Camping Weekend

Glenn and I survived another weekend of camping at Campbuckwood, in Indiana. THURSDAY – I took a half day vacation from work and we left shortly after noon. After a brief stop at Meijer and a late lunch at e arrived at 4:45 pm, just before their cut off time. (The owners don’t allow people to check into the campground while the people in the lodge are eating.) We set up camp. Glenn encouraged me to weather proof the brand new tent which ended up being a very good idea. Tired, I went to bed pretty early. FRIDAY – In the middle of the night, it started raining. It was cold and I couldn’t get the sleeping bag to properly close. I couldn’t find my winter’s cap. I did my best to bundle up, but still was frozen. I was one of the first to wake up to the grey clouds and rain outside. I sat under the porch of my new tent and read some magazines, enjoying the quiet. The rest of the day slipped by. We met some people, cooked, and just hung out with other campers. I ventured into the pool, alone as it was frightfully cold. SATURDAY – I awoke to a much sunnier, warmer day! Glenn and I decided to go into town to get more ice and we had some lunch at “El Rodeo,” a Mexican restaurant. It was deliciously fattening. To add to the calories, the smallest draft beer they had was 36 ounces. Saturday was the big loud party night; there was utmost fun. Drinks flowed very generously and often. SUNDAY – Some people left on Sunday and the camp became quieter. Again, it was a nice day. We ate breakfast at a biker/church diner not too far from the campground. Early in the day, I lathered up with SPF 15 and put on my Australian bush hat. This day was spent in the pool, as the heating had finally kicked in. I managed to not burn. I prepared my favorite meal of the trip that night. Stir fried veggies with chicken sausage and taco seasoning served over couscous. Later, the owners threw a barn party with karaoke. There was much frivolity, gaïté and loud drunken singing. Glenn and I wandered around to different campsites until after 3:00. We were told the next morning that we were talking way to loudly. Glenn. Not me. MONDAY – I woke up to the sound of people loading things into their cars. Even at 9:00 am, I spotted several clear spaces where tents had vanished over the night. It was quieter. Glenn and I had brought a lot of stuff and I dreaded folding everything up and cramming everything back into his Honda Element. Without even so much as going into the pool, we said our goodbyes, and left after noon. We arrived at 4:00 pm back in Cincinnati. I had just missed Jason as he went to work. It was so strange being back home. You have a different perspective on your life after you get out of your element for a bit.

Weekly Roundup

WORK/LIFE BALANCE – I need to see how that works. I’m not having much luck with it. For the past week, it’s been all work and very little else. CAMPING - Fortunately, Glenn and are packing up our tents and going camping in Indiana for the long weekend (Jason will be working.) I even got a new tent and new air mattress for the trip! I’m pretty excited. More than anything, I’m really stoked on the idea of lots of pool time, reading, listening to music, sleeping and just generally recharging my batteries. I’ve not had a huge charge lately. GODSPELL – I went with Rob to CCM’s version of Godspell. I’m pretty familiar with the music from the show but didn’t know the actual dialog. While the soundtrack is about an hour long, this production was 2.5 hours in length, most of which was “performance” art versions of the parables. The music was solid, but it was too damn long. I’m not complaining, tho’. The show was free. CAPTURE CINCINNATI – Jason is participating in this year’s Capture Cincinnati contest. The idea is that the organization accepts photography from residents and gets votes on pictures. The result will be a coffee book. I think I will post some pictures as well this year. BATTLESTAR – I’ve been a big for the past couple of seasons. This season has not been as strong. I’ve been a bit bored and maybe a bit confused. It’s a bit disappointing. CINCINNATI OPERA – I’ve got some exciting news! I was cast this weekend as a supernumerary (“extra”) in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Madame Butterfly. I’ve always wanted to do this! At an early age, my father had encouraged my interest in opera. He would be very excited about this news. WEIGHT – It is what it is. I had a zero loss and a zero gain this week. Blah. I’m in charge of the menu for camping, so I’m subjecting Glenn to Weight Watchers recipes. Still, I’m sure there will be a lot of partying. While I want to lose and don’t want to gain, I am going to have fun, even if this means me pushing back for a week.

