Antietam Creek Tubing Adventure

I can't believe I was up at 7:30 AM on a weekend, but it happened yesterday. What was I thinking?

All three of us were through the shower and dressed when Dick called to say that he was approaching the Forest Glen metro station; we threw the last of our bags, towels and such into the car, collected him at the metro and headed out to the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, WV, for an afternoon of tubing down Antietam creek.

This is the third annual tubing event organized by the DC Lambda Squares; we had over 30 this time, including Dave Decot and Mahaffey who were coincidentally on the east coast for family business.

Bobbing down the creek is always a fun and restful time. It's one of the few square dance events I can attend these days and actually be just one of the crowd instead of carrying the extra title of "caller."

I was a little worried in the weeks leading up that the drought would have lowered the already shallow water level to a point that tubing would be more effort than fun but recent rainfall fixed that issue. In fact, the day's weather was warm, not hot, and only moderately humid instead of the swelter of the past few weeks: we couldn't ask for better.

cuyahogarvr and I filled three waterproof disposable cameras with before, during & after shots. This morning, I dropped off all three at the local CVS for processing. Sadly, they won't be available until Wednesday at the earliest and we're heading to Canada on Thursday so it may be more than a week before I can share the photos. More news when it develops.

And now I'm back to preparing the lesson plan for tomorrow night's Plus class. Butch Adams will be teaching a Plus workshop on Saturday, August 18, so he'll be popping by Monday's class to meet the dancers and see how they're doing so far. I hope to have a few notes to pass to him as well, detailing which calls have been taught and items on which I think they need help.

Antietam Creek Tubing Adventure

I can't believe I was up at 7:30 AM on a weekend, but it happened yesterday. What was I thinking?

All three of us were through the shower and dressed when Dick called to say that he was approaching the Forest Glen metro station; we threw the last of our bags, towels and such into the car, collected him at the metro and headed out to the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, WV, for an afternoon of tubing down Antietam creek.

This is the third annual tubing event organized by the DC Lambda Squares; we had over 30 this time, including Dave Decot and Mahaffey who were coincidentally on the east coast for family business.

Bobbing down the creek is always a fun and restful time. It's one of the few square dance events I can attend these days and actually be just one of the crowd instead of carrying the extra title of "caller."

I was a little worried in the weeks leading up that the drought would have lowered the already shallow water level to a point that tubing would be more effort than fun but recent rainfall fixed that issue. In fact, the day's weather was warm, not hot, and only moderately humid instead of the swelter of the past few weeks: we couldn't ask for better.

cuyahogarvr and I filled three waterproof disposable cameras with before, during & after shots. This morning, I dropped off all three at the local CVS for processing. Sadly, they won't be available until Wednesday at the earliest and we're heading to Canada on Thursday so it may be more than a week before I can share the photos. More news when it develops.

And now I'm back to preparing the lesson plan for tomorrow night's Plus class. Butch Adams will be teaching a Plus workshop on Saturday, August 18, so he'll be popping by Monday's class to meet the dancers and see how they're doing so far. I hope to have a few notes to pass to him as well, detailing which calls have been taught and items on which I think they need help.

Returning to Canada, Sorta

Our upcoming trip to Ontario is now more or less set: we'll be arriving in Toronto Thursday for one night, staying with my ex & his hubby, John & Chris. From there, we're trekking up to Orillia Friday, Saturday and a chunk of Sunday for 5-of-6's wedding. We'll be back in Toronto Sunday late afternoon/evening then driving across the border again on Monday.

I'm hoping to see some folks in Toronto while we're buzzing through, but I apologize in advance to our non-GTA friends that we won't have time to get out to Guelph, Cambridge, K-W, London or such this trip. This trip is largely family-oriented so we don't have as much flexibility as we'd like; I hope to make up for that the next time we return to Canada.

That said, anyone interested in getting together for dinner with cuyahogarvr, kent4str and myself Sunday night? brunorepublic is already confirmed and I'm hoping globespan might be available... anyone else?

Returning to Canada, Sorta

Our upcoming trip to Ontario is now more or less set: we'll be arriving in Toronto Thursday for one night, staying with my ex & his hubby, John & Chris. From there, we're trekking up to Orillia Friday, Saturday and a chunk of Sunday for 5-of-6's wedding. We'll be back in Toronto Sunday late afternoon/evening then driving across the border again on Monday.

