blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

  • Camping (Bernie Man)

    This weekend Kelly and I went camping at a friend’s property a little way south-east of Salem. The host (Bernard, aka Bernie) has a house and several acres along a clean, mountain-fed river, and invited a group to join him camping, swimming, and drinking beer. Both Kelly and I had a really good time catching up with friends, walking through the woods, swimming, and absorbing that campfire smell.

    Our first night sleeping in the tent, a deer or elk almost killed Kelly and I! I (unsurprisingly) slept through the event, but around 3am a fellow camper heard some crashing and saw a large shape run off. When I woke up I found a hole in our tent, and one of the polls out of it’s peg and the whole corner of the tent was smooshed in. Dunno, could have been sasquatch. All I know is we almost could have died. *gasp*

    Other highlights: people brought art (Bernie is an artist himself and has some space he set up as a gallery), the food people made and shared was excellent, and while cold, the swimming was fantastic. Had a great time, and hope to go again someday. More photos in the gallery.

  • 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!

  • 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. 🙂

  • 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. 🙂

  • Flash (KABOOM, rumble, rumble)

    Portland Lightning from KATUI’m a very heavy sleeper.

    It takes a great deal for me to wake up normally. Kelly has been known to come nudge me, more than once, to crawl my butt out of bed. I just sleep heavy.

    So imagine my surprise when I suddenly wake up at 3am to some house-shaking thunder. And the rain. Egad the rain. It was pouring it down. I remained awake for about an hour, on the edge of sleep, until another flash flickered through my closed eyelids, followed by more house-shaking thunder. It was a wild thing to wake up to. However, now, I’m sleeeepy.

    You can read more about last night’s events here. (photo credit to KATU)

  • 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!

  • George Carlin, RIP

    The comic genius George Carlin passed away yesterday at the age of 71. Sad. I’ve been listening to his comedy for 20 years, and am going to miss is musings on society, faith, and everyday inane subjects.

    Found this video just now, thought it’s a fitting way to end the post… some of George Carlin’s standup on the topic of death.

  • Believe it or not…

    The keg of Guinness is dead. My brother and I finished off what was left of it tonight. It died at approx. 10:30pm PST. It lived a short, but mirth-filled life of two weeks, one day, and three hours. I will take your condolences now.

    I was surprised at how quickly the keg went, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I was working at it harder than I normal would due to all the rumors of a one and a half, to two week lifespan. While I now have no conclusive evidence to dispell such rumors, I can say that a keg of Guinness on the Nitro/CO2 mix (with a slightly lower than specified PSI) will live at least 15 days. I was hoping to find out exactly how long it would last, and make Guinness-filled stews and cakes with what was left, but the rumors of a ‘life cut short’ caused me to both drink it, and push it on my friends and family, at such a rate that I wasn’t able to find out.

    Maybe next time.

    However for now, I’m switching back to a beer made for CO2, something that I know will last for a couple months. More importantly, something I won’t feel pressured to drink up so quickly. That’s a good thing all around.

  • 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.