I occasionally do Sappy Sunday posts so perhaps I need to do a recurring humour-themed post to balance things out? Too Funny Tuesdays? Tickle Tuesdays?
I’m a huge Hawksley Workman fan but ended up not going to see him close out the Regina Folk Fest last night. Instead, we accepted an invite to go out to Indian Head for supper and a visit with my folks.
Then, coming back in later in the evening, right around the time Hawksley was scheduled to go on, I thought about going and being that guy who sits outside the fence to listen for free. But Shea, Pace and I were all bushed after a full day (we’d been at Folk Fest in the afternoon) so I made a deal with Shea that we’d get a babysitter and tickets the next time Hawksley was in town and came home to bed instead. I’m so old…
In 2002, Shea and I joined my parents for two weeks in Kailua, Oahu. We’ve just confirmed that we’ll be going again in January 2012 which will be the tenth anniversary of our first trip!
This time, Shea and I decided we’d like to see something different so we’re going to spend one week in Kauai then one week in Maui. We’ve found rental condos in each spot that are close to child-friendly beaches and which should provide some great moments and memories!
If anyone’s been to either island and has tips/tricks/suggestions, we’d love to hear them!
If you don’t yet have enough social network news feeds in your life and/or if you think a picture’s worth a thousand words, you might be interested in MlkShk, a site that is like many other social networks except that it focuses on the sharing of pictures and graphics instead of words and links.
Took today off to go to the Queen City Ex with Shea and Pace. We just got home after nearly 10 hours (!) at the fair. Pace managed to stay awake in the car home but fell asleep one nanosecond after we put him in bed. His mom and dad won’t be far behind him.
I thought about doing a bulleted list of today’s highlights like I did for camping last weekend but instead, I’ll just leave this here…a highlight for Pace perhaps but not so much for his dad who is somewhat snake-adverse (although I was brave enough to touch it – it was softer than I expected – not slimey or scaley!)
This great video makes the case that we haven’t evolved to compete with each other but to empathize with one another.
I especially like how it builds the case of how our strongest connections grew from family relationships to tribes to religion-as-extended-family to nation-states-as-extended-family to the natural next step to a worldwide unity of purpose, facilitated by technology, as we drop away our artificial ties of religion and state.
I had such an amazing time camping this long weekend at Nickle Lake with Shea’s folks at their seasonal site, I thought I’d do a bulleted list of some of the highlights. (To set the scene, Shea’s parents have possibly the the nicest site in the entire campground. They’ve had it for nearly a decade and have continually made improvements. This year’s big addition was a permanent deck right off their camper.)
My parents also came down and we had lots of other family and friends as visitors as well.
Watching the wild clouds gather over a nearby playground then making it back to Dennis & Joan’s campsite just as the hail began to fall.
Going out on the deck after it was over and “skating” on the ice with Pace and Shea’s dad
Pace is out for a walk and has to pee so Shea’s mom gets him to go on the nearest tree…just as a police car pulls up and turns on the lights! (Turns out it’s a former roommate of Shea’s brother. The policeman has a site at the lake and just happened to be coming there after going off-duty!)
Going for a long walk with Shea and my parents late at night and looking at the amazing blanket of stars we so rarely see in the city
Everyone turning down steak that was planned for supper one night so we could have a weiner roast instead
The new boyfriend of a family friend who was visiting with her own family getting immediately into everyone’s good graces by bringing fixings for (and doing all the fixing of) smores.
Each day’s inevitable call of “It’s five o’clock somewhere” signaling the beginning of the adult beverages! (I’ve become quite partial to lime beers this summer.)
Tubing behind Shea’s dad’s boat with Shea and Pace then later, with my dad and Pace.
While I’m in the water swimming and the boat is stopped, a full-fledged water fight breaks out on board (I think Pace, who brought along a few of his water guns, started it!) which turns into a pretty wild one when a water soaker cannon thing comes into play and somehow ends up in my hands out in the water beyond the range of everyone else’s piddly water guns.
Not sure if it’s a highlight but watching my little daredevil lay forward in the tube instead of sitting back so the spray would whip into his face, try to stand up, and continually signal “faster!” after we showed him the thumbs-up hand signal for that command.
As the two grandpas napped in air conditioned comfort, everyone else sat with their feet in Pace’s paddling pool listening to Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. One of my favourite camping CD’s is their greatest hits album but here’s an even more countrified version of their best song than the one I know…
