Wedding

OK so this was LAST week, but I am finally getting around to making a post.

Friday afternoon I went out to Sacappoose to assist with some setup and run through the rehearsal. I was met by some chickens and a couple geese as I stepped out of my car. I knew I was in the right place! :)

After rehearsal, we had a rehearsal dinner at Kevin's parents house in Beaverton. We had some good food, good wine and good cigars! Nick, Kevin, Mike and I went back to Kevin's place and played some Mario Cart to finish off the night. Note to self: Corks thrown into ceiling fan = GREAT time!

The next morning Kevin, Nick and I went golfing at Killarney in Hillsboro. (See the Eagle post). I kept thinking to myself that something horrible was going to happen to Kevin like on the movies, and we would have to race him to make it to the alter! Luckily, we tee'd off at 7:45 am so had plenty time to spare.

After golf, I returned home to meet Stephen at my place. I went for a workout (imagine that) and we left for the wedding around 2. The wedding was beautiful and everything went smoothly (once it FINALLY started). Our table of "computer nerds" was the first to get cut off from the booze. The only problem was it about an hour after they started serving... After dinner they let us get back to our drinking and we all had a great time. Afterwards we went to Leo's hotel room to chill. It was a long night, so Stephen and I went back to my place and crashed.

Sunday was "draft" day for my Fantasy Football Team and I was recently appointed commissioner so I was in charge of food and festivities. Katy was nice enough to accompany me to Costco where I spent my budget on Beer, Wine and Steaks! Actually, I made BBQ chicken, steaks, asparagus with salad and sourdough bread. It was a pretty good meal if I do say so myself!

After the draft it was time to hit the sack... so I had a couple beers at home with Turner, played some Tiger Woods Golf and called it a day!

First Eagle!

Saturday morning I got my first eagle at Killarney Golf Course in Hillsboro. Special thanks to Kevin for the great round of golf, and Nick for the "refreshments" at 8am! Chipped in for 3 on a Par 5... problem is, we all thought it was a par 4 :)

Portland Park Marathon!

2 point for procrastination!

Ok, with that out of the way... Thursday I had 2 very substantial projects due for Bio 101 (my second to last class). One of the projects I completed on Tuesday night and it mainly consisted of some research online and a few pretty little pictures. Cake. WELL, Wednesday night I was going to focus on the last of my assignments; an observation journal. Sounds simple enough eh? Well the problem is that I was supposed to be doing 1 journal entry per week for the entire class. I guess I missed the memo on that one, and I chose to do them all at once.

At 5:15 I put a call in to Katy to see if she wanted to brave the challenge with me (Ok well I may have sugar-coated the task a bit). She agreed to meet me at my place and we would go around town doing the observations. Luckily, I had done 2 "observations" already earlier in the day (lunch hour) so I ONLY had 6 more to go. I finished typing the second one right as Katy arrived.

WERE OFF! So first destination was the Portland Rose Garden, for the simple fact that I knew exactly where it was. After spending a brief amount of time there, we headed up the hill towards the zoo to make another entry. We ended up killing 4 birds with one stone in Washington Park! The archery range, small gravel pull-out, and Hoyt Arboritum all joined the list of journal entries. 6 down... 2 to go...

For the last 3, we headed out 185th (a familiar stomping ground from when I lived with Richard). First stop was Powerline Park, followed by Bethany Lakes and finally to the Skyline Tavern for a much needed beer!

Thanks for the help Katy!

Happy B-Day Mom!!!!

Armed with google-images, I set out to find the best cake for my mother for her birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Wedding fun! (Round 2!)

So this weekend added another wedding notch to my belt. Congrats to Hans and Janell! family friend's daughter got married on Saturday and we had the rehearsal dinner on Friday night. From left to right, Jennifer, Jenni, Jolee, Krista, Johnny, Janell and me. We have grown up together from Ski trips to sunriver, to wild outings in Mexico.

Part of the rehearsal dinner ceremony was a 4-man scramble at Salishan golf course. I played the course a few times in high-school, but it recently underwent a renovation and Peter Jacobsen completely revamped the course. It was beautiful!

We made especially good friends with the beverage cart lady, ordering 6-8 beers at a time, every few holes. Just the way I like to play golf! Drinks were great, dinner was great, slide show was great, company was great. I had a great time!

