dead lake

3rd Annual Dead Lake Wknd, part 1

June 27, 2009

Nick and I are having our 3rd Annual camping weekend at my parents’ cabin on Dead Lake. We arrived at 3:30am on Wed night/Thurs morning. My mom was there so we tried to let ourselves in quietly. The front screen door was locked. Crap. We went to the back door but the deadbolt was locked. No key for the deadbolt. Crap. My mom’s window was open so I whispered “mom” a few times, not wanting to startle her awake. Nick wondered why I was whispering, so I started saying it a bit louder. Each time I did she would just drown me out with louder snoring. Finally I yelled “MOM” and she woke up and said “WHAT?” and I said “let us in” and she said “WHO?” … Who the heck did she think was there calling her mom? She let us in and we went straight to bed.

On Thursday we got up and headed to Perham to buy groceries for the weekend. We ended up eating lunch at a tasty Chinese restaurant. When we got back I had the joy of working from the cabin. Pangie (Panda and Angie) showed up in the early evening and Jake and Sarah showed up at 12:30am, right about the time I was having my third [very] strong Bloody Mary. The six of us sat by the fire for a few hours, discussing whether or not turkeys will drown in the rain*, will donkeys will starve themselves to death?† and that shooting stars are in fact not stars but meteors. After finishing my drink and giving Angie my alcohol infused pickle, Jake started taunting me that I couldn’t handle drinking one of his warm Natty Ice beers. Of course I took him up on the offer. Truth be told, I should have stopped drinking after the second Bloody. Shortly after finishing the Natty Ice I expelled most of the contents of my belly. Twice. Although it was nice to be by a lake since I could wash my face off and such. At some point I also fell over in the camping chair on top of the Natty Ice. I went to bed while having room spinnies, which I suppose was a bad idea.

Friday morning I woke up feeling fantastic considering the events of the night before. I got out of bed and started to perk some coffee. While waiting for it to start perking I started feeling not so well. I laid down on the nearest air mattress so that I could still her the percolator. After writhing around for a bit the vomiting started. Since I had no liquid in my belly it was just bile. Gross. I started hitting the water hard so that there would be something for me to throw up. So from 10am to about 5pm it was a constant rotation of vomit, hot sweats, cold sweats, nap, repeat. Everyone kept telling me to eat so I ate 3 grapes courtesy of Deebz (Smitty and Deebz showed up somewhere in the above mentioned time frame). They didn’t stay down long, and I had absolutely no appetite. Each time I would wake up from a mini nap I felt fine, but once I sat up it would all go downhill. I could see everyone outside having fun, it was one of those perfect days. And I’m real glad that they all left their cell phones inside, one of which seemed to ring every 30 minutes or so. When everyone came in for a snack I realized how hungry I was. I could hear them talking about how delicious the strawberry rhubarb bars and smoked gouda cheese were. When everyone left for a pontoon ride I ventured out into the kitchen. I still felt sick, but I didn’t feel like I would be sick again so I binged on Cheez-Its, chewing them well so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable if they came back up. I had a bit of a headache for the remainder of the evening and felt a little woozy, but other than that I was almost fully functional.

Nick slow cooked BBQ chicken legs and made tin foil taters for dinner. So delicious. After dinner Sarah and I went to the Wagon Wheel to get some shiners for Travis since he wouldn’t be here til midnight. They were sold out for the day so we ventured into Perham to get some. When we got back to the cabin Nick, Pangie, Jake and Smitty went fishing and we found poor Deebz by her lonesome wondering where we had gone. We got a little bit of reading time in on the porch before the bugs came out and started viciously attacking. The temp cooled down outside and it was quite comfortable, but inside it was still stifling hot. The fishing crew got back right after dark when the bugs were real bad. Poor Angie had her hands full of stuff and couldn’t fight them off as she ran up to the cabin.

We could see lightening across the lake and knew the weather was going to take a bit of a turn for the evening. It started getting windy and the rain started. Travis, Marshall and Olson showed up and set up tents in the dark. Adam and Laura showed up around 1am, just as everyone was going to bed.

To be continued…

*Panda claimed that turkeys drown in the rain because they look up to see what’s going on and aren’t smart enough to put their heads back down. His basis for this reasoning is that one of his turkeys died and it had just rained.

†Angie said if you put two buckets of food on either side of a donkey, they will not know which one to eat out of and stand in the middle until they die.

2nd Annual Dead Lake Wknd, part 2

June 28, 2008

I forgot to mention this in my last post (I don’t know how I could forget), but after Smitty was passed out cozily in bed… we may have snuck in and painted his toe nails pink. Passion fruit to be exact. We managed to get all the toes on one foot, and the big toe on his other foot. It was a pleasant surprise for him. He was disappointed to have to wear socks and tennis shoes instead of sandals today. Not because his nails were pink, but because it’s been rainy and windy and nasty all day long.

Jake, Sarah and Jeremy went into town to buy rain gear so they could spend some time on the boat. Smitty, Jordon, Travis and I played hearts while Nick played WOW, then we went into Perham so the boys could find a bar where they could play poker. Mission unsuccessful. The boys had blizzards at DQ. I declined a blizzard, but I did have a small birthday cake ice cream cone at the little candy and knick knack shop. I forgot the name, but it’s something in regards to a Spoon.

