first week back…

Man, it’s already wednesday, and I’m still unpacking. Had an interview yesterday, which I felt went well — I’ve had some real dog interviews for some reason, and I haven’t been happy with how I’ve been handling them, but this one I thought was more up to my expectations for myself. I think I’m finally hitting that point where I’m ready and interested in going back to work, and that may be part of it. We’ll see.

Later today, I got introduced to one of these mythical stealth startups through a friend, and for some reason they want my thoughts on the thingie they’re building — and I’m horribly curious about it because it sounds like a fascinating new technology. Not an interview, it’s really more feedback on their plans. Should be fun, and that’s the last I’ll talk about it because as far as I’m concerned, it’s an NDA thing, even though we haven’t discussed that. Won’t even mention the market segment right now. But if they’re doing what they seem to be doing, it’s going to make life interesting down the road.

And another interview tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to; an other really interesting opportunity. And I came back and poked at a couple of other companies and we’ll see if anyone pokes back. And I have some work to do on the technical review, and I need to get that done this week…

Of course it’s digging out time. Even with good and reliable wifi in the hotels (getting easier and easier), I made a conscious decision to sort of go darkish and actually take the vacation.

Took about 1000 photos over nine days and 2300 miles driven. Fall arrived in Portland at about the same time we did, so we hit a bit of rain, but nothing anyone who likes Portland is going to notice. We spent the grey and rainy day driving up the Gorge and visiting some of the falls, then out to the Dalles, and inland and back through the Hood area. Absolutely-freaking-gorgeous. Some shopping and the ritual trip to Powell’s on day 2, plus stops at Penzey’s Spices and Stash Tea, and we were happy campers.

We actually, after having set things up to stay near the Tri-max, didn’t use it, we limited downtown to Powell’s and drove in. But we did a fair amount of exploring down in Hillsboro and also in Tigard and Lake Oswego. Some nice stuff going on up there. As we drove past Orenco Station the first time, Laurie noted “hey! they’re building a new false old downtown!”

which is true, very similar in concept to our Santana Row, and very nice, actually. I like the mixed use retail areas when they’re done well, and this one (which also, for those in the Bay Area, has some extended housing areas like Rivermark does in Santa Clara) seems pretty nice. It also had a New Seasons market in it, which frankly, for all we talk about the bay area being such a foodie region, points out just how pitifully bad out supermarket setup is around here…

Then it was off to Astoria (actually, Seaside), where we based for a couple of days, and we headed up to Long Beach and Cape Disappointment for some birding and photography, stopped by Cellar on 10th and ended up having a nice long chat and leaving with 15 bottles of good NorthWest grape stuff, dinner at Baked Alaska (cemented itself as my favorite spot on the coast), but also a rather nice italian meal and Guidos and Vito’s downtown seaside. You gotta love an italian place that puts up a “no, we do NOT have pizza on the menu” sign! (grin)

Then a couple of nights in Newport, dinners at Las Cabanas (really nice Mexican, especially for Oregon) and a new place (for us) call Szabos, which can best be described as a roadhouse — a bar with tables and TVs with the USC game on it, but the food was far from an afterthought; we watched as the locals piled in (almost always a good sign), and I had some of the best damn fish and chips I’ve had in years.

We decided not to visit the aquarium, in favor of exploring — up Yaquina bay to Toledo, south to Seal Rock, north to Boiler bay; a good chunk of time up at Yaquina head, where the wind was so fierce it made my eyes water despite having glasses on AND binoculars covering them.

Birding was pretty quiet. Yaquina Head was as usual busiest, with Brandt’s cormorants nesting, some marbled murrelets, a non-breeding (white) pigeon guillemot that confused the hell out of me for a while, a couple of common loons, and the normal gulls, and over 100 surf scoters. Up in Yaquina bay I found a mew gull in among a flock of “usual suspect” gulls, and a young hooded merganser — pretty much the only duck of the trip other than a couple of small groups of mallards. Lots of stuff has migrated out; only saw two common murres, even up around Point Disappointment where they nest, but no shorebirds — the summer residents were gone, the winter ones haven’t arrived yet, even at shorebird strongpoints like seal rock.

No whales. Word was they were up around depoe bay, but we didn’t see them this trip.

Down at seal rock, I spent some time with a nice lady who came down to seal rock expecting, well, seals. And there were some — we found five or six in the water — but none actually on shore, and I could never get her to see them in the water using the binoculars, so I finally hauled out the spotting scope so I could set it up and aim it for her; that worked out great, because once I showed her what to expect, she was able to find some of the others on her own. At the same time, the local song and savannah sparrows were laughing at me and running every time I tried to get a look at them, and there wasn’t a shorebird in the entire beach area. ohwell…

As I get the photos posted, I’ll talk more about stuff. But for now, gotta go fight the bermuda grass again…

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