Got back from Oregon late Wednesday. Four days of amazing food, beautiful weather, and playing in the river with the dogs. Portland is really nice, and Cathy's dad has a great setup right on the river in Siletz. (That's Sil-ETZ... don't ever say SI-letz. The Oregonians are worse than the French about pretending they can't understand you if you pronounce something even slightly wrong. They don't let you pump your own gas, either. Weirdos.)

In one of those freaky odd coincidences, a pair of refugees from the gaming industry live right up the road from Cathy's dad and know everybody I know. We spent the 4th on their boat in Newport (that's NEW-port) watching fireworks and gossiping. In addition to running an executive search firm with her husband, Barb makes cute flip flops hand-studded with tiny Swarovsky crystals and cooks up all kinds of organic bath and body creams. The nights can be long and rainy up there in the Oregon mountains.