Update Version 2.0

Well it’s T minus one week until our next attempt at camping. So far the weather looks like it should be decent. According to weather.com, all three days should be sunny and warm. We’ll see about that. With my luck, hurricane Denis will decide to tough it out over dry and land come all the way up to Green Bay and rage around the peninsula while we’re in a tent. *sigh* LoL. Just kidding. There are a few changes that have been made since our last trip. Hopefully they’ll make the whole experience a bit better although I maintain that the reason it was so bad was because the weather sucked.

First of all, we bought a new tent (well, Adam did.) It’s bigger/taller than the other one and is brand new and should therefore be hole-free. Apparently the tent he had had a few teeny holes in the door that let the water come in a bit when it was torrentially downpouring all night. So we’ll see how this new one works out. Hopefully it’s as easy to put up as the other one was.

Secondly, we bought an air mattress. True, we did actually buy this during the last attempt but we didn’t really use it since we kind of packed up and left in the middle of the afternoon. It’s a queen size one that just barely fit in the other tent. It was relatively comfortable but I have a sneaking suspicion it will lead to some problems. The main one is the fact that Adam tends to toss and turn a lot during the night. Normally this is just an annoyance, but nothing I can’t handle. With this air mattress I fear that his tossing could send me flying into the side of the tent. We’ll see what happens I guess. If all else fails I suppose I could strap him down somehow so he can’t move. Hmm. Now there’s an idea. Heh heh.

Anyway, thirdly, we bought a propane camp stove rather than hauling a charcoal grill around. It takes up less space and is more reliable and faster. Adam has also decided to buy fire-starting thingys at Menards so hopefully we have more luck with the fire this time.

Lastly, we also bought an inflatable loveseat. Stupid, I know, but it was so cute it was just irresistible.

At this point it looks like it will just be us two. Catherine and Tony seem to have gotten very busy lives at the moment so we’re hoping to do something with them at another time. I’m fine with this arrangement. It will give Adam and I more time together in the great outdoors. Woo. (No really, that was a serious “woo”.)

In other news, I recently gave into my desires and splurged and bought all six seasons of Sex in the City. It cost me a pretty penny, but I seemed to have a lot of money sitting around (as Adam well knows since I apparently kept telling him how I had a lot of money and he finally got fed up with me and told me to spend the damn money on the DVDs that I’d been talking about getting for months) So I’ve been spending a few hours each day watching a few episodes. I just started season four yesterday night. It’s such a good show. Even Adam likes it and has agreed to watch episodes with me. I find that interesting. That’s really the only big ticket item I’ve bought lately. Oh wait – I also bought a new hard drive. Yeah, go figure that the only part that was reused from my old computer would die 6 months after the new one was built. *sigh* So I lost everything again. Luckily I hadn’t really built up the kind of stash I had had the first time. Most pictures I had uploaded to photobucket anyway. It’s just a matter of rebuilding my Money files and trying to remember everyone’s addresses. I think I saved most the e-mails from February so hopefully I’ll be able to recreate that file as well. I’m crossing my fingers that this hard drive won’t spontaneously erase itself, but who knows. My track record isn’t too hot.

I’ve been keeping busy at work and have been to one of the summer board meetings for IMA. It’s interesting to see the inner workings of the group. It’s much different than I would have expected. It still appears that I will have a lot of fun and meet a lot of interesting people. Hopefully my previous bad luck with organizations won’t rub off onto this one. There’s really not a lot of travel ahead for me. I know I’ll be heading up to Denmark for a day or so later on this month to do internal audit testing up there and I need to get out to New London to do a fixed asset physical sometime this summer but that’s about it.

About two weeks ago Adam and I submitted an application for an apartment out in a complex in Neenah. My lease isn’t up until October, but we were being proactive and liked the place so much we wanted to get their attention as soon as possible. They have a two month notification period so we should know if something we want opens up by August sometime. Luckily my apartment complex has only a one month notification requirement so there should be no overlap. Assuming something opens up in August, that is. My lease also has a “you can’t move out in November-February” clause it in so hopefully something opens up or we’ll have to wait until March. Not that that would be a tragedy or anything. It’s just that there are so many things about my apartment that are bugging me lately. The place we’d be moving to is a much nicer area and they’re much nicer apartments. They have a garage, a dishwasher, and a washer and dryer in the apartment itself. How awesome is that? The kitchen is huge with lots of cabinets and counter space. It will be a lot of fun. My apartment seems to be falling apart a little bit at a time. The bathroom is the worst hit. The toilet seat totally broke last weekend and had to be replaced. The shower makes weird noises and spontaneously switches from hot to cold. The sink doesn’t drain worth a damn and every so often weird shit comes bubbling up out of it and leaves nasty crap all over the sink. The faucets drip. *sigh* And don’t even get me started on the neighbors. Ugh! It will just be nice to get away from all that. Yes, it’s a longer commute and I will no longer be able to go home for lunch, but I figure it’s worth it to live in a better place and be closer to Adam. Well, live WITH Adam. I guess we’ll see how things work out.

Adam recently got a nights/weekends part-time job over at Wal-Mart. He starts on Monday and seems to be excited about it. I can’t help but think it’s my fault that he decided to do this. When we were talking about getting an apartment and were looking around at our choices, he got nervous about whether he’d be able to afford his part of the expenses. Yes, I make more than he does, but not THAT much more. He just decided he’d be more comfortable with the whole thing if he took this job for a bit to accumulate some money in savings and add a little padding to his current balances. I can understand this and I totally support it. I’m just not sure how much I’m going to like his being unavailable to me for so much of the time. Both he and I likened it to my stint in Lancaster. I suppose him doing this now will eliminate the need for him to do this later on. I really like the idea that he’s trying to get himself together and organized financially since he knows this is a big thing with me. I guess it’s kind of flattering that he’s been asking for my advice and help about this kind of thing. Money does tend to unleash a psycho part of me though and I worry that I’ll get too bossy or something. I don’t know. I suppose I shouldn’t worry since I’m sure if I was bugging him he’d let me know. That’s one great thing about the relationship we have: we both don’t see the need to be someone we’re not and we have no problem being completely honest with each other. If he’s doing things that are irritating me, I tell him, and vice versa. It’s a good thing. So anyway, I think I’ll be finding myself alone more than I have been in the recent months but I’m thinking this might be good. Maybe I’ll get that latch-hook done. Or started. LoL.