Fun with cooking and fire...

Carrie, cookin' up some goodness! In fact, Greg and Carrie are cooking dinner as I write! YAY!

Darryl and Michelle. Fire. Good.

Pedal Boy and Lady D

YAY! Pedal boy is on the scene!!!

The host with the most...

Not only is Tracy and amazing host, but she's a very talented web designer!

YAY! A purple unincorn!

My eyes are shut as usual, but who cares! I'm very proud to say that I got to post the first sticker onto our production chart! And it was a PURPLE UNICORN!!! YAY! (Don't worry, Le Tigre - MY LITTLE PONY stickers have since been added... )

Carrie's Villa

Because everyone needs their very own villa...

Blogmaster D

This is where it all happens... Well, the blogging, that is. Note the GIANT MAPLE LEAF hat tastefully hung on the mirror... Also note the bottle of BUG REPELLENT on my dresser. I'm bein' eaten ALIVE, I tell ya! ACK! :)P

To bring you up to speed...

Greetings!

Uhhh, okay – so I’ve been THINKING about writing these last few days… Key word: Thinking.

However, I have been keeping a running list of the various highlights and events. Oh, AND a list of the beer that we’ve been sampling… Hmm. Maybe that's why I haven’t written anything. I don’t know what your point is. Well, at any rate – I’m back. And I’ve got the crazy, funky-fresh, crunk-filled breakdown from the studio on the lake!

So yeah, recording has been going very well so far. We’ve gotten basic tracks done for quite a few songs and we recorded two more tunes today. We did, however, have a little hiccup with the song, ‘Hovering.’ For various reasons, we just weren’t getting the take we wanted. And believe me, we spent some serious time trying to GET that special take. Ummm, how about ten HOURS worth of trying… ACK! It was just one of those things – guess it just wasn’t in the cards that day.

On the shiny side of the coin, however, we did end up getting nice takes of ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Saturday Sun’ on that same day. (And very late night…) And ‘Saturday Sun’ we did in just one take! I think we were just so frustrated with our marathon ‘Hovering’ spree there was NO way we were going to mess around with any ‘multiple-take’ hoo-hah. So there.

It’s funny. We recorded ‘Hovering’ on Wednesday. We even eventually got some takes I think were pretty good. I put emphasis on the word ‘think’ as none of us have actually been able to BEAR listening to the track since the day we recorded it. However, Pedal Boy arrived yesterday (Our beloved, Greg) and I think we’re just going to end up re-recording the whole thing. We’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that we were simply missing the vibe he adds to the song. I think things will come off without a hitch the next time we record it. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

This past weekend was very enjoyable, indeed. Carrie spent some time getting her piano and guitar tracks recorded for the tunes we did last week. And since, well, I don’t have anything to do with that, I basically had some time off. Heh heh heh… Let the debauchery begin! Okay – yeah, maybe that would’ve been a good time to update the ol’ blog, but what am I gonna entertain you with if I don’t EXPERIENCE anything?! HA! Yeah, try and argue with THAT.

Basically, and not to disappoint you, I pretty much hung out all weekend. What made it so decadent is that I don’t really remember the last time I was able to do that. I hung out, enjoyed the nice weather, did some cooking, drank some beer, read some magazines… Watched CARNIVALE… >:-) Yeah, it was pretty damn enjoyable.

It was just so nice. I had some time to just sit and listen to music, to have some great conversations with Darryl, Tracy and Carrie and to just contemplate the amazing situation we have here. I think the most accurate description of our little set-up would be that of an artist’s commune. Everyone has their particular point of expertise and is very competently demonstrating their skills. In addition, everyone is helping out with the everyday duties that any family would require. We’re all cooking, cleaning, watching CARNIVALE together, etc. Okay – granted, I’ve gotta give it up to Tracy as she’s definitely been heading up the cleaning brigade, but I’d like to think we’ve all been helping out. For instance, not only is Darryl our AMAZING producer, but he’s also been kind enough to wash our bedding and make sure we have clean towels. Umm, when was the last time that you heard of a producer concerned with whether or not you had clean sheets?! I think he deserves an album credit for it, to be sure. :)

After Carrie finished laying down her piano and guitar tracks on the tunes we had recorded, we were able to hang out together and enjoy the area. We went for a really nice walk the other day and explored the area a bit. We even ran across an area close-by named ‘Carrie’s Villa.’ I think it’s important that everyone have their own villa. I’m working on procuring one in the south of France, myself. I’m planning on investing some of my rockstar earnings… :)P

We also got to explore some more of the local stores. We’ve frequented the local gourmet food store a few times, we’ve definitely re-visited the beer store and we even had a girls shopping day on Sunday. Carrie, Tracy and I went out for a while on Sunday and it was really nice. (Another shout-out to Tracy for driving us all over the countryside!) We ate breakfast at a local diner and made some stops in the area. Went to the bank, got some coffee, enjoyed the heat, bought some clothes… TeeHee… It was a very profitable afternoon.

We also had to go back to the 99 cent store to get more stickers. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the importance of the 99 cent store in the grand scheme of our recording. Darryl put together a production chart to track the progress of each song and all of its parts. (And I helped! I got to do all the lettering… YAY!) ANYway – we needed to get some stickers to mark our progress. (Duh.)

The first time we went to the store, we picked up some lovely cherry, unicorn and star stickers. Granted, we went in to get your basic, vanilla ‘star’ stickers, but the 99 cent store had SO much more to offer. However, when we started to sticker-up the chart, we decided we needed just a few more types of stickers. (For instance, I really regretted not picking up the MY LITTLE PONY stickers and Carrie was crying out for Sponge Bob…) So anyway, back to the 99 cent store we went…

The last time we were at the store, I noted a big, obnoxious Bootsy-Collinsish hat with a big, Canadian maple leaf on it. My first thought was that it would be great for a pub crawl hat… However, I opted to not get it at the time. When we returned to the store, Tracy was with us and the first thing she said to me was, “Hey – look at this hat – it’d be great for your pub crawls!”

How do you deny something like that TWICE?! Perhaps you have the will-power to stand in the face of the giant, maple leaf hat and say ‘no,’ but I clearly did not. I bought the hat. And I’d do it again! (Plus, it was only a DOLLAR!)

