Christmas In The Northwest

A few days past but happy holidays everybody!

The immediate family headed up to Olympia on Wednesday.  After meeting up with Amanda and Jody who came down from Seattle, we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner.  We had some delicious crab cakes and fried oysters along with the best bread rolls I've ever eaten.  Yum.

Christmas morning, we headed over to my grandma's house to open presents and eat more delicious food.  After a few hours, the large group moved over to my other aunt and uncle's house.  My cousin, Grant, and I were in charge of making margaritas (which was a success) for the Mexican themed dinner.  Once again, the food was amazing.  After food, Jody taught some of us how to play Chrononauts which is made by the same people who made Fluxx (which I've likely made you play before).  Similar to Fluxx, it's confusing at first but then gets to be fun.

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Yule Log

Jody found the food

Presents

The day after, we headed back to my grandma's place and I broke open the game Amanda and Jody got me, Munchkin, and figured out how to play.  Once again, slightly confusing at first but ended up being really fun.  I had to work later in the day so once the game was finished, we headed back to Portland.

Hope everyone had a happy Christmas/holiday!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Goodbye England

Very short one this week.

On Thursday I got to meet up with an old friend from high school, Summer, who is visiting town.  Summer is going to school in Liverpool, England but is back for the holidays.  The last time I saw Summer was in Europe.  I got to fly over to Liverpool from Dublin and she showed me around the town for a day.

Summer wanted to see the climbing gym where I work so we had a little climbing session and then headed on down to Bridgeport Brewery for some food and festive beverages.  

Getting on the ramp

Crushing it

Cheers

After wandering around REI, we made our way up to 23rd to browse the shops and Summer had her first ever Salt and Straw.  It was a fun day.

Salt and Straw

That's all for now.  Bye.

Galway Girl

I haven't done one of these in a while and I thought it was about time to revive it.

This week's "featured friend" is about Kerry Braisted.

Last night in Ireland

My first interaction with Kerry was via Facebook.  She was studying abroad in Dublin for a whole year with the same program I went through.  Our resident director told Kerry that someone else from Colorado State would be coming in the spring (me) and so Kerry sent me a quick message.

Our first in-person meeting was, I believe, in a Vodaphone shop the day I arrived in Dublin.  I don't remember this too well since I was suffering from some intense jet lag and almost fell asleep standing up.

Scotland

We spent a fair amount of time out in Dublin along with the trinity trio and traveling with the API group around Ireland.  Fun times.
 
After getting back to the states and making it through summer, I got back to Colorado and we met up at the always great Fuzzy's.  It was always nice to have someone to reminisce with about Europe.

This past semester, we just barely survived Campus Corps and were able to vent about what crazy things one of the kids had done that week.  We also got to play in a day long soccer tournament.  It was not well organized but ended up being really fun.

Now we stay in touch by trying to do a monthly festive beverage Harry Potter game via Skype.  Technology really is amazing.

Things I've learned about Kerry:

1. She's all about the craic
2. She knows a lot about super heroes
3. We can't sit through Campus Corps orientation without leaving early
4. Rumor has it she's very good at French
5. She's one of the most dependable people I have ever met

And here are some of my favorite memories:

1. Her constant looks of slight disbelief of me being way too excited during a Harry Potter walking tour in Scotland.
2. Dublinia followed by Guinness followed by tea day.
3. My 21st birthday (or at least it's kind of a memory...)
4. Crushing at Fuzzy's trivia.
5. When we went to a cider bar in Fort Collins with two others and played cards games for a few hours which ended up being really fun.

Winning at trivia

Congrats on the upcoming graduation, Kerry!  We'll have to do another Harry Potter game soon.  Miss you!

That's all for now.  Bye.

The Imperial March

I'm going to seriously nerd out on this one.  In case you missed it, the first trailer for the new Star Wars movie was released last week.  I am a massive Star Wars fan so I got probably a little too excited watching the trailer.

Yes, I still own this.

The trailer starts out with an overly dramatic voice over, followed by an exasperated Stormtrooper popping up on screen, appearing to be on Tatooine. Not going to lie, I genuinely thought the trailer was a parody at first as the first lines of voice over are slightly cheesy and the actor who plays the Stormtrooper at the start looks an awful lot like Tracy Morgan at first glance.

We then see a R2D2-esk droid with a ball shaped body rolling speedily across the sand.

Next up is a few flashes of the new Stormtroopers riding on a ship.

Cut to a worried looking female taking off on some sort of speeder.

Rebel pilots are shown flying X Wings across a body of water.

The voice over continues as a cloaked figure stomps through the woods and ignites the best fictional weapon of all time, his/her red beamed lightsaber.  Apparently the new design of the sith lightsaber has caused some controversy.  If you get the chance, check out what Stephen Colbert had to say about the new design.  

Then there it is folks.  The Millennium Falcon comes roaring on to the screen with Tie Fighters firing away.  Han seems to have learned some new maneuvers since we last saw him.

And these.

Yes, it was just the first trailer but I wish we had gotten a glimpse at one of the familiar characters.  A shot of R2D2 being his awesome self would have made me even more excited.  I can't wait for the next trailer and for next year when the movie comes out.  Here's hoping Disney delivers.

May the force be with you.

That's all for now.  Bye.