Hilton Head Pics

I just added the pictures that we took during our trip to Hilton Head to visit with Iain, Maggie and Ella. Here is the link.

Portland II

As mentioned earlier, I am back in the Portland area for a second tour of duty that should end this week. We have gone out after work for some festivities every night we've been here - except tonight. There are so many great spots in Portland. Here is a food and a drink recommendation. It was great to stay downtown last week as there is much less to do in Beaverton and the food quality does not extend out that far. Also, the Courtyard City Center is a much nicer than the typical Courtyard.

Seattle

I spent last weekend ( Oct 9 ) in Seattle with Erin visiting Brent, Gwen, Fletch and Chase. It had been a while since we'd seen each other. In fact, Erin and Gwen had never meet. Since I was back in Portland for a three week stint we decided to meet half way (the Brent's live in Vancouver).

The plan was made McAnoy style - aka - no plans. However, we did manage some entertainment including a visit to the Seattle Art Museum to see the new Picasso exhibit (oddly my second time seeing a Picasso exhibit). We also visited a music event, the puny Space Needle, the Pike Market and some nice eateries. I recommend Campagne - delicious.

Here are some pics:

The lad in the middle is single!

The dress is a gift for a young lady that has yet to receive it. Hope she doesn't find out too soon.

Green Card

Check back to this page for updates

Update 2 - Oct 18

I did my biometrics. I have a thumb that is hard to print. Also, I forgot to send some supporting documents which I have correct. Still hoping for the end of November for the travel and work temp permits.

Update 1 - Sept 17

I just received my biometrics appointment notice. This will occur in less than 2 weeks.

----

Hi

On August 27 I formally applied to become a permanent resident of the United States. Just yesterday (Sept 9) I received notice by email that my application has been received and my checks have been cashed. I think the next step will be to receive that same notice by mail. That notice will give details on how I can checked on the status of my application. The mail should arrive in the next couple of weeks. After that it is back to the waiting game.

Getting caught up

It's been a while again. A few things to catch up on. I change job at the end start of May basically doing the same stuff with a lot more travel. I returned to Toronto at the end of May for a quick visit and to get a new work permit. I got a hard time from the immigration officer at the airport. He hated the later my employer gave me but let me through when I wrote down my own job description.

I got to the airport about 3 hours before my flight. There was the biggest line ever - at least in my experience. I managed to get one of the Air Canada reps to push me closer to the front of the line. Once I got to secondary screening ALL the immigration reps went on dinner break. Then, I got into trouble with the letter. Finally, the cashier was lost. I ended up making my flight which was boarding when I got to the gate. Whew.

The job has been going pretty well. I travel up to Portland most weeks. Portland is a pretty nice town with the exception of the rain (every single day in May that I was there). There is lots of foliage and mountains.

In addition to those travels I have also been to New York, Philadelphia, South and North Carolina in the last 2 months. New York, for fun before a wedding in Philadelphia. Then Erin and I met up with Iain, Maggie and baby in Hilton Head for a weeks vacation. I guess we also spent a night in DC when we missed our connecting flight home from HH. Right now I am in NC for a work event. Erin and I have also spent a couple of weekends in San Clemente with Erin's parents in June.

What's up next? More Portland. Erin is going to come up in a couple of weeks for the weekend. A rare weekend not traveling for me. We are also thinking of going to Chicago for a long weekend in September, perhaps seeing Wrigley Field.

Cheers!

Borrego Springs

Erin and I visited her Uncle Jim in Borrego Springs last weekend. We had planned to a little golfing and relaxing but our schedule changed when Jim had to play in a golf tournament that weekend. So, instead Erin did a lot of lounging by the pool visiting the town art exhibit seeing the wild flowers and buying grapefruits. I, on the other hand got to play in the tournament as Jim's partner. Here's how that went.

On the very first hole I pulled out the driver on par and must have drove the ball about 5 to 10 yards. I almost missed it. Normally, I would just take a mulligan and re-tee but this is not allowed in tournament golf. Fortunately, we were playing a scramble and we could just use Jim's ball. We ended up in the middle of the pack on day one. Day two was better, playing full net score we were able to post a combined 138 to win the tournament. Hurrah!

Bay Area

Erin and I vacationed in the bay area a couple of weeks ago visiting a couple of Erin's college chums. It was enjoyed but not particularly interesting. The best place we went to was a little restaurant in San Francisco called Universal Cafe. Erin and I went there for bruch on Sunday. Everything on the menu is cage-free farm fresh and delicious. We also saw the Raptors lay down another game, this time against Golden State. Thanks to Richard for the tickets!

San Diego

Erin and I went to San Diego last weekend. We were visiting Erin's college chum Chad who happens to rent a pretty nice place there. Of particular note was the Sunday brunch of enormous portions at Hash House A-Gogo. The interesting thing was that the food was actually pretty good. Among the things we shared was an eggs benedict that had a large southern fried chicken in place of the ham. On Saturday we ended up at a 'speakeasy' that was trying really hard to recreate that old time feel with mixed but positive results.

Another thing I found interested was that San Diego seems to have a real good downtown. Something that cannot be said for a lot of American cities. We were there Saturday and it had a very vibrant nightlife in a condensced area so you could walk to many places once you get downtown. I liked it.

Wedding Photos

Here's a link to some of our wedding photos http://www.mcanoy.com/McAnoy/photos/view/name/Union+Station+2009/1