Mondays are never very fun. Work was fine, just, you know, Monday. For the 2nd Monday in a row I had a new designer in for the day (who will be helping me with the product I work on). The designer (Amy) won’t start until January 2, but it’s been good to get her in and get her up-to-speed a bit before she formally starts.. After work I met Snooks at Kennedy School for a bit, chatting largely about music. Had fun. Got home around 10pm and read for a bit before the blissful sleeping. Oh, also, I finally got my Radiohead “In Rainbows” box set in the mail. Hooray! Beautiful packaging, smartly assembled, and I finally got to hear the 2nd disc of music that wasn’t available as the digital download a few months back. Very nice. I’m just not sure where I’m going to put the box itself yet. Bookshelf? Too big for that. Hrm.
Category: Beer
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Day at home, night at the Moon
Got up early today. Well, early by my Saturday standards (8:30), and spent most of the day being somewhat productive. I continued cleaning my office, cleaned the kitchen, the garage, the car, etc. You know, super exciting fun stuff. Oh, I also IM’d all day with my loser friend Martin. What a loser! (yes, I expect a response from you, you loser).
Tonight Kelly and I met our friends Ty and Aymie (as well her sister and brother-in-law) at Moon & Sixpence for some dinner and drinks. We were joined later by Miranda & Brian, and even later by my brother Travis. Had a good time hanging out. Had the cottage pie. Still full. Gruhhh.
Oh, today I also created my masterpiece. My friend SD sent me a mix CD (the prize for winning a blog contest: closest guess to the birth date of his son), which arrived in the mail last week (the CD, not his son). Naturally, a home-made mix CD doesn’t have cover art. I like cover art (so does my iPod), so I created one. The CD had only the phrase “Van Man” written on it, a fairly common nickname due to my long Dutch last name. I grabbed an oddball image from his blog and created this: Behold the awesomeness.
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Week(end) roundup
Hello readers (the, um, five of you). Here’s a recap of the week, with an added bonus weird Portland fact at the end (which you must read through all the following junk to discover… because I say so).
Sunday: After spending most of the morning reveling in the rawk greatness I’d seen the previous night, Kelly and I watched Rescue Dawn, which was fantastic.
Monday: I met Snooks after work for a couple pints at Kennedy School, where I got to talk in a limited fashion about Battlestar Galactica: Razor (which Snooks hadn’t yet seen, so I had to skirt around, well, pretty much everything).
Tuesday: I met my friend MB at Rialto (around the corner from my office) for lunch. Had their reuben sandwich. It was no Goose Hollow reuben, but it was good. However, I was left that afternoon feeling generally full and icky. I’m not blaming it on the sandwich, I think I was fighting off a cold. Stayed in and read about 200 pages of the seventh and final Harry Potter book. Was nice to have an evening in while Kelly was out seeing a play.
Wednesday: Kelly and I met after at Binks after I left work for a quick beer before going home and watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which was, uh, not great. Not quite as crap as I was expecting, but definitely not my favorite of the three.
Thursday: Kelly and I met at Rose & Thistle for a few pints before coming home and listening to some old cassettes (which came up because over the previous weekend I’d finally gone through all my old tapes and boxed a bunch up to donate somewhere).
Today: After a couple weeks designing the interface for a bunch of new features for SuperSweetCo’s next release of it’s flagship product (culminating with a demo at 4pm) I hung out at a work happy hour where I got to learn some funny shiz about some coworkers, before catching the train homeward. On the way I stopped at Moon & Sixpence for a pint of Old Speckled Hen before catching my bus connection home.
Oh, just in case you’re wondering, I’ve still got Van Halen stuck in my head. I’m still rawking out!
Lastly, I leave you with this odd tidbit I read via a Slashdot post regarding some folks wanting to rename 42nd Ave Douglas Adams Blvd, about the worlds smallest park, here in Portland. Odd.
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Missing in action, again
Yup, it’s happened again, I’m blogslacking. Here’s a recap of the past couple weeks:
Work, beer, turkey, pie, more work, and more beer.
For a more detailed breakdown, it’s been a little like this: I took some time off around the Thanksgiving holiday and spent a lot of time doing things around the house, like finally getting some shelving assembled in my office, thus making it a bit more organized and manageable. I also finally got my printer and scanner hooked back up. Not sure what I have to print or scan, but whatever, they’re both there and ready to go after 2+ years since the move to the house.
