Worn and Bruised after defeating Klarg and his minions, the party collapses in the cavern and recovers with a long night’s rest.  They search the cave for  treasure and clues about the whereabouts of their dwarven patron Gundren to no avail, only the spoils of a recent raid are evident.

Spoilers below the fold.

This post is guest-posted on Dave Knows Portland as well. When Dave asks, it is imperative that you do the right thing. Especially when it’s “Hey, Rick, would you like to checkout this new restaurant that serves tasty BBQ and delicious grown-up beverages?” So, I did the right thing: show up to Southland for a preview of their tasty menu. Southlandis a new project by the folks who brought the Casa del Matador to Portland located just a couple doors down at 1422 NW 23rd.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

Well, today was the due date. I haven’t talked about it much, but N and I are expecting a little girl here anytime. She’s been a trooper, we went out to a Christmas party last night, walked to NePo42for a tasty breakfast. She got gorgeous fluffy pancakes with apple (real apples hunks…bigger than chunks) and I got the biscuits and gravy and a bloody mary. Augie got pet but no food.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers. PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

Jeff at Beervana poses a question: what five beers are a connoisseur’s must-haves visiting Portland. I might have to tackle that, but really, Jeff is really on top of that in his post. I suggested a different route, a road trip around Mt. Hood. But I also threw in a crawl that I think is really worth sharing with your Portland visitors. Begin at Rontom’s. If it’s nice out, enjoy the patio.

It’s been an amazing year. In some ways great, but there were some painful times. It seems that there’s a cycle where every now and then I need to go through some changes. Change is painful, and this was no exception. I didn’t always handle it well, and at points I handled it very badly. I’m not sure that I was built with the emotional fortitude to maintain the stoic coolness I’d need to manage the changes.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

I just finished BSG, the whole shebang. It was awesome. Here’s a tip if you’re viewing the final DVD of season 4.5: Daybreak extended is like the Director’s Cut of Daybreak episodes 1-3. I was unsure if it was all, or part of them, and spent some time searching the internets for that info (carefully avoiding spoilers). So watch whichever you prefer, you’ll get about the same content told differently.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

My wife wanted to support what sounded like an interesting idea. Pay it forward cards. I’m not going to go into the idea, because they’re not worth my time. It sounded like fun, she ordered some. Somehow she ended up with the wrong cards. She called, they blamed her. A company that deals in karma points should have a somewhat better perspective. Akoha, I’m playing it forward to you…you fail.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

Had a great weekend with some buddies camping over on the other side of the Cascades. We got out of town right after work on Friday and beat most of the bad Portland weather. At the top of 197 there was some gnarly snow and I was a bit concerned that we’d get stuck, but it let up surprisingly soon, and we saw no more precipitation for over 24 hours.

Word travels fast. Shortly after this was announced, we decided to crash it. You can see some more photos on my photostream or picasa. Some are a bit more adult than my usual fare, but nothing that’ll get you fired. Jane Wells has an entertaining summary also, featuring a shot of me and a few other crashers. . Thank you, Etnies!

‘”Change has come” and we can all work together for a better and united future for all in our country and worldwide.’ That was my mom in the comments tonite. We had a fun little election party, and for the first time in a long time, we ended up happy, not just wiser. And we cheered. McCain’s speech was great. That McCain may have won the election. He was honest, sincere, honorable, clear, and inspiring.

Oh, the disappointment. Later and later it got at the Yukon Tavern, drinking Pabst after Pabst, watching the states black out one after another. The red carpet on the walls and the mannequin legs dangling above. Great conversation as we drifted further and further into desperate (to know!) drunkenness, and then even further into it with desperation not to know. Doin’ it bourgeois-style at Everyday Wine. Grimmer and grimmer.

Kali, one of my favorite pups in the whole world passed on this morning. She was always so sweet, and just wanted to be loved as much as she loved you. A great personality, she’ll be in my heart. And my love goes out to ACUC, I can only imagine how you are hurting today. Here’s my effort to help you celebrate her. And this video I came across just tugged at my hearstrings…it’s not Kali, but I think you get it.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. Got my Universal Life Church ministry certificate because a couple friends had asked me to perform their wedding services. This past week was the week. The first was on Sunday, and the second on Friday. I’ve been just a wee bit busy with all of that…meeting families, drinking beer, BBQing, clamming, crabbing, camping, cooking, eating, driving, playing hookie, and petting my dog and smooching my lady.

My Minnesota buddy Don had a crazy time in Peru…read the tale of his questionable guide Roberto Penny Cabrera (Desert Man of Ica) as they defied death in the desert. He has a few gorgeous photos to help capture their experience as the drunken guide barreled through the dunes to show them a lone skeleton, send them on their way to explore alone, and rescue a hapless cyclist traveling the desert.

This is pretty sweet. Now if only my credit union will get on that! props amanders.

woohoo! It’s no longer an unslayable dragon! I just finished my first ever bicycle ride from Beaverton to home on the Portland eastside. It was about 17.5 miles. Here’s a link to basically the same route, thank you bycycle.org. Instead of staying on Tillamook, I cruised up at 60th to Sacramento and rode along the nice Alameda Ridge.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

If any of y’all are interested in checking out an interesting social phenomena or just partying along with soccer, head out to Delta Park this weekend during the daylight hours. Our little subculture called the Moist Coalition is gathering to play in the Classic tourney over Memorial Day. It’s ridiculous, great fun, and full-on immersion in something beautiful. It’s really pretty amazing…so many people, often many have never met, and just good times.

Stepping out of Powell’s technical yesterday, I was a bit confused by the gleeful roar I hear in the distance. As I turned onto Couch from the park blocks, the noise grew louder and more distinct. Looking towards the Willamette I was a bit astonished by the source: a colorful crowd of people running shopping carts down the middle of the street. At first I thought this was some sort of guerilla theater event, but as I watched, the roar grew louder, and the crowd kept coming.

Gorgeous snowshoe weekend celebrating oregon mountain ninja’s birthday out on the south side of Mt. Hood. The OMN acquired access to some remote huts through Cascade Huts. It was about 5 miles each way, to arrive at the huts, which were fitted with bunkbeds, propane (heat and stove), and other basic gear. Our group met at the snow park where we began the route at around 11, and were on the snow shortly after.

