Really Great Things

inspired by leonie

five (really) great things on a Wednesday:



1) My family. I adore them all.

2) Peaceful, sunny days like today in my new town

3) Friends, new and old, that I love and can count on (and who can count on me)

4) Summer fruit

5) Really loving my job



Those are my five today. What are yours?

Trip home from Baker City

Jen suggested a couple different routes we could take coming home from Baker City; one of these included traveling down the Columbia River Gorge, which sounded interesting to me. That route is an extra 110 miles, but we had Luigi (my 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider) and I thought it'd be fun to give him a nice run (Luigi came with his name, I didn't name him. I think that's important to note).



Interesting thing about the Columbia River Gorge, at least the portion of it that we hit - there's VERY little foliage next to the river - mostly just the normal Oregon desert landscape. This surprised my east-coast sensibilities -- rivers are supposed to have TREES beside them. Trees that make the air cooler and provide shade. Let me reiterate - there are NO SUCH TREES by the section of the damn Columbia River that we drove. And the air was hot. Want to duplicate the effect? It's easy - get someone to point 18 or so blow dryers at you, all cranked up to their highest settings. For hours. I know, I know, it's a dry heat. WHATEVER. Hot is hot, and I was fucking hot. So hot that my sweat evaporated almost instantly. Hot sucks.



The good news is that we made it home safely. The bad news is that we left a little after 10 AM and didn't get home until 8 at night. Whichever online map Jen used said the trip would take 6 hours. Hah. Had I known how long it would REALLY take, and how fucking miserably hot it was going to be, I would have chosen the shortest route home. Really, it was so hot that Jen and I barely talked, because it was, for once in our lives, hard.



We did do an extended stop in Pendleton - we checked out the shop at the wool mill there and had a great lunch at the Rainbow Cafe, which has been in continuous operation in the same location since 1893. The Rainbow is really a cross between a diner and a bar; we ordered simple things - a club sandwich for Jen, a BLT for me, both with french fries. They hit the spot perfectly, and the service was great - just a good ol' diner. Warning - they do allow smoking inside, which doesn't bother me, but might bother some. The laws about smoking indoors in Oregon change in January 2009, though, so if smoke bothers you, you can just put off the visit until after the change occurs. The air conditioning worked great inside the cafe, thank heaven, as we'd been riding with the top down and were fairly baked (and no, Luigi does not have air conditioning).



Luigi had a great run. Kinda. I didn't warn him that we'd be spending the day in 100+ degree heat (hell, I'd have warned him had I known!). He was a pretty good sport about things - except when he briefly decided he didn't want to start again after we'd stopped in Biggs to grab cold drinks; even though he was off, he kept the radiator fan going for a good 45 minutes or so - I'm not sure how long it actually was, because we stayed inside in the air conditioning for the bulk of the time.



It turned out to be a Very Good Thing that Luigi had decided he didn't want to go right away - once he didn't happily start right up, Jen and I decided to wait a little while and give him a break -- and when we went back inside the building, Jen ran into a friend who had been coming north up 97 who mentioned to her that there was an accident several miles south of Biggs. We decided to wait a little longer to let it clear out, which turned out to be a good idea, as the accident had just cleared out and traffic was still under the control of a flagger - luckily, we didn't have to wait very long to get through the line, because I'm pretty sure Luigi would have HATED idling for that long.



Once we got going down 97 on our way south to Bend, an actual cloud or two appeared in the sky, and the air got cooler. not much cooler, but cool enough that I didn't want to kill myself. It must have gone down to 92 or so. Whee! You know it's hot when you're happy that half of the blow dryers are on medium instead of hot. Once we got into Madras, we stopped for gas (at the Safeway - I've been accruing gas credits shopping at the Safeway in Bend - for every $100 you spend, you can get 10 cents off a gallon of gas - I never get to take advantage of this, though, as it's just silly to drive 45 minutes to save a little on gas. I ended up getting $1.00 off each gallon, which was nice - and I'm guessing that $1/gallon off is a limit or something, as I know I've spent more than a grand at Safeway).