Saturday, I headed to the wedding site around 1pm. It was about an hour drive from Newport, but the drive itself was relaxing. This is a picture of the site. Lots of green grass and nice weather! Not to mention kegs of beer! I got to see a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in ages and all in all, it was a fun event. I stayed in the parents trailer and woke up the next morning to take my sister and her fiance back to the airport :(


Sunday, after a long day of driving, I arrived home and went for a quick hour workout downtown. After I got done, Nick and I went to a movie (4 Brothers). It was awesome! Highly recommended! In bed by 9:30 and up by 6:30am... and so starts another week...

Stoneworks

Ouch!!!

So last night Jess came up from Corvallis and we went to an indoor rock gym in Beaverton...( http://www.belay.com ) my brief lesson on Belay techniques, it was on to the wall. Every time I rock climb, I remember why I don't do it more often... I was DEAD after the first climb. My forearms ached, my calves were on fire, my hands felt like they went through a meat grinder and worst of all, I was only half way up the wall! After my pride had been shattered, Jess hopped on the wall and scurried up the route like following the yellow brick road. Again... another HUGE ego boost... ok maybe not...

Ohh well! We had fun and watched a couple guys do an upside-down lead climb. It was pretty impressive! Much respect for the people who can do this everyday and not feel worthless the next day. I can barely hold up my "Grande Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino Light - Blended Coffee". Yes, for those of you who don't speak Starbucks... this is a tasty caffeinated frozen smoothie of goodness! Thinking of you Eric! We need to hit up Starbucks soon! It was much easier when I was unemployed :)

Sunday on the water!

So today was another one for the record books! Waking up around 11am after a long night of poker I did some laundry and cleaned up the house. Around 3pm, Mark came over and we headed down to the docks to go SAILING! That's right.... even though I grew up on the ocean, I have never been on a sailboat. Sandy had invited Phil, Mark and I to go out on the boat one last time before she moved to NY. HAVE FUN SANDY!!

I had no idea what I was in for... until I was greeted by this bad boy! A 34' Catamaran was our transportation up the Columbia! Once we were out of the harbor, the sails came up and we were off! I took ALOT of pictures and I'll add them to my website later this evening! I have so much to say about today... I don't even know where to start!



Here is Mark jumping off the back of the boat before everything was ready to go! We spent an hour or so swimming around before we left the harbor. I have a few more on my website (actually I took a lot of pictures). I will keep this sort of short and let the pictures speak for themselves... but I had a GREAT time!











I even got to drive!

By request... I am adding the "sandle" story...

So once we got out by the airport, we "came about" and a sudden burst of wind gave us a bit of a jolt! My sandle and my hat FLEW off the boat, never to be seen again. Of course it was ALL Mark's fault becuase he and Sandy were at the front of the boat lounging, and Phil and I were actually sailing... I mean seriously Mark... you could have at least told me soon enough to jump in after them! I will post a funny picture when I get home of me holding my one lone sandle...

I love my friends :)

Link to more pics: http://www.bridgecitystudios.com/gallery/732529

Totally Tubular!

So Saturday I made my way down to Corvallis for Chris Allen's bachelor party. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for the whole thing.. but we will get to that. The first activity planned was a float down the Willamette River in tubes! I offered up the Jeep to transfer the tubes to the water. We put in at Willamette Park and took out across the river from Michaels Landing at the OSU crew docks. We had about 7 people and a case of beer between us. Everything was going well until we heard a loud roar approaching. Well it turns out the Corvallis Sheriff Patrol has two brand new wave-runners that they use to patrol the river. Luckily they were just checking to see where we were pulling out, and they went on their merry way. Still, kinda scary...

After the float, the boys went to Eugene and I returned back to Portland for Sandy's going away party. Once I got back to Portland, I met up with everyone at Sandy's and we hopped in the pool to escape the heat. After the pool, everyone came downtown to my place and we had a 7-person Poker game. I ended up winning 35 bucks!! Although, we played another game and I lost 5 bucks... so 30 bucks up on the day... Not too bad for a Saturday :)

1 down...

So usually I have one big post at the end of the weekend summarizing all the random mishaps... but last night was so amusing that I thought I would space it out a bit... just so all the details are fresh in my mind!

