Great Couple of Weekends
On Memorial Day weekend, we celebrated Jagmeet's birthday (happy 26th, babe!). Dinner was at Metro Kathmandu in the city. Seemed like a decent place, and everyone had a good time.
We then headed to a cash-only (ugh) bar across the street, where we stayed until midnight or so. I had a glass of Pliny the Elder, then sobered up to DD while Jagmeet, Eric, and Anna got their drunk on. Eric began to stamp everyone with a Hello Kitty thing he picked up during the day. I'm still not sure if this means he was sober or drunk.
I drove everyone back to Berkeley, where we enjoyed some late-night Thai Noodle (yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh).
Unfortunately, I slept late, woke up late, and showed up late to a BBQ the next day, at Anne's house. When I arrived, everything had finished cooking and Kevin was cooling the coals. I wound up taking back the turkey burger stuff I brought and even scored some leftovers. All right! Most profitable BBQ ever.
Memorial Day was spent doing laundry. I'm so awesome.
This past weekend was even better. Jagmeet and I went up to Portland over the weekend, for pretty much one reason... drinking checking out the place in case I get a job there.
I happen to have made a good friend over there, and he insisted I stay at his place. We've known each other for over a year, but only over the internet. It sounds kind of creepy and weird, but it really turned out to be an amazing and fun experience. He's just a huge music and beer nerd (sound familiar?), so the weekend was great in terms of hanging out.
Mostly, he showed me around town and took me on a special tour of the local brewpubs. Most of you know I've been on a quest to try the local breweries and brewpubs of the Bay Area, so it is this aspect of Portland that I appreciated most. While there, I visited:
- John's Market (a great beer bottle shop)
- Hair of the Dog (one of my all time favorite breweries)
- Hopworks Urban Brewing (eh)
- Walking Man in Washington (holy god, they are awesome)
- Deschutes (again, awesome)
- Amnesia Brewing (pretty good)
- Fifth Quadrant / New Old Lompoc (very good)
- Raccoon Lodge / Cascade Brewing (yuck)
- Roots (pretty good)
- Green Dragon (a pretty good bar)
We also hosted a tasting at his house, where he busted out the world's strongest beer (a 1994 Hair of the Dog Dave, 28%) and I busted out the #2 Russian Imperial Stout on BeerAdvocate (Kate the Great). We tried some other stuff, but those were the main highlights.
I got back and I literally had a swollen gut -- Peter and Jagmeet both pointed out that I had picked up a spare tire. It is now Wednesday, and I am back to normal, but damn. That was scary for a while. I am stepping up the efforts to get back in shape, and the month of June will be focused on that.
We then headed to a cash-only (ugh) bar across the street, where we stayed until midnight or so. I had a glass of Pliny the Elder, then sobered up to DD while Jagmeet, Eric, and Anna got their drunk on. Eric began to stamp everyone with a Hello Kitty thing he picked up during the day. I'm still not sure if this means he was sober or drunk.
I drove everyone back to Berkeley, where we enjoyed some late-night Thai Noodle (yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh).
Unfortunately, I slept late, woke up late, and showed up late to a BBQ the next day, at Anne's house. When I arrived, everything had finished cooking and Kevin was cooling the coals. I wound up taking back the turkey burger stuff I brought and even scored some leftovers. All right! Most profitable BBQ ever.
Memorial Day was spent doing laundry. I'm so awesome.
This past weekend was even better. Jagmeet and I went up to Portland over the weekend, for pretty much one reason... drinking checking out the place in case I get a job there.
I happen to have made a good friend over there, and he insisted I stay at his place. We've known each other for over a year, but only over the internet. It sounds kind of creepy and weird, but it really turned out to be an amazing and fun experience. He's just a huge music and beer nerd (sound familiar?), so the weekend was great in terms of hanging out.
Mostly, he showed me around town and took me on a special tour of the local brewpubs. Most of you know I've been on a quest to try the local breweries and brewpubs of the Bay Area, so it is this aspect of Portland that I appreciated most. While there, I visited:
- John's Market (a great beer bottle shop)
- Hair of the Dog (one of my all time favorite breweries)
- Hopworks Urban Brewing (eh)
- Walking Man in Washington (holy god, they are awesome)
- Deschutes (again, awesome)
- Amnesia Brewing (pretty good)
- Fifth Quadrant / New Old Lompoc (very good)
- Raccoon Lodge / Cascade Brewing (yuck)
- Roots (pretty good)
- Green Dragon (a pretty good bar)
We also hosted a tasting at his house, where he busted out the world's strongest beer (a 1994 Hair of the Dog Dave, 28%) and I busted out the #2 Russian Imperial Stout on BeerAdvocate (Kate the Great). We tried some other stuff, but those were the main highlights.
I got back and I literally had a swollen gut -- Peter and Jagmeet both pointed out that I had picked up a spare tire. It is now Wednesday, and I am back to normal, but damn. That was scary for a while. I am stepping up the efforts to get back in shape, and the month of June will be focused on that.