You don't know me!!

In a continued effort to be like my good buddy, Brent, I've created a quiz to see how well my friends know me. Yeah, it's a little narcissistic, but it's kinda fun. Create your own and give me the link...I'd love to check it out.

Back to school...

So this morning I was up at 8 AM (yikes...on a Saturday) to head to the open house event for the School of Urban Studies at Portland State. It was nice to get a chance to meet some of the faculty and current students as well as size up the competition. It'll be competitive, but I'm holding out hope of getting in. I'm taking the GRE in three weeks and the application is due in roughly three months. The more I learn about the program and the deeper I get into my current class, the more urban planning definitely seems like something I could really enjoy. The really cool thing is that I get to learn more about the city itself from some of its planners and long-time residents as I research the program. Portland's transportation programs have been of particular interest and I think I've decided to select it as my specialization through the application process.

After the open house, Katie and I went on a much needed date as we've had a crazy-busy week. We came home to a house full of people as Andrew Jones and crew crashed our pad for a get together. Good stuff. Looking forward to a day of nothingness tomorrow. Ahoy.

A culinary delight...

Ginormous props to William for working up a multi-course meal last night at his downtown pad. Nothing beats a little brie, some kickin' salad, some delicious fondue and a lotta wine! Good times with good people in a dimly lit loft with floor-to-ceiling windows in the heart of downtown. You have a gift for entertaining, my friend. Thanks again for the genuinely enjoyable evening!

i've been sitting at the same seat for 5 hours doing homework (i've peed once).
i need a blog break.

here is a fun picture from our house last year.
that is all.
love katie

Church for the busy...

Bob posted a sweet time-lapse movie of Evergreen's last gathering at the Multnomah Villae Lab before we moved over the other side of the river. Kinda cool. Props to Scott for the photography.

Lazy Sundays




It's definitely been a tame day thus far. We ventured across the river this morning to Evergreen's first meeting at the other Lucky Lab on the Southeast side, which is a little bigger pub as things are growing and we're seeing more new faces. We then came home, threw some burgers on the grill and grubbed. Katie's been working on a play since and I went out to snap some pictures of what's turned out to be a gorgeous day. Tonight looks to be more of the same welcomed relaxation. It's a nice change of pace with how busy things have seemed lately. Work seems to simply be more time-consuming these days and Katie's schedule has been kicked up a notch. I'm also rolling into my third week of the topical course I'm taking entitled, "Portland Traffic and Transportation." It's been nothing less than intriguing. It's set up in such a way that we hear two hour-long presentations each week from city and state employees. So far, we've heard from the directors of Tri-Met and Metro and we'll hear from more transportation planners from the Portland Dept or Transportation and the state. We also have to complete some sort of planning proposal, which can be as simple as having speed bumps or a stop sign installed (which is really quite a bit more complicated than you might expect) or as in-depth as having a road widened. It's definitely going to be helpful in deciding if I want to pursue urban planning and/or, more specifically, transportation planning. In the meantime, I just wanted to highlight that Portland was voted the city with the best public transportation system by Travel magazine with the famed New York coming in fourth (hint, hint, Joshua and Kristen). Also, of the Portland public transit riders, 77% ride by choice, instead of need (which is about ten times higher than the average city). Gotta love that. More factoids to come...

um.
it's definitely fall!