The Early weekend thread 15th Aug

I'm starting this early mostly because I'm going away on holiday from tomorrow morning and the anticipation is mounting rapidly. Honestly I'm like a child sometimes.

Saturday will be spent in a car driving from here to there - the southern middle of france and an area of limestone mountains known as the Vercors. I'll be caving and probably also generally outdoor playing, climbing, canyonning, Via Ferrata etc. It is the big trip for our club's 40th anniversary, and will also overlap my 40th birthday! (see comments a la child above). NOt quite sure how I feel about being as old as the club! One of the founder members will be out with us!

I do hope to get some reading in but probably not that much!

>1 reading_fox: Your autobiography should be titled The Lucky Spelunker! Have fun!

I'm as always working for the weekend, but I'll be spending as much of my free time as I can fine-tuning the launch of my new D&D 5th Edition Campaign. I'm very excited, because I've got a good solid group of fun and creative players, and I think I have written my best adventure yet!

You guys make me jealous. All that healthy activity. It's a national holiday here which means food, food, food. Cookin' n' eatin'. Sometimes all this good italian stuff gets me down. Have fun everybody.

Sounds like fun, you guys! I'm jealous too, for sure of the food.

mrgroosim, are your games like the ones on Big Bang Theory?

I'm on holiday, still. Going to be 32C here today, which is staggeringly hot for us. Not that I'm complaining. I love the heat if I'm able to just sit around in it. Anyway, it's not forecast to last, so I am soaking it in while I can. Gives me something to remember when it's -40C in January :)

At the moment, I'm sitting on the front step with my laptop, putzing on the internet and editing web pages. The weekend, being cooler, will probably involve making more "zippy zucchini relish" as I have about 8 zucchini on the kitchen counter, and more on the way in the garden.

Otherwise, quiet weekend, I think. Back to work on Monday so enjoying while I can.

I'm escaping tomorrow as well, headed up to Windsor, CT to visit my son and see his general living situation. (I really can't believe that he's going to be 30 years old in a week or two.) There is also a mystery meeting with a FAMOUS PERSON while there...Will provide pictures after the fact if permitted. But I'll be away for several days so don't anyone think I'm ignoring my best buds here.

reading-fox - sounds absolutely wonderful! Have a fabulous time and Happy Birthday!

I have a bad feeling that I'll be spending a greater portion of my day tomorrow in the Apple Store as some mean-spirited person hacked my iPad and iPhone and I can't access either of them and Apple techs could not help me over the phone. I'm having a very bad feeling about this and thinking perhaps my devices are toast. :(

I also plan on weeding and general yard clean up to prettify the place for our daughter's wedding next week. Wow, it used to be months and months away, now it's 7 days away!! I'm pretty confident my life will be all-consuming chaos for the next little while.

My cousin and her family have also moved to town, so I'll be trying to be available for them if they need anything. I have never lived so close to family before (well, not counting immediate family that it), it's interesting.

Been in a bit of a funk for a while & I know that lack of physical activity isn't helping so I should try & go for a walk at some stage over the weekend, I might take my camera & go for a drive into the hills & find somewhere pretty to walk so it doesn't seem like such a chore... Its hard coz being in a funk means nothing is appealing except curling up on the couch but I know that is only going to prolong the funk so gotta try & motivate myself to do stuff...

>7 katylit: Best of wishes to you and your daughter and the wedding which is looming!

My boss is letting me off work early tomorrow so I can drive to my mom's (2 hours). On Saturday, I will take her to my sister's house in Oregon (5 hours + because my mom will for sure need breaks, so probably more like 6 or 7), on Sunday, I drive all the way home (7 hours) in order to get to work on Monday.

It will be nice to see family, but all visits will be abbreviated due to the driving times involved.

>9 MrsLee:

Okay I'll bite. Why does it take a lot longer to drive south than north? Heavy traffic?

Just got back to town after my paddling trip to the Yukon. It was great! Saw lots of wildlife, history, and had a good time camping with friends. Am only home for a few days, then heading out to visit Mom and then my sister. I wish the visits involved less driving, though. It will mean about 4 long days on the road.

>8 Seanie: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that the Dandenong Hills, one of Victoria's top scenic attractions, are "bokdrol-spitting" * distance from where you live, direction away from town. They were top of my wishlist-that-I-didn't-get-to when I visited Melbourne.

* "bokdrol-spitting"distance. In Namaqualand the local competitive sport involves seeing who can spit a goat dropping (bokdrol) the furthest. So, about as far as the distances reached that way, which isn't very far.

