Wet

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring… and so am I. We spent the weekend doing absolutely nothing. It has been raining all week and I have to keep reminding myself that it is July, not January. I can’t remember a summer in recent years where it has rained like this?! Thankfully we didn’t have any guests at the Lake House this weekend. We napped, watched the British Open, napped, watched the FIFA U-20 World Cup Final (Go Argentina!), napped and watched movies. Even my workaholic fly guy did nothing. However, he did manage to waterski each morning, despite the rain, but was more waterlogged from being in the boat than in the lake. As frustrated by the weather as I am, admittedly I didn’t really mind. I love it at the lake, rain or shine. And, since we have guests every single weekend throughout the summer it was nice to have this forced downtime. I long for days like this. Alone at last! Hmm… Wanna invite the neighbours over for dinner?

Full house

This past weekend at the Lake House we hosted my fly guy’s co-workers… The Kids, as he calls them. The sun only shone sparingly, but we made the most of it. What do you do with a house full of guests when the weather turns? Break out the board games... and the bucket of frozen margaritas. I think games have now over ridden water sports as the activity of choice at the lake this summer since the weather has been so terrible. Over the years I somehow never learned to play poker, but this weekend that all changed. High rollin’ Pete arrived with his reggae, rock and hip hop pumpin’ iPod and his personal poker chips clasped in a metal case and immediately took over as director of entertainment. Incidentally, he also arrived with a retro waffle maker and organic sausages from Salt Spring Island that brought fond memories of Sunday breakfast like dad used to make. Anyway, my only experience with poker has been belting out the lyrics to Kenny Rogers’ rendition of The Gambler through years of underage intoxication, but beginner’s luck was on my side and I won the first three rounds. My poker face could use some work, however, not to mention a suntan. But, now when I go to Texas next year at least I’ll know how to hold ‘em.... well, or at least fold 'em. Ah, Kenny would be so proud.

Oh boy

Today may be Friday the 13th, but it has turned out to be the luckiest, most wonderful day in the world for my dear friend, Ness, who gave birth to a beautiful baby boy... Alexander. I can say with confidence that the maternity ward is one place this Travel Girl won’t be going, but I definitely will be visiting little Alex as much as I can. Ness and I have been friends for almost 15 years, but have taken only one trip together... Thailand. Except for a few soggy camping trips around Vancouver Island and the odd shopping spree to IKEA in Vancouver, Ness and I didn’t have much experience as travel companions, but we made a great team. The trip was the perfect mix of city, beach resorts, remote islands and jungle. We shared so many laughs while sharing an amazing country and culture and many of my favourite memories with her are from that trip. As a Travel Girl always on the go, I don’t see Ness as much as I would like to and now that she has had a baby I think it’s pretty safe to say that trip was our first and last. But, I am so excited to share in new memories with her as her life and family chart a new course. "Same same, but different," as the Thai's say. It was once Ness’ dream to go to Thailand, but it is Alex that has made her dreams come true.

Great balls of fire

It was opening weekend at the Lake House. We celebrated Canada Day with a mix of a dozen friends coming and going and, well… a lot of alcohol. Unfortunately there wasn’t much sunshine, but there were still more empties than clouds in the sky. And, somehow I managed to sear an exact replica of my new bikini directly onto my chest like a branded cow. Speaking of which, the theme of the weekend was MeatFest 2007. Vegetarians stop reading now. After consuming little more than sausage, bacon, kielbasa, chorizo, prosciutto, steak and salmon, the last supper culminated with both prime rib AND lamb. Witnessing the men pull their testacles from their lungs after jumping into the freezing water I decided to save waterskiing for a warmer weekend. But, in a weak moment I did dive in only to jump out quicker than I went in. Brrr! Thankfully I could warm up by the fire while roasting horse hooves (a.k.a. marshmallows) at the s’more bar or with a shot of Fireball. Mmm, it’s like cinnamon hearts in a glass. Ya, with a splash of paint remover. The inaugural Lake Cowichan 5k Fun Run got cancelled and surprisingly so did the Canada Day Recovery Run, but we did cheer on the FIFA U-20 World Cup in between taking naps, reading gossip magazines and A LOT of eating. We also played a game of Killer Bunnies which would have killed us if we hadn’t abandoned it for a rousing game of Catch Phrase compliments of the Panda and the Unicorn. The lasting visual I took away this weekend, other than a certain MUSCLE TOP (insert pointer fingers making a circular motion under your arms here), is apparently the only thing that looks worse than baggy spandex... are balls. “Lift and pull, lift and pull.”