And why should I make the pilgrimage to North La Pine for it? you ask.

Because, of course, you'll be able to get some really cool stuff for very little money.

Oh, yeah? Like what?

Well ... how about stuff for some serious outdoor and athletic fun? There's a Bowflex (you've seen 300 and of course always wanted to own one since), a 12' Lund fishing boat, Men's and Women's Golf Bag and Clubs, Bicyles and Bike Rack, assorted Camping Gear, a large Mosquito Tent, Snowboard Gear & a rolling travel bag for your boards, a Badminton Set, and more!

Plus ... Household stuff, Christmas Lights and Ornaments, Clothing (Alpaca Sweater anyone?), Shoes, Jewelry, Framed Art and Paintings... the list goes on.

You say - But if I drag my husband/boyfriend/male friend with me - will there be stuff to satisfy his testosterone-fueled cravings too?

OH. YES.

Can you say Tools? We have Table Saws, Compressors, Nail Guns, Chop Boxes, Drills - the list goes on. How about a chain saw, maybe?

For the Office: a Portable Air Conditioner, Heater, Document Shredder, Swivel Chair, Mini-Fridge, Computer monitor, brandnew Epson Printer, assorted computer accessories, etc...

Finally - loads of automotive stuff and a complete kit to brew your very own batch of beer. Does it really get any better than this? You know it doesn't.

But most importantly - NO CRAP. Only good stuff!

Technically, I should post pics of some of the goodies here - but that would spoil the fun of the hunt, now wouldn't it?



Update - The Monday after: Success! The garage sale rocked. We got rid of a ton of stuff. Amazing, really, the stuff people buy. You'd never thought we were in a recession.... And yet - we still have a bunch of great stuff left. And it has actually encouraged me to pull out even more and do it over. Not sure when though. Stay tuned for an update...

For hubby's birthday yesterday, I took him to the one restaurant in Bend I had previously resisted going to - Deep.

The brain child of another one of Bend's most successful food enterprises, Merenda, owner and chef Jodie Denton created Deep with a heavy Japanese flavor. I'd heard legends about how expensive the place was and maybe got scared off a bit by that in the past, but decided yesterday that I wasn't going to care. After all, it was a special occasion.

Yet, I was pleasantly surprised in all aspects. At first seated at a cramped little table, soon a cheerful waiter came by to whisk us off to different, much more comfortable seating. He seemed very pleased with himself when he saw that he had improved our dining experience before we had even lifted a fork.

Given that it was Thursday night at 8pm (and it wasn't snowing, for once) the locals were out in force on the town and the restaurant was packed. I kinda expected slow service and a long wait for my food. Again, my expectations were exceeded. Our waiter was quick, attentive, and not 5 minutes after we had placed our lengthy order, did the first dish show up - followed by a steady and seemingly precisely-timed flow of nicely arranged plates.

Here's what we ordered:

- Awase Miso Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms: I tend to judge a Japanese restaurant by the quality of their miso, and this one was indeed excellent. A tad light on the tofu maybe, but instead it was laced with a variety of pretty and tasty seaweed and tender slices of shiitake, steeped in a deeply flavorful broth.

- Stir Fried Edamame with Togarashi and Garlic: These edamame were definitely a different take on the traditional serving. Instead of being sprinkled with some meek sea salt, these were fried in butter and spices, giving them a delightful, finger-lickin' piquant taste.

- Given that the restaurant was out of their Glazed Eggplant dish, I substituted with Stir Fried Mushrooms with Chilies and Scallions instead: Again - delicious. A collection of buttery tender and perfectly cooked mushrooms - served simply with scallions, it was a very charming palate teaser.

- Tempura Shrimp Roll, with Barbecued Eel with Basil, Avocado & Creamy Spicy Yuzu Sauce: I love it when sushi rice is done right. This one was perfect - still slightly warm and with only a very light touch of sugar and vinegar. The combination of shrimp, eel, avocado and the special house sauce was also very successful.

- Spicy Tuna Roll: still a tad apprehensive about raw fish from my sushi adventure in San Francisco last summer, I opted not to taste this. Hubby said however it was spicy and excellent.

- Sushi Nigiri, consisting of Yellowtail, Broiled Eel, and Sea Urchin: The fish was tender and fresh - a rarity in land-locked Bend. Jeff wasn't a fan of the Sea Urchin, but I can attest that the Eel was indeed very good.

A pear-vodka-cocktail and a pot of green tea later, we got the bill. The damage: $70 (with tip $84). Not bad! They didn't charge us for the green tea either.

