Everything Has Its Price

Mike and I have returned from the Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort & Casino in Central Oregon. Located in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. Middle Of NOWHERE. You drive east for about two hours upon leaving Portland into a vast and never-ending desert until a resort appears along the side of the road.

Mike was there for an investment specialist conference, completely paid for by his company. Including the $50 in chips for the casino. So a lovely time was had by all. I sat by the pool and read and knit. I sat in the lodge and read and knit. On Wednesday Mike had the afternoon off so we drove again through the vast Oregon desert until we reached Sisters. Bought some coffee from the Bad Ass Coffee company, bought some yarn from The Stitchin' Post, went back to the resort and watched a movie in our room while Mike schmoozed with other schmoozers, then we went to the casino to play blackjack. Between the two of us we pretty much lost the entire $50 that had been given to us, but then Mike won $100 at one of the slot machines. Which paid for our trip to Powell's.

I really wish we could have spent more time in Portland. I never go there, which is strange because it's only a couple of hours away. Maybe it's the fact it's in another state. We only actually made it to two stores in Portland. In the time we spent looking for these stores we could have done quite a bit of damage, but time was of the essence. So I was able to go to Knit/Purl, which was everything I had hoped it would be. I found the yarn I have been searching for to make the knit birthday cake, and I found a wonderful book on making these adorable baby booties. And Powell's--there are no words. We gave ourselves exactly one hour. Which is such a small fraction of the amount of time we needed in the greatest bookstore I have ever encountered. Ever. I would only allow myself to purchase used books, and I found 2. And we made the mistake of buying really cool Spiderman books for the boys. Which we thought they could share since it seemed really dumb to buy identical books for them. Clearly we were having a moment of temporary insanity, since they have done nothing but fight over these books since we came home at 8:45 last night.

Ryan and Eric stayed with my parents on Whidbey Island for 3 nights. A very long time for little boys who aren't use to sleeping away from home. Apparently Eric was sick one day with a cough and fever and one night when I called it was almost 10:00 and they had not gone to bed yet. My dad drove them to our house yesterday to wait for us, and fix the giant hole in my bathroom ceiling, and the initial meltdown occurred about 30 minutes after we returned home. They are both grubby, grimy, and exhausted. They really missed us and it's clear that they need to spend no more time with each other. This morning when Ryan started to sob when he heard that Daddy had to go to work, Mike told him to brush his teeth, load up his backpack, and meet him at the car. Ryan went to work with Dad while Eric stayed home with me and did not nap.

I have spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and starting on the knit birthday cake. And if I don't wrap up this blog entry, my bookgroup is going to get to witness post-vacation meltdown, day 2. I'm not sure which I am more concerned about--a meltdown by the boys, or by me.

And you may be wondering how Alice, the passive aggressive-neurotic-peeing-cat fared while we were away. No accidents on our bed. Zero. Nada. Used her litter box faithfully during the entire time she was alone (with Shirley, Emily the Neighbor Girl's mom looking in on her). Peed on our bed within an hour of our return.