Yesterday (Friday) I ducked out of work early at about 3:30 and headed to Easmoreland Golf Course with Mark to play a quick 9 holes. I should have known that Friday afternoon, and "quick 9 holes" were not going to be two things to use in the same sentence. After a 3 hour round of golf, I had just enough time to get home and shower before Kevin's party. Conveniently enough, I rolled in to Kevin's about 30 seconds after the Limo so my timing was perfect. We all piled in the back of the Limo (Pat, Dave(?), Nick, Richard, Kevin, Derek, Leo, Me, Mike) and headed to Fred Meyer to stock up the back! I think we rolled around for an hour or so getting liquored up in the back. Around 9:30, Kevin is feeling a little drunk and decides to show us how "manly" he is be chugging half a bottle of Skyy Vodka... This should have been our first indication that things were going to get interesting. So after the chugging of the Vodka, someone decides to feed Kevin more alcohol against the wishes of myself, Derek and Leo. Around 9:30 we tried to get into our first bar (Ringlers). Things were going well until Kevin tried to talk to the bouncer at the door. We were quickly informed that Kevin would not be allowed to enter. They suggested we go get him some water and food and come back later in the night.

Off to Taco Bell! The Limo parked in a large parking lot adjacent to Subway and Taco Bell so we could all get some much needed grub. We pulled Kevin out of the Limo and sat him on some outdoor chairs at the Subway. I think Derek went in Subway to get some water for Kevin but at this point, things were going downhill fast. Pat had bought a 6" sub and offered a bite to Kevin, and, in response, Kevin took a full swing at him. Confused and offended, Pat retreated to the curb to finish his sandwich. A few minutes later, Kevin released some much needed toxins out of his body onto the curb he was sitting on. The Subway employees were not amused... One customer that walked in to the restaurant said he had called the police for being drunk in public. At this point, we knew the night was over... (for Kevin!) We called Cindy to come pick him up and 30 minutes later, after we had loaded him in to the car, we headed back out on the town!

Ringlers it was! We all managed to get back in to Ringlers ahead of the line after some quick negotiating by yours truly. We played some pool and did some dancing and went home around 1:30. Nick offered to be our "interim Bachelor" so we just told everyone that he was getting married. Kevin... we all had fun at your party! Good luck to you!

Now it's off to Corvallis for round 2 of the bachelor parties...

Random Fred Meyer Mishaps...

So I assume if you are reading this, then you are well aware that I can start my Jeep with my keychain... while somewhat pointless, this feature REALLY never gets old. On to my story!

So I went to Fred Meyer last night to return my Coleman blow up bed (small hole) and I was walking out following 2 kids close to my age. The female look to be a bit on the trashy side, but somewhat cute. The male had a CHEAP shirt and a CHEAP tie on, indicating that he might work at Fred Meyer, but I wasn't sure. Anyways... I was about 10 yards behind them watching them walk to their red Honda Civic. Just as the male approached my car, he peered inside and proceeded to give the one arm solute (f*** you) to my car. I was extremely confused since he hadn't even seen me yet... I can only assume he was peeved at the SUV, or maybe the tinted windows? Well JUST as I saw this all take place... I pushed the old "red button" on my keychain. "VROOOM" roared the V8 and homeboy in the tie jumped. It took him a second to figure out what was going on, and he finally managed to look back at me. I gave him a "sucks for you" smile, gave a quick glance to his girlfriend (who by now was looking at me as well), hopped in the car and made my exit... laughing hysterically the entire time!

Sunday edit...

Ohh yeah... Sunday night I went to Harvey's comedy club and caught a couple headliners. I don't know why I forgot that... might have something to do with the amount of alcohol consumed...

A Crazy Weekend!

So this will be my SECOND time typing this... since the first time seemed to have disappeared.

Friday - Went to Corvallis after work to visit Jess. We got a couple entrees from King Tin (YUM!) and headed down to the waterfront to have a bit of a picnic at 10pm! I was pretty exhausted from work stress, so I passed out early.

Saturday - Got up in the morning and Jess and I headed to Tristan Tree to enjoy a bucket-o-balls before I had to leave. The golf was enjoyable but I soon had to depart to make my 11am tee-time in Hillsboro. Of course I was little late making it to the course, but luckily it wasn't too busy and we were able to tee off 30 minutes late!

