Categories
Beer Food General Technology Work

Nerds, Beers & Pubs

After a long and hectic work week (including some big news for SuperSweetCo), I had a day to myself.

Actually, it kind of started last night with my friend Miranda coming by to hang out, stopping me from working until the wee hours. She and Brian are in the process of buying a house just a few blocks away (hooray!) and she didn’t want to go home and pack (again) so she came by for a bit. Later last night I tried to watch some of the backlog of shows we’ve recorded on our PVR but I fell asleep around 11pm or so. I was pooped.

This weekend was Kelly’s ‘school weekend’ (classes on Friday night and all day Saturday) which generally means I sleep in late on Saturdays. Today however I woke up around 8:30am to the sounds of hammering, sawing, pounding, and yelling by the construction workers building a new house across the street. Fortunately I’d gotten a fair amount of sleep and wasn’t too cranky at being so rudely awakened on a Saturday morning. I got out of bed and made coffee before proceeding to do a bunch of little things around the house, like paying bills online, hanging some blinds in the master bath, cleaning the kitchen, etc.

Macforce Summer Blast 07Around 2:00pm I got out of the house to run some errands before Kelly got home. Prior to leaving town for our little vacation last week, I’d seen a flier for a nerdy computer expo in town held by a local Apple specialist shop MacForce, with a grand prize drawing for an iPhone, so I figured I’d go down there. Wasn’t very exciting, but it was free, and they were serving free BBQ. Since I’d arrived later in the day I had already missed the drawings for some software I’d have liked, but oh well, I had better things to go do…

Belmont StationAfter leaving the Mac expo thing, I went to one of Portland’s two “Beer Heaven’s”, Belmont Station, to pick up some beers for the weekend. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have a few things I was looking for (like Adnam’s SSB) but still picked up a Black Sheep Ale and some Abbot Ale. Such a great store, and I was glad to see it was pretty busy. Was able to snap one shot w/o a bunch of people in it.

County Cork, Portland ORI got home around 4pm and finished cleaning the kitchen before Kelly got home from her class. A bit after Kelly got home we decided to go check out an Irish pub that we’d been meaning to go to for a couple years now, the County Cork. Not a bad little spot, though when you first walk in it doesn’t seem too impressive, the bar area is rather plain, but the rest of the main room is nice enough. There’s also a little patio area out back, all enclosed with tables and umbrellas. Kelly got a Lagunitas Censored on cask (which was really really good) and I got a Murphy’s stout (it’d been a long time since I’d had that on tap anywhere). Overall a pretty decent spot, though we opted to move on.

Kelly and I both had a hankering for the Welsh Rarebit at Moon & Sixpence, so we headed on up there for some food. Had a nice time hanging out there, and the food hit the spot. After that we decided to get home, Kelly was tired from her day at class and wanted to relax in front of the television.

Oh, also, this post goes out to Aaron. You asked for it. 🙂

Categories
Beer Food

Mass-transit mess, Goose, Brewfest part 2

Today Kelly and I went to the Oregon Brewers Festival… well, Kelly was headed straight there, I had to meet my friend Tim at the Goose Hollow Inn for a reuben sandwich first, since he’s in town from Arizona through the weekend. Getting into downtown was easy, getting to the Goose was a mess.

Portland lightrail intersection workDue to TriMet‘s work to add a new MAX line that will go north-south, the old east-west MAX service was disrupted, heavily. Coming from the east at around 12:30pm, Kelly got off at the Skidmore stop and met up with Ghost Dog and others at the brewfest, and I kept going. Well, I kept going for two more stops where everyone was forced off the train, herded into a packed bus that was to shuttle folks up and around the construction area to a waiting train on the other side that would continue west. When I got off the bus, the train wasn’t there yet, and rather than wait, I decided to walk to the Goose. As I started walking, a train backed down the line towards the waiting station, but I figured it would take a while to get everybody on and get moving so I kept walking. I ended up making it all the way to the Goose (from 10th and Morrison to 19th and Jefferson, about a mile) and had been sitting down for 10 minutes before the train came by the Goose Hollow stop. Glad I walked.

While at the Goose, my ‘friend’ Tim gave me gifts, and embarrassed me in the process (as usual)… tons of small items wrapped in pink Disney wrapping paper (featuring all the female characters of the animated Disney films). I tore into them as quickly as I could, trying to make the horrible wrapping paper go away, opening item after item of hot sauces, powdered pepper seasonings, salsa mixes, and even a bottle of German curry ketchup. After we ate and sat for a bit, I packed everything up, and walked back to the waterfront (both my backpack and myself weighing more than when I’d arrived).

