With Halloween tomorrow, I thought I'd pass on that the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office is giving away free glowsticks for kids' safety on Halloween night. The four offices you can get glowsticks are:

• The main office in Bend, 63333 West Highway 20
• The Sisters substation, 703 North Larch
• The La Pine substation, 51340 Highway 97
• The Terrebonne substation, 8154 11th Street, Suite 3

They also are offering up a number of tips for parents, motorists, and general safety:

Read more—tips and safety

Events coming up in November for Thump Coffee.

First Friday Art Walk: Friday, November 2 (and continuing throughout November)

Click through for full list of events

While I'm on the topic of Halloween parties, I should note that JC's is also having theirs tomorrow (the 27th). Wear your costumes—there will be prizes awarded for the best. The DJ is starting around 8:30pm, and there's no cover charge.

Seems like Saturday is the night for the Halloween parties...

McMenamins is hosting a free Halloween party tomorrow night (the 27th):

Dress up in costume and head to our place for a party like you read about. Get down, get funky, get loose to the latest DJ'ed hits while you enjoy McMenamins handcrafted ales, wines and spirits. But try not to mess up your outfit, because there could be a prize at the end.

It's taking place in Father Luke's Foundation Room (the northern building), and starts at 9pm. 21 and over only.

My wife pointed out the ad in the latest Source: Between the Covers, "Bend's newest neighborhood bookstore." It's located in the historic Delaware Annex building (which also has a little-known vacation apartment space, according to Bend Living) at 645 NW Delaware—the corner of Delaware and Bond.

So far I only know what's in the ad:

• General bookstore
• Free wi-fi
• Sitting and gathering areas
• Old fashioned candy
• Gift cards
• Children's books
• Coffee
• Pastries from Sparrow Bakery

Definitely worth checking out.

I'd be remiss after blogging yesterday about Halloween Headquarters if I didn't mention another place that has a ton of costumes and Halloween accessories: brace yourself—the Pretty Pussycat.

Yes, that Pretty Pussycat, the adult store on 3rd Street next to the old Highway 97 gas station. I stopped in there today, idea-and-costume-hunting, and wow, they have a really big selection of stuff—some adult/mature themed naturally, but a lot of mainstream things. Their main floor in the front is women's costumes, and upstairs is men's. (The really adult stuff is in the back, probably somewhat displaced for the Halloween setup.)

There's a lot of licensed costumes especially—characters from movies and such. "V for Vendetta" (which no one else in town has; I was previously looking online for it), Star Wars costumes, the Burger King, like that. "Regular" costumes too, and a good selection of masks and accessories.

Full costumes range in price from around $40 and up (though there may be cheaper ones, I didn't look at everything), which is comparable to the Halloween Headquarters prices. Various other accessories seemed reasonably priced. If you're on the hunt for a good costume, definitely check it out.

I blogged about Halloween Headquarters last year, but this year they're in a new (permanent?) location: 1034 NE 11th Street, on Greenwood near the base of Pilot Butte. (The old Pilot Butte Event Center.)

They have a pretty expansive selection of costumes and accessories, the largest you'll find in town, I believe. Plus they have their haunted house—The Haunt. That's running through Halloween, and it's $10 per person.

They may or may not have a website; their yellow pages ad lists www.onlinehalloween.com as the site, but that doesn't seem to be resolving as I write this, so take that with a grain of salt.

Hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 to 7; Sunday 12 to 4.

You can read the general introduction to this series here.

Why the Eastside Rocks #13:

Eclectic Eats

No, the Eastside might not have the fanciest restaurants in town, but there's certainly no lack of interesting food (and experiences) to be found. Here are some prime examples:

• Texas Doughnuts
  These monsters are found, as far as I know, only at Erickson's Thriftway on Greenwood. As you may or may not be able to tell from my grainy cellphone pic there, they're about 4 times the size of a regular doughnut, yet are priced only slightly more. Where else can you find such giant doughy deep-fried goodness in one package?
   
