A thing I forgot

While i was on my saltwater canoe trip we had to poop in bags and once while I was pooping a mosquito bit me on my nuts.

I'm very tired..

So I've had a wicked busy week with many tiring things hence why its been so long since my last update. All last week I was on a saltwater canoe trip. We were on the water tuesday through friday with wednesday, thursday and friday consisting of thunderstorms, fog, and wind. Paddling a canoe against the tide and the wind is a little hard for me, and really really challenging for 12 year olds. We did that for about two hours wedensday afternoon on our way to check out this shipwreck.



On thusday afternoon it thundered and we had to lightning drill which consisted of the kids sitting in their tents crouched on their sleeping pads to insulate themselves from the ground, while rachel (my co-leader) and myself extended our nap.

Over the weekend I visited the grandparents in lewiston and changed their wire screens to the glass ones and then grandma went on a twenty minute rant about Bush. She says she hates him as much as she hates hitler. Thats pretty strong considering she is a german jew who escaped the holocaust. She really hates him. I think that eric penley would enjoy talking to her for an hour or so. I also want her to get a computer so she can start anti-bush movements and stuff. She'd be wicked dangerous with a computer. And she'd probably stop sleeping too. Next post I'll relate some funny stories about her and my grandpa. Like the time grandpa got dehydrated. Or the time he tried to check if the phone still worked. He's 93 and blind.

Sunday - today - I particpated in the MaineShare Hike and Bike. I did the biking and rode 36 miles to help raise money to support local bussinesses and organizations. It was pretty fun and very tiring. I haven't been riding a lot recently and 36 miles is the longest ride I'd ever done. There were three categories 25k, 50k, and 100k - I did the 50k and finished first out of everyone who did the 50k. In fact I finished before all the 100k people too but they had to ride twice as far as I did so thats not something to really brag about... This is me and a friend (also from chewonki but she only did the 25k) Katie after the race.



Post race Lila and I went to Portland to have her birthday present installed in her car - an alpine car stereo and two boston speakers. The stereo sounds absolutely fantastic. I made several mix cds to test it out with different types of music - classical, rock, electronic, it sounds great playing all of them. The tweeter store is a good shop - very proffesional. I highly recommend it.

This coming week I'm on a day program which means I don't have to sleep in a tent and that I'm done each day after 4pm so there may be a mid-week update relating funny stories about my grandparents.

A very good weekend

So I had a very good weekend - sat morning - slept in, went to breakfast, reading the paper. Lila says "Sweetie, did you know about the maine state air show?" I didn't we read about it, and then went to it, and it was totally awesome. We arrived to see SOCOM jumping out of planes in formation and doing this crazy acrobatic stunt skydiving. Pretty ridiculous. This was followed by these biplanes that did various sorts of manuvers. One of the manuvers involved them speeding down the runway, only 20 or so feet from the ground, from opposite directions, towards each other. Right before they met each other a large truck, with two jet engines mounted on the back of it, roared past both planes, exceeding them in speed. According to the anouncer the truck was going over 300 mph.



Also participating at the air show were the Blue Angels. Let me tell you these guys are incredibly. When they fly in formation it looks as if they are one plane - there is zero margin for error at the distance they are flying at. Seriously incredible stuff.



So I realize no one has any idea what the house I live in looks like - so I took a picture of our living room common area which should give you some idea. It consists of two bedrooms (one is a GUEST room, that we also use for storing gear and such) Lila and I sleep in the other bedroom. We've also got a bath room, a mudroom, and a common room area. We've got a two burner hotplate, a fridge and a microwave. Some aquariums some tables, and we've got DSL. Lots of plants and artsy posters courtesy of lila.



On sunday lila and I did various things around Chewonki, then we went fishing in brunswick. Post fishing we went to the seadog and ordered the beer sampler. It was pretty cool. For two people its a good amount of beer too, and you get to try all sorts. Let me tell you, I don't like the blueberry ale. If you want beer that looks like pee and doesn't taste like beer get the blueberry. Ugh.