Overall - an awesome experience. And compared to the noisy Merenda, it was downright refreshing to be in a quiet restaurant with a soothing atmosphere. Combined with the excellent service (a rarity in Bend, as every regular gourmet can attest to) and leaving there with that satisfying feeling of just having eaten a well-prepared meal, Deep is definitely a place I will go back to.

It's April, and yet another season of baby showers and weddings is creeping up again.

Most people are offended when I politely decline to participate in the first, and to photograph the second. They don't understand because they don't know.

So then here is my confession: I've been traumatized.

During the last baby shower I went to, the organizers thought a funny game would be to have the attendees chew big wads of pink bubble gum with the goal of shaping the resulting mushy-slimy ball into a tiny baby.

But NO. It wasn't FUN. It was the furthest thing from it, actually. It was gross and on some primal level, deeply disturbing. I'll never forget the sight of those 10 very grotesque-looking baby-shaped pieces of bubble gum - not unlike tiny aborted fetuses - sitting on pale-purple paper napkins. I think the winning "baby" got a bottle of shower gel. But I don't really remember. By that time I was already deep into my trauma, clutching my plastic cup of coke and sorely wishing for a large bottle of Jack to add to it. (As a disclaimer, I have to add that I'd bet my right arm that my dear friend and the mother-to-be, for whom said baby shower was thrown, didn't have an inkling of what was planned. If she did, I'm sure she would have put her foot firmly down on the "NO" pad...).

Now, you may say that you can understand that - but weddings? You will point out that they are unbridled fun, with a happy couple, free-flowing booze and great food. To that, my only response is: "Sure. If you are not the designated photographer they are."

Because you see - as wedding photographer, your first and foremost duty is to take lots of pictures of the happy couple. But mostly of the bride, as she has probably taken out a second mortgage on her house to pay for the professional hair, make-up, jewelry and a dress she will (most likely) never wear again.

Last time I shot a wedding then - dedicated professional that I am - I stayed away from the provided booze and food to focus my undivided attention on the bride.

By 11am, nervous as she was, she popped the cork on her first bottle of champagne in the dressing room.
By 2pm, and shortly after the ceremony proper, all the make-up drained off her face in a champagne-and-happiness-induced monsoon of tears.
By 3pm - liberated from previously-mentioned nervousness - she sucked the face off the groom after the traditional cake-cutting ceremony. In front of the entire gathering of wedding guests, mind you. There was some wincing, yes.
Shortly after 4pm, she face-planted on the dance floor.

Do you really need me to go on?

So please - don't pout if I bow out of your baby shower. Or decline to point my camera at our at your wedding bouquet.

I know you understand now.

Don't you?

Recently, I got tired of listening to the same music over and over again. Never mind that my iTunes boasts something like 4,000 songs and I could theoretically listen to my music for 23 days uninterrupted, without ever repeating a track.

Alas, my musical tastes tend to drift, morph and reinvent themselves over time. Sure, I enjoy listening to some of the old stuff - sometimes. But the mood really has to strike. I have to feel particularly blue and in need of some serious *soul* to be able to listen to Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone - no matter how great they are. Or I have to be in a bouncy, sentimental-of-my-youth mood to be able to enjoy Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson and other 80s music.

Lately, I just seem to be drawn more to dark, hard melodies with deep, rich sound carpets. Linkin Park rock my world. So does Korn, Marilyn Manson, Deftones, Rage Against The Machine, Disciple. And then there are my good old friends The Cure and Depeche Mode.



So I went out and acquired new tunes yesterday.

Amazing, really. The way music can elevate one's mood, suck you in, put you into a different state of mind, completely occupy you. Like honey on the tongue, it melts and sweetens the sound waves traveling to your brain. You can let yourself fall, get lost in them, swim in them like in an ocean of warm velvet.

And there is so much cool stuff out there now. Remixes, covers, mash-ups, obscure "live" versions. Covers of covers. New bands covering old bands. Linkin Park doing Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence". Marilyn Manson doing "Personal Jesus" and Madonna's "Like A Virgin" (admittedly a bit of an acquired taste). The Cure covering "World in Your Eyes".

And then there are songs I've never heard of because they either never got popular or got lost on some album nobody bought. But if I listen to them a few times, they quickly become friends. Ever heard of "Free Love"? Even die-hard Depeche Mode fans will surely shake their heads. But really, it's an excellent track I've just fallen in love with. No idea where it had been hiding all this time though...