More Issues with Electronics

Over lunch, I defrosted some veggies and made a low-fat fried rice with chicken sausage. I was in a good mood, surfing the net whilst the garlic and veggies were frying. Then came the twirling Apple beach ball of death. Everything stopped. I had problems switching between screens. I waited. Nothing I listened closely and there was a click-click, pause, click click sound. Click click. I know computers. I'm in the industry. I shut off the computer and cussed some more. The drive was dead. Just like my lamented microwave. I ran Drive Genius. No luck. I attached my WD bootup disk. It would not recognize the drive. Nope. So, I made a reservation for an Apple Genius at the Kenwood Mall Apple store. I arrived on time and they had no record of my reservation. They worked with me and I explained the issue. John, the genius (not quite as cool as my fav guy) told me that they had parts to replace the drive but that they could not retrieve anything from the drive. I nodded. A few hours later, I had largely restored all my apps and data to the drive. I had made a backup of my drive about 2 months ago. The only major thing that I lost were the Cincinnati photo shoots from the last couple of weekends. (I keep all of my important financial and other documents in a safe place.) Fortunately, Cincinnati isn’t going anywhere and I can take my favorite shots again.

To My Departed Friend

Your life was short. You were a trusty friend. You prepared my low-fat soups. But, it happened, and your lights went out. You are missed by Jason and I. You with the warmth. Especially at meal time. Alas, you will be reborn and your light will shine bright one more.

Weekly Roundup

OLD MUSIC - As much as I like to listen to classical music, I've been in the mood lately for rock, especially at they gym. For some reason, two somewhat rare songs from the 80s have been going through my head: Duran Duran's The Chauffeur and Electric Light Orchestra's Calling America. Like, Awesome Man! EDAMAME? I just wasn't familiar with the stuff, but Jason encouraged us to by a frozen bag at Costco last weekend. I didn't know much about it but came across this great recipe in Rose Reisman's The Complete Light Kitchen which I got out of the library. I love this cookbook. I served the side dish with marinated baked teriyaki chicken (with marinated onions and baby portabello mushrooms) and simple Japanese white rice: CAT BATH - It needed to be done to BOTH cats: If you think this is fun, I'd remind you that such activities get you wet, belly scratches. Inexplicably, I also bit my own lip. DISAPPOINTED - OK. I've been on Weight Watchers for 13 weeks now. The good news is that of those 13 weeks, I've lost 10 times. Three times, I've actually gained weight, including this last week. I am not completely surprised. I ate out a few times and a couple of days, I drank beyond my 2 drink suggested daily maximum. While I am not making excuses, I did have a LOT of stress this week. And, with my weight training, I am likely gaining weight muscle. Anyway, it really sucks:

Springtime Walk and Photo Shoot

Spring has sprung in Cincinnati and Jason and I took advantage of a pretty Sunday. We grabbed our cameras and hoofed it from our house to downtown Cincinnati and across the river to Northern Kentucky, taking pictures along the way. We had a nice lunch at Cock & Bull on Mainstraße.

Weekly Roundup

CONTENT - This whole blog gay/Cincinnati thing (mentioned below) has actually made me reading some old blog posts. Wow! I had some great stuff! My blog content has been lacking lately and I'm committed to change this. With more writing. LOSS - I lost 1.8 this week. Going to the gym 5 times this week helped I'm sure. I've been trying to do weight training at least 2x per week. I don't like it as much as "low impact," "weight burning" cardio exercise, but I do think it has helped my general metabolism and I can feel the subtle difference in my arms, etc.

Holy Schnikies!

So, a blogger reader pointed out something interesting... In your browser, go to Google: http://www.google.com/ Click on the "images" tab as shown below in pink: Then do a search on "Cincinnati Fag" and press the "search" button. This is the search result. Hmm.