I'm really glad to see that it seems - after all -a certain amount of principal is still alive in the Bend community.

And that I wasn't completely deranged in reprinting the letter and taking on the cause.

I never thought I would say this (considering their history of successfully avoiding to out any business in town who has ever misbehaved) - but thank you, Bulletin.

About 4 weeks ago, I bought a treadmill. The goal was to get in shape again after a winter of stick-to-your-ribs soups, carb-ridden dishes of potatoes, pasta and rice, and all that Swiss chocolate I had brought back from my last trip to Europe.

At first, walking on the treadmill made me feel vaguely like a hamster. I fully expected to grow a shiny fur coat and large front teeth.

When that didn't happen, I discovered that if I hooked myself up to my iPod, the hypnotic beats of GOA Trance (mostly by the excellent Infected Mushroom and Juno Reactor), funneled straight into my brain, magically kept me going. I advanced to a routine of trading off running and walking.

Today however, I ascended to a completely new level. Because today, I ran an entire mile without taking a walking break. I wasn't even terribly out of breath. And I didn't want to stop. Ever.

All the pain in my legs went away, the world suddenly got brighter and more colorful, and I felt like a well-oiled machine who could go on running forever. I was flooded with an odd sense of happiness and overall well-being I hadn't experienced in quite some time.

Luckily, I was prepared. I knew what I was experiencing was commonly referred to as "Runner's High". Wikipedia enlightens us with this informative bit:

Endorphins are released during long, continuous workouts, when the level of intensity is between moderate and high, and breathing is difficult. This also corresponds with the time that muscles use up their stored glycogen and begin functioning with only oxygen.

So - all hail to endorphins! They make it all worth while...

This morning, I was going to write about the wonder of seeing a huge beaver peacefully forage on my property (for the first time ever! - after living in Oregon and on a river for 5 years), and of the joy of noticing that a pair of beautiful wood ducks have moved into a lofty tree nest just outside of my living room window.

I was feeling warm and fuzzy all over - until I opened my email.

The whole affair surrounding my post from yesterday about Baltazar's restaurant is leaving a distinctly sour taste in my mouth. Partially, it's the asshole who commented "I'm going to make a point to go there now" - and partially it's the disappointment that the local blogging community has decided to stay mum on the subject.

Yes, I know - the Mom's Club of Bend has already blooged about it (which I won't link to because it inappropriately discloses certain people's names), and so has the Bend Oregon Restaurant blog.

And Jake made the excellent point that for all we know, it's a case of hear-say, and "she said", "he said".

To me though, the point really isn't that Baltazar's is kid-unfriendly. God knows - not having any kids myself, I'm the first to get annoyed at a child, wailing at the top of its lungs at a neighboring table while I try to enjoy my dinner.

It's about the underlying principle of putting up with (and even supporting) socially unacceptable behavior (calling a customer "a bitch" qualifies, I think) - about not squeaking, even when the people around us are getting stepped on.

It's about the apparent lack of value placed on the money we as a society spend on the things in our lives (like dining and getting a good customer experience in return).

It's about a community so disintegrated, that we don't stand united anymore in the face of insult and injustice - unless it benefits us individually, in some way.

If we step wayyyy back and look at the bigger picture - those are the exact reasons why four long years later, we are still in a war nobody wants and everybody knows is wrong. Why we have a bumbling monkey in the White House who only supports special interests and gets away with doing as he pleases - instead of an intelligent, articulate human being who actually cares, listens and looks out for the greater good of the nation.

It's *our* fault. For not speaking up and saying "enough". For not forcing change. For not standing up for what's right, and just, and beneficial to our society, a nation, a world, at whole. And on a smaller scale - for speaking out against violations in our own small community.

Because we are selfish, and ego-centric, and a bunch of sheep. And that makes me sad and angry, all at the same time.

:: start flame bait:: I gotta hand it to the French at least - they don't take any shit from anybody. Least of all their government. I also hear the weather in Cuba is mostly warm and sunny... :: end flame bait ::

This in today from a friend of a friend.

Hello fellow friends and parents,

I am writing to tell you about something that recently happened to me which was very disturbing and unpleasant. I recently dined out at Baltazar's Restaurant with some friends. We had a sitter for two of our kids (preschoolers), and brought Kobe because he was only a few months old and slept most of the time. Three different staff people there were very unpleasant to us because we brought the baby and treated us very rudely despite the fact that he slept the entire time and never made a peep. Baltazar himself made it a point to come over to our table to tell Tom and I (and I quote) that "they do not specialize in children" so we had to put him on the floor since there was no highchair to set his car seat into.

A few weeks ago, I was encouraged to write the restaurant a letter because of how rude they had been to us so I finally got around to it this week. After asking for approval from the MOMS Club of Bend board members to use letterhead, I wrote to Baltazar describing our experience and asked him to consider purchasing one highchair to accommodate parents with a small child who may dine at the restaurant.

Baltazar called me today and made it very clear that he does not want any children in his restaurant. In fact, his exact words were: "We are not going to buy even one highchair because we don't want them (kids) here." When I suggested to him that Bend was a family friendly community and that by treating patrons disrespectfully for accidentally bringing a child into the restaurant is actually not good for his business and he was shutting out a corner of the market, he asked me if I was threatening him, told me he would sue me and then concluded the conversation with a "GO TO HELL YOU FUCKING BITCH."

I was completely stunned and shocked by having been treated this way - but after being harassed in the restaurant for having a sleeping 8 week old with us, I guess I should not be surprised.

