Cheese Curd

So I managed to make it back to Maryland in time for my Memorial Day Fiasco. We had around 10 people over and managed to eat/drink an incredible amount. I think we grilled more food in the 3 days than we had grilled since we moved into this house. On Thursday I took literally 9 bags of beer cans to the curb for the recycling man, it was kinda embarrassing.

This weekend is gonna be a bit more 'relaxing'. I was going to go Kayak Fishing this morning (Saturday) but mother nature decided to alter those plans with 20-25 knot winds on the Chesapeake and a small craft advisory in effect until midnight. I was going to go Kayak fishing on Sunday as well but my work decided to intervene and sent me to Northern Wisconsin instead. I think that somebody upstairs does not want me to kayaking.

Next weekend is Assateague island trip 2/3. We have a camp site reserved for Saturday night and Im excited to be out there do some fishing and some much needed R and R.

As afore mentioned I will be spending next week in Northern Wisconsin. The works gonna be a bit tough but Im leaving on Friday so it will be a short jaunt and I do have a waterpark in my hotel. Not quite sure what a waterpark in a hotel is but Ill be finding out here shortly.

Wedding planning is in full swing and I still have yet to much of anything (its great). Char is running around like a mad-woman tying up all of the loose ends. Shes been great and it is now clear to me that If I ever was forced to plan a wedding myself I would likely be getting married at a justice of the peace and then going to red lobster for 'all-you-can-eat-shrimp'. Thats about the extent of the planning that I have in me. The one thing that I am excited about and something that I am very close to pulling off (just a bit more convincing char) is that I may have managed to register for gifts at Bass-Pro-Shops.

Thats all from here. Ill keep ya posted of the latest goings on. Oh ya, one last thing. When I used to go to Canada every year to go fishing we used to go to these things called chip wagons, they where essentially trucks that parked and would sell French Fries. I always got 'Poutine' which was fries with cheese and gravy but the cheese was these chunks of warm curd in the middle of the fries. Im gonna be close to Canada next week and in a state famous for Cheese so my quest for 'Poutine' will officially start on Sunday night.

Conformation

In regards to my previous post regarding people dressed up at the airport.

-At airport again, people still dressed up. Original assumption confirmed.

Nativity

The Scene: Me smoking a cigar outside my hotel after a few beers at like 9:30 at night, I encounter a guy from Reno Nevada also drinking beer who is staying at the same hotel, we are outside the main entrance.

Me: So I heard you guys are having a bunch of earthquakes out there.

Guy from Reno: Ya, its been nuts. We have been having like 2 a day.

Me: Thats crazy, I was there a few months back, went to some Casinos, its a wild place.

Guy from Reno: Ya, pretty much anything goes in Reno, its great.

Me: I saw you guys have a huge Cabelas that just opened that must be great.

Guy from Reno: Ya I was in there once, its crazy they have all those huge stuffed animals on the walls in those Nativity Scenes.


Now either they do things a little different out here or he has no idea about what a nativity scene is, and im leaning towards the latter.

Random Crap of the Non-Woot Variety Part 8

Boredom has begun to set in. Wake up, go work, come back to the hotel, download data, go out to eat, return to hotel, drink beer and fall asleep then repeat. Today it was ridiculously hot (over 100) and I resemble a cooked lobster.

Between yesterday and today I have consumed no less than 17 authentic Mexican Tacos, its amazing. Im working with a guy thats supposed to teach me how to make them and salsa but well see if it ever happens.

The levees here are a dirty place. It is so dry that when you drive on the levees at 3 MPH you leave a cloud of dirt behind you that is so thick you cannot see 5 feet. This dirt seems to find its way into everything. Im gonna take a picture of my rental truck before I leave here, I could write my name in the dirt/dust with my finger on anyplace on the inside of the vehicle, and the next day it would be covered with new dirt/dust. When I get back to the hotel after an 11 hour day of working I am covered with Sweat and dirt from head to toe. However some good has come out of this raunchy state of being, I have developed a fondness for drinking beer in the shower. Its fairly satisfying to come in after a 12 hour work day in 103 degree weather and just drink an Ice cold beer in the shower, so satisfying in fact that Im thinking of adding it to my morning shower routine before work back at home (I should clarify before I get an angry call from my mother that that is a joke).

