After a very hectic week at work, it's finally Friday (hooray!). After leaving the office I took the bus and met up with K at Rose & Thistle for some some dinner (crab cakes for K, and a delicious meaty stew for me) and beers (mmmm… Gunness). After the bus ride towards home we stopped at Binks for a final beer before walking home. Hopefully the nice weather holds all weekend so I can do some much needed yardwork and perhaps wash the car. It's filthy. Awful filthy.
Category: General
K and I had another dinner outing this evening, this time at Gustav's, a German restaurant and bar (attached to the Rheinlander restaurant, sort of a 'Deutschland duo') with Miranda & Brian, and Heidi & Andy (joined later by Brendle & Debbie). For dinner I had a delicious rotisserie turkey sandwich with munster cheese on a ciabatta roll, with a side of spicy sauerkraut (that's right, spicy… it had habanero in it, and it was good) and a couple steins of Spaten Munich. After dinner we went down the street to Moon & Sixpence for some beers (all but Heidi & Andy that is). We spent a few hours sipping beers and chatting away. Great evening all around.
Tonight K and I went to dinner at Gino's Restaurant & Bar in Sellwood for Snooks girlfriend L's birthday. We arrived just after 8pm, meeting up with Snooks, L, and our friend Miranda, and waited for a bit for our table to open up. The place itself is very nice (nicer than the outside led me to believe as we pulled up), with a really gorgeous wood bar that nearly reached the high ceiling. The atmosphere was cozy, with a comfortable murmur of happy patrons, and a very friendly and helpful staff. While waiting the owner came to where we were standing and helped the wine drinkers select a bottle of (reportedly) very good wine, and took beer orders from Snooks and I. I was pleasantly surprised they had not only Guinness on tap, but Greene King Abbot Ale. Once seated the hostess was very helpful in taking our orders. The menu, while slightly expensive, was filled with delicious sounding meals. I tried to avoid really high-calorie / heavy items, but just couldn't resist one item named Grandma Jean's, a tomato based sauce with pork ribs, pepperoni, and beef, over penne pasta. I held out on the caesar salad appetizer that Snooks ordered, and any other appetizers so I could eat the main dish without too much regret. The meal was frickin' delicious, and very filling. They don't skimp on portions at Gino's.
After dinner and Kelly and I joined Snooks & L at the Horse Brass for a beer before calling it a night. I was exhausted all evening, mostly from the insanity at work all week, but it also could have been attributed to the evening out I had last night with my brother and Snooks at Moon & Sixpence. Either way, I could hardly keep my eyes open (so much so that I was forced to order a coffee at Gino's for fear of falling asleep in my chair). Despite my exhaustion, it was a fun evening.
Read a review of Gino's here (Willamette Week).
Categories
Tolkien Day at Kennedy School
Tonight McMenamins Kennedy School held their annual Tolkien birthday bash, in celebration of the famous author's birthday (which was technically January 3rd). It's an all day event (from 11am to 7pm), with food specials (like Shire Stew, and My Precious Onion Rings), readings from Tolkien's work, people dressed in costume, and the theater playing all three Lord of the Rings films back to back. Because of my poor memory, if it wasn't for the email I'd gotten from Snooks I'd have forgotten about it completely (I'd forgotten to add it to my calendar, oops). Kelly was in school all day, and I had some errands to run, but I met Snooks and L there around 4:30pm, grabbed a beer, and then went exploring. The hallways contained a number of people dressed in costume, including a very impressive Ring Wraith and a girl in a beautiful Elven costume. I also wandered into the theater (which I'd never been into before) and caught about 5 minutes of Two Towers. Most of my time was spent hanging out in the Cypress Room with Snooks and L (and later Kelly, once she finished with her day of classes for school), learning to play rummy (and kicking ass for the few hands I played, heh). Fun evening. Had I showed up early enough I'd have loved to seen all three movies in the theater, but as it was, it was just fun hanging out, soaking in the Tolkien-esque atmosphere.
Categories
Mappyhour
a little something a coworker sent my way… MappyHour, the Happy Hour Map. Enjoy!