We're back from the annual MNF Sunriver trip. This year's three-day getaway was one of the best yet, though I felt like an ass at times.

We got to Bend early, so Kris let me stop downtown to visit Pegasus Books, one of my favorite comic book stores. Pegasus has a small selection of old comic books, but it more than makes up for this in its broad (though not deep) collection of graphic novels and compilations. The manga selection is equally broad. Best of all, the owner is personable and helpful. I bought a graphic novel from Portland author Craig Thompson (the amazing Good-Bye, Chunky Rice — a beautiful work, better than his more prominent Blankets); the latest issue (#5) of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; the latest Powers compilation (Anarchy), and the massive Chris Ware compilation, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth.

We arrived at Sunriver just a few minutes after Kim and Sabino. We compared notes and realized that the other five couples wouldn't be showing up for a couple of hours, so the four of us went out to Italian food. The rest of the group drifted in after dinner.

This year's house was typical in that it comprised a central living area made up of kitchen, dining room, and living room, surrounded by clusters of bedrooms. (Because Kris and I organized this year's trip, we stayed in the luxurious master suite; next year, we'll be on bunkbeds!) Though the floor plan was typical, I liked it better than past houses for some reason.

To my mind, the house's outstanding feature was the walled patio area. Most houses in Sunriver have a deck with table, chairs, and hot tub. These decks, though, are generally open to the world. We don't spend much time on them. Our house this year had a tiled patio instead of a deck, and a long table, and a low wall which added an element of privacy. Essentially, the patio was like an extra room to the house. It's an ingenious design element, and helped elevated the house in my eyes.

Highlights from this weekend:

• Kris and I had lunch with Sam, Eila, and little Liliana. We ate a fine Mexican restaurant, chatting about books and kids and life.
• Kris and I browsed through a couple of nice used book stores, buying up lots of volumes that neither of us needed. My favorite find was a book called American Local Color Writing 1880-1920. Imagine Garrison Keillor or Mark Twain and you have an idea of what local color writing entails. I love that stuff.
• I forgot my dress shirt and my dress socks, so I had to stop at the outlet mall to get replacements. I only needed to get two clothing items, but I ended up buying $93 worth of clothing. It was like shopping for clothes at Costco, only better.
• The nice clothes were for our nice dinner out on Saturday evening. We dined out the Trout House. The food was excellent, as was the service. We were all heartily entertained by Jeremy and Sabino.
• Ron, Sabino, Jeremy, and I played poker (Texas Hold 'Em). Jeremy was out quickly. The three of us went back-and-forth, back-and-forth until Kris announced that we had to stop for dinner. Rather than continue the game later, I went all in before the flop. Things looked peachy when I had two pair, and I thought I'd made myself fifteen bucks. Then Sabino noticed he had a straight, and my joy turned to sorrow.
• We watched a lot of movies:
  • When everyone had arrived on Friday night, we watched School of Rock. The film isn't great, but it's fun, especially in a group. We laughed a lot.
  • We watched Lost in Translation on Saturday. A couple of weeks ago, Ron and I made a deal. I'd watch Point Break if he watched Lost in Translation. As Sabino and Kim had predicted, Ron fell asleep while watching this.
  • Because one Jack Black movie wasn't enough, we watched High Fidelity on Saturday night.
  • Roger, a motorcycle fiend, screened On Any Sunday for us on Sunday morning.
  • Late Sunday afternoon, while the women made a trip to the outlet mall, the guys watched Point Break. This meant we could crank the volume. All weekend, we had wanted to watch Fight Club, but opted for this instead. Could a film have worse acting?
  • After Point Break, I put in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, though I didn't watch it. (I played poker instead.)
  • After dinner Sunday night, we watched Master and Commander. I had forgotten to buy this before the Bend trip, so on Sunday morning, Jeremy and I drove into Bend where I bought the deluxe version. Jeremy and I are dangerous together around media. Jeremy ended up buying Gattaca and Rudy. I wanted to buy Gattaca and Contact, but I couldn't justify it because I also bought recent albums from Jet and Maroon 5. I almost bought the Jem album, but I couldn't justify it because I've already purchased it from the iTunes Music Store. It kind of kills that I don't have a CD version of the album. I should burn one. It's awesome.
• On Sunday, a group of us went for a bike ride. Jeremy, Jennifer, Jeff, Ron, Roger, Mike, and I cruised around Sunriver, and then found our way to an equestrian trail. There were a couple of puddles, including one smallish lake, with which I became fascinated. I've been street riding for years, and have spent a lot of time on wet roads, so I'm familiar with the skunk stripe that comes from riding on wet pavement. I haven't ridden through puddles in decades, though. "What the hell?" I thought, so I plowed through the puddle. Again. And again. And again. It was great! I haven't done something like that since I was a kid. I got my new clothes all muddy, but so what?
• I suffered another gaming woe on Monday, just before we left. We decided to kill time by playing spoons. I kick ass at spoons. I don't claim to be good at many games, but spoons is one of them. Because time was short, we decided to play to P-I-G instead of S-P-O-O-N. Kris was out, Steph was out, Sabino was out, Kim was out, Jeff had P-I, and I had nothing. The game was in the bag. Then Jeff got four-of-a-kind and reached for his spoon. I grabbed for it, too, but touched it before he did. Bzzzt. P for me. Not a big deal. "You're trying to cheat, aren't you?" said Steph. And then I made my fatal mistake. "Who?" I said to her. Bzzzt. In our version of spoons, you're not allowed to speak with any player who's out of the game. If you do, they take your spot. When I said "Who?" to Steph, the gig was up. I lost. I was a state of shock. (Well, rage is probably more accurate.) I lost at spoons! Unthinkable! Absurd!