• Taste of Thailand
  AKA Thai on the Fly, Trailer Thai... whatever you call it, it's the only Asian restaurant... heck, the only restaurant restaurant (aside from the ubiquitous coffee stands)... that's housed in a trailer. As in, drive-through. Exclusively drive-through. And it's good, from all accounts; check out the Bend Restaurants review for more.
   
• And speaking of coffee stands...
  ...the one on the corner of Greenwood and 8th sells biscuits and gravy.
   
• Demetri's Greek Cusina
  The only Greek place in town, snuggled in on the Eastside Windy Knolls area.
   
• Elvis Cinnamon Roll
  Remember this? Jake's Diner has 'em. Giant cinnamon roll. Peanut butter and banana. You pretty much can't go wrong.

And that's not even speaking to the Rico's Taco truck, or Pilot Butte's 18-ounce monster hamburger, or the insanely cheap meals (and free samples) at Costco, or the bakery thrift store, or... well, you get the idea.

Did you know you can take just about any sealable container into Deschutes Brewery and they'll fill it up for you to go? I just found out about this recently, and got some beer today.

It's essentially like getting a growler—the half-gallon glass jugs that they'll fill up for you for $12. The bartender told me today the fill-up policy amounts to about 17 cents per ounce, though I think they charge a minimum of $4—the same price as a 20-ounce pint of their beer. But as long as it's a container with a lid—mason jar, water bottle, growler, gallon jug, whatever—they'll fill it up for you.

(Incidentally, a gallon jug would cost you $24—twice that of a growler.)

How cool is that? I had them fill two 20-ounce plastic water bottles today. Cost $8. Microbrewed beer you can't get anywhere else, to go: priceless.

I don't know if the other breweries will do this; growlers, sure, but I'll need to call to see if they'll fill up other stuff.

Pretty big news for BMC...

All BMC Primary Care physicians accepting new patients are now accepting new Medicare members. "This is an important step in helping to ensure that our senior family members, friends and neighbors have access to the best possible healthcare,” said Marvin J. Lein, CEO. “Central Oregon’s quality of life attracts people of all ages, but the demand for high quality senior care is growing the most rapidly. We have a responsibility to everyone in our community, and we intend to continue to meet that responsibility.”

Click through to read full press release

It's not on their website (yet), but Jokers has posted on their sign that "Saved by the Bell's Screech"—aka Dustin Diamond—will be there on November 8. Presumably for a comedy show.

That seems weird.

Dave sends me a pointer to The Green Gathering, coming up this next Saturday October 20th:

[O]n this one-time and one-stop only tour, organizations and individuals will be coming together to have fun while building community and learning about green energy alternatives.

In order to build conscious community in Central Oregon, the day will be full of interactive events. The activities will be organized around a two-story dome, outfitted with hammocks, cushions, and couches. Free coffee will be available to you whilst listening to the melodies of The David Bowers Colony. They will be playing live music from noon-2pm, followed by an open-mic. The entire event will be solar powered compliments of The Giggling Gardener.

Outside the dome, the Bend Bike Co-op will be holding a clinic, community radio will be recording the day's festivities, and Avatierre and friends of the Juniper Forest will be hosting a poetry booth. BlueSky, ONDA, and other nonprofits will also be there chatting about what they're up to.

It's at Troy Park downtown—that's the park on Bond Street next to McMenamins (which seems to be largely used as a dog park?), and takes place from 11 to 3.

Saw this filter across craigslist tonight: New Salon/Barbershop opening downtown. They're hiring, and located at 1293 NW Wall a bit north of central Downtown. By my count, that will make five barber shops downtown.

(The other four are L & K Barber Shop, Bond Street Barber Shop, Metropolitan Barber Shop, and Planet Hair. Those first three are "old school" shops while Planet Hair is more of a salon, I believe.)

I don't know, five barber shops in our smallish downtown area seems a bit excessive. Doesn't it?

Big congrats to Deschutes Brewery and Bend Brewing Company on winning medals at the Great American Beer Festival! The GABF wrapped up today, and Deschutes brought home 3 gold medals and the BBC 1 silver.

