The Humour Club discussion

I never go anywhere. I am the woman others depend on to water their plants, fetch their mail, care for their pets...and I'm pretty damned sick of it!

Where have you traveled lately? Please - let me live vicariously through your adventures. Photos are encouraged.

Shoot, Melki, now I'm feeling almost guilty. . . .almost. :D.

Got home Tuesday from a 7-day backpacking trip in the Wind River mountains of Wyoming. I don't think I on know how to post pictures here, but I'll link you to my blog as soon as I get some pictures up there.

I'm happy that the friend who watered my garden while I was gone had to get another friend to cover part of the time. No one should always be home!

Sigh. Sounds great, Rebecca.

We made it across the border into the USA last weekend. For some reason Canadian stores have not mastered the term 'sale' or 'clearance' as well as our southern neighbors. So, shopping is much better in the states.

Melki wrote: I never go anywhere. I am the woman others depend on to water their plants, fetch their mail, care for their pets...and I'm pretty damned sick of it!

Melki, I think you should put your foot down. And then you should put your other foot down. And if you carry on putting your feet down, one after the other, pretty soon you'll find you're somewhere else entirely, and everyone you left behind can fetch their own plants, care for their own mail and water their own pets for a change.

You tell her, Chris!

Of course, vacations around our place consist of literally putting down one foot after another, as we backpack a lot :D

You asked for photos, Melki. This is one of our favourite places, Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset. We were last there in June. We go there every year at the same time, because it's when the cygnets hatch out.

Very nice, Chris. I've never seen so many swans.
It's terrible to confess, but I'd be tempted to do like Sean Connery in the last (good) Indiana Jones movie, and run toward them with an umbrella - just to see them all take off...

I think you'd find that if they had cygnets, they'd be hard to scare off. Not that I've tried, of course - I'd probably be banned from the place.

There are usually about 600 swans there at any one time, plus a lot of other birds such as Canada geese. It's a pretty wonderful place, very peaceful, which is why we keep going back there.

That's right - I forgot how defensive geese and swans can be. I'd probably end up running from them.

Travel log entry #21 - Campout under bridge.

We went camping this past weekend. Just spur of the moment. Luckily, I still had not unpacked most of our gear (or food) from our previous camping trip in July. Grabbed a few dogs (hot ones) and headed for the border.
We decided to try out, http://www.stlawrenceparks.com/index.... . It's nearby, only 45 min drive, it looked nice (according to the internet pictures) and there were spots available.
Another odd reason is the location. I say 'odd' because it is located under the 1000 islands bridge (a huge bridge crossing the St Lawrence river over to the USA, USA, USA) - literally, the support posts go right through the campsites.
(we are on the left side)
So when someone asks 'what did you do on the weekend', I can respond with a witty, "oh, just slept under a bridge".

Another perk about going to this campsite was that it is part of some national park department, so they promote other attractions...with coupons for free admissions, etc. Well, we 'won' some tickets to FORT HENRY, http://www.forthenry.com/index.cfm/en..., it's this old fort the british build back in 1800 something. It's actually right in town, but, we never go there...it's one of those world heritage sites that only tourists flock to...except in winter, we go there to toboggan down the giant hill.
One of the things they do is dress up in old soldier uniforms and parade around.

Then they pretend an 'enemy ship' is coming. They shoot their muskets and fire a cannon. It's very exciting.
However, I believe my youngest was tramatized by the event. He seemed very scared while watching it and didn't seem to believe me when I said they were acting/pretending/playing (yes, I had to use all thos synonyms). Then later in the car ride home he kept mumbling to himself. My daughter pipes up, "Dad, he just keeps saying something about an 'enemy ship', it's annoying me!!".
Being great parents, we repeated to him that they were acting/playing/pretending.
He just kept mumbling those things to himself the entire way home, I believe in an attempt to convince himself it was not real. Poor kid.
So, to sum it up. This weekend I slept under a bridge and tramatized my kid into beleiving those dreaded yankees are invading us again.

Sounds like a highly successful weekend to me!

Melki, I forgot to tell you that my vacation report went up on my blog, but I think you found it anyway? Both parts?

Next big expedition: Labor Day weekend at my in-laws' house.

Have to confess, I actually very much enjoy our visits. They are good people, and they feed us (I may help, but I don't make decisions about the food), and there's great biking and running near them. Plus, the sun shines there.

When I lived in Pittsburgh, people used to camp out under bridges all the time, but they were homeless.
Also, I can't see your pictures - unless they were actual photos of little red Xs. Sounds like a fun weekend, though if I were only 45 minutes from home, I'd go home at night and sleep in my bed. But that sleepin'-under-a-bridge thing sounds cool, too.

No - I missed part one of your vacation report. No wonder part two made no sense. And I ruined the surprise ending by reading the second part first!

Lovely photos. To read them (in order):

Part one - http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

Part two -
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

Ah. Thanks for posting the links. No surprise endings :). We had enough food and no one injured himself (or, in my case, herself).

And no cannibalism...

Nope. The only thing eating any of us was mosquitoes, and that mostly only the first couple of days. And all those lakes, mostly full of fish, and we don't fish. So no wilderness survival eat-off-the-land stories.

We did have that inevitable kid moment when they say "I don't like this" and I can, for once, look at them and say "eat it or go hungry. There's nothing else."

Not that it works.

So. . . can any of you tell me how to add a picture to a post?

Picture...use some html (it's ok)

go to that (some html is ok) , it's just above the reply box I am typing it right now.

