Vacation is over...a return to normalcy?
Ouch! Vacation is over...and it's a damn shame. I had a great time...I wasn't at work!
My friends and I rented a cabin on Big Bradford Lake (between Grayling and Gaylord, just south of Lake Otsego). It was smaller than last year's cabin, but more modern and better accomodated. We also had a pontoon boat for the week. Great fun! We lazed, grazed, and generally did whatever the hell we pleased...which usually didn't involve much by way of physical exertion. We watched lots of TV, movies, read indoors and out, napped, slept, sat in the sun, sat on a boat, sat on a couch, belched, farted (only the men...girls don't fart), campfired, made S'mores, cooked, did crosswords, fended off mosquitos and biting flies, drank, shopped, and other vacationy-type stuff. We don't adventure-vacation, we relax-vacation. We relaxed...and it was awesome! I'd say that last year's vacation was just slighty more relaxing, but it was really in BFE. Last year's place was more rustic and remote with more mosquitos, leaving us with less outdoorsy-type stuff to do. We had more couch space last year, but also had more people.
I have to say, though, that I was quite pleased with this year's locale. The cabin, property, and lake were very nice and lots o' fun. I could've been happy vacationing on Zug Island as long as I wasn't at work, but this place on Big Bradford Lake was really special. The only major complaint is the size of the shower (tiny). We watched assorted stuff including the Ramones documentary, Anchorman, Lost in Translation, Reno 911, The Young Ones, and assorted Mystery Science Theater 3000. We listened to the obligitory "Carnival of Light" by Ride (the mandatory vacation album) and lots o' other stuff. We're a group largely consisting of music/movie/TV geeks, so it was a good time for all. I did a lot of the cooking, which was fine by me (no dishes for me to clean). I made a pretty kickin' potato dish out of leftovers Thursday night (?). You can't go wrong with potatoes, onions, heavy cream, sour cream, mozzarella cheese, butter, and red and yellow peppers. It was a really insanely rich gratin sort o' thing. I made a "use everything up" batch of spaghetti Friday night from leftover spaghetti Bolognese, more pasta, V8 juice, fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, roasted peppers, and onions. Not bad, actually.
I'll try to post some pictures soon (one of my co-vacationers has my flash card and is making a compilation disc of everyone's pics). I won't go into crazy detail, but let's just say it's just what I needed. Peace and relaxation...with good friends. The weather was virtually perfect all week, too. Could there be anything better?
Tomorrow it's back to work... :(
Let's hope I don't have don't have to be a smokejumper. I'm just worried that I'll be jumping in to blazing clusterf*ck and I've got to put out all the fires. I tried to cover all my bases the week before I left, but I'm sure someone managed to do something to wreak havoc on my department. I'll find out tomorrow morning and see if I have any angry phone-calls/e-mails. I'm really not looking forward to it.
I saw a great Belgian film today called Hop. Very clever and touching...I highly recommend it.
I finally signed up for Netflix. I should be getting my first movies in a couple days. It sounds like the perfect thing for me. My friend Kathleen loves Netflix and that's good enough for me as she's quite a film buff with great taste in all genre of film. My landlords had gotten Hop through Netflix and lent it to me. Hop is also part of a collection called Film Movement that I'm very seriously considering signing up for...it sounds like a great idea as long as all the films are good, which I'm sure they are (especially if Hop is typical of the quality). I think that Netflix and I will become great friends...
Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement right before I left for vacation and I haven't had a chance to comment on it...
It's really going to suck! Dubya is going to f' everything up and recommend some uber-conservative right-wing Nazi f'nut that believes the Bible supercedes the Constitution. I don't think I'd look good in puritanical garb (and it's hard to find buckle shoes in EEE). Let's not let Dubya have his way and send this country back to Plymouth Rock.
We'll sorely miss you, Sandra Day.
I was watching footage from London on while I was on vacation. My heart goes out to the families of every person that was killed and injured during the recent bombings. Were the Madrid bombings perpetrated by the same group (not Basque separatists)? Even if there is a connection to al-Qaida, let's not let Dubya and gang take advantage of the situation and further manipulate and scare the red-staters for the sake of political posturing. Although there are tons of fanatical terrorist groups out there in the world (Aum Shinrikyo for example), I'm more scared of the fanatical groups that voted for Bush. I think that we should be more fearful of our current government and the country's tectonic shift to the right. Although there are certainly terrorist threats still eminating from the Middle East, and they should not be taken lightly, we should be concerned with North Korea and right-wing extremist cells in our own "NASCAR Nation". Don't live in fear, live in hope of a better nation and a better world.
On a lighter note...
I went to Westborn Market yesterday (a local fruit/specialty market). Why do "seedless" watermelons have seeds? Just curious...
Kudos to Sir Bob Geldof again...
Did you see the Pink Floyd reunion? Ugly, wasn't it? Musically it was fine, but there were some evil glares.
Random poll-
If you could get rid of one animal without it effecting the food chain/cycle of life, what would it be?
My choice would be the mosquito...not just because they think that I'm delicious and they're annoying as all get-out, but because they spread West Nile and malaria (almost 500 million cases yearly worldwide). Don't feel that you have to pick a pest/parasite/icky creature, maybe you don't like puppies or kittens or baby chimps...