Went to Ignite last week, it was pretty sweet. The premise is a bunch of presenters get up and talk about something presumably interesting for a little while. The catch is that they have exactly five minutes, 20 slides (power-pointish), 15 seconds each, and they roll automatically. That keeps things moving and keeps you on your toes. And from experience (not at Ignite), talking about something for five minutes can be tough.

Other than being a generally good weekend, certain events made it absolutely terrible. The hard drive on my personal computer failed, yielding no effort at booting. Shortly after, the hard drive on my work computer failed, giving an effort at booting, but being pretty darn corrupted. Then I got a flat tire. ugh. Other than that is was pretty nice, we threw a good party, I scored a goal, went for a nice hike, and got stuff done around the house.

Been a crazy busy time recently, been moving, hiking, camping, skiing, snowshoeing, drinking beer, and squeezing in a bit of work. I actually have a few posts written, but my hard drive is full and I haven’t had a chance (motivation?) to clear out some space to get the photos onto it. blah. cheers.

After leaving the Mendenhall Glacier, we drove immediately to a beerdrinker’s mecca, the Alaskan Brewing Company, home of the delicious Alaskan Amber and a number of other tasty beers. I was surprised that the Alaskan brewery had no brewpub. From the sound of conversations (though nothing explicit or even really implied), they’ve chosen to respect local pubs who supported them as they grew. It’s a sensible division of labor.

We arrived in Juneau after a long flight on the milk run, stopping in Wrangell and Petersburg on the way to deliver supplies and mail to these smaller outposts. The flights lasted 15-20 minutes each, but the wait at each airport was much longer. I asked if I could get off and take some photos on the tarmac (it was beautiful) and they told me “sure. If you want to be arrested.

“Hey dude, what’re you doing next weekend?” Jay asked me. “Uh, just getting ready to move. Why?” “We were wondering if y’all wanted to go to Alaska or Denver.” “Totally. Which one?” “We’re taking a vote.” “Alaska” No doubt. So we got hooked-up with buddy passes to Alaska. Standby flights, no carry-ons. A lot of airport time. Portland to Seattle to Ketchikan, overnight in Ketchikan, to Wrangell to Petersburg to Juneau.

Me and some fellas hit up some cold-weather camping the other weekend up near Bagby. It wasn’t quite as cold as we’d hoped, but we had a massive fire anyway! On the way up, we saw a bald eagle. We drank some beer, with predictable outcomes. Augie got really sick and wanted to stay in my tent. I ended up taking the poor guy to Dove Lewis.

Halloween was a blast this year, here are some pictures of my adventures. For Halloween lunch, some I went to Popeye’s to check on the competition. Inside, I investigated their operation. I did not expect them to use 11 secret herbs and spices. The key was to find out how many they were putting to use. They weren’t cracking. It became apparent that I needed to dig deeper. So I got me a box o’ chicken and some mashed taters.

You’re in the Pearl District meeting some folks, it’s going to be hours. But you need to park, and it’s the Pearl so you have to pay to park. Two hours max. So you figure out the green monster and get your two-hour slip, and stick it to your window where it will eventually be sucked inside the passenger door. You pull out your cell phone and make a call: “Remind me to pay parking in two hours,” and go off to your meeting.

We had an unexpected guest this weekend. Driving down Sand Blvd. after picking up some food for dinner Saturday, a small dog darted across the street in front of me. I turned off to follow and see if there was a sign of his owner around, but he was on his own. He did have a small leash dangling behind him and a collar, but no tags. A passerby and I got him into my car and I took the small dog home.

N and I braved the I-5 bridge into Vancouver Friday night to see the Smashing Pumpkins play the Clark County Amphitheater. Perry Farrell opened with his new band Satellite Party, and they were good and fun. I kept thinking…wow, I’m watching Perry Farrell sing Jane Says or Pets or whatever. But the Pumpkins hit the stage and they absolutely killed it. Heavy, heavy shredding guitar. Huge rhythms with their classic psychedelic licks.

light lately, but that’s because I’ve been writing little mini-fictions over at ficlets. Here’s me. The account system is pretty neat, let me know if you have trouble getting signed up if you’re into it and I can help you out.

Oh wow, it was a crazy week. I’m only just recovering. And I’m talking about last week, not the one we’re in now. It started off Friday with a bachelor party. Me and some dudes went up to Vancouver BC to send Dustin off with style. It was a good time, we ate, wandered, laughed, drank, and did some obligatory bachelor party things. Good times. Sunday night after the baseball game, I got dropped off at YVR (Vancouver’s airport) where I caught a flight to San Diego (SAN, in case you’re checking).

Continuing on this odd consumption-oriented kick I’ve been on, Trader Joes moved out of their old location and into a new one two blocks away. And it is way better. Truly, seriously an improvement. Trust me when I tell you that even though I’ve not been closer than 100′ from the new location. Because the old location sucked eggs bigtime. It was cramped way beyond cat-swinging range. That many Joe’s shoppers packed that tightly just radiate bad mojo, and I feel it and it makes me want to go outside and sit on the curb and sulk, alone with the package of tamales that I managed to snag, holding it, realizing that I hadn’t paid and that I really really don’t want to wait in that line and do I really want the tamales that bad when I can go get cheaper better ones at Taqueria Don Pancho and so I drift into a pit of nihilistic despair I don’t care about the tamales or the lines or that I’m on Sandy Blvd on my knees beating the paved earth grinding the chicken tamales into my forehead yelling wishing (but not caring!

Okay, this is going to sound like heresy, but I did not attend the beerfest this weekend. At some point I made a hasty promise to the lady that we could hit Ikea on Friday in the afternoon. And I made good, got out of work early, and we cruised over to the massive furniture store. And we had a good time. It was pretty exhausting examining 4 billion pieces of furniture, but I really enjoy Ikea.

No pics. Maybe there’s one, but I don’t have it. Anyway, I was responsible for putting together a bachelor party to happen last Saturday, for my buddy Sean. We opened it up at the Jolly Roger for various booze, fried things, and jello shots, followed by a nice afternoon tubing down the Clack…can’t imagine why we had the river to ourselves…? And then we went out for steaks. Details omitted to honor the guilty and protect the innocent.

Santa Cruz is a pretty sweet city. It’s gorgeous. There’s a beautiful beach, tons of restaurants, shops, and things to do. A few good breweries. Nice views, hikes nearby. It was selected as one of Outside’s most desirable places to live (Portland too!). But after a few days here, I’ve found myself wondering: where is the soul of this city? And I haven’t found it. Time on the beach is great, the sand is pleasant with the sound of the surf and the seagulls, a heavy sun radiating powerfully, beautiful people building sand structures to watch them erode with the tides.

