Multiple beer events this weekend as well — it is July aka Craft Beer Month. Here are just a few.

At Belmont Station — 4500 SE Stark — Puckerfest starting at 6PM Friday and continuing through Monday. Celebration of sour (as in sour cherry etc) beers. Details at http://www.belmont-station.com/

At Raccoon Lodge (7424 SW Beaverton Hillsdale) Saturday afternoon — Beer, Brats & Music held in the outdoor Beer Garden.

At Bailey’s Taproom (213 SW Broadway) Saturday 1-4 — S.N.O.B party. Support Native Oregon Beer and become a member at the party.

At Cornelius Pass Roadhouse (4045 NW Cornelius Pass Road) Saturday 11AM-10PM — Eight McMenamins breweries and live music.

Sometimes I succumb to event overload — so many choices of things to do without even leaving town that I can’t choose and end up doing none of them. July and August in Portland are particularly susceptible to this problem with multiple conflicting events.

Just a few I might go to this weekend, free except for food and drink:

Friday July 10 — dusk — Flicks on the Bricks at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Tonight’s free movie is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Saturday July 11 10AM-9PM — street fair on North Mississippi Avenue with live music, barbecue contest and all kinds of people watching. Info at http://www.mississippiave.com/

Saturday July 11 Noon – 8PM — early Bastille Day celebration at Jamison Square Park in the Pearl. Music, pommes frites and a waiter’s race. Info at http://www.afportland.org/bastillepdx/

If you want to take a drive rather than stay in town, check out the Oregon Lavender Festival being held at several nurseries and farms over Saturday and Sunday. List of participating locations and events at each one at http://www.oregonlavenderfestival.com/

I’m very good at procrastination. In fact it was almost my major in college. So when I look around and things aren’t getting done, I figure the cause is procrastination and speak sharply to myself about that. But sometimes there is an actual reason – not an excuse, mind you, but a reason.

This week I have several things hanging over my head that really should have been completed by now. I got off track last week what with the issues with my right hand taking an unjustified vacation during a holiday week. Still, I thought the decks were relatively clear and those undone projects from last week could easily be slotted into this week – ready to go after a holiday and fireworks and all that. Wonder where I got that delusion exactly. (more…)

In case you thought I’d fallen over a cliff, I didn’t really, but my right hand took a leave of absence. Something went wrong last weekend — not sure exactly what or just a combination of things like working with plant pots, trying to get the outdoor thermometer screwed back on the wall (harder than it sounds since the drill bit was recalcitrant), doing hand washables (all that wringing), computing (although that wasn’t special on the weekend) or whatever.  In any event, by Sunday afternoon my right pinky finger hurt. Not overly unusual since I have recurring pain in both hands anyway. Took some aspirin and went to a movie (my favorite relaxation tool). (more…)

OK, it really is July and even feels like it today — temps going up to the 90’s. Still not too hot for those of us who migrated here from humid east coast cities, but just right for a cool beer.

July is Oregon Craft Beer month with dozens of events planned to celebrate beer and beer-making. You can find a list at Oregon Craft Beer . You can also follow them on Twitter or  Facebook.

Get out to enjoy the weather, enjoy an Oregon beer and don’t forget that July wraps up with the best beer festival in the country.

I think most of us have voices in our heads — not the alien ones that require tinfoil to keep out but kind of ordinary voices giving advice (or less politely, nagging). Sometimes it’s like a running background commentary on what you’re doing. Or even on what you’re thinking.

One of my friends always talks about picking out clothes and hearing her mother in her head saying things like “you’re too big to wear plaid” or “no one wears white shoes in winter.” Her mother was really into fashion advice. Other mothers tend to have favorite topics of their own. I assume that mothers are so often stuck in your head because they’re the ones who spent hours talking to you, instructing you, and in some cases yelling at you. (more…)

First of the summer (as in after June 21) beer festivals is this weekend — opening Friday at noon.  It looks like Portland weather won’t be as hot this year but still good beer-drinking weather.

North American Organic Brewers Festival (NAOBF) is held in Overlook Park.   There’s no parking but MAX Yellow line stops right at the festival.  Validated MAX ticket gets you $1 discount on a tasting mug — or if you’re walking or biking bring 3 cans of food for the Oregon Food Bank.

Festival is presented by our own Roots Organic Brewing.  For full details, beer list, and directions, go to www.naobf.org.

So yesterday I wrote about Twitter pulling me in to eating pies when I’m not even a fancier of pies. Today the subject is drinking — or not. Drinking in the sense of cocktails and other hard alcoholic concoctions — not beer and wine.

Twitter didn’t cause me to stop drinking. In fact I had no plan to quit drinking. I just sort of noticed one day that it had happened, seemingly without intention or attention. I was just going along doing what I do when I noticed I wasn’t really drinking any more. Sure an occasional beer but not even that very often. (more…)

Is Twitter changing anything about the way you think — or the way you live — or affecting your behavior in any way? This question is not directed at those who say “Twitter — what?” Twitter may be off their radar, at least for now. But for people who are using Twitter — is it changing you?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while (thinking as opposed to writing or tweeting about) and I can see a few places where Twitter has directly changed something I do plus other places where the influences aren’t so direct. Some are good — perhaps some are bad, or at least fattening.  (more…)

As you already know, I like movies. And I’m usually pretty good at recognizing people from other films or TV shows even if they are hidden behind one disguise or another. It’s usually the voice that gives it to me because they’re much more likely to successfully disguise other characteristics.

Friday night I went to see a couple of Danny Boyle films that I’d not seen before, one of which was Trainspotting. I never went to see it when it came out because the subject just didn’t appeal to me but by now I’ve worked up enough interest in his films to want to see more of them. So I’m sitting there watching the film when one of the less flamboyant of the main characters starts to seem oddly familiar. He’s young and blond in the film but the accents are too thick for me to place him – besides the fact that he doesn’t talk nearly as much as the other three of the mates. Still, in the few shots where you get a good look at him, something about the chin and eyes just seemed familiar. At the credits I checked to see if the actor was a familiar name – but no, didn’t recall seeing and/or remembering Kevin McKidd for any reason.

It sat in the back of my mind overnight and still nothing so I had to do a little research. Not that it took long these days with IMDB and Wikipedia and such to consult. A few years ago I’d have spent days trying to track down whatever was nagging at me. Anyway, it turns out that the chin/eyes combination belongs to one of the newish characters on Grey’s Anatomy – Dr. Owen Hunt. He has some of that same haunted look as the doctor who’s back from the war but sounds nothing like he did back in Trainspotting. I’m a more or less regular watcher of Grey’s Anatomy but it takes me a long time to consciously know the names of series actors.

Mystery solved.

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