We become Cosmic Tripsters

Thank goodness we finished at the Kennedy School because they ring the old school bell when you do!  (Sorry about the blurry pictures.  They were due to low light and the general excitement of the moment.)

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Filling out or certificates.  We each get three nights for two (a total of six nights!) at any McMenamins property!  Plus we each get a pair (a total of four) of concert tickets!IMG_5409

Posing with our t-shirts, completed passports (which give us happy hour drink prices Sunday through Thursday for a year) and our certificates.

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There were also pint glasses, pins and key chains.IMG_5413

Our last stops on the quest

We’re back on the highway for our final page of stamps on the quest.  It seems our last page will mostly be a strip mall McMenamins experience.  In our haste to finish, I neglected to take pictures of most of our stops.IMG_5401

Matt’s final stamp came at the Highland Pub.  He claimed his pint glass prize.IMG_5402

Mine came from the not-at-all-romantically named Mall 205 Pub.  I show off my pint glass.  IMG_5403

It is ironic that our final prize said “On the quest to be a Cosmic Tripster.”  Because, you know, we’re done with that quest.   If we were the type of people to drop mics, the mic would be dropped right here.IMG_5404

Hardy kiwi flowering!

I can’t remember when I planted the hardy kiwi, but perhaps fall of 2009 or spring of 2010.  As I mentioned in this post, I was hoping for some kiwi, but mostly wanted green growth on the pergola.  I’ve gotten what I mostly wanted, for sure.  The kiwi looks great on the pergola and I love the way the front porch looks in general.

This is the first year I’ve seen it flower!  Both female plants put out a few flowers.  The male plant (the one in the middle) produced nothing.  So I’m guessing pollination is a no-go until that happens, if ever.IMG_5414

In looking at the photos from 2009, I’m surprised at how much the flowering plum tree has grown.  The porch was always shaded for most of the day, but now it’s shaded for much more of the day, which doesn’t bode well for kiwi production, even hardy kiwi production that doesn’t need as much sun.  Oh well.  The greenery is great!IMG_5415

Three sentence movie reviews: Guinevere

guinevere

Chock-full of late-90s actresses, this love story of a young woman and a very much older man doesn’t dress up the romance in typical May-December fare.  Which is what happens when a woman writes and directs the May-December romance instead of a man.  Very good acting and felt extremely realistic in its infatuation and dissolution.

Cost: free from work-funded Netflix
Where watched: at home.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1999/guinevere.html

The Grand McMenamins Passport Tour

We had a lot of places to visit so we started early.  Our first stop:

Roseburg!IMG_5352

We arrived just as the restaurant was opening.  That purple ball had the cephalopod on it we needed to find to get our shirts.IMG_5354

On to Eugene.  Laurie and Matt pose outside our first location.IMG_5355

Visiting our second Eugene location (which was my favorite in this town)IMG_5357

Stopping at North Bank for two more stamps and our prize.IMG_5358

Our prize was a basket of fries or tots.  We also ordered lunch, which turned out to be a mistake.IMG_5359

You know you’re in Eugene when the McMenamins has bike parking.IMG_5366

Onto Corvallis.  Our first location had this amazing sink sculpture:IMG_5372

The second location had an English Pub feel.  Here we collected our prize of one free appetizer each.

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Next came Salem and this amazing historic house-turned-restaurant.IMG_5390

Our last stop in Salem.  Time to claim our prize:  sandwich or wrap of our choice.IMG_5392

Wisely, we took them to go.  While we were waiting, we sang happy birthday to Phoenix, an eight year old who covered his ears while everyone on the patio serenaded him.IMG_5393

Two pages in one day!IMG_5394

Books read in April 2016

AWTY_COVER_FINAL_FRONT31Somewhat of a lighter month for reading, probably because things were so busy. (Also not a month in which I’m head-over-heels about much of what I’ve read.)

recommended

Picture Books:  Are We There Yet? (and not because it’s the only contender)
Young Adult: A Thousand Nights
Young Nonfiction: Wet Cement
picture books

Are We There Yet?
Dan Santant
Read for Librarian Book Group
Perhaps my favorite picture book so far this year, and so good I read it out loud to Matt.  We had fun scanning the QR codes and finding all the details.  Quite well done!

young adultA Thousand Nights
E.K. Johnston
Johnston applies knowledge gained during several summers spent in the desert in this retelling of One Thousand and One Nights. While the narrative skipped right along, Johnston also included a ton of detail about village and palace life.  At times it reminded me of my enjoyment while reading the Red Tent.

The Great American Whatever
Tim Federle
Great title.  And cover design.  Good coming of age story about a boy, Quinn, who is mourning the death of his sister (and partner in movie-making crime).

Essential Maps for the Lost
Deb Caletti
The voice of the omniscient narrator did not work at all for me.  What did work was the portrayal of depression as the subtle sneaky bastard that it is.  Very nicely done Ms. Caletti.  Also, thanks for a reminder that it’s been too many years since I read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Young nonficiton

When Green Becomes Tomatoes
Julie Fogliono
Read for Librarian Book Group
Quite good poems about the changes in the seasons, that also doesn’t go for the cliche parts of the season.

Wet Cement
Bob Raczka
Read for Librarian Book Group
If you are only going to buy one poetry book this year, this is the one!  Wonderfully inventive use of words.  Incredibly clever.

Guess Who Haiku
Caswell/Shea
Read for Librarian Book Group
I did not find these haiku as amazing or creative as the author implied in the author note.  Illustrations were fine.

Fearless Flyer
Lang/Colon
Read for Librarian Book Group
“Oh! I hope there’s a picture of Ruth Law at the end!  I hope, I hope, I hope!”  And there was!  Gripping tale (in picture book form) of an early pilot trying to set a long distance record.  The illustrations were softer than I would have preferred for the subject matter, but still effective.smart smutThe Shameless Hour
Sarina Bowen
Moving right along in the Ivy Series we step away from the hockey players, and instead follow Bella, the manager of the hockey team, and Rafe, a soccer player.  In this installment, we finally leave behind the F/inexperienced M/experienced trope for the slow-burn romance between the very experienced F and the very inexperienced M.  Uncomfortable stuff happens to Bella early on, which means there isn’t a lot of hot sex in this book.  There’s other good stuff, though.