I played one of the best rounds of my life as far as ball control goes. My short-game was less than adequate but I ended up with a 43 for the day. Not bad considering how much I have played in the last couple years! After a hard day's golf (lol... golf hard... That's funny) we headed to Red Robin for a beer and a burger!

Later that night I headed to a bachelor party for a friend of mine in Portland. I don't want to get too detailed in what we did, but the later part of the night found us cruising through downtown Portland in a pimped-out "Liquid Charge" shortbus. This thing was ridiculous.... Probably a couple grand in stereo equipment and all the benches had been turned so that the backs were against the wall. We had a GREAT time cruising the streets with about 15 of us packed in the bus! I walked home from Touche at about 2:30am and crashed.

Sunday - Work up pretty early and was informed by Nick that we were going to go workout. After struggling at the gym, Nick gave me a ride to my car in Beaverton and we went on a small shopping trip to Lloyd Center. The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and recovering from the night before. A small BBQ at my house, and it was time for bed!

Next week = 2 Bachelor parties and a going away party!

CHiPs Chip and Chips

Yes I realize the play on words is a bit lacking... but I didn't get much sleep last night so bare with me.

So this weekend was another record setter for funny and interesting stories. I will start with Thursday night...

So I was in training for my new job all of last week at the Courtyard out by the Vancouver bridge. I, along with 10 of my fellow executive recruiters, was introduced to all sorts of techniques for successful selling and such. Overall, a great 4 days!

Anyways... Thursday night 3 of the MRI Los Angeles folk and another guy from MRI Santa Cruze wanted to see what Portland night-life was like. Of course, me being the night owl I am, decided to lead the charge and show them all a good time! We started out at PGE park for "Thirsty Thursdays" and had a few $2 beers and watched an exciting baseball game (I think we lost... don't hold me to that". Then I took them all to the popular hangout "Wallbangers" (dueling pianos). This was a good choice considering half of them had never seen dueling pianos! Well a few beers later (yeah ok... and an Irish Car Bomb and a Red-Headed Slut (no comments!) I was drug up on the stage for some bachelorette party. 3 guys in front of the crowd (myself included) danced to the song "if you're happy and you know it...". After the wallbangers crowd had died down... we headed to Greek Cuisina for another round of something that I can't remember drinking... I think it was good! Around 2am or so, I headed home and the sober one drove everyone back to their hotel rooms. Needless to say... Friday morning was welcomed with bottles of water and glazed over eyeballs!

Hrm... Friday... After a LONG day at training (mostly because I was hungover) I headed home to relax! Friday evening was a bit of a cluster... I was supposed to go to On Deck with Kelsey and her b/f. I guess Kelseys b/f (Matt also) was meeting some people there and we were just going to hang out and shoot the breeze. Well we got there and everyone wanted to go to the dance club and I just wasn't feelin it... so i walked home. I then headed to Richards house to play some Halo 2... a wise decision!

Saturday! Early in the day Richard, Mark, Kevin and I went urban golfing at a local elementary school! For those who are not familiar with the term... urban golfing is basically golfing without a course. Today's urban golf course was the Rock Creek elementary School. We started in the field and headed to the playground. Aiming at the slide was a popular hole choice. The winner of the previous hole would set the stage for the next. Everything was going great (and I was even winning!) until Officer Mitchell showed up... Luckily, we just received a warning and were escorted off the property. I wanted to say "well its not like we are going to hit the school! It's a 1 stroke penalty!" but I decided against it!

Later that night, John Abrams flew in to Portland to spend the day with me. John used to work for my dad at Action Business Systems and moved to Phoenix a few years ago. He was going to be in town so I offered him a place to crash. We went to Henry's for a few beers and some pool! Later we ran in to Katy and Bianca, but we decided not to follow them to Greek Cuisina... we just headed back to crash at midnight.

Sunday Sunday Sunday! More urban golfing and fun at the pool! Luckily we managed to avoid the po-po on Sunday, but we managed to anger a few local residents. A couple hours and a couple parks later, we decided to head back to Richards to take a dip in the pool and to play some Texas Hold'em.

Ahh the weekends!