In many ways, it's like unearthing treasures. Who then become part of the tapestry of your life. So sweet, so vibrant, so encompassing, so precious.

Enjoy the Silence.

Fellow burners will understand my instant dismay upon hearing this:

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man once accused of attempting to set fire to San Francisco's historic Grace Cathedral has been released from custody after pleading no contest Friday to reduced misdemeanor charges, his attorney said Monday.

San Francisco police arrested Paul Addis -- an "eccentric" performance artist according to his attorney, public defender Tal Klement -- outside the cathedral Oct. 28, his backpack laden with fireworks.

Police reported at the time that he had other items with him that "led officers to believe he might be up to something," and that a neighbor reportedly heard Addis say, "The cathedral isn't going to be there anymore."

snip
Addis has also been ordered to undergo six months of counseling, and to stay at least 150 yards away from Grace Cathedral, according to Klement.

snip
Addis was earlier charged in Nevada for allegedly setting the Burning Man effigy on fire before it was scheduled to be torched at the annual counterculture festival held each Labor Day weekend in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Addis is now scheduled to return to Nevada to face those charges, according to Klement.


I hope that to anyone who has in the past regarded this guy as a "hero" and "personifying the Burning Man anarchy spirit" will now rethink their stance. Sounds like he's simply a psychotic pyro who needs to go (and stay) behind bars.

Grrr.

If I knew what was good for me, I would just shut up, shrug and move on with my day. Alas - sometimes I (i.e. my opinionated brain) get the better of me.

So then here it goes: When I read an article (titled "Housing forecast: It'll only get better") in The Bulletin a couple of weeks ago about a real estate breakfast at the Riverhouse and how their keynote speaker touted the local real estate market as "being on the brink of a turn-around", I quietly sat for a minute, astonished at the cheery and uncritical tone of the article, and then thought to myself "BULLSHIT".

Shortly thereafter, an article in The Source about COBA (Central Oregon Building Association - for all your out-of-town readers), trying to get its members to cheerlead to the local media and asking them to put out press releases with good news about how strong the local building industry was, got me pondering too, and I came up with the same result - "BULLSHIT".

Now, that is just my opinion. Although I have to mention that it is based on three minor facts:
A) as an architectural photographer, I work with a lot of local building industry folks and have a pretty good sense of the overall mood in the housing market.
B) I have a business degree, and therefore pay attention to economic trends as they relate to the nation and world as a whole (and that trend says the housing market, along with the overall economy, is in the shitter).
C) I'm married to a finish carpenter who has had to travel all over the West Coast for the past 6 months for work.

But I only put two and two together today, when I read in The Source online about the very reporter who wrote the Riverhouse article losing his job "after complaining the paper was sugar-coating its coverage of the local real estate market".

Hmm.
WTF?
Hello?

Is anybody living in Central Oregon (or in the rest of the US, for that matter) - and blessed with a brain - seriously buying that the local real estate market is just fine or on the verge of a turn-around? What's the point of sugar-coating? Why risk your credibility and dignity as a newspaper by putting out tweaked stories, and then hoping people will not notice the excrement all over it, or worse, actually believe you? It's insulting - that's what it is.

Yeah, yeah, I know - preservation of advertising revenue to keep the paper on the press, and all that jazz. Throw the local housing market a bone to keep the ad money flowing. But I don't know. I always thought that the responsibility of a newspaper and its editors - and as such the media as a whole - is to truth and honesty in reporting and disseminating a story. Independent of what the economy, and therefore your advertisers, experience as a whole.

Is that too idealistic? Is it really too much to ask of your local media to adhere to some basic standards in reporting? I think not.

So, dear Bulletin - please pull your heads out of your asses, and stop insulting the intelligence of your readers.

Or I will cancel my subscription.

And I'm sure your advertisers won't appreciate that.

The almost-full moon illumates my frozen world. The trees, meadow and river outside my window shine with an unearthly siver light, their outlines eerily crisp and sharp. The white moutain off in the distance seems to be entirely from a different world but this one.

It's winter solstice - the longest night. What better way to spend it than in a hot tub, 20F-degree air on my face, hot liquid against my skin, moon shimmering above me, sipping whiskey and listening to Depeche Mode.

Consider their lyrics...

I'm waiting for the night to fall
I know that it will save us all
When everything's dark
Keeps us from the stark reality

I'm waiting for the night to fall
When everything is bearable
And there in the still
All that you feel is tranquillity

There is a star in the sky
Guiding my way with its light
And in the glow of the moon
Know my deliverance will come soon