tired

I know there was a weekend in there somewhere... did I miss it?

It was nice seeing Scott's parents this weekend, and we helped move his bro and family into their new house. Dinner with the group was fun too. Yikes, there were actually thirteen people in our house for dinner and we made it through with no problems, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I have to admit - it was nice finally being able to host something like that!

A trip to Costco, the free concert at Les Schwab Amphitheater, and kid stuff rounded out the weekend. But the smoke from the wildfires made everyone's eyes and throats burn, so we didn't spend much time outdoors.

But no rest for the weary, and none in sight for some time either!

Fries

Today I read that the good folks over at Bend Oregon Restaurants are addicted to "Hot Apple Meth" (oops... make that Pie) from McDonalds.

Which just makes me hungry for... crack fries.

Is it just me, or does Mickey D's put something on their fries, making them irresistable. I just can't help myself. When they are hot and fresh... it doesn't get much better!

I have actually mooched McDonald's fries off co-workers. (If you are just going to throw them away...) Now I find myself telling the girls (on our rare trips through the drive thru), "No, you don't really want apple dippers do you?" Because then I can't steal their fries from the bottom of the bag. Stinky almost always gets a salad, which is also no fun at all. The only reason I take you to McDonald's is so I can steal your fries, don't you get it?!

Yes, I know I can (and should) just get my own fries. But what's the fun in that? Besides... other people's fries always taste better!

Haze

It's late July and a thick brown haze has settled over Bend.

Yeup, it's forest fire season. There are several fires burning in the area. You can see the smoke from the Black Crater Fire billowing out of the forest from Mt. Washington Drive.

Usergroup

HTML
PHP
Coldfusion
Perl
Apache
SEO
SSL
Flex
IIS
Java
Ajax
ActiveX
Flash
RIA
Ruby

Are you a web developer/designer in Central Oregon? Here is your opportunity to network and share ideas with others in your field! If you are interested in participating please post a comment or email me directly. We will setting a time, date and location for a kick-off meeting in the near future.

Bikes

I have nothing against people who ride bikes. Some of my favorite people ride bikes either for fun or for commuting - if not both. In fact, now that it wouldn't be life-threatening for me to commute to work on my bike, I am planning to take it in and get it spiffed up and join them.

I do have something against stupid people who ride bikes.

Like the two women hanging out - on their bikes - in the middle of the turn onto Archie Briggs road this morning. Riding just slowly enough to stay upright, but barely. Ladies, I know you saw me coming, and still you decided to hang out in the road. Do you know what I would do to my kids if I caught them doing that? So I had to come to a stop, and wait, and the traffic behind me had to go around me, while I waited for you to decide which way to go. Eventually I ended up having to go around you, turning into the lane that is normally reserved for oncoming traffic.

Then there are the two riders on Mt. Washington drive. Riding side by side - neither in the bike lane. Now, let me think about this for a moment. If I were riding my bike up a hill on a road with a lot of traffic - I might consider riding in the bike lane. But even if I felt the need to ride in the road, if a car came up behind me and followed me for a quarter of a mile I might consider moving into the bike lane so they could pass. But since I drive a Toyota that doesn't demand much respect on the roads of Bend, and I was stuck behind them until they turned off since there is a median on that section of road.

Therefore I declare today, July 26 - stupid people on bikes day. You are off the hook for the rest of today.

But tomorrow I am going to lean on the horn and let you know you are "number one" if you don't get out of my f-ing way.

Backpack

I just don't get it.

Last night we got home at about 4:30. All the kids came inside with their stuff from their assorted activities, and took it all to their rooms.

But this morning he can't find his backpack.

Is it on your top bunk? no Is it in your closet? nope How about the bathroom? nada Still in the car? still no Looked under the bed? not there either

Any other week, we would probably survive. But he is at day camp this week, so he needs a lot of "stuff" - like sunscreen and aquasox - that we only have one of each and are pretty inconvenient or expensive to replace. But I still don't get it, can someone tell me...

How did he manage to lose the backpack in less than 18 hours?

Mac

This is an oldie but a goodie...



Disclaimer: I am a Mac user. If you are a Mac user, I hope you laugh along with me. If you are a PC user, just laugh!

