camping envy

we went camping about 2 weeks ago. we arrived to find a roaring fire curtsey of k^2 and tod^2, pitched out oh so cute tents on our oh so gigantic campsite, had some fire time and some reading time then called it a night.

the next morning we ate some ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches, chopped some wood, did some reading, packed a lunch and headed to the beach for beach day round 1. we even came back early and had dinner made, eaten and cleaned up from by the time the sun went down.

day two, much the same. blueberry pancakes for breakfast, jerry-rigged some shade with our old rain fly, went for a bike ride, ate a quick lunch, then headed out to enjoy beach day 2 red flag swimming and all. we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.

and then they came.

they were us, only better.

like us they were real campers. here for the outdoors, ready to unplug their lives for the weekend, ok with being technology-less for 48 hours, ok with sleeping on the ground in a reasonably sized tent just big enough for the one purpose they were designed for....sleeping.

unlike us they had skills. mad skillz.

they hung a tarp which put our makeshift rain fly cover to shame. (the guy climbed a TREE!)

they chopped wood like us, only faster.

they pitched their tent and THEN dug a trench around it. (this perhaps a little over kill since there was a 10% chance of rain that night)

they even made friends with Riley, the old dog from our neighboring campsite.

camping envy set in deep.

needless to say we watched them, we watched closely...looking to pick up tips.

they barely talked to each other.

unlike us, they wern't cool enough to have bikes.

they were camping but seemed angry.

the 10% of rain came. he struggled with the rain fly while she laid in bed. he even dropped the f-bomb. "all this work for five f-ing seconds of rain?"

we had the same rain. we threw the rain fly on, got out the chairs, laughed, then pulled out our books.

when we camp we have fun. we talk, we laugh, we rejuvenate.

i'll take our good times, non-trenched tents, makeshift shade, over their perfect shade, quickly chopped wood, angry times any day.

more pics from the fabulous camping extravaganza can be found here

1000 mile project

over the summer my bike project was to post tales of my miles. and then I accidentally reset the trip odometer on my bike. and then I forgot what the number was when I reset the trip odometer. so now I have a new project, and a new goal to motivate me wake up and not hit snooze for those extra 5 minutes of sleep. I call it: "the 1000 mile project"

my goal: to ride 1000 miles before putting my bike away for the year. a goal which actually isnt quite as impressive as it sounds. not even I with my crazy bike commute to work (where I proceed to sneak my bike up the back stairs and stash it away in my prep room because last spring the maintenance man told me I couldn't bring it into school. Take that maintenance man...you can't tell me what to do!) has it in me to bike 1000 more miles before the winter comes. I just want to bike a total of 1000 miles, a total since august 2009.

the current odometer: 684.3. that leaves me with 315.7 miles to go. or 14.35 round trips to school via my new 1 mile longer but 1 million times safer route. translation: at my current two trips a week I'll be biking till mid october.

time perhaps to find those gloves.

or ride more days each week.

blog neglect

dear blog-

school has started. i am tired. i struggle to stay conscious on the couch till 9 pm therefore i am unable to post anything more coherent then the fact that at some point i shall blog about my summer projects and camping...is within the month good enough? perhaps by that point i shall muster the strength.

till then.

tour des grandparents (and other assorted individuals)

over spring break I went to london....and did a very bad job blogging about it after day 4....so my great summer vacation was a road trip....3000 miles in 3 weeks.

leg one: home to kansas city, with a stop in st louis to visit ashley and joey....a yummy dinner at a scottish pub and too few hours gossiping and giggling about life followed by a night's sleep and a breakfast of coffee and scones then on my way to the big KC for two weeks. you can see all about that here. the return trip included a stop by my grandpa's in st louis, a feast at red lobster, dessert at Ted Drewe's, and breakfast galore at Bob Evan's before hitting the road with my mommy for my 5 hours that took 8 hours drive back to chicago.

leg two: blueberry picking and beach times in michigan. more on that here.

leg three: off to my grandparents' in northern KY. here we consumed all the glorious culinary delicacies the region has to offer. we ate skyline, and goetta, and city chickens, and grandpa's ribs, and grandma's roast, and pasquale's pizza, and iceballs, and uncle jerry's tomatoes, and drank red beer.

and just when we thought that we might be done...we saw the advertisement for Goettafest. (goetta: a breakfast meat made of pork, beef, and steal cut oats) and the eating began again. there were goetta games, goetta food, a goetta vending machine. gross sounding. delicious tasting.