In addition to the hat, Tracy also found two of our future recording mascots: ‘Bucky the Bok Choy’ and ‘Carrie, Corn on the Cob.’ They’re these weird yet strangely appealing glass, vegetable pieces. We can’t decide if they’re supposed to be paper weights or if they’re supposed to go in an ornamental veggie display. (Well, because what ELSE do you do with glass vegetables??!) We’re also thinking about making them into Veggie Bling. I know that I’VE always fancied a bok choy necklace… Just sayin’… Anyway – as the price tag on each piece was a mere $1.47, we scooped ‘em up and the rest is history! Oh, and we also picked up some Sponge Bob, MY LITTLE PONY and cricket stickers. (For the resident cricket that lives outside the recording studio window. Michelle named him ‘Wilson Cricket.’ He rocks…Well, he tries to, anyway…)

Other than all of the hanging out, beer drinking and conversation I experienced over the weekend, we also finished up the first season of Carnivale. Sigh… It’s very safe to say that we were DEVASTATED to come to the end of the show. Crap. NOW what are we gonna do??!! Sure, we have a full season of ‘Six Feet Under’ DVDs to watch, but it’s just not the same. AND – Season 2 of Carnivale isn’t out on DVD yet. AND I just learned that there will be no season 3! A girl can’t take much more!!! I think we’ll just probably end up watching the first season over again… Or maybe some kind soul will have put Season 2 up on the web for us to pirate… But we’d NEVER do anything like that. I’m just messin’ with ya… Seriously… Really… >:-)

Let’s see… What else… Oh yes, yesterday Banjo Boy came to town! (aka Pedal Boy… aka GREG…) We love our Banjo Boy and it was nice to see him walking out of the Customs area at the airport. WOO! We’ve got some more recording to do! And another person to get addicted to Carnivale…

After we picked up Greg, we went into town to hang out for a bit. We dropped off Greg’s equipment at Darryl’s school and set out to get something to eat. We went to a nice pub called ‘Betty’s.’ We got some food and drink into our very tired guitarist and things were feelin’ good. We hung out for a bit at the pub and caught up with Greg and then took off to pick up Darryl. Since he was still in class, we took it upon ourselves to introduce Greg to ‘The Beer Store’ that was around the corner. I think he was impressed. But then, who WOULDN’T be?! He also agrees that we WILL be picking up some ‘beer gear’ while we’re here.

HOWEVER, this particular Beer Store didn’t represent as much as the others had. This one had this big ‘menu’ of beer on the wall and the idea was to place your order at the cash register and they’d send it out on this cool conveyer belt. Well, that’s all well and good if they actually have the beer that you ORDER. I was just picking beers off the menu, but I had to ask for FOUR different beers before they finally had one that I wanted! I mean, if you don’t have it in stock, don’t put it on the menu! Oh well – it’s not like it was a tragedy or anything. I still got some beer and it was good, indeed. However, I would’ve liked to have tried that raspberry mead… heh heh… Next time!

After finishing up at the Beer Store, we realized that Darryl was still in class. What were we gonna do?! Uhhh, well, let’s go to the pub down the block. Hey – nothing better than newly arriving in town and immediately participating in a pub crawl! Greg was still awake, so on to the next pub we went. It was a nice one called, ‘Dominion.’ Too bad we didn’t have the giant Maple Leaf hat to make Greg wear! NEXT TIME. After ordering a drink, Darryl was finished up with class and he walked over to meet us.

Since we were all still drinking our pint, Darryl ordered one, too. The rest of the bunch was sticking to your basic lagers, but I decided to bust out and try the Cranberry Ale. As some of you may know, I have a fondness for the fruity ales… ANYway – Personally, I liked it. So there. I’d order it again. However, the rest of the bunch didn’t seem to agree. The comments ranged anywhere from Carrie’s, “It tastes like nasty Kool-Aid” to Darryl’s classic, “It smells like a 16 year old’s lip gloss.” Hey – when I’m choosing an ale, I’m definitely hoping for a lip-glossy bouquet. Thumbs up!! :)

After finishing up at the pub, we returned home and introduced Greg to the digs. Since we’ve been CONTINUALLY celebrating my birthday, Greg and Carrie gave me the present that Greg had brought over for me from the both of them. A lovely bottle of Knob Creek whiskey… Guess it was time to make a campfire and enjoy some good whiskey! And marshmallows and smores…. And beer… Sigh… It’s just really rough livin’ over here.

So, after having a lovely campfire with all the fixins, one might think it was time to call it a day… Ohhhh noooooo…. Not us! We still had to watch some TV! Ummm, I’m not gonna go into detail about what exactly we watched, but let’s just say that it made all of us VERY happy… And answered many burning questions from the previous week’s television viewing… But that’s all I’m sayin’… I’ll say no more… Zippin’ it…

So yeah, I think this pretty much brings us up to speed. I know that there are details of the last week that will slowly come to mind, but I’ll just include them as they arrive. No hurry here… Nothing pressing here in the perfect land of the studio on the lake… Sigh…

Until later!!! Much love and happiness -

The REAL Jordache (TRJ) ™
Lady D
Dirty D
D-Loh
Daynal (Sigh… My new nickname… As coined by Darryl…)

And last, but not least…

Your Pal,
Dayna

COMING SOON: The new, improved beer list, a play-list from the week and more adventures on the lake! STAY TUNED!

Lakeside...

This is the lovely view from the deck off of Darryl and Tracy's kitchen. Nice....

Birthday in Toronto

After our fabulous sushi feast, we walked around the neighborhood. Carrie took this picture of me standing in front of the famous 'Honest Ed's' department store. We were sad, however, as they had already turned off all the lights on the sign for the night... Guess it's kind of Vegas-like...

Studio on the Lake...

This is a view from the studio - looking out onto the lake... Yay... :)

More Studio action...

Terrorizing the streets of Toronto after my birthday celebration. I look like a dork, but whatever. Pictured, from left to right: Darryl, Me, Margaret, Tracy (in back) and Michelle) We had just enjoyed an awesome sushi dinner and were attempting to walk things off... Ack...

Studio on the Lake

This is where it's alllllll goin' down. Carrie, Darryl and Michelle (behind Carrie) in action.

Ladies Night(s)....

Greetings, eh!

So yeah - another coupla perfect days on the lake...

Carrie and I have been having an absolutely amazing time. Gee - have I mentioned that yet? Hmmm... ANYhoo - things are moving along at a lovely pace and I feel like we're really getting some good stuff recorded. Darryl completely knows his stuff and it makes the recording process, which can be a pain in the ASS, pretty carefree. Granted, there have been a few challenging moments ('Hovering' - will elaborate more later...) but all in all, our musical time here has been SO enjoyable. And again, having an awesome producer and an amazing place to record certainly seems to be adding to the joy... And the lovely Tracy and Michelle... Oh, and the beer store...>:-)

But more on that later! I wanna tell some stories before the details start to get fuzzy...

So, the other night, after recording, Darryl had to go into town to teach a class, so the ladies were left at the house. (Me, Carrie, Tracy and Michelle) Tracy had made yet ANOTHER awesome meal and we had gone to the store earlier to stock up on exotic beer, so we were totally good to go. We definitely had the makings of a very fine ladies night...

After we ate dinner, we sat around the kitchen table talking about the things that ladies discuss when boys aren't around. Let's see, we discussed Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment), read portions of the Old Testament, hosted a round table discussion on world politics and pretty much solved many of the world's pressing problems. Well, we talked about them, anyway... All while drinking exotic beer and eating a very tasty, organic, veggie casserole. It was definitely a good night...