Spent Turkeyday at my folks house, which was very fun and very filling. I ate too much dinner, and then ate too much pie (which is to be expected I suppose). Kelly made a delicious apple pie, that pretty much every member of the family had seconds of. Yum. Me == fat.
The day after Kelly and I met Mr & Mrs Ghost Dog at Mash Tun for some dinner and beers.
After that, the work week broke down like this:
Monday: beers at Moon & Sixpence with Snooks.
Tuesday: home with Kelly watching movies and getting caught up on TV shows, like Heroes.
Wednesday: went to Kells for a couple beers after work… finally ventured downstairs to the ‘cigar’ area (meaning, I could have a smoke down there, pretty neat area, watched a bit of the Liverpool match on the plasma TV down there)… and then met Kelly at Moon after getting off the MAX for a beer before heading home for dinner and more TV watching.
Thursday: met Travis at Moon (yup, back there again).
Friday: Kelly was downtown when I got off work, so I met her at Huber’s, then we went to Kells (she wanted to see the downstairs ‘cigar bar’ that I visited on Wednesday), then we went to Shanghai Tunnel for a bit before taking the MAX homeward… stopping at Moon (yes, again, 4th time this week, urgh!) before going home.
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A sound of transforming roman hero beers
Over the weekend Kelly and I watched several movies, one of which was the horrible adaptation of the brilliant Ray Bradbury short story A Sound of Thunder, which, while having some (and I emphasize some) interesting bits, it was overall a terrible film. Read the original story here (the only one I could find).
Later that night we watched the Transformers movie. Perhaps it’s just that I hold a special place in my heart for cars transforming into robots, but I thought the movie was pretty fun.
We also started watching the HBO series Rome, which was very interesting.
Lastly, we finished watching the first series of Jekyll (starring the brilliant James Nesbitt), and got caught up on Heroes. Jekyll was great, and Heroes is I think a bit slower this year than the last, but still excellent.
Tonight I met up with Snooks at Kennedy School for some dinner, and we later moved on to another local pub, the Concordia Ale House, where I had both the delicious Terminal Gravity Strong Ale, as well as an Oktoberfest Marzen style lager by a brewery who’s name I now forget. Fun times, and was home before 11.
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Best thang evar!
While trying to catch up on my RSS feed reading tonight, I came across something while reading the blog of a local beer lover’s heaven Belmont Station that is, really, the BEST THANG EVAR!
You won’t be disappointed. 🙂
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Missing in action
Damn it’s been a while since I’ve written. There’s no real reason for my absence other than a combination of laziness and a general malaise I’ve been feeling with regard to personal projects. Where to begin…
It seems I’ve not written since my birthday, so I suppose I’ll break it down by day/event as best as my feeble, aging mind can manage.
Saturday, October 27th:
Kelly and I hosted a small gathering at my house to celebrate the my birthday, which was a lot of fun, and involved my friends bringing me copious amounts of beer. My friends know me so well.Sunday, October 28th:
My family and I went for dinner at Wan Q’s, a Chinese restaurant in Beaverton. Had a fun time celebrating both mine and my father’s birthday (we share the same birthday). I remember feeling very full as we left, and dreading going back to work after so many days off. 🙂Tuesday, October 31, 2007:
We had a few little-un’s come by for Halloween, more than the past couple years. Later that night Kelly and I watched Stir Of Echoes, one of those good ‘ghost story’ movies I like quite a bit, along with The Changeling.Thursday, November 1, 2007:
Went to Moon & Sixpence with my brother Travis, and was met later by Miranda. Had a great time hanging out, though remember being out a bit later than I’d intended.Friday, November 2, 2007:
After working form home, Kelly and I met our good friends Rick and Amy at the legendary Goose Hollow Inn for dinner and drinks (mmm… reuben sammich). Yum!Saturday, November 3, 2007:
Went out to Beaverton to hang out with a friend and ex-coworker of Kelly’s and her boyfriend, where I was fed delicious BBQ’d steak & shrimp, and got to play a little Call of Duty 3 (trying hard not to be frustrated that I have no experience with console controllers, and that I still wish that game was released for the PC). Had a really fun time hanging out with both A and S that night.Tuesday, November 6, 2007:
Went to Kennedy School with Snooks for some beers, and conversation ranging from sci-fi TV shows to politics.Tonight:
After work met Kelly at Rose & Thistle for a few beers before heading home.That pretty much catches y’all up. I’m sure I’m missing something, but whatever. Hopefully I don’t let my stress / laziness keep me from posting a bit more frequently.
