That's right, we've been all settled in Portland now for about 3 weeks and we love it! We managed to paint, unpack, put everything away, hang curtains & shelves, etc., etc. in a seemingly record-breaking span of a week. Here are a couple of shots of the house:

And you can see the rest in my lady's Flickr set here

Being that we're new to the city and we're both working from home now, we've been doing a lot of exploring to get to know the city and avoid going stir-crazy. So here is my top 5 list of discoveries so far:

1. Signal Station Pizza
   This place just looks like it would be delicious so we gave it a try on a whim for lunch one day and it was fantastic! I had a slice of the "Ivanhoe" which has mozzarella and provolone cheeses, salami, roasted red pepper, and roma tomatoes and it was amazing! The pizza gets 4.5 stars from me—it would be 5 but the crust did not blow me away. But amazing pizza right down the street from my house pretty much rules.
2. Pastrycat
   Delicious! You can't miss this bright pink building on Lombard (the main street near our house) so we tried it on our 2nd day here! We've tried their baked potato scones, ham & cheese scones, Tillamook cheddar biscuits and cinnamon pull-aparts—all of which were phenomenal! And it's run by the kindest lady who is also a Bay Area transplant.
3. John's Marketplace A.K.A. The Magical Beer Emporium Wonderland
   Colby told me about this place and it's amazing selection of beer before I got here so we went last week and discovered it together! It just looks like a stretched out, plain liquor store and even has a B.O., urine, and beer smell to it but the selection of beer was mind-blowing! And the best part is that you can buy by the bottle! I found a seemingly hard to find German favorite, Weltenburger there and we tried out a few mystery brews including a delicious espresso stout from Portland-native Laurelwood Brewing Co., among others. We will definitely be going back for more.
4. James John Cafe
   This is a nice, quiet cafe that serves my new favorite, Stumptown! It's conveniently located right near my place and conveniently delicious. It seems nice and quiet and the dude knows everyone's name who comes in, maybe even mine soon enough...
5. Voodoo Doughnut
   OK this was discovered before I got here so it's technically cheating but it's still amazing! I've been a good 4 or 5 times since being here and I don't think it will ever get old. The Miami Vice is my very favorite so that's been a consistent choice but I've also been trying out some of their other stuff like the Grape Ape (very grapy), the Mango Tango, the Butter Fingering, the Bubble Gum donut, and much more to come.

We've got a guest room so I dunno what you're waiting for?

Hey everybody, how was your Thanksgiving (if you are from the US)? Mine was quite eventful. The wife and I did our annual road trip up to Port Towsend, WA to spend Thanksgiving with her family. Along the way we decided to stop through Portland and, you know, buy a house. Yes that's right, we bought a house! We've been talking about it for months now, and the Monday before Thanksgiving, we met with a realtor, spent all day driving around the city, and ended up putting in an offer on a brand new "Portland four-square" craftsman style brand new green home! We checked out a bunch of homes throughout the day and ended up picking a house already being built in the St. John's neighborhood in the North part of the city. Here's a bit of a preview:

And when it's done it'll look a little something like this:

Pretty nice, eh? We love the San Francisco area but getting into our first home here would have been very difficult and we would have had to make a lot of compromise. We considered a ton of cities and ultimately decided on Portland. When we went we were just about sold, and spending time there really nailed it for us (obviously). We met up with our good friend Colby and his lady, Abby, who helped show us the town.

He used tricky tactics such as feeding us delicious, amazing donuts, coffee, and beer to convince us that it was the place to go. And we're glad he did! They are a couple of awesome people and we're very excited to be their neighbors.

And I must mention that if you are a nerd like me, and love nerdy computer/code books, you MUST visit the Powell's Books Tech store—it's basically the Mecca of nerd book stores, I was totally blown away and considered just moving in there. It has everything! Code books old and new, books on engineering, physics, math. It's basically like Amazon in person. And we tried a number of delicious donuts from Voodoo, including the maple bacon donuts, the Cap'n Crunch and Fruit Loops donuts, the "Miami Vice", and a few others, all of which were, without question, the best donuts I've ever eaten.

And one of the best parts is that I will continue to work with Cuban Council! My talented photographer wife is going to have to do some hard work to establish herself there when we move, so if you know anyone who needs some top notch photography, spread the good word and get in touch!

We won't be moving until probably mid-late March of 2009, so if you are a Bay Area buddy of ours and want to do some hanging out, let's get it done!