While sitting around the table, we were also priviledged to hear many amazing stories as told by the lovely Michelle. One word: Wow. She told us the most fabulous stories of her world travels, the various bands and musicians that she has played with and some of the truly unique recording sessions of which she has been a part.

She shared a particularly fascinating story of recording an entire album in a prison. Seems the prisoners had been writing some great songs and Michelle was part of the group that was comissioned to come in and be the backing band. From what I've been hearing, Canada has a great grant stucture set up and this project was the result of funding that had been given to a woman with whom Michelle was working. The idea was to come into the prison and record with each person that had written a song. This was a maximum security prison and the people in this particular prison had definitely been convicted of some heinous acts. They recorded with the prisioners, ate in the cafeteria with them, interacted with them and apparently made a great album. I haven't heard it yet, but I'm very excited to give it a listen. This is just ONE of the epic stories that we heard that night...

After we finished up in the kitchen, it was time to move to the living room for a bit of 'Canadian Idol.' Sigh... Yes, it has crept into Canada as well. I've never really been able to get up the will to watch it in the States, but I watched a bit of it here and it wasn't bad. Some of the singers were pretty decent. However, it still had that very UNrealistic vibe about it - oversensationalized and dramatic. Oh well - at least they had a REAL band backing the musicians rather than glorified karaoke tracks. (A band that contained two players that Michelle knew... Seriously - she's played with many people... wow... And now she's playing with us. :)

When Idol was over, we cracked open the first season of the HBO show, 'Carnivale.' I had become obsessed with show over the last year, but I had only seen the second season. KICK ASS! We were sitting there with the entire first season on DVD! (A special thank you to Neko Case who left the series with Darryl and Tracy after wrapping up her recent album recording... She left Six Feet Under, too! YAY!) (NOTE: If you haven't already, be sure to check out Neko Case - she's fabulous. Her recordings are actually what led Carrie to contacting Darryl. FABULOUS albums... ) Anyway - I've actually been talking about the Carnivale series to whomever would listen over the last year or so. I LOVE it and I've been trying to get people to tune in... ANYhoo - HA!!! Now everyone is the house is totally addicted!!!! Moowwhhahwhwahwhwhawhhaahahahahahahahh

Seriously. We're all addicted to Carnivale. We've been watching it every night since... I don't know what we're gonna do - we only have 4 episodes before the season is over. AND - I am very dismayed to report that the second season isn't available on DVD yet. CRAP MART! It's also another serendipitous thing that's happened while we've been here. The series is very quirky, dark, based on the travelings of a carnival in the mid-30's... It TOTALLY matches the vibe of the album that we are in the process of recording. It's just weird how things sync up sometimes... Granted, our album isn't really about a struggle between good and evil or is it set in the dust-bowl depression era, but whatever. It's still quirky, moody and carnivalesque in many spots. So there. Don't argue with me. :)P

Yeah, so anyway - we watched FOUR episodes of Carnivale that first night. We've since dialed it down to about 2 episodes a night, but it's reeeaaaaallllyyyy hard. I just don't know what we're gonna do when it's all over. I shutter to think.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I've got 'LOTS more to discuss (blah, blah, blah) but it's getting time to head back downstairs to the studio... With my 'Bucky the Lucky Bok Choy' in hand... (Don't worry - you'll be formally introduced to Bucky and his trusty buddy, Carrie Corn on the Cob in the very near future. Oh, and I scored the PERFECT hat for a Canadian pub crawl. Just sayin'... Pics coming...)

And Carrie has also hooked me up with some initial pics, so I'll be posting those later tonight. I super swear.

See yous guys later!!

The REAL Jordache

Pizza, Go Home!

Greetings and salivations!

I'd like to take a few minutes to share a few of my observations, conversations, etc. from the last few days...

The other night, around our post-recording camp fire, we were talking about funny signs, translations, etc. we've seen around the world. Michelle shared with us a CHOICE one that has since taken on quite a life of it's own...

A while back, Michelle was touring in Eastern Europe and took a visit to Prague. While visiting, she came across the most AWESOME of pizza places. (Because, I'd venture to say that nothing says Prague quite like Pizza...) ANYway - The name of the pizza place was displayed in English and read, "Pizza Go Home." YES!!! That's just brilliant.

Okay, yes, I'm sure that it was a mistranslation of 'Take out' or 'Take home', but that's still just totally brilliant. And ever since Michelle told us the story, "Pizza Go Home" has morphed into a total comedy tirade. 'Lots of fun to be had with the 'Go Home' line... It's easy! Give it a whirl:

"__________ Go Home!" Try it - it's fun!!!

She also told us a funny story about the Pizza Go Home chain. She happened upon a building that was very bleak and foreboding. At one time it had been a former KGB headquarters, but was now serving as the local police station. Parked in front of the police station was an entire line-up of police cars, all neatly in a row. Parked at the very end of the row, in front of this very oppressive building was a Pizza Go Home delivery car with its delivery car lights and doo-dads on top. I can just imagine the scene. Apparently, the pizza place was right next to the police building, so they were allowed a parking spot in front. I wish SO much I had a picture of that... I'm sure the KGB never had Pizza Go Home in mind as a future next door neighbor. Or vice versa...

(Ex: KGB Go Home)

Alrighty - next up, the best burger chain slogan EVER:

"Meat. Fire. Good."

What more is there to say? This is the new slogan of a Canadian burger chain - can't remember which one... Seriously - why bother to sugar coat things? I'm sure they've found similar slogans carved in cave walls somewhere. Hey - if it ain't broke - don't fix it. And this saying has also taken on a complete, comedic life of it's own over the last few days. Again, it's just so easy! Give it a try!

"__________. Fire. Good."

(Ex: Bass line. Fire. Good.)

And last, but not least, the concept of naming something TWICE. I mean, if it's that good, better say it TWICE!

While driving around Toronto the other day, we happened upon not only, "Pizza Pizza", but "Coffee Coffee" as well! Double score! (Bahahahahahahahhaaaa - Wooooo...) It just made me laugh.

Not to say, however, that Seattle doesn't have it's more than fair share of ridiculous signage. I come from the town of the 'Genetic Cigarette' sign and my personal favorite, 'Canal Boiler Works.' (Seriously - could someone just PLEASE go black out the 'C' in that sign!!??! COME ON!)
So yeah, I guess that's it on the highlights for now. Coming up soon: Ladies Night on the Lake, the painful birth of 'Hovering', Carrie's growing addiction to the HBO show, 'Carnivale' and other assorted nuggets.

In the meantime, please check out the following websites:

www.carrieclark.com - Duh. The reason why I'm here...

www.darrylneudorf.com - Our FABULOUS producer.

www.michellejosef.com - Our amazing drummer.

Again, it is absolutely wonderful here and we are having the best time ever!!!! WOO!!!

Write more soon -

LadyD

"Where the Beers Are"

Greetings!

