If it's Friday It's Waitsburg

Tonight Dawn and I were treated to dinner by Dawn's parents Darleene and Don Davis
We had a great meal at the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe in Waitsburg . My Dad had a series of articles on his blog a while back about our families history in Waitsburg. Whoo'd of thunk Waitsburg would be able to offer casually elegant Cajun cuisine?

50 Is Nifty For Brother Mike

Saturday evening Dawn and I attended an awesome surprise 50th birthday party for Mike Barer.

Sister in law Debra did a wonderful job putting the party together. The festivities took place at Doc Maynard's in Pioneer square (we had the entire bar to ourselves). We got to listen to a band made up entirely of Boeing engineers who managed to keep the festivities hopping.

Luminaries in attendence included: cousins Sam and Lisa Barer, Carol and Arnie Barer, Stan and Alta Barer, dad and Jean, Debra's mom and Dad, Debra Sister. Cousins C and K
as well as several of Mike and Debra'a friends. A great time was had by all.

Mike turns fifty on July 19th.

The 4th of july

We had a very nice 4th of July picnic at wild wood park with Dawn's family. While pioneer park down the street was filled with people, we had Wild wood park all to ourselves.

The Benoit tragedy

Pro Wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife and seven year old son and then killed himself. This horrfic tragedy is hard for anyone to wrap their brain around. It's almost impossible if you're a wrestling fan.

I have been a pro wrestling fan since I was a preschooler spending weekends at my grandparents house(I will be 36 this month). I have watched a genre that I love to follow evolve (or devolve) into a T.V. product that I find virtually unwatchable.

Dawn Marie enjoys watching a show call Top Chef. I often see challenges where they ask the competitors to take a traditional dish, reinterpret it, put a modern spin on it and make it even better. This is how I viewed Chris Benoit. Benoit captured the essence of the pro wrestling I watched as a kid while at the same time performing the
"nifty" modern high flying, high impact moves that are prevalent today. Benoit could do it all in a ring and he did it with an intensity and authenticity that no one else could match. Benoit was the best in ring performer I have seen in all my years of watching pro wrestling.

What caused one of the most respected men in the industry to snap?

I believe The drive that led Benoit to be a pro wrestling virtuoso also led to his downfall. Years of taking prescription drugs to enhance his physique and to reduce pain along with multiple head injuries, deaths to many of his close friends a deteriorating marriage and numerous other factors caused Benoit to drift into insanity. I am not absolving Chris Benoit, because ultimately he is responsible for what happened. I do think that the pro wrestling lifestyle helped create the perfect storm that led Chris Benoit to commit these heinous acts.

Can anything good come of this?

I do believe that the WWE cares. I just don't think they get it. They have done some good things adding drug testing and a wellness program as well as reduced the number of days on the road. Yet, in the last week I have tuned into their programming and I've seen that the most hyped performer is a body builder that has virtually no ability in the ring or behind a microphone. This send a dangerous message and shows to me they truly don't get it.

A couple of days after the tragedy Vince McMahon was on the today show. Meridith Vierra asked him about the high mortality rate (she mentioned 40 deaths If I remember correctly) of pro wrestlers before the age of 45 in the last 25 years. McMahon said he could only talk about those that died while under contract to him (which was 5) and that Vierra's numbers might have been excessive (in reality her numbers were low). McMahon went on to say that these events were so far remove from what the WWE was about which was "putting smiles on peoples faces".

My reaction?

Over the years I have acquired over 50 hours of classic Portland Wrestling 1977-85 If I am sad or mad I put in those DVD's and they instantly put a smile on my face. If I need something to put a smile on my face in the future I will reach for my Portland collection and I will stay away from WWE programming. From this point forward I will not spend another minute or dollar on the WWE. As far as my blogs Walla Walla Barer and TV Time Limit I will no longer have WWE content.

Vincent K. McMahon as far as I am concerned,,,,You're Fired!

Silly Pictures

1.Dawn offers Buddy to the space aliens at little stone henge on the Washington side of the Columbia river.

2. Our cats Puff Monster and Spider hone their grappling skills.

Seaside and Canon Beach

Dawn and Buddy

Buddy

Buddy

Seaside

Dawn and I along with our poodle Buddy made the trip to Seaside Last weekend.
We fed the seals at the aquarium we hit the arcade (they still have many of the same video games they had back in 1984) and we visited numerous shops oh yea we also hit the beach.We had a lot of fun. And I was very proud of our poodle who was on his best behavior the entire trip.