The medals were for:

• 4K Pils (Deschutes) - International Style Pilsner category (10 entries)
• Pub Bitter (Deschutes) - Bitter or Pale Mild Ale category (43 entries)
• The Abyss (Deschutes) - Imperial Stout category (44 entries)
• Outback X (BBC) - Old Ale or Strong Ale category (32 entries)

Right on! As if we need any more proof that Bend is a top-class beer town...

Bunches of things going on this weekend.

• KouseFly is playing at the Reed Pub (1141 SE Centennial) Saturday. The show starts at 8:30pm and there's a $3 cover.
• The Second Annual SnowClone music and retail festival is taking place Saturday at Silver Moon Brewing. Doors open at 8am and admission is free. It's essentially a huge ski and snowboard gear swap, with prices 40-80% off retail prices.
• The other ski swap is, of course, the Skyliner's Ski Swap, taking place at the Mt. Bachelor Bus Barn on Columbia Avenue (across from the Mt. Bachelor shuttle parking lot and next to the Nosler building). Goes from 8 until 6pm, and admission is $3.
• The Lava City Roller Dolls have a bout Saturday the 13th at the Central Oregon Indoor Sports Center. Doors open at 6pm; tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
• Over in Sisters they have their Harvest Fair going on Saturday and Sunday (10 til 4 both days). "Over 200 juried vendors selling quality handcrafted items. Pottery, metal art, photography, painting, jewelry, clothing, furniture, home décor and much more. This event is celebrating its 26th year. Live entertainment, food court and free admission."
• The Pumpkin Festival at Tillicum Park in Tumalo is Saturday from 10 til 4. Pumpkin patch, entertainment of various fall-themed sorts, food, animals, and more. $10 for a kids all-day pass.
• And of course, BendFilm is still going on through the weekend. Tickets and passes are still available.

Looks like the rumor of the Blacksmith Restaurant getting remodeled was right.

Just another reminder about flu shots; BMC has their Clinic this Saturday, the 13th, from 8 to 3 at their northeast (main) location. Cost is $25.

Also, you can check out the other schedules people posted in the comments to my previous flu shots post. Prices on most others is $30.

Jake points out tonight that KOHD's new website has gone live. Much better than it was before. Jake didn't like the video auto-playing on the front page, but that didn't happen to me, so I guess they fixed it? Anywho, yet another source of local online news, which is always a good thing.

No RSS feeds yet, though. That'd be helpful. (Not that KTVZ's any better on that front... they keep breaking theirs and I have to go rediscover them again.)

This sounds like a really worthwhile event; the 28th at the Domino Room.

"Live With Purpose, Party With A Cause"

Rarely does a night of live world beat music and fine art in Bend directly improve the lives of several desperately poor children living half a world away. “Live With Purpose, Party With A Cause,” a fund raising event for locally based grassroots nonprofit Vima Lupwa Homes, promises to deliver on both. Sunday, October 28, at the Domino Room, master African drummer Obo Addy and his band headline an evening of music and art, a silent auction and raffles of cool schwag. Silent Auction and raffle items will be available for viewing and bidding beginning at 6:00, with pre-concert music featuring local slide guitar wiz David Bowers beginning at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Doors open at 6:00 and music begins at 6:30 pm.

Click through to read entire press release

On our way out to the Pumpkin Patch Saturday, we stopped at the Terrebonne Depot for lunch. I remembered that John Anderson had given it a pretty good review in the Bulletin sometime back, and since it's right on the way to the Pumpkin Patch (and Smith Rock, which will likely be more interesting to people), we decided to stop there and try it out.

The building is a renovated train depot originally built in 1911. Their about page has a detailed history of the building, including a video of moving the entire building on rails (because there was no solid foundation before the renovation).

It's a nice, open setup, with an expansive open dining area and a central bar with additional seating. And that's a full bar—beer, wine, liquor. The current beer on tap was Cascade Lakes' 20" Brown, Silver Moon's Pilsner, Deschutes' Mirror Pond (I think), and Paulaner Oktoberfest, which replaced (again, I think) Bend Brewing. So almost all local beers on tap (and a bottled selected, too).

