monkeyplus1

okay… I might have originally complained about my renter’s life being rather expensive ($1850/mo). Almost twice my mortgage payment.

But holy shit… this life is straight up fresh, I feel like a pimp. Yah, no equity is building up, but goddamn.

One block from Lloyd Center, the big mall in close-in Portland. Four blocks from the MAX light-rail transit. Three blocks from the interstate I-5.

Oh yeah, even though we’re very near a McDonalds, Burger King, and Taco Bell, we’re also near a slew of great restaurants, ranging from upscale Mexican food, noodles, several kinds of sushi ranging across the full price range.

And if that’s not enough, we’re literally two minutes from downtown, where vegan and vegetarian food is aplenty.

This place makes me remember… I FUCKING LOVE PORTLAND.

Our apartment looks to the Southeast, plenty of morning sunshine, without being overly hot in the afternoon. But it’s also air-conditioned, just in case. Our house had no air conditioning. There’s also a dishwasher, our house had none. The building is only a few years old, so everything is super fresh and clean.

There’s an onsite gym, an elevator that goes right near our door.

Free wi-fi is a fucking godsend, I may not renew my subscription to cable tv and internet. I use the TV only for gaming anyway, I’ll have to make do without xbox live for a bit.

And what else goes along with this ultra urban location? Super beautiful eye-candy, in the female form. Jesus.

I’m not going to want to move. It’s inevitable, I know, but I’m going to enjoy every delicious second. YEOWW!!

The new job is OK. My cube sucks major fucking balls. The worst setup I’ve had in goddamn ages. But it’s only a 3 month contract, I can deal with it.

Plus, the commute is fairly painless.

Well, well… pictures are soon to follow. Peace love and goodwill to everyone, except Doo Doo Brown.

This is my last of three weeks off, since my last contract ended and my new one begins.

The next contract is for a big hospital chain, replicating denormalized patient data.  High profile, for sure, but technically, a walk in the park.

Tomorrow morning, I’m signing away my house. I accepted an offer on it a month ago, everything gets signed for the last time tomorrow, and then it gets officially recorded in the county records the day after.

We found a month-to-month lease at some corporate apartments by Lloyd Center.  Extremely expensive, but also swank.  We could have gotten a lease anywhere, but we wanted short terms in case we find a new house quickly, so that we’re not tied down to an apartment.

At the risk of repeating myself - it will be nice, the temporary suspension of all the headaches and worries that come along with home ownership.

Here is the complex:

notice the sky is artificially colored, to mimic some place where the sun actually does shine.

Our unit is a 2-bedroom on the 3rd floor. Luckily, we’re near an elevator, so it won’t be too difficult to move.

There’s a gym onsite, and we’re one block from the Lloyd Center mall, and about four blocks from the light-rail transit.

In other wordly news, one of my half-sisters got married in Texas last weekend.  I’ve only met her once, but she is very sweet and stunningly beautiful.  So beautiful, you’d never believe she’s related to me. Looks absolutely nothing like me, each of her features are directly from her Mexican mother. Her mother is whatever they call that sub-race of Mexicans that did not mingle with the Europeans… native Mexican?

She’s kind of a dorky born-again, but nobody’s perfect.

The house has been sold, the new owners take posession in two weeks.  After the anal-rape that are realtor fees (amounting to nearly 20% of MY FUCKING EQUITY), we’ll be sitting well for a future down-payment.  No goddamn wonder I see so many “for sale by owner”.  Meaning, fuck the realtors.  Ours is a nice lady and all, but damn does my ass hurt.

The search for work continues.  In the meantime, we’ve found a swank apartment a stone’s throw from Lloyd Center that does month-to-month, allowing us to move quickly on a new house when the time is right.

After being a home-owner for the last four years, it feels strange to move back to an apartment. Strange, but good.  No yard to worry about, no maintenance issues to worry about.  And if my neighbors are douchebombs, well, there’s management to complain to.

Also, it’s been nice, if not a little nervewracking, to be temporarily unemployed.

I’ve beat GTA IV, re-started the game, and am almost about to beat it twice over. I played over 100 hours of a game that has barely been out one month.  I’m still not sick of it.  Whenever I’m bored, I just go to the multiplayer modes.

When you’re scurrying through the streets like a little rat, and bullets rain down from above, look skyward for “Spacechump”, floating like a hellborn butterfly of doom in Annihilator helicopter.