List

Via Shannon...

a list of links

cool shit
playing with the kids
baseball games
the Oregon coast
Crater Lake Sunrise (the beverage)
Crater Lake sunrise (the view)
air conditioning
campfires
our new house!!!!!

bad shit
tailgaters
sleeplessness
missing the kids
boxes

Hot

Well, duh! It's late July in Bend and it's hot! After losing the battle with the heat (we did get some siding done... but no landscaping) we got quite a bit done inside the house. I "de-boxed" the den (Scott's parents are coming this weekend so this is a Very Good Thing). I sorted through bags and bags and more bags of outgrown kids' clothes - into what can be handed down, what gets saved for posterity, and what goes to a donation center. We got the rest of the phones hooked up. We even sorted through our artwork and hung a few things on the wall. And even more... overall I felt good, and felt like we accomplished something.

Air conditioning is a beautiful thing.

Roadtrip

A co-worker and I drove to Portland (well... more like Beaverton) on Thursday for a meeting. By coincidence, another Bend-ite made the same trek (so now we can add one more to the carpool next time... maybe).

It was a beautiful day for a drive. We took the Santiam Pass and then drove up I-5. When we travel together, the median age in the car somehow drops to about twelve. We play music. We play slug bug. We chuckle. We talk (or we don't talk - quiet is good too). We both cheered when we saw the really-rude-driver-from-Washingon-State-that-tailgated-us pulled over near Stayton, accompanied by a State Patrolman in a sweeeet Mustang.

I am reminded every time I go to the valley, how much I dislike I-5. Waaaay too many big trucks... and lots of people in too much of a hurry for me!

We got our TGI Friday's fix, and Scott got a Godfather's Pizza out of the deal.

Incoming!

This article was brought to my attention today. It's from Forbes magazine, and the article is called "150 Cheap Places to Live".

And it's about Bend.

But their information is misleading. It states:

What if you want to live in a grander fashion? Say a 4,000-square-foot house on an acre.

What would that cost you? In Palo Alto, Calif., Greenwich, Conn., Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown or San Diego's La Jolla, easily $4 million. In just as lovely Bend, Ore., where the sky is blue and dry, the Deschutes River trout jump year round and Mt. Bachelor winter powder is bitchin’, maybe $700,000. You'll get more than an acre, too.

Yes the Deschutes River is lovely, and Mt. Bachelor is great. But... huh? What was that?! Would someone please show me where, in Bend, I can get more than an acre of land for $700K... with a 4000SF home on it!

Potatoes!

This is a family favorite. The recipe is from Scott's mom and we have tweaked it a bit (of course) to make it our own. It goes together really fast so this is a great week-night dinner. Also it can be made ahead and refrigerated until it's time to pop into the oven. The leftovers are great reheated. One of Scott's co-workers requested the recipe after he took this for lunch yesterday.

This is for you, Adrianne!

This is a little long, so click here for the recipe.

Cheezy Creamy Potato Goodness
Ingredients
1 bag frozen O'Brien potatoes (I like Ore-Ida)
1 pt. sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese (Tillamook)
1/2 c. butter, melted
salt & pepper to taste
Topping
2 c. crushed corn flakes
1/4 c. butter, melted

Defrost potatoes. Arrange potatoes in 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Combine sour cream, soup, cheese, butter, salt & pepper. Spead over potatoes. Combine cereal and butter, then scatter over soup mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Variations:
Add chopped ham or other meat to the soup mixture.
For a creamier flavor, add more sour cream.
More cheese is never a bad thing.
More topping is an even better thing. (Scott loves the crunchy stuff.)

Serve with gravy! Everything's better with gravy... but make sure you have enough to go around or there might be tears!

The topping can be made from just about any cereal. We have experimented and found that Special K and Rice Krispies are both great. Also a "jigger" of Frosted Flakes in addition to the corn flakes was good... but I haven't been tempted to try Fruity Pebbles!

Photo

I love this pic and just thought I would share it with y'all! Happy Tuesday and thanks for reading!

Peek-a-boo

Thought this one was funny... does anyone know if this is a real men's room?



Update: Thanks to Jake for finding the following (via Snopes):

This photograph depicts a men's restroom at a Sofitel (a chain of 5-star hotels operated by Accor Hotels) in Queenstown, New Zealand, which has attracted a fair bit of interest and commotion:

Five star hotels are normally famous for their opulence and their design but the new $45 million Sofitel in Queenstown is gaining notoriety for its little boys room.

It has brought the hotel a couple of complaints from church goers and a couple of hundred people wanting to take a look.

It's the most popular room in the five star hotel.

