2010 Camping - Night One

Dear Diary -
Well, I am back at Bass Lake camping with my friends. It is, as always, beautiful up here. However, last nigh it was COLD...but let's not start there.
The trip started off doomed as I was going to the airport and got stuck in traffic and then lost trying to find the parking place. I know, I know I've parked there a gagillion times, but... Well, I managed to get to the airport with time to spare because even though I was running behind, I was still working on ABBA time, which is always early.
Flight was good, although it seemed to take forever!! Sam pulled up to the curb just as I stepped out of the building and we were off.
When we got up to the camp site Jill had already set most everything up, so I helped Sam get her tent done and then blew up my air mattresses and made my bed.
We then gathered around the fire and had dinner. Thank God for the fire because it got down into the 40s at least last night (it is currenly 51 as I write this). I finally reach my tiredness point and decide it is time for bed.
I go into the tent and find that one of my matresses has gone flat. Luckily the other one still has some air so I won't be directly on the grounds. I change into my sleeping gear (long stretchy pants, wife beater tank, long sleeve tee, fleece sweatshirt and eventually socks). I crawl into bed and stare at the stars, which I can easily see because there is no cover to the top of the tent. I can't sleep because I'm too cold and I have to pee, again. So, I get up go pee, borrow a blanket from Sam, which I end up wrapping around my head to keep in the warmth wishing I had my stocking cap. I watch the fire die down and then when I start hearing more and more night creatures I go crawl back in bed where I wrap blanket around head, wrap fleece blanket around body, comforter on to top on that and give into the hyperthermia...
Luckily I woke up again to write this and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day, all be it, another chilly one. Don't know how much time I'll actually spend on the water...

2010 Book 22 - The Last Child

I know, I'm on quite a reading streak at the moment. The reason is that I did some math in my head and figured that I'm so close to getting 25 books in before the end of the year and thought "wow, that would be a really good achievement for you, ABBA." So, I'm plowing through books and not watching television, which is, I'm sure we'll all agree, probably a really good thing.


So, I just finished reading this The Last Child by John Hart. Here is what is on the back cover:

Johnny Merrimon was thirteen when his twin sister disappeared. Now, one year later, she is presumed dead. His mother is devastated, his father gone, and life will never be the same. But Johnny has a map, a bike, and a plan. He's going to find his sister, even if he has to track down every dangerous character in the county - a do-or-die mission that troubles police detective Clyde Hunt. He's also been searching for Johnny's sister, and he knows to what dark places a case like this can lead. But even Hunt can't imagine how far Johnny will go to learn the truth - or what he will find when he gets there.

I have to say that I originally picked this book up last spring while in an airport bookstore and just never could get myself into the mood to read it. I now wish that I had picked it up and read it much sooner. It is a really good book and I can see them making it into a movie at some time....maybe I'll start work on the screenplay myself and try to get Spielberg to make it for me (since he and I go so far back...). Okay, enough of my dreams of being a great play-write and back to the book. This is one that I highly recommend it has everything that a good book should have: well written and thought out plot, intriguing characters, twists and turns, good and evil, peanut butter and grape soda, cats and dogs, violence, abuse, and love.

I'll be adding it to my pile of read books, just let me know who wants to borrow it from me!!

2010 Book 15 - Fool

I recently finished Christopher Moore's book Fool. As I've mentioned before, I am a big fan of Christopher Moore and have read everything he has put out (except for his latest one as I'm waiting for it to be in paperback). Here is the back cover write up of this book:

"This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spaking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as nontraditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank."

Verily speaks Christopher Moore, much-beloved scrivener and peerless literary jester, who hath writteneth much that is of grand wit and belly-busting mirth, including such laureled bestsellers of the Times of Olde Newe Yorke as Lamb, A Dirty Job, and You Suck: A Love Story. Now he takes on no less than the legendary Bard himself (with the utmost humility and respect) in a twisted and insanely funny tale of a moronic monarch and his deceitful daughters - a rousing story of plots, subplots, counterplots, betrayals, war, revenge, bared bosoms, unbridled lust...and a ghost (there's always a bloody ghost), as seen through the eyes of a man wearing a codpiece and bells on his head.

Now, as I've stated, I'm a huge fan of Christopher Moore. This offering, however, sorely missed its mark with me. It did not draw me in. I didn't like the characters (of course I didn't like the characters in Shakespeare's play either). The writing wasn't as witty and engaging as previous books. I have to agree with Lois when she commented on a precious Christopher Moore book that I reviewed here. This is NOT a book that I would recommend to MY gentle readers.

How Relaxing

Yesterday I spent a wonderful hour getting an Infra-red Bodywrap. I had a Groupon coupon for this, otherwise I probably would not have done this. I was hoping it would just melt away the flab, that wish wasn't quite met. It did however, get rid of some of my puffiness and was really, really relaxing.

Basically I was wrapped in a giant heating pad for an hour. Nice thing was that I got a little nap in, and it totally helped to relax the muscles in my lower back which have been tight as a drum. Bad thing was that when there was about 15 minutes left, I had to go to the bathroom (which woke me up from my nap). It reminded me of my first massage that I ever had where I couldn't relax at all because I had to go potty the whole time.

As a way to relax and get rid of some puffiness, I will definitely do this again. Supposedly, it helps get toxins and what not out of the system as well...we'll see, I still feel a bit toxic, but that may just be who I am.