blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Category: Work

  • A recap, and some joker on the bus

    Yeah, it’s been that long. Keep meaning to write, just been busy.  Here’s a recap since my last post

    July 4th
    We held a really small BBQ for the Independence Day. Had a good time grilling meats and drinking beers, and were treated to a show as loads of people in my neighborhood tend to fire off some large, impressive, and very illegal fireworks (in Oregon, anything firework that flies is illegal, as far as I understand it).

    July 5th
    The following day we went to another BBQ (and housewarming) at a friends house. Learned that a soon-to-be dentist friend has made money from old teeth. If you have teeth pulled with crowns or fillings (and you choose to let them keep the bloody, rotten things) the remaining amounts of gold, palladium, and other valuable materials can be melted down and the value can be exchanged for cash. Since it’s exchanging one form of currency for another, it isn’t taxable. As a result of his schooling, he’s collected a number of teeth to practice on, and found he had enough with said valuable materials to buy himself a plasma TV. Guess it’s an added bonus from that whole dentistry shtick.

    July 8th-10th
    Some our friends from back east (S & C) came out to visit and stayed with us for a few days. They have a wee little one (about 9 months old), and we hadn’t seen them in quite a while, so it was cool to catch up and meet the little man.

    July 10th-13th
    Kelly left town for Utah for a few days for a work event. That meant I was bach’n it through Sunday the 13th. In that time I went another BBQ for the friends from back east at Snooks place, and generally just drank a lot of beer.

    This past week
    Work over the past few weeks has been hectic, and now we’re in the final push for the next release of SuperSweetCo‘s application. Add to that some additional pressure to get things super solid, super quick, it’s made things a bit more stressful around the office. So last night I worked late, am working late tonight, and will likely work this weekend. Oh well, I too want the release to be solid and have all the polish it should. Just wish there were more time. Ain’t it always the way.

    Today
    Kelly left this morning for another 4 days for another work event (in Seattle, WA this time). I’m sitting in my back yard with a pint of Harp (what’s currently on tap at Ryan’s Pub), and am enjoying the cooler temperatures while I write this and do more work.

    And finally… there was some joker on the bus
    Today I saw two people with Joker makeup in Portland, not sure if it’s a coordinated marketing thing, or just that I happened to see two hardcore nerdy Batman fans with Joker makeup on the same day, but either way this joker was sitting on the bus when I got on, so when I sat down I had to grab my camera quickly take a photo. He was reading a Batman comic, and had a large box filled with comics, all in plastic sleeves. I will say that this joker was dressed up (and made up) pretty well. The other joker I saw on the street was dressed out of character (black leather jacket and jeans) and the makeup was pretty light (didn’t even have green hair). Kinda funny (and a bit worrisome) to see Joker on your bus. 🙂

  • Organic Brewfest, and a Ghost Dog birthday

    Today I went to the North American Organic Brewers Festival. Kelly is volunteering there today and tomorrow, so I thought I’d go and show my support. Which meant going and drinking beer. Pretty hard to pass that up.

    The festival itself was a quite a bit of fun, and was fairly mellow compared to other brewfest’s held in Portland. It was held at Overlook Park, a spot I hadn’t been to before (though I’d been by many times over the years). On my way in (after having dropped Kelly off an hour or so earlier for her volunteer shift) I ran into a coworker and his wife, so we hung out for a bit, and later another coworker joined us. The weather here has been scorching hot, so we spent most of our time in the shade of a tree, between picking up samples of delicious organic beers.

    After Kelly finished her shift, we went to Rose & Thistle to meet up with Mr & Mrs Ghost Dog, to celebrate GD’s birthday (“I’m 37, I’m not old”). Happy Birthday Ghost Dog!

    Had a great time out, despite how disgustingly hot it was (through midnight). I really dislike 90+ degree days, and today was pretty nasty. Gimme 75 degrees and I’ll be happy. Urgh.

    I’ll be back at the brewfest tomorrow (Kelly has another volunteer shift until about 5pm) in case any of you can join me. Hooray for delicious, organic beer! Oh, and the cups are made from corn, so they are biodegradable / compost-able. Neat!

  • Guinness continues to flow

    Over the past couple weeks I’ve been drinking a lot more beer than I normally would. I’m torn on whether that’s a good or bad thing. It’s good in that I really like beer, especially Guinness, but it’s bad for my waistline. Oh well. The good news is that it’s been 2 weeks tonight since I tapped the keg, and it’s still pouring fine. While I’m not sure how much is left in the keg, I tried lifting it last weekend and I can tell there’s quite a bit left. Not sure what to expect now (given that after two weeks everybody says beer on nitro goes flat), but I hope it last through one more weekend. After that I guess it can be used for cooking (stews and cakes come to mind). Even if the I return a half-full keg of flat beer at the end of all this, it was worth the experiment. Though I’m pretty sure I’m going to move to something on CO2 that I don’t feel pressured to drink (and force on all my friends).

