Well, I'm a little late to the party but have a few key suggestions (grew up in MD, now live in PDX). I work @ Intel and they do indeed offer discounted -MONTHLY- passes since yearly passes are no longer sold (essentially a $30/month discount off current price). Rt26 sucks to drive on (well, not DC / Baltimore traffic suck but still pretty bad); I would totally take the MAX or bike commute. I have friends who get on @ Goose Hollow and ride by bike from the Washington fairgrounds exit. While on the train, they watch movies or TV shows (uploaded to their laptop), do some work (wi-fi is available & you can work on e-mails offline), or just read the paper or a book. You can always get off the train earlier for a longer bike ride if you want. Most roads have bike lanes out here. Intel has bike racks and full shower facilities with lockers (so you can keep towels, change of clothes, soap, etc. @ work).

If you are the kind of person who enjoys the city then I would encourage you to live downtown. There is nothing around Orenco except surburbia. The MAX commute from Goose Hollow to the Washington fairgrounds is ~30 minutes (it will take you that long by car on RT26 as well). Figure 5-10 minutes of bike riding and your commute is not bad at all.