Random Crap of the Non-Woot variety part 7

I heard in rap song once that the 'west coast is the best coast', although I still have not verified that to be true I can tell you this much, its hot as shit. Its gonna be 103 degrees on Thursday and this east-coaster is going to be hurting.

The system I am using out here died today so Im back to the hotel a bit early. That may seem cool but really since im out here by myself all it means is that Ill eat earlier and have more beers as I sit by the pool and eventually retire to my room and pass out.

Not to much else to report, Ill keep you posted.

oh ya, gas out here is like $4.00 and in San Fransisco its like $4.30, Ouch!!!!

Why do people dress up at the airport?

The powers that be have decided that its time for me to go back to California for a few weeks. I am currently sitting at the Pittsburgh airport waiting for my flight that does not leave for another two hours. I really have to get over this whole 'getting to the airport super early' obsession but alas, I just cannot seam to shake it. Anyhow I was in Pittsburgh for a few days for my future sister-in-laws college graduation/my birthday/mothers day. It was an interesting experience, especially last night in the South Side but we will save that story for another occasion. So anyhow hear i sit, hung over, tired and generally being a waste of life when I have an epiphany. Perhaps its a reverse epiphany because its not so much a realization as it is a question for the ages. Why is everyone so dressed up at the airport? I for one do not get it. We are all about to get on planes where we will inevitably be squashed next to some stranger and forced to sit in an uncomfortable position for hours. People have on suits, dresses tons of makeup and quite frankly its absurd. I know these people do not have anything going on when they get to wherever it is that they are going because many of them are on my flight and we are not getting to Sacramento until midnight. Its the equivalent of getting all dressed up to go on a 7 hour car ride. I for one am boycotting the formal attire and am traveling in costco brand 'micro fleece lounge pants' and a tee shirt. Perhaps when I inevitably pass out and drool on the person next to me on the plane they will change their minds about wearing formal attire on planes from now on.

Anyhow, Ill be using my work cell for the next few weeks so call me on my 301 number if you can. Ill be sure to keep you posted on my adventure but I dont think that its going to be all that interesting unless you find discussions about electrical resistivity studies and identifying subsurface zones of high permeability along Sacramento's thousands of miles of levees your idea of a good time.

Assateague Island

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The first camping trip of the year has come and gone. Char and I went to Assateague Island on the Atlantic. It was awesome. We left on Friday as soon as char got home from work and got to the camp ground at around 9pm. We set up camp in the dark and drank a ton of beers, we contemplated stopping and not drinking any more at one point because we had a ton of things we wanted to do on Saturday but we determined that hung over while camping is not the same as hung over anywhere else. Fast forward to Saturday morning and we determined that being hung over while camping is indeed like being hung over everywhere else, but the show must go on..

We woke up early and launched our Kayaks in the Bay side in a salt marsh. It was a sweet place to paddle. It was a bit windy and they had some decent waves that were fun to go through. Did some fishing to no avail but had a great time anyway. Before you start criticizing these pictures are not the big waves.

We paddled around for around 4 hours and then we packed up and headed for the beach. We drove out to the middle of no-where and set up a bunch of rods and just hung out for the rest of the evening.

It was a blast! Didn't catch any fish but did manage to catch some skate! One of these days Ill start catching actual fish and post some pictures but for the time being their will be none.
I saw a guy get his truck stuck in the sand. It was a ridiculous move because he was driving in the wet sand right by the water and he did not air down his tires. He got stuck around 10 feet from the water and was buried up to his doors and the tide was coming in. I went over and started digging him out and two trucks came with chains and tried to pull him out but it was no use he was in deep. He called the off-road towing place and this point there were a ton of people all crowded around. I had to leave as the waves where crashing over the front of his truck and I could not watch. They eventually got him out (Im not sure how) right before his truck became a paperweight.

Went back to the camp site when it was dark, cooked some food, drank more beer and that was that. I think we packed 3 days worth of activity into one Saturday.

Oh ya. Their is a large population of wild ponies on the island. Its kinda wierd when you wake up in the morning and get out of your tent and their is huge pile of horse crap that was not their when you went to sleep.


That wraps up the synopses of the first camping trip 08'. Their will be plenty more to come in the near future and hopefully some fish will decide to cooperate.