This lackluster season of 24 is finally over.

Thursday was a beautiful day to ride my bike. Things soured a bit on my way home. Crossing Halsey around 47th (near the Daily), I was absently putting my foot into the stirrup, when upon looking up, I was almost on top of the curb. I attempted evasive action, but clipped it and fell. Dumb, oh well. I got back on my bike and continued down the bike path (designated shared…happily there was no traffic).

Well, I’ve closed the injury trifecta by breaking a metacarpal last night in a bike accident (single vehicle). I went to the urgent care last night and the good Dr. told me to see a hand/wrist specialist. Calling around today, it just feels like nobody’s broken a bone here in Portland before. I can’t get in to an appointment until next week, nobody can answer any questions…shoot, they don’t even understand the questions.

Two recent projects of mine came together recently, with pretty nice results! I’ve been making sourdough bread for a couple months now, and it has been working well. In addition, I visited New York recently. As we all know, bread+NY=pizza. Except in alternate axiom sets where bread+NY=bagels, but we’re in my reality. Plus, while bagels were all over New York, most of them were nothing special. Not that I didn’t find some grub ones, it’s just that most were delivered from somewhere, and really not that great.

Just got back from NYC. It was a lot of fun, but catching up afterwards with regular has kept me from getting everything current. I do have a bunch of pics up, so just click on this one to get to my picasasite. I will be posting some info on my experiences with New York pizza, and probably some tales of good times. cheers!

It’s looking to be a pretty sweet Spring, if I can just get myself healed. I put together the hammock N gave me for my bday last Fall, and have gotten to relax in it just a little bit, as you can see… I’ve also gotten into bread making a bit. Well, today I’m making my second batch. This is sourdough, and it came out great. In the first one I forgot to add salt, so it was really just flour and water (and starter).

Just got back from a conference in Vegas. I played hard and learned a lot. And I drank a bunch of crappy light beer. At the craps table one time, asked what I’d like to drink I responded “light beer.” I had a brief out of body experience as the words escaped between my lips. She returned with some form of Miller. We have it really good here in the Northwest.

Went with some friends to Bend this weekend for some sweet skiing and casual times. We stayed at the Holiday Inn (express?) Thursday night, checked into our place at the 7th Mountain Friday morning, and hit the slopes for an absolutely gorgeous day. The snow was pleasant but well-worn. The day was gorgeous, I started off with a sweatshirt, T-shirt, and windbreaker, but dumped the sweatshirt after sweating down two runs.

I went to see the Iranian film Offside last week at the Portland International Film Festival (henceforth it will be PIFF). It was showing at the Broadway, which while of a much lower brow than the Portland Art Museum where I saw Hear and Now, it is a far better venue for watching movies. Especially ones with subtitles, which is one way to evolve them from movie to film. Sometime ago, I saw a soccer matchinvolving Saudi Arabia getting somewhat pummeled by the Ukrainian side.

Alright, so I got LASIK two weeks ago. The next day I caught a miserable cold and have been exhausted ever since. But I’m finally about over it. And my eyes feel great! I can now see really well. I wake up and can read the clock. That’s a big thing. I think I can see now better than I’ve ever seen in my life. My fun new game is to challenge “sighted” people to see who can read smaller things further.

Going in to get LASIK done today. That’s it. I’ll letcha know how it goes. cheers.

My backyard, of course! Man, it totally snowed in Portland this morning! I drove a bit and my recommendation is stay of the road, it’s like frogger out there. Anyway, I went to grab a shovel to clear my sidewalk and noticed some beer chilling in the yard. Good times.

Oh, man, we got styled this weekend for the foodstuffs! Friday, N and I cruised over to our friend Treung’s place for some risk, where he’d ordered a TON of chinese food. Oh man, it was good, and so much variety! Chinese like that is fun when you aren’t ordering because you get to try a bunch of new things. Some beans, shrimp, chicken, oh my! Saturday, after waking up late and hungover from playing Risk until 4am eating Chinese food and drinking Wild Turkey, we picked up my car and cruised over to Mike and Leona’s place.

Sweet! My buddy M@ hooked me up with a ticket to GnR Monday. Being one of my favorite all-time bands, I was stoked. Honestly I wasn’t that excited about the opener, Sebastian Bach (Skid Row), who I’d seen open for GnR some 16 years ago. I’ve always considered Skid Row to be wussy rock, a sort of precursor to Incubus (who should’ve stuck with the funky stuff they put out early).

Thanks for all the well-wishes and such. My toe is healing, soccer is a long way off but I’m planning to return to work tomorrow, and drove a car today for the first time since Thursday. woohoo! Pain is way down, pretty much completely off the meds, but stinky because showers are a hassle! cheers.

Sitting on my ass today because I had surgery this morning. Nothing too significant, but I am missing the rest of the soccer season. Three season, I guess. There was some bone matter and cartilage mucking up the joint in my big toe. My kickin’ toe. I asked to bring the pieces home in a jar but I guess it’s hospital policy no to alow that. I was good and didn’t play soccer last night in hopes of not bashing it up worse than it is.

So I’ve been in Oakdale and Modesto the last few days for my high school reunion. 15 years holy crap. I think I’ll submit my denial in the existence of time right now, and if you’re the noting type, please note that. But that’s not what I’m here for today. I need to send props to my classmates for being a super-cool bunch of people. I saw a ton of people (metric) who I haven’t seen in a long time.

Alright cave-dwellers, time to explore beerdrinking venues for the merit of their tunes rather than their ales. And lagers if that’s what you’re into. The Musicfest NW is going on, and there are a lot of great acts to see. Last night the Black Keys rocked. That’s the only show I saw, getting a late start and opting out of the Dandy Warhols. Tonite, there are so many bands conflicting that I am a bit conflicted myself.

After hiking the other week, I found myself lacking skin on my heels, a condition which makes exercise with shoes less appealing. In an effort to keep on keepin on I found a new activity- yoga. Bright-eyed and barefoot I followed Ann to my first class, some Asstangle or something. Halfway through sweat was just pouring off me as I struggle to go from downward dog to somehow unsuccessfully jump my feet in front of my hands.

