The beginning of the end.

This will be my last year in Portland, and so I begin 2007 with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Moving to Portland from Toronto was quite a shock initially, but I've managed to make a life for myself here and will be sorry to leave certain aspects of it behind. I don't know yet where I'll be in 2008, but figuring that out is one of my resolutions for this year (along with flossing my teeth and getting to the gym on a regular basis).

While I didn't do anything exciting for Christmas (other than scratch the bottom of a rather expensive enamelled cast iron Dutch oven while pan frying chicken), I got invited to Lisette's beach house at Arch Cape on the Oregon coast for New Year's.

Because I haven't posted photos of the Oregon coast yet, here's the north view of the beach from Lisette's beach house:

The south view of the beach:

On New Year's Eve, we ate a ridiculous amount of food (artichoke-prosciutto dip, roast beef, cottage pie, scallops, asparagus, twice-baked potatoes), drank box wine that was fairly decent and watched fireworks set off by her neighbours at the dawn of the new year. On New Year's Day, we watched about 50 people wade into the ocean (apparently, this has become something of a tradition amongst the families at Arch Cape). In our little group, only Masoud was crazy enough to brave the frigid waters:

When I got back to Portland, I received the very sad news that a beloved music teacher from high school had passed away. Willy was a demanding yet kind teacher, a passionate music lover, a teller of wickedly funny stories and one of those people who made a positive, lasting impression on everyone he met. I wish that I had visited him the last time that I was in Canada for Christmas, and that I had been able to pay my final respects in person. Goodbye, Willy; rest in peace.