Categories
Travel Work

Winter solstice (hooray) and more important stuff

Winter solstice is finally upon us (the end is nigh for these lame early nights/short days) and since it’s been such a long time between posts, here’s an update of what’s been going on the past few months.

Kelly and I went to the coast again in late October with a group of friends (split the rent on an awesome house in Lincoln City near Roads End State Park that Aymie found, thanks again Aymie!) and had a blast, despite the stormy weather that weekend.

Around the same time, I turned 36. Hooray or whatever. The big news from this was that I finally took the plunge (with a big, helpful push from Kelly and the rest of my family) and got an iPhone (4). No more cheap, crappy Virgin Mobile ‘pay as you go’ phone for me. Now I can retire my iPod Touch and post inane crap to Twitter anytime I want without having to hunt for a WiFi signal. Yay for everyone!

In late November I had an awning installed on my back patio (pic here), which will be nice come spring when it’s rainy but warm-ish again. Kelly and I also painted the dining room and several other rooms in the house (keep reading).

Work has been extra hectic the past few months, which is one reason I haven’t written in a while. I’m off work for a few weeks though, for reasons that will become apparent shortly.

Last night was a lunar eclipse, which we couldn’t see due to the cloud cover and rain.

Today we got hardwoods installed in the dining room, and they look awesome (pic here). If you’re in the market, Floor Factors does excellent work.

Another big reason I’m finally writing after such a long gap, Kelly and I are expecting our first child (a boy!) to be born any moment. Due date is/was today! So far the little man has remained content in Kelly’s tummy and isn’t in a hurry to join us in the world. I can’t blame him to be honest. It’s probably very nice in the womb, all warm and squishy. However, Kelly (and I) are getting ready for him to come out and say hello.

Over the past few months we’ve got his room cleared out, painted and decorated, and got the crib and co-sleeper set up. Also, due to the extreme generosity of friends and family, we’ve received a load of clothes, diapers, toys, a rocker chair for Kelly to nurse with, two strollers and an infant car seat which we barely we squeezed into our Scion xA. We’re ready to go!

Any day now (hopefully before Christmas) he’ll decide he’s fully cooked. Otherwise we go in to start the induction process at midnight on December 26th.

I’ll be writing again soon. Stay tuned!

Categories
Beer Food Travel

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.

Categories
Beer Music Travel

Surprise Astoria weekend (with Decemberists show)

This weekend I surprised Kelly with a trip to Astoria. Before leaving all Kelly knew was that we were going out of town. Later I hinted that there would be “a show” but that was all I’d told her. Friday we left home (a bit past noon) and as I was driving she was guessing “we’re going to Seattle”, and when I didn’t drive north on I-5 she guessed “we’re going to Eugene?”. Once I drove over the Fremont bridge and started driving north on Highway 30 she correctly guessed that we were going to Astoria.

We arrived around 3pm, checked into our hotel, and then wandered around town for a bit (including having some nibbles at both Fort George and the Wet Dog).

That night, we went to the Liberty Theater and shortly after entering Kelly saw a poster (there was no obvious marquee) for the Decemberists benefit show for Jessica Schleif. This was a one-time show (the only scheduled Decemberists show for 2010 thus far) for a friend of the band who “recently suffered a tragedy that left her with unmanageable medical debt.” The show was a lot of fun. The opening act Michael Hurley was really really good, and the Decemberists were great as usual. It was a fun night.

Saturday, after checking out the Flavel House, we drove over the Astoria Megler bridge and went to Cape Disappointment (visiting an old lighthouse) and Fort Columbia. Today on the way home we stopped at a friends place for a fortuitously planned birthday gathering before heading home.

Loads of photos here.

Categories
Food General

Quick trip to the coast for Fathers Day

Today Kelly and I took a quick day trip to the coast to meet up with my parents for Father’s Day. They’ve got one of them giant fifth-wheel RV’s and a semi-permanent spot not too far from Seaside, and now that my Dad’s retired, they spend most of their time down there. Kelly and I drove up Highway 30 to Astoria and wander through their weekend market/fair that they hold most of the summer (picked up some delicious kettle corn while there) before continuing on to meet my folks. Their little RV park is a funny “old people” type place; a bunch of RV’s parked in a row, each with their own perfectly manicured strip of lawn, pincic table and a plastic shed. I suppose it’s nice, but it’s nothing much to look at, and there’s no view (it’s well inland from the ocean). That said, Kelly and I had a nice time chatting and enjoying what little sunshine there was before we drove down to a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner before driving back home. Quick little trip, but even a few hours at the coast is better than none at all.

Categories
Travel Work

Edgefield & Manzanita

Way behind on my blogging duties again, so here goes…

April 20, 2009 – Last week my company sent the engineering team out to McMenamins Edgefield for the day as our reward for all our hard work on the latest successful software release. We met out there on a beautiful sunny Monday morning, were given food, beer and (for those who wanted) golfing, cigars, and then more food. One of the highlights for me was the rental of five Segways for us to scoot around the property with. Despite how dorky of a toy they are, they were quite a lot of fun to ride around on. Especially once we figured out how to disable the speed governor. I got a bit of a sunburn that day.

April 25-26 – This last Saturday Kelly and I drove to the coast to stay with friends at a rental house in Manzanita. I’d never been there before, and it’s a pretty nice spot and the beach is great (a 4+ mile stretch of a long sandy beach, the southern half of which edges along Nehalem Bay State Park). Had a great time, even though we were only there for one night. On Sunday Kelly and I took a long walk down the beach (my goal was to reach the end of the cape). We got 3 miles down, realized we had another mile or so to go, and decided to turn back. Great beach, and a great time. More photos in my gallery.

Other than the above bits of goodness, been continuing my yardwork (the lawn is finally growing in, though still not as full as I’d hoped) and keeping hard at work (up till 1:30am last night trying to get some designs wrapped up). That’s all for now.