Free Weekend In The Woods

Sitrep: 30 minutes treadmill, 3 days non-stop walking/standing at convention(sprained ankle!)

Through Big Brothers Big Sisters, we got a chance to go camping at a "Camp" on the Little Blackfoot. It's one of my favorite places to get outdoors, especially since it's only about 40 minutes from my house.

Don't let that water deceive you. At most it's knee deep. I'm including this one just because it's the best fire picture I've ever taken:

I bought a W.i.i

Need I say more? I just couldn't take it any more. Been wanting one for a year and a half (thanks to my visit to my brother and his family!). I've spent the last 3 bonuses/tax refunds on responsible stuff, and now that I've paid the medical bills off I found I had enough to get a W.ii. Instead of paying down some credit card debt like I should have, I got the Wi.i. And Mar.io K.art. (That one is my sister and BILs fault.) [g] BUT I did get a second wheel free, and also got an extra remote 30% off. Had little sis and her family over for dinner friday, and we had fun. Mom M is very good at baseball. KT is good at all the sports. I'm fairly good at bowling. Little Sis wasn't doing to well. Until we tried out boxing yesterday. (I only have one nunc.huk, so only one person can box. I was done with "sports" by that time, so let her have a go.) She is very, very good at boxing. Pow, pow, pow. And boy, did she enjoy that. LOL. We also played several hours of M. Kar.t. I'm much better at that. Although she's catching up fast. I've already opened up 2 new racing circuits (or whatever they're called!). Only drawback to the fun yesterday is I spent all night dreaming I was playing M. K.art. Ughh.

Mount N Erupts...

Sitrep: 2x Walk (30 minutes each, with Scully)

Okay, you've been warned. Today's post is a bit of a rant. I really, really, really hate it when people forward me those stupid chain emails about a political issue that is designed to inflame, and is completely out of date. Got one today about a Supreme Court case that was already decided. In fact, it was decided over a year ago. And in "favor" of the person who sent me the email's viewpoint. Why does this bug me? Well, frankly, it makes me think I'm dealing with a bunch of idiots here, who get inflamed for no reason and can't be bothered to check their facts. They don't really care because they're too damned lazy to find out. This is why it is so easy for the fanatics to manipulate the masses. God, it drives me crazy. It took me two minutes to find out the status of the case. Seriously. And that's without even knowing the court case name. Just the generic details. Within 5 minutes I had the actual name of the court case, plus multiple articles about it. Including current articles on what's going on now, one year later. CHECK YOUR DAMN FACTS PEOPLE. Stop spreading wrong and inflammatory information, for Pete's Sake. No wonder this country is in such a mess. We're all a bunch of moronic sheep being herded this way and that by the powers that be. I just want to scream. So here goes: ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Fabulous Fourth, aka Successful Party

So the annual 4th of July party at my house went off surprisingly well, considering. I mean, I'd only been home from vacation for a week. This was by far my biggest 4th celebration with twenty-five people (my last head count) in attendance. Plenty of food, plenty of fun, plenty of excitement, and one 911 call. Yep. All's well, don't stress! About 7pm most of the guests were there and the burgers had come off the grill. The mad flood of food seekers had ebbed and I was about to fix my own plate when my little's mom comes in the back door yelling "N, we need your hose! Your neighbors started a fire!" I thought it would be a little thing, but no. Two doors over they were shooting off fireworks in the back alley, which is wide enough for a car, and bordered on the far side by an incline up to the highway. Did I mention it's covered in tall grass? That is, it was. Except I could see flames over the neighbors garage roof. Ooops. None of our hoses reached far enough. And they hadn't called 911. For Pete's Sake. You've got flames shooting 8 feet up, moving fast, there's a breeze, your garden hose doesn't reach, and you don't call 911? I did. M took charge of getting the hoses hooked together while I ran for the phone and started dragging the second hose from the front yard. We finally managed to get 2 hoses together at each end of the fire and get enough water on it to mostly get it out by the time the FD got there. But sheesh. I was shaking for an hour. It was breezy enough it could have been so much worse. As it is, a stretch about 15 feet long and 5 feet wide was burned. All the way down to the edge of the alley (dirt/gravel). Seven feet from the leading edge of my garage. Thank goodness my immediate neighbor and I are pretty good about keeping our sections clear. I'd just sprayed the whole area with weed/grass killer before leaving for FL. Rest of the evening went well. It got dark around 10pm, so we started dragging our chairs out to the front of the garage for the EH VFW show. I ran inside to put on pants (gets chilly evenings still) and on my way back out noticed everyone milling around in confusion, chairs knocked over...I heard someone say something about a fire...So I hollered "Don't tell me they started ANOTHER FIRE!" They were shooting off more fireworks in the alley...a stray dog had been hanging around, got spooked and attacked them, knocking them over. OMG. The rest of the world (ok, neighborhood) is shooting off fireworks from the very wide paved street in front of the houses, not the narrow, weed-choked alley...But these morons, oh no... So the dog got stashed in my garage, I called animal control (the police in EH). They said they'd have to come back for him after the chaos. Everyone was gone by midnight, house all clean. But there were so many unofficial fireworks "shows" the police didn't come back until almost 2 am. At least the owners had been found. I didn't realize until next day that the dog had knocked one of the garage door opener sensors down, and the wires had snapped. So now I need to fix that. What's that saying, no good deed goes unpunished? (Or is that just a song from "Wicked"?). I spent the next day sleeping on the couch. Poor Scully didn't even wake up until 10:30am. Which is when I stumbled out of bed and made her go out. I hope next year, there isn't so much excitement...

What I did On My Summer Vacation

Well, okay, it was end of spring/beginning of summer vacation. But it still counts. And it basically went like this: Pool - food - pool - food - pool - food I think you get the idea! It was a totally fun two weeks in the Florida sunshine; no rain until after I left. My three nieces and one nephew (poor fella!) completely wore me out. Especially that last week. We'd get up, have breakfast, jump in the pool. Get out for lunch, put more sunscreen on, and hit the pool again...I had to buy a swim shirt/rash guard I kept getting sunburned on my shoulders and arms. In spite of 50SPF sunscreen applied multiple times per day. We also spent a day at Wet n' Wild waterpark for niece K's birthday. OMG. That was such a fun day. Even if I did get a bit of a sunburn on the tops of my feet. Well, really. Who thinks to put sunscreen on your feet when you're going to be in the water? Except you're in line so much at waterparks...ooops. I did not go down "Der Stuka" again. Doing that in 9th grade was plenty enough for me, thanks. Spent the morning with the older kids, the afternoon with the youngest in the kiddie park and then the wave pool. She loved the wave pool. Then the last few hours we were able to take her on some of the bigger rides. She's not tall enough for the biggest ones, but there are 4 or 5 where you don't have to be 48" tall to ride. She had so much fun! We all did, really. It was a perfect day. And so was the day we were all at Mom & Dad's for the day. Parents, 3 kids, their spouses and grandkids. Heaven for my parents, I think. Last time we were all together was at a family funeral. Anyway. It was a blast playing in the pool and just hanging out. And the older 3 (12, 11, 8) were great with the five year old. I wasn't sure how they'd do with someone that much younger. The five year old was entralled with her cousins, especially the oldest. Well, break is over. More later!