These are pics from our hike in the Bull of the Woods Mountain wilderness area. The story is below for you wordy types. This came out alright. Me and dave pretequila. I don’t think he’s that much taller than me…? This is me as the Kool-Aid man. Oh yeah. Dave post-tequila Here I was fishing. Those trout are lucky there’s just one of me. This is at the fire lookout on top of Bull of the Woods Mountain.

106 degrees (41C for you euros out there) in Portland. A bit cooler at the coast, and frickin hot in the gorge and the Cascades. Sounds like the perfect weekend to get back into backpacking and beat the crowds. So I’m figuring a solo trip into the gorge, but I got my buddy Dave into it. He’s experienced and we hit the Bull of the Woods Mountain area. Which is huge, diverse, and has a bunch of lakes.

I arrive Friday late afternoon. We drink coffee at his house and ride the train to the city. My card is not working so I have no money. We drink beer on the train, many people do. Often there are little stores conveniently located to sell one a bottle of beer. Not many cans here. We walk around and have what appears to be lebanese food, similar to a doner. Which is not too different than gyros bot more cabbage and sometimes different bread.

I predict Germany will be the winner of the world cup this year. And here is my proof. Word on the street is that Brazil is favored and I accept that. But is their probability better than 50% to win? I think not. Thus, we must say that a team other than Brazil should win. Looking at the field, Germany seems to be the strongest and carry the greatest odds.

Heads up, I’m just posting these as I have time and in whatever order I feel like. If you’re hoping for up-to-the-minute scores, check out FIFA’s website. Lunched with Nina’s family, had the white asparagus so popular here for the first time. It was really good and made my piss smell different that regular asparagus. Then off to Lasser’s for sone BBQ with some friends and to watch Germany play Ecuador.

On the way to the Fan Fest downtown Hamburg I saw a woman jogging in a turquoise Ramones T-shirt. Something was about to happen. Tobi started singing ‘yellow — yellow — yellowred’ and I joined it. Just a made-up song for the game, early in the second half. But that described it. Four red cards, all of them double yellows, and I felt mostly ridiculous. In fact, there were a couple red cards I felt would be deserved, but they didn’t get raised.

so, you may have noticed by now that I’m not talking about German beer that much. Well, it’s there and it’s good and there’s a lot of it. Not necessarily in me at the moment but passing through. Lots of Pilseners. Beck’s Gold has been really popular with the circles I’m running with, as well as Radlers which are some sort of lemon/beer mix. I enjoyed a nice Koenig Pilsener last night when I got back from Berlin in time to watch the extra time in the Argentina/Mexico game.

Today I was mistaken for a Swede for the first time. Watching them play England, I’d noticed the mullet was more popular on their side. Still sporting it. After watching the early games (Mexico v Portugal and Angola v Iran) with Tobi, Flo and I cruised down to the Hamburg Fan Fest. Much larger than the ones at Cologne and Hannover, there was a great festival atmosphere with food offered from each of the 32 countries.

Monday, second game ticket. Probably the last, Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia. In their first game against Tunisia the Saudis played remarkably well. They are certainly capable of applying pressure up front and occasionally pull together some really pretty soccer. This was true against the Ukraine as well, nearly scoring on several occasions. Unfortunately, the defense, quite porous against Tunisia and rarely winning in the air, remained weak. A keeper error placed the ball in a dangerous area, which Ukraine capitalized on.

Just found out I got a ticket for Czech vs. Italy. I’m excited, it’ll be a great game, but a little sad not to see the US game live. Watch for me, I’ll be in the US jersey with the US towel. btw, I may not be saying much about beer, I’m way behind on writing so it’s just World Cup adventures so far. oboy, what an awesome game this will be!

The fellow from Ghana summed it up painfully sweet: “I can’t root for the US, you don’t have any songs!” So our merry band of wanderers did what we could with what we had. Three letters and a movie. For the most part we spent the day shouting U-S-A U-S-A over the roar of ee-tahl-ya ee-tahl-ya until our throats were hoarse, moistened only by sweet German lager. Then we realized that We have a fight song.

Today you should look forward to some of the best and most importand matches of first-round group play. The games are the third round of Group E, which some have dubbed this year’s group of death. Others have debated it, but now I think the debaters have shut up because it is pretty clear. Czech beat US. US tied Italy. Italy beat Ghana. Ghana beat Czech. For standings, Italy has four, Czech and Ghana have three, and the US has one.

13 June 06. Impatiently she shakes her head. Why haven’t they helped her yet, she has children! Not with her…but she does. Continuously shaking or grunting, she stalks the window. To my left security guards chuckle. She stands up, steps, glares, and sits again to shake her head more. Still shaking, the window clears, she is there before the numbers change. Friendly as can be, smiling, talking about her four kids under two.

I slept the entire drive from Hamburg to Hannover and woke still tired. I’d just arrived in Germany that morning due to the passport mayhem I’ll fill you in on later. Jetlag was definitely impacting me but I’m a trooper! We parked maybe a kilometer from the stadium and wald to the Fan Fest, these town square setups in each city with a huge screen, beer (cheaper than water or soda), and food.

At this time I will attempt to put fotos on the interweb. Update: looks like I need to do a bit of cropping…you can see the whole picture by viewing it in a new window in the meantime. Of course, I’m on a German Mac right now, so who knows what y’all back home are seeing. (more) sorry, I’m going to need help to figure out the annoying kodak foto editor in German, so y’all will have to deal with odd views of the pics unless you view the whole thing (I’m seeing just the far left edge of the pics here).

well holy crap I’m on day four of my beer drinking world cup tour, and having an awesome time! I’ve seen Mexico tie Angola (wished for a goal to hear the stadium explode there were so many Mexican fans) live, stood 20 americans yelling over 10,000 italians in Cologne watching the USA outplay Italy with a man down at the Fan Fest drinking copious beer making day-long friends for life I’ll never see again, hung out with some true old friends, driven the autobahn, and travelled to three great cities…Hannover, Cologne, and Hamburg.

I am super-excited, leaving for Germany tomorrow morning. I probably won’t post many pics while I’m there because I won’t have the camera dongle, but maybe my german buddy will throw me a bone on that. I’m seeing two games, Mexico vs. Angola and Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia. Oh boy, I’m really gonna miss my lady and pup and folks back home, but I don’t think I’ll have too much time to pine away on it.

well holy crap I’ve been lazy about posting latetly. Plenty of beer drining has been going on, I just finished up one of my big projects for the year: the Moist Tournament. Anyway, it was an awesome friggin time, and don’t get me wrong, I don’t run the tourney. We just put three teams into it and a lot of blood, beer-laden sweat, and tears. That was over memorial day. There should be some excellent pictures coming out of it.

