blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Category: General

  • Ant report, beer, hotel, and a trip to Washington

    I've been busy the past several days. Work has been very stressful. I have a lot to get done prior to a new software release (coming in a couple weeks). On Wednesday I worked from home, and had an "Orkin Man" come over and look into the ant issue. To my great relief, we don't have carpenter ants (whew!) but instead have a non-destructive nuisance called oderous house ants. Apparently it's pretty common in the area, and while they can be hard to get rid of, they're not a destructive. We'll see what we can do with store-bought ant-killing pesticides first before paying for an extermination treatment that's usually reserved for carpenter ants. Apparently the inspection was free, at least, unless we get a bill in the mail later.

    On Thursday my brother Travis and I got together for our weekly beer drinking session. Had a good time, though made it an early night (due to the aforementioned work stress).

    Friday after work I met Kelly and our friend Miranda at the McMenamins Back Stage Bar (mentioned before) and had a delicious spicy mac 'n cheese dish with blackened chicken, and a couple pints of Terminator Stout. Later we drove Miranda home to hang out, but not before stopping at Belmont Station to buy a few beers for the weekend (Smithwick's, Coniston Bluebird Bitter, Old Speckled Hen, and a few other things). 

    Today was pretty productive, despite sleeping in a bit. Kelly and I finally booked a hotel for our upcoming trip London. We chose the Park Plaza 'Sherlock Holmes' Hotel. Despite the rather touristy name, and after digging around for probably 20 hours total in the past week (using a combination of Bookings.org, TripAdvisor, and a great Google Maps and hotel search mashup called MashedHotels) we found the Sherlock Holmes was in a good location for a "decent" price (I added quotes because pretty much everything in London is really expensive). After some knuckle-gnawing, I opted for the more expensive 'suite' room. I figured that since we will be there for 8 nights, I wanted to spend our nights in as nice a room as I could afford this time, rather than going for the low-end budget route we usually go for. After booking the hotel, and going to get a haircut, Kelly and I drove about a half-hour north into Washington to visit my longtime friend Sean and his family at their new house. They had just finished moving this morning to a house that sits on ten acres of land in a beautiful and secluded area. It was great seeing them again, and I'm glad they finally found the spot they'd been looking for (for the past several years). After getting back to Portland we hung out at the Mash Tun with our friend Jenn at the Mash Tun for a bit, before going home. What a day! 🙂 

  • Travel news, and stupid ants

    So something I didn't write about earlier like I should have, Kelly and I booked our flight to London late Sunday (yup, after I ate two full plates of meat, maybe that had something to do with my complicity?) We're leaving Saturday, April 28th, flying British Airways direct from Seattle to London, and will return on Monday, May 7th. We're both really looking forward to the trip, despite Kelly's recent unemployment. This all seems so familar. Perhaps this means Kelly will find a kick-ass job and start shortly after our return. It just seems so weird. See Kelly's post for all we plan to do while in London. All of that aside, we'll also make it over there a couple months before the smoking ban that will take effect in July. My last chance to enjoy a pint and a fag in an English pub. Hooray for me!

    Now for the downer, Kelly yesterday pulled a beeping smoke alarm from the ceiling only to get covered with ants. Here we thought we'd solved our ant problem, only to discover hundreds of them in the walls. We have an exterminator coming out tomorrow, but dammit, so annoying, and potentially a very expensive issue. Grrrr. Stupid ants.

  • Ya Hala, and Beer Heaven

    Portland enjoyed a week of beautiful weather, starting out cold but ending up at 70 degrees the past two days. It was great; wearing shorts, taking lunchtime walks around the waterfront, warm evenings, etc.

    Tonight Kelly and I joined Miranda, Snooks and L out for dinner at Ya Hala, a Lebanese restaurant in S.E. Portland. The food was fantastic, I had the chicken shawarma, and sampled a few other things all the appetizers that were ordered, such as stuffed grape leaves and falafel. I highly recommend this restaurant if you're looking for Greek / Lebanese food. Oh, I also had an Armenian beer, Kilikia Dark, which was pretty tasty and worth a try. Only downside, it's only sold in a small (11.16 oz) bottle. 🙂 

    After we left Ya Hala, we drove to Beer Heaven (a.k.a. new Belmont Station). Their new 'Bier Cafe' is finally open, so we spent an hour looking through the shop (I picked up a few English ales I hadn't tried before to bring home) Miranda and L both bought a bottle of the Dogfish Head Chicory Stout to have there, Kelly and I shared a bottle of Smithwick's, and we all sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a bit before heading home. Very fun evening.

