Road trip

Back from a great weekend away with friends in Bend. We hadn't been to Central Oregon before, so it was nice to see the sunny side of the Cascades, though this still happens to be February. It's only three hours southeast of here, but it looks a lot like some of west Texas and eastern New Mexico minus the volcanic peaks in the distance.

Skied all day Saturday at Mount Bachelor. It'd been years since we were last on the slopes. I'd forgotten how much fun that is. It came right back to Amy, of course, and I eventually remembered how to make it down the mountain on my skis rather than my ass.

Heard a great song during the drive with Mike and Susan. It had us cracking up over all the funny -- and all-too-accurate -- references to Oklahoma. Particularly southeastern Oklahoma. Considering our "people," as the song says, are from those parts, it's OK for us to laugh about this.

"Choctaw Bingo" by James McMurtry
Check it out on iTunes -- all 8-plus minutes of it. Meanwhile, here are the lyrics:

Strap them kids in
Give 'em a little bit of vodka in a Cherry Coke
We're going to Oklahoma to the family reunion for the first time in years
It's up at Uncle Slayton's cause he's getting on in years

You know he no longer travels but he's still pretty spry
He's not much on talking and he's just too mean to die
And they'll be comin' down from Kansas and from West Arkansas
It'll be one great big old party like you never saw

Uncle Slayton's got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He's got an Airstream trailer and a Holstein cow
He still makes whiskey 'cause he still knows how

He plays that Choctaw bingo every Friday night
You know he had to leave Texas but he won't say why
He owns a quarter section up by Lake Eufaula
Caught a great big ol' blue cat on a driftin' jug line

Sell his hardwood timber to the shipping mill
Cooks that crystal meth because the 'shine don't sell
He cooks that crystal meth because the 'shine don't sell
You know he likes his money, he don't mind the smell

My cousin Roscoe, Slayton's oldest boy
From his second marriage up in Illinois
He was raised in East St. Louis by his momma's people where they do things different
Thought he'd just come on down

He was going to Dallas, Texas, in a semi-truck
Called from that big McDonald's
You know the one they built up on that great big ol' bridge
Across the Will Rogers Turnpike

Took the Big Cabin exit, stopped and bought a couple of cartons of cigarettes
At that Indian smoke shop with the big neon smoke rings in the Cherokee Nation
Hit Muskogee late that night, somebody ran a stoplight at the Shawnee Bypass
Roscoe tried to miss 'em but he didn't quite

Bob and Mae come up from a little town
Way down by Lake Texoma where he coaches football
They were 2A champions now for two year running
But he says they won't be this year, no they won't be this year

And he stopped off in Tuska' at that "Pop's Knife and Gun" place
Bought a SKS rifle and a couple full cases of that steel-core ammo
With the Berdan primers from some East bloc nation that no longer needs 'em
And a Desert Eagle, that's one great big ol' pistol

I mean .50-caliber, made by badass Hebrews
And some surplus tracers for that old BAR of Slayton's
Soon as it gets dark, we're gonna have us a time
We're gonna have us a time

Ruth Ann and Lynn come down from Baxter Springs
That's one hell-raisin' town way up in southeastern Kansas
Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
That's got them Rolling Stones lips up there where everyone can see 'em
And they burn all night
You know they burn all night
They burn all night

Ruth Ann and Lynn, they wear them cut-off britches and those skinny little halters
And they're second cousins to me, man, I don't care
I want to get between 'em with a great big ol' hard on
Like an old bois d' arc fence post you could hang a pipe-rail gate from
Do some twisted sisters 'til the cows come home
And we'd be havin' us a time

Uncle Slayton's got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He's cut that corner pasture into acre lots
He sells 'em owner financed, strictly to them that's got no kind of credit

Cause he knows they're slackers
When they miss that payment, then he takes it back
He plays that Choctaw bingo every Friday night
Drinks that Johnny Walker at that Club 69

We're gonna strap them kids in
Give 'em a little bit o' Benadryl and a Cherry Coke
We're going to Oklahoma
Gonna have us a good time

Dressed down diplomacy

Evo Morales, the new indigenous president of Bolivia, is in the news again.

First, his campaign stance on coca farming riled the Bush administration and its war on drugs. Now, the populist fashionista has the knickers of the world's couture culture in one serious twist.

No matter your political stripes, you gotta love that sweater.

News roundup

Two funny reads to start your week...

Why Mom doesn't take the day-care kids to museums.

