Category: Movies

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Beer Movies Politics Work

Weird week, birthdays, and other stuff

This whole week has been a bit odd, somehow. It’s hard to explain, it just has. I’ve been feeling a bit more ‘out of it’ than usual. It might be the sudden change in weather since it’s recently gone from horribly hot to cool and (for a few days) rainy. It might also be that I’m just now recognizing that the days are getting shorter (I’m already missing it being light out until about 10pm). Might have been the strange but oddly fun downtown scavenger hunt my manager organized for SuperSweetCo’s engineering team Tuesday afternoon (part team building exercise, part reward for our hard work getting the latest version of software out the door). Maybe part of it has been the DNC. Dunno. 🙂

Monday night Kelly and I watched Amazing Grace, a historical drama about William Wilberforce, the late 18th to early 19th century British politician, who fought to end Britain’s part in the slave trade. It was a really good movie, with a great cast. Worth watching.

Tuesday afternoon was the aforementioned scavenger hunt. Ran around downtown Portland with iPhones and digital cameras, looking for random clues, performing silly stunts and making asses of ourselves. It was pretty fun overall (despite the embarrassment of some of the stunts).

Yesterday I had a few pints from my keg with Snooks, talking about the DNC (love Snooks latest post, btw), the upcoming Hobbit film(s), and other totally rad nerdy stuff.

Right now I’m at Moon & Sixpence, awaiting my brother (who’s birthday it is today), enjoying a pint of Guinness. Happy birthday Travis!

Tomorrow we go to another birthday thing, this time for my friend Amy. Happy birthday Amy!

Looking forward to the three day weekend. Much yardwork will (hopefully) get done. And much relaxing. I’d love to just spend 3 days at home, doing whatever the heck I want. That’d rock. 🙂

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Beer Entertainment Food Movies Technology Work

Anniversary, and dinner at a friends

Ciao VitoLast night Kelly and I went out to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary was technically Thursday, but we went out for dinner after work yesterday instead. Kelly picked me up from work after a work happy hour (last one in the current office, I move to a new location in a couple weeks), stopped at home, and then walked down Alberta Street to the restaurant Ciao Vito. We arrived a bit early for our reservation so we went next door to Mash Tun for a beer and a visit with their friendly staff. Dinner was delicious, I had the Sugo of Pork dish, which was very good (and very filling) and Kelly had some kind of fried cheese thing (can’t find on the online menu) and a caprese salad for her dinner. Everything was wonderful, and the staff were friendly and welcoming. It was a very nice and low-key dinner experience, I recommend the restaurant. After dinner we went back to the Mash Tun for another couple pints before walking home.

After getting home Kelly wanted to watch Serenity (I love her!), though sadly I was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch with the cat about halfway through, waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning and shuffling upstairs to plop in bed.

Tonight we went out to dinner at a friends place in Hillsboro. Had a great time out… chatted, ate fajitas, drank beer, and got to see Battlefield Bad Company in action. The game looks like fun, too bad it’s not out for the PC. Grrr.

In related gaming news, I’ve rediscovered OpenArena recently. It’s free and works on Mac, Linux and PC, check it out and get your frag on! 🙂

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Entertainment Movies

Perfume, and Dark Knight

After the camping trip, I took Monday off, and spent the day doing a lot of yard work, and feeling a bit of a sore throat coming on (something I was ignoring while camping). Still feeling questionable.

Tuesday night Kelly and I watched Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, based on a the novel by Patrick Süskind which I’d read about a decade ago. I liked the movie quite a bit, and while it had been a long time since I’d read the book and had forgotten a lot of it, some of it came back to me immediately, and was done in a way that was pretty much exactly how I’d pictured it while reading the book. It was both beautiful, disturbing, and sad, but well done.

And finally, last night Kelly and I went to see The Dark Knight, which was excellent, and as everyone has been saying Heath Ledger really stole the show and was absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed the premise that society is so fragile that it doesn’t take much for people to throw out all their civilized ways and become the animals we are all capable of being. Just a great story, and really really well done. Go see it if you haven’t.

