New Year, New Beginnings

We have started off the new year right. We deemed it the Year of Thinking Long Term. (We need a responsible year to follow 2014’s Year of Carpe Diem.)

Mike started working at Viewpoint. He’s worked there a week and enjoys it. He has good benefits and the work mostly matches his skills. He is a little anxious about the video aspect but I’m sure he’ll do great.

Viewpoint is on the other side of the Hawthorne Bridge, so we are both commuting now. Iris is having to get used to a new schedule. She spends Mondays and Wednesdays at doggy daycare with Darin and spends Tuesdays and Thursdays recuperating at home. Mike hopes to be able to work from home on most Fridays. He set up a webcam facing her couch in the sunroom, and we watched her spend all day on the couch watching the cul de sac and napping.

Carpooling isn’t going to be ideal for us. Mike got a gym membership at Planet Granite in the Pearl and plans to climb on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I’ll be on dog pick-up duty. Driving and parking the truck during the commute isn’t fun. We are in the market for a commuter vehicle. We visited Carmax today and looked at a Mazda3, which has our eye. Carmax was surprisingly mellow with no pressure. The car we liked was quite a bit over our budget, so we decided to wait and see if something else goes on the market with a few more miles on it.

We are excited to watch the Oregon Ducks play in the championship game on Monday. Go Ducks!