Whomp Power

... And ate a lot of cake. All right, well we didn't have any stout, and I'm not sure if an elephant ear is considered cake, but yes ladies and germs, it is Oregon Brewers Fest time again!

We took O and met up with Bro and Sister-in-law at noon on Saturday. We like to get there early ... less crowded and less chance of a beer running out. This year we forked over some dough for the commemerative booklet. The chart in the back was worth the cost; it rated the organized the beers in a chart by style and, most importantly, IBUs.

O was excited to go, and although we bought him food, brought him food, brought him games and toys, and he got all the free root beer he wanted, he managed to bitch and moan be troubled by nearly everything. We also got to wear fun orange stickers to remind ourselves to leave with our child before 7pm.





The first beer we hit was 21st Amendment's Watermelon Wheat. We usually pass on the fruity wheat beers, but an article in the Oregonian said it sells out fast, so we thought maybe we were missing something great. It was good, light and refreshing. If it was super hot out, which thankfully it was not this year, it would have really hit the spot. We quickly moved on to bigger, badder beers.

So, in no particular order:
Collaborator Hopnosis: We done been hopnotized! Really good, with a floral nose and bitter aftertaste. Yum.
Butte Creek Organic Revolution X: I was really excited to have this, but one sip by everyone deemed it a "token waster". Just my preference, I found it too malty & sweet.
Full Sail Vesuvius: D lost his head and decided to try this, even though he doesn't like Belgians. His first words were "uh oh, smells like bananas". Of course, that was the one bonus pour of the day he got. It was considered light, not horrible, and finally, we thought it tasted like banana liqueur.
Hazel Dell IPA: R got this one, and gave this review: "a tame IPA, like if a mega brewer did an IPA. Not a lot of body". D thought it tasted bready, in a good way, which was interesting, because I felt the same about the Lucky Lab beer he had that he didn't like.
Jack Russel Farmhouse Ale: Another taste review from R - "Tastes like a banana popsicle, and not in a good way." He then proceeded to chug it.
Lagunitas Sirius: Couldn't pass up this one. An Imperial Cream ale that was refreshing and smooth, with no banana. Huzzah!
Laurelwood Organic Green Mammoth: Ok, I think I had this a few months ago at the pub and it was so delicious. However, I'm not certain is was this exact beer... at any rate, it wasn't as hoppy as I remember. Still complex and good. It was like my 3rd to last beer, so I think my tastebuds were a little shot.





Lucky Lab Anchors Away Steam Lager: D's description: "if you put an anchor in mud, and then drink the water that has the mud in it, that is what this would be". I thought it was a bit watery but had an ok flavor, kind of like bread. D still says "yuck!" This is in no way a reflection on Lucky Lab, we generally love their beers! Just not our thing, I guess.
Magnolia Proving Ground IPA: My notes say "last beer, refreshing but hoppy, my tongue is numb."
New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale: A favorite! Chocolatey and rich.
Rogue Brewer Strong Ale: I thought this was fabulous. 106 IBUs! I wrote "finally, perfection!" D, on the other hand, felt it had a "porta potty after nose". Hm.
Silver City Whoop Pass Double IPA: Good bitterness, with a balance of sweet. Not bad!
Skagit River Scullers: Boasts 110 IBUs. Our notes say "IPA trying to be Belgian, and they don't go together. Bad Combo. Bananas!!"
Water Street Big Phatty Imperial Red: Yum! Strong & full bodied. R says "not what I expect from a big fatty".

We did wish that there was a wider variety of beer... not much in the brown ale, porter or stout category. Maybe that isn't what people are looking for at an outdoors summertime brew fest, but by the end of the day all the lighter ales start to blend together. We were bummed that after 3 hours the McMenamins White Lightening Whisky Stout was already out. WTF?

We also enjoyed our favorite pasttime - shirt reading. We recently got a new digital camera that is bigger than our old one, so it wasn't easy to sneak shots of shirts like it was last year. Our camera does do some cool tricks, like switching colors. This is our only t-shirt shot.





Other shirts of note include "Meet the Fuckers" with a picture of Bush/Cheney on it, "Guinness: Gaelic for Genius", "Fuck You You Fucking Fuck", "I Got Hard Pulled", and one with an arrow pointing at your neighbor, but instead of saying "I'm With Stupid", it said "He Likes the Cock". We also noticed a lot more 'gangs' of shirts, as well as 'gangs' of hats. Shirts included Corona (ew.), and "If You're Not Wasted, the Day Is". These final pictures are of the various hat gangs. Beware!

So we went up river for a bit. I don't know why we don't do it more often. This is 10 minutes from my house. Seems like a no brainer. We did have to navigate a trecherous bit of rock to get down to it. Then the camera ran out of batteries. And Owen then reminded me we didn't bring water. Maybe that is why we don't go often.

