Labor Day Weekend Yay!

My friend Jesse came out from NY this weekend to hang out with me. I picked him up at the airport Friday morning around 11am. I had never seen him in a suit before, and being that he has to wear them all the time for work, I asked him to wear one for me. :)
We went back to my house, where he met Wesley. Wesley wasn't quite sure what to make of him, but that's par for the course with Jesse... not many people can figure him out. Jesse was running on no sleep, as the 3 hour time difference and the jet lag finally caught up to him. We had lunch at Quizno's and then I let him take a small nap.


Eldon was having a barbeque at his place and invited us. We went there around 9pm and hung out with Eldon, Warren, Abby, Ildiko and Justin. We has hotdogs and pineapple teriayki burgers. Justin dished out some spatula spankings in his gothic witch hat while helping Eldon not burn the plastic spatula on the grill....

Jesse enjoying one of Warren's signature drinks.




















Abby had some fun with the hotdogs.









Eldon and I tortured Jesse with some tickling....

And after eating we went to the hot tub to relax before Jesse and I headed back to my place. By then, Jesse was more than ready to pass out.





I insisted that Jesse see the Saturday market as part of his tour of Portland. Jesse, Wesley and I walked around enjoying the sites and smells of the wonderful food and crafts. We had some local "dead guy ale" from the Rogue, as well as some quality cajun chicken. We walked up Burnside to Powell's books so he could see the area and he really seemed to like Portland. It was also a beautiful day to just walk around. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go to the Art at the Pearl they were having, because we had dinner reservations at 8.

He took me to Ruth's Chris steakhouse in downtown. I had never been there before. I had my car valet parked, which felt really wierd for me. What a beautiful restaurant though. I'm not accustomed to fancy restaurants, so I almost felt a little uncomfortable, and I laughed a lot, probably to the point of obnoxiousness... I tend to giggle when I'm nervous.. Oh my was the food fantastic. We had the Porterhouse for two, which is both a NY strip and a filet, as well as mashed potatos, and he had some creamed spinach all to himself... (I hate spinach). We also downed a bottle of Chateu St. Michelle Riesling (my favorite wine of late.)
We finished up the night going to Crush. I had never been there either. Although it was a really nice looking bar, we felt sort of out of place there being that we were the only two male-female "couple" in the place. They served us some incredibly strong drinks though. Jesse's double captain and coke was more like a pint glass of captain and a splash of coke. Luckily I was the one driving.

Sunday, we were a little wiped out so we spent the morning chilling out and talking, and then decided to do a little shopping. Our trip was cut short when while driving on I-205 the guy in the lane next to me informed me that I was driving on a flat tire! We pulled off on airport way, and sure enough, my tire was completely flat! (I really gotta invest in AAA..) I had a spare dougnut tire, but somehow my jack was missing, so Jesse called AAA and had someone come and change the tire for us. After waiting nearly an hour, we were on our way to the unexpected trip to the tire store.We managed to make it to Firestone 5 minutes before they closed and got a new tire. Thanks again for that Jesse!

We went back to my apartment and decided to go see a movie. We went to see Red Eye. I'm sorta torn about how I feel about this movie. I really like Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, but the whole time I watched the movie I sorta felt like I was watching an episode of 24. It was all wrapped up neatly and predictably, like I was watching a really good episode of a tv show and not a movie. Ah well... not every movie can be fantastic. The acting was good, but the characters were so predictable they were almost familliar. I would say if you wanted to watch a 2 hour tv show episode, rent it.. but it certainly wasn't theatre quality.
After that, we decided it would be best if we got some good sleep so that we could ensure that Jesse would catch his plane. All in all, I had a great time, and I'm really glad that he and I got to spend some time together. He really is a great person and a good friend, although he will probably check the "deny" box if you were to ask him directly. :P