payback...

Hmm... I guess this is Birthday Week, so, lets continue...

Birthdays at work are always super awkward... at least I think so. I am just not a fan of the extra attention when it seems forced, especially when there is singing. I highly dislike that part.

I did my very best to escape by taking my bday off and even removed it from the calendar. But alas, my little trick did not fool everyone for long, and as a punishment I was forced to wear a crown at work on Tuesday for most of the day, and ended up being sung to and force-fed cake after all (the cake part was fine, it was mint chocolate chip ice cream cake after all). :) And don't get me wrong, I appreciate the sentiment and effort, but if I had it my way, we would just work and then go celebrate in our own way.

Its like Jim Gaffigan says:
(from his stand up, Beyond the Pale)

"Cake is a powerful food. Cake can actually bring people together. 
'You know its Bill's birthday?' 
'Yea I hate that guy.' 
'There's some cake in the conference room.' 
'Well I should at least say hello.'"

[[ me being a grump on tuesday. ]]

Moral of the story... don't try to trick your co-workers, they will do what they can to embarrass you.

bday party part I :: dinner

Me and Pat decided to have another joint Birthday Party this year since the one we threw two years ago was such a success. This one was no different.

We drove up to Portland Saturday, did a little shopping, and then got ready for the night. We started off at Departue, which is on top of The Nines Hotel in downtown Portland. I have always wanted to check it out, mostly for the view admittedly. It was awesome, and I am super excited to go back up there whenever I get a chance. My drinks were amazing, the food was amazing, and the view was AMAZING. I would love to bring my SLR up there for some shots. Me and Pat both got all gussied up and met Tony and Megan for dinner and drinks before heading out to meet everyone else for the remainder of the night.

[[ elevator ride up. view from departure. snapshots. food & drink. sunset. the shining. fun with reflections. map: sea of love. signage. tron hallway. ]]

Next we went to Rontoms over on the Eastside and met up with a bunch of our friends who decided to come out and play. I even got to see a few people I had not run in to for over a year, which was awesome. We were out in the pretty sweet and gigantic outdoor space and our waitress was really attentive, perhaps too attentive and kept the drinks coming the whole time. Perfect. I will definitely give this place a try again when I get the chance. It is a pretty decent meeting space for lots of people. (All my pictures from this portion of the night are on the Urban camera).

I also bought a silly camera from Urban Outfitters kind of like this one that I bought for Tiff's bachelorette party and wedding, but this one was "Fiesta" themed. I am currently waiting for those pictures to be developed and will definitely post them as well. I lost hold of it after a little while but my friends seemed to finish it off pretty quickly, so who knows what kind of gems are currently on that bad boy!! I love surprises!! Hopefully the film on this one turns out a little bit better then last time though...

[[ the fiesta camera! ]]

birthday pre-celebration

Since Friday was my actual birthday, but me and Pat's party was Saturday, we decided to stay in town so that we could sleep in the next morning, and went out with a few friends for a drink and dinner. Nothing fancy, but I dressed up all the same. Whenever I get a choice I pretty much always pick The Crowbar for dinner and drinks, not because the food is amazing (pizza), but because it is on the roof of the building and has a nice little view. This was no exception.

[[ birthday drinks and dinner at the crow bar. ]]

happy birthday...

to me.

It has been a great year. Cheers to the weekend and finally seeing long lost friends.

Yea thats right, I took bathroom mirror glamor shots. But guess what... I was looking good, and I don't currrr cuz its ma birfday.

(p.s. i feel old!)

pat's birthday celebrations all things beer

Last week on August 16th it was Pat's Birthday which sparked a decent amount of celebration throughout the week and over the weekend with lots of little surprises in between. 

Present number one:
About a week prior Pat was looking around on the Rogue website and noticed that they were to be releasing a very special brew in honor of Rogue Brewmaster John Maier's 15,000th brew. There were only 1,515 bottles that went in to production, and each was to be signed by the Brewmaster and sent off with a certificate of authenticity. Obviously being a huge collector, Pat had to get his hands on as many as he could. We spent the beginning of last week online for about an hour at the time of release trying to get our hands on one (or two, since it was limit two per customer). We each ended up with two, and now have four, one of which has since been opened. Delicious by the way. Fortunate for Pat the two he ordered arrived on his birthday! So that was present number one.

[[ special rogue bottle. ]]

Present number two, my gift:
About a month ago, Pat was in Phoenix Arizona training for work, and I took advantage of that time alone to purchase his birthday present. I had thought of it randomly a few weeks earlier and was super excited to get him something amazing since he got me a longboard last year for mine. After work one day I went in to The Brew Station, which is a local brewing supply store and walked out with everything he needed to start home brewing on his own!! Unfortunately the amount of items and sizes of everything was somewhat problematic and I had a really hard time trying to figure out where to hide it all! I finally came up with the idea of the guest bathroom shower, which we never use ourselves. I put  all of the items in there, layered some towels on top, wrote a threatening "no peeking" note, closed the curtain, crossed my fingers, and called it good. I was on pins and needles the entire time leading up to his birthday that he would find my not so little surprise. BUT lucky for me, I actually pulled it off.

Thursday (8/16) when I got home from work I couldn't wait anymore and made him wear a birthday hat, wrote him a little scavenger hunt like note as to where he could find his gift, and presented him with the only portion I decided to actually wrap, which was a the book included with the kit called "How To Brew". To my surprise (and delight *evil laugh*) the clues totally stumped him and it took him forever to figure it all out! YES! Eventually he solved my riddle and was super excited when he discovered what he was looking at! Yay! I did good this year. Real good.

