The Great Wide Open
We had a great day yesterday. Needing to get out (me especially...working from home gets to me after a while), we decided to take a trip up to Niles to hit REI for some camping gear and Bloomingdales for new kitchenware. The large fry pan I use has bowed over the years, and everything drains off to the edges, leaving the middle to overheat and burn. drubear had remarked the night before that we should go out for dinner, so before we left we gave Ray and Jeremy a call to see if they wanted to hit Nandu. Turns out they needed a break as well!
The drive up was really great -- sunny, warm, and not a ton of traffic on the Edens. Bloomingdale's was busy, but we found a helpful Calphalon rep that showed us an alternative to fry pans - a sauteuse. It's a five-quart frying pan without the long handle. I keep calling it a chanteuse for some reason, although I doubt it will sing to us. We also bought a 12-qt stockpot since we needed a larger one. Prices were good, too.
With camping just around the corner, we also needed to get some sleeping bags. Babs told us we could just borrow hers and Erin's, but they're both very short people, and Chris suggested that we invest in something of our own. We headed to REI, and found these, as well as buying two ground mats, a larger cookpot (boiling water for morning coffee), a portable table, a fold-up chair and some plastic travel bottles. We saw a Books-a-Million across the parking lot, and decided to browse a while, coming away with a few magazines and bargain books. We both started wondering if BAM is owned by Ultra-Christians. Walk in the door, and you're hit with all kinds of Christian living books, and they have huge "inspirational" sections. Their religious section had pretty much only one religion (guess which), and I don't think I've ever seen a GLBT section in any of their stores.
We met R&J for dinner at Nandu when we got home, and had a great time discussing nearly everything under the sun. It turns out that they won't be able to go to Wellspring either, so it'll just be Chris and I from WOG attending. Jeremy has an exam the Friday before, and Ray has a presentation early Tuesday morning, so they'd have a little more than 24 hours at Wellspring at most. After dinner, Chris introduced Ray to Petron, a premium tequila that supposedly doesn't taste like an ashtray wiped with a bloody porkchop. I'll take their word for it. We walked over to the Starbucks afterward, and sat on the patio and chatted for a few hours more. It was just so nice to be outside for a change, interacting with people.
The drive up was really great -- sunny, warm, and not a ton of traffic on the Edens. Bloomingdale's was busy, but we found a helpful Calphalon rep that showed us an alternative to fry pans - a sauteuse. It's a five-quart frying pan without the long handle. I keep calling it a chanteuse for some reason, although I doubt it will sing to us. We also bought a 12-qt stockpot since we needed a larger one. Prices were good, too.
With camping just around the corner, we also needed to get some sleeping bags. Babs told us we could just borrow hers and Erin's, but they're both very short people, and Chris suggested that we invest in something of our own. We headed to REI, and found these, as well as buying two ground mats, a larger cookpot (boiling water for morning coffee), a portable table, a fold-up chair and some plastic travel bottles. We saw a Books-a-Million across the parking lot, and decided to browse a while, coming away with a few magazines and bargain books. We both started wondering if BAM is owned by Ultra-Christians. Walk in the door, and you're hit with all kinds of Christian living books, and they have huge "inspirational" sections. Their religious section had pretty much only one religion (guess which), and I don't think I've ever seen a GLBT section in any of their stores.
We met R&J for dinner at Nandu when we got home, and had a great time discussing nearly everything under the sun. It turns out that they won't be able to go to Wellspring either, so it'll just be Chris and I from WOG attending. Jeremy has an exam the Friday before, and Ray has a presentation early Tuesday morning, so they'd have a little more than 24 hours at Wellspring at most. After dinner, Chris introduced Ray to Petron, a premium tequila that supposedly doesn't taste like an ashtray wiped with a bloody porkchop. I'll take their word for it. We walked over to the Starbucks afterward, and sat on the patio and chatted for a few hours more. It was just so nice to be outside for a change, interacting with people.