Mt. Bachelor had many wonderful things but they didn’t have free beer!

Just got back into town after a sweet weekend in Bend with some buddies. Went skiing two days, and it wsa great…couldn’t ask for a better day than Saturday! Just a nice time…a little gaming, cruising the town, and eating/drinking beyond the ski good times. Went two two really great spots…the first was a kickass restaurant/lounge called The Grove right across the street from the Deschuttes brewpub. I got this steak with chimichurri sauce that was out of this world.

tater tot casserole mac’n cheese chili 2lbs of bacon (w/Hamm’s) cheetos with cheese hot out of the microwave tots condiments beer I don’t think that’s love in the air I’m smellin.

A lot of playing today, after a Saturday workday. Played an indoor [soccer] game last night, and went out for a few beers after…turned out to be a buddy’s bday so my plans to get to bed early (before midnite) were thwarted. Crashed around one, so not too bad except I’ve been fighting a cold and had to get up at 6:30am to go skiing (two planks). The other mountain warriors arrived 7ish, and we cruised up to the mountain…an uneventful drive, and smooth!

I’ve written about the roller derby before. And here it is again.  Last time was an exhibition. This weekend, these ladies were for real. The league has begun, and they kicked ass. The Rose City Rollers is Portland’s roller derby league, and it is currently comprised of 4 teams: sweet Breakneck Betties, ritzy High Rollers, compassionless Heartless Heathers, and the evil Guns ‘n Rollers. Sometime since the exhibition match these ladies became athletes.

and happy stinkin new year! Now go replace one bad habit with another.

Just recovering from a kickass broomball party last night. Lots of good friends and new friends showed up, and we drank my keg ‘o homebrew and a pony of India Pelican Ale, a very tasty IPA, with plenty of hops and flavor. I received many nice bottles of beer, so look forward to some reviews in the days to come…I have to reclaim some space in the fridge (I’ve had worse problems tho!

Portland now has a roller derby team. The Rose City Rollers. Well, we’ve actually got four teams. And they’ve been around for a year or two. But Saturday night marked their first real competition. I’ve been going to their fundraisers since the beginning, and harassing my buddy D-Day about having an actual competition. I was having my doubts that it would ever happen. It did. Oh my, did it happen. That shyte went off.

fixin my friggin bathroom. Okay. So I’m not that savvy on home repairs, so when N noticed a leak going from the bathroom to the basement, I knew I was in trouble. I might’ve gone a bit nuts. Fearing that the whole thing was rotted through and through I started tearing shyte apart. Fun! Then I realized, crap, I don’t know what I’m doing. And my man M@ came to the rescue.

There’re a lot of nice benefits about working at a place with lots to do with athletics, but one of the best is one that I take advantage of the least: lunchtime soccer. Today I went out and it was absolutely beautiful. The weather was cool, the ground was soft, but it wasn’t sloppy. We’re not to the diehard season yet, but the people who’re out there are more serious and thoughtful, and love the sport.

It’s taken be awhile to write this up, but before heading off to Boston I hit the Oktoberfest at Oaks Bottom Park with some friends. It was the usual good time, singing, beer, brats, beer, and cup pyramids. Until we went off to the big tent, where we found more singing and beer. And some yelling. And then it happened. They called for participants in the sausage eating contest. Two humans formed a tag-team style pair of consumers…the one feeding sausage to the other, and then switching after the first is completed.

Off to Boston for the week. Should be good times, and workin times.

My German buddies were in town the last week. It’s always a pleasure to hang out with them, they’re such fun fold. This time they brought along their small child as well…wow, what a sweet little handful. Flo and Nina got into town last Thursday, direct from Germany so they were a bit tired, otherwise I would’ve taken them by last Thursday on Alberta, my hood. I took Flo to see the Timbers tie Vancouver (ugh…what a bummer of a lame-ass red card in the 24th) and we hung out with the Timbers Army.

I’ve been in Anaheim all week long at a convention. It’s been pretty cool, I came down with one other fella. Being a convention we had minor convention-like adventures, including, but not limited to: eating at the mall drinking at the mall wearing a name tag drinking at a bar named after something baseball competing to obtain the most useful/cool/bizarre free crap Yes, there were adventures a-plenty. On Tuesday we went to Disney’s California Adventure, where the food and rides were free, but the beer had a shorter line (and was free too…eat your heart out OLCC!

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Skip Barber racing class. A friend’s friend had a birthday and basically sported a bunch of us for a day class. That had to be one of the most exciting things ever! D and I flew to Cali, into San Jose or something, and rented ourselves an ’04 convertible mustang. Yellow. As the class was starting early the next morning at Laguna Seca, some couple hours south of us, we deemed it appropriate to head north into San Francisco to hang with some friends.

ok. blog spam is a blight on my life. It’s been so bad that I haven’t even been able to look at my poor little bloggy. Well, I did the upgrade of the software and spam has not been much of a problem so far. Since I last spewed a few things’ve changed. I got a new job at a little shoe store a bit west of portland. It’s been a good time, I’ve been working a lot, but diggin it and getting things done.

Yesterday was one of the more unique days of my life. It was my last day at Qsent, the culmination of my two weeks and a day notice. I experienced quite a range of emotions throughout the day, and into the night as I saw people who have been friends and coworkers for quite sometime, not for the last time, but for the last time in that phase of my existence.

Last night I got home and went with N to give Augie a walk…well we just cruised over to the school to toss the ball. Anyway, on the way out I noticed this warm breeze, I assumed it was one of those grates venting some warm air, because it was really warm. But on the way back home the air was still venting but there were no vents around. So I figured it was swamp gas and hurried home and locked the door before some swamp beast came and grabbed us.

I have no doubt that this is 2005 now. None of the usual last year being written down for the first 30 days or so. 2005 up and whacked me with a ‘luminum bat. Maybe it’s my NYE resolution: 2005 is gonna rock. It has, but wow, it’s been serious about it. I’ve done some heavy damage control with the men’s soccer team I manage…a player made some odd decisions that I didn’t like much and affected the team and that’s required a lot of work and is still ongoing.

Today is sysadmin appreciation day. I’d forgotten, but some people in our office didn’t, and they gave us cookies and yum-yums! Thanks all! Maybe I’ll go out to beers later too. Yeah, maybe.

