Last Post From Oregon

It's our last full day here and of course it's gloomy and rainy. It's hard to believe it's finally coming to an end. Yesterday was the day we picked up the moving van and with the help of my parents and C's Mom, we began loading it up. We were in and out of the apartment all day. At one point in the afternoon, I walked in to a very stark and empty apartment. The memories of us moving in came rushing back to me, because it has not looked like that since then. It was a strange mix of feelings. When I talked to Catherine about it, she said that it really effected her too, and said that it finally set in, that we were indeed moving.

It's been a great experience to live here. We have both met a lot of people and have made new friends. We have also grown and learned a lot in our personal and professional lives these past three years. It will very much so, be bittersweet tomorrow morning as we depart from this chapter of our lives, and drive through Eugene, and then south for the last time. At least maybe... for a while, at least. This is the last post entry from Eugene for us. This afternoon we will no longer have internet services. So next time we'll be posting from California. Until then B.

My Brother's Got a Website!!!

I'm so proud of my little brother. He does some really awesome work. He's on his way to being a really good commercial film maker, in my opinion.

Check out his website! (I helped him out with this bit!!!)

Seeing Cardboard

There's little less than a week left till we move, and we sure have been busy around here. Today we agreed that the place is starting to feel like it did when we moved in. We have been steadily packing things up over the past few weeks, but now we have boxes everywhere. Its all happening so fast now I can't believe it. I'm getting pretty anxious about everything we still have to do, before next Wednesday. Hopefully everything will go smoothly with no major problems. We're at the point now were the things left to pack are the things we need out, or might still need to use. Moving is hard. But It's going to be great to be back home again. That makes it all worth it. It's also going to be great seeing my parents again, who are arriving tomorrow night, and are helping us with the move and drive down, which we are very grateful for. It will be great to visit as well. Hopefully we will have a little free time and it won't be an all work and no play visit. That being said I better get back to packing. I can't make any promises, but I will try to make regular posts to keep everyone in the loop as to whats going on, its just things are only going to get even busier and crazier around here and in C&B's life. So till next time. B.Y.

Eastern Oregon

As our time here in Oregon became shorter and shorter, we felt more of an urgency to sight see and visit a bunch of places we haven't been to yet. We've had plenty of free week-ends during the past three years to made these trips, but with a combination of procrastination, laziness, and or feeling tired, that and the fact you can't count on the weather being nice, we have accumulated quite a long list of destinations.


We planned on using some of our time off in between packing and preparing for the move to make some of these trips. The weather after my last day of work turned out to be beautiful, and we made the most of it. We headed east to the middle and eastern parts of the state. We had heard there were a lot of beautiful sights out there in the high desert and we went as far east as Bend, once a couple years ago, which only fueled our curiosity to explore even further.


We set out for the John Day Fossil Beds, about four to five hours away. Our trip started up the lush McKenzie River Highway, over the heavily forested and snowy Cascade Mountains and through the little town of Sisters. The road from there was unfamiliar, as we headed towards Redmond. The landscape changed and became dry and flat, with smaller juniper trees and sage brush all around, with snow caped peaks far off in the distance. Its amazing how fast the landscape changes too. There is literally a line between the west side of the Cascades and the east where the different types of trees grow. Beyond Redmond was the little town of Prineville.It reminded me a bit of the little desert town in the Pixar movie "Cars". It was a really neat place. I kept feeling as if we were further east than where we were. By this time we were only a few hours from home, but it looked like we were in the prairies of Wyoming or Montana. After Prineville we had another mountain range to go over. The Ochoco's. Your guess is as good as mine as how exactly to pronounce it. Descending down the east side of the Ochoco's reminded me a lot of the Los Padres and the drive down into the Lockwood Valley on the Hwy 33.




The base of the mountains marked the very west end of the John Day River Basin and Fossil Beds. We were getting close to our first destination, which was the Painted Hills. It was an amazing place. The hills are made up of layers of a very specific type of clay that was deposited as volcanic ash millions of years ago. The clay though not toxic, does not support life and expands when wet and shrinks when dry. There are many layers of different colors in the clay, and because of the way it expands and shrinks makes interesting rolling hill shapes in contrast to the rock and dirt around them. It was a very interesting place, we hardly felt that we were in Oregon. It felt very southwestern there.

One funny thing was the smell in the air. Just past Redmond there was this smell like neglected wet laundry in the air. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from, but at the Painted Hills we were out of the car a lot and were able to pinpoint the source of the stench. It was coming from all the sage plants, and was in the air, everywhere we went. It had just rained the day before and it looked like it was beginning to blossom, so maybe it was because of that. We couldn't imagine it always smelled that way, at least we hoped not. It put the notion getting out in the fresh air into a new light.




