Application Unexpectedly Quit
Yesterday was going to be a computer day where I practiced with my new software but my "application unexpectedly quit" problem escalated as problems of that sort always do. I tried some online forums to see if others had this problem and found that yes, others have. But no one seemed to have a solution. One person talked about memory being unseated which didn't sound promising.

I won't go through the whole bloody story but, among other things, I tried to use the repair disk that comes with Applecare then spent the next 2 hours desperately force-restarting my machine: just to get the stupid disk back out.

By the time I got my desktop back and could actually use my computer again, unexpected quits and all, I was short-fused and a danger to myself and others.

Meanwhile, I had a kitchen with rapidly ripening produce and other cooking things that could not be ignored. I put the last two squishy peaches in the blender with yogurt and made a smoothie for work. I had bought a bucket of plums to make a fresh fruit galette and when I re-read the recipe I thought: I am in no condition to mess with the food processor or pastry dough right now. But then I had all these ripe plums and I had to do something so I pitted and quartered them and sprinkled a bit of lemon juice and sugar on and put them in the fridge. Ignored the pears. Put away the potatoes. Roasted the beets for a quick salad.

The fresh stuff is fun. I know I'm going to be crying about missing it in a few weeks here. But it is a lot of work. I'm kinda over it by now.

On Saturday afternoon Bob and I went downtown to the Salmon Nation Block Party. It was a semi-spontaneous outing that we almost blew off and we were so glad we went. I have some photos but they are trapped in unexpectedly quit land. Perhaps I can add them in later.

The Block Party is an eclectic street fair/farmer's market extravaganza presented by, and in honor of, Salmon Nation citizens. It brings us together to inspire and educate, bridge urban-rural divides, and celebrate the people, lands and waters of the Northwest temperate rainforest.

Meaning, typical Portland event. Lots of people with kids and/or dogs. Lots of hippie types. Costumes. Excellent food. Tasty beer. Live music. At the end they had the Everyone Orchestra or something like that which means a bunch of musicians that Bob knew about. When they announced who they were Bob started doing back-flips. We went to the front and did a few rounds of the hippie jig. I told Bob I came perilously close to an entire summer without dancing with hippies.

Another thing I did this weekend was watch most of About Last Night a 1986 movie with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore that I'm sure I loved in 1986. I don't think I've seen it again since. David Mamet wrote the play that the movie was based on and he must have slunk into a dark corner with the check in his hand when he saw the finished product. Some of the cheesiest montages ever with awful, awful music. I'm about 75 minutes into the movie and there have been three montages already. A fair amount of nudity. Excellent opportunity to see Demi's real boobs.

The story holds up. Young people hooking up and everything happening so fast and the friends on the sidelines with their mild sabatoge.

One of the best things about the movie is the sweaters. Remember huge bulky sweaters that hung down to mid-thigh? This style was a boon for me at the height of my "full figured" epoch. I can see my sweaters right now. I got them at Xpress. One was bright blue and one was bright pink.

Another treat is Elizabeth Perkins who we now know and love as Celia on Weeds, playing frumpy best friend Joan. I love the women character names: Debbie and Joan. Nowadays the girls would have to be named Stevie and Tommy because in movies the girl always has to have a boy's name. (Start paying attention to girl names: Alex, Joey or Jo, Sam, Freddie, Mel, Max, Jo, Dani etc.) Can't wait to see how it ends.