Food was really good, I thought; I went basic with a buffalo burger (bacon cheeseburger, actually), my wife had the Greek pita, and the kids had the chicken tenders and the cheese pizza. My wife substituted fries with the soup of the day, a tasty tomato basil.

Service was also good and timely and we were able to just beat the lunch rush—it filled up after we got there.

All in all, a good place to eat. And I think the only place I've eaten in Terrebonne!

Terrebonne Depot
400 Smith Rock Way (just east of Highway 97)
Terrebonne, OR 97760
541-548-5030

This weekend we visited the Central Oregon Pumpkin Company (again), the one over in Terrebonne. We didn't spend the amount of time as we did last year, but it was still a nice trip. This is the place that also has the corn maze ("Corn Maize" they call it)—this year, the theme is pirates. Check out the maze:

Pirate ship, with Jolly Roger, and desert isle. The maze costs $5.50 for kids 6-12 (under 5 are free), and $7.50 for adults 12 and over.

They have some great pumpkins, too. You can go out into the field to pick your own pumpkin, or select from the variety they've already harvested; what's surprising to me is that variety, presumably grown there. There are large and mini pumpkins of course, but also white pumpkins, pie pumpkins, butternut squashes, Boers, Cinderella pumpkins, festivals, Jarrahdales, Long Island cheese pumpkins, gourds and others. Probably turban squashes too. It's mind-boggling.

One of these days we'll bite the bullet and do the corn maze. That's more of a commitment than just picking pumpkins, though.

This almost slipped under my radar: the Friends of the Bend Library Fall Book Sale. It's today (October 6) from 10am until 4pm, downtown at the Library Administration Building at 507 NW Wall Street. (The old Library building.)

Thousands of quality books of all kinds for sale: fiction, nonfiction, travel books, children's books. Audios, videos and free books too!
In the Book Cellar of the Deschutes Library Administration Building.

Always good deals to be found there. Children's books are sold by the inch (stacked height), if I remember correctly.

Louise Hawker of The Nature of Words writes in with this latest:

Benjamin Percy's new collection of short stories, Refresh, Refresh, was just released yesterday, so the book will be available for purchase and signing during The Nature of Words. Publishers Weekly had called it the most anticipated book of the fall season. Benjamin will read during the Friday night, 11/2 author reading at the Tower Theatre. He will also teach two writing workshops - all the details are on our website at www.thenatureofwords.org. Benjamin is a Central Oregon native who now teaches writing at Marquette University in Wisconsin.

The author page for him on the NoW site is here, and the NoW workshop schedules are here.

And is it just me, or does the picture of Percy on his website totally look like Vince Vaughn?

Holy smokes, I just realized today that the Fall Festival is coming up this weekend! Is it really that time of year already?

Anyway, it's this Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7. Downtown Bend, the streets are closed (Oregon, Minnesota, Wall, part of Bond?), and the usual seasonal festival attractions will be there: Artists and vendors, the Souk de Fall Fest, music stages, food court, beer and wine garden. The Family Harvest Area will feature a hay maze, apple bobbing, pumpkin painting and carving, and the like.

BMC will be there with their Health & Wellness Fair, and 3E Strategies is sponsoring a Green Building Fair.

Festivities start at 11am on both days, and there's the Official Event Guide insert in today's paper with details and the map.

My wife pointed out the irony of the Bend City Council meeting tonight to present the proposed city fireworks ban, while at the same time this image appeared in today's Bulletin:

Fireworks at the Les Schwab Amphitheater for the Pacific Amateur Golf Classic; photo copyright Rob Kerr and the Bulletin

More detail: The City Council is meeting tonight, open to the public at 7pm at City Hall (710 NW Wall St., downtown), and one of the items on their agenda is indeed a proposed ordinance banning all fireworks in the City of Bend. There is concern among some public officials over the fires that were started due to fireworks this year (I don't have the exact number handy), both in terms of public safety and dollars spent in fighting these fires, and the solution is to adopt a general-purpose ban.

