I always forget about Little Caesars anymore (maybe because we don't live on the south side of town), but tonight we were down by Fred Meyer and picked up one of their "hot and ready" pizzas for dinner—large pepperoni pizzas that are ready to go, and only $5. Works great in a pinch.

They're no Pizza Mondo, of course, but I've always rather liked Little Caesars. Plus, it's tough to beat a five dollar pizza you can just walk in and grab. The only problem is convenience... you have to be south already to make it worthwhile, really.

Little Caesars
1120 S. Highway 97
Bend, OR 97702
312-3377
In the square with Hollywood Video and Outback Steakhouse

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'll be offline for the Memorial Day weekend—through Tuesday, actually. Hopefully everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend! And if you get bored, check out some of the sites I've put below under the "Links" heading.

This KTVZ event post reminded me about the Bite of Bend coming up next month, on June 17th (Saturday). This is a fun event, admission is free (though food and drink is not), and even has a live, local Iron Chef competition.

This year's live entertainment schedule will be:

11:00 - Bill Keale - Hawaiian fused, feel good music - a local favorite
12:30 - Bad Influence - Classic and contemporary rock cover band
2:30 - Stone Soup - Diverse aesthetic featuring folk, R&B, rock and reggae
4:30 - Snow Kitten Pajama Party - Bass driven, organic agrarian groove
6:30 - Bongo Love - Authentic African music and drumming
8:30 - Eric Lindell-Roots rock combined with R&B, Blues, Reggae and Pop

Arts Central will host a special area where children can make "fruit and veggie prints", creating their own masterpieces using assorted food items dipped in paint and stamped onto paper. Children will be able to take their prints home.

We went last year and I wrote a review on my other site of it. It's fun! I'm looking forward to hopefully going again this year.

Simone suggests a good topic: a collection of wireless hotspots around town. Useful for the laptop set (or wardrivers). (She also suggested a rating system for them, but I'm not that far along.) Between us, we came up with a few:

• DiLusso's: You need to access their site first when going online.
  
• Balay
• Bellatazza (downtown and in Sunriver)
• The Columbia River Bank parking lot—they have an unsecured connection

I also did a quick sweep online for hotspot access maps; I've seen these around before. One site, JiWire, lists 19 spots, five of which are free:

• The Bend Visitor and Convention Bureau
• Bellatazza (again)
• The Phoenix Inn
• Kava Coffee on the westside
• The Crown Villa RV Resort

Interestingly, Google Maps will also show you Bend hotspots... just search for "bend oregon wifi hotspots". This of course gives you a handy map as well. Unfortunately, there's no indication as to which ones of these are free.

Anyone have others to list? We'll start compiling them here...

We have a GIS (geographic information system) computer set up at work, fully loaded with Deschutes County data. One of the things I've found interesting is to data mine the system to find (among other things) all the parks in Bend (something you can also do with Google Maps), and I've found one in the system that I can't find in other sources—that is to say, it's flagged as a park area in our data, but not listed publicly that I can find: something called the "Sugarbowl site."

Anybody have any idea what this is? It's located off Ramsay Road, just east of 15th, and it's about a half acre of land. Beyond that, no idea... sounds like an excursion might be in order.

Bend has a lot of good places to eat, though the pace at which things are changing around here, it's tough to keep up with what's new, what's closed, what's good...

Trouble is, there's not a lot of good online resources for Bend dining. (One that would be obvious—BendRestaurants.com—is a parked domain.) So here's a start on a few decent online restaurant guides and links that I've compiled...

• Visitor & Convention Bureau's guide: organized by category and seems fairly complete.
• The Source's Dining Guide: not entirely comprehensive, but organized by name and contains detailed reviews of most the places listed. A good spot to get an overall sense of a place.
• Bend Oregon Restaurants blog: BrENDa's got great reviews of places here; I just wish she'd update it more often! (Hint, hint)
• BendNights.com guide: Pretty comprehensive as well. "More info" links are helpful.

Busy weekend this week! Tomorrow, Saturday the 20th, is the 13th annual Collage of Culture in Madras, held in the Jefferson County fairgrounds. It's a celebration of diversity, and though I've never been, it sounds like it would be a good time.

Saturday, May 20, begin the day with over 20 HOT AIR BALLOONS take flight over our City, beginning as soon as the sun starts to rise. After the Balloons to take off, enjoy an “All You Can Eat” Breakfast furnished by Alpha Omicron Sorority, at a low price of $5 per person. As the day progresses, you will be able to listen to many local and out of the area groups, as well as dancers of various ethnic cultures.

10:00 AM	Middle School Jazz Band (Dance Stage)
10:45 AM	Countryfied Band (Main Stage)
11:45 AM	High Desert Dancers (Dance Stage)
12:45 PM	Los Palomitos Del Norte (Main Stage)
1:45 PM	Hawaiian Dancers (Dance Stage)
2:15 PM	Vagabond Opera (Main Stage)

They note that dogs and coolers are not allowed. Sounds like a lot of fun, though—unfortunately, I won't be anywhere near Madras tomorrow. Anyone want to give me a full report if they go? I'll post it if so.

Tomorrow (Saturday the 20th) is one of our Big Bend Events: The Pole Pedal Paddle.

It's a relay race, with six legs that include alpine skiing/snowboarding, cross-country skiing, biking, running, canoe/kayaking and sprinting to the finish! You can do it all yourself or be part of team (or pair).

