Category: General

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Beer General Work

Recapiness

Craziness, business, stressiness (yes, like Stephen Colbert coining truthiness, I hereby lay claim to stressiness)… that describes my week. After meeting my new nephew Hank (who is doing well) last week, Kelly and I have been busy. The work week was a crazed blur, with the first half of the week spent designing some new / enhanced features for SuperSweetCo’s flagship product, and most evenings spent either going out or doing things around the house.

Last night Kelly and I went out to the pubs, starting off at Rose & Thistle after I left the office. After that we went home to drop off the car and then took the bus to Moon & Sixpence to continue punishing our livers. Had a great time chatting, eating and sipping on beers.

Tonight I went over to a BBQ / party at my friend Jen’s house for an out-of-town guest/old friend and had a really fun time hanging out and meeting new people.

Tomorrow Kelly and I are getting up early and going to Lincoln City for the night. I’m looking forward to both getting out of town (even if only for one night) and going to the coast, which is something I don’t think I do often enough considering I live so close to such a major ocean. I hope to write about it on Sunday.

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General News

Meet Henry

Henry VanderzandenMeet Henry, a.k.a. “Hank”, a.k.a. Bart. Henry was my grandfather’s name, though his nickname Hank was what virtually everyone in my home town knew him by. Bart (from the previous post) is my nickname for him, and though I’m not sure I’ll stick to it, it’s fun for now. Click on the photo to the left to see Henry/Hank/Bart and his proud dad Travis.

While I normally look at newborn babies and think “woah, that looks like some kind of strange human-alien hybrid thing” and look forward to escaping the hospital as quickly as I can… I must say that seeing a newborn relative is a very different experience. I dislike hospitals, and I’ve been in them many times to see friends newborn children, and each time I find myself looking for the nearest EXIT sign. However, seeing my sister-in-law in her dazed state and hearing her talk about her experience, while watching my brother hold his son, was very touching. I was glad to have skipped out on work to go visit and see my new nephew within a few hours of his entry into the world.

A few hours later we had friends over for a casual dinner (fondue) which was a lot of fun. The reason for this event was for another set of friends who are expecting to have their child in about two weeks. Had a great time hanging out, and naturally shared the photos I took while visiting my new nephew.

Check out the bonus photo I took while visiting the hospital. Travis… beware.

Categories
General News

You can call me uncle

Yup, as of sometime around noon today, my brother Travis is a father, and Chad and I are uncles. Congrats to Mr. (and Mrs.) T.

I think Kelly is coming to pick me up and I’m going to be headed out to the hospital way out in Hillsboro for a quick visit before I return to work… so I can see the tiny pink squishy little man.

Yeah, it’s a boy. 🙂 I don’t know much else (because it seems that with guys, all the details about pounds, ounces, inches, and hours in labor sort of fall off the radar, heh) other than the little man is healthy.

I’m going to nickname him Bart… because today (in about a half hour from now) I was supposed to be going with coworkers to see the Simpsons movie, on the company dime. D’oh!

Categories
Beer General Work

Lion and Shanghai

Went to the Thirsty Lion pub for a work event (same one as last year, see this post) after work. Ran into both some ex-coworkers as well as some ex-employers (from the first web nerd job I got, way back in 1996). Also spent time hanging out with a couple coworkers that I don’t know quite as well, which was fun. Overall I had a fun time.

Kelly met me at the Thirsty Lion towards the end of the event, just as my brother Chad sent me a text saying he and his girlfriend were nearby at the Shanghai Tunnel (again, the pattern is almost the same as last year, just without the concert). So we went down there and were met by a couple of coworkers. Had a blast hanging out. Happy birthday Katie!

Categories
Food General

Tyson & Sujata’s Wedding Reception

Tyson & Sujata's ReceptionLast night Kelly and I attended a lovely wedding reception for our friends Tyson & Sujata, who were married a few months ago in Tulum, Mexico. The event was held at a house in Milwaukie which belonged to a family Tyson has known for years. It was a beautiful setting… the back yard overlooked the Willamette river, there was a fold-out dance floor, hanging lights, and even some landscape lighting (colors pointed up at the trees that surround the yard).

There were roughly 150 people there (by my guestimate), of which Kelly and I knew or recognized 30 to 40. Had a good time… I ate way too much of the Mexican-style buffet, still feeling full today honestly. We left kind of early though (close to 11pm) because Kelly was exhausted from her weekend of classes, and I was uncomfortable being all dressed up and stuffed with food. Ugh.

More photos here and here. Congrats again to the happy couple!