Ocracoke, NC

Visited Ocracoke island on the Outer Banks this past weekend. It was okay, but if I have to give it a short description it would be: Nice quiet place, but the locals do not smile much or friendly and the tourists are mostly married young couples or lesbians, each of which are in their own worlds. It's expensive beyond reasonable for a tourist town. Rating: 1 star.

However, a big bright point seems to be Manteo and area. When we drove through there a local waved and smiled at us as we passed. And kept waving and called his wife over to wave too through the rear view mirror. They want us to come visit, so I'm going back!

A Letter of Summer

Hey - I tried calling but I guess everyone is out to the cookout.

Have you enjoyed your summer so far? It's still warm enough but it got cooler for us this weekend, it's been really nice. This weekend turned into yard work. The trash barrel in the picture is nothing but crabgrass, hand picked weeds from the grass. The barrel is sitting on the crabgrass side and you can see a big difference just in the color (hue, contrast, or saturation? .... it's all green color).

The wood elf that was broken has finished drying out all summer and it was time to glue him back together. Of course I googled "best ceramic glue" and the web site said to use PVA Glue. After looking *that* up it was plain old elmers glue.

I've just put the last tomato into it's last larger pot so hopefully I'll have fresh ripe fruit again in a couple months. I grew these by seeds and they are the ooogly variety. I did some plum tomatoes and they were okay for salads and diced up but for a sandwich it's got to be bigger.

Haven't done any cooking lately although did find carrot cake, a spice cake, and jam crumble bars that use protein in place of some flour. The protein has vanilla flavor but that's okay it just means it can be desserts.

All of that was just this week, always lots of stuff going on here. Couple weeks ago was the film festival, and as always had a blast. I only saw one film begin-to-end but did see almost to 15 films total. I threw together a Friday night dinner and invited along friends and producers, maybe next year I'll get a chance to ask some actors. I think I'll do the dinner again next year and see how it goes, but this first time was a lot of fun.

Did lots of hikes again this year, though didn't get too far from the region. And went camping, once down at the lake and the whirly-gig is the path, and then up in the George Washington Crabtree Falls in Virginia. And kayaking and swimming too.

Have fun and we'll talk soon.

Michael

What I want in a water shoe

I want a sock that doesn't absorb any water but breathes, with a rubber shaped sole for shores and stones.

Camp at Crabtree Falls, AT and the Ridge

It was a very fun weekend, three nights camping and travel. We went to the George Washington national forest and camped at the foot of Crabtree Falls. Met lots of very healthy folks, it must be the mountain air. Temps were great, upper 80's daytime and into the 60's at night.

The truck was overflowing, tents were only a tiny part of the package. We took a few coolers in what seemed perfect sizes. One was for reserved for clean ice, another had milk, butter and open condiments, and the third was dedicated to meat and nothing else. But I did learn that frozen orange juice canisters are cardboard and once defrosted make a very pretty colored ice!
Eating was not a problem, we had plenty to gorge ourselves. The first night were boho dinners, aluminum puches with cut potatoes, carrots, 'shrooms and chix breasts heavily seasoned in a garlic and herb mix and tossed into the coals to steam for 30 minutes or so. Grilled bbq chix and beef stew too. I was doing bfasts so we had sausages and eggs and silver dollar pancakes and syrup. Had the fixings for french toast but never got to it. My new griddle was really nice.


We did go up the mountain path, a 1.7 mile hike up to Crabtree Falls. It was a pretty good climb, lots of switch backs. At the top we met this group of guys and a couple of them went on with us to the top of the mountain and the Appalachian Trail. It was another two miles uphill and took quote a lot of heavy work to get to the ridge line of the mountains, but we did it.

On Sunday we just relaxed in the campground watching the comings and goings. Very relaxing July 4th celebration, though we couldn't find an open area for any fireworks. At one point the puppy and I were rock scotching across the river making our way downstream. It was a game of jumping rock to dry rock and the only way to do that is bare footed and lots of balancing.

The return route was out of the way by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Six hours on the parkway through to Fancy Gap because I wanted to see Pilot Mountain from the mountains like I had from I-77 for so many years. It was sort of anti-climatic :(

It was a lot of fun and a lot more happened too. More pictures on my facebook page.

Slow News Week

It must be a good news week, because the Today show all week has been showing nothing but scare stories. It follows the motto No News is Good News.

Earlier in the week, the big story was how stores were putting returned clothing back on the rack, specifically underwear and swim suits. It took them until near the end to finally tell us that this is against the store policy and they will re-inform employees of this.

Then this morning it was that bath toys for kids might have germs on them. Really?!?! You put one of those crawling and walking disease factories into a tub of warm water and really expect its toys to stay sanitary? What's next, diapers are smelly?

If this is all we have to worry about, then things must be awfully good in the nation. Either that, or the network spent their wad of money on the Olympics coverage and have to tighten their belt for the rest of the year.

