Jeez, come back from vacation to find Shannon’s latest post:
“some gal on myspace.com contacted me. offered me a free silver bullet. how could i refuse?”
You’ll have to go read the entire post for context…
I just hope Shannon doesn’t think the silver bullet refers to Coors Light…
Our big Memorial Day weekend was spent over on the Oregon coast, chillin’ out in Lincoln City.
…I of course mean “chillin’ out” quite literally; it was chilly and windy and rainy on Saturday and Sunday, and finally started getting nice on Monday, when we were leaving. It was in the 50s and maybe low 60s, so by Central Oregon standards, just like spring!
It was nice. It’d been ages since I’d been to the coast, so the chance to get on the beach and touch the ocean and taste the salty air far outweighed any minor weather concerns. We stayed at the ‘D’ Sands motel right on the beach, just below the D River (the shortest river in the world). It turned out to be a pretty good place to stay since we had a fantastic view, easy beach access and a full kitchen room (condominium style). That worked out well since we had the kids and didn’t have to rush to meals anywhere if we didn’t want to.
The trip was split between relaxing, shopping, gambling, and drinking. I know, the perfect trip, right? The drinking largely consisted of driving up to Pacific City and visiting the Pelican Pub and Brewery (right on the beach), and having a bottle of wine later while the kids watched TV, and a few odds and ends here and there. Gambling was two hours spent at the Chinook Winds casino (not my cup of tea). Shopping was, well, shopping… Lincoln City improbably has a large and busy complex of factory outlets, and then there’s all the tchotske and souvenir shops that you invariably find on the coast.
The relaxing was the money, though. The kids and I flew a kite. We walked on the beach and played in the sand and threw rocks at the ocean. We swam in the swimming pool (a bit chilly there, too). We lazed around the room. I even got up early in the morning and walked barefoot on the beach, collecting a few rocks and shells here and there and splashing in the sea a bit. Yes, nippy! But totally worth it.
Unfortunately, those coast trips never seem long enough. We left Monday bound for Portland, as we had an early Tuesday morning eye doctor appointment for the kids there. Perhaps we’ll have to see about a summer trip, when the weather is much nicer… the ocean’s still damn cold even then, but that’s never stopped us from jumping in anyway.
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I’ll be offline for the Memorial Day weekend—through Tuesday, actually. Hopefully everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend!
There was a site I found the other day (and have subsequently forgotten what it was) that prompted you to enter your birthdate, and it would present you with various facts about your age. You know, what year in the Chinese calendar it was when you were born, what your astrological sign is, etc. etc. One thing resonated with me, though, and it was in the alternative time measurements of age (number of days old, and months, and weeks, like that): the number of seconds old.
Obviously it’s an estimate, but the realization that I am more than one billion seconds old kind of brought me up short. On my 33rd birthday five months ago I was (approximately) 1,040,688,000 seconds old.
Put another way, I suppose I could say I’m 1.04 gigaseconds old…
Haven’t seen a book on Lost in awhile, but they managed to slip one into the season finale tonight: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. Not that it was hard to spot; Desmond only waved it around enough in a bunch of critical scenes.
As far as the season finale itself goes… I’m still trying to decide what I think about it. I think it started out strong enough. But I’m trying to decide if the last 15 or 20 minutes were weak. Definitely ambiguous, and a general “huh?” factor. And, I’m thinking, weak. I’ll have to let it sink in some more.
Yeah, I know I’m a little late to the party blogging this, but I thought this was pretty good footage of the Trojan nuclear power plant being destroyed: Trojan implosion on YouTube.
There’s not much more to be said on Trojan (check out some of the latest news); I never knew much about the plant, but I remember always being impressed, even when little, seeing the looming tower rise out of the forest on the horizon. There’s something jaw-dropping, fleeting, and a little creepy seeing such an icon emerging from the landscape all of a sudden.
