Category: Work

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Beer Movies Politics Work

Weird week, birthdays, and other stuff

This whole week has been a bit odd, somehow. It’s hard to explain, it just has. I’ve been feeling a bit more ‘out of it’ than usual. It might be the sudden change in weather since it’s recently gone from horribly hot to cool and (for a few days) rainy. It might also be that I’m just now recognizing that the days are getting shorter (I’m already missing it being light out until about 10pm). Might have been the strange but oddly fun downtown scavenger hunt my manager organized for SuperSweetCo’s engineering team Tuesday afternoon (part team building exercise, part reward for our hard work getting the latest version of software out the door). Maybe part of it has been the DNC. Dunno. 🙂

Monday night Kelly and I watched Amazing Grace, a historical drama about William Wilberforce, the late 18th to early 19th century British politician, who fought to end Britain’s part in the slave trade. It was a really good movie, with a great cast. Worth watching.

Tuesday afternoon was the aforementioned scavenger hunt. Ran around downtown Portland with iPhones and digital cameras, looking for random clues, performing silly stunts and making asses of ourselves. It was pretty fun overall (despite the embarrassment of some of the stunts).

Yesterday I had a few pints from my keg with Snooks, talking about the DNC (love Snooks latest post, btw), the upcoming Hobbit film(s), and other totally rad nerdy stuff.

Right now I’m at Moon & Sixpence, awaiting my brother (who’s birthday it is today), enjoying a pint of Guinness. Happy birthday Travis!

Tomorrow we go to another birthday thing, this time for my friend Amy. Happy birthday Amy!

Looking forward to the three day weekend. Much yardwork will (hopefully) get done. And much relaxing. I’d love to just spend 3 days at home, doing whatever the heck I want. That’d rock. 🙂

Categories
Beer Entertainment Food Movies Technology Work

Anniversary, and dinner at a friends

Ciao VitoLast night Kelly and I went out to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary was technically Thursday, but we went out for dinner after work yesterday instead. Kelly picked me up from work after a work happy hour (last one in the current office, I move to a new location in a couple weeks), stopped at home, and then walked down Alberta Street to the restaurant Ciao Vito. We arrived a bit early for our reservation so we went next door to Mash Tun for a beer and a visit with their friendly staff. Dinner was delicious, I had the Sugo of Pork dish, which was very good (and very filling) and Kelly had some kind of fried cheese thing (can’t find on the online menu) and a caprese salad for her dinner. Everything was wonderful, and the staff were friendly and welcoming. It was a very nice and low-key dinner experience, I recommend the restaurant. After dinner we went back to the Mash Tun for another couple pints before walking home.

After getting home Kelly wanted to watch Serenity (I love her!), though sadly I was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch with the cat about halfway through, waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning and shuffling upstairs to plop in bed.

Tonight we went out to dinner at a friends place in Hillsboro. Had a great time out… chatted, ate fajitas, drank beer, and got to see Battlefield Bad Company in action. The game looks like fun, too bad it’s not out for the PC. Grrr.

In related gaming news, I’ve rediscovered OpenArena recently. It’s free and works on Mac, Linux and PC, check it out and get your frag on! 🙂

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Travel Work

A short trip to Aspen

I was sent to Aspen for a couple days for an Enterprise UI Summit that SuperSweetCo held. I flew in on Wednesday afternoon, got into the swanky hotel, and went out to dinner with my coworkers and all of the attendees, which included folks from Adobe, Google, SAP, and RIM, among others. It was a pretty crazy thing, but fun.

Thursday was the first full day of the event, and was very interesting. I learned a lot about what the various companies are doing and how they’re integrating social software inside their various businesses. That night the group went out again for dinner and drinks at a tapas restaurant (you know, a bunch of little plates and little food pellets). I stayed up a bit later than I’d hoped that night, drinking beer and chatting with the attendees, so I only got about 4 hours of sleep before the second day of the event (which was focused on critiquing the application I work on) I was feeling a bit out of it yesterday. 🙂

After the wrap of the event at noon, a group of us took a gondola ride up the mountain, which was amazing. The view was incredible. Got back down the mountain just in time to catch our car to the airport, and then spent the next several hours traveling back home. Got home last night around 8:30pm. Quite the whirlwind trip!

Took a bunch of photos, check ’em out.

Categories
Beer Work

Happy birthday T-dog

After spending the day working, I walked over to Tyson & Sujata’s (meeting Miranda and Brian on the way, since we live in the same neighborhood) for a party they were hosting to celebrate Tyson’s birthday. Had a really good time (as always) seeing everybody (which I will call ‘the gang’, also known as ‘the kids’ or ‘my special friends’), spending time in his beautifully landscaped yard, sipping on beer (Tyson had picked up a pony keg of Hopworks Urban Brewery‘s Kolsch, which was really tasty for such a summer evening), listening to music, and generally chilling out. Had a great time. Happy birthday T-dog!

Categories
Beer Work

Portland International Beerfest, 2008

Today after a few coworkers and I walked to the north park blocks for the Portland International Beerfest to sample some delicious beers from around the world. We all left work a bit early to get there in time to catch the ‘happy hour’ price, where we got an additional 5 tickets for the regular $20 entry price (which includes a small, 4 oz glass, 10 tickets, and a guide). While there I got to try out some new beers, as well as use my tickets on things I knew I’d enjoy.

Here’s what I had:

  • Two of the newer New Belgium beers I hadn’t had yet, La Folie (very sour and citrus-y, but not bad for a warm day, by the end I kind of liked it despite it’s very sour flavor) and Mighty Arrow (a fairly good if middle-of-the-road pale ale)
  • Echt Kriekenbier, listed as a Cherry Flanders Red from Belgium, which was a bit fruity, but really pretty tasty (considering I don’t typically like fruity beers)
  • Rochefort 8, a Trappist ale from Belgium, pretty strong (9.2% ABV), malty, and rich.
  • Lagunitas Brewing‘s “We’re only in it for the Money“… good beer, and bonus points for a hilarious name, and an even more hilarious title listed under it’s brewing style: Why Does it Hurt When I Pee?
  • Chimay Grande Reserve (aka Chimay Blue), something I’d had before, but not for quite a while, so I had some. A really quality Belgian Trappist dark strong ale.
  • Coniston Bluebird Bitter, a consistent favorite of mine, and what I kept going back to (both because it was 1 ticket and it’s good). I think I’d like to get this on tap at my kegerator. 🙂