Bike Ride on MLK Day

It's supposed to be sunny and near 60 today, perfect weather to go bike riding in shorts. I might be meeting some guys for a ride around Shelley Lake and here's the route I'm taking to get there (GMap Pedometer is great for mapping and Saving the Route). After a couple loops of Shelley its all up in the air which way to go, but I have all afternoon to discover new parts of Raleigh by bike, though probably not the 34 mile! route I did last summer.

Dates

Have you ever had a date where the next day you thank god you screwed it up? Well, that was my new years date. I think someone is looking out for me.

I first chatted with Karl about a month ago, and we've talked a few time since on the phone. We decide to meet in person for some coffee on new years eve day. Show up at the coffee shop and it's closed early. Okay, so go next door to the sports pub.

We introduce ourselves and say hi and all the pleasantries. And somewhere in all that he said something referring to how I think. I said, and I'm paraphrasing here, Please stay out of my head, I don't like that. So don't you know that the rest of the night he was inside my freaking head, asking me emotions and feelings and analyzing. Like wow, that got deep real fast. (And yes, I am that shallow!)

Try changing the subject to anything but my head... Q: I like doing outdoor stuff, what do you like? Answer: Oh everything, hiking and biking and going to the beach and working in the yard to lots of stuff. Q: Oh, you like to go biking, mountain or road? A: Oh, you like being outside because you feel free? What do you think about that?

Argh!

So I went out last night all by myself. For the first time ever I really enjoyed the floor show. And the new people that I met. And I really liked the guy who came over to tell me I had the cutest ass he'd seen in a long time! Finally brunch today with some of my best friends made for a perfect holiday and the perfect start to the year.

Oh yes, 2010 is going to be a great year!

Amtrak Online Reservations

So I am planning on doing some travel here soon. Well, soon the way I plan things. Took a quick look at travelocity and have a general idea of how much a plane ticket is going to run. But there are other ways of getting around the country, especially if you aren't in a big hurry and want the travel to be as much of the trip as the destination.

My choices from conventional choices are highway, bus or train. If I had a lot of time hiking might be an option, and hitch hiking if I had a death wish. Actually thats not quite right, because it seemed that hitch hiking in Hawaii was fairly common.

Something I have only experienced as a subway or roller coaster would be rail. Rail looks like it would be a lot of fun. So put amtrack into the browser address box and off I go from Google. NB, Firefox does good at that, "moviemovie" takes me right to their voting page.

Fern

St. Augustine College

This is the only college in the Raleigh / Durham area that offers a degree in film production.

NC Gay / Lesbian Film Festival

I'm really looking forward to the 14th film festival getting started today. I am again hosting an artist, this year it is director Branden Blinn. He created the absolutely awesome short film Thirteen or So Minutes. His film Chased is being shown at this years festival, and if past is any indicator it too will be great.

There is an opening stage performance tonight with Del Shores, creator of Sordid Lives, the movie and series about white texas trash. Joining him will be Run McClanahan who most know as Blanch on Golden Girls, and Caroline Rhea who played Noletta in the series.

The Saturday night feature film will be Make The Yuletide Gay by director Rob Williams. Rob has always been a fave at our festivals, and Yuletide marks the best movie yet. It makes a great date movie which mixes romance and some strife with a happy ending. (Good date movies always have a happy ending!

Redwoods has sold out of one showing, probably because Brandan Bradley will be on stage for the show. He is just gorgeous, and local to the triangle too!

Some feature films I'd like to see again if time and tickets allow are The Art of Being Straight, Patrik Age 1.5, and practically all the shorts. Some of the films I want to see that didn't get a chance to screen are Chicos Angels, starring the Salsa Chic latina, Mr. Right because I liked the poster, Chefs Special because everyone else liked it, and Drool cuz everyone needs to watch at least one womens film.

It's going to be a fun weekend, even with all the work I'll be doing there. It's rewarding, and the gathering on Saturday at the irish pub after the last show is seated is great. Plus my own ta da moment when I introduce films in front of an audience of gay men is a rush!

See you at the movies!

Joanie Loves Chachi - at 3800 Feet

Was climbing a trail, and found this park bench at its peak at around 3,800 feet. This is be where the local kids go to proclaim their 4EVER love.

Southern

This mural is of an engine with Southern emblazoned, but I'm not sure which one it means. Norfolk Southern maybe... (where is Gail when I need her?) Taken somewhere along US-70

Tony Toy

What is this toy? A co-worker (who has never been to K) has this on his desk. It looks like a top with its spinning base, but it just falls over and doesn't even come close to working. It's heavy plastic so it was never a box insert. If you know, let me know.

Jet Plane Signs

I come across those little signs on top of the post all up and down the Tennessee highways. The first few times I saw it, there was a smaller sign just underneath that said "Airport". So, without looking I associated the top sign with planes.

Okay, so now try looking cross-eyed at that sign for a moment....

Does it look like it might be a puffed chested Pan Am plane as it is in flight over a city as its going to the right? The tail is sorta the nose of the plane? The body and beak are the right-side wing? Okay, fine! It's what I see, anyway.