To the lake!

This weekend marks the annual family reunion in Cass Lake, and I am very pleased to be heading up there tomorrow with my sister, her husband, and their daughter. We have been getting together every summer for about 25 years, save for a couple years here and there, and it's always a good time. Nothing much actually happens at the lake, but it's awesome just to be with my family. We play lots of cards, go fishing, skiing, tubing, geocaching, burn bonfires, and other typical Lake-type things that are best when shared with relatives. Since it's my family, there's a healthy dose of nerdiness as the uncles and cousins show off their latest cell phones, laptops, computers, GPS devices, and other sorts of techie/geeky/nerdy apparati. For about twenty years we went to a resort called Noka Sippi, near Brainerd, but realized we were outgrowing its relatively small lake, and limited amenities, as the family expanded. Cass Lake has been serving us wonderfully for the past five or so years, and I can hardly wait to get up there again. I'll be coming back one week from right now, hopefully with some good stories and photos (such as the one at the top of this blog, which I took a few years as the sun set over the small cove in which the resort is neatly nestled).

Due to the fact that we live in an apartment, car maintenance is sometimes a tricky business. I'm no gearhead, but I do change my own oil and perform other small bits of fix-it operations as needed (such as a few weeks ago when, much to my surprise, I plugged a hole in my wife's car tire into which was lodged a little screw she had ran over). Usually I change the oil at my cousin's house, but since he and his wife are moving soon, I am in need of another location. This afternoon my friend Sarah's parents graciously let me use their garage, and hopefully I can do that from time to time in the future (thanks again, Sarah and your parents!), but it will be nice to have a house someday where I can dirty our own floor and not feel guilty about doing so.

While the oil was draining, Sarah and I took her car and went to run some errands which eventually led us to the food court at Costco. I was about to get one of their delicious ice cream sundaes when a giant slice of pizza caught my eye, as well as my stomach. It soon became mine, and after washing it down with a soda (Sam Jackson would be proud) I realized there was no way to fit the ice cream into the few loose spaces available in my tummy. I guess I'll just have to head back there tomorrow if I'm in the neighborhood. If only their food wasn't so tasty, and so cheap...

Time to get the laundry and finish watching The Godfather Part 2 with a tall cold frothy mug of Allen Wright's. Ahhh....