Last week, instead of going up to Asheville, oneandonlymatt and I went to the Len Foote Hike Inn. It was actually Matt's Christmas present, but since I had to schedule so far out we didn't go until last weekend. You check in at Amicalola falls and hike 4.9 miles to a lodge in the woods. It has a bunk house, a bath house, a dining hall and a social building. There are pretty outdoor places to watch nature too. Eveything there is done with an eye toward conservation. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. The hike out was more brutal because I had just hiked 5 miles the day before.

When we reached civilization again we joined reikimaster and thunder24 for a game at the Gwinnett Braves Stadium.

Oh, we also saw District 9 last Friday night. I liked it quite a bit. I loved the style and the storytelling. I loved that it was an average person - a cubicle monkey really - who found himself in that situation. I am glad they didn't cast an A List Actor in that role.

This week has been spent pretty much getting ready for Dragon*Con. My costume is done and I am ready to go. Matt is going up to Asheville this weekend with lerg. I am staying home to get the house cleaned up and pack for D*C. dreamsidhe arrives next Thursday evening and the fun will begin.

The weekend after D*C, Matt and I are heading to New Orleans for the Lions opening day game against the Saints. Two very different weekends of fun - fandom and football. I am a renaissance Wheezinggirl.

This is just a quick post to share the pics from the last two trips. We finished the last concrete pier on Saturday. Even though we mixed the concrete by hand, it was MUCH easier than doing all 7 of the other ones.

We also did a lot of work on the land itself. I didn't get pictures of that. Matt did a lot of weed-whacking. I opened up armageddon on the poison ivy and then made a nice wood pile for the fire pit. For the first time all year, I feel ready to host people. That is a very good thing, since people are showing up in two weeks!

Here are the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

I was on my way home last night when I turned down the final leg of my trip. Halfway down the road, the road was closed. I turned around in the cul de sac like everyone else. A Range Rover behind me decided this whole event was apparently my fault and started to drive very aggressively and he zipped around me at the stop light blocking my ability to turn left to where I wanted to go. I turned right and headed in a big circle to get home. I called oneandonlymatt and told him I was trying to get home. He said our power was out. It had been out when he got home at 5. It was 6:15 when I called. When I finally did arrive home, Matt was putting the important contents of the freezer/refrigerator in a cooler.

Figuring there wasn't much else to do besides wait for the power to come back on, we went about our normal Monday night - sushi and grocery shopping. Neither Fuji Hana nor Publix were experiencing power outages. We didn't have much to get, nor did we have the space to store it with the power being out, so it didn't take long.

We got home, put everything away and then got ready to settle in. We got out the flash lights, put on our warmest PJs and decided to watch two DVDs in bed on Matt's laptop. We watched the final episode of "Stephen Fry in America" (Thanks, radiantbaby - we liked it a lot) and then another episode of BBC's "Robin Hood". By then, it was 10pm and the power still wasn't on. The automated system at the power company had said it would be on around 8:30, but those systems are hardly ever truthful. So, I set the alarm on my cell phone and went to sleep. Piglet was under the covers keeping herself warm and by consequence she was keeping me nice and warm too.

I dreamed that the power went back on, but when I woke up in the middle of the night it hadn't. At 4am, the power did go back on. Then I dreamed that because of the power outage I didn't wake up until 8:30 and was clearly late for work. But that didn't actually happen either.

We got an absolute ton of work done yesterday. onandonlymatt, our friend Chad and I went up to Mt. Matt on Friday night and set up camp. We got up early on Saturday and Matt and Chad went into Asheville to rent a DR Brush Mower from a rental place. They brought it back and got right to work. They cleared the entire meadow behind the barn. It looks soooo good. Then the mower broke (the battery died and the guy at the rental place just told them to jump it when they called him to tell him it was dead). We borrowed jumper cables from our neighbors and used the battery pack that we use for our power up there to jump it. It worked and they took it up to the Tumbleweed Clearing to get that prepped for building. They wanted to do two more spots (the lower clearing and the ridge) to make camping areas but since they had to deal with the battery they ran out of time. But we are very happy with the progress that did happen. And we can clear the other two spots with our chainsaw and weed-eater, it will just take a little more time. Then we came home last night instead of staying in Marshall. Today, Matt and I are not doing much of anything.

Enough babbling from me. I'll let the photos do the talking. I took a million of them and they are now on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

I had a minor revelation this past weekend.

I am a different person when I am in Asheville. I would even go so far as to say I am a better person when I am in Asheville.

This epiphany came when I was in the yard on Sunday morning helping oneandonlymatt do some clean up. I was hot, there were mosquitoes and I was picking up sticks from the yard. These are not things I enjoy doing. Then, a cricket landed on my shorts. When I went to swipe it off, it held on to my finger for its dear little cricket life. I freaked out. I screamed. I danced. I just wanted the cricket to go away. I was as though it was a locust or a venomous scorpion. I realized I hated being in my yard.

( the difference between my yard and Mt Matt...? )

Oh, I apologize if that got a little angsty in the end. That was not exactly my intention. I still don't have an answer for myself, but I feel better having written it out. Thanks for listening.

We are up in Asheville. We got here last night, after leaving work about 4:30. We set up camp and watched an episode of 30 Days on Hulu and then settled in for the night.

( read about our daring animal rescues here! )

I just wanted to post a few pictures of our trip to Asheville. We were there from Friday through Sunday. On Saturday, lerg his very fun girlfriend, M, came up to the land to spend the night camping. We took them into Asheville to our favorite places (Sante Wine Bar, Thirsty Monk Belgian Beer Bar) and then to The Laughing Seed for dinner. On Sunday we went for a hike just outside of Hot Springs, NC.

( click here for some photos of the trip )
Thanks for looking!

I am just checking in to say Hi from the middle of Mt. Matt. We arrived around lunch time today and we are testing our new wireless card...which appears to be working smashingly.

After this, we are going to set up camp and then go in to Asheville.

So...I have poison ivy again. I seem to get it by just looking at a Poison Ivy plant these days. Harumph. Since I love camping and hiking I am not sure I am going to be able to avoid it. Any practical advise to reducing the itching or the exposure would be welcomed.

Bye for now

I've done the "interests" meme before. So when I saw the "topics" meme, I couldn't pass it up.

( What I've been journaling about )

On an unrelated note...
I never in my life thought that two of my favorite activites would be camping and hiking. I was way too big a pussy to think I could handle either. Now, I miss it when I am not hiking. (That doesn't mean I don't cry from time to time, though...)