Camp, Year Five

I didn't mean to take a blogcation, but my post-vacation ennui became a I-can't-believe-summer-is-over depression which lead right into the busiest time of year at work. But I suck, because Camp was nearly a month ago and I've not yet posted a thing. That is slack even for me.

Better late than never, right?

The trip down to Knoxville was pretty uneventful except that my old car seemed to have a new and potent vibration that ran through both the steering wheel and the gas pedal and made me vibrate too. Tolerable for a short distance, but tiresome after seven hours, for real. Oh, and I drove through a crazy storm:

I made good time and met Marianne at her parent's amazing house with a view that cannot be described. Jaw-dropping.


I was greeted by a pony-sized Great Dane who bashed his head lovingly into my stomach several times. After I picked myself up off the floor, I made a nice fuss over him. Aw.

Also, aw, Lulu! I finally got to meet Marianne and Chris's lovely little girl, who was a fabulous Camper, even though she can't make cocktails (yet.)

She's cute asleep...

And awake!

We met up with Lisa and Matt, at the Dancing Bear Lodge, where Matt was staying for the weekend while Lisa hung out with us. Dinner was incredible and afterwards we went out on the deck and made s'mores around the outside fireplace while watching the bats swoop around overhead. Yay!

Afterwards we headed to the cabin to wait for the late arrivals - Jessica and Emily. The cabin is so familiar to me now that it was like coming home - nothing changed, as if I had only been gone a few days, not a whole year.

Jessica and Emily arrived and we all caught up before heading to bed, dreaming about the 10 or so pounds of bacon that Emily and Marianne bought. BACON:

The weekend was glorious - the weather perfect, the boat in good order, and something awesome and new! A tube to tow behind the boat. Emily and I took charge of that project:




I DID A DONUT DIDDY:

Lisa was a fine captain after we forced her to drive the boat:

I did not, repeat, did NOT blow out the plumbing this year. Just wanted to let y'all know.

Burgers were made, games were played, we ate way too much candy, drank way too much everything, and sincerely had a great time.







The last night was spent at Marianne's house and we went out to dinner at a local Mexican place and I accidentally over-ordered:

Dang, the combo plate there is quite a production. A production involving four plates.

I was feeling poorly on Sunday, and I thought it was just allergies. Unfortunately I woke up Monday with a cold. Ugh. Chris, who'd helped me get my car looked at drove me down to the garage to pick it up so I could drive home. The tires got rotated which helped quite a bit with the vibration issue.

The drive home was grueling. You know how when you have a cold you just want to close your eyes and drool on yourself? Yeah, you can't so much do that when you have 450 miles of highway time ahead of you. Thank god for Stephen King and books on CD. Duma Key totally saved my ass.

I made it home by 6pm and fell onto the couch, where I stayed for the next two days. It was worth it.

The End...until next year.

Internet Dork Camp - Redux

In a few days I'll be leaving to drive to Knoxville for the fifth year of Internet Dork Camp. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I've dragged out all my previous blog entries about it:

2008

2007

2006

The first year, 2005, was documented but Diaryland ate all the photos because I stopped giving them money. So, just for you three cats who read this blog, I've completely restored and reposted the original entry from 2005:

Internet Dork Camp

Thursday, Jul. 07, 2005 @ 4:44 p.m.

I am back from Internet Dork Camp and man, let me tell you, it pretty much ruled. It ruled so much more than your weekend. It ruled a lot. It was a seriously great group of women, all of whom I know from online (none of whom was named LaFawnda) and, while I still love technology, I love these girls more:


Marianne was the instigator and hostess with the mostest and she let us stay in her grandmother's awesome cabin on a lake complete with seventies-era decor. The cabin had this huge deck overlooking the lake and was just amazing:

The weekend was spent in the best way possible: eating, drinking, lounging, drinking, reading tabloids, boating, drinking, talking shit, boating while drinking:

swimming and eating some more. We also laughed and laughed like monkeys. It was that kind of weekend. We did go out the first night and during out travels we saw this amazing clown painting:

It was glittery y'all. GLITTERY. By the way, that look on my face is fear, not glee.

Our dear hostess also got semi-molested by a Neil Diamond impersonator after we convinced him it was her bachelorette party:

We spent a lot of time in the boat and in the water. Here I am pretending to be the best first mate ever:

And here some of us are in the water after being told about the freshwater sharks:

One thing I found amazing but didn't get a picture of was the most gigantic millipede I have ever seen. It was so big it was practically prehistoric and was just tootling around on the outside stairs. According to Emily it looked "Like a banana with legs, y'all." I am easily impressed by wildlife.

On Sunday night we set fireworks off into the water. It's extremely satisfying to watch things blow up underwater. I didn't even know you could do that:

We did not by any means have a girlie pillow fight in our frilly nighties, though you're welcome to think so if it makes you feel better.

So now I'm back in the real world and it's not nearly as much fun. To continue my summer trend of never updating, I'm off work next week and probably won't bother. However, that might change because Keen Designs is going to the Hanover Tomato Festival and I'm pretty sure the Crazy is planning on attending as well. (It totally did. -ed.) I'll probably have some stories I need to tell.

Yes, Kenny and I have taken next week off so we can watch the mountain stages of the Tour de France at our leisure while we eat breakfast. We don't have much planned for the week, which makes me happy. Kenny did mention painting the outside trim on the house which I though was a funny, funny joke. Oh, that Kenny!