Bucks n' Does

Holy cow do we have a lot to discuss. Um, I think I left off when I was moving into our new house. So I spent that whole week moving and unpacking and then going to Vegas. Then when I got back from Vegas I worked a really busy week (mostly on the border of Canada) that ran on average about 12 hour days before I even got home. Then this last Friday through Sunday I had major family festivities.

Friday after work Brenna and I drove to Green Lakes golf course in Syracuse, to attend my parents 25th Anniversary party. My sister and I gave them lots of cash (rolled together in 20's and 5's) to either spend on their upcomming trip to Hawaii or there soon after trip to Africa (after hiking Machu Piccu and the Incan temples in Peru they decided they wanted to hike Mt. Kilamonjaro (spelled?)). So we partied hard until around midnight, got to dance with Brenna and see my relatives and stuff. Then when the party ended my parents, Danielle and her boyfriend Justin, got in my parents car, and Brenna and I got in my car, and we all drove to Old Forge.

We got there at about 1:45 a.m. and unpacked our cars. Brenna and I shoved two bunk beds together to make a fort to sleep in, and then everyone went to bed.

We woke up around 10:30 and first thing I went out in a kayak and took some pictures of the cabin we were staying in, from the lake (along with some of a bridge I like and some mountains). Then I attempted to roll the kayak all the way around in the water with me in it. I got half way. That didn't work to well...ya know...stopping underwater facing down. After that we all ate breakfast and packed a lunch, and went to go hike a mountain.

What is it with Hecks and hiking?

On our way up the mountain a snake almost hit me in the legs (it was tumbling down at me) and then it went off to the side of the trail. Justin decided he wanted to pick it up, keep in mind it was a 3 foot long garter snake. So he grabbed it's tail, and then it bit his hand. The weird part was it stayed biting on his hand. So he was standing there with a 3 foot snake hanging from his hand, and started pinching it's head trying to pull it off. It made a really loud ripping noise, not unlike when you pull a hook out of a fish's mouth. So then his hand started bleeding and everyone was freaking out, but it wasn't even a deep bite, it was like a bleeding cat scratch. I mean, come on, it was a garter snake.

So then after considering sucking imaginary venom from his hand, but deciding to just coat it with antibiotics and iodine, we continued. That's about all I can say about that hike, because that was the only thing that stuck out that you'd find interesting. There were cool rocks at the top, but you'd have to see the pictures to understand.

After that hike we went home and Brenna, and I cooked dinner for my parents, Danielle was the cleaning lady, Justin was the waiter. We all dressed up. It was adorable.Woo.

It made my mom really happy, she cried. I think she decided she missed us.

Dinner came out good too. It was beer boiled shrimp with spicy cocktail sauce, salad, mojito chicken, cheesey garlic bicuits, garlic mashed potatoes, and rice (which didn't come out right), all made from scratch. Dessert was Reece's peanut butter cups on a plate with chocolate sauce and strawberries...yeah, we forgot about what to get for dessert.

After that we played Cranium, darts, and shot bottle rockets into the lake.

The next day we hiked Rocky mountain, played Magic and darts. Then my parents paid for us all to ride on a 4 person sea-plane (20 min. ride) over Old Forge, I have some pics of that that I'll put up, it was pretty fun, sans the parts when the plane would drop a couple feet, then I questioned the integrity of a 30+ year old sea-plane that is supposed to fly AND land in water.

Then we went to a really cool cabin grounds thing, with a huge awesome log lodge thing, and played the ring game. It's a ring on a string haning from the ceiling, and you swing it towards a nail on a post and try to get it to catch on it.

Yeah, I know, holly shit, how exciting. It's fun when you're the one doing it though!

Usually we'd also see bears eating out of the dumpster there, but the dumpsters have to be electrified now due to New York State law. So instead, the owner of the place cleared out a clearing in the woods, and built a blind to sit it with a camera attatched to the top. The camera is connected to a TV in the lodge, and on it we saw a mother black bear with 3 cubs. The owner told us that we could hike up to the blind (yay more hiking) and watch them eat because he was about to feed them the leftovers from the kitchen. Apparently the bears wouldn't rip off our faces?

So we went up the path and the mom was sitting there. About 50 feet away. Until she walked towards us and was 15 feet away. That was scary. The cubs were up in a tree, and we were just like...um...crap.

So Justin and I started inching our ways between her and the blind, figured what's the difference if we get a few feet closer, if she wants to kill us she's going to do it regardless of if we're 15 or 10 feet away. So we actually made it in the blind alive, and then everyone else followed. Then we sat in the blind and she moved about 5 feet closer. So we were 5 feet from a black bear with nothing but an inch of plywood for protection. Reeeeeeal secure feeling.

Then the owner (70 years old man) comes grunting up the trail hauling a garbage bag over his shoulder. He walks right up next to her! Throws some trail mix on the ground, and while she eats that he dumps a garbage bag full of Quiche on the ground. Keep in mind he was so close to her that if she turned around she'd probably knock into him. Now that's RUGGED.

So we sat there and watched her eat, and took pictures until she finally walked away.

That was freakin' awesome.

I bought pizza and chicken wings for everyone as a pizza party for my dad's Father's Day present.

Then it started to get late so Brenna and I needed to head home (4.5 hour ride home from Old Forge to Buffalo), but my parents lead us out of Old Forge so we would know where to go, plus we stopped a couple times to feed some deer on the side of the road.

Good times, good times.

Now it's back to a fairly busy week of work (probably my 3rd straight week of overtime hours), but at least next week I have quite a few days off, I'll probably spend a good majority of it a) helping out over at Troma productions Buffalo HQ and b)getting used to the new house, I still haven't really spent much time in it!!!

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Sixteen military wives,Thirty-two softly focused, brightly colored eyes
Staring at the natural tan,of thirty-two gently clenching, wrinkled, little hands.
Seventeen company men,Out of which only twelve will make it back again.
Seargeant sent a letter to five,Military wives, his tears drip down to ten little eyes.

Cheer them on to their rivals
Cause America can, and America can't say no
And America does, if America says it's so
It's so
And the anchorperson on TV goes...La de da de da

Fifteen celebrity mimesLeaving their fifteen sorted wretched checkered lives
Will they find the solution in time
Using their fifteen pristine moderate liberal minds?

Eighteen academy chairs
Out of which only seven really even care
Doling out a garment to five
Celebrity mimes, they're humbly taken by surprise

Cheer them on to their rivals
Cause America can, and America can't say no
And America does, if America says it's so
It's so
And the anchorperson on TV goes...La de da de da de-dadedade-da
La de da de da de-dadedade-da

Fourteen cannibal kings
Wondering blindly what the dinner bell will bring
Fifteen celebrity mimes
Served on a leafy bed th sixteen military wives

Cheer them on to their rivals
Cause America can, and America can't say no
And America does, if America says it's so
It's so
And the anchorperson on TV goes...La de da de da de-dadedade-da
La de da de da de-dadedade-da

"16 Military Wives" -The Decemberists