1) The next day we were headed to Eugene by way of a stop at Silver Falls Park. This was our first bust of the trip, in that the falls required a walk to get to them. We had not found the entrance to the waterfall area easy to find either as we were looking for the wrong name. However the drive into the forest had been quite nice and we had time before check in at the hotel anyway.

Finding the hotel in Eugene proved a challenge due to one way streets, blocks and blocks of dividers preventing turns, and similar names, or streets that changed name on each side of the boulevard. When we finally arrived at our hotel (where even the entrance wasn't easy to spot, confusing our food deliverer as well as us!) we were amused by the painting in our room which seemed to echo the driving experience. ( Read more... )

2) When I returned to the room, M and I made some microwave popcorn and settled in to watch Captain America: Brave New World. My two takeaways were that Anthony Mackie did a good job as Sam, anchoring the film and giving it heart, as well as no doubt influencing Sam's perspective on the world. The second is that the overall plot mirrored Winter Soldier in many ways. I didn't mind that, as I thought that the changes both said something about our present time compared to CA:WS, and it also made both the similarities and differences between Steve and Sam stand out more clearly. ( Read more... )

3) After, we watched The Eternals, which was new to M as she was curious about the adamantium source in the sea in Captain America. I continue to think that it's a pity this film didn't do well. I liked the story, as I like using the MCU as a framework for different kinds of tales. I figured my friend would like it too as she's fond of origin myths. And she did, appreciating the variety of characters in it, even though this is also a sort of weakness in that we don't have time to explore them all properly.

It's also a shame that we probably won't have a follow up to either credit scene.

4) On the last day of the trip, M and I drove down to L.A. together. We passed a lot of nice sights during our crossing of the CA-152 West. Some were entertaining, such as all the garlic farms in Gilroy advertising things like garlic ice cream and garlic honey (also 10 avocados for $1!) Some were just pretty. One was the San Luis reservoir, which was huge. ( Read more... )

5) My week+ since the trip has been fairly occupied with catching up on things, dealing with the bed issue, and frankly just being tired. I thought it was interesting that both my friends took an extra day off work after their return than they'd planned. I had less to jump into than they did but felt so draggy my first day back I feared I'd managed to pick up a bug, despite consistent masking. But nope, just tired.

1) We only spent one day in Portland, and M had to nurse her feet after all the walking required the day before. So K and I went to see the International Rose Test Garden which was supposed to have hundreds of rose varieties which were expected to be in bloom by mid-May. While some clearly were, the beds were hit and miss with many varieties not yet available. What roses were in bloom however were attractive to see and some of the blooms were huge. The garden itself though was smaller than expected.

Nonetheless despite the overcast day and the difficulty with parking, the visit to the park was worthwhile as it's overall a great feature of the city. We drove up to the top of the hill for the trees and the view, though none were in a spot where we could park and take pictures. ( Read more... )

Anyhow, discussing the cards made us discuss the Star Wars series as K had recently watched Ahsoka but found it confusing. I told her this seemed inevitable to me because so much of the meaning in the series comes from it being a stealth 5th season of Rebels. So we started watching. M really liked Hera and Chopper. K liked making the connections to what came later in Ahsoka. My partner and I had rewatched S4 before seeing Ahsoka so it would be fresh. But I hadn't seen the first 3 seasons for some 4 years or so.

I found it really picked up speed quickly, and I my favorite thing was the mentor and apprentice relationship between Ezra and Kanan. The first time around I'd seen it mostly from Ezra's viewpoint since we're in it for much of the series. But this time I was seeing it from Kanan's and really liked how well done this was. And while most of it was in the writing I also liked the animation and the small gestures and expressions. It was quite rich and certainly had a long arc.

We got all the way through S2 during the trip and it made me want to see S3 through as well. I remember how tense I found it watching the season finale the first time around because it seemed quite possible anything could happen.

3) The time since my return has been something of a headache. My partner's sister had a roof leak which damaged a mattress in the room where he stays on his visits. The roof has been patched but reroofing will take place soon. In the meantime he is planning to leave for Ohio around the 25th. After discussion we decided to have him take his current bed to Ohio as a replacement. (She has already removed the damaged mattress but the box spring is ok). That means a new bed on our end. ( Read more... )

4) In less important news, my 3 water weights arrived, 2 while I was away and the last after. The laggard proved not to be worth the wait. While my partner tested out the first two while I was away this third one has a poor design that had it leaking within an hour. I contacted Amazon to return it and they refunded me and told me not to bother sending it back. I re-ordered a second copy of the smaller weight instead.

5) We've signed back up to Apple+ and so are going to pick up new seasons of things and try out some new shows. So far we've started up the latest seasons of Slow Horses, Mythic Quest, and Pachinko and are trying out Buccaneers and Your Friends and Neighbors.

1) Just returned from a road trip from Portland to L.A. Almost had a hitch at the very start when it turned out my partner couldn't take me to pick up the car until 12:30 and the pickup had been scheduled for noon. I figured, not a big deal, right, to move it to 1 PM? Tried doing so with the 800 number since I couldn't seem to alter the reservation (and the local office usually can't be reached). I was told that if the car wasn't picked up by soon after 12 it would no longer be available. That sounded ridiculous, so I went to the office in person. Yup, no problem at all to move it to 1 PM. They told me I couldn't prepay for the pickup since it had to be tied to a specific vehicle.

I then asked if I could add the pre-paid fuel and tolls since the Chicago dropoff meant it wouldn't even cost me much more than if I did it myself. No but I could do that online. In fact, I couldn't. I was never offered the option.

Despite all this had no trouble with the pickup on the day, nor the drive up other than rain all the way. And I did rather like the light that would flash if someone was coming up on my left or right side to alert me to possible blind spots. The other thing was that as soon as I'd sat in the rental the service agent let me know to ignore the constantly signaling "maintenance warning" light. They had just gotten it back from the dealership and nothing could be found wrong with the car. ( Read more... )

The flight was definitely unfun. I had a middle seat and was very tired from a poor night's sleep followed by a 3 hour drive. I tried resting for an hour but gave up and watched Wicked on the in flight panels. I thought it was fine, certainly big budget, some nice dance routines and performances. I was surprised to realize it was only Pt. 1 of the story. I guess it was a good spot to end it to get the audience back in for the sequel. ( Read more... )

2) It took me a while but I did catch up on Pillowfort posts. Here at Dreamwidth though one can't scroll back longer than 2 weeks, which was skip=350. So there may be posts from from the 21st I can't see.

That said I'm having to skim through a lot because it's a ton of posts and I have things to catch up on now that I'm home again. More on that later.

3) Yesterday was unpacking, laundry, and refrigerator triage before today's weekly shop. I thought I was shockingly tired yesterday given that Monday night I had the most sleep since before the trip and the general stress was over. I even wondered if I was coming down with something but I feel ok today too, just...tired.

4) One nice bit post-trip is that I still had some of K's curry pretzels which she gifted M and me with. People love them so much she was urged to make it a side hustle but she said she didn't have the time for that, and preferred getting to relax rather than have a second job when she came home. She made some to order for Christmas sales a few years ago and said she didn't want to go through that twice.

5) Usually my partner complains that he never has time to watch his TV stuff because he has so little viewing time, and when he does have it we watch things together. My being away is clearly helpful on this front as he's looking forward to some of our joint viewing again 😉