    Last Sunday Kelly and I watched the fantastic final episode (of this year) of Battlestar Galactica. To anybody who hasn’t seen the show, watch it. It’s a great reimagining of the original. We’ve also been getting caught up on this season’s Doctor Who, which is also good, if a bit more kid-friendly than BSG or Lost (oh, yeah, it’s season finale was also really good).

    Last night we watched the film Jumper, which was also a fun film, despite starring an actor who I will always associate with the horrid Star Wars, Episodes II and III. The effects were well done, the story was interesting, and since I didn’t know much about it before watching it, had a couple twists (and an obvious, made-for-a-sequel ending).

    Work continues to be crazy busy, but good. My stress and happiness levels go up and down, but it’s still all good. Lots of stuff I’m working on, and hope to get to do, in the coming months.

    Anyway, sitting in my back yard with a beer and thought I’d write (finally). Mmmm… Guinness.

  • Since the trip…

    Since the last post, I had a nice end of my two week vacation. A couple relaxing days that allowed me to get back into our timezone. During that time I also discovered that Belmont Station carries the Bruges beer that Kelly and I had much of on our trip, Brugse Zot, so I picked up a couple bottles of that. Hooray!

    Last Wednesday Kelly and I had M & B over for dinner, to thank them for watching over our house and our cat, and I figured that would be as good a time as any to tap my keg of Guinness. The countdown begins. Tapping it proved to be more complicated than I’d thought. The first problem was that I hadn’t tightened the stout faucet all the way, and when I first went to lock the tap on, beer sprayed everywhere. Damn! Once I’d fixed that, the tap wouldn’t lock down easily (making me wonder for a bit whether I’d picked up the wrong tap). Finally realized that it just needed a bit more ‘elbow grease’ than other taps, and finally got the delicious black stuff flowing Yum!

    Kelly and I went out to my hometown on Friday after work for a belated birthday dinner for Kelly. We went to this newly opened Chinese place, the food was mediocre, but it was still a nice dinner. Afterwards we drove to my folks place for dessert (ice cream cake, yum!) and I got to spend time playing with my rapidly growing nephew, Bart. After getting home I had a couple pints of Guinness (naturally) while getting distracted by this Comcast site Fancast, where you can watch full episodes of TV shows… I ended up watching some of the original Battlestar Galactica. I hadn’t seen it in many, many years.

    Last night we went out with Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog to the Goose Hollow Inn for delicious sandwiches and beers, before coming back to our house for a bit. Had a great time, and it’d been quite some time since we’d seen the GDs.

    Today, finally, the unseasonably cold and rainy weather broke, and Kelly and I were able to spend a few hours outside doing yardwork. Soon, we’ll be grilling some chicken kabobs on the barbecue. Hooray!

    Between all this, was a crazy first week back to work. Loads to do in the next few weeks for the next software release. Gonna be nuts.

    Oh, also, discovered a new web comic, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Enjoy.

    Edited to add one more thing: My friend and coworker Aaron recently blogged about this news site The Big Picture, where I found this photo/article about an uncontacted tribe in Brazil. Really found the photos amazing, imagine not being in contact with the ‘modern’ world and having a helicopter buzzing around your tribe’s camp. What must have been going through their minds.

  • 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.

  • End of the week & Bon Iver

    Last night I was out with my brothers at Moon & Sixpence for some beers and dinner. Fortunately I got home at a reasonable hour, though I still ended getting to work late this morning, however it had nothing to do with last night. Kelly took today off from work (tomorrow is her last day of school for her MBA, and she has a big project to finish up) and as my alarm went off at around 6:30am, I shut it off, rolled over, and both Kelly and the cat were curled up all cute and warm. I remember thinking awww, and then must have fell back asleep because when I next opened my eyes another hour and a half had gone by. Drats!

    After work I got to have a couple beers at the Rialto with my good friend MB. Afterwards he drove me homeward, dropping me of at the local grocery store.

    After getting home and cleaning the house a bit, I remembered a song that caught my attention the other day. I subscribe to the RSS feed of MP3’s from Stereogum, and often discover ‘new to me’ bands I like. Earlier this week I ended up with a song by Bon Iver (an alias for musician Justin Vernon) that I liked quite a bit, so tonight I did a bit of hunting. I discovered a good writeup and a site where you can stream the album. After listening to a few tracks (including the one that originally caught my ear, Skinny Love) I decided to see if Amazon’s MP3 store had it available. And they did. So I bought it. It’s really really good.

    The album was conceived in a cabin in the snowy woods of a wintry Wisconsin, and the songs seem to capture the setting. A lot of introspective, sad, and beautiful songs, all a bit muted and folky. Just the kind of thing for today’s rainy, cold weather. I can certainly imagine it being the perfect soundtrack to a drive in a snowy landscape, with no particular destination in mind. Check it out, it’s good stuff.

