When you’re writing a blog and you’ve lost momentum, added to the general inertia is the realisation that whatever you’re about to write is probably going to be sitting on the front page for yonks. I’ll try and update regularly enough to knock this off onto page two soon, but I’m not feeling massively inspired right now, so here goes nothing.

Our street- Photo by Martin

I’ve been reprimanded by my own mother (Hi Mum!) for not keeping her up-to-date with the goings on round our way at this blog. “It all seems to be just photos and I’ve seen them before”. So here’s an attempt to assuage my critics.

Brunswick’s a small town. Now the students are back its population has swelled a bit, but basically it’s a high street with a park area, a few restaurants, music shops and a dvd rental place. All surrounded by a few streets of housing, a river, forest and then the sea. One of the most popular places was an ice-cream shop that had a queue from opening to closing time but despite the evident sky-high demand for frozen dairy products it’s closed down ’til next spring. Without wanting to be slanderous, I’m guessing it’s some kind of tax evasion/ money laundering operation. It’d be perfect, Who’d suspect an all-cash ‘mom and pop’ lolly emporium? I would. On our tour of Portland, ME, t’other day the guide mentioned that somewhere nearby there’s lobster-flavoured ice cream to be had. Everyone except Sally made a that-sounds-less-than-delicious face. It probably tastes better than tutti-frutti mind.

See anything you like? (Tontine mini-mall- Brunswick)

If you like seafood, it abounds. If you don’t like seafood, it still abounds. It’s pricier than we were led to believe but that might just be because the entire Maine economy is based on tourism (and blueberries. And toothpicks.) and it’s still high season. I’m no expert, but I have it on good authority that it’s quality stuff and can assure you that it’s a fine source for all your omega oil needs. And sodium. And vinegar. We’ve been working our way round the restaurants. My favourite as of yet is El Camino (their website- warning: MySpace). It does a fine line in (almost) Mexican food and the decor looks like something out of From Dusk till Dawn. Though the food is not the most ‘authentic‘, the music in the background was straight out of a proper cantina’s jukebox and I reckon I recognized a fair few of the decorations as coming directly from Tlaquepaque/Tonala.

Trader Joes in Boston. Two states away...

We were a bit worried when we arrived that the town centre was all that was on offer in terms of entertainment and supplies. It’s lovely and all that but sometimes you just want to see a film that features Seth Rogan, aliens or 3D glasses, or you need to buy furniture that isn’t lovingly hand-crafted by Maine’s finest carpenters. Soon after exploring we found all manner of malls, superstores and a cinema a few minutes drive outside of the ‘city limits’. Squint a bit and you could be in Downey, CA if it weren’t for all the trees and the general absence of police helicopters circling. There’s a Borders book shop that stocks Word magazine too, which makes me happy. Trader Joes is sadly absent from Maine but there’s one 10 minutes from Boston airport and it’s looking like we’ll be there on a regular basis. I mustn’t go on because according to some forum or other that DrSita read before we got here, one sure way to piss off Mainers is to complain about the chain stores they don’t have.

IKEA’s another one.

I've tidied up a bit since this was taken. I'm now sitting on that very chair.

Talking of IKEA, my office is full of built-in shelves. I have enough stuff to fill about 2 of them. DrSita has several hundred books so she chose the office upstairs. With no shelves. That’s what I get for not charging enough for my heavy-lifting/removal services.

As if I had a choice...

How’s Atticus you ask? Well he’s settled in nicely. We don’t have much of garden and it’s not fenced but he appreciates the carpeting indoors. It provides the necessary traction for tight turns, rapid acceleration and provides pleasing acoustics for his frequent barking fits. He’s also happy to have a fair few areas where he can run unfettered in the countryside and keep the squirrels on their toes. If squirrels have toes. Claws? Talons? Anyroad, he’s content striking poses for the camera all around the coastline and defending his reduced empire from the likes of pizza delivery boys, Bowdoin college maintenance crews and his old nemesis, the postman.

At Lands End. No really.

That’ll do me for now. Personally I never read posts as long as this, unless they’re written by Stu who never fails to delight and entertain. Right now it’s all text. I’ll spend the next 10 minutes punctuating it with pretty pictures. Maybe I can fit some bullet points in. I’ll try and write again soon, I’ve been pretty busy of late a-localisin’ and a-webdesignin’ and it shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. Which is a good thing.

Thanks for reading this far. And Mum, I expect a comment now. In Spanish please. Using the subjunctive. Twice. Only if you have time between walking Ramble/Jed and Welsh Society bureaucracy though

I’ve overhauled the functionality of me photoblog. Read all about it in my latest post:

http://www.agaveweb.com/photos/2009/09/08/brunswick-topsham-swinging-bridge/

Click on anything and everything. There’s never been a better time to stock up on Christmas cards…

Now all I have to do is keep taking photos and posting them up there- any requests?

