Resolution and a thundering BBQ
May 27, 2008
The day after I sent my email to everyone I could find regarding the Best Brews internship, I got a call back from someone who gave me an apology, but it didn’t seem like she’d actually read the email I sent out and seemed to think I just had some sour grapes about not being chosen, and not that I’d been told I was chosen in the first place. I tried to explain things the best I could, but at that point it didn’t really matter. The next day, I got a FedEx package with three $10 Amex gift cheques, a handwritten apology, and an odd tote bag with Bliss shaving cream and aftershave in it. Thus ended my experience with Sheraton and Starwood. No, not quite–I used the shaving cream and aftershave, and while they both smell very good, the shaving cream really sucked and I probably won’t use it again. Thus ended my experience with Sheraton and Starwood.
Last Saturday was the family version of the housewarming BBQ, and it went over really well despite the looming clouds. The forecast had called for thunder and rain, but it was nice all afternoon and despite my panicking the day before about rain and not being able to fit everyone in our apartment, the day went off without a hitch. We made some very potent sangria, had homebrew available, and grilled up beef and veggie kabobs, corn, bratwursts with a beer and mustard marinade, polenta with sliced mozarella, and pineapple for dessert. We also had pita and hummus, Hanne’s cous-cous salad, and fresh salsa I made that morning, so people had plenty to eat and drink. Definitely plenty to drink, no question about that.
After everyone had left and Hanne and I were cleaning up, the rain started to fall so I ran out to cover the grill, and then not long after that the thunder and lightning started. Hanne poo-poo’d the wimpy storm, but I had to remind her that we weren’t in the midwest and that was about as bad as it got in Portland. Still, we sat out on the front porch and listened to the rain and thunder and watched the lightning, and it was a good end to the day.
Actually, let me back up. The entire Memorial Day Weekend was good, start to finish. Friday evening Hanne and I went to the Zinfandel tasting at our local wine shop and then ventured up to Noble Rot for some more wine along with some cheese and olives. Then we wandered down to the Jade Lounge and had cocktails and a salad roll. That was a nice evening. On Sunday the day after our BBQ, both Hanne and I were a tad hungover, so we pretty much just lazed around all day: Hanne on her computer watching streaming TV and I on my computer playing games. We didn’t do anything together all day until we both started wondering what to do for dinner and drove to the store to get some things to help finish up a few leftovers from the BBQ.
Monday we drove out to my Mom’s house to help her move some things to her new house, got the grand tour, and concluded our day with dinner at a local cafe, bottling a batch of wheat beer, and then falling asleep to the sound of rain again. I crossed a bunch of things off my mental to-do list (fixing Heather’s laptop, checking out Wickes Furniture’s going-out-of-business sale, bottling one batch of beer and racking the other), ate a lot of good food, sat outside and listened to thunder, and even went for a run. Yes, this was a very good weekend.
I’ve also moved all my pictures to the new gallery software I’m using, and most (but not all, quite yet) of my pictures can be found at http://gallery.technodevil.com. Someday I need to go through my blog and fix all the links to point to the correct albums, but with nearly 600 entries, I gotta say, I don’t see that happening in the near future. But for what’s it’s worth, most of them are there now.
Naturally, if I ever switch again, I’ll have to come back and fix this entry, too.
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