  • Mash Tun, and a quick recap

    Met my good friend JB at the Mash Tun tonight after work. It’d been a bit since we last caught up, and had a good time hanging out, and I greatly enjoyed sipping on the cream ale the Tun is still pouring. I asked the server (nice fella named Tim) whether he knew if they were planning to keep that particular beer going (as it’s my favorite beer they’ve ever brewed) and he said he wasn’t sure, and didn’t suspect so. It’s the Tun’s habit to perpetually brew new things, and several times since they’ve started pouring their own brews have I found one I like that hasn’t returned. I hope that’s not the case with the cream ale. If you’re into fine (and not stupidly hoppy) ales, I suggest going and having a pint before it vanishes into beer history. (Beeristory? Bistory? whatever)

    Quick recap of the past, oh, several days: Saturday Kelly and I spent the evening with some friends for dinner and had a great time. Sunday we got outside and did some yard work, including me climbing on the roof of my shed to trim dead / dying branches from my ailing (and non-fruit producing) apricot tree. Still sore from that day. Monday my Comcast-provided DVR died on me, fortunately, just after finishing last week’s LOST. I have to go swap it tomorrow morning (before LOST tomorrow night, because it’s all about LOST, you know). Watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which was good (pretty much as good as the first one, so if you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy it). Work’s been very busy, but less so than a couple weeks back. Taking next Monday and Tuesday off (yup, the day of and after St. Patrick’s day, so I can really do it up and recover without worry). Whew! And now you’re all caught up.

  • Gold Dust and the Moon

    Tonight Kelly and I joined several others to celebrate our friend D’s birthday at a relatively new bar in Southeast Portland called Gold Dust Meridian. Kelly and I shared the bus down Hawthorne, but were early for the birthday gathering, so we decided to swing into McMenamins Back Stage Bar for a drink before walking down the street.

    Gold Dust Meridian is a dimly lit, moderately swanky bar that’s not overpriced and has good food and a decent beer selection (including the delicious Terminal Gravity ESG). The staff were friendly, and our server was both attentive and organized (he had the foresight to preemptively split up the bill for the table by people who’d arrived together, which meant the confusion usually associated with big groups was avoided).

    My brother was sitting at Moon & Sixpence and I’d told him I’d stop by, and fortunately Miranda was with us and wanted to go that way herself, so she drove Kelly and I over there and we hung out for a few beers.

    Fun night. Needed it pretty badly after the week… the fun of software development and release deadlines never ends. 🙂

  • Long week, good weekend, Legend

    Since last weekend’s adventures, I had another long and fairly stressful work week. The weekend was pretty fun though, despite two things: 1) a possible resurgence of some sort of virus (sinus pressure, a sore throat and a cough, dammit), and 2) a friend coming into town on Friday (I say friend, though he’s a total bastard and I hate him, but not really, I just like to pretend I hate him). Started off by going to Mash Tun for some dinner and drinks Friday night along with Snooks and L. Saturday we all met up at Kennedy School in the early afternoon for some drinks, and then went to Delta Cafe (blogged before here) for dinner. I both love and loathe the Delta… the food is really good, but the greasy smell gets woven into both your clothes and your very being. It can be a bit overpowering. The last time I was there I had made the mistake of bringing my wool coat in, and the next morning on the bus I realized that I was ‘that stinky guy’, all because of the greasy scent. This time I wore clothes I could burn later. 🙂

    Intersection near Kennedy SchoolToday the nice weather returned. I spent most of my day relaxing indoors, playing a bit of Call of Duty 4, and watching shows recorded on the DVR. Kelly went to a friends baby shower, and after she got home I drug her to Kennedy School to see I Am Legend at the theater. We’d arrived with just enough time to sit in the Cypress Room for a beer before heading to the theater. The movie was pretty good, and I enjoyed it quite a bit despite the, at times, poor CGI (some of it was pretty bad, though overall I was able to get past a lot of it and it didn’t distract me). The representation of a vacant and dead city (with nature taking back what’s ‘hers’ with grass coming through the streets, deer running free, etc), and the main character’s almost super-human ability to avoid insanity in the face of near total solitude was well done. Overall I though it was pretty good, and well worth seeing on the ‘big screen’ for a few dollars, with some beer and popcorn.

  • On the mountain

    Mt HoodToday SuperSweetCo took the whole company back up to the Mount Hood (read last year’s story). I woke up at 5:15am, got cleaned up, and walked to a coworker’s place to catch a ride into town by 6:30am. Last year there was one bus, however this year there were two due to SuperSweetCo’s explosive growth. Despite all the extra people and two busses, we drove away earlier than we did last year (7:15am) and arrived at Mt. Hood Meadows by 8:45am, and I got myself sat down in the same lodge room as last year. This year however, due to my week of sick, I opted not to go out and exert myself but to just hang out, so I brought my laptop and have been just surfing the net, attempting to play some games, and chatting with the other folks who weren’t hitting the slopes. The schedule is to get back into downtown by 5:30pm.