and then the checklist was done..and so ended the journey. back in the car, back to chicago, back to life, and soon back to work. but first back to the beach.

squirrels

squirrels spend the summer gathering acorns and burying them beneath the ground to munch on through the winter months. i spend my summer gathering berries and burying them in the freezer to munch on through the winter months.

first there were the blackberries. 7 heaping full gallon buckets with the help of my family.

then the blueberries. 28 pounds with the help of my migrant worker team.

amy-squirrel is quite satisfied. AND we found some treasures on our way home...our secret beach, notre dame ave in the middle of nowhere, and a new favorite michigan city dining establishment.

i call him DINOMAN!

the valley family likes to celebrate birthday month....therefore this post about nick's bday is not late...infact it is early since bday month is not yet over....and thus may be a preemptive strike. AND i finally finished the last piece of the presents so it is doubly not late. AND there is still the rock bottom brewery bday dessert so i'm triply not late.

for nick's bday i decided to embrace his inner dino.

first there was walking with dinosaurs: the area spectacular where we cheered for the dinos, ooohh and ahhed at the flowers, ewwwwed at the dino poop, and made dino chomps at each other.

then there was the dino cake. a fabulous blue dino covered in swiss butter cream with toblerone spikes. and yes it did get the appropriate number of candles even though we had to turn off the air condo to keep it from blowing them out.

and then there were the presents. dino cuts sandwich shape cutter, dino pez, dino pants, and later dino fun nuggets and land before time.

when does your vacation end?

my mom and I are at my grandparents in kentucky. we are trying to decide when to hit the road and head back to chicago. we found a chalkboard and made a list.

it is not making the decision any easier since both can be done in one day...and we have three days. to leave and make it home for nickface's birthday or to stay and have one more day with the grandparents. why can't I be in two places at once?

what's in your freezer?

after 50 pounds of blackberries and 28 pounds of blueberries I think I'm ready for the winter.

goin' to kansas city...kansas city here i come

one of my favorite attributes of kansas city (minus the friends and family and childhood spent there elements) is the existence of a number of songs spouting the glory of this town. I can create the soundtrack of my life as I head out on the road heading for home.

"well I might take a train; I might take a plane; but if I have to walk I'm going just the same. I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come"

here are a few moments from my recent trip home...

the city is shaping up quite nicely...this is appropriate after all as the town is commemorated in the musical oklahoma!

"every thing's up to date in Kansas City. They've gone about as far as they can go."

workin' girl

my little sister has her first job. ok not her first job, but her first job where she'll let me come visit. in fact she not only has one job, but two. I'm just not allowed to visit at one of them so that doesnt count.

she spends the morning at job one...underground in a cave, or more correctly a limestone-mine-turned-office where she preps patient files for scanning, then in the afternoon she heads to Sheridan's to scoop custard (not to be confused with it's counterpart ice cream served 20-25 degrees colder) and make concretes for the masses.

Here I am allowed to visit. Here I am actually encouraged to visit with my half price family discount. Here, I took tons of pictures to document the experience and had her manager ask if I was obsessed with her job. Here, therefore, will be the site of my sister's first job, at least as i will remember it.

I used to take a lot less entertainment

on my recent trip to kansas city I made certain to see one of my better halves. the only half that still calls KC home and who is always up for an adventure.

upon arriving in KC I sent a text message "in KC till next thursday...play-date soon?"

I received a phone call back. "absolutely. what should we do?"

I yelled down the hall to my mom who has recently turned into KC tour guide extraordinaire "what should linds and I do?"

my mom rambled off a half dozen ideas none of which were good enough. since when did hanging out require some big elaborate hullabaloo? we used to be content to sit around and knit scarves while listening to music or create imaginary bands and come up with CD titles and play lists. we would stay up late talking about our lives or making up stories of what our lives might hold for us in the future. now we needed an event to provide entertainment? we have to go somewhere to hang out?

I want my sleep overs back. where we bake cookies or watch movies and just get all giggly. next time I'm home I'm planning it. a central point. get the girls together. no boys allowed. (ok maybe boys allowed for awhile...but then they must leave and go have a sleep over of their own....yes I know they'd call it something much more manly than a sleep over)

for this visit I settled for dinner. twice. and ice cream.