  • Week recap… slacker edition

    What a week! I've been swamped with work, social engagements, and a fascination with a new toy in the house.

    On monday Kelly and I met our friend Miranda at Moon & Sixpence for some dinner, drinks, and some Irish folk music. Had a blast!

    On tuesday, after some deliberation, Kelly picked up her new baby, a black MacBook (which she named Mozart). I rushed home to get to see / play with it for a bit before meeting Snooks at Kennedy School for a couple beers (and to hand off copies of the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica that I burned to DVD… we both needed to see the massive cliffhanger season finale).

    On wednesday, plans to meet some friends fell through, so I was able to get some yard work done, and have a relaxing night at home. After mowing the forest that was my lawn, and doing some other yard work, Kelly and I watched Battlestar. Man, what a cliffhanger, and to think we have to wait until 2008 to see the conclusion. It's just cruel.

    Last night I met several friends at my old haunt, the Goose Hollow Inn, for some dinner and beers after work. Both my brothers met me there, and after we went to another old haunt, the ultimate 'dive bar', the Commodore, to shoot some pool. Fun night, and thanks to all who came out!

    Today I worked from home so I could focus on all the code I need to clean up / rewrite from the first release of SuperSweetCo's new product. A lot of the CSS / HTML has been driving me crazy since I originally wrote it. Also, trying to write in a lot of the new design. After work, I spent some more time with Kelly's MacBook, getting a few applications installed, and moving some music into iTunes for her. Found a great app called Senuti that allowed me to move tracks from my iPod onto her Mac. The more I play with Kelly's Mac, the more I want one for myself. Later, Snooks and I went back to Kennedy School to talk about Battlestar, drink beer, and eat pizza, while the girls were out eating fancy cheese and sipping wine.

    Tomorrow I'm going to spend most of the day migrating data from Kelly's old work laptop to her Mac. To make sure she doesn't lose anything when she hands her work laptop in on monday, her last day at StinkyCorp. While doing such work is usually a big pain, I doubt I'll mind much, since I'll get to play with Kelly's MacBook.

  • Some kind of day

    Woke up late this morning. I'm blaming it on the fondue. Though it's more likely a result of all the beer I drank last night.

    I spent some time this morning sorting through all of my tax documents, only to realize I'm missing a 1099 form from one of my freelance clients. Not sure what to do about it yet, but I did email the company to check if they ever sent the form out, and if so, could they send another. I feel like an ass… I hope I didn't lose the damned thing.

    After that junk, Kelly and I went out looking for new laptops. Since she got viciously shit-canned from her job, she needs a computer (for school), so we went to a few stores so she could play with what's out there. In the end, it seems that she's leaning the same way I am in my own hunt for a new laptop… a MacBook or MacBook Pro. She will probably go play with her two top choices again tomorrow (an HP and the MacBook) after meeting up with her sister for lunch, before deciding. I'm still not sure what I'd to if I were her. I'm struggling with virtually the same chioce. Only I don't need a new laptop, I just want one.

    A friend who was over last night for fondue stopped by again tonight for a bit, and after that I went to Kennedy School to meet Snooks for a couple beers, before heading back home and watching Casino Royale. A great Bond movie, more raw and gritty, and not filled with over-the-top ficticious gadgets as previous films. Anyway, that's my Saturday, I hope it stops raining so I can get out tomorrow and do some much needed yard work. 

  • Detox, and then more BEER

    Yesterday was a detox day. Kelly and I got up around 11am, made cheese & red bell pepper omlettes (I added a bunch of jalapenos and hot sauce to mine, naturally), and sat around a bit before going out to my folks place for my Mum's birthday. Kelly prepared a delicious chicken parmesan dish (despite the fact she's vegetarian and couldn't eat it herself) for dinner, ate some cake, and then came home to watch Stranger Than Fiction, which was really good. I ate way too much, but felt all the better for it.

