You have probably seen the stories all summer about the Ira Keller fountain being closed due to suds. A common prank, usually seen in the springtime is to put detergent in a fountain and watch it bubble. Well, when it is a fountain like Ira Keller, that is a huge amount of water that then needs to be dumped and many man hours to thoroughly clean the fountain. I think the suds have hit the Keller fountain this summer more than 5 times.

Well, they are fighting back. This past weekend, Nolan Cunningham, age 19, was caught “red handed” by security at the fountain. The water bureau has a photo of him on their website to show that if you mess with them, they will tell everyone who you are. What a jackass. Get original. The best part of this announcement is the following:

We will prosecute offenders we catch and we will charge them for the water we have to dump. People up to mischief: think twice.

I would hate to have to pay that bill. Anyone know Mr. Nolan Cunningham?

My back hurts.

My back hurts because my young daughter has turned into a U-Pick fiend.

The farmer’s market stands on Sauvie Island don’t provide enough of a challenge, I guess. So she forced me into picking our own raspberries, blackberries and flowers at the first place we stopped at.

I managed to talk her into buying blueberries and corn at the next place we stopped at, pleading time – but she insisted that we had to pick strawberries at Kruger’s. Insisted we try the next farm down for apples and pears (thankfully, apples weren’t ready yet.)

Four hours later, we have plenty of blackberries. Bags full of blueberries. Raspberries that are to die for. And strawberries that are the best ones I’ve had this year.

I’ve finally popped two Aleve & am self-medicating my back with a Black Butte Porter. But the kid just served up the most amazing mixed berry shortcake for dessert – plus hasn’t stopped smiling yet.

Guess my aching back isn’t such a big deal after all…

I was reading the Portland Mercury yesterday and came across the news article regarding the petition gatherers seeking to overturn two recently passed gay rights laws. These petitions are showing up at churches around town and pastors are notifying their flocks. It is no surprise that churches are at the forefront of the anti-gay debate. It also doesn’t surprise me to find the petition gatherers at New Hope Community Church in Clackamas, a massive evangelical center.

What did surprise me was the photo in the article which showed a petitioner at his table in front of architectural drawings done by Sienna Architecture. Sienna is working with New Hope Church in designing a “campus” of mixed use buildings down in Clackamas.

Interesting concept. I wonder if it will be a Christian only villa?

My challenge is to Sienna – a firm that touts its “(commitment) to improving our communities through sustainable design.” I believe that one’s integrity is also reflected by the organizations one chooses to do business with – or, in other words, it’s not just what you say, but what you do. By working with a client that is pushing an anti-gay agenda, doesn’t that mean you also support such an agenda? Maybe not. Just because Amazon sells the Bible doesn’t mean it is proselytizing Christianity. I just wonder if Sienna’s other clients or its employees know this is taking place.

To the super nice gentleman that stood up and offered my daughter and I your seat on the MAX yesterday, Thank you. Sometimes on the train I think that chivalry, no, courtesy is dead. We were so tired and she is too short to reach a handle.

If you’re on the east side, don’t be alarmed by smoke coming from Powell Butte of SE Powell and 174th avenue. The city park’s bureau in conjunction with the Portland Fire department are doing some controlled burning up there to bring the area back to a natural state. See, back in the day, before we put wildfires out, they would keep the underbrush down so those plants and trees in the forest could flourish. Also, some trees seeds (i.e. pine cones) will only open at certain degrees – like when a fire is ripping through.

Interestingly enough, the Hood to Coast relay is going through that area on the Springwater Trail. I assume all will have passed by the time the fires begin. Keep it under control guys.

Controlled burn on Powell Butte, August 25

My young daughter’s on the corner, doing a brisk business at her lemonade stand. (I’m outside keeping an eagle eye on her while I ‘work from porch’, never fear.)

It’s an absolutely gorgeous day for a lemonade stand – and this kid’s been after me all summer long to carve out the time so she could have a stand, in fact (between day camps and trips and our over-scheduled lives and the wacky weather of late, it’s been hard to make it happen.) And she’s definitely getting into it – she’s got her sign on a stick, is hooting and hollering, and otherwise doing everything she can in a very enthusiastic way to lure customers in (when she’s not actually serving them, that is.)