It was a great weekend. As I said earlier, though, I felt like I'd been an ass, and I apologized for this to part of the group before we all left.

---

Kris and I listened to my new Jet CD on the drive home. We stopped in Bend so that she can expore Juniper Fiberworks, a yarn store. While Kris looked at yarn, I went across the street to a bike store. I did a double-take when I heard Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" playing in the store.

"I was just listening to this CD in the car," I said.

"This is a station out of the UK," said one of the clerks. "We're listening to it over the internet. They play Jet a lot."

"Yeah," said another clerk. "And Maroon 5. I'll bet they play Maroon 5 in the next five songs."

"Ha," I said (and I really did say "ha"). "I just bought both the Jet and the Maroon 5 CDs yesterday."

I browsed. The Jet song ended. What played next? "This Love" by Maroon 5. The clerks and I thought this is pretty damn funny.

Kris and I decided to stop in Sisters to eat at the Sno-Cap Café. We always eat at the Sno-Cap on the drive home. When we pulled up, Kim and Sabino, Jeff and Steph, and Jeremy and Jennifer were just leaving. I made like I was going to plow into the group.

Jeremy and Sabino came over. "Stop being an ass," said Jeremy, a big grin on his face. Jeremy and Jennifer asked if we wanted to stop for a short hike on the way home, but we declined. We missed our cats.

We did stop in Stayton. We were both thirsty, so I get us an jumbo lemon-lime Mr. Misty from the Dairy Queen. It hit the spot, but both of us experienced repeated throat-burn (or brain-freeze, if you prefer) from drinking the slushy too quickly.

"What was your favorite part of the weekend?" I asked Kris as we drove through the Silverton hills.

"Sitting outside on the patio," she said. "Knitting at the table and listening to everybody talk."

I agree. Kris knitted. Jeremy smoked a cigar. I wrote. Steph did cross-stitch. Everyone else sat around and chatted. We sat together for several hours, whiling away the afternoon. (Several of us did take a break for a bike ride.) It was probably the most fun I've had on a Bend weekend.

Reports from previous Bend weekends: 2001, 2002, and 2003.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — A Fine Evening   I know it doesn't sound like much, but with the yardwork and the dinner with a friend (and now the pipe in my hands), it was a fine, fine evening.

2003 — Shadows   Once again, Photo Friday has managed to anticipate my photography homework by a week. Next week's assignment in the Saturday class is to photograph shadows. Unfortunately, that's the Photo Friday subject for this week.

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