I've discovered my purpose

So, I've discovered that my purpose in life is to yell at kids and tell them what to do. Nothing makes me happier - "Alex, go pack a daypack with a waterbottle, warm layer, and some sunscreen." Anne - marie, quit bothering me about how dirty your hands are, we're in the woods" - "Alex, stop eating dirt" - "katie, quit throwing pine needles at alex" - "Alright, everyone in your tents immediately!!" That was what my week was like.

I also got bit by a pig.

This coming week, I'm on a bit chiller trip, a five day saltwater canoe trip around this part of coastal maine - we are staying on chewonki owned island and will be paddling around checking out various things. I think I'll bring the digital camera on this trip to get some photos for the ol' blog. So some people may have no idea what my job at chewonki involves, rather than me post a lengthy explanation click here to find out what its all about.

Much thanks to fred for posting a very short little post saying thanks.

Thing I'm most excited about right now - iPod Nano!! I've been watching the steve jobs presentation of it on quicktime - the thing is just about the coolest mp3 player I've ever seen. Its so small and sleek and it comes in black which is super classy. Wow. I'm mean wow!! The thing is cool.

This weekend - may be doing some fishing, cleaning and restoring lila's old huffy bicycle.

Most recent sweet lila and dave interaction : I accidentally just kicked lila, i said, "I'm a big behemoth," she says, "But you're my big behemoth."

The bite from the pig didn't break the skin.

After lots of traffic free labor day driving

Figured out how to add pictures to the blog.

So for everyone to know and directly for fred - you no longer have to join my blog in order to post stuff. Also look for a new section in the side bar which will have weekly shout outs for whatever I deem shoutoutable.

Very little traffic this weekend, it was kind of nice being one of the few cars traveling north on 95 today (monday). Also, I had previously thought that the best rest stop in the state of massachusettes was the Charlton Service plaza but today i discovered that the plaza in Lee is just as nice (relevant for people like libby who drive right past it) and plus today it had a rather dour looking clown making ballon animals for free.

Caught two (pretty big) crayfish in lila's house's stream on sunday for lila's cousins (two little girls, 1 year oldish and a 6 year old) who basically thought I was the man.

So I get kids tommorrow - took a walk out to the campsite I'll be staying at, its called Lower Club. It doesn't have enough wood, I'm going to make my kids haul big ass logs out there tommorrow so we can have enough wood to chop for the week. I'm really looking forward to actually starting my job. There are two "Club" campsites upper and lower, and lower is actually a little nicer. Were anyone to come visit they'd be more than welcome to check out a campsite.

Set up my wireless network today and basically I think it is the coolest thing ever. I also love how in the instruction manual for the router, there are pages and pages for the windows install and setup and all it says for the apple setup is "plug it in" & "reboot computer." Its a D-Link router, I picked it because it is small and after rebates which I still need to mail in, will only cost me 24 dollars. Which is pretty good.

I'm pretty beat right now so I'm going to go to bed - were emma to read my blog she'd find out that there is construction currently on 290 so I suggest bypassing it and staying on 495 all the way to the masspike.

At lila's

So training for chewonki is done and I get my first captive audience on my own, this tuesday. Lila and I have a done a large amount of driving on this labor day weekend meaning that we have seen plenty of traffic plus plenty of cars. Meaning cars that I haven't seen before - such as the Volkswagon Phaeton and the dodge magnum. Both of these cars ugly. Particularly the phaeton. German engineering has failed to produce an attractive car.

Also I've learned a lot more about biodiesel recently and as we are all getting older and getting closer to buying cars, also considering the rising price of gas, biodiesel is currently less expensive than gas and diesel is less expensive than regular gas, so... Buy diesel. I would but I have a big maroon ugly taurus.

Also bought a wireless router today - want to keep my friends updated on purchases.