But come on. Banning all fireworks (except sparklers and snakes, and road flares unless said flare is used as intended during an emergency) is plain ridiculous—particularly when the ban extends to possession, sale and use. That's right, under this ordinance, even simply possessing fireworks in the City of Bend makes you guilty of a Class A Civil Infraction.

Now, authorized fireworks displays—presumably like the yearly July 4th Pilot Butte show, and last night's Pacific Amateur Golf Classic show—are exempt, so we wouldn't miss out on the big show(s) each year. What's ironic about this though is that almost every year the Butte catches fire during the show—which generally accounts for most of the yearly fire problems!

But really, banning all fireworks in the city is just not realistic—people will simply buy them elsewhere (the stand set up just outside city limits, anyone?) and set them off anyway. Enforcement will be next to impossible. And, a worse scenario is that the ban does work, and ends up pushing all the fireworks out of the city into the rural district—which as we all know, is a virtual tinderbox around here in summertime. The fire danger increases dramatically—and the municipal fire department doesn't respond to fires in those rural areas. That wouldn't be pretty.

You can read a summary of the issues here (PDF), and the proposed ordinance itself here (PDF) and make up your own mind. And I'm quite sure tonight's City Council meeting will be entertaining.

Interesting story in the Bulletin today about the "Fragile Legacy" photo exhibit up at COCC; 61 high-quality photos of Bend history are on display at the Pinckney Center at COCC's Pence Hall.

“Fragile Legacy: Rare Views of Early Central Oregon” contains 61 photos from the Van Vleet collection of historic photos donated in 2006 to the Deschutes County Historical Society. The black-and-white images were printed from large-format, glass-plate negatives that had been stored in an attic in Stayton for close to 70 years, said Kelly Cannon-Miller, executive director of the society’s Des Chutes Historical Center. They depict everyday life in Bend and Central Oregon as well as celebrated events, such as the 1911 visit to Bend of railroad magnate James J. Hill.

In one image in the collection, two young boys stand on a street corner in front of a dry goods store in the early 1900s. Look closely, and see that one boy is barefoot. Look more closely, and see the shopkeeper through the window of the store. Look again, and see the display of hats for sale in another store window. Jolokai recommends bringing a magnifying glass to the exhibit to take advantage of the rich details the photos offer; facial expressions, tool marks in hand-hewn stone buildings, textures of fabrics; all are visible in the images.

What makes this more amazing is that these images were extracted from large glass plates that had been rattling around an attic for 70 years. Makes you wonder what other historical treasures like this people have in storage!

COCC also has a page on the exhibit here.

The exhibit opens Thursday, from 4 to 6pm, and thereafter runs through November 30 at the regular gallery hours of 9 to 4 Monday through Friday. Best of all—it's free.

Friday we had lunch at The Village Grill, the new restaurant/sports bar occupying the former Grove space, downtown. Quick summary: I liked it well enough, my wife didn't much care for it.

Service was good, and quick; our lunches were out to the table quicker than we're used to. I had the Reuben with fries, my wife had the Philly cheesesteak, with salad substituted for fries. The salad was huge—you actually get their dinner salad (for only $1.50 extra for the substitution) and it's loaded—greens and extras like cheese, hardboiled egg and bacon.

My Reuben was good—moist, flavorful, filling. The cheesesteak looked good as well (I didn't try any). My wife was lukewarm on the food, though; she forgot to have them hold the peppers and mushrooms on the cheesesteak and said it was too dry.

The only problem I myself had was with the prices; I thought they were 2 or 3 dollars more than they should be: the Reuben was $9, when I would expect $6 or $7. Other menu items were priced similarly high—although the beer I had was a very reasonable $3.75 for the pint. (And the salad deal I mentioned above was a good one, relatively.)

More details can be found in the Bulletin's Small bites from Friday. It's open 7 days a week from 11am on.

The Village Grill
1033 NW Bond St.
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 318-8578