Camping dry run

July 27, 2008 · Filed Under Entertainment, Sports · Comments 

In a couple weeks, Me, Chris, Jake and Diane are heading to Clayton, Idaho (population 27) to see a concert. Insane? Yeah, maybe. So what, it’ll be an adventure.

For room and board we’ve secured a spot at a camp site. We’ve purchased a new tent and sleeping bags, we are all but ready to go!

OK, not so fast. Let’s back up a little bit. When I said we purchased a “new” tent, that may have made it sound like there was on “old” tent that we are replacing. Not the case. Chris and I have been together for roughly 20 years. In that time we have been camping exactly ZERO times. This is not her fault at all. It’s entirely mine. She’s asked me to take her camping several times. My standard response usually has something to do with wondering where I plug in my laptop. So, what made me change my mind? I swear I have no idea. But, for some completely unknown reason, this actually sounds like an absolute blast!

Since this is going to be our first trip camping, and since this will be my first time setting up a tent in a quarter century, I thought it would be a good idea to set up the tent once before we get out to the middle of absolutely nowhere, possibly in the dark, so we’d at least have some sort of idea as to what the fuck we are doing. I’ll bet without reading any further you could already guess how things went down… Pause for a minute, make your guess and then read on…

Ready? OK, here we go… I pulled everything out of the box, started assembling everything, got one pole inserted in the tent and was having trouble getting the other inserted. Chris suggest laying down the first pole until we get both poles through the slots. We do this and everything works wonderfully. Then, Chris finds the instructions and we complete the installation of the tent in a matter of a couple minutes. Who knew they included instructions with these things… Idaho, here we come!

So, here ya go. A 6 person tent set up in our living room.

tent 

At least when we set up the tent in the living room, I know where to plug in the laptop.

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Cactus - 1, Axel - 0

July 26, 2008 · Filed Under Pets · Comments 

Having pets is a constant battle. Yeah, they are cute. They do things that warm your heart, that make you laugh, that make you tell silly stories when friends are over (ever heard the one about our dog Pee Wee and the “Ghost Humping”?). But, there’s also a flip side. Pets are a pain in the ass. Our two small dogs can not get the concept of not pissing or crapping in the house. It drives me insane. We will let them out in the back yard, they’ll hang out, come back inside and pee in the hall. WTF?

Our big dog, an Irish Setter, has always been too smart for his own good. His name is Axel, but mostly I call him Dufus. When he was a small pup we used to lock out of certain rooms. He quickly learned how to press down on the door handle and push the door open. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a short time later he learned how to escape a room by pressing down on the door handle and pulling the door open. All this meant was that he was free to roam the house and get in to trouble wherever he saw fit.

But still, even though they are a pain, when one of ‘em has something bad happen, it’s just like having it happen to one of your kids.

Axel has an electronic collar, so he has a bit of freedom when out on walks. For as crazy as he is around the house, put that shock collar on him and he’s like a show dog. He usually trots ahead 20 - 30 feet. If he gets too far ahead, a quick zap and he’ll pause long enough to come back in to a comfortable range. This lets us keep him close enough in case people are in their yard, other dogs or cars are in the area, we can wrangle him in and keep everybody safe.

Yesterday my wife took Axel out for a walk. As he’s trotting along they are going by a house that has a few cactus in the front yard. As Chris explained it to me, “it was like the cactus jumped out at him.” One of the bulbs from the cactus got stuck in Axel’s fur. This is one time where it’s a good thing that our dog is overweight. Because of his weight and the placement of the cactus bulb being in the middle of his back, he wasn’t able to reach back and grab it with his mouth. That would have made the problem a whole lot worse.

My wife, ever the quick thinker, rushed him home and grabbed some gloves and some hair clippers and went to work. This was the result:

cactus-glove 

Sadly, the gloves did not stop Chris from getting cactus needles stuck in her fingers.

We rushed him to the vet, as it was after noon on a Friday, and they suggested keeping him over night so they could work on getting the needles out over some time as he’s quite excitable. We called them first thing this morning and they said he was all set and ready to go. When we got there she gave him one last once over, told us that it took 3 people to hold him down and keep him occupied while a fourth person removed the needles, charged us only $60 for the visit and sent us on our way. I gotta tell ya, I was expecting to pay a fair bit more so I was quite pleased!

So, Dufus is back home. The groomers suggested we wait a few days to give the area time to heal up before we bring him in to get a hair cut and a bath. He’s got a bit of a bald spot. I need to make sure and take a picture to add to the book of “Dumb things done by Dufus”.