Last night I went and saw Portland’s beloved Timbers, an A-league soccer team, kick the crap out of the Earthquakes, one of the top MLS teams. For about 20 minutes. That’s when a horribly biased or incompetent officiating staff booked the Timbers with a red card, while simultaneously giving the Earthquakes a free goal in the form of a penalty kick…only me, Dave, and Beckham miss those. But anyway, we were rocking the quakes in terms of possession, position, shots, and similar, up until the bogus booking, and then even after that, we held a strong showing.

I got me a Utilikilt while I was working the Augie Bag tent at Pride. I like it lots, and recommend that all you guys rush on out and get some. No pics of it yet, maybe I’ll get one and toss it on for an update.

Ah, a happy busy weekend, I tried my hand at golfing on Saturday with my buddy over at Ojingo. It was loads of fun, actually, because I found that I could this the stupid ball more than ten feet this time! I improved drastically between hole 1 and hole 9, and actually got a par 5 in 6 strokes…not bad for my third time golfing I think. After golfing, we went back to my place and started up a batch of homebrewed IPA.

Can’t believe how the week just flew by! Well, it’s been a good one. The Memorial Classic soccer tournament happened last weekend down at Delta Park. My buddies and I put together two teams to play in it– the Moist Coalition, consisting of Moist United and FC Moist. We setup camp at the far end with two canopies, tons of coolers and chairs, and plenty of sweaty fellas. But you didn’t need to know that last part.

Got out and did the ole windsurfing lesson yesterday. It was great fun. And really friggin hard. I’d expected to be far better at it far faster than I ever was. I don’t mean that I thought I’d immediately have the ability to ‘shred’ but I thought I’d be able to zip across the lake, execute a simple turn, and come back. Lake/river/whatever it was, it was called The Hook, and was somehow associated with the Columbia River.

Ugh, I’ve been pretty quiet lately. Here’s a hint of why. Not that I’m complaining…it beats being bored. 6:45 woken by work,after getting to sleep after 1am, because of customer issue (no worries tho…you know who you are ;). Work problem, identify that it’s not ‘our problem’, shower, get to work late at 9:30. Work work work. Go home, pet Augie. Vote. Go to soccer practice. Get home at 8:30, cook dinner, watch 24…almost forgot!

Interesting event yesterday. My buddy Kevin, having built a small motorcross track in his backyard held the first (and, sadly last) annual Hawthorne Classic. Many individuals showed up with their 50 and 100cc dirt bikes to show their mettle in Kevin’s yard. Men, women, and children competed for the coveted awards. The weather was great, the Pabst stayed cold, nobody got hurt, and when the cops came, they left shortly afterwards and never came back.

They sure know how to make you feel special up in Redmond: Getting married? Find tips, tools and the latest trends at MSN Life Events. (from an MSN email footer). Maybe next they’ll have: Dying soon? Visit our online mortuary! Well, it was a busy ole weekend. Had the matriarch side of my family up, and that’s always a good, exhausting time. My bro and I hit it pretty hard when we go out…though I was really good saturday night, mostly because I was pretty well spent from Thursday and Friday.

so, I’ve decided to learn a new sport this year. I’d originally thought kiteboarding, because it looks awesome (like the funnest thing in the world), but after much deliberation I’m leaning 90% towards windsurfing. Right now I’m planning to take a lesson on mid-late May. So, if anyone has any tips for me, or opinions, or just feels like typing something, leave a comment. Particularly useful would be lesson experiences, equipment buying experiences, and general woes and elations.

ah, the joys of the short week. I was out healthy (but sore) Monday and Wednesday. Monday I spent a lot of figuring out how an industrial sewing machine works. Figured out some of it and fixed the problem at hand. And now I know what terms like bobbin and needle mean. Tuesday evening I had a men’s soccer game, much fun, but we lost in a strange game against Thunder.

Poker night last night, some good friends were gonna be there and I had an idea. I needed a way to get the edge. To unleash a barrage, a cavalcade if you will, of devastating emotional attacks. I needed to beat down the spirit, to get the jump on the enemy. Well, knowing the enemy, Taj, I came up with a plan, simple in scope, masterful in execution. As you can see, my plan was not so subtle.

An old friend was in town this weekend to show a film at the Longbaugh Film Festival at the Hollywood theater. I only saw his film, title “Never Say Die”, which wasn’t just his film but his lady-friend Katie also. It’s a documentary about a Black Sabbath cover band called Sabra Cadabra who plays out East in Jersey and/or New York. It was a fun film, with a lot of funny moments, tension, sadness, and information.

What a gorgeous day for a wedding Saturday was. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the rapidly planned wedding of two of the nicest people I know, Bill and Bob. I, of course, was quite late, but showed up tastefully immediately before the ceremony took place and in a fit of class hugged the groom(?) and tried to shove a bottle of Johnny Walker Red into his hands. It was a very nice time, with some very cool people present, tasty treats, a yummy stinkin cake (and another I didn’t try), some noontime champagne (where’s the beer?

Sunday night. Woman with eyepatch hitchhiking on Sandy Blvd. What to do?

Walking into work, there was a light drizzle. A beautiful Portland-style rain, not the binge and purge that we’ve been having this season. I smiled, and loved it, with the water matting my hair. Things went well, I accomplished a lot, and I had a general sense of well-being, even through the mild headache I had briefly. After work I cruised over to SE to coach the kiddies in soccer. It started at 5, so I was late, but not too late.

in a rash display of irresponsibility I drained all my dollars out of my checking account. Happily, I discovered that I had done so at lunch today. Mmm, chile burger, and when I discovered my problem I asked the nice waitess to ‘cancel the cheese’ to put the total below the $5 I was toting in my pocket. She was nice and said she’d cover the cheese, which puts me short for tip and cheese not (woe is me), probably because the sandwich was pretty much ready anyway.

Well, I’ve been in mega-mode lately, sorry about the light postings. I’ve had a lot of little projects going on, mostly life-internal. Two of the big ones involve the house…one is that we’re trying to refinance…maybe it’ll all be well there, and we can save some dollaz. The other, far more time consuming one is that we’re actually trying to clean the place a bit. We’ve been in a bit of a sty since we moved in here, and now we’re actually trying to make it a nice place to live.