The Les Schwab Amphitheater area will host a day-long festival of various foods, music, sponsor booths and don't forget, all the cheering and spectating of the U.S. Bank Pole Pedal Paddle participants.

It's guaranteed to be super crowded, and parking won't be any fun. That having been said, the event is free, and this is basically Bend's signature sporting event—if you don't sweat the details (like where to park), you should have a good time.

Palmer's Café may well be one of the most underrated and unknown breakfast places in Bend... they're located at Palmer's Motel on east Greenwood, not obvious unless you know where to look (they're on the south side of the road), and once there you'll find one of the best breakfasts in town.

Also inexpensive, generous, and with good service. If you're having trouble getting into one of the trendier places for breakfast, it's likely you'd be able to get right in at Palmer's.

The best menu I could find online is on the Bend Takeout Express site, and it's the delivery menu (I didn't know til now that Palmer's delivered...), so while it may not exactly reflect the regular menu, you get a pretty good idea of what they offer.

Palmer's Café
645 NE Greenwood Ave.
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 317-5705

In my comments, Shannon said I should mention the Alpenglow Café—specifically that they had moved. Formerly, they had been located on Bond Street, next door to the brewery; they are now located in the relatively new Newport Terrace/Columbia River Bank building.

Many locals consider the Alpenglow to be one of the best breakfast places in town. Myself, I don't eat there often enough to make that claim—but I will say that I haven't had a bad breakfast from them. Check out their menu online and see what you think.

(An aside about their webpage: not at all impressive. Except for the menu page, all of their pages consist of a large image with clickable hotspots, and they don't list their current address or hours anywhere—fortunately, I was able to grab this info elsewhere.)

Definitely worth a trip for breakfast, and last I checked, their prices are very reasonable. Shannon, anything to add?

Alpenglow Café
1133 NW Wall St.
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 383-7676
Open 7am - 2pm (breakfast and lunch)

Now this looks really cool: An Evening with Sam Waterston.

Actor Sam Waterston, who plays Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy in NBC's Law and Order, will appear in Bend in a benefit for The Nature of Words, Central Oregon's premier literary event, at the Tower Theatre on June 14. Waterston will do dramatic readings from a selection of the great writers he has performed as an actor, from Shakespeare to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and from Thomas Jefferson to Tom McGuane.

Tickets are $20 each and will go on sale at the Tower Theatre the week of May 8th. The evening will start at 5:30 p.m. and will feature Waterston's readings, as well as a question and answer period and autograph session.

I'm thinking I should go to this. And wouldn't it be geeky cool if, when they introduce him, they play the Law & Order "dum dum" sound effect?

Well, sort of. According to this MSNBC article, you get a free $50 gas card from Mt. Bachelor Village Resort if you stay two or more nights with them. Sad to say, the way gas prices are going up it almost sounds worth it even if you're a local...

Though I'm kind of dubious about giving blood in exchange for free booze, this Wednesday, May 17th is the Pint Fest Blood Drive, hosted by the American Red Cross and Deschutes Brewery.

The idea is, give a pint of blood and get a voucher for a free pint of beer from Deschutes. Donating blood is always a good thing, but this certainly sweetens the deal.

The blood drive runs from 12:30 until 5:30. I'd not recommend going straight to the brewery after giving blood, though. :)

Via NewsChannel 21.

Every Thursday, Newport Avenue Market over on the westside offers free beer tastings (I originally blogged about this here). From 3:30 until 6:00, you'll find two or three beers "on tap," typically.

There's usually some sort of theme behind the beer selection, according to Rob, Newport Market's wine and beer guy. Last week, the day before Cinco de Mayo, they were Mike-arrita (how I think it was spelled, a margarita-flavored malt beverage from the makers of Mike's Hard Lemonade) and Rogue Chipotle Ale.

And watch for occasional deals on schwag, too: I picked up a couple of $1 pint glasses and a $5 t-shirt a few weeks ago (and a free poster).

So mark your calendars: Thursdays at Newport Market from 3:30 til 6. Maybe I'll see you there.

So what's this blog all about? Essentially, it's a guide to Bend, and Central, Oregon. There are a lot of Bend blogs out there already, but I want to see one that is basically an ultimate guide/reference to the area. The best way to do that? Launch it myself. :)

So why "Hack" Bend? Because I wanted to emphasize exploration, creativity, finding good deals, etc. in writing about Bend. Essentially, this is all about hacking Bend to get the most out of it. Still unsure? Some definitions of hack:

Hacking might be characterized as 'an appropriate application of ingenuity'. Whether the result is a quick-and-dirty patchwork job or a carefully crafted work of art, you have to admire the cleverness that went into it.[1]

Cribbed: ...solves a problem... that is in need of an ingenious solution, often cheaper and quicker than the "right" solution.[2]

And one definition I particularly like, originating at (and orignally applying to) MIT: To explore the basements, roof ledges, and steam tunnels of a large, institutional building.[3] See also this Wikipedia page.

And, to tell the truth, when I was brainstorming names for this blog, I stumbled into it and, being the computer geek that I am, decided to run with it.

This site is largely inspired by sites like the Metroblogging sites, Lifehacker, alt.portland, and other similar blogs. Also, since Weblogs, Inc. is starting to roll out their local blogs, I figured it's time to jump on the bus.

My goal is to get the most out of Bend and Central Oregon, and blog it. Now obviously, I can't claim to have all the answers or know everything there is to know about the area. So if you've got a good Bend hack, let me know! The more contributions, the better (and I may explore the idea of turning this into a multi-author blog, too).