Weekend Update

The book club ladies took our off for a retreat Friday. One of our members Mel has a 'cabin' on the Wenatchee River. I'm not sure it truely qualifies as a cabin - it sleeps 8, has a dishwasher, washer and dryer, and everything you could ever hope to find - but it is tucked away in a place with no cell phone service and while there is a tv I've never seen it. It's mildly fantastic and I have a twinge of envy.

The weather was fantastic and we enjoyed the outdoors by hiking, biking and oh yeah, that other outdoor sport drinking.

Saturday we braved the 90 degree heat and drove into Leavenworth. It's cute and I can see the attraction in the winter. The Nutcracker Museum doesn't get much action on a hot June weekend though. The bavarian theme is cute and it works for them, they do have a lot of what I call the "Shitty Shit" stores - socks with kittens, carvings of local wild life, shot glasses with "I've been leveled in Leavenworth" printed on them, "I'm with stupid" t-shirts and stuff with your kids' names on it. There are a few shops for the more advanced tastes - the cheesemonger (yum!), a decent bookstore, a custom made soap shop, and a store with a small selection of fabulous things from garden implements to hats - hard to describe but I didn't want to leave.

One of our members did not handle the tip into town well - the combination of the heat, the twisty road and the back seat of a mini-van made her ill. That was a bummer and as she tried to cool off we callously drank margarita's on the deck of the mexican restaurant.

Eventually we did discuss the book - Terrorist by John Updike and the comments were universally similar. We didn't think it was a stellar book and that the characters were a little one dimentional and that the 74 (84?) year old author did not capture the inner thoughts or dialog of a 17 year old boy. Those among us who had read Updike before were saddened that it wasn't better as he is a good writer that is worth reading and after reading this not many of us are inclined to read more of his work.