Well, I am back in beautiful Portland. My wife, step-daughter, son, and I are living in Forest Heights near my wife's sister. Forest Heights has a shuttle bus that runs out to the transit center,so it's easy for me to get downtown.
My advisor told me to write the first draft of my proposal --- he said to me that I had made a lot more progress than he realized. He commented my presentation was "non-standard, but we can fix that." I am hoping to be done soon.
Portland is great. My only complaint is that my apartment is at the bottom of a big hill (small mountain?). This really makes amateur radio difficult. I brought a qrp rig (ft817) from Israel along with a portable vertical antenna (ventenna hfp). Those and my automatic antenna tuner (ldg z-11 pro) should get me on the air from just about any park in the area.
I'll report on my success.