The last week has literally carried me all around the state. When I was hired at OWEB, one of the exciting parts of my job was an opportunity to travel around the state doing financial trainings for grantees. After months of prep, this week (and next) are high training periods. Last week I went to Gresham (okay, it was nearby…), Central Point, Klamath Falls, and Bend. In the coming week I’ll be traveling to Pendleton and Baker City.

In all the traveling of last week, however, i wasn’t able to take a single picture because the battery on my camera died and I didn’t bring the charger. Doh!

So I can’t show you the birds at Klamath Falls, the mountains in Bend, or the… well, I’m sure there was something about Central Point that was fun, but without a camera, I can’t remember it!

Fortunately I plugged in the charger and when I go out this week it should be more interesting from a blogging point of view.

Still, other exciting things have happened besides travel and it’s a good time to do an update.

30 Paintings in 30 Days… Busted

Last Sunday I had made a lot of progress in catching up. And if I had been in the office, I feel like I could have done it. But travel defeated me, even though I took my painting gear and was preparred. Budget hotels, however, don’t tend to have great views.

I’ve decided to give myself a break. I learned that painting at lunch is a great thing and I’m going to try to do it when I get back into real life at work again.

House Sale (Oregon City)

As I mentioned, I put my house in Oregon City up for sale. It was very successful and I got several good offers. While I am waiting for an inspection to put a cap on it, a deal has been struck and it looks like we’ll close October 27.

House Purchase (Salem)

So in the limited amount of time I had between engagements, I forsook day 1 of the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival to go down to Salem for some serious house hunting.

Nine hours later I had it narrowed down to three (maybe four…) homes, but that was as far as I could get it. The porched house mentioned in my August 31 post “This Human Craves Chaos” was still under consideration, but it has been overshadowed by a new home build on an infill lot a little further out (but still within a couple miles of work) and an absolutely STUNNING house right in downtown and ON Mill Creek. I mean RIGHT ON. Like living in a camp site. And a high-priced fixer up right on Busch Park that I was pretty sure wasn’t right, but the park part would have been fun…

Doing some research and thinking about my priorities (and realizing that my father would rise up out of his grave and kill me for even thinking of buying a house on a flood plain (and looking at pictures from the LAST flood)) I reluctantly came to the conclusion the creek house was too risky for my essentially cautious personality.

More research revealed that the new construction home would be followed by more construction RIGHT in back of it. After looking at some plot maps (and my budget) I came back to the porched house.

So this morning we put in an offer and I’m waiting to hear back. Fingers crossed.

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival

Fortunately, I had a great way to fill my time while I waited. Months ago I had signed up for an all day class: Spinning 2 – Building on What You Know. Taught by an encyclopedia Laurie Weinsoft, it was a good class because we got a lot of opportunity to for hands-on play with the various technique and materials. My only complaint was that Laurie used her inside voice and the class next door used their outside voice; in other words, it was hard to hear.

Still, it was a day well spent. A fleece was purchased (yes, another. A gray one this time) as well as some Firestar and silk to add in, as well as plans to dye the fleece. i’ll finish my white one first though.

Probably…

Well, I’m heading off again tomorrow and I haven’t even packed, but you now know everything I do. I’ll endeavor to do better in the photo department for my next post.