You know there’s nothing better than spending time with friends you haven’t seen for a while.  Tonight Eric and I met up with our friends Eric and Natalie at Toro Bravo for dinner.  It was such a nice time. We all had some AMAZING food. Thanks Eric for ordering the Paella because that was the bomb!

What’s even nicer is that the four of us talked about all sorts of things; politics, greenhouse emissions, farming hemp, American history, and more. It’s so nice to have friends that are well rounded and able to hold conversations well.  I always learn so much from Natalie and Eric each time we get together.  It’s fun too because I can share the things I know a little bit more about too.  Thank you both for a great night.  We need to do it more.

After dinner and after dinner drinks Eric and I headed to southeast Portland for the infamous Whiffies Pies that I’ve heard about from people I follow on Twitter.  All I can say is YUM!  I had the marionberry pie and Eric has the pineapple pie. They were both so tasty, nice and warm.. and well… just good.

I snapped a picture of Eric with his pie.

Today I had the opportunity to meet with Josh Bancroft and chat about all things geek. Everyone once in awhile Josh and I get together to talk about “geeky” things.  Every time I walk away from meeting with Josh I’m pumped up about geeky stuff, online communities and usually end up buying the new toy he just showed me. Yup, I’m bad. Last time Josh and I met, I ended up buying a Kindle… this time he showed me a cool, white, EPC.  I’m in trouble with that one. I really REALLY want that. I’m a sucker for new, techy things.

I am just so amazed and how much one can learn about building online communities, social media, web 2.0 and all those other “hot” phrases for connecting on the web. On one hand I feel really strong in my knowledge and on the other, I feel like I have so much to learn.  Josh keeps telling me I know more than I think I do, and maybe that’s so, but I want to really feel comfortable about what I know. I want to be able to speak to anyone, geek and non-geek, about wikis, blogs, podcasting, online communities.

I can’t believe I went with three questions and we only got through the first.  Ok, yeah, I can because Josh and I have a habit of talking about the question and then going off on a tangent and then coming back.  Right in the middle of talking about blogs I should be making sure to read, showing me how to use Netvibes and making feeds of twitter searches we jumped to iPhone apps.  I had to laugh a bit because there we were in Panera sharing apps and “geeking out”. I’m sure people thought it was quite a site. Josh has some wicked cool apps though, like sonic lighter. That is one cool app! I can’t believe that it shows you all the people that are running that app all over the world.  It was amazing to look it.  Imagine the power in that sort of thing, maybe not for a lighter, but it did make me wonder how it could be applied to other things. Koi Pond was super cool too.  I ended up with nine apps on my list to try.

Josh and I also talked about his new project which sounds so cool and right up his alley.  I think he’ll be great at it.  The cool thing is I get to help him a bit.  How cool is that?  Right now I’m going to try and work out a logo for him and then go from there. I am so flattered that he’d want me to help him.  So we’re helping each other. He’s mentoring me and I’m helping him, where needed, on his project.

I learned so much today and got so many great sites to start following.  I’ve also implemented some new changes on my blog too based on today’s meeting.  I even got an early preview of Josh’s presentation for tomorrow at WordCampdx.  That’s the other fun things happening.  I’m really trying to emerse myself in the blogging, wiki community.  I’m pretty excited about tomorrow to learn lots about WordPress and network with other bloggers in the pdx area.

P1000403,

Tonight was amazing, it was everything I’d hoped and more. All the neighbors came together and we had the most amazing BBQ. Everyone came but people from one house. I thought that was pretty good. It was great to meet all my neighbors after saying “hi” and waving for so long. We all realized that of the 8 houses in the Cul-de-sac, five of us work for Intel. We got to meet the babies in the neighborhood too. The whole night was just terrific. Eric did a wonderful job being the grill master. Everyone brought a dish or two for the potluck. We had more food than we knew what to do with. All of us ate very well.

Lara, the girl in this picture was the first to start the fireworks party. He dad, Brian had bought some fireworks for her to shoot off and do. She started with a sparkler and was a little nervous about holding it and swinging it around. Next it was the popits (you throw them on the ground and they make a snap or pop sound). Lara was nervous with those two but it wasn’t long and she was grabbing handfuls of them and throwing them as hard as she could. It was cute and funny at the same time because she’d throw them and not all of them would pop so, Subash walked around and stepped on them to pop them. We all joked with him that it looked like a new dance.

Later in the evening, when it got dark, Sammy and Pla broke out their Costco sized box of fireworks and started the show. Between Sammy, Pla, Eric and Brian they had two,three and at one point four going at the same time. It was a great night. Everyone said they had a good time and were glad I set it up… next up, and end of summer party after we’re back from Boston.

Click the picture for the rest of the pictures, there are some wonderful fireworks pictures. I’m getting better all the time with the new camera. I love DSLR!

Tonight was so much fun. Today was so much fun. I worked from home today and got a lot done on this project I’m working on. The crazy part of it is this HUGE project is due in just a couple of weeks. It’s wild to think that what I’m working on is going to go out to the entire company. It’s a lot of pressure and means a lot of working day and night, week days and weekends to get it all done by the deadline.

Tonight was great though because we went over to our friend Ed and Livia’s house for a BBQ dinner. Ed and Livia have three kids that are just adorable. The youngest is Emmy a little girl about 4 years old. She’s so cute I wanted to just scoop her up and hug her all night. She’s a little monkey too and spent most of the night climbing all over things, especially her mom. Alex and Grayson (the boys) are so incredibly cute and the most well-mannered boys I’ve ever met. Ed and Livia should be proud.

Last night Eric made some great salmon, Livia made a wonderful spinach salad and we had rice too. Oh and I made dessert of cobbler. It was such a yummy dinner. It was great that we all helped make the dinner too. Ed broke out some great wine. I forget what it was but it was tasty and one of the wines served at our reception last year. The night was so nice. We sat and joked, laughed, chatted about all sorts of things and enjoyed a wonderful relaxing night with friends. It really made me appreciate my friends. On the drive home Eric and I talked a lot about friends and how great they can make you feel. How you can go months and not see or talk to a good friend but then you talk on the phone and the months seem to dissolve and it’s like only a day has passed. I think that’s really true from my very best friend LeAnne or Jim. I can go months without talking to either of them and then either I pick up the phone or they do and we talk forever. Friends are great!

Well, it’s late and should get to bed. I’ve got a great book to read right now….

Today was AWESOME! We had a whole bunch of people over for a BBQ, it was so nice. We had Eric’s brother and family, guys from Eric’s basketball team, some of my friends from Intel and the neighbors. It was such a great group of people.

The weather was wonderful and so nice that we were all able to hang out outside and chat without being super hot. It was a great afternoon. I think everyone had a great time. We all had things we could talk about and I don’t think we talked work (Intel) much at all which is really hard to do when you’ve got a bunch of people from work. Everyone brought something to the potluck. The food was so great. We had wonderful salads, and desserts for everyone. Eric made this great lemonade too. Man it was great!

Most everyone left by 7 or 8 but Mike and his family stayed and we watched some TV. We watches the first two episodes of 30 days and a few other shows. It was so great to all hang out together, watch some TV and chat about things. Mike’s kids are so well behaved. I was so impressed. His kids are early teenagers. Not once did I see them pull one of their parents aside and ask to leave or give the look that they didn’t want to be here. Very impressive! It was such a great night, I hope that we can get together with them more and have something like a games night or something. I guess we’ll see.