Because Madras is pretty green, and actual people live there, the air was cooler. I'd also like to thank every single farmer on our route who happened to be watering their crops as we drove by, as the air was cooler when the water was flowing. The trip from Madras to Redmond, where I dropped off Jen (her hubby was in Redmond after playing golf), and then down to Bend, was much better. Heck, I even got rained on a tiny bit just south of Redmond.


It was so good to make it home. I ate, took a COLD shower, and got comfy on the floor of the bonus room, snuggling with Zippy to watch the Olympics. Then I fell asleep, I think within about 15 minutes of lying down. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Full and Frenzied

This morning, we woke up bright and early (which, to me, means at 8 am) so we could meet Jen and family at the Victorian Cafe for breakfast. We've been here five months, after all (how time flies!!) and had yet to make it to what we'd been told was the best breakfast place in Bend. Well, the verdict is in -- the food was fantastic! I had the classic Eggs Benedict (as did Mr. Jen), which was fabulous (although I was somewhat envious of Jen's choice - I don't remember what it was called, but it was basically eggs benedict with spinach, roma tomatoes, and asagio cheese. To make it even better, Jen asked them to add avocado to it. It looked amazing and I think I'll try it next time!). Mr. LT had the country fried steak, one of our favorites. It was good, but not great. I think it needed more pepper or something. It was still good enough that he cleaned his plate (as did I).

Zippy had the children's french toast and scrambled eggs. I took the liberty of putting the boysenberry syrup on her french toast (because I love boysenberry syrup, and she doesn't care one way or the other) and had a few bites of it. YUM. Burger also had french toast and did an admirable job of finishing most of her food. Stinky was with us too and had blueberry pancakes. They were apparently good, but weird - the blueberries were placed between the two pancakes instead of dropped into the batter. This did not make Stinky a happy fellow. He still ate a fair amount, though! All in all it was a great breakfast.

All of the adults had bloody marys - I had the spicy one, everyone else had the regular ones. Let me tell you that "regular" generally means "wussy", but not at the Victorian!! The regular were nice and spicy - and my "spicy" bloody mary was really hot (but oh so good). I can only imagine what the "very spicy" version is like! I got about halfway through my drink before we were seated for breakfast and was a little loopy. Sigh. I've turned into such a lightweight!!

The only complaint we had was that the hot chocolate was watery. Really, it kind of sucked. The presentation was very nice, it was served in a glass cup with a nice topping of whipped cream and either cinnamon or nutmeg (Burger had the topping GONE before I thought to check which), so it was very pretty. But the taste was blah. It's not that hard to make good hot chocolate, even if you do use a mix for the base - add a dollop of whole milk or half and half, a squirt of hershey's syrup and you're good to go. Anyway, this certainly wasn't a deal breaker and we'll be back again!

After breakfast, we all went over to REI, where they were holding their annual garage sale - basically, things that have been returned (REI has a lovely, liberal return policy) are marked down and sold as-is to REI members (the REI membership is SO worth it). The place was a ZOO, and there were a number of people who were seriously out of control and a little rude (most folks were nice, though).

We scored - Burger got a nice North Face fleece jacket she's been coveting, I got a pair of Marmot gloves I'd lusted after but couldn't justify the cost of (the tag says there's a tear in the liner, but I can't find it for the life of me - so I bought them at about 40% of the original cost. Whee!), Mr. LT got a pair of hiking shoes, and Burger and I will share the pair of skis (with bindings!) we found for $100 - you can't beat that.

Before this year, I hadn't skied since Burger was a baby - I used to ski whenever possible, but it just seemed like such a hassle (and expensive) for the years when she was growing up. I learned to ski when I was three, so I used to be pretty good, but I pretty much suck now, so sharing these skis with Burger until we don't suck is at least a temporary solution. I couldn't see passing them by - I have no idea if I'll ever get back to being a good skier, and Burger doesn't yet have much experience - she's been skiing three times this year and LOVES it, but we're going to wait to invest in good skis until after we see how she does with some time on the hill.

