blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Category: Food

  • 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. 🙂

  • Since the trip…

    Since the last post, I had a nice end of my two week vacation. A couple relaxing days that allowed me to get back into our timezone. During that time I also discovered that Belmont Station carries the Bruges beer that Kelly and I had much of on our trip, Brugse Zot, so I picked up a couple bottles of that. Hooray!

    Last Wednesday Kelly and I had M & B over for dinner, to thank them for watching over our house and our cat, and I figured that would be as good a time as any to tap my keg of Guinness. The countdown begins. Tapping it proved to be more complicated than I’d thought. The first problem was that I hadn’t tightened the stout faucet all the way, and when I first went to lock the tap on, beer sprayed everywhere. Damn! Once I’d fixed that, the tap wouldn’t lock down easily (making me wonder for a bit whether I’d picked up the wrong tap). Finally realized that it just needed a bit more ‘elbow grease’ than other taps, and finally got the delicious black stuff flowing Yum!

    Kelly and I went out to my hometown on Friday after work for a belated birthday dinner for Kelly. We went to this newly opened Chinese place, the food was mediocre, but it was still a nice dinner. Afterwards we drove to my folks place for dessert (ice cream cake, yum!) and I got to spend time playing with my rapidly growing nephew, Bart. After getting home I had a couple pints of Guinness (naturally) while getting distracted by this Comcast site Fancast, where you can watch full episodes of TV shows… I ended up watching some of the original Battlestar Galactica. I hadn’t seen it in many, many years.

    Last night we went out with Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog to the Goose Hollow Inn for delicious sandwiches and beers, before coming back to our house for a bit. Had a great time, and it’d been quite some time since we’d seen the GDs.

    Today, finally, the unseasonably cold and rainy weather broke, and Kelly and I were able to spend a few hours outside doing yardwork. Soon, we’ll be grilling some chicken kabobs on the barbecue. Hooray!

    Between all this, was a crazy first week back to work. Loads to do in the next few weeks for the next software release. Gonna be nuts.

    Oh, also, discovered a new web comic, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Enjoy.

    Edited to add one more thing: My friend and coworker Aaron recently blogged about this news site The Big Picture, where I found this photo/article about an uncontacted tribe in Brazil. Really found the photos amazing, imagine not being in contact with the ‘modern’ world and having a helicopter buzzing around your tribe’s camp. What must have been going through their minds.

  • Summer day, in spring

    Back yardAfter a couple weeks of dark, cloudy, cold, and rainy weather, Portland was hit with a summer-like day, 76 degrees and clear blue skies. I had a few errands to run (picking up my taxes from the accountant, driving to the Toyota dealership to get some warranty work done) and then finally got home and was able to pull some weeds and mow the lawn. I just got back from a trip to the local grocery store, and everybody else seemed to be there for the same thing I was… BBQ fixins and beer. Well, they were there for beer, I have plenty of that. 🙂

    Wonderful day. Too bad it’s not going to last. Oh well. I’m sitting at the table pictured, waiting for a sausage to heat up. Have it with a bit of sauerkraut and beer. Yum!

  • Terminal Gravity, & more Goose

    Today I went and picked up a keg of Terminal Gravity ESG, a very tasty ale. I was going to get Guinness, however there isn’t anywhere open on the weekends that will sell the nitro/co2 mix (known as ‘brewgas’) tanks I need. Apparently I need a 75/25 mixture (75% nitro) to get that perfect creamy texture, and there’s not many places in town that even sell brewgas tanks. Hopefully I’ll get one over the next few weeks and have it ready. I did however stop off at the local brewing supply store and picked up the Guinness keg assembly and the fancy faucet I need. Time to start hunting for a Guinness tap handle. 🙂

    Tonight Kelly and I met friends at the Goose (three weekends in a row, hooray!). Had fun catching up with J & J, and A & Z. The weather was just warm enough to enjoy their covered and heated patio area, and we kind of had it to ourselves due to the crappy weather outside. The whole pub was fairly slow too, so it meant the service was fantastic. Had a great time out.

  • Goose, work, beer & travel plans

    OK, it’s been a bit since my last post, here’s what I’ve been up to:

    • Kelly and I have been to the Goose Hollow Inn a couple weekends in a row, first just Kelly and I, a second time with our friends T & Aymie and Miranda. Good lord I love their reuben sandwich. Mmmmmm….
    • Had an afternoon outing with some co-workers last Friday. The development team at SuperSweetCo were given a few hours reprieve to celebrate the the next big release of SuperSweetCo’s flagship app, and were taken to Grand Central Bowl. And despite my embarrassing high score of 86, I had a good time. Oh, Grand Central is definitely the fanciest bowling alley you’ll ever go to.
    • Still digging on the kegerator, my brother dropped by over the weekend, we hung out in my garage (aka: ‘Ryan N Kelly’s Pub’), had pizza delivered, and generally had fun chatting and sipping beers.
    • Kelly and I have been planning another trip to Europe (Belgium and Netherlands, taking advantage of the direct flights from Portland to Amsterdam)… looking forward to another vacation.

    I’ll close with a video I found yesterday, by Trey Parker & Matt Stone (of South Park fame) featuring an audio clip by Alan Watts.

    You can watch more of these here.

  • St. Patrick’s at Rose & Thistle

    St. Patrick's Day at Rose & ThistleHappy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! I took the day off and slept in, played some Call of Duty 4, watched some TV, and then met Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog at Rose & Thistle at a bit after 3:30pm. We were joined briefly by Snooks, and then later Kelly, Miranda, and my brother Travis and his wife. Had a great time hanging out, drinking several pints of Guinness, eating some delicious food, and playing darts. One more day off (tomorrow) and then it’s back to work. I love vacation.

