The Geekess

I just found byCycle's portland bike route planner. It's built with open source tools. :) I wish they would integrate the planner into Google maps, or put their bike path layer into Google custom maps. It would be awesome to have that bike routes layer and the Trimet layer when I'm looking up addresses of houses for sale.

I'm "window shopping" for houses right now. Jamey and I probably won't have enough money for a down payment for about 2 years, but we've I've been looking anyway. I've been using Google housing to search for houses around the east side MAX blue line. When the weather is not too rainy, Jamey and I have been riding our bicycles around SE to get a feel for the neighborhoods.

Bikes have become very important to us lately. Jamey bikes to work most days, and I ride into work when the weather's nice or I need to leave work before the Intel MAX shuttle starts in the evening. We don't own a car, and have resisted hints from both our families that we need/should want one. That might change when we buy a house, but I'd like to try sticking with Flexcar, Trimet, and bikes.

I finally recompiled the lastest MadWifi source. Now my wireless works with the same kernel that contains my USB bits. Bliss.

Now if only I could figure out which box my iPAC's keyboard is in. I've unpacked three boxes marked computer equipment, and I have yet to find it. My plan is to use it to take notes on Thursdays. On that day, I'm only on campus for a short period of time and I don't really want to haul my laptop to school.

Being off campus sucks in some ways. I tend to thoughly overpack; my purse alone contains a flashlight (not a tiny pen light, but a hefty one that takes two D cells), mace, iPAC, gum, cell phone, keys, business cards, chapstick, and various cards. If I put my purse, laptop, some papers, and a book in my bag, it gets really heavy. I wish all my textbooks were ebooks and tablet laptops were lighter and cheaper.

Current mood: lethargic

Jamey and I are all moved into Mike's house. It's great to have a dishwasher! We even got to leave our clothes in dryer last night. It was fabulous. The bedroom is a mess of boxes, and we're still trying to figure out where desks and stuff should go. I'm off next to do some shopping, since I'm sick of unpacking. I figure I'll do some hacking this evening when I get back.

My big news of the week is that I ran into Kristin, the woman who works in the Open Technology Group who got me the job interview. She said my job offer from Intel is in the mail! I'm excited, but a little worried that it hasn't arrived yet. They sent it right when my address forwarding kicked in, so it might be delayed or (worse) stuck somewhere. That would suck.

We signed a housing contract with Mike today. I've started cleaning out old papers (including four years worth of notes) and going through a bunch of stuff I don't want anymore. On a related note, anyone want to buy our couch, table, or twin bed?

There's so much to pack, and so many people/businesses to update our address with.

It was a beautiful day today. Hopefully it's nice on Friday when I have my interview so I can wear my pin-striped skirt. *grins*

Current mood: bouncy

Jamey and I are moving over spring break. Bart's friend, Mike Heartel, has a house in Washington Park. He was looking for a housemate, and we're going to rent a room from him. His house is really awesome. It's got really nice views of the park and hiking trails all around. We're going to rent out one of the bedrooms, with the option to rent another bedroom or the downstairs office later. We'll share the living room and kitchen area, but have our own bathroom (we'll probably have to share that when Mike's family visits, but that's fine). Mike is a geeky person like us, so our lifestyles and interests match up.

I've never shared an apartment or house with non-family before, so that will take some getting used to. (I had a roommate during my Freshman year of college, but she basically lived at her boyfriend's apartment and left all her stuff in our apartment.)

Eee, I've got so much to plan for now! I'm so excited to move out of student housing and get a bigger bed and live in Washington Park. Being five minutes from the zoo MAX station is pretty awesome. I'll miss my friends in St. Helens Court, but I won't be that far, and I'm sure I'll still visit. :)

Current mood: hopeful

I'm so ready to be out of college housing. My neighbor across and down a floor from me had a big party last night. His guests decided it was funny to throw stuff out of his window (at least a nerf football and some coins, probably other things). They were loud until the wee hours of the morning. Since I live on the "courtyard" of the building (the inside of the U shape), I got to hear everything they said. I couldn't shut my windows because it's roasting on the fourth floor, even with all the radiators off. I tried calling my RA, but she wasn't home. I was going to call the on-call RA if I couldn't fall asleep, but somehow I did.

Today I'm going to walk around the downtown area and write down names and phone numbers for apartment buildings. I don't think much will be available in the middle of the month. However, if we start calling around Feb. 8th when rents are normally due, someone might have put in their 30 days notice. I wouldn't mind moving during spring break. I guess I can live with waiting to move until summer after Jamey and I are married. I'm just so sick of college housing.

Current mood: cranky

Today, Jamey and I looked at the 1 bedroom apartment that was available in the Westfall apartment buildings. What a piece of crap! The apartment needed some severe maintaince.

The lowlights:

• There was water damage behind the bathtub that looked like it had been there for years.


• The kitchen was really small, with a half-sized oven.


• None of the outlets in the apartment were grounded. I must have grounded outlets for my electronic army!


• The manager also claimed the apartment building was fairly quiet, although he mentioned "This apartment is on the quiet side of the building," and "I'll be really glad when the bus mall moves."

The highlights:

• There was broadband through the cable or internet through the phone company.


• The windows had been replaced 10 years prior, so there's lovely storm windows rather than wooden sliding windows that leak heat.


• The apartment was painted a nice teal color, although it looked like the walls had been painted way too many times.


• The fourth floor (top floor) had a nice view of downtown.

Overall, what I saw did not make me want to move. I think I'll try my luck with the Altamount or somewhere else this summer. I'll continue to look for apartments between now and then, to get an idea of what buildings are good.

Current mood: a little disappointed (but also OK with it because I don't really want to move during the term)

I have a picture of me with my new glasses, but I haven't downloaded it from Jamey's camera yet. So you get a text-only post instead. :)

Christmas was good and bad at the same time. I got a bunch of kitchen stuff and a techie book I wanted (Linux Device Drivers). Unfortunately, I had a cold for a week and food poisoning for an entire day. The food poisoning was from the Vietnamese restaurant near campus, so I've lost faith in a favorite haunt.

We moved my grandma over the break; she's out of a trashy trailer park and into a nice senior housing development now. She's even got HUD support, so she only has to pay $143 a month for her place. I'm jealous because she has a 1 bedroom with a dishwasher and washer/dryer hook-ups.

We added Jamey as a roommate to my apartment today. They charge a $50 roommate fee, which sucks. They also noticed that my rent hadn't gone up like it was supposed in July. I've been saving $50 a month because of that computer glitch. Now we're paying $600 a month for our studio. That's including utilities, but not internet. The rent is going to go up in July again, so it's not inconceivable that I'll be paying $650 by summer.

Since our rent is so stinkin' high, I started looking around campus at non-university housing. I called a couple old-style apartment buildings, and two places had 1 bedrooms for $550. With the rent increase in July and utilities factored in, that makes a 1 bedroom about the same price as my studio. It would be at least 100 more square feet, and I wouldn't have to worry about student status anymore.

There's an apartment available for viewing on Monday, and Jamey and I are going to take a look at it. I'd hate to move at the start of a new term, but I'd rather jump on a new deal than wait for spring break or summer and miss a good deal.

Current mood: planning