Elias has given me a reason to update my blog after a 2 month+ absence:

Androscoggin River- snapped during a walk with the dog in our new environs in Brunswick, ME

Maine Sunset- Watercolour by Elias Garcia-Ortiz

¿Qué tal?

We live in Maine now…

Look it! My camera’s got a time-lapse mode. If Atticus was here now we’d be in business. As it is, here’s my first effort. Play him off, keyboard cat:

Installed with nary a problem. Seems like business as usual except for the ‘widget’ page.

I’m planning on actually writing some new stuff this weekend ‘cos I’ve been watching films like they’re going out of fashion this last week while Sita’s been off gallivanting in Rio (Firefox’s spellcheck suggests “galvanising”. It might be right) and also I promised to do a review of Black Sheep.

Also I want to do a full post on my little pin-hole camera and its mixed results. So if they’ve not appeared within the next week I have failed you and will provide an online form so you can get full refunds.

Alrighty, back to work.

Hola amigos, I know it’s been a long time since I rapped at ya but things have been moving pretty fast here in Portland, Oregon, Gringolandia…

DrSita’s been applying for positions all over the country for a while since her fellowship here was slated to finish this month. They finally got around to offering her another two years but by then she’d been interviewed and accepted a great job at a premier teaching institution in Maine… This means that our summer plans (which had been up in the air because of this whole where-are-we-living-in August? uncertainty) have been cleared up and in the last couple of weeks we’ve had to plan a trip to the UK for me, a jaunt to Brazil and Chile for DrSita and a 3,189 mile move from Portland to Portland all while resolving the “what to do with young ‘Cus during all this excitement” issue. We’re pretty happy about the move. DrSita’s job sounds really good, I’m excited to find out what Maine is all about and have a new area to photograph. I’ll also get to make a much bigger igloo this winter if I’m right about the climate. We’ll be closer to our East Coast posse of friends, and it’s been a while… And the time difference with england is only 5 hours which makes phone calls and that easier, and we’ll be time-synced with Guadalajara. Portland’s been good to us, and I’d still heartily recommend it to anyone considering a place to live. That’s if it doesn’t fill up with New Yorkers in the coming months.

On Wednesday I let my employers know that I’ll be moving on in mid-June and they’ll have to get by without my services. They’ve been really cool about it. If I’d known how many nice emails I’d get I’d've quit months ago… maybe not… anyroad, right now we’re transitioning to a new behemoth of a content management system for the site and I don’t think I’ve worked so hard since teaching Spanish in Scotts Valley. There are going to be all kinds of issues arising before, during and after it goes live so it’s a weird time for all concerned, and I’ll be working hard till the last moments I reckon.

Last weekend we had some friends up from Alameda (remember Alameda?) and so got to go out and enjoy PDX in the sunshine for a few days, eating out, drinking out, walking out, driving out, and all that. And now DrSita’s classes have finished we’ve been able to get out a lot more, spend time with mates who are also jumping the PDX ship and lately it’s been gorgeous and I have  a new camera…

When Gwyn & DrSita eat out, everyone's a winner

I’m also happy the summer blockbusters have started hitting the cinemas. Star Trek was great fun and maybe tonight’ll be Terminator. We’ll see, cos today I’m at a conference and for some reason listening intently and avoiding networking makes me tired. I’m 34 you know. (btw, it’s Dr.S.’s b-day in a week’s time, folks. She’s on Facebook… ) Yesterday I saw Mark Frauenfelder there off of boingboing do a fun presentation on Making stuff and a couple of other sessions.

I’m stoked I’ve bought my tix to Bristol and back. I was tracking them and they hit the $1000+ mark because I was originally going to fly around the 4th of July weekend which is uber-high season but thanks to the new date possibilities I managed to get something of a bargain for that time of year. My folks are helping with the cost anyway, bless ‘em, but still, a bargain’s a bargain. Email me for the dates. I’ll have shaken off the worst of the jetlag for Stu’n'Anne’s wedding and be back in time for packing the moving van before our lease is up.

Sita’s folks are coming up next weekend which is always fun. And there’ll be roses in the rose garden, parades and all kinds of good stuff especially if this weather holds. We’re very glad they said yes, because it’ll be a while till I see them otherwise.

Other landmark events… La Flaca got past the 100,000 views mark on YouTube. Am I famous now? And do I owe anyone royalties?

And that’s all for now. Thanks for bearing with the streamofconsciousness that was this post and for your continued readership. I’m off to “Creating Dynamic Sites with AJAX and Dreamweaver“… subject to change

Before I forget how to blog completely, have an experimental embedded Flickr slideshow of my excursion to the wetter areas of Oregon yesterday.