Thursday thunks.

Most of my family are heading back to their homes.

Mike wanted to take us out last night, and he mentioned Toomies, which he really likes already, but I wanted to try someplace new, so I suggested Jackalope. It's kind of my ambition to try all the fine dining restaurants of downtown Bend, one by one, at least once.

I think he wasn't expecting it to be quite so nice, based on the name. Personally, I think the name is genius -- down home enough not be intimidating to us non-foodies, while providing the full foodie experience.

Now, it's very hard for me to be a restaurant reviewer because Linda and I are pretty basic in our eating at home. All these places seem like pure ambrosia to me.

So my review of Jackalope: Pure ambrosia. They have a inside/outside court, which was quite nice. Our server was great, but they always seem to be; attractive young people. We even went and introduced ourselves to the chef and family who were eating up front (Mike's idea, I'd never do such a thing) and they knew about mine and Linda's stores.


Meanwhile, Todd spent yesterday cutting down a couple of dead junipers in our back yard -- including the one that split in half in one of last winter's storms. It makes the light seem much brighter.

I wanted to be able to show off my garden to my family, but really it hasn't been looking it's best. This year I decided not to do a lot of cutting back, or subdividing, or moving. I wanted everything just to grow and then judge how they were doing and whether I should move or remove them.

Hey, just because I'm the son of a master gardener doesn't make me a master gardener, I'm finding. I have a whole lot to learn. I need to figure out he pesticide situation, and the watering schedules, and all that kind of thing. Oh, and plants turn out to be expensive, if you want any coverage. A longterm challenge.


At Dad's memorial, my family was talking about what a storyteller Dad was and Tina was, and out of the back of the crowd I hear a voice, "And Duncan! He also is a storyteller!" or something like that, and that made me feel good and I wondered who it was. Turns out it was my son, Todd. "Yeah, they seem to forget about how much writing you do, sometimes....." he said later.

Last I saw of Todd he was heading toward Les Schwab amphitheater hoping to get a ticket to the Franti concert.


It was good to work at my store yesterday. Having so many days off a week is one thing -- I can still drop in for a couple hours at a time. But being off for a week, means up to 14 days between working and that is just too long.

Then again, I settled right into the routine again. The guys are doing a good job. I was noticing that they are really keeping the Pegasus facebook page active, and other than just a bit of squaring away, the store is fully functional when I'm not there.


Panga slept on my bed for the last two nights, which she has never really done before. Because of Todd on the couch, and the dog, Bella, and my brother downstairs. "She's seems to be fit right in," Linda commented.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of..."

I'm sort of surprised that all my tossing and turning didn't disturb her, or her sitting like a lump at my feet didn't disturb me. But I've warned her -- it ain't going to become a habit.