We looked for skis for Zippy, but the kids skis apparently were snatched up very quickly - there was only one pair of kids alpine skis that I saw in the bin (and they were too short for the Zipster, who's the size of most 7 year olds, instead of most 5 1/2 year olds - I guess she received some genes from my 6' aunt), but I saw multiple people walking around with other sets of kids skis. Sheesh, we were there at 10:15 and it started at 10! For some reason, the whole event reminded me of the bridal gown frenzy at Filene's Basement, although there was no clawing and pushing in evidence. But I'm not a great crowd person unless there's alcohol involved. In any case, the deals were great and I'm glad we went.

Woot!

I'm dead tired, but wanted to quickly note that I went out tonight for a few hours and a few beers with a few fellow bloggers here in Bend. It was FANTASTIC to get to meet these lovely ladies - I felt like I'd known them all for years (next time we really should get a table. Maybe then we wouldn't get ignored) and I had so much fun hanging out!!

Thanks to my new (real, live) friends for a great night, and I look forward to doing it again soon!

I should be at WoTech tomorrow, but won't make COWPU. Next month I'll flip the two. Or something.

Jen, Julie, and Elise -- thanks for making me feel so welcome!

I received the best compliment today. A friend I respect told me that I'm the mom she always wanted. I'd adopt her, but she's older than I am and we really don't have room in the house for her to move in. (We'd make room if necessary, though.)

Thanks, Peggy. It really meant a lot to me to hear that.

(sorry for the lack of a title. Blogger isn't letting me add one. Waah.)

My friend Bart died earlier this week. He had been sick, but hadn't told many people about it. I don't know if he was embarrassed by his illness or if he didn't want a fuss. He had problems with his liver (I still don't know what, specifically) and was told about a year ago to stop drinking, and from what I'm told, he did. But I guess it wasn't soon enough and the damage had already been done. I wouldn't have judged him, and wish he'd shared his thoughts and the fears he must have had with me.

Bart didn't have an easy life - he lived hard, and spent a few years living on the streets. He was always open about his past, and had made a good life for himself. His wife, Carolyn, is a wonderful, funny woman, and his children are charming, and he loved them all well. He doted on those kids, and I know it will be hard on them, and for Carolyn, now that he is gone.

Bart hadn't always made the smartest decisions in his life. Who does? I've done some gloriously stupid things in my lifetime, and I'm sure there are screw-ups to come. But he tried, and he was succeeding. I'm so sad that he is gone, and I will miss him.

RIP, Bart.
October 12, 1961 - July 3, 2007

NYC week one

I'll be in NYC the next few weeks for work, coming home on Fridays (and generally flying out on the red-eye Sunday nights). I've been here before, but usually just for a day or two at a time, and in the past I've always stayed with my friend Paula instead of in a hotel. But I didn't feel it was right to impose on Paula and her beau Paul (yes, that's right, Paula and Paul, kinda makes you want to throw up a little, doesn't it?), so this time I'm in a hotel.

Let me tell you that NYC hotels are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. The one closest to my customer is a spendy $550 USD per night. OMG. So I'm staying at the La Quinta. In Manhattan.

$227 a night (before taxes) apparently earns you a room that's smaller than the smaller bedroom in my house (and my house was built in 1936, when bedrooms were small). The door to the room clears the full-size bed by a good inch when you open it, the closet door brushes against the right side of the bed when it's opened. The bath features a lovely shower (no tub) and a teeny tiny cute little toilet (and a sink). I have a desk, which conveniently backs to the television (so I get to crane my neck if I want to see something on the television while at the computer). There is, thankfully, high speed internet access here (for "free", even); I'd have died without it.

My room has a window that looks out over i-have-no-idea-what -- it's a little enclosed area that doesn't look accessible -- buildings on all sides. There's a nice sign on the window, "Please DO NOT open the windows. If you need any help, please call the Front Desk". I opened the damn window, being the wild woman that I am. Call me a rebel if you must.

I'm booked here for next week too, because a) it's convenient, b) it's clean, c) I'm rather afraid of what else I might find. Less expensive hotels tend to have shared bathrooms, and that I cannot deal with. Yuk.

There's tons to see here in the city, and I hope to get out more next week. This is a short week, as I flew in on Monday night. I did have dinner with Paula and Paul last night, and will do so again tonight. I wish they didn't live so damn far away, because I adore them. But I adore my own family too, and can't wait to get home to them.