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Beer Food Movies Work

A recap, and some joker on the bus

Yeah, it’s been that long. Keep meaning to write, just been busy.  Here’s a recap since my last post

July 4th
We held a really small BBQ for the Independence Day. Had a good time grilling meats and drinking beers, and were treated to a show as loads of people in my neighborhood tend to fire off some large, impressive, and very illegal fireworks (in Oregon, anything firework that flies is illegal, as far as I understand it).

July 5th
The following day we went to another BBQ (and housewarming) at a friends house. Learned that a soon-to-be dentist friend has made money from old teeth. If you have teeth pulled with crowns or fillings (and you choose to let them keep the bloody, rotten things) the remaining amounts of gold, palladium, and other valuable materials can be melted down and the value can be exchanged for cash. Since it’s exchanging one form of currency for another, it isn’t taxable. As a result of his schooling, he’s collected a number of teeth to practice on, and found he had enough with said valuable materials to buy himself a plasma TV. Guess it’s an added bonus from that whole dentistry shtick.

July 8th-10th
Some our friends from back east (S & C) came out to visit and stayed with us for a few days. They have a wee little one (about 9 months old), and we hadn’t seen them in quite a while, so it was cool to catch up and meet the little man.

July 10th-13th
Kelly left town for Utah for a few days for a work event. That meant I was bach’n it through Sunday the 13th. In that time I went another BBQ for the friends from back east at Snooks place, and generally just drank a lot of beer.

This past week
Work over the past few weeks has been hectic, and now we’re in the final push for the next release of SuperSweetCo‘s application. Add to that some additional pressure to get things super solid, super quick, it’s made things a bit more stressful around the office. So last night I worked late, am working late tonight, and will likely work this weekend. Oh well, I too want the release to be solid and have all the polish it should. Just wish there were more time. Ain’t it always the way.

Today
Kelly left this morning for another 4 days for another work event (in Seattle, WA this time). I’m sitting in my back yard with a pint of Harp (what’s currently on tap at Ryan’s Pub), and am enjoying the cooler temperatures while I write this and do more work.

And finally… there was some joker on the bus
Today I saw two people with Joker makeup in Portland, not sure if it’s a coordinated marketing thing, or just that I happened to see two hardcore nerdy Batman fans with Joker makeup on the same day, but either way this joker was sitting on the bus when I got on, so when I sat down I had to grab my camera quickly take a photo. He was reading a Batman comic, and had a large box filled with comics, all in plastic sleeves. I will say that this joker was dressed up (and made up) pretty well. The other joker I saw on the street was dressed out of character (black leather jacket and jeans) and the makeup was pretty light (didn’t even have green hair). Kinda funny (and a bit worrisome) to see Joker on your bus. 🙂

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Entertainment Movies Travel

Shows, movies, The Goose, and more travels

Since the last recap, Kelly and I got caught up on Lost and Battlestar Galactica (both of which were really good episodes, after waiting through some ‘filler’ episodes recently), and we went to see two movies, Iron Man and In Bruges.

Iron Man was really fantastic. I’d heard good things, but wasn’t expecting it to be quite as good as it was. Not only was it a fantastic comic book film, but it also was a good movie all around. A great mixture of humor, action, romantic scenes, and all around good acting and a fun story. Gorn says “yessss”.

Later that same day (last Sunday) Kelly and I went to Kennedy School to see In Bruges with M & B (who will be watching over our furry black evil, otherwise known as Arthur Guinness, while we’re gone). The movie was great fun. Not only was the setting something which Kelly and I were keenly observing, but the story was fun and the acting was great. Even Colin Farrell, whom I don’t generally like, was likable and hilarious. I couldn’t help but thinking through the entire film “in 7 days from we’ll be there”

Tonight brother T and I went to The Goose (Goose Hollow Inn) for some beers and dinner after work. There really isn’t much better than their reuben sandwich. Yum!

Kelly’s in Chicago at the moment. She had to get up around 4am this morning to fly out with a coworker for a work event, and returns tomorrow afternoon. Then, we pack and get ready, and fly out on Saturday about mid-day. Really looking forward to the trip.