Three beautiful things from the camping trip/music festival:

1. The blueberry pancakes Mike makes for breakfast on the campstove griddle.

2. Having my sunburnt skin misted with cool water by two small children.

3. Shelley and I intend to stay down at the music on Friday night when the guys return to camp. Instead, it begins to sprinkle and we decide to head up early. The sprinkles don’t turn into actual rain, so after sending the kids and the guys to bed, we decide to mosey back down to the midway for a late night cup of hot chocolate. Just as we arrive, the skies open up and the rain pours down. By the time we walk back to the campsite, we are thoroughly soaked. (My sneakers only just dried today.)

I’m away on vacation. In my absence I leave you some random posts. Today’s offers you Three Beautiful Things about Harry Potter:

1. I pull the sixth book out of my bag while waiting for the train late one evening and settle in to read. A man in his twenties approaches. “Excuse me. You don’t know me, but are you rereading all the books before the seventh one comes out on Friday? … You are? Me too! I’m so glad I’m not the only one. … And this isn’t just the second time you’ve read them right? … Aren’t they great?”

2. Saturday afternoon, we head outside to read at the local Starbucks (they have an expansive area of outdoor seating). Two guys are reading the books, as is a girl nearby and another girl at the restaurant next door. We see several copies walk by. Blog posts from around the world talk about the book. Almost all of my friends are reading the book. Was this what they meant at Conn when they talked about the global community? Maybe if we had more books like these, there would be fewer wars…

3. A teen sits outside a café, sleeping, his head cushioned on his closed copy of The Deathly Hallows.

Just because I’m away on vacation doesn’t mean the fun has to stop. Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. The surprise of things having grown in your garden. Like broccoli. And peppers. And beans. And squash. And tomatoes. Sure, I planted them all. I just didn’t expect anything to come of it, particularly with my lackadaisical watering and weeding!

2. A last-minute dinner party held in Michael’s (and Julia’s) front yard.

3. I headed out to the shore to see Karen last Thursday. We had a lovely lunch (with excellent fries and free mugs) and returned back to the cottage to take a walk. We were half a mile from shelter when the skies opened up, soaking us through and through. We went back, dried off, put on our bathing suits (which were dry, as opposed to our clothes), and went back out for another walk. We hunted for fossilized shark teeth and saw a turtle, a heron, a bald eagle, and a school of rays that I thought were sand sharks. It was a lovely day.

I had grand plans to take photos and to write about my most recent pair of socks and to show you the progress I’ve made on my market bag. But we’re already 40 minutes late leaving for our trip and I haven’t brushed my hair or put my clean clothes away or washed the last of the dishes. So I guess you’ll get knitting content next week.

In the meantime, I’ll be up at Falcon Ridge listening to some groovy tunes and hanging with friends.

Talk to you on Sunday or Monday…

When the balance ball you are sitting on pops, you will be grateful to have a big butt to cushion your fall, because you will find yourself on the floor before you realize the ball has popped.

I hate cleaning. Loathe it. And because I’m generally easy-going and lazy and can think of many nicer things to do than clean, I put it off. Unfortunately, Rudi is the same way.

Which means when we do need to clean, like before friends come to visit or a party or we go away for several days, it is a monumental effort.

Like right now.

Wednesday we head north for our annual folk music foray. Shelley and her family aren’t coming up until Friday morning, so we’ll be responsible for finding us a campsite and throwing stuff around to keep people from “stealing” the place where we’ll want to put the sun shelter and Shelley’s tent.

The good news is that for the (relatively) painless cost of cleaning up, we have the joy of knowing we’ll soon be seeing our friends and family.

It’s like they say:

New rear brakes for the car: $110
Four day camping tickets: $200
Seeing Erik, Eri, Eric, Shelley, Mike, Dasch, Reesie, Mum, Dad, and Gramma: Priceless