Ahhh... "Where the Beers Are." How many stores in the States have an such an awesome slogan as THIS?!?! Verily I say unto you, not many... Not ENOUGH.

This is the slogan of 'The Beer Store.' Since you can't buy any alcohol in stores in Toronto, you have to go to specialty stores. The Beer Store, The Wine Shop, The Liquor Store, etc . You get the idea... AND you can get 'Beer Gear' FROM the beer store... Suffice it to say that I will definitely be picking up some beer gear while I'm here. I NEED a Beer Store t-shirt... I just do... After all, the Beer Store and I have become very close...

And here's a list of beers that I sampled that will demonstrate my newly explored Beer Store closeness:

Okacim Moche - Polish Lager (Very good - kind of mellow and sweet...)
Fuller's London Porter - English (I like Fuller's beer - haven't had this one before, however... Very nice...)
La Fin Du Monde (The End of the World) (As I know it and I feel FINE...) - Quebec (Very high alcohol content - thick and sweet - kind of meady... I had FOUR) www.unibroue.com
Creemore Springs - Ontario (Local artist community - very nice and light... Uses natural spring water)
Staropramen - Prague (Had this beer on the first night - very good... Kind of skunky - nice welcome to Toronto)
Steeman Cream Ale - Canadian (Nice and uhhh, creamy. Golden in color and kind of sweet...)
Amsterdam Natural Blonde Lager - Amsterdam (Had it in a pub called the 'Red Room' - and well, I'm a natural blonde... Had to try it... Decent lager - good pub pitcher beer...)
St. Peter's English Ale - England (Very cool bottle - shaped like a whiskey bottle... Organic beer - very nice and mellow...)
Warfteiner - Germany (Kind of a lager-like brew... Good stuff)
BLACKTHORNE CIDER - England (Granted, this is my favorite cider and I've had, uhhh, a lot of it over the years... But it never gets old... because cider is GOOD! (paul))

Okay - that's it for now. Wanted to get the IMPORTANT stuff taken care of... And I'm sure that I'll have an update to this list soon... I'm quite sure... >:-)

We're going downstairs to record right now. Things are going FABULOUSLY!!! I love this place... Amazing... Write more soon!! AND I'll post some pictures.

We miss you all and we are VERY appreciative of all the well-wishes, e-mails, phone calls and blog comments! Please keep 'em coming!!!

xxooxoxox
The Lady of the D

The Perfect Birthday...

Hey, everyone!

Thank you for the e-mails, blog comments and b-day well-wishes! It's great to hear from everyone! I'm even getting cell reception, so I've gotten your phone messages. I've got some crazy roaming fees going on, but I'll try to call you all back as soon as I can. Think I'll just get an international calling card or something...

ANYhoo - For the record, I had an absolutely KICK ASS birthday yesterday. (Jane - thank you
for the earrings and card - very cool!!! And a nice surprise...) We had planned on starting recording at 10am... Ummm, riiiiggghhhttttt.... I'm going to attribute our slightly later start to our fabulous bon fire from the night before. Heh heh... We ate some breakfast and finally got started around noon. However, it's all good as we bascially have only to walk downstairs and we're good to go!

Author's Note: Woke up with several mosquito bites this morning... Gah! Making me crazy!

We thought 'Long Black Coat' would be a nice, mellow start to the day and off we went... Granted, we're only initially laying drum and bass tracks, but I was still thinking it would take a while to get that one, special track we were looking for. Uhhh, nope. Michelle is great and we have been able to record great tracks right out of the gate with virtually NO rehearsal! Therefore, we ended up with a really solid track after playing it 3 or so times! Hey - what the hell - let's record another one! (We were thinking we'd probably only have one track done by Monday... Instead, we had THREE!)

Anyway, we decided to give 'Home' a try... A funny thing about 'Home' is that it speeds up towards the end. Mix that with the fact that we can't see Carrie in the other room and things can get a bit wonky. However, nevermind those obstacles - we STILL got the song down in a couple of takes. Okay, and even though I ended one of the recordings on the WRONG NOTE, it all worked out. I don't know what happened - played the whole song fine - just decided to up and play the WRONG NOTE at the very end. What a goober... However, Darryl is a master of the editing process and he very quickly fixed my wonkiness. Awesome... AND - we had another track recorded!!! Three tracks in less than 24 hours... WOO! And we thought we'd only have one...

As Darryl also teaches recording technology at a school in Toronto, we ended our session earlier in the afternoon so he could get to class. And, since we hadn't been to see Toronto proper yet, we hitched a ride into town to hangout while he taught. Tracy offered to come along as our tour guide and into the city we went...

Toronto is a very large city. From what I've heard, the metro area has just over 3 million peeps in it. And that's just the city... It is very sprawling here - very wide open and never-ending. Canada truly has A LOT of room to move around... It was very cool to have someone else driving us into town. We didn't have to worry about taking a wrong turn and we were able to sit in the backseat and totally play the tourist game... Cool.

We dropped Darryl off at school and Tracy drove us further into the city. We stopped in the China Town area and got out to walk around. VERY cool area and very sprawling... Great shops, restaurants and pubs everywhere - very nice vibe. We even got to visit 'Lush' - one of my favorite stores in the WORLD! I think, however, there is finally a Lush store in the Seattle area - going to locate it when I get home... Anyway, Lush is a store that sells all manner of natural and organic body care products. They sell shampoo and soap that you could pretty much eat! Their products are amazing - you'll never want to leave the bath... ANYway - stocked up on a few things, decided that we were really hungry after smelling all the awesome soaps, etc. and decided to go find a pub somewhere. (Seriously - Lush stuff is so good, it makes you hungry! Crazy!)

Tracy took us to a cool pub called the 'Red Room.' It had a great vibe and we just hung out for a while. Ordered some beer, had some snacks and contemplated that the only other thing we had planned for the night was to go pick up Darryl and meet Michelle and her partner for Sushi! YES! What a kick ass day...

After hanging at the pub, we walked back to the car and went to go pick up Darryl. It was great driving around the streets of Toronto, by the way. It's got a very European vibe about it. Kind of felt like driving around London... All the pubs, all the shops, the great diversity of nationalities... Very cool. And the architecture is awesome. 'Lots of stone and brick, which I love... I love just driving around a new city and checking out the buildings... And locating the museums... Of which there are many! YAY! And they even have a SHOE museum! Not only am I a museum geek, but I'm also a shoe whore. True story... :)

So anyway, we picked up Darryl and he showed us around the studio where he teaches. Very
state of the art and swanky - cool to see all of the new equipment and whatnot. After checking everything out, we went to meet Michelle and her partner Margaret at a sushi place downtown.

For the record, I love sushi. I could eat it everyday. So there. This place also had a great vegetarian offering, so Carrie was good to go as well! We ordered a bunch of different kinds of sushi and sat back for a stomach expanding sushi adventure. Add in some lovely, warm saki and it just doesn't get much better. :) Happy freakin' birthday to me.