Then you can copy that image code...it's img src="http://www.goodreads.com/image..." width="40" height="100" alt="description"/

Make sure you have the < > brackets holding in the code.

copy the location of your picture from whatever website (you can right click on it and go to properties) and paste the location in the quotation marks.

or easier, right click on the picture, and a menu comes up, click on inspect element, it opens a half window at the bottom of the screen (or in a new window, depending on which server you're using) that has all the html code for the page your on, and it should already have highlighted the picture code. Copy paste the picture code into your post.

You may need to alter the size settings, which is the width and height numbers in brackets.

The picture has to be in the internet somewhere to do this. If its on your computer, upload it on to facebook, flikr or photobucket first.

Got it. Naturally, my photos are not conveniently on the Internet. Sigh.

On the weekend we went to this place called Upper Canada Village. It's a village set up with all the modern conveniences and technologies of the mid 1800s...so, we've got the woolen mill, the saw mill powered by water, the cheese maker, the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the lady making cake over an open fire, and of course a farm. All very exciting stuff - even without electricity. It's like taking a trip back about 150 years, except for the lack of outhouses (they've upgraded to flush toilets for the tourists I suppose).

Most of the people working there were very passionate about their job, which made it seem even more real. Like when the schoolmarn told us guys to remove our hats since it's very rude to wear your hat in the school! The guy who milked the cows told us all about them in great detail, which was actually kind of interesting, and he was more than happy to let the kids try a hand a milking the cow (both managed to squirt some milk too!).

My dad used to drag me to places like that all the time when I was a kid. I was bored to death then, but now I would just eat it up.

which reminds me, I must take my daughter to Beamish at some point soon.

http://www.beamish.org.uk/

Do they have outhouses?

I hate outhouses. I much prefer a nice clean tree.

My 3 year old son loves trees - he's like a dog sometimes.

That Beamish place looks great. Next time I'm over in the UK I'll check it out.

Took a trip to the country. Went pickin' apples. Then stopped at a small village 'farmers' market.
We ended up buying pickles from this grimy guy and his cohort (missing teeth) who had many many different preserves. Some of the preserves were even jarred in non conventional ways - like in an old Cheez Whiz Jar!
That's fun...

Anyway, his cheap dill pickles were the best pickles I've ever had (and they were jarred in a sealed mason jar, not an old salsa jar or anything).

Please tell me you didn't buy any Cheez Whiz preserves.

No, no, it wasn't home made cheeze whiz! I go to the cheese guy for that.
It was in fact some very classy looking pickled asparagus. The slightly taller glass jar works better for the asparagus...I'm guessing.

It's just that it's so easy to screw up with home-canning and pop a little botulism in with your preserves. That's why I don't do it. Well, that and the laziness thing.

That's exactly what I was thinking - so, I just walked by the 'preserves guy'...but, he was giving out samples!

Just got back from a weekend in Colorado partying and hiking with friends. Climbed my first 14er (peak over 14,000').

Wow, Rebecca. Sounds like a blast, though partying and climbing peaks does not seem like a natural combo.

It's not. Most of us saved the real partying until after the climb. Those who drank the night before mostly didn't climb. One who did, managed the climb, but wouldn't touch a drink after!

Going to elevation that fast (I live at sea level) left me in a condition pretty indistinguishable from intoxicated before I ever took a drink.

Rebecca, you may be interested in this local event. Coming up on the 29th of this month is the 10th annual Megatransect - a 26-mile hike/trail run up the side of a mountain. And, in January, there's a 12-mile trek with the unfortunate name of Frozen Snot.

You're welcome to pitch a tent in my backyard, if you'd like to participate in either event. (I will have to charge you for bathroom privileges, however. You think clean towels grow on trees?)

Melki, I'm neither as young nor as crazy as I pretended to be all weekend. I suspect a megatransect would kill me, and I mean literally!

I know what you mean. I don't want to walk 26 miles on a flat surface, much less up a mountain - though to get technical, mountains in Pennsylvania are more like rolling hills - but still...

Melki, you could forgo the bathroom charges...I have a couple of ideas I read about in, Sleeping Naked is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days.

1) No toilet paper. Just a bowl of water (and your hand)

2) Reusable cloths

Well, last weekend we just rented the group site at a forest service campground. Appreciate the invite, Melki. Though I bet I could find lots of opportunities to make myself feel even older than I am much closer to home.

Went out to 'Maple Madness' today. It is a little event put on by our local conservation area where they show off their sugar bush and how maple syrup is made. They show the historical ways maple syrup was made and they have a little 'sugar shack' where they make pancakes and coat them in maple syrup.

Cool! I haven't been anywhere since the start of the year. No wonder I'm slightly crazy.

Mmmm....pancakes.

Pancakes I've had. I want out of the city!

Going away for a long weekend starting Friday. Either up the coast to the Redwoods, or down the coast to, dunno, the elephant seals? Depends on weather.

Ooo! Sounds great! Have a good time, Rebecca.

Go to Oxnard, CA...is that near you?

I just had some strawberries that were grown there and they were delicious (and big. Like, genetically modified big).

Oxnard is a fair way south, down by Santa Barbara, and not really all that nice a place. Weather looks okay, so we're going for the redwoods.

My wife went over the border to the US on Saturday...I'm sure you've heard about the Boston marathon bombs? Apparently, the bombers' plan was to head for the Canadian border...
Well, on the way home she said that 'Homeland Security' blocked the highway just before the Canadian border, made the cars lineup. When you came to the line, four guards (armed with big rifles) surround your car and one guy looked through it (he also has a gun, but, just a small handgun). Scary stuff eh?

Wow. I feel like I ought to apologize for the over-enthusiastic paranoia of my country.