Hotel manager Mark Wilkinson says the toilets were just a way of putting a little levity into the posh hotel.

"Certainly it wasn't our intention to offend anyone," he says.

Zoom

We went and watched the bike criterium downtown last night. As first-timers, we didn't know what to expect... so I checked on the web and found the final race was at 7pm, so we loaded the kids in the car and headed that direction a little after six.

Let's just say... next year I will know better! Not that it wasn't fun, and we are definitely glad we went. We will just be much better prepared next time. The criterium lasts ninety minutes... yes that is an hour and a half. Of watching the bikes whiz by... and waiting... and the bikes whiz by... and waiting. It was fun to see them come around the corner, anticipating who would be out front. The kids rang cow bells and we cheered for everyone.

Grilsch

They both ate grilsch! Butthead said it's disgusting and Stinky thinks it's great! They FOBbed. Butthead lived in Trickle Falls and got a blue rag. Stinky lived in Hillside and got a green rag. They were both on the "red team" for Capture the Flag. They spend a night at Beaver Dams. Butthead was in the "Reindeer poo-poo" skit and Stinky was in the "Holy Water" skit. Both of them smelled like a rank mixture of feet, damp, mildew and dirt.

YES... the big kids are home from a week at Camp!

And the car was filled with camp songs during the 2.5 hour drive home. There are new parts to the yodeling Swiss Boy song (Bullfrog: "Why would I lie?", Milkdud: "Milkdud wins!"). The words to "Squirrely" and "Piece of Tin" are still pretty much the same. Scott, who never went to camp as a child, thinks we are all crazy. Boo just looked on in wonder.

For the uninitiated: Grilsch is a mixture of par-boiled rice, USDA shredded cheese blend, and unidentifiable meaty bits. It's bliss in a styrofoam cup, best eaten late at night during an outpost.

Arrr!

No, it's not talk like a pirate day... yet!

Scott, Boo and I went to see "Pirates of the Caribbean" last night. It was pretty good! I would definitely recommend this for anyone that liked the first movie. It was fun, full of silly moments, and some slightly scary ones too. (Boo whispered to me: this is pretend, right?) As always the special effects and costumes were great. The detail of Davy Jones's crew is amazing. And yes... if you wait until after the credits roll there is a "surprise" at the end.

Savvy?

Names

Via Chuggnutt... I'm sure we've all seen variations on the name game... here's a collection of rules for generating ten of them (along with my results).

Your Spy Name: Middle name and current street name
Louise Desert (truncated)

Your Movie Star Name: Grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy
Babe Reese

Your Rap Name: First initial of first name, first two or three letters of your last name
J-Bla

Your Gamer Tag: A favorite color, a favorite animal
Purple Aardvark

Your Soap Opera Name: Middle name, city where you were born
Louise Eugene

Your Star Wars Name: First 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name
BlaMarRus

Your Jedi Name: Middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards
Esiuol Rekcut (I used my maiden name, wink!)

Your Porn Star Name: First pet's name, the street you grew up on
Heather Nebraska

Your Superhero Name: "The", your favorite color, the automobile your dad drives
The Purple Cloud

Your Action Hero Name: First Name Of The Main Character In The Last Film You Watched, last Food You Just Ate
Napoleon Cappuccino

What are your names?

7-11

Happy "Free Slurpee" Day! (I got mine... did you get yours?)

Cat

My mom came to visit for the weekend, and we went to the Sisters Quilt Show. I sent along a toy for my sister's cat (Huckle). Today I got the following thank you note - on behalf of Huckle...

Mew!!! Warble-chirp-warble-warble. Chirp chirp. [acrobatic leap, tail-swish, tail-swish, paw-wave] Mew mew mew squeak. [leap, leap, swish]. Warble. Chirp [swish] chirp warble. Squeak.

---

Translation:
THE NEW TOY IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY COOL!!!!!

I LIKE TO PLAY! DO YOU LIKE TO PLAY? LOOK--I CAN JUMP REALLY HIGH! AND DO FLIPS! OOH--DUST. DUST IS FUN. BUT I LIKE FEATHERY THINGS ON STICKS BECAUSE THEN I CAN LEAP! I EAT CAT FOOD. DO YOU EAT CAT FOOD? CAT FOOD IS GOOD!