After dinner, we walked around the neighborhood a bit and Michelle and Margaret pointed out
some of the local sites. It was good to walk around as we were all very full...We hung out for a bit and decided that we were all pretty beat, so we headed back home. I'd say it was a very good end to a very good day... Just quietly sitting in the backseat of a car, watching the sights of a new city rolling by, hanging with Carrie and a couple of awesome new friends... Sigh...I can honestly say that this was one of the best birthday's of my life. I got to spend it recording music, WHILE on a lake, with one of my best friends and then I got to explore a very cool city and enjoy good drinks and food. Uhhh, it doesn't get much better... :)

And with that, I bid you adieu. We will be recording 'Let It Rain' and one other tune today... Should be fun!! Have a great day everyone and know that we're thinking of you!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Dayna

The Perfect Recording Spot...

Ahhhh... Happy Birthday to ME!

Sooo, this is how I spent my night...

We decided, unexpetedly, to start recording tonight. We had orginally planned on making Sunday a 'get adjusted to the area' sort of day, but we ended up recording today anyway... I think it was part of our brilliant producer's plan all along... (Darryl 'Luv Ma'Cheen' Neudorf) Our awesome drummer, Michelle was staying the night anyway, so I guess it all made sense... And as I explained earlier, we had already visited the 'Beer Store' so it just made even MORE sense. Off to recording land we went...

For the first song of the recording, we decided upon 'Just for Tonight.' Since Greg isn't joining us until next week, we have to initially record tracks that don't 'beyond the shadow of a doubt' require his guitar presence. (However, for the record (bhaahahahahha) we honestly consider ALL of his parts to be necessary and really wish he could be here from the beginning...) ANYway...

While although it all worked out in the end, maybe this particular song wasn't the best choice for 'first song.' Basically, there are a few part of this song that are very 'directed.' It doesn't just plug along through the song. No, it has several different breaks and quirky sections to navigate. It's all well and good, but since we're recording in a situation where we can't see Carrie (drums and bass are in a separate room with no window) and we hadn't played together as a trio before, it was hard to figure out exactly where certain sections of the song were supposed to go. However, after we played it a few times and all kind of got accustomed to each other's styles of playing, it was all good to go.

Except for the stupid bass solo... Maybe Carrie will call me anal or something, but I had issues with the bass solo section - just wasn't pleased with things... Part of it was because I wasn't prepared to do a solo as I thought we were taking that section out for the recording... Part of it was because I'm basically a dork... whatever... I SUPPOSE it all worked out in the end and there's going to be a very unplanned, unexpected bass solo in the tune... Sigh... I hope it doesn't make anyone vomit. :)

But I digress... So we RECORDED OUR FIRST SONG! KICK ASS!! We got the basic tracks done and we are on our way! After we finished recording, we felt it was HIGH time to have a bonfire on the lake and celebrate our success... Oh yeah, and while we were recording, Tracy made us some AWESOME veggie trays and dip. And chips and dip... And brought us down some Perrier... What, are we like Princesses or something! :) I love this place... I love Darryl, Tracy and Michelle... Awe, shucks...

Back to the bonfire... Yeah, for the record, we're recording this album on a LAKE. So there.

After we finished up our first tune, we decided to call it a night. However, the night was not over... We still needed to walk down to the end of the yard and build a fire in the fire pit! Oh and we also needed to drink really good beer, have great conversation and solve the world's problems in the meantime... I think we did a pretty good job... Well, at least under the guise of which I currently choose to labor... Seriously - we had great conversation, a great campfire, we were on a LAKE and we just had made a GREAT recording. I honestly can't recall a better freakin' birthday... Yeah... Happy birthday to ME! WOO!!

Oh, and for a further point on the record, I have had several very good beers tonight. Yeah. I've had some great cream ales as well as several 'mead-like' beers.... Uhhh, feelin' good... But hey - IT'S MY FREAKIN' BIRTHDAY!!! Oh, and I also smell like a campfire... I don't know if it could be much better... :)

Anyhoo - I hope you all are having a fabulous morning/afternoon/night/WHATever... I hope you ALL are doing well and know that we are totally thinking about you. And have already told many drunken stories about you around our campfire... Suckas... >:-) More on the Toronto front soon!

XOXXOOOOXOOX
Lady D

I love Toronto!

Howdy!

For the record, I love Toronto! What a beautiful area... And we have amazing hosts - you just can't go wrong!

I arrived last night around 7:30pm and Darryl picked me up at the airport. Carrie, unfortunately, was indeed stuck in DENVER until this morning and didn't arrive until early afternoon. Sucky... She apparently had a fabulous time hanging out at the Denver Radisson last night... WOO! With her $9 food voucher! What up? Like United couldn't spring for a whole $10???!? I hate United... Anyhoo - she got here alright today and all is well with the world.

Last night, I hung out with Darry and Tracy and got acclimated to the Toronto/Richmond Hill vibe. They have the most awesome place on the lake - absoultely beautiful! We hung out last night, had a couple of great Czech beers and got to know each other. For the record, they are absolutely wonderful. I've had a great feeling about this whole adventure all along and sitting and chatting with them last night pretty much validated everything I had been thinking. I have a pretty good feeling the next couple of weeks will indeed be profound. Sometimes you just find yourself in a situation you feel was meant to be. This is definitely one of those times...

Totally passed out last night after the good beer, conversation and food - just a little bit tired from the days events... Tee hee... Uhhh, woke up at 1pm today! Kick ass!! Carrie arrived from the airport here at around 2:30 and we all took off to go find her a keyboard for the recording. We totally scored! She found a great keyboard and ended up paying about $60 Canadian for an entire month's rental! WOO!!! That's just crazy...

We also stopped by a local pub and had some good beer and food. I will be sure to profile all of the good beer that we sample along the way, too. There are some great ones to try, I'm finding. We even stopped at 'The Beer Store' on the way back to the studio. (Because, duh - we need beer for the recording process... Duh.) The beer store was awesome! That's all they sold... In Toronto, you can't buy alcohol at the grocery store - you have to go to a special store. In this case, THE BEER STORE. :) Good times...

Now, we're hanging out at the house/studio and we're getting ready to lay some initial tracks. We hung out for a bit and listened to the tunes and chatted about initial ideas, etc. I guess we're just gonna go ahead and get started! COOL! So yeah, we're on our way... Crazy!

We also got to meet Michelle, our drummer for the recording. I think it's gonna be a great mix - I'm very excited to hear what we all put together.

Anyhoo - gotta go record! I'll write more later... Stay gold! Carrie says HI, too!! I'm going to try to post some pictures soon as well...

Just Killin' Time...

