Todd

Bend Weekend

When in doubt, title your post after the very creepy bellman at the hotel, Todd.  Todd was our shuttle bus driver.  We missed him on our first pass through the airport in what I can only assume to be instinctual avoidance on our part.  We knew there was crazy on that side of the room so we looked to the other side.  Todd definitely needs to take some courses on how not to make eye contact for excruciating periods of time.  Todd asked us, as he carried Amber's insanely light suitcase up to our room when she would have much preferred to do it on her own, whether we were both "Mrs. Wagner."  I guess it was nice that he didn't make any assumptions either way, but coming from Todd, it was just weird. 

Anyway, we had a very good weekend in Bend.  At least I did.  Amber had walking pneumonia and came equipped with prescriptions galore.  However, given she wasn't contagious, didn't bail on me despite her sickness, and there were no toddlers in sight, I can only deem the weekend extremely successful. 

The hotel, with the exception of the aforementioned Todd, was awesome.  It did lack pay-per-view which I must have mentioned to Amber more than a few times, not such much in complaint as much as sheer surprise.  I've never been in a hotel without a variety of movies to choose from. 

We were able to get cupcakes from Ida's Cupcakes. FYI, Le Cakery is no more, but the woman who ran Le Cakery with a partner has opened another store across the street and renamed it since she never liked the name Le Cakery.  This purchase was not without some drama.  I called them late Saturday morning to check their hours.  They said they closed at 5 pm and were closed on Sundays.  We took a nap until 3:30, then walked the mile to the shop.  When we got there at 4, the "Closed" sign was hanging.  Devastated, I tested the door handle.  It opened!  I boldly stuck my head in and asked if they were really closed. She said she had a few more cupcakes and I said I'll take them all.  That was a bit of overkill since even I couldn't eat all six cupcakes in conjunction with all the other stuff I was inhaling over the course of the weekend.  On the way back from Ida's, we stopped in what we assumed was a gift store.  It turned out to be the largest candy store I've ever seen.

Powell's in Bend

Powell's in Bend

My haul.  Turns out, I should have just bought the Laffy Taffy since that's the first thing I always go for anyway.  The red velvet cupcake was also delicious, but one cupcake was enough.

Dinner.  I had the beef with brussels sprouts - delicious. Note the package of Amber's tissues which were with us at all times during the weekend.  Amber = trooper; if that had been me, I would have been curled up in a ball crying.

One flaw in the weekend plan was that our flight didn't leave Bend until 7 PM on Sunday night, but we had to check out of the hotel at 1 PM.  Fortunately, there was a McMenamin's a couple of blocks away and the movies showing at noon and 2:15 were ones I hadn't seen before: The Princess and the Frog and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.  The first movie was not bad, though certainly not my cup of tea since I very nearly loathe Disney.  The second movie was absolutely dreadful.  I spent the second half of the movie reading news on my phone.  However, we at least had a comfortable place to hang out all afternoon.

For the next weekend away, I'm definitely going to do it in Portland.  A hotel that is walking distance to some good restaurants and a movie theater and I'll be all set. 

Because

Avery is now using the word because, though she says 'cause.  This morning she said, "I need a napkin please 'cause I spilled." 

Fail

I have caved for the first time on TV watching with Avery.  After we attempted not once, not twice, but three different times to go on a dog walk, I was so frustrated that I turned on the TV for her, came into my office, and am getting my frustrations out via this post.  Turns out it was good we didn't make it on the walk today since we got hit with a sudden hail storm.  But it was still very frustrating nonetheless.

We'll see if this slip leads to angry child tonight.  She watched a couple of hours of the Oscars yesterday with D (that's his cave, not mine) and had a minor ten-minute episode of angry child last night, so my guess is we're both going to be paying the price for my TV-restriction-failure. Such is life. 

Leak

The connection between our refrigerator water and the wall has been leaking.  I don't know for how long, but I suspect it's been a slow leak for some time and recently got much worse.  As I was leaving the house today, I noticed the floor boards were buckling and dark from dampness around the edges.  I emailed RHG to get the name of a good plumber.  He called back and talked me through figuring out where the line connected and then how to turn it off.  They ran plastic tubing from the fridge to the water rather than copper, which is apparently a guarantee for a leak to spring.  Great.  The plumber will be here tomorrow to fix the problem and install some copper tubing. 

We'll have to see how damaged the floor is after it dries out.  As far as I'm concerned, as long as there isn't some danger (mold from the dampness or something like that), I'm fine not fixing the floor.  Our floor is so messed up that I consider it a waste to fix just part of it.  Plus, as I've said before, knowing that our floor is so jacked up is probably the only thing that allows me to stay sane when the dogs scratch it up with their claws.

Away

D is in Chicago until Wednesday, so Avery and I are on our own.  Thankfully, she'll be at school tomorrow and Wednesday, so the days should be easy enough.