Today after work I met Ghost Dog at the Goose Hollow Inn for sandwiches and beers, since both our ladies were going out to see Lou Diamond Phillips star in Camelot. Had a good time out, and got home early enough to start getting things organized for tomorrow’s flight. Not sure when I’ll post next exactly, perhaps tomorrow night from the hotel (unless, of course, the hotel doesn’t offer free WiFi). Otherwise, sometime soon-ish.
.. be sure to wear… oh hell with that. 🙂 I found out today that my manager at SuperSweetCo really wanted me to go to a web designer conference, An Event Apart, held in San Francisco. The event is in 3 days. So at the end of the day, with the help of a coworker, we got everything all booked up. I fly out of Portland this Wednesday afternoon, arriving in SF at about 7:30, with 4 other fellow designers from the company. The conference is held both Thursday and Friday at The Palace Hotel, where I’ll be staying. I arranged to fly out on Friday afternoon (perhaps missing the very end of the conference) so I could have the weekend at home. Should be a fun, and at least very interesting and informative, time. I’m sure I’ll be writing about it while I’m there, providing the hotel room has some damned signal.
Today was sort of a busy day. It started off with a drive out to Forest Grove to visit with my Grandma (meeting my brother Travis, his wife Mrs T and my nephew Henry there). Had a good couple hours visiting there before Kelly and I followed Travis back to his house to hang out for a bit before driving home. I snapped several photos of Kelly holding Henry, to the left is one of ’em. Awww, so precious!
After leaving my bro’s house we headed back into Portland to go over to Miranda & Brian’s place for a small gathering of friends before they flew off on a three week visit to Peru… the friends were those who had agreed to keep an eye on their house and cats. On our way over we thought we’d stop and get dinner, and finally decided to try out an old Portland staple, the Pagoda, a ‘Chinese-American’ restaurant and lounge that has been around since 1940. The food was, frankly, exactly what I’d been craving… that kind of good bad Chinese food. Chow mein, pork fried rice, fried shrimp, egg rolls, etc. It was delicious, even if highly unhealthy. The atmosphere is really fun and over the top. The service was very very good. Kelly and I will definitely be back. Just not too soon. 🙂
After stuffing ourselves we went to Miranda and Brian’s and had a good hour or so hanging out before going home to relax on the couch, continuing to watch the first season of Heroes on DVD.
Today was a productive day. While it wasn’t exciting, it was the kind of day that makes you feel a little bit better nonetheless. One of those days where you put things in their right place. You know, balancing the accounts, paying bills, taking back bottles & cans followed by a big grocery run, and getting to spend time doing a bit of pruning & cleaning up the yard. See? Very boring. But it was good because all of the above tasks had been in the back of my mind for a couple weeks now.
This evening we met up with our good friends Ty & Aymie (and Ean and a friend of his) at our old haunt, the Goose Hollow Inn, for dinner and drinks to celebrate Ty’s birthday (Happy Birthday Ty!).
Kelly & I decided to take mass-transit to the Goose, which involves a similar route I take to work every day (short bus ride to the MAX train, and on into downtown). However, we got into downtown and discovered there was construction on the line, similar to the one mentioned a couple months back, only on the next street up. This meant getting off the train, walking 8 blocks, and then catching the train again to go on to the Goose Hollow stop. Because of this Kelly & I were a little bit late. However, it was a great time, and I got to have a few pints of Guinness and the Goose’s fantastic reuben sandwich.
After spending many hours chatting away, Kelly & I decided to get going homeward, and got on the MAX. Naturally, we ran into the same construction mess going home, only with longer delays. Between waiting for the connecting train, and then waiting for our bus, it took us a shocking hour and 40 minutes to get home. Urgh. Stupid construction.
After a long, but productive week at work, I got off the bus and met my friend Ghost Dog at the Mash Tun for some beers and dinner. Kelly, who was out at a dinner event related to her internship, met us a little after 9pm, and Ghost Dog had a photographer buddy of his in town to shoot a wedding and who meet up a little later. Had a fun time out, even though I was out later than I thought I’d be. Barely awake now. (falls asleep at the keyboard…)