Cascade Lakes Scenic Highway - Sunday Drive, September 24

Rebecca Has A Job!

Rebecca starts her new job Monday, October 2! She'll be working for GL Suite, a government licensing software company. The company has amazing core values, high work ethic, and care more about the employees strengths and talents rather than pigeon holing you into a job that might not suit you.
She originally applied for the position of Project Coordinator back in July. She hadn't heard anything by mid August so she qualified contacts within the company and sent her resume to the Director of Operations. Needless to say, that worked. The interviewing process happened in a mater of two weeks; beginning with a phone interview on August 30. The questions were created by Gallup, and weren't specific to a job title, but rather to your character, work ethic, and philosophy. Rebecca made it passed that level and made a friend in the process with the Recruiting Manager. (there might be a possible mentor there) Her next interview was scheduled for September 6 with the director of Operations. After taking a role behavior assessment test, she was offered two positions- 1) Project Coordinator and 2) Account Manager based on her strengths listed from the assessment. How many people are offered two jobs that they would love to have?
Surprisingly, Rebecca was called back for a second in person interview with the President. Apparently, this interview was scheduled to confirm the position Rebecca really wanted. Since the company believes in placing employees where there strengths and talents are suited best, this interview decided where Rebecca would be best suited. After receiving clarification on the Account Manager position, Rebecca felt this role would give her more exposure to the product and clients. A great foundation to create for starters and with the hope to expand to other positions within the company.
That Friday, September 15, Rebecca was offered the job. She chose the Account Manager position with room to grow. The job comes with great compensation and benefits. For more information on GL Suite, visit their website at www.glsuite.com.

Larry's Birthday, hike up Pilot Butte

Larry's birthday was a quiet day around town. It was such a beautiful day that a hike up Pilot Butte was in order. It's a vertical hike up 800 feet to the top of a butte on the east side of Bend. At the top, you cansee 360 degree views of Central Oregon, including Mt. Hood. Here are some of the views.

Living Room Furniture Finally

It's offical... we finally have living room furniture. Our couch arrived last Saturday and we purchased a media armoire with some additional wedding funds (thanks Nikki & John). We now have a plush couch to watch TV and a room to entertain in. It's slowly coming together, and we love it! Here are some photos of the room. Note, we hope to purchase a futon for the guest bedroom and an all wood coffee table soon.

Rebecca's Birthday

It was quite the birthday celebration for Rebecca. It started with flowers hand delivered by Larry to her temp job. Dinner followed at a local hot spot, Cork. Though our reservation was for 7pm, we decided to see if we could be seated at 6:30 as we were getting hungry and were tired of window shopping. (why stores close in downtown Bend on Friday nights, I'll never understand)
It was quite the culinary presentation and experience. Though Cork is not a very large restaurant, more like a European restaurant front from the street, the food was impeccable. C'est MAGNIFIQUE!!!
We started with a spinach romaine salad, served with dried pears, vinaigrette dressing and warmed goat cheese centered atop the salad greens. Larry ordered the Filet, which melts in your mouth, served in a balsamic latte sauce with crispy onions and gourmet mashed potatoes.
Rebecca had their Halibut special. It was a halibut steak served with sticky rice dressed with an edamame salad. We decided to split our meals in order to sample the variety of food on the menu.

The service wasn't as personalized at Cork, like it was tailored at Merenda's, but we had a fabulous time and enjoyed one another's company. In celebration of Rebecca's birthday, Cork comped dessert, a delightful light and fluffy raspberry cream.

We documented our experience for you to enjoy.

On A Clear Day... You See Mt. Hood

Last Sunday, September 10, Larry and I decided to take Mt Washington Drive around Aubrey Butte in town, since it was such a clear day. The nearby forest fires have been restricting our mountain views this summer. Please take time to enjoy the panoramic views we saw. The mountains in the photo to the right (left to right) are: Broken Top, South Sisters, Middle Sister, and North Sister. Not quite the Rocky Mountains, but spectacular none the less!






Unfortunately, the photo above does not clearly show the view of Mt. Hood we received. But if you you squint a bit, you might make out the snow capped peak off in the distance between the two trees.

The photo to the right is off nearby buttes to the northeast of Bend.