blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Tag: Guinness

  • Weekend at the coast

    This weekend Kelly took me to the coast for a surprise weekend getaway. She’d rented a house near Manzanita, and we spent a couple days driving around, visiting nearby spots including spending some of Saturday at Cannon Beach, hiking through Oswald West State Park, and on Sunday checking out Hug Point (my new favorite stretch of Oregon beach).

    Had a really tasty burger and a few pints of Guinness at the Sand Dune Pub on Friday night, and a delicious Shrimp Scampi dinner at the Terra Cotta Cafe on Saturday evening, right before racing down to see what little sunset there was left.

    It was really great to get away for a couple nights, and we got back with a Monday holiday day off to spare (so I could chill out around the house before returning to work). Thanks so much Kelly, it was fantastic!

    More photos here.

  • A very Spring-like February weekend

    The weather here in Portland, unlike the East Coast or northern Europe, has been very spring-like the past several days. Yesterday the temperature reached 61 I think, with sunny skies. It’s hard to believe it’s mid-February.

    Taking advantage of this weather, I spent the past couple days outside working on my yard; Pruning, raking, edging, trimming, and filling several yard debris bags. Things are starting to shape up. I’m exhausted, but I’m having what I believe is the best tasting pint of Guinness ever, sitting on the front porch in the sun.

    Oh yeah, related to my previous post, I picked up the new keg yesterday. Had I known the old one had so much left in it before Friday I wouldn’t have babied it all week. Sheesh!

  • Valentine’s and Vendetta

    Last Sunday was Hallmark and chocolate maker’s day (aka Valentine’s Day). During the afternoon while Kelly attended a work event, I spent the day working in the yard and cleaning the house. Later that evening Kelly and I went to dinner at Bernie’s Southern Bistro on Alberta (mmm, meatloaf).

    Last night I met up with some friends at Vendetta for a couple of pints. Had a great time catching up with JB, T, and MB. Later Kelly met up and we (along with MB) went to 5th Quadrant for dinner (mmm, burger).

    Tonight has been a fairly relaxed night at home. And to my surprise, my keg ‘o Guinness wasn’t as empty as I thought it was; I’d expected to pull one or two pints and have so far pulled five. Hooray(!?), except I’ve ordered a new one to pick up tomorrow so I’m hoping the keg blows soon. Otherwise I’ll be in a bit of a quandary tomorrow. Or I’ll just have to keep drinking. I guess there are worse problems to have.

    Oh, and the weather has been positively Spring-like the past week. It was 60 and sunny today. It’s mid-February! WTF? I’ve got flowers blooming and Tulips coming up. It seems way too early for this. On one hand, it’s really nice to have some nice, sunny, warm weather, but it’ll mean a very flowerless Spring in my yard.

  • Goose for Ghostdog’s birthday

    Tonight Kelly and I joined Ghostdog for his birthday at the Goose Hollow Inn. Had a fabulous time hanging out at my old haunt, sipping on Guinness, chatting with friends, and enjoying the best reuben sandwich on the planet. Good times. Happy birthday GD!

  • Leverage, Lolo, Lompoc

    After the KABOOM on Wednesday, Kelly and I saw a bit more Leverage filming Thursday on our way to work. They were filming outside the US Bank on Broadway. Nothing too exciting, loads of people, filming gear, etc, but I caught a glimpse of two of the actors I recognized from what little I’ve seen of the show (Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge).

    Yesterday after work Kelly and I went to a tapas restaurant near our house for dinner called Lolo for dinner. Good food, good service, and a good atmosphere. Granted, it wasn’t massively busy (it was a Thursday after all) but the happy hour prices are worth the visit alone.

    Today I worked from home since I needed to take Kelly and one of her coworkers to the airport at 10am. During the day a friend arranged a meet-up at the New Old Lompoc on NE Williams for some after-work drinks. I decided to walk the 3.25 miles there to get a bit of exercise in. After a couple beers and some good conversation with friends, I hit the streets for the walk home. Good amount of walking. My feets are now sore. Good thing I have Guinness on tap to help soothe the pain. 🙂

  • Guinness. Yes, again.

    Well, I went and did it. I got yet another keg of Guinness. I know I’ve said it before, but I swear this is the last one. I swear! Honest!

    Looking through my blog, it appears I’ve been pouring Guinness from my kegerator since October. I think it’s been 6 kegs (roughly one per month), with several little gatherings and nights with friends to help me polish each of ’em off. Worth every penny.

    I debated getting Trumer Pils or Amstel Light, but the weather just isn’t quite warm enough yet to warrant such summery beers. Though I suspect that by the time this keg of Guinness runs dry, it’ll be about that time.

    Øther news: Work is keeping me busy

    Øther øther news: Yardwork is coming along, the place is starting to look somewhat decent again. Still a lot to do, but it’s getting there. I’ve also continued my picture scanning extravaganza with my new scanner. Being able to scan negatives rocks, and makes the process so much faster. That’s about it for now.

  • March roundup

    Again, I’ve been slacking on blogging duties. Work has been keeping me very busy, so much so that I’ve lacked the energy to blog. Since my last post, Kelly and I hosted a little St. Paddy’s Day gathering. Had a great time (thanks to everyone who made it out), and my peeps did some serious damage to the Guinness keg. So much so that it went dry about 4 days afterwards. That meant the keg was dead in about 10 days. A new record!

    Since then, no new keg, just been slammed with work. The only other ‘news’ is that I picked up a new flatbed scanner (an Epson Perfection V500) so I could make some real progress scanning in all my old pre-‘digital age’ photos, and a new video card (a BFG nVidia 9800 GTX+ OC) so my games would run better (and boy do they! Call of Duty 4 looks like a brand new game).

    I’ve also continued my yard work, clearing up more debris and throwing down a bunch of grass seed to help replace my balding lawn… now I’m just waiting for it to start growing in.

    That about covers March. Next up, today’s hike to some very pretty (and off the beaten path) waterfalls.

  • Guinness, back on tap!

    I was finally able to acquire another keg of Guinness today. It’s a beautiful thing. I’m now enjoying a pint and a smoke in my “pub” (aka, my garage). All is well. This makes the fouth consecutive keg of Guinness in my kegerator. I almost chose something else (Trumer Pils, Amstel Light, Terminal Gravity ESG), but there’s just something about the winter weather makes Guinness seem so right.