Packed south tent at OBF 2007Once I got to the brewfest (probably around 2:30pm) the line to get in was huge, and when I finally got inside it was packed full. It took Kelly and I texting back and forth for a bit until we found each other. Between the transit delays, the walking in the heat, and then the massive crowd of people I wasn’t exactly in the most festive of moods. The event was as packed as it had been last night, and just as annoying (long lines for beer, annoying people, every 30 seconds everybody in the tents would scream and yell in unison for no reason, like a much more obnoxious version of the wave). Kelly very sweetly went and got me a beer, and we found a couple spare chairs under the south tent to sit in. I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be there long, and when we briefly met up with Mr. and Mrs. Ghost Dog and discovered that they were on their way out the door, I knew I had to leave.

After one more beer Kelly and I ran away and did the MAX + bus thing to get back home. After getting in (around 5:30pm) and unloading my pack, Kelly and I decided to stay home and relax for the rest of the night, so I went to the store, picked up some beer and some things to grill, and am enjoying the peace and quiet of the back yard. Ahhhh. Much better.

Categories
Food General

Tyson & Sujata’s Wedding Reception

Tyson & Sujata's ReceptionLast night Kelly and I attended a lovely wedding reception for our friends Tyson & Sujata, who were married a few months ago in Tulum, Mexico. The event was held at a house in Milwaukie which belonged to a family Tyson has known for years. It was a beautiful setting… the back yard overlooked the Willamette river, there was a fold-out dance floor, hanging lights, and even some landscape lighting (colors pointed up at the trees that surround the yard).

There were roughly 150 people there (by my guestimate), of which Kelly and I knew or recognized 30 to 40. Had a good time… I ate way too much of the Mexican-style buffet, still feeling full today honestly. We left kind of early though (close to 11pm) because Kelly was exhausted from her weekend of classes, and I was uncomfortable being all dressed up and stuffed with food. Ugh.

More photos here and here. Congrats again to the happy couple!

Categories
Beer Food Work

Saturday through today

So yeah, I didn’t get around to blogging about events from last week / weekend until recently (like, past couple days). Between being busy and just plain lazy, it just didn’t get done. So I apologize if any of you were reading my posts in your feed reader where I’d say “today” when I was writing for the days in question. What can I say, I’m lazy. To recap from Saturday through today, here’s what I’ve been up to.

Saturday my brother and sis-in-law threw a party at their house. They’re about to be parents, and figured they’d throw one last big bash before the little’un arrives. Had a good time out there, even though I ended up having to grill up a pile of sausages because my brother is even more lazy than I and couldn’t be bothered to feed his guests. Hrmph! 🙂

Sunday I did nothing, absolutely nothing, and it was glorious. I spent the day watching the Netflix movies that Kelly had already seen, watching a lot of television, and just generally lounging around ignoring all the productive stuff I could have been doing (including blogging).

From then on, it’s been work work work. There’s a helluva lot to get done this week, and it’s stressing me out man! That aside, last night Kelly and I met with Kelly’s ex-coworker and her boyfriend at the Lucky Lab in Multnomah Village. I think I prefer the one on Hawthorne, but it was still a good time, and their pizza is good.

And tonight (right now, actually) Kelly and I are sitting here at the Mash Tun brewpub, both armed with our laptops, nerding the night away and having a good time doing it. 🙂

The weather has been VERY nice the past few days… cooler (in the 70’s) and rainy. After the nearly 100 degree heat from a couple weeks ago, it’s a welcome change. Anyway, that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll be slightly less of a slacker… but don’t count on it… not until the workload lightens up.

Categories
Beer Food General

Past couple weeks…

I’ve managed to ignore the blog for almost 2 weeks. Damn. I’m a slacker! Here’s a quick-ish recap:

A week ago Thursday I met up with my brother and Ghost Dog at the Goose Hollow Inn for some beer and food on the patio. Had a good time, and of course had the reuben sandwich! It was good to go back, it’d been several months.

Last weekend was a "no plans" weekend. Kelly had a big nasty paper due, so I kept myself busy and out of her way by doing a lot of yard work, and getting caught up on some of the movies Kelly had seen but not sent back yet.

During last week I was out a lot; with Snooks at Kennedy School, with my brother at the Moon & Sixpence, and then the Goose again on Friday with Jen and Jason (who we’d not seen in quite a while). After dinner we went to Multnomah Village to see their new condo and meet their new kitten Tiki. Had a great night out, and it was good to see J & J. Need to do it again soon.

Yesterday was pretty busy. In the early afternoon Kelly and I had a BBQ to go to for some friends expecting a ‘little one’ in about two months time. We had a fun time (I ate way too much, but I couldn’t let those poor, lonely looking hamburgers go to waste :)). Then, we rushed home and ran down the street to catch a bus. Destination: Rose & Thistle. Ghost Dog celebrated a birthday last week, and had a bunch of people join him for some food, drinks, and later darts, to celebrate. Had a great time (even though my darts skills are poor, and Snooks, who wasn’t wearing his glasses, kicked my ass).

Today I got out and did a bunch of yard work, and did some much needed waqtering. I’m very tired now, and am soon going to attempt to watch a movie without falling asleep on the sofa.