First Week

Life is going well here in Oregon. Our first week in Hood River was great! We're making our apartment our own - it's still a work in progress, but it's coming along. We picked up our belongings out of our pod in Portland on Tuesday with the awesome help of Aaron. We were a little disappointed that so much of our stuff got a little damaged in the move. We thought we packed a really tight box, but apparently we didn't pad enough. So, if you find yourself packing a truck or a pod anytime, just remember to pad pad pad your furniture. But we got it back to Hood River and unloaded with assistance from Doug on the heavy stuff (which I was very grateful for with that set of stairs to deal with!). We've been working on unpacking and putting stuff in storage (since our place is kinda small and we have too much stuff). Yesterday we made our very first trip to IKEA. What a place! It's a crazy maze that you can easily get lost in and probably spend a week in looking at everything. We got a futon and a cart for our small kitchen to maximize some counter space. But now we have something to sit on in our living room, which is very nice. Hopefully it won't be too much of a pain putting it together!

I made my first trip to the Hood River Library on Friday. It's a really nice small library with a great view of the Gorge. I got my library card (very easily - didn't even have to show any proof of anything! Small towns are great!) and got word from the library director that a part time library assistant position should be advertised very soon. It's not my dream job, but I'm definitely going to apply just to try and get my foot in the door. And the library is only a 10 minute walk from our house, so that would be an awesome change from my 45 minute drive to the Main Library in WPB. I noticed that they use SIRSI, so at least I'm familiar with their ILS.

Other than that we've been checking out the town, visiting some breweries, drinking some very tasty beers, meeting lots of very nice people, and trying to find our way through the grocery stores. We took Ika to Puppy Kindergarten on Wednesday which was super cute. It's a great opportunity to have her play with other puppies and I think she did pretty well for her first time. We can already see her getting braver and playing really nice with other dogs.

Next on our agenda is some serious job hunting and exploration of some beautiful natural areas close by us. Can't wait!