Weekend Camping

The wife and I spent our Memorial Day weekend camping. Original, I know. We stayed at Beverly Beach, which is a few miles north of Newport. It's as close to not camping as humanly possible. There are showers and toilets, and a ton of people are rammed together as close as they can ram us. It was fun. We walked along the beach down to Mo's on Saturday, ate sandwiches, then walked back. On Sunday we shopped at the outlet stores in Lincoln City and did some shopping. I got a sweet pair of old-style Nikes and a couple of Nike polos.

Anyway, the highlight of the weekend for me was all the cooking over the fire. We made the obligatory hot dogs, but we also tossed some foil-wrapped potatoes and corn on the cob into the coals. We cooked steak chunks rolled in lemon pepper using skewers, green beans cooked directly on the fire inside a tin foil pouch, and made cheesy bread over the grill. We fried our 2 leftover potatoes and 2 left over hot dogs in a wok over the fire, then mixed in 4 eggs and some cheese for a sweet breakfast. We ate well. And Midge is an expert marshmallow roaster. She has an incredible talent for toasting the outside of the marshmallow to a golden brown, without burning it, while at the same time melting all of the gooey goodness inside.

One other story...
Our neighbors on one side were a bunch of college kids from a nearby Christian university. They prayed before meals, and one of them sang drippy acoustic songs around the campfire. They were pretty decent neighbors. But on Sunday night, they all went to the movies. Around 7:30-ish? a group of four bikers pulled up to their spot. "36d, this is it," they said. They all had matching leather jackets with some embroidered logo on the back, likely a gang. It seemed incongruous... these tough-looking bikers hanging out with young Christians. But the college kids weren't there. A ranger came up and talked to the bikers, as did the state police. We heard the bikers say they were waiting for their friends, and the cops said they had until 10 to get out. The guys bought beer, and put it into the college kids' cooler. But still, no kids. At 9:59, the bikers roared their engines and took off. A little later, the group of students came back, and discovered some strange beer in their cooler. It turns out, they don't know any bikers, and were a little freaked out that some showed up at their spots. The wife and I believe that the bikers just had the wrong spot. It was an entertaining evening.

I give camping four toasted, ooey-gooey marshmallows out of five.

My 30th Birthday Party

I suppose it's about time, a week and a half later, to talk about my birthday party. It was fun.

The End.




Just kidding. I got off work and picked up a keg at Belmont Station, a bar and beer store (beer store? Is that a phrase people use?). When did a keg get so goddamned expensive? $100 refundable deposit, and $165 for the beer! Sure, I got a good, local microbrew, but still. I was considering a cheap domestic, until I saw that Budweiser was $110. Anyway... besides some early arrivers, people started showing up around 8-ish. We had some ping-pong going in the shack, a big fire roaring in the backyard fire pit, the beer flowing, and other people hanging out inside. All told, approximately 40-50 people made their way through the party. It's always a good sign when friends bring friends, when you run into acquaintances at your party; people you wouldn't think to invite come and say "hi." About 11-ish, we cracked open the pinata and feasted on the goodies inside. It was mostly candy, but Midge also packed in fake teeth and pirate eye patches. Those were fun. And then at midnight, the crowning achievement of the night (literally).
Midge lit my flaming birthday crown. She made it herself out of a paper crown, some candles, and a hot glue gun. Since everyone was looking, I decided to make a grandiose, impromptu speech. People started to filter out a bit after that. It was a Friday, and we're all getting old. But like most parties, people came and went throughout the night. The latest-arriving guests came in time to sit by the fire, play some Wii, and work on the beer. The next day, we slept until about 2.











Perhaps the funniest part of the entire weekend happened Saturday night. Midge and I were tired, and watching a crappy movie (The Day After Tomorrow), when our good friends E and J knocked on the door. This was about 10:30. Here's how the conversation went:
"Happy birthday! Where's the party?"
"Um, the party was last night."
"What?"

We were disappointed on Friday that they hadn't come, but we figured it was because they were busy. Oh well.


I give my 30th birthday party 30 years out of 30.

We Won!