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Birthday, part 33
Had a nice, chill birthday today. It was very nice, 2nd day off from work, spending time doing whatever I feel like (which, hasn’t been much, and it’s been glorious).
Yesterday Kelly and I went for a late lunch at Tin Shed, I had the delicious “Cajun Kicker” burger, and despite the drizzle of rain, the covered patio area was nice and warm to sit in. Last night I met Snooks at Kennedy School for some pizza and beers, and got home early enough that I started cleaning the garage up. What a mess it had become after a few months of neglect (cobwebs, empty boxes piled up, etc).
Today I played around on the computer most of the day, some video games, backing up some files, and made my first Amazon MP3 purchase (a great one-man act out of Seattle, Tim Seely). What a great experience; buying high-quality MP3 files for a reasonable price (the full album only cost $6.99). Tonight Kelly and I went down to Moon & Sixpence for dinner and drinks. Had a great time hanging out with my best friend. 🙂
Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, perhaps finally get around to the yardwork I hope to get done while the weather holds. Or, maybe not. To be continued…
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Friuesday
So today, Tuesday, was my Friday… that makes Friuesday. Right? Right. I had a bunch of PTO days to use before the end of the year, and seeings how Thursday is my birthday, I thought I’d treat myself to a five-day weekend, starting tomorrow. Hooray!
Today after work I met my friend JB (joined later by Kelly) at the Mash Tun for some beers and dinner. Had a great time out, and then Kelly and I walked home.
Today was a beautiful day for late October, reaching 72 degrees. Of course it figures that it would be this nice on a day I couldn’t possibly escape the office for a walk, since I was trying to finish up all my work before taking the rest of the week off. I guess it’s going to be decent, but a lot cooler, for the rest of the week. Oh well, At least it’s not supposed to dump it down like it did over the weekend. Might get some yardwork done tomorrow. OR, I may just be a lazy slob. Not sure yet, I haven’t decided. 🙂
UPDATE: for the 2nd time in the past few days I got to do a bit of video chat with my friend Martin who is currently in Shanghai for work. It’s one thing to video chat with someone only a timezone or two away, but an entirely different experience sitting at home and seeing a friend several timezones away, sometimes hearing your voice echoed nearly halfway around the world. I childishly said “Hello China” at one point, hearing myself transmitted from my laptop’s mic, to Martin’s speakers, back through his mic, and back to my laptop. All delayed by no more than a second. Neat! – 1:30am, weds
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Heroes, Radiohead, and The Doctor
The week was pretty busy with work, though I did manage to go out some. Spent time with Snooks on Monday at Kennedy School, and my brother Travis at Moon & Sixpence on Thursday.
Friday I was pretty exhausted and Kelly had class, so I came home and relaxed. Had a couple beers, but ended up going to bed pretty early, though Kelly and I did finish watching the first season of Heroes, which was fantastic. What a great show. Now I’ve got the first four or so episodes of season 2 recorded to do a mini-marathon with. Brilliant!
On Saturday I woke up unusually early for me on a weekend, 7:30am (just as Kelly was headed to class) and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I just got up and got a lot of little things done around the house. It was pretty easy to do, it was pissing it down outside, just a miserable rainy day.
One of the things I finally did was buy the new Radiohead album In Rainbows, which in case you’ve been living in a cave (or don’t care for Radiohead) is being sold directly by the band now that they’re out of their recording contract with the big labels. Reports have been good regarding the sale, despite the fact that it’s a “name your price” sale. I opted for the box set route (which is VERY expensive) because I want the physical CD, though I wouldn’t have probably done it had my friend JB not gone in on it with me for the vinyl that I have no use for. It’s a really good album, and if you like Radiohead, I suggest going and buying the digital download for whatever you feel it’s worth to you, $2 or $20, if for no other reason than to ‘stick it to the man’ and prove that big labels have become largely irrelevant in an age of cheap recording options and virtually free distribution and promotion options.
Sunday was another largely lazy day, Kelly had some schoolmates coming over to do some studying, so I went and picked up pizza for them from a spot down the street and then hid out in my office for a few hours surfing the net. Later Kelly and I watched the last couple episodes of the 3rd season of Doctor Who, which was also really good (if you’re into that sort of thing, like I am). It was a good, relaxing weekend.
