Tomorrow Kelly and I are going to San Francisco for a few days. Kelly has a work event on Sunday (was in Oakland, found out today that it’s been moved to San Jose) so we thought we’d make a short vacation of it. Looks like the weather is going to be a nice (upper 60’s), and we’ve got a few places we want to visit, so it should be a fun mini-vacation.
Author: ryan
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Edgefield & Manzanita
Way behind on my blogging duties again, so here goes…
April 20, 2009 – Last week my company sent the engineering team out to McMenamins Edgefield for the day as our reward for all our hard work on the latest successful software release. We met out there on a beautiful sunny Monday morning, were given food, beer and (for those who wanted) golfing, cigars, and then more food. One of the highlights for me was the rental of five Segways for us to scoot around the property with. Despite how dorky of a toy they are, they were quite a lot of fun to ride around on. Especially once we figured out how to disable the speed governor. I got a bit of a sunburn that day.
April 25-26 – This last Saturday Kelly and I drove to the coast to stay with friends at a rental house in Manzanita. I’d never been there before, and it’s a pretty nice spot and the beach is great (a 4+ mile stretch of a long sandy beach, the southern half of which edges along Nehalem Bay State Park). Had a great time, even though we were only there for one night. On Sunday Kelly and I took a long walk down the beach (my goal was to reach the end of the cape). We got 3 miles down, realized we had another mile or so to go, and decided to turn back. Great beach, and a great time. More photos in my gallery.Other than the above bits of goodness, been continuing my yardwork (the lawn is finally growing in, though still not as full as I’d hoped) and keeping hard at work (up till 1:30am last night trying to get some designs wrapped up). That’s all for now.
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Leverage, Lolo, Lompoc
After the KABOOM on Wednesday, Kelly and I saw a bit more Leverage filming Thursday on our way to work. They were filming outside the US Bank on Broadway. Nothing too exciting, loads of people, filming gear, etc, but I caught a glimpse of two of the actors I recognized from what little I’ve seen of the show (Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge).
Yesterday after work Kelly and I went to a tapas restaurant near our house for dinner called Lolo for dinner. Good food, good service, and a good atmosphere. Granted, it wasn’t massively busy (it was a Thursday after all) but the happy hour prices are worth the visit alone.
Today I worked from home since I needed to take Kelly and one of her coworkers to the airport at 10am. During the day a friend arranged a meet-up at the New Old Lompoc on NE Williams for some after-work drinks. I decided to walk the 3.25 miles there to get a bit of exercise in. After a couple beers and some good conversation with friends, I hit the streets for the walk home. Good amount of walking. My feets are now sore. Good thing I have Guinness on tap to help soothe the pain. 🙂
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The sudden ‘KABOOM’
While at the office today, I think I found Marvin the Martian’s KABOOM.
There I was, sitting at my desk working away in peace and quiet, when suddenly came a very loud and earth shaking explosion somewhere nearby. The east-facing windows were instantly lined with coworkers, watching a tall stream of black smoke that was steadily rising a couple blocks away. About a minute later, white vapor and then nothing.
Then I recalled what some coworkers had said earlier in the day; there was some kind of filming going on at the corner of Burnside and Broadway. A-ha! (and whew)
I later learned that the hubbub was apparently for the TNT show Leverage, which recently moved it’s production to Portland. It’s a pretty decent show actually, and now I’m kind of excited to watch some episodes filmed in and around my hometown. Including the one with the KABOOM.
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Guinness. Yes, again.
Well, I went and did it. I got yet another keg of Guinness. I know I’ve said it before, but I swear this is the last one. I swear! Honest!
Looking through my blog, it appears I’ve been pouring Guinness from my kegerator since October. I think it’s been 6 kegs (roughly one per month), with several little gatherings and nights with friends to help me polish each of ’em off. Worth every penny.
I debated getting Trumer Pils or Amstel Light, but the weather just isn’t quite warm enough yet to warrant such summery beers. Though I suspect that by the time this keg of Guinness runs dry, it’ll be about that time.
Øther news: Work is keeping me busy
Øther øther news: Yardwork is coming along, the place is starting to look somewhat decent again. Still a lot to do, but it’s getting there. I’ve also continued my picture scanning extravaganza with my new scanner. Being able to scan negatives rocks, and makes the process so much faster. That’s about it for now.
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Wahclella Falls
Today, Kelly and I went for a little trip along the Columbia River Gorge to Wahclella Falls, which is about a 40 minute drive east from Portland. I’d first learned of the falls from a local news article last week, and since the weather was so nice today (finally) I thought it’d be a perfect day for a visit.After paying the $5 fee (in a refreshingly ‘honor system’ style; place your money into an envelope and stick it in a box, nobody standing guard) we started our hike to the falls.
The walk itself was a bit muddy and fairly steep at times, with many smaller falls along the way, but at the end of the mile-long trek was a beautiful two-tiered fall into a large blue-green pool, and a deep thundering sound which echoed through the 350 ft tall canyon.