It was pretty nice though, the breeze was lovely after all our hot weather. We heard some birds, and O said "I hear eagles!!" I turned to see several large birds of prey flying over the cliffs. I'm pretty sure a couple were osprey, but I couldn't see them well.

We saw several tiny fish by the riverbank, and then found a slightly larger (if at 2 inches anything could be considered "slightly large") fry in a little pool among the rocks. Pretty sure it was a steelhead. O kept trying to catch it, to no avail. He called it his Fellow Fish.

Then we found three dead crayfish (Are they crayfish? Crawfish? Crawdads?), one of which we pulled out onto a rock and examined. O proceeded to name them - First One, Different One, and Dead One.

I'm hoping we can venture further and further up river in the next few weeks and see what we have been missing, sitting around being lazy, going to movies.

O and I have been taking advantage of the Regal Free Family Movies they have at 10am on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (at participating theaters!). We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last week (which he has seen 14 million times already, and will apparently be one of those people that quote along with a movie while you watch it). Today we saw Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which we hadn't seen and was quite funny. And if you can convince your kid they don't need popcorn and candy at 10am, it is really and truly completely free.

We finally watched Howl's Moving Castle, as Owen is a big fan of Miyazaki films. I found it to be quite good, and rather an emotional love story. I know that someone is making movies out of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (and they better not fuck. them. up.) - but I think that they should be made by Miyazaki. Strong female character, fantastical creatures, and I imagine he (probably) wouldn't be willing to change the story to be more p.c.

We saw Clerks 2 last weekend, and it is high-larious. D was pleased to find a kinship between himself and Randall and their views on Lord of the Rings (walking, walking, walking). "TThere's only one return. Okay? And it ain't of the King, it's of the Jedi." The kid who plays Elias I think makes the movie. So great.

There is a what appears to be a good movie coming out, called Little Miss Sunshine. It features a VW Bus, at any rate. Plus Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell. How can that not be good?

I'm wondering how typical a 4 year old O is. I told him I used to study volcanoes, adn he said "what is study?". I was about to explain, when he said "oh I know", and the busted into The Raconteurs song "Steady as She Goes", replacing Steady with Study. Cracks me up.

I know a lot of people that worked very hard to make this happen, and I'm so proud that Estacada won out over other small towns to receive the Oregon Symphony's two-year Community Music Partnership grant. This is a two year program, and the goals are:

1. Enhance the capacity of a community to identify and address arts development needs and aspirations in their schools and community
2. Provide high quality, frequent, ongoing staff development focused on implementing and meeting local/state arts standards
3. Through a partnership of community members, school staff and symphony musicians, develop, teach and assess experiences (K-12) that promote equal access to high quality music education as part of the overall (core) curriculum
4. Document and disseminate examples of best practices learned through our partnerships

Should be really great for Estacada. Here is an article in the Oregonian.

Completed the tattoo yesterday. Still have to say that Matt, and really everyone, at Tigerlily Tattoo is really great. Nice people. I am really pleased with it. Here is a before and after picture. The full story on the tattoo can be found here.

Life has been crazy, and can't seem to find inspiration to post.

O and I have been playing house in a cardboard box, and we decorated inside with crayons. Here is how his ear feels today, which has escalated to whiny-painful in the last hour. Poor guy. Next is a picture I drew of myself burping.





So, yeah. Should post again soon, as I get the second half of my tattoo on thursday. This weekend is the Estacada Summer Celebration, you should come check it out.

D went to Vegas and got O a miner's helmet with a lamp on the front. He wandered into our room in the middle of the night with the lamp on his head, and crawled into bed. Quite bright, that lamp.

Is Mercury still in retrograde? Because I really need it to shift if it is. Hmmm, it appears it is until the 28th. Brilliant.

"Mercury rules communication, but more informal communications, like writing, speaking, short shopping sprees and other erranding endeavors. So, while Mercury is Retrograde, don't give that party, be extra aware of what you say and what you interpret when chatting with or writing to friends, cut back on errands, expect that the check will be in the mail longer than usual. Since the car is usually used for shopping and errands, don't be surprised if the battery wire loosens or the fan belt snaps just when you have rush out for that one ingredient you forgot to buy.
The good things to do when Mercury is Retrograde: meditate, contemplate, edit the book/poem/song/essay you've been writing, clean house, talk to your pet, listen to music, paint, catch up on sleep!"

Victoria's Secret ad.
Mom breastfeeding.

There was a nationwide Nurse-In at Victoria's Secret yesterday. In the past nursing mom's have been asked to go into the restroom to breastfeed, despite company policy stating mother's may breastfeed inside the store. A dozen or so mom's converged on the Clackamas Town Center V.S. store, and I believe there were more at other area stores. Sounds like V.S. has made their policy clear to all employees. Nurse away, ladies!