Last night was something special. Other than being out far too late on a Thursday (read: Wednesday) I got to see my buddies play their first venue gig. And they rocked in a big way. Way to go Corner Office Suicide. The show was at Conan’s at 39th and Hawthorne, which is a big place. I thought the sound was pretty good…and my boys (and Sara) whooped it up quite nicely.

Well, despite the sucky aspects of the weather, there’ve been some really positive outcomes also. In case you’re reading this and have no idea, East Portland has been pretty much closed since Monday night. I’ve been working from home, because I can and because it’s been pretty nasty out there. So, N and I are getting a bit of the ole cabin fever. But we’re also meeting our neighbors, which is cool.

oi…I’m back from my California trip. It was pleasant, but we got stuck at the Siskiyou pass coming into Oregon. It was an adventure worthy of an entry, so you’ll hear about it. woo. In the meantime, here’s a little twitcher from the Dept of Homeland Security, vi Abrichar, beware of people carrying almanacs. That probably includes Thomas Guides, beer lists, and the Guiness Book of World Records.

hello again! After a wonderful holiday, spent largely behind the wheel on the open highways (well, pretty much just I-5) I’m back and happy and rested and busily re-exhausting myself. N and I went down to visit the grandparents (dad’s parents) and had a jolly time, though there was disappointment that my bro flaked out on the thxgiving festivities. Oh, well, life goes on. My grandad gave me a quick refresher on making peanut brittle, so once I score a nice hunk ‘o marble, I’ll be smearing candy over it.

Went and saw the Polyphonic Spree the other night. It was a really cool show, with a wide variety of acts. The opener was an acordian player who sounded somewhat like Meatloaf, and told tales like Jack Black, while I probably wouldn’t rock out to it in the car, I quite enjoyed his set. He played an amazing We Are the Champions cover (most tunes were original). The second band, The Sleepy Jackson, was fantastic.

I got to go fishing today on a guided trip in Tillamook. I’ve never been much of a fisherman, in fact, before today I had never even hooked a fish. Well, with a hook, that is. Once on a camping trip I caught a trout with my hand (true!) because there was an eddy that they’d pass through on their way downriver. I think that I was as surprised as the fish, which went back into the river.

Seemed like there was something in the air yesterday making people a bit aggro. On my bike I got honked at and a basketbal thrown at me, all with no provocation. At soccer practice we had a pretty good practice, but at the end some of our guys heard a ruckus and went to check it out, three guys had jumped and kicked the crap out of some other dude to the extent that they called 911.

Blogging can be used as a trumped up Bookmarking tool sometimes, if you don’t want to remember which computer, which browser, and which profile you used to mark that page that looked vaguely interesting 17 months ago (9yrs, internet time). So, Utterly Boring mentioned a cool site about sleeping in airports, tips about doing it, and reviews of many airports. I’ve usually just slept in international airports, and that tends to work well except when the obnoxious French Family parks on the other side of your bench in a sparsely populated room and plays the screaming game with the pre-pube hyper up-all-night-in-Istanbul child.

Music is pretty cool stuff, it appeals to something deeper, which I imagine is why it is so pervasive around the world, and through time. You don’t need language for music, and music can be a language, it can be so much, so deep, so affecting. People have their songs, and some take them back to other times, or put them in different moods. Scenes have soundtracks, just like movies. It is pretty amazing the effects of music.

I have returned from the big H, which followed the big W, also known as the big M. H was resting time to recover from W/M. Now I’m back at work (little w, also the big E). More later, but for now poring over a few hundred emails. woohoo.

As I’m going to be married in less than a week my friends threw me a bachelor party yesterday. We had quite a good time but nobody got any photos so for the record, I’ll talk about it here. I was already a bit hungover before it even started, so N and I went to the gym (!?) to work out some of the previous night’s alcohol…oddly enough, the strategy worked and I felt a lot better.

One might expect tattoos and piercings to be in abundance a Lollapalooza, and this is quite true of tattoos. Piercings were not a notable decoration this year, however. Of particular note was a couple (who may or may not have been together in any way), one of whom, the male, had a really cool tattoo of a turtle on his back. It was intricate and large. The lady next to him had one consiting of words only, large letters, reading Queen Pain.

The Lollapalooza spectacle swooped down on the Portland area this Sunday. Many bands were there to rock the fields out at Colombia Meadows out west of St. Helens, and the kiddies were prepared with counter-culture in tow. I went with some friends (N, W, L, H) after having a few pints and a chicken sandwich at McBeer’s. We totally missed the first act, but that’s okay because we were down with catching the Donna (2nd), which we did in full.

Ugh. One of the worst shows that I’ve ever seen. Scratch that. Hands down the worst show I’ve ever seen, it was worse than Bob Dylan’s following of Santana that I walked out of. Worse than Mortal Combat the Movie (double feature with Days of Thunder) in which a couple behind me talked through the entire movie. Even worse than the Japanese noise band that I stumbled upon in the student union when I was in college, and that hurt.

Friday was a nice evening, dropped the car of with my dad, had a scotch with him, then went to Sean’s house and had dinner with his folks and Nedra. Tasty BBQ, (wasabi steak, but not too pungent, just tasty), taters, corn (really), happy puppies, tho Augie stayed home. Had some beer, some wine, ah, the good life. Got home and reflexively walked in to check my email, and blinky blinky went the LED on my monitor, blank as a White House check to Haliburton.

3:57 all is well. A hectic week coming to a close, and I’m close to finishing my todo list wooohoo. Still truckin’, trying to get closure on a phase of backup implementation in time to enjoy an outside margarite. Gotta pick my dad up in a bit, he’s getting into town on boat. I’m sad about that, though, it seems that he doesn’t have the time to hang out. I dunno, you make time for what’s important, and it bothers me when I hear he’s driven through town without even a phone call.

Not a regular client of strip clubs, I ended up on the road to Union Jack’s on Lower E Burnside the other night at the prodding of some friends. I thought I remembered seeing it next to the dance studio there so I parked in a lot on the west side of the building, to discover that I was several blocks short of the destination. Walking up the street, I saw a small group of people on the street corner, three of whom walked one way, and the fourth sort of came towards me, and the nice man greeted me and engaged me in some light chit-chat…it was interesting the smoothness with which he changed direction, to match my gait.

Browsing the ole referrer log, I found a link from Wasguckstdu, a German blogger. Sadly, despite listening to several hours of the Pimsler German set, I’m still not proficient enough in German to understand much of what is written…especially because there’s no reading/writing component to the set, and the German words are spelled with a different convention than American words relative to their pronunciation. So, welcome friend, I’ll see if I can puzzle through some entries.