Unlike the larger and more well-known Multnomah Falls (which was packed today as we drove past), we encountered fewer than 20 people along the trail during the two hours we were there. And like the ‘honor system’ payment method, the trail itself was a welcome change; well tended but not overdone (no fences, hand rails, or stairs unless absolutely necessary) making the hike feel a bit more natural and dangerous, with some fairly precipitous and slippery spots which if you fell, you’d almost certainly break bones (if not fall to your death). It’s definitely had that ‘off the beaten path’ feel.
That said, if you want yourself some beautiful nature, it’s well worth a visit.
More photos in my gallery. Enjoy.
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March roundup
Again, I’ve been slacking on blogging duties. Work has been keeping me very busy, so much so that I’ve lacked the energy to blog. Since my last post, Kelly and I hosted a little St. Paddy’s Day gathering. Had a great time (thanks to everyone who made it out), and my peeps did some serious damage to the Guinness keg. So much so that it went dry about 4 days afterwards. That meant the keg was dead in about 10 days. A new record!
Since then, no new keg, just been slammed with work. The only other ‘news’ is that I picked up a new flatbed scanner (an Epson Perfection V500) so I could make some real progress scanning in all my old pre-‘digital age’ photos, and a new video card (a BFG nVidia 9800 GTX+ OC) so my games would run better (and boy do they! Call of Duty 4 looks like a brand new game).
I’ve also continued my yard work, clearing up more debris and throwing down a bunch of grass seed to help replace my balding lawn… now I’m just waiting for it to start growing in.
That about covers March. Next up, today’s hike to some very pretty (and off the beaten path) waterfalls.
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Guinness back on tap
I nearly made it. I almost had the keg of Guinness resting peacefully in the kegerator for two whole weeks before tapping it. But ultimately the taunting of won out. I was going to wait until Friday, but it was just too much. It didn’t help that yesterday my office tapped their own keg of Guinness (after weeks of nasty IPA’s).
So after suffering nearly two weeks of inferior beers purchased from the local grocery store, the delicious Guinness is back at Ryan’s Tavern and Smokehaus. Hooray!
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More yardwork (I hate moss)
I’ve spent some time over the past couple weekends trying to strip my lawn (front and back) of all the moss that has started to take over. This past winter, what with the snow, wind storms, etc, seems to have caused a dramatic spread of moss throughout my lawn (git off ma lawn!).
What I’ve been doing is raking the moss out (no easy chore), and then spreading some fertilizer / moss killer mix as I get through various sections. My back hurts from the labor, and my lawn looks like the top of a balding man’s head with a few shoddy comb-overs. However, once I get through raking out the evil moss, and give the fertilizer / moss-killer a few weeks to soak in, I’m going to spread a bunch of grass seed and hope the lawn comes in thick. Time will tell.
One thing is clear, my local garbage company needs to come and pick up yard debris more than once every other week. I’ve got enough moss, clippings, trimmings, needles, and other debris to fill up the back of a large dump truck at the moment.
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The cutting of the tree
I had another excellently productive Saturday.
Woke up at about 8am, paid a few bills, cleaned up my office a bit, and then Kelly went with me to to John’s Market so I could pick up another keg of Guinness. I keep saying I’m going to get something else (I’ve had Guinness pouring non-stop since October), but, well, what with St. Patrick’s Day coming in a few weeks, I figured I may as well leave the special Guinness tap and faucet attached to my kegorator, and keep the goodness flowing. I am, however, going to resist tapping it for another week or so. If I can. It taunts me.
After picking up the keg and doing some grocery shopping, Kelly and I tried to beat the rain to get some more pruning and yard work done. I’d picked up some lawn fertilizer / moss killer mix, to try and repair my moss-infested lawn. I spent some back-breaking time trying to rake the moss from the grass, and then spreading the mixture into what quickly became some large mud patches. I only got about half of the back yard done before I had to call it quits.
Part of why I ceased my lawn enhancing activities is that my brother T came over with his chainsaw to help me cut down my falling apricot tree (mentioned previously). Within two hours the tree was reduced to a 5 foot tall stump. It was a bittersweet thing to have to do. I loved that tree, it was gangly and hadn’t produced fruit since moving in, but it provided some beautiful texture to our yard. Sadly, it was beyond saving, and had started falling on another tree that was perfectly healthy. It had to go. A “cut off the foot to save the leg” kind of thing. Either way, I now have to get the stump removed and figure out what to replace it with.And now, for your viewing pleasure (and a first for my blog) here’s a video that’s not a YouTube ripoff. Filmed by Kelly while I struck the killing blow. That smile at the end? It’s just me trying to hide my tears over what I’d just done.
[flashvideo file=wp-content/videos/2009-02-28_apricot-tree.flv image=wp-content/videos/2009-02-28_apricot-tree.jpg /]
Ax Men, look out!
Oh, and here’s a really nice shot Kelly took after the damage was done.
