Tag Archives: Birthday

Jul12

Bri’s Birthday Bonanza (of climbing)

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Wednesday, 31-May-2023


I took a half-day from work today.

See, that’s the joy of working a white-collar job as an engineer – I have vacation time, and I can use it for strange things. Like, say, helping my friend climb 36 routes in a day before her 37th birthday!

Yep, Bri’s turning 37.

I fully supported her goal of climbing one route per year on Earth – I left work around 2pm, and headed over to the gym. Bri and Lea had been climbing for an hour or two by then, and were optimistic about how long the climbing would take… I was a bit more cautiously optimistic, since I know how much fatigue can begin to wear on a climber, but I came prepared.

Snacks, protein shakes, drinks, and the promise of glorious tacos for dinner came with me.



Routes were climbed.

Hours ticked by, and numbers increased. Climbing slowed, but didn’t stop. We persisted, through energy and fatigue, we persisted.

22 routes were climbed by yours truly.
– 3x 5.9 routes, 3 on Lead
– 16x 5.10 routes, 8 on Lead
– 3x 5.11 routes, 2 on Lead


By the end, we were absolutely spent.

But you know what that means? It meant we got extra dinner. Just… so much dinner. Tacos, nachos, quesadilla, chips, and water. So much water.

110% worth it.

Aug30

My birthday weekend! The fourth weekend that I’m in Hood River, Oregon, and the West Coast! — Friday

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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.
Nov15

Daniel’s birthday party in the grand town of Boston

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Early August, 2014

 

Daniel was born.

I know, I was surprised too.  I always thought that he just sort of appeared one day, descending down from the heavens on a sport rope, wiping the chalk off his hands and asking who was ready to give him another belay.

But, he is in fact born of humankind, and thus celebrates a birthday like the rest of us.  So…. we threw a party.

To prep for it, I walked over to Liz’s place.  Then, Liz and I walked to Porter, to pick out a cake topper.  See… Daniel likes trains [Ed Note: See the post about the TGV in France], and I like making fun of Daniel.  So, I was aiming to throw him a train-themed party.  And what theme party is complete without a cute little cake topper?  None, that’s what party.  And I wasn’t going to throw an incomplete party, no sir!

The first store didn’t have any trains.  The second story didn’t have any trains.  Thankfully, the children’s bookstore did, in fact, have trains.  And the second store had a train-shaped balloon… so the combination of the two was deemed sufficient to create a train-themed atmosphere.

A few miles longer found us picking out a cake.  Another mile after that, the Mass Ave Tavern.

The Mass Ave Tavern is a good party place.  There are many reasons for this, but chief (in my mind) among them is that it has tons of cool games.  Rock ’em, Sock ’em Robots found me winning a streak against Chirag (we later found out that one robot always wins…), and building blocks found Daniel constructing a set of train tracks for his new toy train.  Enjoyment was had by all, especially when it came time to attempt to navigate the train tracks with the little toy… turns out, children’s blocks don’t make the best of rail systems… but given enough time (which we were), people can make anything happen… and after a solid 20 minutes of tweaking and carefully laying out the starting block, we were able to make the trip… or at least, make the train make the trip.