Chocolate, Cheese, and Trueblood
After finally returning from my trip to Wisconsin (where I did not have any internet access, at all. I’m sure that if I were as brilliant as Denise, I could have made a computer out of a flat rock, a piece of chocolate and some lake water, but I’m not. I’m sure that if I were as nice as Anne, or as drop-dead gorgeous as my mother, or as charming as my father, or as cute as my sister, I could have convinced someone to give me their computer, but I’m not. So there.) I was nauseous with chocolate overdose, and car sickness. The car sickness was my Dad’s fault. He took us all to Barnes and Noble early in the trip and bought me four books. In addition to the ten that I had in my bag. Therefore, I was re-reading my favorite of my new books (Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin. I need the sequels! Desperately. It’s a matter of life or death.) and, because I get sick if I read in moving vehicles, I was getting worse feeling by the minute. But I have priorities: me or the book? The choice is obvious.
Back to the actual trip. We left Evanston, and, after a grueling car drive consisting mainly of Liz and me performing a hideous rendition of a medley of “Islands in the Stream”, “Staying Alive”, and “Living on a Prayer” (what do the songs have in common? American Idol Encore 2 for the Wii), we reached the first chocolate shop we were supposed to visit. Unfortunately, it had a sign in the window which read, “No chocolate until mid-September”. What? No chocolate? What will we do? Little did we know that more chocolate than we could handle was coming our way…
We went to another homemade chocolate shop called Oak’s Candies, which sold excellent meltaways and some truly adorable chocolate Ice cream cones. It was a normal cone, but it had milk chocolate, shaped like ice cream, coming out of it. Yum. We went to the experimental aircraft museum, where Liz and I practically regurgitated out copious amounts of chocolate in a flight simulator. Afterward, we approached yet another chocolate store where we bought salt water taffy and chocolate chips. Chocolate covered potato chips, that is.
After staying the night in a fantastic hotel, and watching an episode of Trueblood, another purchase from the B and N, we hit the road again, heading for a grocery store called Woodman’s. Woodman’s had everything! We bought supplies for the next three days when we would be renting a cottage by Kangaroo Lake. We also bought a huge amount of soda, some of which actually had sugar. (My dad doesn’t like us drinking soda, especially soda with sugar.) Anyway, the car was stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey with food.
Kangaroo Lake was stunning. We spent the days Kayaking, paddle boating, and swimming until Liz got incredibly sunburned. We spent the nights making s’mores, playing Mad Libs, watching Trueblood, and having Odd Dreams. It was fantastic and relaxing and I think I might be getting a little obsessed with Trueblood. ( I had been obsessed with the books it’s based on first, of course. Still, it’s a really interesting series and it’s nice to see the differences between the books and the show.)
Going home, we ate lunch at Culver’s and dropped by two moe candy shops: one that specialized in home made lollipops, the other in, you guessed it, chocolate! We spent the car ride Playing with Klaus, my cross-dressing stuffed tiger cub, and Liz’s stuffed mute male Mammoth, Tusky. We acted out their forbidden high school love, and accompanied them with various songs from AI Encore. It was great. Even if I still feel like Kakashi’s going to be covered in vomit any minute now.
July 7th, 2009Topic: Food, Life, Ramblings Tags: dessert, Life
July 8th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Alas, while I am quite brilliant, I am not yet capable of turning chocolate and pond scum into computer – or computer juice, for that matter. I’m working on it though. In the meantime, rest assured that I will never book us in a location that does not allow quick and easy internet access. One camping trip with you kids (not to mention your drop dead gorgeous mother who can drive a woman who doesn’t drink to drink) has taught me that lesson.
I have a wee question about your fabulous candy-filled vacation. Where the heck was Prince J in all of this? All parties accounted for except his majesty, the Prince. Did you drop his cold, dead body into the lake and are now trying to pretend he never existed?
Also, do not tell Michelle Belle that you have watched True Blood. She seems to believe you are not yet mature enough to watch such things. (Forgive her, she cannot quite wrap her head around the fact that you are no longer an annoying eight year old and are in fact GROWN UP.)
July 8th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I have to camp after BlogHer and I will not have wifi. Odds on you guys coming to just kidnap me?
July 8th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Erin, I would be happy to kidnap you, will you still be in our area or will you head back home? Also, can you help me convince Elisa that BlogHer Camping is a good idea – Burning BlogHer…
July 9th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I got name-checked in Vampire Vocab! Sweet! Now to try some of that serial-killer soda you guys brought me. If I end up dead, you can have Bert.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
BlogHer Camping? Are you INSANE?
July 9th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
And I’ll be going from Chicago, back to Detroit, picking up the kids, and flying Monday to WV. Where in I cry a lot and whine.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:08 am
J was there, but I was trying to paint the vacation in a happy light. He spent most of the time whinging about his sisters and hitting us too. But he was fun to play Death Tag with. And he might of been a little justified in his annoyance: Liz and I wouldn’t stop singing “Living on a prayer”. Not to mention Dad cat-ifying it.
I must say though, I do believe that Michelle might already know, if she read my blog. By the way, for me, Trueblood is soooo less scary than Buffy. I know how it ends!
July 10th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Your going camping right after Blogher?! You’ll go into shock! If you want though, I can send Eric, my invisible vampire friend to kidnap you. All he taxes is a little tiny bit of blood. It’s really such a small price to pay.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Here I’ll set up the mood for you:
It was a dark and stormy night. As screams ring out outside, you huddle under your couch, praying he won’t find you, because if he does, it’ll all be over. You pulse is slamming in your ears, deafening you with it’s cry to escape, escape while you can. You crawl to the window, peeking out with trepidation spilling through you. A flash of lightning illuminates a figure, smiling maniacally, who revs a blood spattered chainsaw…
How was that? Are you ready for the serial killer soda now?
July 10th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Send Eric! Send Eric !
July 11th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Michelle’s been sick and socializing and trying to find a sub-lease so she can move into a cool house with cool people and then trying to make up work hours that she missed from being sick to make more money with which to move into new house… never ending vicious cycle of grown up-ness. So maybe she has not read your blog recently. Also, she’s addicted to Farmtown like some other people we know.
And it’s not the scaryness that concerned her, it was the errr grown up situations…
July 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Oh okay, I get it.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Ooh, sorry. Too late. My friend from Florida just came into town, and Eric refuses to be separated from her. Which makes invisible Sookie jealous.