Probing scientists find earwax comes in two types, wet and dry. Mmmm.

Only in Portland

A look at part of what makes Portland special.

Home

A shot from the night we returned from Oklahoma to a brief snowstorm.

Only in Oklahoma

We visited family in Oklahoma in mid-December, complete with a trip to famed Eischen's in Okarche.

It's home of the state's oldest bar and fried chicken, fried chicken and more fried chicken. And beer. And okra. And not much else.


But really, what more do you need when you have that?

The food was great, although it might have taken a few years off my life, and the people watching was classic. We were hanging out and drinking some beers when four cowpokes who very well might have been extras from "Brokeback Mountain" sauntered in.

We could go on, but the pictures tell the story much better than we ever could. Please, click on the "comment" button and offer your proposed caption.


Yes, those are spurs. Things can get rowdy when you are wearing pink boots and drinking Dr Pepper at a bar with sawdust on the floor, Haggard on the jukebox and a parking lot full of Ford F-350s plastered with the prerequisite American flags.

Another month, another room

We finally -- two years and three months after moving in -- got around to redoing our bedroom.
We had to retexture the walls, repair the woodwork around the window, replace the woodwork around the closet and paint everything.

Took about five days, start to finish. Next up, restoring the picture rail the room originally had. And eventually, fixing up the nice walk-in closet.

Starsky & The Hutch

Here's that long overdue picture of the hutch we refinished late last year.

Amy found it at a consignment shop. We brought it home. I stripped the more ornamental doo-dad-like touches, sanded off the glossy wood shine (think of a Pledge-huffing Grandma gone nuts with that oily crap... for years) and we got down to work on it.

Finished it off with several coats of paint, new knobs and pulls, and replacing the backing with much more attractive beadboard. We were pretty pleased with how it came out.

Next up: The bedroom. Project starts Wednesday.

You're getting very sleepy...

Pirate Wiley Wet Beard

trey

long time, no post. sorry.

we caught a cool concert the other night when trey anastasio rolled through town. wasn't exactly amy's favored country music, but we had a good time nonetheless. lots of hippies. made for some great people watching in between songs.

he opened with an electric set and we were on the front row, right next to the stack of speakers from the start. i know i'm getting old when i feel physical pain in my ears after about five songs up there. that never used to happen. but it was cool to see his work on the guitar from that close, to watch the interaction between the band members, to be that surrounded by folks who were all very into the moment.

we drifted farther back, where we could hear ourselves think, later in the show. not long after that the softer acoustic set began and we worked our way back up front to check that out.

good times. even if i'd fail a drug test for the next month as a result of the contact high we must have gotten from the few hours spent in there.

then we strolled back toward the max line, stopping at one of those only-in-portland wonders: voodoo doughnut. ahhhhhhhh, where the magic, as they say, is in the hole. they weren't selling the famed -- and intimidating -- maple bacon bars that night, so we settled for sharing a mango tango. nothing like a mango-cream filled doughnut with orange tang powder sprinkled on top to give you that post-concert jolt of energy to get home.

gotta love this weird, wonderful city.

roar-y

we went to see the broadway version of "the lion king" last night. we were one row from the back of the theater, but it was still an overwhelming performance, start to finish.

the show began with the amazing puppets taking over the stage and even the theater itself. a giant elephant ambled up the aisle, giraffes tottered back and forth, cheetahs slinked around, birds fluttered overhead all while the backdrop bled from dark pre-dawn hues to a stunning, golden-orange sunrise with fog rolling across the jungle floor.

the kids sitting all over the theater were completely and utterly hooked from there on. and the adults, too.

the songs were great, minus that overly sappy "can you feel the love tonight," which just screams elton john. indeed, it's his writing, though some other guy's lyrics. it's just too schmaltzy to stomach.

anyhow, minus that one complaint, the whole show was tremendous.

whether you have a kid or happen to be a kid at heart yourself, we highly recommend it.

