Because Kip had a burning desire to re-visit a charming Antiquarian Book Seller in Bend, and because we were with Sara whose instinct, when we couldn’t find said book seller, was to go ask a Librarian, we three plus Steve went to the Deschutes Public Library to do just that. Where we saw a flyer that Joe Sacco was giving a talk there that very day. And it had started about 15 minutes ago. After discovering that the book store in question had relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona, we snuck into the lecture in progress. Though Joe Sacco purportedly lives in Portland when not chronicling lives in other countries, this is the first time I got to see him in person. It was a great slide lecture for an audience not necessarily comics literate and the cartoonists in the audience as well.

Mostly I was pleased to put in my request for a reprinting of his Yahoo story “Take it Off” and to let him know that my the highlight of my day of jury duty a couple weeks back was discovering the original art of one of his “Painfully Portland” strips he used to do for Willamette Week back in the early 90s, this one lamenting the sissifying of coffee in Portland back in ‘93. (Huh. I actually had just started drinking coffee in ‘93, due in large part to my beginning to date Kip.) I was also pleased that he recalled Anodyne (and liked it) as well as the interview he did with Amy.

I neglected to get a photograph of Joe, though Kip and I did get a nice inscription in the copy of The Fixer we bought:

However, I made sure to get many pictures of the Shire in progress.

This was another Bend related activity also inspired by a librarian, this time my coworker Gretchen, who sent me a link to a story about this LoTR development going up in Bend.

Sara presents: the SHIRE!

Hobbiton across the water

Our guide.

Only the finest in PVC thatching.

Kip presents: Queens!

As Kip quipped, “Looks like Sauron won.”

Heroic quail of the Shire.

Steve denied.

Kip contemplates his place in the Shire. With a starting price of $599,000 per home, firmly outside, I’d say.

Not only did we take a perverse glee in the site, it happened to tie in nicely to an earlier conversation we were having in the car trip out about participatory fan culture. (which reminds me, I must read Henry Jenkins blog. and new books, Convergence Culture and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers)

The purpose behind this day trip to Bend was beyond doing something nice and relaxing for Kip’s Birthday, was to test out the capabilities of our new automobile.

Kip, the Pail and some very heroic clouds.

We’ve been thinking about getting a new car for a while and had been saving for that proposed eventuality, but had been forced into action by Kip’s work moving out of downtown and 20 miles away coupled with the new unfortunate noise that my 16 year old little red hatchback had started to make. The fact that Kip will now have to deliver many, many boxes of documents to clients dictated a certain amount of cargo space, hence the Element. The fact that Kip and I have always been fond of its dorky charm is just an added bonus.

It was good to visit Bend again and have a chance to casually socialize with Sara and Steve. We actually didn’t get to see that much of Bend proper, though Kip and I did get to indulge in our Arts And Crafts fetish (our self-proclaimed aesthetic; I think it was determined that Sara and Steve’s is Eclectic Compromise with Legacy influences) as well as visit a nifty jewelry maker’s shop that Sara spotted.

Sample of some of the prettiness we saw rushing past to Bend.

Just as pretty was the high desert on our way back.

Going home…

…but first a look at the huckleberry inspired chandelier in the Chinook Room at Kah-Nee-Ta.

Kip and Steve soaking up the atmosphere in the Chinook room.

We did see much lovely scenery and assorted animals that we normally don’t in Portland: sheep, beefs, horses, quail, skunk, various predatory birds and what I was pretty sure was a marten. We debated whether we were seeing alpacas or llamas (after viewing the previous link, I’m pretty sure llamas) as well as puzzled over as to why people raise llamas.

Also, puppies:

Which, admittedly, we do sometimes see in Portland as well.