    Oh, the kegerator (hereby known as The Precious) is doing well. The keg that came with my purchase ran out that night (there wasn’t much left in it) so yesterday Snooks went with me to go pick up a fresh keg of Great White. I spent last night fiddling with the CO2 regulator pressure, and reading up on all the bits I’ll need to run Guinness, which is my ultimate goal. Mmmmm… Guinness.

  • Gold Dust and the Moon

    Tonight Kelly and I joined several others to celebrate our friend D’s birthday at a relatively new bar in Southeast Portland called Gold Dust Meridian. Kelly and I shared the bus down Hawthorne, but were early for the birthday gathering, so we decided to swing into McMenamins Back Stage Bar for a drink before walking down the street.

    Gold Dust Meridian is a dimly lit, moderately swanky bar that’s not overpriced and has good food and a decent beer selection (including the delicious Terminal Gravity ESG). The staff were friendly, and our server was both attentive and organized (he had the foresight to preemptively split up the bill for the table by people who’d arrived together, which meant the confusion usually associated with big groups was avoided).

    My brother was sitting at Moon & Sixpence and I’d told him I’d stop by, and fortunately Miranda was with us and wanted to go that way herself, so she drove Kelly and I over there and we hung out for a few beers.

    Fun night. Needed it pretty badly after the week… the fun of software development and release deadlines never ends. 🙂

  • Long week, good weekend, Legend

    Since last weekend’s adventures, I had another long and fairly stressful work week. The weekend was pretty fun though, despite two things: 1) a possible resurgence of some sort of virus (sinus pressure, a sore throat and a cough, dammit), and 2) a friend coming into town on Friday (I say friend, though he’s a total bastard and I hate him, but not really, I just like to pretend I hate him). Started off by going to Mash Tun for some dinner and drinks Friday night along with Snooks and L. Saturday we all met up at Kennedy School in the early afternoon for some drinks, and then went to Delta Cafe (blogged before here) for dinner. I both love and loathe the Delta… the food is really good, but the greasy smell gets woven into both your clothes and your very being. It can be a bit overpowering. The last time I was there I had made the mistake of bringing my wool coat in, and the next morning on the bus I realized that I was ‘that stinky guy’, all because of the greasy scent. This time I wore clothes I could burn later. 🙂

    Intersection near Kennedy SchoolToday the nice weather returned. I spent most of my day relaxing indoors, playing a bit of Call of Duty 4, and watching shows recorded on the DVR. Kelly went to a friends baby shower, and after she got home I drug her to Kennedy School to see I Am Legend at the theater. We’d arrived with just enough time to sit in the Cypress Room for a beer before heading to the theater. The movie was pretty good, and I enjoyed it quite a bit despite the, at times, poor CGI (some of it was pretty bad, though overall I was able to get past a lot of it and it didn’t distract me). The representation of a vacant and dead city (with nature taking back what’s ‘hers’ with grass coming through the streets, deer running free, etc), and the main character’s almost super-human ability to avoid insanity in the face of near total solitude was well done. Overall I though it was pretty good, and well worth seeing on the ‘big screen’ for a few dollars, with some beer and popcorn.

  • Sicky

    Still feeing a bit ill, though it’s not as bad as it could be. I think I’m either fighting it off successfully, or I didn’t get the same flu that many of my coworkers had gotten. The symptoms are a dull headache, sore throat and nasal congestion (pretty light on all three), a slight cough, and an occasional fever. There are times when I feel nearly 100%, and others where I feel 60%. If that makes any sense.

    Yesterday, during one my my better moments I ran to the store to pick up more cold medicine and something for dinner (fixin’s for a reuben sandwich, which sounded really good in my sick state). Last night Kelly and I watched a lot of stuff off the DVR, including all 3 new episodes of Lost, and the rest of the season of Psych. Lost is good, and I’m really waiting for the next couple to find out… er… nevermind, won’t sway it, I’m sure some of you reading haven’t seen ’em yet. Anyway.

    Today’s beautiful out. Kelly said she wanted to go out and spend time in the yard. I do too, so I may bundle up a bit and see if some time outside will do me good. Even if I don’t do much, just being outside in the warm-ish sunny weather will be nice.

  • Valentine Moon & Hot Sauce

    Louisana Hot SauceI woke up this morning, went into my office, and found a bag on my desk from my lovely wife Kelly. In the bag were some Samuel Smith’s beers (stout, porter, and India pale), and the biggest bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce I’ve ever seen (32oz). I love this hot sauce (it’s not very hot, but it’s really tasty and goes with anything), and had recently purchased a tiny 3oz bottle a couple days ago. Kelly found this beast of a bottle, and bought it for me for Valentine’s Day. That’s right, I don’t need flowers or chocolates or wimpy cards, I need beer and a giant bottle of HOT SAUCE! Raaaawwwrrrr! Remember, hot sauce goes good with anything… soup, pasta, pizza, eggs, potatoes, salad, toast, cereal, ice cream, fresh fruit, etc. This bottle will be empty in a few days. Yes, Kelly knows me well.

    Another example of Kelly’s love for me (and her willingness to eschew the typical Valentine’s Day trappings of overly-packed Italian restaurants), we went to Moon & Sixpence, where we had a few pints and some dinner (Kelly had the Ploughman’s, and I had the Steak and Mushroom pie, which was very tasty). Wonderful night, much needed after my day. Love you Kelly!