Categories
Beer Food Music Travel Work

OMG it’s 2010

OK, so, I gave up for the past 3 months. Guess I lost the love. It’s not that I don’t love the 3 or 4 of you who actually read my blog, but I just lost the love for spewing out nonsense for no particular reason. It affected my Twitter-ing too. I just felt no need for it. I could barely keep up with consuming everything coming my way (outside of my work-related duties), and just didn’t care to add the burden to myself or anyone else.

But I’m back, baby. (for now)

Here’s a recap since my last post (when I was happily relaxed on the Big Island).

At the end of October I had a birthday, and I turned 25 (again), and had the good fortune of having friends and family over to celebrate. I had a great time (I think, can’t quite remember since it was so long ago). Looking at the photographic evidence there was a lot of time spent bowling on the Wii, drinking beers, and eating fondu and other delicious treats that Kelly (and others) had made. Again, let me reiterate, I turned 25. Not 35. Nosirree. Nope.

Around mid-November, my company sent the Engineering team down to Napa Valley and San Francisco for a day/night to celebrate the latest release of our software. Had a fun time, despite the fact that I don’t have any love for wine. However, some awesome coworkers had my back, and picked up some cans of Guinness and Boddingtons for me to gulp while on the bus. Thanks guys!

Shortly after the trip to Napa, I got sick with what I can only assume to be the dreaded pigmanflu (given the fever, aches, etc). It wasn’t much fun.

Guinness is back on tap on the Kegerator (yay!).

Christmas time! Kelly and I got a nice tree this year from a daycare up the street from our house (proceeds go to help the daycare, so that makes it extra festive). Our evil cat Arthur Guinness took to climbing it repeatedly. Stupid cat. We went out to my folks place on Christmas day (as is tradition) and ate too much and opened gifts. A couple days later we went to my aunts and exchanged white elephant gifts and again ate a bit too much, and got to hang out with some of my cousins.

A couple days later I got sick again, this time with a more common cold (I blame this on Kelly, since she had it first). Sniffles, cough, bleh.

The other day, out of nowhere, it snowed a bit in PDX. And this one was unexpected and caught everyone off guard. It started around 2pm or so, and by 5pm, there was a little over 2 inches of snow in our neighborhood. Watching the news of the rush-hour traffic, the roads were a mess, especially since nobody was prepared for the conditions and loads of people got stuck trying to get in or out of town. People, including my brother, spent 8 hours or more trying to get from point A to B.

That same night, Kelly and I attended a Squirrel Nut Zippers concert in Southeast Portland (at the Aladdin Theater) which she had bought for me as a Christmas gift. We weren’t sure if we were going to bother going out or not up until an hour before the show, however I’m glad we braved the roads because it was a really fun show. We hadn’t seen them in about 5 years (since their hiatus), and they put on a really good show, putting some stylistic twists some of their old songs, and performing them all with all the fun that I expected from a SNZ show.

Tonight we celebrated New Years at our good friends T & S’s place (who fortunately live just over a mile away from us) which meant for the first time in many years we didn’t host the party. This was good primarily since both Kelly and I are still recovering from our illnesses. However we came home pretty quickly after midnight, and here I am.

Here’s to hoping that 2010 will be a better year all around than 2009.

And for some Way Back Machine-ing, here’s a quote from the Counting Crows song ‘A Long December‘ (watch the video for a younger Courteney Cox, back when she dated Adam Duritz in 1997):

And it’s been a long December and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last

Happy New Years all!

Categories
Travel

San Francisco, day 4 (fin)

Before leaving San Francisco, Kelly and I had some time to kill so we wandered around a bit, visited Union Square one last time, and had lunch at the little cafe that’s at one end of the square. Going from downtown to the airport to the gate went smoothly, but then as we sat down, we were told that our flight was delayed while SFO’s air traffic control figured out how to get our plane on the ground. We were delayed about 40 minutes. I realize that SFO is a big international airport, but it seems that they’re too big for their own good.

We got back to PDX in decent time, and holy moly is it raining out! Ran to the store for some provisions and soon it’ll be time for dinner, then laundry, then relaxing before work tomorrow.

To recap the trip: It was a really fun mini-vacation that felt longer than it was (which is a good thing). We ate good food, walked a lot, and saw a lot in only a couple days. One thing was obvious, San Francisco is a big international tourist destination (we heard a lot of foreign languages wherever we went, including a lot of French), not sure why but it surprised me a little.

Anyway, all photos are on the gallery, in case you’re bored.

Categories
Travel

San Francisco, day 3

Today Kelly and I had a delicious breakfast at a 50’s-inspired diner called Lori’s, drove to San Jose for a Cinco de Mayo festival (the work event Kelly came down here for), then back to San Francisco, walked around Chinatown, had a delicious dinner, and finished the night off at the Irish Bank (the Irish pub we’ve visited each night while here).

Tomorrow we fly home. We’re supposed to get back to Portland at 5pm, however, that will depend on whether SFO has their shit together enough to get us off the ground on time. Anyway, that’s all, more photos being uploaded to the gallery as I write this. G’night!

Categories
Beer Travel

San Francisco, day 2

Kelly and I walked today. A lot. About 6 miles in total, including the Embarcadero from Pier 1 through 45 (including the touristy Pier 39 and Hyde Pier) and then up the very steep Hyde St back towards our hotel). Wandered inside both an old ferry boat, and an old cargo ship, shared a delicious hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square, had a few beers at a pub not far from our hotel, and some delicious pizza at a place called Uncle Vito’s. Good day. Long day. Tired. More photos added to the gallery.

Categories
Travel

San Francisco, day 1

Made it to San Francisco. Finally. The flight was supposed to leave at 1pm, but was delayed 2 hours because San Francisco was boggled by weather or something and couldn’t get their shit straightened out. So, Kelly and I sat at PDX for 2 hours. Once boarded. We sat some more. When we were flying over San Francisco, we had to make circles for a while. What should have been a home to hotel trip of 4 hours took 7. Oh well, we’re here.

Sadly, weather changed from the forecast I read yesterday, and it was drizzly grey most of the night. However, at least it’s not freezing cold. Kelly and I walked for hours and hours, up steep hills, down steep hills, etc. Had dinner at an Italian place, I had a couple pints at a couple Irish pubs, and at one point we walked past a string of high-end shops that had their windows punctured or shattered by May Day protesters. All in all, a pretty eventful day.

Photos are on the gallery, where I’ll continue adding ’em over the next couple days. Now, it’s sleepy time.