After we got back, events such as card playing, computing, reading and napping occurred. Randy and Paul had a hankering for rhubarb crisp and asked if I could lend my mad baking skillz. I found a recipe online and consulted with Sarah, who made rhubarb crisp a week ago. We had everything we needed in the cabin and Paul clipped some rhubarb that was growing at their cabin. It turned out pretty well. I sliced a small strip for us to sample and brought the pan next door. Since Denise, Palmer and Palmer’s mother showed up today I didn’t want to sample too much. In return, Denise gave me a fruity angel food cake to bring back to everyone. It sure looks delicious.

I think everyone is itching to get outside. Just a minute ago there was an argument of whether or not to play croquet before the rain starts again. The boys wanted to play shuttle cock (aka badminton) in their swimmers earlier, but it was just too windy for that.

Gallery photos are here.

The exciting conclusion is to come soon!!

2nd Annual Dead Lake Wknd, part 1

June 28, 2008

Nick and I are having our 2nd Annual camping weekend at my parents’ cabin on Dead Lake. We arrived late Wednesday night.

Thursday we bummed around the cabin and took the fishing boat out in the evening for a couple hours. On Thursday night Sarah, Jake, Travis and Smitty arrived. We sat by the campfire for awhile and then hit the hay.

On Friday the boys went fishing, while Sarah and I caught less than an hours worth of rays before the clouds rolled in and it got windy. Super windy. And cold. Michelle and Jeremy showed up around 12:30. The boys came back to pick up Jeremy and the three of us girls sat huddled in towels on the lawn chairs. Soon it started raining and we headed inside.

Randy and Paul stopped by a couple times to visit. Randy graciously gave up his and my mom’s bedroom for us to use and was staying at the other cabin (two cabins away). Since the people they were expecting weren’t showing up they invited us for breakfast at 9 the next morning.

The boys came back later in the afternoon to refuel (with food, not fuel). All but Nick and Travis were pretty drunk. Fishing had been pushed aside for a game that involved slapping each other, so they were all red and welty. They headed out after ravaging our food supply, leaving wrappers and food remnants everywhere.

The boys took the pontoon out again. Shortly after it stormed again, big time. The radio reported severe t-storm warnings. We couldn’t believe they rode it out on the lake. When they got back the sun came out, but it was rather chilly.

Smitty drank too much and was completely inebriated. He sat on the steps for about two hours vomiting the entire time. After which he passed out face first on the lawn. I think we all agree we’ve never seen him this drunk before.

Jordon showed up about the time Smitty was on the lawn. Since it was too windy to have a fire we spent the night inside playing games.

Today (Saturday) I woke up at 8:58. No one was up yet and I didn’t want to wake anyone, so I walked to the other cabin to let them know we probably wouldn’t be in attendance for breakfast. Apparently Randy had stopped by about a half hour before. He said Smitty and Travis were up and said they’d come to breakfast. Sure enough, they showed up shortly after I did. Smitty seemed fully recovered from the night before. The three of us at with Randy, Paul and Denel. Yummy pancakes with giant blueberries, eggs, sausage and cantalooop. After some chit chatting we headed back to our cabin. Everyone was up and they were making breakfast. Michelle had already left to go to a baby shower. :cry:

Now I’m going to go play hearts :D

Nice Tan

June 13, 2007

Wow, it’s been a little while since I’ve made an entry. My list of website to-dos is slowly growing. It seems like the last few days have been busier than usual.

While Nick was in Chicago this past weekend I drove up to my parents’ cabin on Dead Lake. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was hot, but not miserably hot like it’s been the last two days. Especially being at work without AC, that really sucked. But it’s all fixed now and the office is a nice 73 degrees. Anyway, I digress.

Although I didn’t go in the water I did take a couple pontoon rides. The lake is calm and quiet, and the rocking makes for perfect napping conditions. I would have gone in the water if not for a few deciding factors.

First, I didn’t feel like putting sunscreen on and I couldn’t not put sunscreen on because I burnt my left arm on the 3 hour drive to the cabin. Yes, I had the trucker tan. To make matters worse, I was wearing a t-shirt during the drive so I had the bright white shoulder to go with the burnt red arm. Fortunately it has faded now so it’s only slightly darker than my shoulder.

Second, I didn’t have any aqua socks with me. They (whoever they are) tell me the lake bed is sandy and not at all gross. Logically, I just can’t believe that. I know there is something gross in that lake that isn’t visible to the above-water eye. And I know I’ll step on it. And then I’ll get grossed out and probably make some weird noise, then everyone will be poking fun and laughing at me while I’m frantically dog paddling for my life. I know what you’re thinking and you are right. This has happened to me before!! The worst part is that the lake is mostly sandy and ungross, so the icky things getcha when you least expect it. Ish.

Yesterday I picked Nick up from the airport. We headed to Kohls shortly after. I was fortunate enough to get a 30% discount from the catalog I received a couple days ago that was expiring yesterday. Nick had a hay day and got a bunch of clothes. I couldn’t find anything really worthwhile of buying. In general I don’t care for their clothes. I couldn’t find any jewelry that would look good with my girls’ weekend shirt. They had no good shoes. There wasn’t even any housewares stuff that caught my eye, which is very unusual. Maybe I was sick or something. Not wanting to let Nick have all the fun, I settled on some Yankee Candle wax tarts in some yummy scents like cranberry and coffee bean. I also picked up some makeup on impulse while Nick was picking out a watch. Fuchsia mascara … a watch… that’s a pretty even trade, isn’t it?

Tonight, my blog reader Kristen and I are going to the Nelly Furtado concert. It’s gonna be fun, I’m really excited. I told Nick he couldn’t skip his softball game and come with. He tried to act like it was ok, but deep down inside I’m sure he was saddened by it. He always goes to such crappy concerts. He’s probably looking forward to the day that he actually goes to a concert with good music.