Category: Beer

Categories
Beer Food General

Ya Hala, and Beer Heaven

Portland enjoyed a week of beautiful weather, starting out cold but ending up at 70 degrees the past two days. It was great; wearing shorts, taking lunchtime walks around the waterfront, warm evenings, etc.

Tonight Kelly and I joined Miranda, Snooks and L out for dinner at Ya Hala, a Lebanese restaurant in S.E. Portland. The food was fantastic, I had the chicken shawarma, and sampled a few other things all the appetizers that were ordered, such as stuffed grape leaves and falafel. I highly recommend this restaurant if you're looking for Greek / Lebanese food. Oh, I also had an Armenian beer, Kilikia Dark, which was pretty tasty and worth a try. Only downside, it's only sold in a small (11.16 oz) bottle. 🙂 

After we left Ya Hala, we drove to Beer Heaven (a.k.a. new Belmont Station). Their new 'Bier Cafe' is finally open, so we spent an hour looking through the shop (I picked up a few English ales I hadn't tried before to bring home) Miranda and L both bought a bottle of the Dogfish Head Chicory Stout to have there, Kelly and I shared a bottle of Smithwick's, and we all sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a bit before heading home. Very fun evening.

Categories
Beer General Technology Television Work

Week recap… slacker edition

What a week! I've been swamped with work, social engagements, and a fascination with a new toy in the house.

On monday Kelly and I met our friend Miranda at Moon & Sixpence for some dinner, drinks, and some Irish folk music. Had a blast!

On tuesday, after some deliberation, Kelly picked up her new baby, a black MacBook (which she named Mozart). I rushed home to get to see / play with it for a bit before meeting Snooks at Kennedy School for a couple beers (and to hand off copies of the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica that I burned to DVD… we both needed to see the massive cliffhanger season finale).

On wednesday, plans to meet some friends fell through, so I was able to get some yard work done, and have a relaxing night at home. After mowing the forest that was my lawn, and doing some other yard work, Kelly and I watched Battlestar. Man, what a cliffhanger, and to think we have to wait until 2008 to see the conclusion. It's just cruel.

Last night I met several friends at my old haunt, the Goose Hollow Inn, for some dinner and beers after work. Both my brothers met me there, and after we went to another old haunt, the ultimate 'dive bar', the Commodore, to shoot some pool. Fun night, and thanks to all who came out!

Today I worked from home so I could focus on all the code I need to clean up / rewrite from the first release of SuperSweetCo's new product. A lot of the CSS / HTML has been driving me crazy since I originally wrote it. Also, trying to write in a lot of the new design. After work, I spent some more time with Kelly's MacBook, getting a few applications installed, and moving some music into iTunes for her. Found a great app called Senuti that allowed me to move tracks from my iPod onto her Mac. The more I play with Kelly's Mac, the more I want one for myself. Later, Snooks and I went back to Kennedy School to talk about Battlestar, drink beer, and eat pizza, while the girls were out eating fancy cheese and sipping wine.

Tomorrow I'm going to spend most of the day migrating data from Kelly's old work laptop to her Mac. To make sure she doesn't lose anything when she hands her work laptop in on monday, her last day at StinkyCorp. While doing such work is usually a big pain, I doubt I'll mind much, since I'll get to play with Kelly's MacBook.

Categories
Beer General Movies

Some kind of day

Woke up late this morning. I'm blaming it on the fondue. Though it's more likely a result of all the beer I drank last night.

I spent some time this morning sorting through all of my tax documents, only to realize I'm missing a 1099 form from one of my freelance clients. Not sure what to do about it yet, but I did email the company to check if they ever sent the form out, and if so, could they send another. I feel like an ass… I hope I didn't lose the damned thing.

After that junk, Kelly and I went out looking for new laptops. Since she got viciously shit-canned from her job, she needs a computer (for school), so we went to a few stores so she could play with what's out there. In the end, it seems that she's leaning the same way I am in my own hunt for a new laptop… a MacBook or MacBook Pro. She will probably go play with her two top choices again tomorrow (an HP and the MacBook) after meeting up with her sister for lunch, before deciding. I'm still not sure what I'd to if I were her. I'm struggling with virtually the same chioce. Only I don't need a new laptop, I just want one.

A friend who was over last night for fondue stopped by again tonight for a bit, and after that I went to Kennedy School to meet Snooks for a couple beers, before heading back home and watching Casino Royale. A great Bond movie, more raw and gritty, and not filled with over-the-top ficticious gadgets as previous films. Anyway, that's my Saturday, I hope it stops raining so I can get out tomorrow and do some much needed yard work. 

Categories
Beer Entertainment Food

Melty Cheese

Had a few friends over tonight for fondue. Yup, that's right, it's the 70's, but c'mon, there really isn't anything better than bite-sized bits of veggies and meat dipped in melted cheese. Mmmmm. We played a card game too, something to do with arranging letters into words for points. I sucked (well, I certainly would have if it weren't for the help I received, I ended up in 2nd place, but not because of my mastery of the dictionary or my ability to look at 10 cards and and assemble high scoring words). I'm better when it comes to card games that deal with numbers than games that rely on your knowledge of obscure dictionary words. Despite the game torture, it was a fun night. Although, I'm pretty sure I gained a few pounds from all the beer and the fondue foods.

Categories
Beer Food General Movies

Detox, and then more BEER

Yesterday was a detox day. Kelly and I got up around 11am, made cheese & red bell pepper omlettes (I added a bunch of jalapenos and hot sauce to mine, naturally), and sat around a bit before going out to my folks place for my Mum's birthday. Kelly prepared a delicious chicken parmesan dish (despite the fact she's vegetarian and couldn't eat it herself) for dinner, ate some cake, and then came home to watch Stranger Than Fiction, which was really good. I ate way too much, but felt all the better for it.

Tonight I met Snooks at Kennedy School after work for some beers and some manly/nerdy conversation about Battlestar Galactica, life, the universe, and everything. Kelly met us later as she headed home from a happy hour hang-out with her soon-to-be ex-coworkers. Fun evening. And yes Aaron, this is for you, since you made such a big deal about me not blogging over the weekend 🙂