>10 suitable1: Because the first 2 hours north are to get to where MrsLee picks up her Aged Mother, as I read it.

On Saturday I'm going to my goddaughter's 3rd birthday party. Her parents always have a bbq for godparents, grandparents and other adult friends, then a kiddy party in the week. I haven't seen her or her parents for a while so it'll be good to catch up.

On Sunday I'm having lunch with my parents, venue TBD, to see them as they get back from their holiday and before I go away on mine.

On Monday morning I'm flying to Vancouver to start a 2 week road trip through SW British Columbia and Alberta and into Glacier National Park, Montana. So I shall be absent from LT during that time but still finding time to read of course!

>10 suitable1:, yes, >12 hfglen: has it right. Like a big triangle. Also, I was feeling sorry for myself not having any reading time on my weekend, when I realized that I will have nine hours alone in the car with my audio books! Hurray!

>12 hfglen: Someone really should introduce sunflower seeds or marbles to your area. Yuck! :P

I'm already on my weekend. The Husband and I made the six hour drive to Seattle, Washington. The ferry ride across the sound was pretty cool, I'd never been on one. We went to The Flight Museum yesterday. And we were going to do a harbor tour and explore the harbor, but we couldn't find parking. And we drove around for a while. We did do the Space Needle and the Chihuly Gardens. But after taking an hour to go about two miles, I'm done. I will probably never come back here.

Today we go out to Snoqualmie Falls. We head home tomorrow through the Rainier National Forest. So looking forward to getting out of the city and back to the mountains.

>14 MrsLee: Maybe I should explain that Namaqualand is a desert area at the opposite end of the country from where I live. Lots of goats, not much else :P

I could also add that the missiles are generally baked in the sun for a year or more, and fly better than marbles for the same reason golf balls do -- they have a (naturally) rough surface.

Friday evening (in about 30 minutes) I will be joining my wife and younger son in the Captain America restaraunt to have a post-Leaving Certificate results celebratary dinner with my son's best friend and his parents.

Saturday morning we will travel to Athlone to have breakfast with my other son.

>4 nhlsecord: Not really, they do a pretty good job of conveying the basics, but people seldom leap to their feet or talk in funny voices. I do that occasionally for some encounters, perhaps I'll use a deep gravelly voice for a dragon, but it's generally not something I sustain.

>12 hfglen: Yep you're right, the Dandenong Ranges are less than 30mins from my house & that was where I was planning on venturing this weekend but I didn't :( I really struggled to get off the couch at all :( Oh well, I'll try & get up there next wknd...

& eeew @ "bokdrol-spitting" lol...

>17 pgmcc: Captain America restaurant? What do they serve there? Burgers and fries? I can't think of anything Captain America ate that would inspire a restaurant, but maybe I'm forgetting?

>20 MrsLee: Captain Americas restaurant was founded in Dublin in 1971.

I understand there was a case taken against the restaurant by Marvel but the case was lost on some small issue such as the restaurant not using an apostrophe this making it Captain Americas rather than Captain America's Restaurant. Also, the large murals painted by Jim Fitzpatrick apparently have some subtle differences from the Marvel images that mean copyright has not been infringed.

As to the menu: http://captainamericas.com/menus/

By the way, the website appears to abhor the correct use of apostrophes. There might be a reason for that other than total ignorance.

>21 pgmcc: While their use of apostrophes might leave somewhat to be desired, hopefully the food doesn't (certainly looks tempting to me!)

>22 Peace2: Very edible if you are not on a diet. I am on a see-food diet. I see food and I eat it.

>21 pgmcc: That looks like a very typical American fast food/diner restaurant.

>24 MrsLee: Yes--with a typical jumble of cultures and ethnicities combined almost indiscriminately in its menu selections. Is that what makes it American?--throwing Italian, Southern U.S., Mexican, French, Japanese, and whatever else all together in one big heterogeneous mix? Or is that sort of combinatorial free-for-all found everywhere these days?

They even have big screen TVs. Why? I don't know. No one can hear what is on over the hubbub of the diners.

BTW, this weekend I was lucky enough to have dinner with our own @clamairy. Clam was looking well!

>27 jillmwo: That was nice.

That's great jillmwo, I hope she knows we're thinking of her.

>27 jillmwo: GREAT! She's a strong spirit that has endured much, and with great humor! Glad you were able to get together, I suspect she needed some good old fashioned LT-lovin'!