If It's Sunday it's Meet the Depressed

Saturday We walked Downtown to browse at the farmers market. Dawn, Buddy and I all had a great time although it was quite hot. Along the way we stopped at the Whitman college campus and let Buddy Run. We were all tired when we got home.

This morning I watched Meet the depressed with Time Russert. While Dawn does not like watching the show she said she had fun watching me watch the show (if that makes any sense). Today they had on political Strategists James Carraville his wife Mary Magdelin
along with republican operative Mike Murphy and democrat Squeeky Fromm.

This presidential campaign is going to be alot of fun to watch.

Maple Valley Barer's Invade Walla Walla

Late Saturday evening Mike and Debra Barer arrived in Walla Walla along with dogs Rusty and Cora.

Mike and Debra met up with Dawn and I (along with our dog Buddy) at the downtown market.After perusing the market for a while we walked downtown looking for a place to eat brunch. We settled on Coffee Connections. Where we had and excellent meal.

Sunday evening we met up at 26 brix. We had and terrific dinner.

Monday we went to the cemetery then we went to Weston and picked up Minnie and had lunch at Hongs Chinese in Milton Freewater.

All and all it was a great weekend, we had a nice visit and ate a lot of great food.

update:

Their were two Apollo Anton ono books left at the dollar store and Dawn purchased one for me.

Apollo Anton Ono

Four months ago I was in the Dollar Store and saw a huuuuuuuuge stack of books. Upon closer inspection the entire stack was Apollo Anton ono's biography. Last night The olympic speed skater won on Dancing With The Stars. I wonder if Apollo's biography will be reprinted with a new chapter and sell for 29.95.

Wa-Hi Film Festival

Dawn called me monday afternoon at work and asked if I would go to the Wa-Hi film festival with her. Her coworker Linda has a son who directed a movie in the festival.
I agreed to go. We had a good time. A couple of years after I graduated they built a new auditorium/theater at the high school. As I walked in I thought it's was cool to see the new auditorium then I stopped and thought about it and realized the building was 15 years old. Anyway it was enjoyable evening and we got to appreciate the work of some talented kids.

A Nice Walk

Saturday morning after breakfast Dawn and I walked over to Temple Beth Israel. I was hoping the Dogwoods would still be blooming in grandfather's garden. Unfortunately they were done blooming. We did take some nice pictures of the garden which I will post when I figure out how to load them on this computer. After that we walked over to Dawn's parents house where Dawn, Buddy and I had a nice visit with Don And Darlene. Then we walked home.

Quick Trip To The Tri Cities

Dawn and I made a quick trip to the trip cities Sunday to take her brother Michael to lunch.
We went to grannies buffet and we all got very full.

Separate worlds intersect in Pendleton

For months Dawn had been looking froward to the 5th annual Wildlife Rehabilitation Seminar in Pendleton . We had been planning on leaving Walla Walla early in the morning Saturday and returning to town latter in the evening . Then we saw a poster for mixed martial arts fights at the Pendleton convention center on the same day as the seminar. Dawn said we should do both.
So that's what we did. We attended the seminar all day, then we ate dinner and headed to the convention center for the fights. After the fights we spent the night at the Oxford Inns and Suites in Pendleton.

Thats where the separate worlds collided. As we walked into the restaurant for breakfast I realized we were surrounded by martial arts people and animal rehabilitation people. George Castanza popped into my head screaming separate worlds. It would be like my two brothers walking into a restaurant and Ivanka Trump and Sumi Shimamoto were hanging out at the next table.

Anyway we had a great time in Pendleton. Here's a couple of links that discuss our activities on Saturday.


Lynn's blog at Blue mountain wildlife: here

Rumble in Roundup City II in the East Oregonian: here

You do not need to sign up to read the article in the Oregonian. Type "rumble" in the search and then click on the article "region scores knockout".

The Herb Garden

Over the weekend we replanted our herb garden. We planted Rosemary , Thyme and Basil.
We also added Dawn's favorite the habanero pepper.

I am also currently reading two books. What a party by Terry McAulifffe and Clemente by Dave Maraniss.

Dawn had updated her blog. You can read about the fighting ear mites of Utah St here.

Congratulations Mark and Claudia

My childhood friend and college roommate Mark got married on Saturday.
Dawn and I attended the wedding at central Christian church. We had a great time.
It was great to see everybody.

I hope everyone had a great weekend

We went over to Dawn's parents house this afternoon and had a very nice dinner. It was an absolutely beautiful day in Walla Walla today!