---

Huckle is a very happy with his new toy. And he likes cat food. And dust. He meant to include the words "thank you" in his message, but got distracted by his love of dust bunnies and cat food. So, on behalf of Huckle Cat (aka Stop Biting Fatso On The Head Dammit), thank you for the cool feathery toy.

I wonder if the cat was at the Fiona Apple concert with Boo? And I wonder... if my sister got into Huckle's catnip?

Homerun!

Why was I worried? Boo loved the first day of baseball camp. She didn't care that it was a bunch of boys. She was proud because she hit the ball that was pitched to her and even "catched" a few grounders.

The only disappointment? At their break the stadium snack bar is open, and she didn't have any money to buy a snow cone.

Since there are three more days of camp left... I'll just have to make sure she has some pocket money for the rest of the week!

Camps

Stinky and Butthead are away at camp this week!

So... Boo is the solo kid at home this week.

She is going to baseball camp with the Bend Elks each morning. I was really surprised when she wanted to sign up, and even more surprised at how excited she was this morning! When I dropped her off today we found out she is the only girl signed up. At first she seemed a little nervous, but then when they asked the kids to grab their stuff and head onto the field she went off without a backwards glance... which made me a little sad but proud.

Darnit... it was hard to watch my baby girl walk off with a huge herd of boys! Even though she is pretty girly (we had to get her pony tail just right this morning) she is tough. It should be fun to see what she has to say when I pick her up this afternoon!

Really

Scott and I treated the whole tribe to the Fiona Apple show on Saturday, thanks to the dollar ticket deal. The big kids weren't that into the music, but they had a good time being outside and enjoyed the nice weather. Boo wanted to go up closer and see all the commotion so we went around to the right side of the stage. She and I were there for a good portion of the concert. I don't think she was into the music any more than the big kids... it was the social aspect that appealed to her.

After the show... she was full of "reallys":

I really had fun!
I really need a snack!
That music was really weird!
I am really tired!
I really need a snack!
We should really do that again!
It's getting really dark!
I really need a snack!
That rock (on the path on the LSA side of the bridge to the Shops) is really big!
I really want to climb on the rock!
I am really high! (from atop the rock)
I really need a snack!
I am really coming down now!
I really want to go home!
I really need a snack!

In the car on the way home, she really fell asleep. Really.

Movies

I love movies. I love my kids. I love seeing movies with my kids.

But not just any movie. Yes, we took them to see "Cars". We saw "X-Men 3" with the older kids. And, the oldest even went to see "King Kong" with us (and yes, during the scary scenes her eyes were covered almost as much as mine). Will I take them to see "The Devil Wears Prada"? No. Will I take them to see "Superman" or "Pirates"? Probably. Do I think this is a problem? Absolutely not.

This is a little long, so click here to keep reading.

Because my kids have learned how to act when they go to a movie. We started young, with movies where you expect kids in attendance (think: "Monsters Inc"). They understand that it is a shared experience and it is rude to interrupt other people. A concept which many adults do not even begin to comprehend.

I agree that there are many kids - of all ages - out there that can and do ruin everyone's experience by being noisy or disruptive. But I don't think it is the kid's fault because they simply don't know any better! It's the parents that should know better, but they don't - and they are the same ones that leave their cell phones turned on, kick the back of my seat, talk during the movie, and generally don't know how to act either.

Finally... this doesn't just apply to movies, folks. Have you ever been to a concert (indoors or out) where the person behind you just won't shaddap? Aren't we there to listen to the music? How about that camping trip where the Mom and Dad at the next campsite have a "domestic" at 2 a.m. Don't forget that romantic dinner that was spoiled by the the person at the next table having a loud conversation on their cell phone.

Why am I writing this? Because there seem to be many families that are reluctant to do anything in public with their kids, for fear they may behave badly. But kids are people, and people aren't perfect, no matter their size. I think it is entirely appropriate for kids to be seen and heard in public places. They need to learn - while they are young - how to act in these situations. Will it be easy? No - otherwise there wouldn't be so many disrespectful adults out there! Am I saying to rush out with your two-year old who has never been in a restaurant and take them to dinner at Merenda? No - maybe you should start with Red Robin or McDonalds.

And yes, there are definitely places where it is not appropriate to bring your kids... but that is a rant I will save for another day! ;)

Glow

For the photography nerds: ISO 200, +1 exposure... and a very steady hand. (I'm an amateur so if I screwed up the lingo please forgive me!)

For everyone else: 10-year old kid with a "California Candle" and a big smile!

Click here for the full size image.