Hey - This is awesome! This is the first time that I've been able to sit in an airport and kill time on my laptop! Right on! Anyhoo... I'm sitting aimlessly in the Phoenix Airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Toronto. I recently spoke with Carrie and she informed me she might not be arriving in Toronto until TOMORROW. Apparently, there's some sort of lame delay with her initial flight and this will therefore cause her to probably miss her connecting flight tonight. LAME!! I swear, if it's not me having flight issues, it's Carrie... And it always seems to alternate... I think the key is that we have to always travel together. We never have problems when this is the case... :) On top of it all, she's flying United. I HATE United. So there. I have always had problems whenever I've flown with them... OH well - we'll get there. It'll all be good. We'll rock out for a few weeks and alllll will be well. No other option...

So, it's been a long morning so far... I called a cab to pick me up at 4:30am. Ummm, yeah. I will just go ahead and admit right now that I was finished getting ready to go at 4:28am. Sad, but true... Damn Ladies Night!! :) Tee Hee... But hey - never let it be said that I can't represent... with two minutes to spare!

Got to the airport and all was well... I actually breezed through the check-in process and whizzed through the security lines. I didn't actually, however, whiz in, on or around the security lines. Important to note...

ANYhoo... Got on my flight and sat next to a VERY chatty older man... He was very sweet, but I gotta admit that after not having slept and the fact it was 6:30am, I wasn't really feeling chatty, myself. Oh well - it coulda been worse. It can always be worse... And after talking to him, WHILE I was trying to read my book, I learned he has family living where Jane's family currently lives... And they teach school there... And they went to North Texas... Maybe you know them, Jane... :)

Alrighty - I think that it might be getting close to time to board. AND my battery is wearing out a bit... Gotta recharge. Write more later.

And they're OFF!

Greetings!

Alrighty - It's 2:45am in the morning and I'm running around trying to deal with all the last minute details before leaving on my latest adventure. Translation: I'm still packing. :)

Okay, but I have an excuse. A couple of 'em... This week was particularly crazy, but on top of it, there was a very important function I needed to attend tonight... Ladies Night!! WOO! Come on - give it up - that's just plain legitimate. So there.

Not only did we want to send ourselves off on our Toronto adventure in style, but we also wanted to honor Laurie's 30th b-day as well! Come on - ya can't ignore something like that! Well, and any excuse to get together and throw a par-tay... AND - the boys were off having some crazy adventure on the high seas, so what EVER were we to do?! >;-)

SO - now I am paying the price... I tried to leave at 11:00, but uhhh, that just didn't happen. Whatever... Sometimes you just gotta suck it up.

Anyway - I need to leave for the airport at 4:30... Kick ass! My flight leaves at 7am and I fly to Phoenix for a lay-over before continuing on to Toronto. Groovy... I always do this... I can never manage to sleep before a trip... Blah, blah, blah... If it ain't broke... Well, but I'm sure I'll feel a bit broken come tomorrow evening, but who cares - it's all for a good cause. :)

Carrie and I are embarking upon our latest adventure in order to record a groovy, new CD! Awesome! Suffice it to say that we are very excited. Greg, will be joining us in Toronto as well to lend his masterful, guitar goodness. We've been working towards this goal for quite some time and it's fabulous to finally be on our way. And for the record, Carrie has done an amazing job at putting all of this together. She has truly outdone herself...

So, I guess that's all for now. Have to finish packing!! Please stay tuned - I'll try to give the lowdown on our adventures as often as I can.

Let the rock star adventures BEGIN!!!

HEY!!! Follow the Rhapsody link for a small sampling of music from the latest camping adventure. Okay - the first two songs were actually only looping CONTINUALLY in my head all weekend and I never actually heard them out loud, but whatever... ENJOY!

Pon de Replay - Rihanna
Sugar (Gimme Some) - Trick Daddy
Just Because - Nikka Costa
Love Is Da Shit - Spearhead
Super Bad - James Brown
Travelling Without Moving - Jamiroquai
Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars - Sarah Vaughan
My Foolish Heart - Bill Evans
Redemption Song - Bob Marley
The Way Life Is Supposed to Be - Bob Schneider
Future Shock - Curtis Mayfield
Fit But You Know It - The Streets
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - U2
Y Control - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Mind Over Matter - Sizzla
Glorify - Capleton
Superfly - Curtis Mayfield

RHAPSODY Link

RHAPSODY Link

My Friend, Flickr

Paul is kind enough to allow me to steal his pics and post them on my site. Because I'm a loser and I don't have a decent camera... Check out the full deal at http://www.flickr.com/photos/p_d_gibson/ Do it now!

ROPES AND LADDERS! Courtesy of Pauly D. 

One of my favorite pics of ALL time... Courtesy of Pauly D.  

The Killer Spot

In the pursuit of another ‘perfect spot,’ we found ourselves faced with an interesting dilemma. How does one top the ‘perfect’ spot? For that matter, how does one get away with defining ‘perfection’ in the first place? Philosophers have been at it for years – what makes me think I’ve got a handle on it?

Yeah, whatever – I ain’t no Socrates… And as far as I’m concerned, our last camping spot was definitely a candidate for perfection. However, as to not compromise the warm memory of our camping bliss, we decided upon a new approach. We would not try to top perfection, but would instead create a whole new category of amazing camping definition.

With that said, I now bring you our latest camping adventures: Dayna and Pauly Discover the KILLER SPOT. (There IS an alternative name for our adventure, by the way and maybe I’ll tell you if you’re lucky…)

Since we visited a bit of higher ground on our last adventure, we made the decision to explore the lower regions of the Olympic Peninsula with this expedition. We decided upon the beaches around the La Push area and pointed Pauly’s truck towards the Coast. We were off on another adventure.

Even though our last trip had been ‘perfect,’ there were still a few things I wanted to change for this outing. For instance, I didn’t sleep the night before the last trip and it totally kicked my ass on the first day. This time, I actually got some sleep before the trip and it made ALL the difference. There was also a certain issue with our libations on the last adventure. (You might recall the sad tale of the assy boda bag…) To avoid ANY possibility of this ever happening again, I threw away the offending assy-bag. This time, Paul brought a couple of Platypus bags and they just happened to perfectly fit an entire fifth of Jack Daniels. Ahhh, sweet, non-assy Platypus bags… I also didn’t even LOOK at the pasta while it was boiling on the stove this time. I didn’t TOUCH the pot and gladly handed the strainer over to Paul for safe, pasta-keeping. Suffice it to say, no pasta was harmed in the making of our awesome salmon dinner. But we’ll get to those details later…

ANYhoo – onto La Push we went…

We decided to head up North and catch the Edmonds ferry towards Port Angeles. Holy crapola – the ferry has gotten totally expensive! It was basically $20 for us to take a 20 minute ferry ride across the water… A dollar a minute - WOO! The last time I took the Edmonds ferry, it was $13 or something… And I thought that was expensive. Well, whatever – it was a small price to pay in the end as it did help lead us to the KILLER SPOT. The day was also very bright and sunny, so it made for a lovely ride across the water. After enjoying our short, but pricey ride, we embarked upon the road towards Port Angeles.

