card playing in Portland

I drove to Portland yesterday to have lunch with a client and to visit an old college friend. I forget sometimes that Washington is such a huge mecca with regard to foresting. I forget how large trees get and often a little sentimental when I see them logged and being trucked around. Great views of the bridge to Oregon, a funny bumper sticker saying 'keep Portland WEIRD', angel in my coffee at Boyd's in the Pearl district, and confusion in the bathroom this morning. I was obviously still tired, when I started looking for the spigot that was operated by the 'but' lever. I'd never seen a 'but' lever before. It was the 'shower' lever that tipped me off finally.

It felt great to be back in town and feeling like I knew where I was going. My college friend had bought a 100 year old house and had completely redone it restoring it to original hardware, tiles, and natural wood trim (verses painting).

After dinner, the B*E*S*T part of the evening aside from catching up with my girlfriend was playing this fun family inclusive card game. Here's how it works:

• Each player starts out with 5 tokens (pennies, beans, poker chips, whatever)

• The dealer hands out one card face down to each player

• The person to the right of the dealer goes first - it's all about keeping or trading your one card to ensure that you will have the highest card for the round.

• You can only trade to your right

• The person to your right has to trade with you whether they want to or not

• Only if you have a King do you not have to trade (this often sticks the person to your left with their card)

• IF you have a King, you must turn your card face up so the table can see it.

• The dealer has an option to keep their card or go to the face-down deck to pick (any) card.

• The lowest card loses and player must deposit a token to the pot

This lasts forever and is hilarious. Here are some tips as described by my girlfriend's kids, aged eight and six:

• If you get a bad card don't sigh and say something like, "aaaaghhhhh"

• If you get a really really good card, don't punch your fist in the air screaming, "YES, YES, YES!"

..and my favorite tip, described as a rule by her son, the youngest:

• If you get a card and you think it's really unfair and you don't like it, you can't cry.