It’s been in the works for a few months now, but this is the first direct mention here…I’m gettin’ hitched to one lady Nedra. There’s an info link over to the right, the big day’s 9/6 (3 days before Augie’s bday so it’ll be easy for me to remember). Good times.

Following the most hectic workday in quite some time, the boss took the whole company to a Beaver’s game. It was coincidence, really, that a pleasant team-building experience should follow on the heals of such an unpleasant one. I don’t care too much for baseball really. The best thing about a game is that the clanking bat gives a clear signal of when you should look and cheer or boo, leaving one to drink, eat, or chat the rest of the time.

After years of focusing on my tone, my style, my presentation, and my walk, I’m ready to embark on a new career. No longer a Unix jockey, at the desk, puzzling over patches and outages, but soon I will be a man of the world! Nedra’s Augie Bags have gotten some publicity in the Willy Week, and given the choice of several photos, the talented writer/editor/whoever chose me to ride atop the article.

It’s been a rough week of soccer…last night was the third game in a row, and those were preceded by a night of broomball insanity. I was feeling pretty sore and even a bit fatigued before the game. No time to stretch, out on the field, about ten minutes in I stretch for a high ball, make contact for the shot, and <pop !>, I feel my hamstring go. On the side, my thoughts migrated from pulled muscle (annoying) to torn tendon (pretty bad) as I found that the back of my knee was smooth where I expected stuff to be.

(10May03) Flo was working filming this game and was able to get us press passes to catch the game for free. We arrived early with Flo so that he could setup his equipment. He gave us our passes and introduced us to the fellow who would show us to our seats, then turned us loose for a couple hours until the game started. We wandered about and had a warm Holsten. Not too tasty that one. Nedra wanted gummy bears (only German ones would do) so we looked for a store, but there were none around.

Fans started to arrive in large numbers an hour and a half early, wearing scarves, singing songs, drinking beers, arms on shoulders. The scarves are special team scarves, and many of the fans donned several scarves. Jean jackets with sewn team patches were popular too, as well as the usual team jerseys. Personally, I don’t care for the newest HSV jersey nearly so much as some of them from the recent past.

I coach a boys U-9 soccer team with a friend of mine. While in Germany, the following conversation went down. Marcus: “Where’s the other coach?” Coach Jim: “He’s visiting Germany!” Marcus: “Oh…I thought you said he was in jail!” So of course when I got back today, they asked me questions like, “why were you in jail?” and, “how did you get out so soon?” The little darlings won today though.

We went out Friday night with Flo´s brother Niki and his friend Malte for some beers. He took us to the Gröninger brauhaus, a quaint and beautiful ´brewpub´ across the avenue from the famed Chilehaus (for its architecture…it has nothing to do with the chiles I thought). The brauhaus is just under ground level, darkly lit by candles and yellow lamps. We felt fortunate to get a seat immediately on a Friday night. We walked past huge copper brewing eqipment to our seats.

We sat and the waitress asked if we would like beers, to which the four of us replied in the affirmative in varying degrees of Deutsch. I was surprised when she walked away and returned shortly with four .2 liter steins. Gröninger only comes in one flavor, even when it comes in two. The Gröninger Pils is very good, a light and rich German Pilsener, not heavy on the hops, but its mellow bitter melds wonderfully with the golden malt. They are proud of the natural cloudiness of their beer, which I attribute to its not being filtered, but really couldn´t explain for sure.

I was ill the first few days here…I guess a relapse of my previous cold brought on by not enough sleep and recycled air on the airplane…the lady next to me was such an active sleeper, ugh. But I just slept a whole lot and got past it, though the daytrip to Bremen was not so fun because of it. I hid out in a church and tried to rest until it closed, wandered about and fell asleep on a park bench in a light rain, then found my way into a cafe or two for shelter until the ride showed up.

It´s been good times and good beers so far here in Germany. Internet access has been sporadic so I (obviously) haven´t been running the travel log I´d hoped for. Plus I can´t seem to upload fotos so those won´t be online till I get home. Last evening I got to go to soccer practice with Flo and his team. It was much fun, and good to see that they aren´t so different than here in the states, wasting no time in getting to drinking and smoking afterwards.

Well, considering that I’m feeling a bit better, I figured it was time to venture out again. Met up with some friends at Produce Row, and had a few pints. True evidence that I’m ill: none of the beer tasted good…I ended up with pear cider after failing with MacTarnahan’s (not a favorite) and TG IPA (up top), as well as (note to Emma) a sample of Full Sail Equinox.

I’m here in Idaho this weekend for a wedding. Really good folk, good times all that stuff. Anyway, tonite there was rehearsal for all the people in the wedding, of whom I’m not one, but I’m close enough that I got to go to the rehearsal dinner. They had a little room chained off to keep the rabble-rousers out until we arrived at the restaurant. N and I got there first, so had a beer and waited outside.

Really nice day. And I’m going to go out and recover from playing. I recommend that everyone does the same.

Funny story, my friend Amanda and some of her buddies are at a bar and RV stop in a small town nowhere in Washington. Amanda, a few sheets to the wind is admiring this lady’s Coors Light Racing Jacket, which the lady is pleased with, and they’re chatting up a storm. Amanda suggests that the only thing that would make this jacket even cooler is if it were a PBR Racing Jacket.

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a true story of human spirit and the overcoming of adversity. The film tells the story of three young Aboriginal girls who are torn from their homes because they are of mixed decent, and taken to a camp where they are to be trained to integrate into proper society, in particular as servants, with the intention that white blood will scour the aboriginal blood from their line in a few generations as they reproduce with whites.

A typical Pearl District interaction. (Choose scenario:) me sitting on sidewalk eating burrito me walking with friends/coworkers to bar or from burrito run me wandering aimlessly avoiding work, often with coworker r, driven by one person, or a delivery truck driven by two. They slow down, seeing harmless streetpeople (walkers), smile broad, and chime, “Excuse me, could you tell me how to find…

Oh yeah! Went and saw Star Wars 2 last evening at OMSI on the bigass IMAX theater. It was beautiful. A tear welled in my eye when the Star Wars crashed onto the screen, and then the prologue scrolled past, up and into the screen. The resolution was fantastic on that huge screen. You could see the pores on Natalie Portman’s shoulder. Had there been a chunk of food in her teeth it would’ve been the size of my head.