I haven’t been on that road in a while and I had forgotten how beautiful of an area it is. It was really nice to head out in a different direction for a change. I’m always going North, South or East – It’s very rare that I head west, towards the Coast. It was cool the way the terrain changed as we got closer to the sea. Everything just looked a bit more windswept and weathered… It felt like a whole other state.

As we rolled into the Port Angeles area, it became quickly apparent that we were no longer in the ci-tay. Yeah, I don’t remember the last time I went to my local coffee shop and was able to pick up my morning latte AND a new handgun. I mean, because when I’m ordering my double-tall, I wanna see what’s new in the Smith and Wesson line. It just makes sense!

Anyway, that’s exactly what we found as we drove into town. I don’t remember what the place was called, but yes, they had espresso AND guns. Hey – if you wanna get a gun – fine. If you wanna get a coffee – great. However, I’d really prefer that you not put your itchy, quadruple-tall-gripping fingers anywhere NEAR a trigger. I really wish we had a picture of that place…

As we continued our drive through town, we were looking for a spot to grab something to eat. While we were waiting at a stop light, we came across our first candidate. Wait a minute – Does that sign say ‘Nasty Chinese?!’ Yes, I think it does! I was both scared AND amused at this idea. However, I quickly realized my mistake as the light turned green and we moved past the big pole standing in front of the sign. It actually read, ‘Dynasty Chinese,’ but the die had already been cast - there was nasty Chinese food at that place and I didn’t want any part of it. I was already pre-occupied with my quintuple-tall and new gun, anyway. (Just kidding – I didn’t actually get a coffee…)

We didn’t eat at the nasty Chinese place and okay – I didn’t have a coffee OR a new gun, but we did find a nice place up the road. Granted, it fell a bit short of being a ‘quick’ stop, but it was nice enough. And it wasn’t ‘nasty’ so that was a nice perk. We ate our lunch and headed back out on the road – away from coffee and guns and nasty Chinese food… Towards the beach we ventured.
We arrived in the La Push area sometime in the early afternoon and started looking for a place with tide charts. As I really haven’t done a lot of beach camping, the need for tide charts didn’t even OCCUR to me. What a dork. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the tide comes in and the tide goes out – I get it. However, I just didn’t think of it in relation to where we’d be setting up our tent. Luckily, Paul did and we were on our way to DRY camping. Note to self: Getting stuck on a not-so-accessible beach while the tide is coming in would not be a *good* thing.

We were initially hoping to park in the Third Beach parking area, but that area was all full when we first drove by. Therefore, we moved on to the Second Beach area and found a spot there. It was time to finalize the distribution of goods and gear into our packs. Oh, and in order to do this, it was imperative that we accompany the chore with a nice, cold one. Always a fine way to start out what would soon become a KILLER adventure.

On the last adventure, I will admit that Paul carried the heavier stuff. He had the tent and the fuel and those items definitely weigh more than the water filter and stove. (Which would be what I had...) Since I SUPER SWORE that on the next trip, I wouldn’t be a dork, I wanted to carry more stuff this time. Paul had also kindly provided me with a bigger pack, so this was definitely a possibility. Okay, granted, Paul still had the tent and the fuel, but we had to take an animal-proof food container on this adventure and I put that in MY pack. It wasn’t exactly an anvil, but it definitely added some weight and an odd, shapeliness to my pack. In retrospect, I REALLY wish that I would’ve taken more time to properly fit it into my pack. However, as we wanted to get going and I really wasn’t in the mood to unpack my entire bag, I placed it too high up in the grand scheme of weight distribution. Solid plan, dumb ass… More on that later.

After packing our gear, we decided to give the other parking lot another go. We were in luck – a couple of spots had opened up and we were good to go. Kick ass. We grabbed our stuff and put our rather heavy packs on our backs. Off on the trail we went… However, I ended up having to stop about 25 feet into the trail to use the outhouse. Girls. Whaddya do?

Paul had been to the area before, but we didn’t really have a well-defined, destination plan. It’s not like we had one on the last trip, either and that adventure turned out PERFECTLY. I wasn’t worried about where we were going on this day, either. I had confidence we’d end up somewhere fabulous – no worries from me. It was a beautiful and very hot day as we headed out towards the Third Beach. Somewhere on that beach, the killer spot was waiting…

The hike was going fine – everything was as hunky dory as it could be while hiking with a heavy-ass pack. Sure, it was hot and sticky and that’s always a super-sexy combination, but whatever – it was allll good. After about an hour or so of hiking, we ended up down on the beach. WOW! It was absolutely beautiful – It was the OCEAN – WOO!!! It was a beautiful, sandy beach and I was SO happy to be standing there, taking it all in… As I hadn’t been there before, I didn’t really know how the trails were laid out. I knew we’d be hiking along the beach, but I didn’t know about the ROPES AND LADDERS… There were people camping on the beach that we were now hiking along, but Paul said that there would be more spots further up the beach. We kept hiking onward… Hiking on until we came to the first section of ROPES AND LADDERS.

There is a reason I’m choosing to lay some capital letter stank on the intro of said ROPES AND LADDERS. 1) While although it’s all good, I wasn’t expecting to haul my pack AND ass up the side of a bunch of crumbly hillsides that day. 2) While hiking the last part of the trail to the beach, the weight distribution in my pack started to get a bit wonky and things were feeling a tad unadjusted. 3) There really isn’t a number three issue, but what kind of a list has only TWO points to it?! Anyway…

When we arrived at the first set of precariously placed ROPES AND LADDERS, I was a bit taken aback. Whoa – umm, we have to climb up that? (Yes, Dayna – you lazy ass – what’s the problem? You LIKE crazy adventures… Suck it up.) After resigning myself to the possibility of my poorly balanced pack pulling be backwards on the way up, on I went. I mean, because it’s not like I was gonna turn around… We both made it to the top without incident and we continued on to wherever it was that we were going.

Along the way, there were a few more areas involving ROPES AND LADDERS. In addition to the ROPES AND LADDERS, there were also quite a few steps along the way. A lot of work went into the creation of parts of this trail and it certainly wasn’t lacking in diversity. OR beauty… It was so awesome to be hiking along the beach and then trail up into beautiful forests with lush green and towering trees. Wow. As we hiked in and out of forest onto beach, we came across various campsites set up along some very cool beaches. However, we still hadn’t quite found the right spot, so we kept going.

Along with each passing of a new ROPE AND LADDER scheme, came the further re-adjusting of my pack’s ill-distributed weight. As we went up and down each crazy section, the more and more it began to feel like my pack was choking me. I kept trying to adjust the load straps as I went, but I wasn’t making much progress. Paul was up ahead of me a bit, so I didn’t want to stop for too long and screw around with things, so I kept going. As I mentioned, it was really hot out and this, combined with being choked, was not the most pleasant of situations. I started to get frustrated. After coming down what felt like a particularly long stretch of choke-inducing downhill, I caught up to Paul. He was waiting at the next section of uphill craziness and I asked for some expert, pack-adjustment help. He was able to change the fit of the pack a little and we moved on to the next section of the trail. It still felt a little off, but it was better than before, so I tried to quit being such a big baby.

