Friday, 10-July-2015

This one goes in as a simple bullet post – Friday’s are always fun, but they’re never really the highlight of the adventure… you know?

• Work is good! I actually get to run an engine for the first time – it’s not as insane as one would think, but it’s definitely loud.
  Short story: I was standing behind the propeller, doing the main engine start. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to tell when the engine actually kicked in and was running on its own… until I actually felt the engine go. Yeah… I am now quite confident that this thing can launch a plane through the sky at break-neck speeds. I won’t say that I got knocked backwards… but my shirt definitely turned into a sail until I stepped out of the engine wash.
• Anyways, so I left the office later than I’d planned. But I drive fast, and I-84 is beautiful, so it was all good. Soon enough I was easing into the parking spot in Washington Park of Portland, right by the international rose garden to meet Brian.
  That’s right – Brian Bostwick, who had flown out to Portland on a whim, to help me make ribs and have adventures on my Birthday.
• So we met up… after way too much “where are you?” “I’m here, where are you?” “I’m walking there now!” “No damnit now I’m there!” Stooges-esque shenanigans. And then we headed into Portland proper, aiming for one of the things that I love most about Oregon – the sheer number of brew houses.
• We chose Rogue, the brewery of the famous Dead Guy Ale. Everything on the menu looked good, but Rogue had the best burger that I could think of – A ½lb burger, with bacon and cheese, topped with pulled pork.
  And of course, they had Rogue ale. Which was kind of an excellent part.
• So we ate, drank, and made merry – catching up and hanging out and chowing down before the drive home.
• And you know how, usually, drives home are shorter than the drive out? Not so much, this time. Too much food makes for a tired Ben, which makes for a long drive.
  Thankfully Brian kept me talking and conscious, an soon enough I was giving a tour of the house. And with the tour done, and the couch pulled out into a surprisingly cushy bed, we crashed.
• And by “crashed” I mean “grabbed beers and stayed awake” – though I admit that we did hit sleepland way earlier than I expected. Downsides of flying lots, and Brian still being on Eastern Standard Time.
• We do take the time before bed to prep the ribs though – cooking Baby Back Ribs isn’t actually all that difficult, but it takes prep work head of time.