50 hours in music city, usa

yeehaw!

i'm back from nashville. i was there for work, which was good, but i also made time for a little fun. they don't call it music city, usa, for nothing. along broadway is a stretch of bars, clubs and honky tonks that are filled with live music. everything from old-school country to rockabilly to blues. lots of good stuff. and i didn't even make it to the famous grand ole opry, ryman auditorium or bluebird cafe.

we did stop at rippey's, where two guys were playing toby keith covers across from a big convention center with the gaylord name on it -- talk about the oklahoma influence following me wherever i go. it was a little more twang than we were after, so we pressed on to legend's corner, where a sign on the bathroom said "kenny chesney was here." i thought of amy swooning. then it was on to tootsie's, where we saw the only saxaphone player i've ever seen in a country band... and he happened to be african american. while talking with him between sets he asked if were all new zealanders. nevermind that our group consisted of two indians and an asian. maybe the crowd had bought him one too many drinks.

we watched -- and laughed and made fun of -- sleezy old married men in town for a conference who were slamming bourbon as fast as they could while hitting on women young enough to be their daughters. as the waitress explained, "drink 'til they're cute" is a way of life for some of the young barflies in town.

also, as part of the conference we had a little private performance by a great group of musicians who perform under the name "freedom sings." craig krampf, of "eye of the tiger" and "bette davis eyes" fame, anchored the group on the drums. jonell mosser, who has played with ringo starr and b.b. king and can be heard on the "hope floats" soundtrack, brought a bluesy influence to the vocals. she gave us a great take of janis joplin's "mercedes benz." jason white, who wrote tim mcgraw's "red ragtop," offered up some nice acoustic guitar playing and a few beautiful, unreleased ballads. don henry, who has written for the likes of ray charles, kept us laughing with randy newman-esque lyrics (see below). bill lloyd, who kept things soft and straight ahead both in his lyrics and his licks. shonka dukureh, who brought an elegant, soulful touch to every word she sang, including a version of billie holiday's "strange fruit" that brought tears to my eyes. and joseph wooten, who kept things funky on the keyboards and funny with songs like "testosterone."

"b.f.d."
by don henry and craig carothers

it ain't his fault that she went AWOL
'cause he tried everything from A to Z
now it's J&B, M&M's and KFC
trying hard to make himself believe

(chorus)
it ain't no BFD, he's got his CMT
no S-E-X but that's OK
at least he's no SOB like that Ph.D
who took his X and ran off to L.A.

she likes CNN and made fun of his TNN
always called it E-I-E-I-O
now their love is R.I.P. at least he's F-R-E...E
and he ain't crying on his P-I-L-L-O

(chorus)
so one night he ordered pizza
for some R&R with the NFL
when a delivery girl named lisa
stole his heart when she rang his bell

now they're in LUV and it's XTC
no S-E-X (yet), but that's A-OK
cause he feels like a VIP with all of her TLC
and ASAP she'll be his fiance
and that's a BFD in a real good way

67 hours in vancouver

we're back from our mini-vacation. the "other" 'couv is something else, though we still love our version.

we had three days of great weather, beautiful sites, towering glass skyscrapers, and a million languages. the city has a very cosmopolitan, international buzz.

had two great dinners. granted, we were only there a few days, but if you had only one meal in that city, hands down, go to vij's. wow. from the appetizers offered outside while you wait for your table, to the many glasses of wine, to the lamb popsicles (hold the bone and eat the warm meat like a popsicle), everything we had was stunningly good. it was a delightful foodie experience.

also ate at a great place called west. think of something similar to wildwood or higgins in portland, specializing in that fresh-from-farm, regional cuisine, but with an over the top international wine selection. a $3,800 bottle of burgundy, for instance. gulp, we thought. or, for anyone who could afford it, the thinking more likely was, sip. slowly.

we stayed at a cozy, boutique hotel, the listel, in the west end on robson street. it was a nice walk to tons of restaurants, bars, pubs, and more shoe shops than amy could imagine.

we spent a lot of time around the water, whether walking to canada place, taking a morning bike ride around the seawall of stanley park or riding back and forth on aquataxis to granville island, particularly the terrific farmers market.

it was a quick trip, but well worth the time.

the other 'couv

we're getting ready for our long-awaited trip to the other vancouver. we're hoping to eat some good food, enjoy some beautiful scenery and even take in a play while we're there. this will be our first vacation, albeit short, without family in a long time. we love you guys, but seriously, we're looking forward to this.

our latest project around the house is refinishing a hutch we bought at a second-hand store. when finished we hope it looks great in our dining room. seth wanted to set another of his wacky deadlines to get it done before our trip. looks like that won't happen, tho. sorry, seth.

wiley has been sick (we'll spare you the details), but he's seemingly on the mend and we hope he is back to normal before we head out of town.

that's about all from here. i suppose that means we're officially boring rattling on about trips and furniture and dogs.

welcome

welcome to our blog. we're just getting started.