So, my softball team won its first game last night. We beat the radio team we played 9-4. I don't want to brag, but I had a nice night. 2 for 3, and a lot of plays in the field at shortstop. I forgot how much I love softball/baseball. I give the game 9 diamonds out of 9!

Monday Monday

I have my first work softball game today, in about an hour and 20 minutes. I'm nervous and anxious and excited. It should be fun. It's a media league. Today we play a radio ownership group. They own a right-wing talk station, among others. I hope we bash their faces to the bases! I'm playing shortstop, which can be a harrowing experience in softball. Let's hope I don't boot too many grounders.

In other random thoughts... I thought of three perfect nights with my wife, and I thought I'd share them. In no particular order...

1. The night last fall where we watched "Monster House" on a Sunday. It was a goofy, fun movie, and we had to improvise drinks. All we had was vodka, Diet Cherry 7up, and popsicles. So we blended them all together. That was a fun night.

2. Valentine's Day, 2000. Midge was a student, living in the on-campus apartments. We watched "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and ate chocolate fondue from her little crockpot thingy. I'm pretty sure we laughed a lot that night.

3. I can't pinpoint which night exactly, but the numerous times we spent at the Pied Cow when we first started dating. In all seasons, we'd order the soup of the day, the cheese platter, and some ridiculous coffee drinks. In the winter we'd sit inside, sweating and cramped next to other couples. In the summer we'd sit outside on the terrace, enjoying the night and ignoring the Hookah smoke coming from other patrons.

I give these memories 1.2 billion out of 1.2 billion.

I've Been Tagged!

I don't really know what this means, but apparently my wife wants me to fill out some questions.

Here goes nothin':

Five Things Found in Your Bag:
1. I don't have "a bag"
2. Testes
3. Maybe I should use my wallet...
4. Okay, in my wallet I have some money
5. And a lot of useless reciepts

Five favorite things in your room (I'm using my office):
1. My turntables
2. My record collection
3. My spelling bee trophies
4. My Wheaties boxes from the 1991 Minnesota Twins and 1992 Portland Trailblazers
5. The open, screaming mouth painting I made as a senior in high school

Five things you have always wanted to do:
1. Dunk on a 10-foot rim
2. Become an expert chef
3. Play competitive baseball again
4. Make music professionally
5. Write something meaningful

Five things you are currently into:
1. Work softball and my Tuesday night hoops game
2. Making homemade ribs, sauce and all
3. My wife
4. Lost
5. Looking for a home to buy

That's it. Those are my answers.
I give this poll thing 3 out 4 categories. It was more fun than I thought.

The Last Day of My 20's

Today, as you may have surmised from the title of this post, is the last day of my 20's. Tomorrow, I enter the new world of "30." I have been kind of fighting this, but I think once it passes things will be okay. So, how did I spend the last day of my youth, you ask? Well.... I got to work late, worked, and will now go home to clean the house. You see, tomorrow I'm throwing myself a gigantic party. I was unable to get my birthday off, so I have to do all the cleaning tonight. Midge is housesitting for her parents tonight, so I have to do it all by myself. It's only fair, since she does the bulk of the cleaning normally, and they're my douchebag friends. So far, 40 people have confirmed via Evite that they're coming, and I know of about 10 more that didn't rsvp (douchebags), but who are still coming.

We're playing ping-pong, getting a keg, and playing some other games. It should be fun. The bad news, is that there's a so-so chance that it could rain. Our plan was to keep people in the backyard and in the Ping-Pong Shack. But if it's raining, we'll have to move things inside. Our house is less than 1000 square feet, and one of the bedrooms will be off-limits (to house the cat). If it rains, think how muggy it will be in there, with all those people sweating. I'm looking forward to it, though. Midge got me a crown, upon which she's going to hot-glue candles, so I'll have a flaming birthday crown. She also got me a birthday sash, a pinata (and goodies to stuff inside), and is getting me a big cake. She's a good wife.

Here's to my 20's! I give it 9 out of 10 points. It would be higher, but I'm not a professional athlete yet (YET!), which was one of my goals as a kid.