Well, here's me whining. Everyone's gone off to War without me. It's the Friday night Land-Grab-Eve parking lot party before Pennsic. I haven't missed this since my first Pennsic in, oh, I don't know, I think 2002. It kind of really sucks. I couldn't go this year because of dog-sitting issues. My brother is watching Tyler during my main stay at Pennsic, starting next Wednesday, but to take him there just for the weekend is just way too much. He lives an hour and a half away, and I tried that in May for War Practice, and it was a disaster. Way too much driving for the amount of time I got to actually be at the event.
I had another very good offer of a dog-sitter, but my niece really wanted to watch him ... she's very attached to Tyler, no more than she gets to see him, and I understand when they had him for War Practice she spoiled him rotten ... which is perfect, that's how I like to have him treated. Although maybe there really is too much of a good thing ... when Tyler came home from that experience, he was actually depressed for a week or more. I think he missed the constant 24/7 attention.
But anyway, with my brother watching Tyler, I decided months ago that I would have to skip Land Grab weekend, at least staying for the whole weekend, this year.
I suppose I could look on the bright side ... it's looking like it's going to rain most of the night out there, at least off and on, with at times really heavy rain, and some thunderstorms. Yeah - doing the parking lot thing in that is no fun. We don't set up tents or anything - too much work for just one night, we usually sleep in the front seats of our trucks - so it's not like you have anywhere to go to get out of the rain, except to just go sit in the truck. Not a great time.
The parking lot party is pretty fun on years when the weather's great ... people wander around till all hours of the night drinking, meeting up with friends they haven't seen in a year, playing music, and generally enjoying a Pennsic-esque frivolity break before the work of setting up begins the next morning. All of Saturday and a large part of Sunday are just work - setting up the entire camp.
I don't have to miss the entire weekend ... I am going out tomorrow for a few hours. I figured I could leave Tyler alone for that long, I mean, he stays here by himself when I'm at work all day. Without having to go to my brother's, it's only an hour drive to Pennsic, so I can stay there for several hours, and get back before Tyler begins to feel abandoned. I have half the camp loaded in my truck, and will be showing up on site tomorrow afternoon sometime to unload that so the guys can finish setting up camp. Fortunately I don't really have to do much of anything. That was the deal I made with them earlier this year. If they would handle my set-up and tear-down work, I'd cook dinner in camp every night I'm there. Hence all the cooking and freezing frenzy last week, to get it all ready.
I think it's going to work out great, and hope the guys think so too, enough to continue this every year. Because I really detest set-up and tear-down, and I don't mind cooking so much anymore. I found a lot of good things I could make in large batches in advance, and other things that could be easily cooked on site with a minimum of mess and fuss. I know the dinners are going to be really good, and I don't think I'll mind the hour and a half or so each evening that I'll be spending heating up, serving, and cleaning up after dinner. If I do, I can always remember the alternative: exhausting hours of set-up and tear down first and last weekend, and not having a good, hot meal each evening (because if left to their own devices, the guys would have the kitchen so trashed I'd never be willing to step foot in it, much less try to cook myself anything there).
(Sorry, guys, but you know I'm right!)
Some of the stuff I came up with for dinner: beef tips and noodles (I have an awesome recipe for the beef tips done up in the crock pot, which are now frozen; and I'll cook the noodles on site); rigatoni (taking frozen pre-cooked hamburger, canned sauce, and rigatoni to cook on site); a vegetarian jambalya made with beans instead of sausage or shrimp (cooked ahead, frozen); another great crock pot recipe called "Island Kielbasi" - kielbasi cooked in the crock pot in a sauce of ketchup, brown sugar, and pineapple chunks, now frozen, to serve with rice cooked on site ... that's all I can remember off the top of my head, but I think it's going to work out well.
So ... I'm home alone this Pennsic Eve, as I will be again tomorrow night after my brief foray to War during the day. But ... three more days of work, and I'm outta there for 11 days. And I need that vacation ... my boss thoroughly pissed me off today, but that's a rant for another time.
I'll be busy during the next 5 days, anyway ... I still have to finish up at the house, pack some of my personal stuff and load it in my truck, go to the grocery store, pack that stuff up and load it in the truck, go to the bank tomorrow, and several other things I'm sure I'm forgetting (but I have a list).
It seems like forever, but Wednesday will get here, and I'll get the hell out of Dodge for a week and a half, and be incredibly happy to do so. The only down side of all of it is I'll miss Tyler a lot ... but I'll know he's well taken care of (spoiled, in fact) so I shouldn't worry too much about him.
1 comment:
Well written article.
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