[[ pat and his presents! ]]

Later that night we went to Les Caves, which is a "fancy" beer bar (more or less) in town. Since Pat is passionate about all things beer, this one was a no brainer. We had some friends come meet us, and then ended up back at our house for the rest of the night celebrating with one of our special Rogue bottles.

[[ les caves. ]]

THEN

Friday after work we headed to Brasada to spend the weekend, and went to the Bend Brew Festival on Saturday, which was a ton of fun. I prefer Bend's version over Portland because it is WAY less crowded, cleaner, they don't run out of beer or toilet paper in the portopoties, AND the venue is awesome. We tried so much stuff, I don't even remember. One brewery I am really interested right now is Gilgamesh which is based out of Salem, although that could be partially because our buddy Tony has been working with them a bit. I wish I would have taken more pictures!!! BLAST! I was too scared to bring my Nikon based on how Portland's Brew Fest is, but as it turnes out it would have been totally fine... next year.

[[ bend brew fest '12. ]]

It was a very happy brew filled birthday to Pat. 

farm fresh

I am starting catch up mode now...
but definitely going to start it small... really small... with eggs!

Our friend gave us some eggs from his parents farm and they looked like they had been colored for easter, so I had to take some pictures, of course. They are pretty little things.

[[ "easter" eggs. ]]

i miss you blog...

Dearest blog... I miss you...

Sorry I have been M.I.A. lately... no, not the British chick who's chain hits her chest when she's banging on the dashboard...

It really bothers me that I have not had enough time lately to work on any posts, and that I have had to cut my posting days down significantly all summer long. I am happy that I finally caught up on ALL of my California Adventures, but now I have the rest of the summer to catch up on. Alas... one of these days I will actually get things back to normal. Perhaps the catalyst is working two full time jobs... hmm... there could be something to that...

[[ view from the top of my work building. ]]

[[ moving forward. ]]

Here are some of the things I have yet to document:

- The Hubbard Wedding, Brad & Alia
- A Trip to Brasada
- Me & Pat's 7 Year Anniversary at King Estate
- Newport Trip
- Pat's Bday/Bend Brew Fest
- A ton of random little snippets in between
...and counting... because after this weekend I will have even more business for you!

ugh. I hate daunting lists.

happy birthday bratimus patimus

Today is Pat's Birthday, and although I don't think he is too excited about the age attached to it, I think he will be super excited to see the present I have for him (which I have been eagerly anticipating gifting for weeks and weeks). Plus, we have some pretty good plans for the weekend, one of which involves the Bend Brewfest, and with the weather we have been having, it should be gorgeous.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Another year older babe, but still acting like a middle schooler when ever you get the chance... keep up the good work. :p Love!

[[ i love this random old picture, his facial expressions are priceless. also, stamp mario on anything and this kid gets excited. ]]

california adventures :: extras

Finally Finally Finally, we are at the very last post of the California Adventures... adventures... (though I am far from caught up on other events from this summer). Here are all of the little souvenirs we collected throughout our trips.

1. Items I picked up from our day in Joshua Tree National Park, including my very own seeds to plant a Joshua Tree myself! (One of these days I will get around to that). 

2. Our souvenirs from Disneyland, including my mouse ears of course. We also made sure to snap a picture from each of our rides. Pat was excellent at posing, I seemed to always get my hards in front of my face somehow, or just look overall ridiculous. We had so much fun!

3. It is hard to pass up a Lego store without picking up some goodies! We did not actually purchase the top two, but we put them together and they do bare a striking resemblance to me and Pat if I do say so myself. Our Star Wars themed toys including new keychains and some magnets.

4. These are a couple pictures that we took outside my Grandparent's house before heading to San Francisco for the day.

5. Our tickets from the Giants game the day we went to San Francisco. A couple of cards from our brief stop in Ashland, a coaster from Standing Stone where we ate, and postcard from my friend Pauls work aedion aesthetic. 

 6. Here are a few small things from San Diego. A card & bib from two different restaurants, me and Meagan's awesome rings I got us from a little boutique called The Attic in Coronado Beach. The sweet card I had to get for Pat... which he still hasn't seen. Can you read it? :)

And that, is that. Our California Adventures have officially come to an end. We definitely explored the state pretty thoroughly. Next time, a little more San Francisco...

california adventure 2 :: part 3 poolside & the beach

Sunday (7/7) we spent the entire day poolside at my parents hotel playing and getting sunburned. We also rented a paddle boat and rode that around for a while, which is a pretty decent thigh workout! By the end of the day we were all pretty exhausted and burnt, but it was an awesome day!

[[ pool day: fancy chair. ash & grandma. cousin love. playing in the water. me & meagan are weirdos. jenna & meagan are weirdos. mojito time. the bay. grandparents. playing on paddle boats. ]]

Monday (7/8) which was supposed to be my last day, we split up from the family and went to Coronado Beach for the day. It was a really cute little area with a big fancy 20's style hotel as the centerpiece. There was also a really amazing sandcastle out in front which we spent quite a while admiring. I am glad that we decided to visit this nicer beach rather then the boardwalk area. 

[[ coronado beach & the bay. ]]

((( only one more california adventure post to go, FINALLY, the extras which i will post tomorrow )))