Category: Food

Categories
Beer Food Work

More Moon (and Kelly job news)

Tonight after work I met both my brothers at Moon & Sixpence for some dinner and beers. I got there long before either of them made it, and it was a total mess… Deschutes Brewing was having a tasting event there (which I remember reading about, but forgot completely) so I opened the door to the pub and people nearly spilled out it was so packed. Eventually got a table (shortly before my brothers arrived) and ended up staying. Fortunately it mellowed out greatly after about 9pm so it turned out to be fine.

While there, Kelly called me to tell me (more like screamed with excitement) that her new employer accepted her counter-offer and that she starts a week from Monday. Hooray! We were both nervously waiting for a response to it. Always nerve-wracking to put in a counter, and then have to wait for what seems like forever for a response.

I ended up staying a bit too late (brother T wasn’t in a hurry to get home, and kept saying “oh go on, get another beer”) so I didn’t make it home until 1:30am. Urgh. Tomorrow’s gonna be rough.

Categories
Beer Entertainment Food Movies

The Golden Compass

Following my previous post, Kelly and I just saw The Golden Compass at Kennedy School. Well, Kelly had already seen it, but wanted to see it again with me since I’d just finished reading the book.

I enjoyed the film, despite how different it was from the book. There were some things that did bother me; first, the switcheroo they did with Bolvanger and Iorek’s big fight, and second, the fact that they didn’t finish the film with the cliffhanger ending the book had. I suspect they changed things with the assumption that they would reveal those events in the sequel. In fact, I suspect they altered the order of events knowing they weren’t going to wrap things up the same way the book did, and the Bolvanger fight made for a more climactic ending. The film was, however, true enough to the book that even though the order of events (and some of the story) had been altered, it wasn’t disruptive. The casting choices, sets, costumes, and visual style all fit what I saw in my head while reading the book. If anything I was surprised rather than annoyed at the differences.

In the end, I enjoyed The Golden Compass, and I hope the last two books get made. It was no Lord of the Rings, but it was good, and better than 99% of what’s pumped out of Hollywood year after year.

After the movie we suck around Kennedy School for another hour or so, had another beer and some pizza and discussed the movie before heading back home.

Categories
Beer Food General Work

Fancy work dinner thing

After work today the development team at SuperSweetCo were taken out to this fancy tapas restaurant Toro Bravo (menu here) for dinner & drinks to celebrate both the hard work by the team over the past few weeks, as well as to spend time with everybody from the team who now span several countries and were all in town for the week. The food was very good, however it was a fairly spendy spot I’m not likely to frequent (I tend to like places with simpler, less expensive fare and a good selection of beer on tap). I did have a really good time though, and the crab cake things were really fantastic. If only they had more than Pilsner Urquell on tap.

Categories
Beer Food Movies

Alameda Brewhouse & Little Miss Sunshine

Tonight Kelly and I decided to go out for dinner. We’d looked up a bunch of restaurants near our house, thinking we were going to try Amalfi’s finally, but as we drove by the Alameda Brewhouse (site seems to be down at the moment) and noticed how pleasantly empty it looked we decided to stop in for a beer. We got sat down in a booth, got pints of their delicious, chocolaty Black Bear Double Stout on nitro, and after looking through the menu decided to stay. The previous times I’d been there it had been so full (it’s a very family friendly brewpub, which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just not what I tend to gravitate towards) that it had turned me off from going there completely. Love their beers, but just not the atmosphere. Tonight was very different though, and it was nice to spend a bit of time there. The service was great, the beer was great, sadly my choice of meal wasn’t fantastic. I’d gotten this chicken kabob greek salad and it was pretty bland. I left wishing I’d gotten a burger, or nachos, or onion rings… all of which passed me by while I sat there chewing on my relatively flavorless low-cal meal. Mocking me.

We got home and decided to pop in one of our Netflix movies, Little Miss Sunshine. Pretty good movie, though it had the same awkward and quiet tone that Napoleon Dynamite had. Some really funny moments, some really touching moments, and some really sad moments. Probably worth seeing, unless you hated Napoleon Dynamite.

Categories
Beer Entertainment Food Work

Caught by the fuzz & a big crazy work week

My, where to start? Oh, I know! I got my first ever speeding ticket last Sunday. Kelly and I were on our way to my folks place for dinner and were running late. I was zooming down the highway, not really paying much attention, when I look in the rearview and see a large, manly-looking truck cut through the median. About 30 stomach-sinking seconds later I’m pulled over, apparently going 74 in a 55 (though I’m not sure entirely convinced about that, I looked down immediately as I noticed the police truck cross the median and I was going about 68). I was speeding, and given the fact that I know I drive fast pretty much every time I drive (I can’t help it, 55 is a stupid-slow speed limit meant for old people) I was probably due to get caught. I am however, a bit bummed about it, it’s my first ticket. So much for the clean record. *shrugs*. The dinner was delicious, Kelly had made a turkey shepherd’s pie for the family, and it was fantastic.

Come Monday, however, it was easy to get over my law-breaking blues, as this week was insane crazy at work. SuperSweetCo is nearing the big important 2.0 release of it’s flagship web app, and my role as UI designer couldn’t have been busier. Today was the deadline (and a big company demo) for all the new features, so that meant the past couple weeks have been full of long days, working weekends, culminating in a 13 hour day yesterday and a load of last-minute tweaks and fiddling to get the new features as polished as possible for today’s demo. I even ended up ditching what would have been a delicious dinner at Gino’s for Snooks and L’s birthday last night (went there last year). However I did briefly meet up at Greater Trumps for a pint, followed by a very short stop at Moon to meet with my brother T, before going home to work for a few more hours.

The demo went well enough (people clapped and cheered and such), and while I know that the next several weeks are bound to be pretty crazy as I continue to refine and modify the UI of the app, I’m excited to see all the new features and new design changes make their way into people’s hands.

After work I met Kelly at Rose & Thistle for a couple pints before heading home, where I’m now sipping on beers and relaxing a bit, looking forward to what I hope will be a weekend full of Call of Duty 4, movies, and general relaxing.