I had to wait a bit, but Shannon’s got another quote of the week: “i think i need some higher goals in life like buying a house or putting money away for retirement but for now, i just want to be a dancing bunny.”
I’ve been liking the remixed movie trailers I’ve been seeing lately, but this one made me laugh tonight: 10 Things I Hate About Commandments. Someone’s remixed the Charlton Heston movie as a teen comedy… I especially like the surprise addition to the cast at the end. :)
Via Boing Boing.
This is sort of like those “How I spent my summer” essays—did anyone ever really have to write those? Anyway…
The main purpose of our day trip to Eugene was to visit one or several of the children’s stores they have over there that specializes in kid beds; our four-year-old is soon to turn five and it’s time to move him from the toddler bed to a regular bed. We’d looked around here in Bend but there’s just not a great selection.
It was a beautiful day to cruise over the Santiam, and aside from some controlled burn haziness, ran into no problems at all. It’s been years since I’ve actually been to Eugene, so it was a nice drive. And only about two-and-a-half hours, easier than the trip to Portland, even.
Our travels brought us first to the Valley River Center, to check out a store that, as luck would have it, was having a 20% off clearance sale. We looked at a few things, made some mental notes, and headed for downtown to check out the other store and get some lunch.
A quick note about navigation in Eugene: it’s almost criminally easy. (Granted, we only went to a few places.) I always expect more complication, but the few times I’ve been there I’ve never really had any problem figuring out where to go. Today, for instance, I think we found every place we needed despite ourselves.
Downtown Eugene led us to the other children’s store and then the Steelhead Brewery for lunch (I wrote a review of that on The Brew Site). We still hadn’t decided about a bed, so after lunch back across the street we walked (nice, eh? The store and the brewery were next door to each other) to take another look at the styles we liked, and then it was back to the Valley River Center and the first store again.
That was the store that won out; we bought the bed we liked, but it was the floor model and they needed an hour to disassemble it for us, so off we went back downtown again.
This time, we were looking for a store named Down to Earth, which sells “natural products for the home and garden.” My mom had ordered a couple of plants from them and asked if we could pick them up for her; no problem. Good grief, but this is a big store; it’s basically a warehouse that spans the length of a city block and packs in an amazing variety of things. We were able to find my mom’s plants (they had to search) and while we were wandering around the nursery, an employee asked the kids if they’d like to plant some free flowers for Mother’s Day.
Turns out, they had planned and promoted this “Free Flower Day” thing for kids, but not that many showed up. It was a very cool idea though; we left with three extra pots of flowers, all free. And I was even tempted by a “hardy banana” plant, with the bold claim of being able to withstand temperatures as cold as -20°F. It was close, but I resisted. Aside from the exotic idea of having a banana plant growing in the backyard, it’s not like we don’t already have plants that can withstand that kind of cold: they’re called “trees.”
Back to the store to pick up the bed components, and some creative minivan-loading later, we were ready to head out of town. Almost, anyway; we had to make the obligatory trip to Trader Joe’s.
Come on, you know the routine: Trader Joe’s simply rocks, and whenever a Central Oregonian travels to a city with one, they have to stop and stock up on Three Buck Chuck, or shepherd’s bread, or ten-pound bars of authentic Swiss dark chocolate, or whatever. Often, there’s even a list of things to pick up for other people. It’s okay. We’ve all been there. :)
Anyway, one quick TJ’s stop later and we were on our way. We made good time coming back, just as in the morning, and pulled into the driveway at about 6:30. Sure, it made for a long day, but not as long as a Portland trip, for instance.
Hey, that makes me think of a great tag line for Eugene: “We’re closer than Portland. And criminally easy to navigate.”
Tomorrow we’re off to Eugene for a day trip. We doing some kids bed shopping, and will likely stop at the Steelhead Brewing Company (fodder for The Brew Site) for lunch and beer. Likely it’ll be a decent trip. It’s supposed to be 71 in Eugene tomorrow, so that’s good.