After the Painted Hills we headed further east towards the town of John Day (and yes the smell continued) through a neat little town called Mitchell. The landscape changed further still. More barren, with the occasional cattle ranch. Then we entered a canyon sort of a badlands area. I could only imagine what it must have been like to travel through that sort of landscape on foot or horseback as an early settler. At this point we were purely exploring, We were heading for a place called Sheep Rock, but with no further plans. It was getting later in the afternoon and we were trying to make the most of our daylight. Sheep Rock was neat but not as grand as the Painted Hills. We then checked out a place near there called Blue Basin. It was another canyon badlands where the walls of the canyon had a blue green tinge. It was not as blue as we hoped. It was near dusk and a little creepy, but in a fun way. We were able to experience what it was like to be on foot, walking through a landscape like that. At this point we were about five and a half hours from home and we had to decide whether to stay the night some where or to head on home. We ended up just heading home. On the way back, we stopped in Prineville at an Arctic Circle fast food restaurant. I hadn't seen one of those since the last time I was in Utah four years ago. We got home late, but it was a really fun day. Nagi was so glad to see us. That night, near midnight, I half jokingly suggested we should take advantage of the good weather and go back out to the Bend/Redmond area the next day. But I'll leave that for another post soon. So stay tuned for day two of C&B's Eastern Oregon Trip. Till then, B.Y.

All Said and Done, it was a Perfect Fit

It hardly seems that only a month has passed since Catherine completed her final term of Architecture school at the University of Oregon. After three years of hard work, it took her a while to realize that it was all truly over.

So in a simple way to commemorate this achievement, we always thought it would be fun if she were to get a UofO sweatshirt or at least some token article of UofO Ducks apparel. So one afternoon a few weeks ago we set out to the UofO Campus Bookstore. First off, to purchase her graduation gown and regalia and, secondly, get her a sweatshirt or something. But to our surprise the kiosk for the graduation gowns... was closed for the day and it turned out the store on Campus had a poor selection of womens apparel.

She had a rough idea what she was looking for in a sweatshirt and I had no doubt we would find something there. But there was really nothing good, at all. She did however find a T-shirt she liked that we ended up getting. There were some sweatshirts she liked the overall look of, but they were too big and all in mens cuts and sizes, they just didn't fit her well. We both left there a little bummed, but I suggested we try the Duck Store at the the mall, (the mall is not Catherine's favorite place). So I dragged her to the mall, only to find exactly the same items we saw at the UofO Duck Store.

By that time I figured we were out of luck and we were not going to find anything, I did have one more place in mind were I had seen UofO stuff before. Fred Myers, which is a northwest chain of super, one stop shop type department/grocery/bank, etc.. stores, but I didn't say anything because I figured by now she was all shopped out. But it was on the way, and only a few blocks from home. It turned out that on our way home Catherine said she needed to stop at Fred Myers anyway for a few grocery items. So I suggested we might look for a sweatshirt there, and she agreed that was a good idea and said she had forgotten they carried UofO stuff.

I wasn't really expecting we'd find anything better there, but it was worth a shot. It didn't look promising at all when we first got there. The section where they sell all the Duck merchandise was almost empty, and everything was marked down. But we spotted sweatshirts on the racks and as it turns out, there were only womans sizes left and they had all the details Catherine was looking for and more, the hood, zip up front, sewn on lettering, and to make It even more appropriate they were make by Nike. That's relevant because Nike's history has its roots here in Eugene (A.K.A. Track Town) and Phil Knight is an UofO Alumni.

So then the real test, she tried one on. It was as if it had been tailored for her. I couldn't believe it, also they were by far of better design and quality than anything else we'd seen that day. The only dilemma then was color, green or gray. Both looked equally good on her and with the trouble it took to find them and the added bonus that they were on sale (almost half off) I said, "get one of each". So she did.

When we left, it all of a sudden seemed so fitting that after going all over town that she found it only a few blocks away from home. It just reminded me that Catherine's decision to come to UofO was in a small part a desire experience life outside California and to get a feeling how other people in the nation view California, to see how and if it was any different than what you hear when you live there. If we had been on or near the campus I don't think we would have got as clear a picture of Oregon as we have. The feeling is very different on Campus, where there are so many people from all over the world, that it doesn't have the same feeling as in the rest of the town. It wasn't overly profound I just thought it to be an interesting course of events in the quest for a sweatshirt, and that it ended so close to were we live.

I don't know why exactly, but I knew immediately when we left Fred Myers that evening. That this was going to remain a special memory for us, and with all said and done, is was a perfect fit. Now Catherine can wear her alumna colors and show her school spirit for her alma mater.

B's First Post

I finally feel I have a moment to leave a post. My first ever. This Blog, I'm hoping will give everyone a window into our lives and keep everyone informed of how we're doing. Especially in this exciting time of extreme change in our lives. Saying good bye to Oregon and UofO, and all. We figured it was as good of a time as any to start a blog, ( just one more thing to add to our long list of things to do. Right?)

During the past few weeks there have been events I felt were worth sharing, and so now I can put them on this blog, as posts. Hopefully before too long you will get to read them, But my typing is slow and I obsess over the smallest details so please bear with me. So until next time, B.Y.

April Showers??

Well we're having beautiful weather up here in Eugene this spring! Check out the video!



I guess it's kinda hard to see but yes the white stuff falling from the sky onto roofs and windshields is snow. It was certainly cold enough for it!

"Look Ma! No Posts!"

We finally started a blog!!! We got done with all the set up, and were both excited to see what it looked like, and here's what we saw:



We thought it was a funny start so we made our first post about not having any...posts. But...now we do...have a post...