happy campers

brought to you by REI.

illegal choke-hold not endorsed by REI

rarely have i slept so poorly. better luck next time.

they say "life's too short for bad coffee". i brewed turkish : the world's most entertaining and portable method for making horrible coffee. i won't make that mistake again, especially with such exceptional beans.

hah, here i had my first (successful) camping trip in years and i'm talking about coffee?

we "roughed" it, i reckon. no fire (cause I couldn't get one going, how un-manly); no marshmallows -- tho we did have hot chocolate courtesy of my pocket rocket. MREs for dinner and entertainment. lots of fart jokes, as are required at any good camping trip. i plan to give it another shot this weekend, tho the fart jokes will be less entertaining as i'll be all on my own.

W was disappointed that i didn't pick up the "backpacker's chili" from REI -- but clearly that would have been unecessary.

lesson : shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your milkshake.

i said shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your milkshake. otherwise it'll come out lumpy and chunky and powdery and gross and i'll have to drink it for you.

i'm watching The Wall for the first time in ages -- i really dig the way Pink grooms his hair and eyebrows. i'm up for a shave tomorrow, maybe i'll do the same.

camping, right. cooked up some eggs in the morning. as me paw remarked just this evening: "it's not camping if you don't cook." damn right, skippy! i was planning on freeze dried backpacking crud for this weekend, but now i've changed me mind. bacon, flapjacks, and eggs. all on a single burner, yo! that's the plan, at least.

ah. floyd. the wall. slow noodling on the echo-chamber guitar. ethereal. ephemeral. sublime.

camping : communication is key. my tent's got a rainfly and this newfangled thing called a "footprint", which is a very expensive tarp cut to the exact size of the tent's bottom, attached via the poles. i also had a regular old plastic tarp which we decided to put under the tent -- though we didn't agree whether it would go under the footprint or over it (and hence under the tent bottom). after minutes of wondering what the tarp had caught, we discovered our error. heh.

good thing i picked up that extra pad for W. don't think she would have snored so loud without it.

didnt do much the morning after. the purpose of this trip -- as i've stated repeatedly to anyone who will listen and especially to those who wouldn't -- was to find out what needs to be done when camping. i'm outta practice. i took notes. now i know: have a plan. wanna hike? plan to hike. pick the trails ahead o time. wake up on time to do it. want to fish? swim? um... what else is there to do? not much else, really (until my inevitable foray into trail running, maybe a couple months hence). anyhow. next time (i.e. this weekend) i'll have a plan.

let's see... what else?

W mentioned to me that when she told her boss's boss aboot her hiking sustained leg injury (from last week), he said (jokingly, but only somewhat) : "you're a video gamer, you're not supposed to go outside". for too long i let that be my excuse (well, programmer, not gamer). my folks tried to pound into my skull the outdoorsy bug and i enjoyed it while i could. then i found computers and gained 100lbs and got all pasty and landed the sweet gig i've got now that allows me to afford REI gear and expensive running shoes and the power booth that stripped off those extra lbs. isn't that deliciously ironic?

so i'm returning to my youth, is that it? or creating one i deliberately skipped.

and i'm bringing W with me. hope it's a fun ride.

hey, how did this turn into another "me me me" blah-blah-blog entry? i thought it was sposed to be aboot camping!