Over the weekend Chris, Bobby, Ian, Jonas, Josh and I headed north-east to Broken Bow (near Beavers Bend State Park) for our annual camping trip.  Also joining us were Bosley, Caleb, Colby, Dawson and Skylar - los perros adventureros.

Bobby, Ian, Chris and I have been going since every year since 2000 (well we did miss one year), and we have "camped" in East Texas, the Hill Country, Lake Texoma and Beavers Bend. By far, this year's camping environment was the best. The cabin was phenomenal - very large, huge kitchen (very important for our camping trips), sleeping for twelve people (mostly on/in bunk beds), large porches and a good distance between the next cabin.  I think the only negative (and to me, this is very small) was the closeness to the highway, so you could hear traffic (sometimes causing a barking frenzy).

The company is always good on these weekends, and we were lucky to have Jonas and Josh join us for the entire weekend, and on Saturday, our friend Travis drove up for the night. 

One thing we always say during, and after our trips is that we certainly eat well.  While this is true, and I love everything we eat, I especially look forward to breakfast on our final day.  This is where we take all the leftovers and assemble them into a feast.  There are the staples (like eggs, biscuits, bacon, etc), but then you add the remaing chicken and vegetables from the kebabs, or the baked potatoes (to create hash browns) and you have the most incredible smells meandering through the cabin to wake everyone from their late night drinking slumber.

As previously reported (2003, 2004, 2005), we always have fun on these weekends, and it is a great time to just unwind and relax.

Highlights (and lowlights) from the recent adventure:

• The food (as mentioned) - we ate like queens pretending to be kings
• The friendship - loving friends that laugh with you and at you
• Our dogs - for sharing quintereophonic barking at the best times
• The booze
• Bosley's accident
• My starting the weekend with a migraine
• The nature trails, and the beautiful weather
• The cabin
• The fire gods and fairies - for given us the joy of wathcing you dance

Of course, in the techy age that we live in, there are plenty of pictures to be shared (as my three previous posts suggest).  Not only can you view a selection of pics from Chris and I, but also Bobby has posted some images.

Tags: 2006, camping, friends
Feeling: : sleepy

Tonight is Oscar Night, with John Stewart at the wheel.  I'm normally not into these award shows, but this year I thought it woudl be fun to make a competition, and have our own ballots before the show started.  Ian, Bobby, Jonas, Brian, Chris and I will be our own Academy.  I've even done up lovely ballots for the event - tastefully printed on hot pink :-)

I'll post who "wins" :-)

Tags: friends, oscars
Feeling: : excited

It has been a busy couple of weeks, what is up with that?

Friday, I actually went to statistics. I know ... a shock to us all. I actually like the class, and seem to understand it more that I ever expected ... it's just too easy to miss sometimes. Anyway, I went to class and then ran off to meet up with Ian for lunch at Camille's Sidewalk Cafe. I tried their new Jasmine Rice salad, and have to say I missed my Napa Valley Chicken Panini. Lesson learned.

After lunch I ventured over to IKEA to check out the sheet set they had advertised for this weekend (400 thread count set for $40). Needless to say, when I got there, not a single King set could be found, EVEN in the color I wanted. I wanted around some, and bumped into Brian, and we meandered through the store for an hour or so. Brian ended up getting this fantastic bookshelf at a reduced price. Not sure what was wrong with it, but it looked great! I got some curtain/blinds for my office doors, but really wasn't in the mood to shop (I guess I was bummed out about the sheets). I stopped at CompUSA on my way home, and grabbed a power supply (my UPS had died a few weeks ago). Now I have to turn my computer off long enough to install the damn thing :-)

Later that evening, Brian, Ian, Chris and I went to dinner at Campisi's, and then flew over to watch Wallace & Gromit (Ian headed home to rest for his journey to Austin the following day). We got there during the short film featuring the Penguins (from Madagascar), and settled into the almost empty theatre. Clearly a lot of people don't know about Wallace and Gromit, a very sad state of affairs. The movie itself was a lot of fun, and very enjoyable. I am fasctinated that clay-mation is still a method for making movies, and it was really interesting to see the thumb/finger-prints of the model makers on the faces of the characters. Just in case you don't know how this is done, a clay figure is used to make the film, and the model is manipulated at least 25 times for ONE SECOND of the film. Amazing! It took five years for the movie to be made.

