THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>>

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Sunny and clear, hi 76, lo 54

Saturday: Chance of rain 30 percent, hi 65, lo 52

Sunday: Mostly cloudy, hi 63, lo 50

>>> FRIDAY, SEPT. 3-SUNDAY, SEPT. 5: OLYMPIA HARBOR DAYS

You poor, tragic thing. Your friends have all but deserted you for a fabulous holiday weekend at the ocean, and you are stranded, Banarama-style, here in the South Sound. The only way to exact revenge is to have a better time than those so-called friends. This calls for some quality time at the Olympia Harbor Days festival.  Stupid ocean.  Stupid friends.

For 900 years the city of Olympia has hosted Harbor Days.  While Harbor Days doesn't sound overly exciting considering every coastal town seems to have such a festival, this weekend's event has something unique - tugboats.  Apparently, like the swallows returning to Capistrano, tugboats do the same in Olympia.  There are vintage, working and retired tugs to get your heart aflutter.  And if that doesn't get your life vest in a bunch, Sunday also features tugboat races. 

• Port Plaza, 5-8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, near the Farmers Market and Thurston Avenue, Olympia, 800.788.TUGS

>>> SATURDAY, SEPT. 4-MONDAY, SEPT. 6: ROY PIONEER RODEO

The Roy Pioneer Rodeo is not just a rodeo - although it bills its cowboyin' competition as the "Daddy of ‘em All." During the event, the rodeo also features a cowboy breakfast, beer garden, spaghetti dinner feed, homemade bake sale, clowns, an Old West town and, at night, concerts.  But ultimately, RPR is the rodeo, complete with hokey jokes - "If Texas is so great, why are Texans always somewhere else?" - and clowns, as well as steer wrestling, barrel racing, saddle-bronc riding, and that PETA favorite, calf roping. While the standard rodeo events occupy the center of the arena, a series of acts parade in front of the grandstands, including a royal rodeo court.

• Downtown Roy, gates at noon, 1:30 p.m. start, $4-$10

>>> SATURDAY, SEPT. 4: CONTRA DANCE

Polish up your dancing shoes and join in the whimsy of a Contra Dance, hosted by the South Bay Grange. What is a Contra dance, you say?  Contras have roots in traditional American dancing, with strong British Isles and French-Canadian influences. A caller, working with a group of live musicians, guides new and experienced dancers alike through a variety of moves, teaching each dance before it is actually done to the music. The patterns are similar to those of old-time square dancing, yet have nothing whatsoever to do with country line dancing. Zilch. And every 30 seconds or so, according to the dance, a different person of the opposite sex is thrust into your arms, and there's nothing wrong with that.

• South Bay Grance, 8-11 p.m., 3918 Sleater-Kinney Road NE, Olympia, 425.223.2176

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

MATT DRISCOLL Editor and Life Coach
Hey now! Hey now! My wife is back!
After enduring an entire month of single parenting and bachelor cooking, my wife returned from Germany this week and we'll definitely be celebrating in style. Yeah, that's right! We'll go to Costco, make a trip to JC Penny's for some kid clothes, and maybe even clean the house of all the grime I let build up over August. It's gonna be awesome!

NIKKI TALOTTA Feature Writer
I'm leaving to Vegas on Tuesday, so this weekend is going to be a whirlwind of domestic duties. It will be hailing laundry and raining dishes. Bills will be blustering by and there will be a shit-storm as I scrub toilets and clean the chicken coop. But soon, the forecast calls for easy breezy, calm and sunny with poolside reading and writing followed by warm nights and sultry sins.

JOE IZENMAN Music/Theater Critic
Bumbershoot. Bumbershoot. Bumbershoot.

KRIS BLONDIN Food/Wine Writer
Since Dustin had to WORK on our 9th anniversary, we are spending all three damn days at the lake. Eatin', drinkin, boatin' and NOT thinkin'. Word.

JENNIFER JOHNSON: Lifestyle/Leisure Writer
My Birthday Birthday Birthday is today, which means daytime bliss at Olympus Spa followed by dinner cooked by my ultra-wonderful boyfriend DJ Bilori. Going to a local high school football game Friday night to show some team spirit! Saturday, I'll drop by Sanford & Son flea market after a bike ride that will surely leave me weak and feeling 35. Saturday night, I'll bust out my funkiest dance moves for a little more birthday fun at Tempest to the beats of DJ dAb. Sunday will be a definite day of rest.

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY Features Writer
This weekend is all about celebrating my best friends' birthdays, which basically entails drinking for several days. The climax will come on Saturday, with a huge birthday blowout house show, featuring performances by some local bands. If I were to go out on the town, though, I'd aim for the New Frontier on Saturday. Abraham and Santee looks like a pretty good bet.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
I'm driving up to Lakewood to see Sleuth, even though I clearly can't afford it. Oh, by the way, credit card company, feel free to contract the hantavirus and die in a hot puddle of your own effluvia. Seriously. XOXO.

ALEC CLAYTON: Visual Arts Critic
 Revising the screenplay of The Backside of Nowhere, which will be presented in a reading at a Tacoma theater, time and place to be announced.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound