A tentative plan

I've been in a pretty intense research mode these days. So when Friday night rolled around this week, my friend Mike and I decided I could take a little break and we headed out for a beer at Wonderland (pretty sweet happy hour, btw). Mike had been kind enough to bring over a few of his extra tents for me to test out, so after a pint we headed back to my place to set things up. Or, rather, Mike mostly set things up and I cooked and called out sarcastic comments. I did manage to make it into a few pictures, in any case....



As you may notice, the pictures became progressively sillier as the night wore on. I blame the Amarula. You know, speaking of silly, I never went camping as a kid. Was I deprived?

You must think I have horrific parents -- didn't teach me how to ride a bike, never took me camping, tricked me into liking brussels sprouts -- but that is far from the truth. However, the fact remains that as a child whenever I would ask my dad to take me camping, his response was always, "I would, but your mother hates camping"; and of course when I would ask my mom, she would respond in kind, "I would, but you know your father, he doesn't like camping." As such, I never went. Not until after college, when my first AmeriCorps team project landed us in the Florida Keys doing beach clean-up. Put up a tent? Er, yeah. I would just kind of dawdle around the campfire and tend to the cooking end of things. Cooking, I can do that.

So anyway, camping. I'm hoping to not have to do too much of it. But when I do, I have acquired a pretty snazzy tent. (Mike suggested that I try sleeping in it to test it out. I think I will sleep in my bed for as long as I possibly can. Or at least lay awake in my bed comfortably as I worry about my impending date with clipless pedals....)