Saturday was a chill day. After a late morning rise, I watched the remaining episodes of Tales of A City (More Tales, and Further Tales) that I had received from NetFlix. Pretty slack, but after the week I'd just had, something that I wanted to do. It was nice, as the day started off pretty cloudy/gloomy, and one of my favorite things to do when the day is like that is do just what I did. Saturday night, Ian popped over for din din and to watch a movie, and share a margarita. (Note: Bobby had gone to Austin on Friday for a gaming weekend, hence his absence.) We watched "Just a Question of Love", a cute French film where "Laurent, a 23-year-old agricultural student, meets Cédric, a young researcher, and they fall in love. But Laurent thinks he can stay closeted and keep misleading his mom about his sexuality. Cédric sets out to change all that." A good film!

Sunday was the busiest day of the weekend - I know, it couldn't be too difficult to achieve that status. I had a friend of mine, Steven, from Australia visiting the United States, and he and his partner (Clinton) were spending a day in Dallas before they headed back to Australia (they had spent time in San Antonio [conference] and Mexico) the week before. Anyway, Chris and I went to collect them at their hotel, and head out to lunch. It appears that Clinton did not have a happy stomach, and was going to pass on the lunch option, so we headed over to Breadwinners, where we found a wait of almost an hour, so rather than spend time sitting on McKinney, we headed over to the gay area and ended up eating at Black Eyed Pea. As it turns out, this was a great treat, as Steven got to experience a Chicken-Fried Steak. After that, we headed back to check on Clinton and then ventured over to Fry's Electronics. Steve was impressed ... hell, I'm always impressed whenever I go in there. Chris stocked up on some horror movies (it's October remember), and Steve bought a couple of little, packable things. After that, we grabbed Clinton some medications, and then dragged them both up to Frisco for dinner. It was really pleasant to chat with someone from home (even if he was from Queensland).

Last night, I developed a pain in my right chest (over my pectoral muscle). It's quite annoying, as it makes sleeping difficult, but apart from breathing (deep breathing), it's not too terrible. This morning I still had it, and initially thought that it might have been the beginnings of the crud that Chris had just gotten over (it started with body aches). Most of today, it stayed put, so I'm guessing it's either muscular or not. If it is still around tomorrow, I'll get it checked out.

Iskipped class tonight, as I was not feeling comfortable with driving to Denton with this pain. I'm sure the professor will be all upset, but I prefer to be close to Chris should something happen. Fingers crossed that it's just a day thing.

Tags: australia, friends, movies, shopping
Feeling: : confused

I got an email from Dianne yesterday morning (I've been delaying posting about it). She is not well AT ALL. It appears the type of leukemia she has is Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), which normally develops when there has been a high exposure to radiation and benzene. It is the most common of the leukemias that affect adults, and the survival rate is pretty high with a succesful chemotherapy routine. The thing is, that chemo didn't work. It also appears that she has a great doctor, who is very much on top of the latest drugs and trials, and she has been approved to receive a new drug that attacks the actual leukemia cell. There is a good chance that this will work for her, but it is a trial, so we won't know until we know. She is optimistic about the treatment, and I'm comforted that the drug only is fatal in 10% of cases (it kills the liver, or can). So the odds are very good, and positive thoughts will make it even more successful!

I met Dianne in 1987 when Daniel and I began our relationship. Daniel and Dianne had attended the same university, and had obtained their teaching diplomas at the same time. They had quickly became good friends, and when I joined Daniel's life, she became a good friend of mine. Dianne was the most welcoming person I had ever met.

I'm going to be posting some more information about her, and some pictures that I've been finding and scanning. Its moments like these that the Pacific Ocean does make a huge difference.

Tags: friends
Feeling: : sombre

Oh, and in the most startling news of the week, my good friend Layton has gently wandered into the blogging arena. I've yet to check to see if it okay to post his blog address, so won't post it yet. You can read more over at Sit down, have a drink.

Tags: blogs, friends