you'll get the idea when you look at the pictures), but otherwise the room is pretty much complete!

I had a lot of fun putting the decorations together. The frames are from the dollar store and Ikea and the mirrors were a gift from Jodi a few years ago. The flower photo is one that I took a while back of some poppies and I painted the other flowers with acrylics when I lived in Rohnert Park. The other pictures are actually postcards from Ikea. This entire set-up only cost us $25 for the door--we had everything else on hand already.
To the right of the desk/under the window is where I'm growing my seedlings. Because the light was on when I took the picture, everything is over-exposed. But I think you get an idea of the setup.

I am trying to sprout cauliflower, lettuce, onions, chives, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, parsley, basil, rosemary, and sage. I've got seedlings growing in eggshells, milk cartons, egg cartons and plastic tomato & strawberry containers. In addition to my indoor sprouts, I decided to begin my outdoor gardening today, too. I planted some lettuce, catnip and cauliflower in the ground as a sort of experiment. I'm not sure how good the soil is, so we'll see what happens. I also hung my "over-the-door shoe hanger" outside today. I saw this idea online somewhere and thought it'd be perfect for our backyard because we do not get a lot of sun. The little sun we do get shines against our back fence, so this setup should be perfect for our circumstances. I planted basil, chives, rosemary, sage and parsley seeds in the top pockets.

 There are still several pockets left that I'll fill with my indoor seedlings once they get stronger. This is the first year that I have had my own garden, so it is a giant experiment. We'll see how it goes!
I had some good company while I was planting, but then he started doing some digging of his own and got in trouble. He had to watch from inside after that.

Here's one last picture from our second bedroom. The futon sits on the wall to the right of the window/my seedlings.

Now it's time for class! We'll share a picture from the auction Nick and I went to in Eugene last night once we get them sent to us. We had a lot of fun and got to dress up in western garb. More soon!

All in

I get so caught up with budgeting and planning my finances that I forget to plan my career! I've had a couple of good, solid weeks at work--my sales have been through the roof and, without realizing it, I've been asking for more responsibility. This is a good thing!

The Banking Center Manager is going on maternity leave for four months starting in late August. Along with the current Assistant Manager, I'll be temporarily filling a management-type role as head of sales. I'm not sure why it took me so long to realize it, but this is a great opportunity to finish out the 4th quarter with great numbers and (hopefully) pick up a couple of written recommendations for a Banking Center Manager position!

I've had a lot of hesitation about attempting to climb the corporate ladder with this company. I am, however, getting consistent feedback from my superiors that I will have no problem turning this into a career, which is a great sign. When I was having trouble with the job, I was reading up on some advice for young professionals and came across this quote:

"Transitioning from student to employee is never easy. Hesitation to commit is often a problem and leaves many young professionals in a state of limbo. Every employee will be presented with a tough choice--be all-in, or cash out."

I'm all-in!

A View of the Bridge

This is our view out in front of our condo. We can see the bridge from our parking spots :)

Pressure's On

I'm one month away from finishing my Master's work and it seems like the load has quadrupled in the past couple weeks. This past week I spent several hours each day doing research for a group project, only to come up empty on the data we need. Not only am I frustrated that the time spent on our project has yielded zero results, but I am also upset that all those hours I spent searching for statistics could have been spent on finishing my thesis! I have put in a call to my professor and e-mailed my group members about my lack of success, and now I'm waiting for a response. Admitting that I essentially failed at my group assignment is not easy. I tried so hard to find what we needed that I spent an entire week's energy doing research.
But research on our topic is not expected to just pop up, because the data we need is so insanely specific! If anyone knows where I can find reading scores for 15 13 year-olds from the UK sorted by gender, class and ethnicity, please let me know!
Okay, that's the end of my rant. :P When we uploaded our gun videos the other night, we came across this oldie from last summer. Turning up the volume for this one would be a good idea, so you get the full effect.

P.S. Happy Birthday, DAD!!

Free Coffee and a Trip to Scappoose

Our Banking Center had a heated competition with the Hawthorne branch on Friday. The manager there, Doug, challenged our manager that his team could open up three checking accounts and file 2 credit card applications before we could. Being naturally competitive, our manager accepted the terms of the bet. The losing team had to call the winning team's branch on Monday (tomorrow) and formally apologize to the team for "accepting a challenge they knew they couldn't win." To top it off, the losing team's manager had to hand-deliver coffee for the entire winning team. Pressure was on.

Within 20 minutes of opening, we had one credit card application and one new checking account. Lombard-Greeley: 1, Hawthorne: 0.

By 4:00pm, we were up to 3 credit cards and 3 checking accounts. Hawthorne had a respectable 2 of each.

By 6:00pm, we had 4 credit card apps and 5 checking accounts. Luck was on our side today as our average day barely yields two checking accounts and maybe one credit card app if we're lucky. We are at a big disadvantage with being in a less affluent area with minimal foot traffic (they are in a major metro area). Silly goals, but it won us coffee and bragging rights! The underdog prevails.

After a long week at work, Katie and I decided to head out to Scappoose for a little redneck fun. In case you're wondering, Scappoose is a quiet, rural town North West of us. See the map below for a general idea--we are at "A" and Scappoose is at "B."

It is amazing to think this place exists less than 20 miles from bustling downtown Portland. It feels like Eugene but with even less people and more hills.

I'm not sure why the font just turned blue... Anyways, technical difficulties aside, we found a nice little spot off a dirt road. We hiked in a few dozen yards and found a decent clearing that reminded me of the redwoods we used to visit in Moraga.

While we were there, we thought a little target practicing might be fun! After all, Katie has never shot a handgun before, and it had been a long time for me.

As it turns out she is a great shot. :)

We also brought the 9mm.

We had some extra ammo in the end, so I tried to shoot a can filled with dirt as fast as possible.

I'm pretty sure I missed the can 8 of 10 times. It's not easy!

After a couple of hours out there, we decided to pack it in and head home. It was a fun and rewarding time out--the ammo was cheap, the drive was short, and the weather was perfect!