But her stand is the first one I’ve seen all summer long. Do kids just not have lemonade stands any more? Or do I just not see them?

Coming into work this morning, my parking lot that is normally occupied by only a dozen or so cars at that early hour – was half full – and full of large vans with painting on the windows and signs all over the place.

What the heck?

Ah…Hood to Coast is this weekend. The crazy relay where people run from the top of Mt. Hood out to the coast, and these are the team vans for the people waiting for their leg of the run.

A few years ago when we lived in Sellwood we were coming home from the Pub at the End of the Universe around 2am and saw all kinds of people running down the street. Many of the runners hit Portland in the middle of the night – and on the east side of own anyhow they go through the Clinton, Moreland and Sellwood neighborhoods then across the Hawthorne bridge and along the waterfront north.

So if you’re out having a drink in SE or downtown tonight and see some runners – give ‘em a cheer. And if you are one of the runners. More power to you. Even if you are crazy.

This Saturday is finally the date for a couple of really amazing events that I’ve been looking forward to all year. Starting at 10:00am at Mt. Tabor is the 2007 Adult Soap Box Derby. Teams of talented and apparently completely insane people have been working on their derby cars for months and are now ready to see how they do in competition. Last year there were a huge variety of cars that ran from functional and fast to completely over the top. To give you an idea of what people entered, the carturkey derby won best art car and the bathtub betties won the lame duck award. The betties had curlers glued to their crash helmets and their car was a bathtub.

The race is fun to watch because you don’t know if they’re going to even make it down the course without major damage to the car and drivers. I guess some years the cars have basically fallen apart once they got rolling. I’m planning on taking a lot of pictures. I saw last year’s entries and it was incredibly inspiring.

The preliminaries run from 10:00am – 2:00pm, Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers will play at the halftime show, and then the finals run from 3:00 – 4:00pm. The Afterparty will be held at Plan B at 4:00pm with live music and probably a lot of rowdy/crazy people.
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I may regret this, but I can’t go to the Timbers game tonight and have 2 choice tickets. They are up front in the club section, close to the field. Argh. The game starts @ 7 and I could probably have the tickets @ will call around 6:30. The first person to leave a comment with a valid email address for contact gets the tickets. If you are heading to the game via Yellow Line MAX, that would be awesome as it would save me a trip downtown. Or, we could meet somewhere for an exchange. Up to you. I’m just pissed I can’t go to the game.

Timbers vs. Charleston, 7pm PGE Park

Oh, and it is indeed $2 beer night.

Oregon’s bottle bill was brought up in the comments on an earlier post – and it got me wondering – do you return your own cans and bottles for your nickel? Or do you put them out in your curbside pick-up/for folks scavenging? Or do you (be careful – people my come after you!) just throw them away?

I moved here from another state that also has a 5c refund – so my entire adult life I’ve collected soda and beer cans to take back. It’s just one of those things you do. I have on occasion been in my driveway when someone on a bike or with a cart is out collecting and I’ve gladly passed over a post-party giant trash bag full – and watched their eyes just light up. But usually we make a trip to the closest grocery store and collect our $5 or $6. If there are unique brands or torn labels that don’t work the first try – we just leave them there for someone else who’s willing to make more of an effort.

I have several friends though who were shocked when they learned that we did actually return our recyclables. They always just put theirs out in the curbside bins – and don’t live in a neighborhood where they get much scavenging – so most of the time they just get picked up by the trucks.

Other friends who are in a scavenger friendly neighborhood have said they leave theirs out on trash/recycling day – but in separate bag so that it’s easy for someone to just swing by and grab it – and they do on a regular route down the street.

So everyone that I’ve ever had a discussion about it with does recycle their bottles and cans in some way or another – but I hadn’t ever heard anyone say they thought that the returning for cash was a bad idea until today.

So what do you do with your returnables?