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Summer Entertainment

July 9, 2008 · Filed Under Entertainment, Geek Fun, Movies, Partying, Photography · Comments 

Yikes, it’s been a while since I’ve written. It’s summer time and I seem to be taking full advantage. That’s not to say that I’m spending a bunch of time in the sun. Actually, I’ve done a mighty fine job of keeping myself OUT of the sun. Having had skin cancer a couple times has definitely made me more aware of the time I spend outdoors.

Since it’s been almost a month since I’ve written, so much has gone on. I’m not even sure where to begin.

Last I wrote we had just finished our cruise to Alaska. We had an amazing time. I was going to write a follow-up blog post about our trip, but just never really got around to it. Now, I’m not so sure that post will ever get written. Ahh well, I’ll have to save it for returning from our next cruise.

4 days after returning home, my Mom and my Son hopped on a plane and headed to California. This will likely be my Son’s last summer without a job as he will graduate high school next year [I just threw up in my mouth a little bit] so I hope he has a great time. Since being there he’s been to Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, the water park, the beach and he’s spent a bunch of time with his cousins. That sounds like a pretty great trip if you ask me.

A couple weeks after we got back, my wife and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. My mother-in-law hung out with our daughter and the wife and I went out for a nice dinner. For the life of me, I can not remember where in the hell we went for dinner. Man, I’m getting old.

That same week I took my wife and daughter to see Stomp Out Loud at Planet Hollywood. We got seats in the 5th row but off to the side. These are NOT the best seats. We would have much preferred to sit in the middle even if it meant sitting farther back. We were cut off from too much of the action. Regardless, we all still enjoyed the show.

This summer was also the first time we put our daughter on an airplane by herself. She can’t handle being away from mom and dad for as long as our son can, so we let him visit grandma for a couple weeks before sending her out. Then, we ship her out there and a couple weeks later we go pick them all up. We’ve done it a few years in a row now and it’s always worked out for the best. So far, this year is no exception.

Just this past weekend we celebrated my birthday. I managed to turn it in to a 2 day extravaganza. On Saturday night we played a couple poker tournaments at the house, then went to a casino to watch an ’80s hair metal band play until 3 am, then went to breakfast and made it to bed around 5 am. Woke up around 10 am, saw the movie “Hancock” in the afternoon and then spent the evening with a group of friends having dinner and drinks at the Yard House and the Blue Martini. The Yard House may be one of my new favorite places. Great food, 160+ beers on tap and it was pretty reasonably priced for as much as we consumed. The Blue Martini, on the other hand, I have to say that I’m not a fan. It seems a bit too high-brow for my taste. But, the live blues band sounded great.

Speaking of movies, I’ve seen a few so far this summer. Here’s a quick rundown:

Wall-E - I liked it pretty well. Cute story, amazing animation (it’s Pixar, so what do you expect) and I liked the message they were trying to convey (take care of yourself and your Earth or both are going to end up in really bad shape).
Wanted - Loved it! I enjoyed the story (as unrealistic as it was) and it had some pretty cool fight/chase scenes. I’m pretty easy to please with this type of movie, but still, this one was pretty darn good.
Hancock - Liked it. This really felt like two movies stuck together. The first half is pretty funny and has a pretty good pace. The second half is a little darker and felt pretty rushed. I think they could have added another 20-30 minutes to the movie, fleshed out the story a little better and it would have been a GREAT movie. Still, definitely worth seeing.
The Illusionist - Yeah, I know it’s old. I really liked it. Edward Norton is one of my favorite actors and I thought he did great with the roll. I also really liked Paul Giamatti in his roll.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing Hellboy 2 this weekend and The Dark Knight the following weekend. Everything I’ve heard so far about both movies says they are going to both be awesome.

And finally, my new hobby. Photography. I’ve been carrying my camera with me everywhere I go lately. I am really enjoying the learning processes. I’ve been reading dozens of blogs from other photographers and have been checking out thousands of photos on flickr. A few weeks back I had some friends over and we spent an entire evening setting up shots and just working through different lighting scenarios. I think a big part of my enjoyment with this new hobby is the fact that I’ve got a few friends who are in to it as well. They really help to ratchet up the level of fun and definitely help to keep me motivated to improve. Hell, I have to just to keep up with them.

You can follow the link to check out my photostream on flickr.

I promise to make an effort not to take so long between posts. I know how you miss me when I do. :)

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