There are many other establishments in this community that would never treat their patrons in this manner - and I hope you will consider joining me in finding alternative dining options where people are treated with dignity and respect, whether or not their children are with them.

As I told Baltazar, I completely support restaurants approaching customers who have unruly children, or whose children are disrupting the dining experiences of the other patrons and politely asking them to get the situation under control or leave - but blatant rudeness such as his demonstrates poor business etiquette. If Baltazar's policy is anti-children in their restaurant, they should post a sign at the door
stating "No infants or children allowed." It would save an unknowing parent such as me the harassment of being indirectly told multiple times while dining there that my child was unwelcome.

Please share this message with others you know. As for Tom and I, we will never again dine there and hope you'll join us in demonstrating that behavior such as that will not be rewarded with our continued patronage.

Thanks,
Yvette and Tom

And here I thought Kanpai was bad... but I was honestly shocked when I read this. How dare a restaurant treat people like that! I've never actually eaten there (but I've heard rumors of their completely overpriced dishes), but I sure as hell won't go there now.

Community of Bend - let's pull together and not let this just slide by!
Boycott this place, and tell them why!

With all the crazy growth the Bend area has experienced over the past years, it's amazing to see that this community can still come together in generous support of a good cause.

Last Friday was such an occasion. As I had previously posted, the fire performance troupe Fyreflyte was holding a fundraiser for an injured family member at the downtown Bend Plaza. I'm sure to no small effect, posts by Jake, Jon over at Hack Bend, and Bendnights.com helped draw a huge crowd - so big in fact, that people were standing thick almost back to the Martini Bar, and the trellises on both sides of the Plaza were laden with young people who had illegally climbed them for better viewing (thanks to the Bend Fire Department for not shutting the performance down because of that ...). With my bum foot, I was relegated to the back of the crowd and only caught occasional glimpses of the spectacle (that's the last time I'm pushing PR for a Bend downtown event I really want to see myself... ;) - but I'm told a DVD of the performance will be available in a couple of weeks. Yay.

Even more stunning than the actual performance - the donations collected: a cool $2,000. (Thanks to Kina for even mailing $20 from Baker City! Wow.).

How insanely, utterly, wonderfully cool is that? I was honestly blown away when Mikey from Fyreflyte called me yesterday to give me the good news.

The only sad thing - this was the troupe's last performance. Fyreflyte is no more. (For various reasons I will not go into here.) There will still be random fire displays and spin jams downtown, but no more coordinated performances by the group as a whole. Bummer too, because the May issue of Bend Living will feature a 9-page portfolio of shots I took of them over the past year.... In a sense, I suppose, it will be a fitting tribute...

If you consider it casually, a toothpick is an innocent, slender, hard piece of pointy wood. Dropped carelessly and stuck in the carpet however (the offending party shall remain anonymous at this point), it becomes a quiet, lurking menace, capable of inflicting great pain and extended suffering.

I should know. I stepped on one Wednesday night.

It penetrated my right heel, broke off, and deeply lodged the remaining piece in the flesh of my foot. Who knew your heel had so many nerve endings? You run around on it all day, squeeze it into shoes, bang it against stuff - and never does it even flinch. But when invaded by a pointy foreign object, the heel comes *alive*.

It was *alive* all night - so I decided to go to Urgent Care on Thursday morning. After the initial chuckle (a *toothpick*? really?), the doc decided to prick me with numbing stuff (oh, the pain!), and then proceeded to cut open my foot. After rooting around in it for a while, he finally discovered the offending pick and extracted it. Two stitches and a tetanus shot later, I exited the UC, armed with a prescription for Codeine and antibiotics. At least I had that. Halleluja.

But wouldn't you know it? Either one of them didn't agree with me. After circling the airport on the Codeine for a fun while, it all turned horribly wrong and I found myself curled up on the bathroom floor with intense stomach pain, feeding my dinner to the fishies. After that abated, I tried to fend off the itchy palm syndrome for the rest of the night.

I feel better today - but I'll be damned if I touch those pills again. Needless to say also, all toothpicks have been banned from my house, and the party responsible for the carelessness has been severely reprimanded.

On the Bright Side - I'm getting a tax refund from the Fed and the State.

Is this the Universe's idea of a joke?

... a practice used before people saw the benefits of backstabbing.

Granted - the real estate/rental sector in Bend sure could use a bit more honesty at times. Ok - a *lot* more. But I'm not sure if the guy posting this rental ad on the Bend Craigslist (page taken down by Craigslist staff - link removed) didn't overdo it a bit...

3br - Overpriced Dump @ 2463 NW Monterey Pines Dr.
Overpriced 3 Br in a not so nice neighborhood. It is really loud due to the fact that the backyard is right on Shevlin Park Rd. The backyard has virtually NO PRIVACY. The carpets are pretty dirty as I am too cheap to have them replaced. The kitchen is small with very little cabinet space. The blinds are really funky. Again because I am too cheap to replace them. Come on over and check it out, i'll charge you a HUGE deposit and KEEP ALL OF IT!! Hey, I might even say you stole or removed things from the house and charge you MORE!!

Is it a joke? A cynical experiment to see just how many suckers would respond to an ad like that, desperate for any rental on the hip Westside? A slap in the face of the town's indeed obscenely overpriced rental market? If so - fucking brilliant.

If not - dude, you're only contributing to the problem. Don't be an asshole. Clean up your rental before putting it out there.