I'm hoping to see some folks in Toronto while we're buzzing through, but I apologize in advance to our non-GTA friends that we won't have time to get out to Guelph, Cambridge, K-W, London or such this trip. This trip is largely family-oriented so we don't have as much flexibility as we'd like; I hope to make up for that the next time we return to Canada.

That said, anyone interested in getting together for dinner with cuyahogarvr, kent4str and myself Sunday night? brunorepublic is already confirmed and I'm hoping globespan might be available... anyone else?

Catching Up

Today was largely set aside as unstructured catch-up time, and I've been taking full advantage.

Not only do we have our Ontario trip now more or less set, I've caught up on a vast backlog of e-mail, laundry and a number of minor household chores. My blood pressure always rises when my task list grows too long but at the moment, I'm just as relax as when I was bobbing down Antietam Creek yesterday.

There's some shopping I'd like to do online but I don't watch packages languishing on our front porch while we're in another country so those items will wait until next week --or perhaps I'll order them while in Canada, timed to arrive after our return.

Catching Up

Today was largely set aside as unstructured catch-up time, and I've been taking full advantage.

Not only do we have our Ontario trip now more or less set, I've caught up on a vast backlog of e-mail, laundry and a number of minor household chores. My blood pressure always rises when my task list grows too long but at the moment, I'm just as relax as when I was bobbing down Antietam Creek yesterday.

There's some shopping I'd like to do online but I don't watch packages languishing on our front porch while we're in another country so those items will wait until next week --or perhaps I'll order them while in Canada, timed to arrive after our return.

Square Dance Scheduling

There! My lesson plan for tomorrow night's Plus class is complete. I still need to print a few notes to pass along to Butch Adams for the upcoming Saturday workshop, but I do that later.

I've sent a message to the LGCWSD mailing list announcing the official opening of online registration for DC Diamond Circulate 2009. I haven't seen the e-mail echoed back out to the masses yet, but anyone wishing to register online can click here. Many thanks to abqdan for making this possible.

It's official: kent4str and I are teaching DC Lambda Squares' mainstream-level class on Mondays starting September 17 and a Plus class starting early in 2008.

The downside is that we would miss justetthon's C1 dances on 2nd & 4th Mondays. As a compromise, we're going to have a guest instructor/coach for the mainstream class on one Monday each in October and November so we can keep up our C1 dancing (we'll worry about 2008 later). Yay!

We've also decided we can't attend the Poconos caller school with Betsy Gotta, Tom Miller and Tim Marriner this November. It would mean sneaking out of the Harper's Ferry Hoedown early because they overlap on Sunday. The show-stopper however is that kent4str's leave is nearly exhausted: we have barely enough for our Canada trip this week. Maybe I'll go on my own at the last minute, but the odds are against that currently.

We are still planning to go to the CALLERLAB convention in Los Angeles next spring. I'm giving serious consideration to attending the GCA caller school in Cleveland next July but I'll make a final decision on that in early 2008.

Square Dance Scheduling

There! My lesson plan for tomorrow night's Plus class is complete. I still need to print a few notes to pass along to Butch Adams for the upcoming Saturday workshop, but I do that later.

I've sent a message to the LGCWSD mailing list announcing the official opening of online registration for DC Diamond Circulate 2009. I haven't seen the e-mail echoed back out to the masses yet, but anyone wishing to register online can click here. Many thanks to abqdan for making this possible.

It's official: kent4str and I are teaching DC Lambda Squares' mainstream-level class on Mondays starting September 17 and a Plus class starting early in 2008.

The downside is that we would miss justetthon's C1 dances on 2nd & 4th Mondays. As a compromise, we're going to have a guest instructor/coach for the mainstream class on one Monday each in October and November so we can keep up our C1 dancing (we'll worry about 2008 later). Yay!

We've also decided we can't attend the Poconos caller school with Betsy Gotta, Tom Miller and Tim Marriner this November. It would mean sneaking out of the Harper's Ferry Hoedown early because they overlap on Sunday. The show-stopper however is that kent4str's leave is nearly exhausted: we have barely enough for our Canada trip this week. Maybe I'll go on my own at the last minute, but the odds are against that currently.

We are still planning to go to the CALLERLAB convention in Los Angeles next spring. I'm giving serious consideration to attending the GCA caller school in Cleveland next July but I'll make a final decision on that in early 2008.