Category: General

An update-y thingy

Since my last post of randomness, a few things have happened… most importantly, Kelly had her graduation for her MBA last weekend. The ceremony wasn’t too long, a little over an hour, however due to the order of events, and our shared last name, Kelly was nearly the last person to get presented with her degree. My mom came into town and sat in the bleachers at Concordia University with me, so it wasn’t just me hooting and hollering when her name was announced, though I’m sure she didn’t hear it. 🙂

Afterwards we briefly went to the ‘cake and coffee’ event before returning home. We had some friends and family over to celebrate, a bit of a last minute BBQ thing. Had really good time. And congrats (again) Kelly!

Today we went out to my folks place to celebrate an early Mother’s Day with a late lunch of sandwiches and salads. It was really nice, and there were three generations of mothers there; my grandma, my mom, and my sis-in-law (with my nephew ‘Bart‘, who’s growing insanely fast). My brothers and I spent some time wandering around the wooded three acres where we spent nearly all of our youth running around. We visited the former location of our old tree house (a three-story behemoth that we spent several summers stealing dad’s lumber to construct, which was sadly destroyed during intense wind storms last year) making our way through the now-overgrown paths, and realizing how different the property is now, partly due to some light cedar logging my dad did a few years ago, and partly due to the aforementioned wind storms. It was a nice day too, the weather which threatened rain remained fairly warm and rain-free.

Aside from that, it’s been a few weeks of intense work, and the usual going out to pubs with Snooks and my brother T for after-work beers.

Oh, and about one week from now we’ll probably be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Europe. Looking forward to the trip, but the amount of work I have to try and complete between now and then is daunting. Must keep focused on all the beer that awaits me in Belgium. Mmmmm… beer.

Beer General Travel

Vista House & Edgefield

After getting back from the mountain yesterday safe and sound, getting home by 7, and being really tired and going to bed around 9:30pm (my sick still having some sway over me), Kelly and I woke up just before 8am this morning. We both sat around a bit, I cleaned my office a bit, played some Call of Duty 4, and then around 1pm Kelly and I decided to go do something.

We left the house and drove to the Vista House at Crown Point, a spot I’ve been wanting to visit for several years now. The drive was pretty quick (I think it only took us about 45 minutes) and it was a gorgeous day (yes, there is a pun in there). Arriving to Crown Point is great, you turn this corner on the old highway and suddenly there is this great old building overlooking the gorge. The view is really quite stunning, especially on a clear day like today, looking down onto the Columbia river and over to Washington state. Vista House itself is also worth seeing. Built in 1918 as a rest stop along the old highway, it both manages to blend in with it’s surrounding environment and serve as a platform to take in the surrounding beauty. It was VERY windy and cold up there however, so Kelly and I didn’t spend a lot of time gazing at the scenery. We did enjoy wandering around the gallery area underneath though, where there were several old photos of the building from days past.

After leaving Crown Point, Kelly and I drove along the old Historic Columbia River Highway to Troutdale (rather than going back to I-84) and went to McMenamins Edgefield for some drinks. Had a really nice time walking around the property, sipping on beers (at one point I encouraged Kelly go get a nice wine at the wine cellar bar). We wandered around / sat around for a couple hours before heading back homeward. We’re now sitting in another McMenamins establishment (Kennedy School) as I write this post. Had a great day, and am feeling a lot better, however I’m pretty sure beer has a lot to do with that.

General Work

More sick, and an eclipse

Still got the flu, worked from home again today. I’m really done with this crap. I can tell I’m on the mend enough that instead of simply feeling miserable, I’m getting very grumpy. Probably from being couped up for so long. This evening there was a lunar eclipse. I went out and snapped a few photos… as many as my sick would allow, and included the sharpest one from shortly after the last sliver of light vanished. I snapped a few as the sunlight reappeared, however, this photo turned out better. Wish I had a better camera.

General Work

Sick of the sick

Still sick with flu. I hate this. Yesterday I came home early from work which turned out to be a really good thing, as around 4pm my fever & sweats returned. Since then, it’s been another round of aches, stuffy head, and more fever (with some scratchy, watery eyes thrown in to make my misery complete).

Today I worked from home. Spent as much time in front of the computer screen as I thought I should before sitting down in front of the TV and dozing off for a bit.

I’m really done with this junk. I want to be well. Now. Argh.

General

Sicky: update

Walked with Kelly to the hardware store (about a 2 mile round trip) since it was such a nice day, stopping by M & B’s on the way back. After getting home we got to trimming and pruning. Nearly all the roses are cut back, as well as a bunch of other plants. There are 4 bags of debris sitting on the curb. Hooray. However, I’m not 100% sure all that activity was a good thing yet. I know I’ll be more achy tomorrow, I just hope the other symptoms aren’t worse.