Hey, chaos can be relaxing.!

So... Saturday, we missed the ferry. We were there on time, but there were many more cars ahead of us than we anticipated so we missed the 9 a.m. by about 10 vehicles. No worries... next ferry was at 11:45 and we had books to read, a kids' play area for the kiddo and it wasn't raining.

Got to the campsite and found that the air mattress had no plug. Air goes in - air comes out. The giant tent we borrowed had no instructions in the bag and we hadn't done a dry run; the extra blankets I had pulled out to make up for the lack of one sleeping bag were still on the bed at home and there were a few other things missing due to lack of coordination (I thought you grabbed that...). Aside from venting some anger on tent pegs (since we chose to park in an RV spot, the ground was HARD) we just rolled with it, pitched the tent and headed into Ganges to the market.

Unexpected road work meant the short route from the campground to Ganges was closed, so we had to take the long way. This, plus the missed ferry and monster tent meant that we arrived at the market just as vendors were starting to pack up for the day. A quick hustle through the stalls netted us some sharp feta-like hard cheese (White Grace from Moonstruck Organic), two jars of amazing spice blends (Moroccan and Ethiopian from Monsoon Coast), two end-cuts of soap (in a grab bag from (I think) Kama Natural Soap -- they did not stamp or mark their bag or give me a receipt or card), some pickles (sorry, missed the vendor), and some very yummy Rainbow Potstickers for us and a blackberry-yogurt Island Fruitsicle for the kiddo.

From there it was back to the van where we found a cute little apology under our wiper. Hubby had parked between the lines but that meant parking reaaaaaalllly close to the bumper of the car angled into the spot on the driver's side. After depositing the goodies, we headed down to Thrifty Foods for some groceries to augment what we packed then opted to buy a replacement plug and cap for the air mattress and a new sleeping bag for the kid at the hardware store.

Back at camp, we settled in and started on dinner. Hubby whipped together some wonderful veggie-stuffed grilled peppers (secret ingredient: V-8 juice!) to accompany standard camp fare of hotdogs and not-so-standard pita with red-pepper dip and tzatziki.

After dinner we roasted marshmallows. Mmmmmmm.

An after-dinner walk along some of the rustic trails brought us to the edge of the island with a view of the ferries traversing the strait. Then it was back to the tent to read and drift off to sleep, early. It took a while to get comfortable but we awoke well-rested around 6:30 a.m. We had eaten and packed up camp by 8 a.m. and were able to take the short route into Ganges for coffeeeeeee, then on to Vesuvius for the ferry back through Crofton. Two more stops -- Russel Farm Market outside Crofton and fuel in Duncan, and we arrived home before luch.

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

ooOOooH! September 23rd. Marking calendar now!
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Camping Season!

The kiddo is old enough now that I feel comfortable going camping with her, so our first excursion will be a relatively lightweight one, to Ruckle Provincial Park on Saltspring Island.

The plan is to head over tomorrow morning from Swartz Bay, camp Saturday evening, then head back via Vesuvius (on the north end of Saltspring) to Crofton and down through Duncan, over the Malahat and home. Getting there on Saturday should allow us to hit the Farmer's Market before we head to the campground. The only grey area is how busy it will be and whether we will get one of the 8 available drive-in campsites or whether we will have to pack-in our stuff. Just in case, we are planning to pack light (especially since it is only one night).

Morons.

Some conservatives are really stooopid. I am renaming their list:

Ten Most Harmful Important Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

First Day in the New Digs.

Ahhh. It's 9:30 at night and I finished work for the day five hours ago.

What a change!

Today was introductions and some rapid training, followed by some filing and other basic tasks because my desk this morning was lacking both a chair and a computer. We tracked down a chair but the computer is triaged on the IT to-do list, and apparently I am not bleeding data. =shrug=

The biggest adjustment (aside from the time of day I'll be working) is changing from an environment where I was constantly interrupted (or required to change task in an instant) to one where if I want to devote one whole day to a single task, I pretty much can. I also get to plug in to my MP3 player while I work. Yay!

Bonus this week; I get a 3 day weekend, because I was working on Sunday at the front desk. I am a very happy camper. :)