Category: Food

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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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Beer Food Humor Technology Television Work

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.

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Beer Food

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!

Categories
Beer Food

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.

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Art Beer Entertainment Food Travel

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.