The next section of the trail had a ridge section at the top that was a bit hard for my short-stuff legs to navigate. There were some ROPES in place and I was able to use them to an extent, but I sort of lost my balance at one point and went crashing into the side of the ridge. What a dork. Oh well – no one saw me LOOK like a dork, so no harm, no foul. Other than to my arm… Whatever… Anyway, I finally made it over the top and looked down onto the other side. We were on the beach again. Yay!

As we hiked onto this beach, we were aware of the fact that high-tide was coming very soon and that it was definitely getting late. We needed to find a place to set up camp. Lucky for us, we had just arrived at what was to soon be deemed, the KILLER SPOT.

As we walked up the beach, we found a cool spot by some trees and a rocky cove and decided that this was where it was alllll gonna go down. This was the killer spot for our crazy, beachy adventure. And when I took time to fully look around and investigate the spot, it dawned on me that we were on a private beach. There were NO other campers around. NO other peeps in site… HA! Goodbye to civilization, thank you very much. The only things coming and going were the waves… Yeah, that’s good stuff.

And with this decision to lay down camp, also came the ceremonious laying down of the heavy-ass packs. I’m serious – it amazes me EVERY time. There is nothing like taking your pack off at the very end of the hike – it feels like you can FLY. It doesn’t matter how tired you were 30 seconds ago when you still had that pack on… It’s a whole different world when you throw that thing down. You could seriously run for miles… Well, maybe at least a brisk walk or something… But seriously, it’s an awesome feeling.

After removing various rocks and branches from our site, we set up the tent. As we were setting things up and positioning everything just right, the sun was starting to set behind the costal rocks. Whoa. It was just stunning. We were surrounded on both sides by rocky coves and just off the shore, there were several giant, monolithic rock formations. One of them looked like it belonged on Easter Island in my opinion. It was also at this time that we started to notice little, black things bobbing in the water close off the shore. SEALS! COOL!! Wow – that was amazing. The more we watched, the more we saw. They were totally checking out us as well and a couple of them got pretty close to the shore. It was just us and the seals. These were neighbors that I could definitely handle. Well, as long as they didn’t waddle on shore to steal our goods…

I should also mention that while we were setting up the campsite and beginning the long descent into a beautiful sunset, we cracked open a coupla cold ones. Paul had brought along some tall boys and we each packed two into the campsite. And I’d like to note FOR THE RECORD, that no beer was spilled on the way to the camp. So there. There were NO beer casualties at this time. HA. We both were able to enjoy TWO beers a piece on this trip and it was fabulous, indeed. (But that doesn’t account for the beer that Paul wasted on the way OUT of the area… heh heh… More on that later… Sweet vindication…) Uhhh, it was at this time that we also enjoyed a bit of the non-assy Platypus baggage. It was the start of a killer evening.

In keeping with our love of music and its inclusion in ALL areas of our travels, Paul set up his iPod on the roof of the tent. While it was awesome to again have the iPod on our adventure, we were met with an unexpected sound obstacle. I hadn’t really thought about how loud incoming waves can be, but wow – it really offered some formal competition to the range of the iPod. Oh well, given the crazy beauty of the spot, it was an acceptable battle to fight. We cranked it up as loud as we could and enjoyed what we could hear. All was well in the world of the KILLER SPOT.

We both were a bit exhausted after the hike in and neither of us could really seem to muster the energy to get an official dinner together. Hey – we had some good beer and whiskey and all manner of snackables – we were good. So, instead of busting out the stove, we concentrated on hanging out, walking around the beach and generally doing not much of anything. Yeah. It was awesome. I walked down to the waves for a while and just stood there as they came in and out. It was cool to just stand there with nothing to do but time the ebb and flow of the sets of waves. They seemed to come in groups of three, by the way… It was very cool to feel the way the sand moved around me while coming in and out. If it wasn’t starting to get a bit cold, I think I could’ve stood there for hours.

The one bit of energy that we DID expend around that time was one of profound importance. In keeping with an idea from our last adventure, I brought along a disco ball for the occasion. We weren’t going to have Club Perfect, but we sure as hell were gonna have Club Killer and that’s all there was to it. Paul strung up some rope over a close-by branch and proceeded to rig up the most killer hanging of a disco ball EVER. Period. We got out one of the trusty candle lanterns and with the disco ball in tow, hooked it all up to a carabiner, suspended perfectly from the rope set-up. Paul then took what has since become one of my very favorite pictures of ALL time. An absolutely killer vision of true, beachy goodness…Yeah…

As we sat out on the sand on our Thermarests, the stars slowly started to appear. The sunset was absolutely amazing and the colors were truly beautiful. The way it all was set against the ruggedness of the coastline was an awesome juxtaposition and it just never seemed to get old. I don’t know how long we sat there staring quietly at the scene – time was really of no importance anymore. With our faithful Platypus friend at our side, we just stared out on the horizon and simply existed. And our candle lantern/disco ball setup added the perfect, subtle accompaniment - Along with the occasional strains of the iPod… Sigh…

It’s at moments like this, when you’re quiet and still, that you’re able to tackle some of the more profound aspects of life. Your mind is clear and the solutions just seem to readily present themselves… It’s at moments like this when you’re really able to put it all together…

“You know, I’m really wishing now that I had brought some cheese…”

If there was one thing I wasn’t expecting Paul to say at that moment, that statement would be a big contender for the prize.

While I embarked upon laughing like an idiot, Pauly went on to explain himself. You see, he hadn’t brought any cheese on this particular adventure. And we had actually discussed this earlier. On the last outing, not only did he bring cheese, but he brought along the tiny cheese grater to go with it. However, since this trip probably wasn’t going to have a handy ‘refrigerator’ nearby, I guess cheese wasn’t the greatest of plans. BUT, at the moment – that was a flimsy version of reality. We didn’t have any cheese and that was clearly a problem. And one surely worthy of profound, conversational discourse… Or profound laughter. Which is what I was doing… Because, come on – that’s just freakin’ funny. It was truly one of the LAST things I was expecting him to say… But I am VERY glad that he did. It makes me laugh to this day. I’m laughing right now…

Ahhh, and this wasn’t the last thing that Paul would say that night that would instantly become the stuff of legend. I’m going to bed now, but tune in tomorrow for such comic gems as…

“I really wish I had a sling-shot… I haven’t had one since I was a kid.”

“Uhhh, so, what would you do with a sling-shot if you had one right now?”

“Well, for instance, I could shoot stuff with it.”

And with that, I bid you adieu. Until tomorrow… Heh heh heh…