A wonderful, not-always-relaxing holiday weekend has left me with little to write.

On Friday we made our annual trek to the St. Paul Rodeo. It may seem incongruous, but Kris and I enjoy the rodeo, like to see the brute contest between man and beast. Beast mostly wins. I know bull-riding is the most popular rodeo event, but my personal favorite is the wild-horse race: A group of wild horses is released into the arena. Teams of two cowboys must saddle a horse, then one of them must mount the animal and ride it through a gate. Sounds easy, eh? Except these horses don't want to have anything to do with it. It's great fun!

Cowboys in a wild horse race in Calgary—not my photograph.

The highlight of the day was one stubborn bull who refused to move. Two or three cowboys on horseback are responsible for herding each bull from the arena after every ride. This generally takes a minimum of fuss. At Friday's show, though, one particular bull decided to stand stock still, to plant his legs, refusing to move. It took the cowboys several minutes to drag the stubborn beast from one end of the arena to the other. The truth is that these animals are tougher than the cowboys, and that's what makes rodeo exciting.

Kris and I have been to the St. Paul Rodeo for seven consecutive years now. We love it. Mac and Pam have joined us for the past three years, and Joel and Aimee for the past two. It's a good time.

After the rodeo, we moseyed back to Canby where we were joined by Jeremy and Jennifer and Harrison and Emma, and by Jeremy's parents. We grilled some food, played with the kids, and dodged the mosquitoes. At dusk, Joel treated us to pyrotechnics.

On Saturday we reconnected with the Gingeriches and the Proffitt-Smiths for a trip to downtown Portland to see the Abba-inspired musical, Mamma Mia!. Mamma Mia! is strung together with only the barest of plot threads—I think it was Mac who said, correctly, it's like an episode of Three's Company—but if, like me and Jenn, you are an Abba fan (Jenn and I are huge Abba fans), then this show may blow you away. The first act, especially, is outstanding fun. (The second act, like the second act of many musicals, seems to lose focus, doesn't enthrall the audience.) I've never been to a musical at which the audience was so into the show.

In a reprise of our adventures two weeks ago, the group wandered over to Southpark after the show where we enjoyed a late dinner (my grilled pork tenderloin with wild rice and apricot sauce was delicious) and good conversation.

Yesterday afternoon we ventured out to Molalla for Ron Kropf's surprise birthday party. Most of the MNF group was there, and though we had a good time together, I think the kids had an even better one.

Our hosts had an in-ground pool, and at one point every child was in the water: Hank and Scout splashing in the deep end with Jenn and Kris, Diego and Pepe in the shallow end, Ian and Tristan helping Roger snorkel, and the two infants, Noah and Daphne, aided by their parents.

After swimming and eating, the kids and I played goofy screaming games. I was the monster who hungered for child flesh and I roared and hobbled after the kids, who screamed and climbed onto the Safety Rock (a large boulder in our hosts' yard). They then took the offensive and bombarded me with Sticky Goo (moss pulled from the aforementioned Safety Rock).

As I said: it was a fun weekend, but by Sunday evening I was exhausted.

Spurred by an e-mail exchange with Language Hat ("read Proust in French!"), and a complaint from Pam ("my copy of Proust is poorly translated!"), I found a French version of Swann's Way last night. I don't know French (though, like you, I can puzzle out cognates and the words for which I know the Latinate root (have I ever mentioned that I think it's a shame children are no longer required to learn Latin?)), but with the help of a web-based translation tool and the English version of the text, I was able to read the first couple of pages. It's fun, but I wouldn't want to read the entire book like that.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — Why I Love My Digital SLR   I bought a Nikon d70 in March. It hasn't made me a better photographer, but it has made it easier for me to capture shots like this.

2004 — Fading Memories   Two problems I face: (incipient) insomnia and (chronic) memory loss!

2001 — The Death of VHS   We can't find the remote to the VCR. If we upgrade, we're going to be forced to get DVD, or we're not going to be able to watch movies in the future. VHS is dying.