    Tonight I met Snooks at Kennedy School after work for some beers and some manly/nerdy conversation about Battlestar Galactica, life, the universe, and everything. Kelly met us later as she headed home from a happy hour hang-out with her soon-to-be ex-coworkers. Fun evening. And yes Aaron, this is for you, since you made such a big deal about me not blogging over the weekend 🙂

  • Pouring the perfect pint of Guinness

    Since Guinness now flows at my office, I thought it would be nice to make up a nice 'how to' sheet for folks who have never poured it and are only used to domestic microbrews. What you see to the left is my enhanced illustration of an old metal sign image I found online (here's the original). The photo was too small and blurry for printing, so I made a new one in Illustrator. I even illustrated thousands of tiny bubbles to make the settling look right! Finding a vector version of the Guinness Draft logo online made the whole thing pretty easy.

    I finished the sheet up by adding a right panel with an Esquire.com interview with Guinness brewmaster Fergal Murray, where he describes the six steps in more detail.

    Here is my 'how to' sheet (PDF)

    Enjoy! 

  • Ants… you will be EXTERMINATED

    Thanks to Miranda and her tip about Terro, it seems that the ant extermination is underway. We got some of it set up around the house last night. You put some drops (nearly an inch in diameter) on little the cardboard cutouts provided in a few places around the house (obviously out of reach of the cat). We'd been seeing the ants in two places, the kitchen, and more recently, the garage (they found the cat's food), so I placed one under the kitchen sink behind the trash can (so far, still no activity), one tucked away in the garage under and inbetween some things so Guinness doesn't get to it (very little activity), and lastly we placed one in the downstairs bathroom (which is next to the kitchen). As of tonight, there's a stream of ants running along the baseboard between the bathroom and a spot in the cracks under the kitchen cabinets. I looked at the drop of the poison in the bathroom and there's hundreds covering the spot, actively feeding on the stuff. Thus the extermination begins. Providing enough get back to the nest.

  • Smart = Sad

    Found an interesting article via Digg just now, "Why Intelligent People Tend To Be Unhappy". Worth a read. If author Bill Allin is correct it would explain a lot about people I've known, past and present, and why they always seemed a bit down. Next time you see someone who looks sad, think of how brilliant they might be.

  • Ant killing, and a quiet night at home

    Slept late today (because I could, dang it!), then spent day on a cleaning rampage, primarily in the kitchen, trying to eradicate the sugar ants we've been seeing over the past couple months. I still haven't exactly figured out where they're coming from (probably under the house somewhere) but the kitchen has become something of a game… spot the ant, kill the ant, wipe area clean, repeat. It's never been a massive infestation, just a few here and there, always around the counter tops and cupboards. We'd clean, and for days, nothing, and then all of a sudden, we'd spot 10 here, 4 there, etc. We've sealed all our foodstuffs, and had been fairly good about keeping things clean, but the persistent little shits still keep popping up. The other day, Kelly picked up some eco-friendly (orange peel based) insecticide spray, so today I cleaned. Big time. Under the sink, around and under the oven top, floors, etc. The kitchen still (hours later) reeks of orange peel, but it seems to have had some effect. I've only spotted a couple since.

    Tonight Kelly got together with Miranda and another friend to play games, drink wine, and relax. I dropped her off at around 7:30pm, and since Miranda lives fairly close to Belmont Station, I stopped in to check out the new digs (moved, no longer on Belmont) and pick up some beers. Got a few interesting things, a couple English ales from Morland Brewery ("Hen's Tooth" and "Tanner's Jack"), and a couple old favorites, Adnams "Suffolk Special Bitter" and Coniston Brewery's "Bluebird Bitter". Having a nice quiet night at home relaxing, sipping on beers, reading through emails, and writing in my blog. 😉 Hopefully tomorrow, two things will happen… 1) more relaxing, and 2) I won't see any sugar ants. Stupid bugs.