Cheers,
Jason
My friends and I rented a cabin on Big Bradford Lake (between Grayling and Gaylord, just south of Lake Otsego). It was smaller than last year's cabin, but more modern and better accomodated. We also had a pontoon boat for the week. Great fun! We lazed, grazed, and generally did whatever the hell we pleased...which usually didn't involve much by way of physical exertion. We watched lots of TV, movies, read indoors and out, napped, slept, sat in the sun, sat on a boat, sat on a couch, belched, farted (only the men...girls don't fart), campfired, made S'mores, cooked, did crosswords, fended off mosquitos and biting flies, drank, shopped, and other vacationy-type stuff. We don't adventure-vacation, we relax-vacation. We relaxed...and it was awesome! I'd say that last year's vacation was just slighty more relaxing, but it was really in BFE. Last year's place was more rustic and remote with more mosquitos, leaving us with less outdoorsy-type stuff to do. We had more couch space last year, but also had more people.
I have to say, though, that I was quite pleased with this year's locale. The cabin, property, and lake were very nice and lots o' fun. I could've been happy vacationing on Zug Island as long as I wasn't at work, but this place on Big Bradford Lake was really special. The only major complaint is the size of the shower (tiny). We watched assorted stuff including the Ramones documentary, Anchorman, Lost in Translation, Reno 911, The Young Ones, and assorted Mystery Science Theater 3000. We listened to the obligitory "Carnival of Light" by Ride (the mandatory vacation album) and lots o' other stuff. We're a group largely consisting of music/movie/TV geeks, so it was a good time for all. I did a lot of the cooking, which was fine by me (no dishes for me to clean). I made a pretty kickin' potato dish out of leftovers Thursday night (?). You can't go wrong with potatoes, onions, heavy cream, sour cream, mozzarella cheese, butter, and red and yellow peppers. It was a really insanely rich gratin sort o' thing. I made a "use everything up" batch of spaghetti Friday night from leftover spaghetti Bolognese, more pasta, V8 juice, fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, roasted peppers, and onions. Not bad, actually.
I'll try to post some pictures soon (one of my co-vacationers has my flash card and is making a compilation disc of everyone's pics). I won't go into crazy detail, but let's just say it's just what I needed. Peace and relaxation...with good friends. The weather was virtually perfect all week, too. Could there be anything better?
Tomorrow it's back to work... :(
Let's hope I don't have don't have to be a smokejumper. I'm just worried that I'll be jumping in to blazing clusterf*ck and I've got to put out all the fires. I tried to cover all my bases the week before I left, but I'm sure someone managed to do something to wreak havoc on my department. I'll find out tomorrow morning and see if I have any angry phone-calls/e-mails. I'm really not looking forward to it.
I saw a great Belgian film today called Hop. Very clever and touching...I highly recommend it.
I finally signed up for Netflix. I should be getting my first movies in a couple days. It sounds like the perfect thing for me. My friend Kathleen loves Netflix and that's good enough for me as she's quite a film buff with great taste in all genre of film. My landlords had gotten Hop through Netflix and lent it to me. Hop is also part of a collection called Film Movement that I'm very seriously considering signing up for...it sounds like a great idea as long as all the films are good, which I'm sure they are (especially if Hop is typical of the quality). I think that Netflix and I will become great friends...
Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement right before I left for vacation and I haven't had a chance to comment on it...
It's really going to suck! Dubya is going to f' everything up and recommend some uber-conservative right-wing Nazi f'nut that believes the Bible supercedes the Constitution. I don't think I'd look good in puritanical garb (and it's hard to find buckle shoes in EEE). Let's not let Dubya have his way and send this country back to Plymouth Rock.
We'll sorely miss you, Sandra Day.
I was watching footage from London on while I was on vacation. My heart goes out to the families of every person that was killed and injured during the recent bombings. Were the Madrid bombings perpetrated by the same group (not Basque separatists)? Even if there is a connection to al-Qaida, let's not let Dubya and gang take advantage of the situation and further manipulate and scare the red-staters for the sake of political posturing. Although there are tons of fanatical terrorist groups out there in the world (Aum Shinrikyo for example), I'm more scared of the fanatical groups that voted for Bush. I think that we should be more fearful of our current government and the country's tectonic shift to the right. Although there are certainly terrorist threats still eminating from the Middle East, and they should not be taken lightly, we should be concerned with North Korea and right-wing extremist cells in our own "NASCAR Nation". Don't live in fear, live in hope of a better nation and a better world.
On a lighter note...
I went to Westborn Market yesterday (a local fruit/specialty market). Why do "seedless" watermelons have seeds? Just curious...
Kudos to Sir Bob Geldof again...
Did you see the Pink Floyd reunion? Ugly, wasn't it? Musically it was fine, but there were some evil glares.
Random poll-
If you could get rid of one animal without it effecting the food chain/cycle of life, what would it be?
My choice would be the mosquito...not just because they think that I'm delicious and they're annoying as all get-out, but because they spread West Nile and malaria (almost 500 million cases yearly worldwide). Don't feel that you have to pick a pest/parasite/icky creature, maybe you don't like puppies or kittens or baby chimps...
Cheers,
Jason
posted by Jason at 11:38 PM
2 Comments:
JK:
Remember Justice O'Connor, the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, by Ronald Reagan. Justice Souter, hardly a strict constructionist, was appointed by George Herbert Walker Bush. Don't fret about W's appointment - these things have a way of seeking their own level. - BB
The Madrid bombings were definitely not the work of ETA, the Basque separatists. I believe some Islamic Fundamentalist Extremists were to blame and as a direct result Spain pulled out of Iraq. I'm pretty sure they're hoping Britons respond the same way.
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