Your non-fencing summer holiday

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


Now that school and work has started, what have you been up to apart from fencing this summer?

I will start:
1. Been building various projects at my parent´s summer house.
2. Been fishing with my kids, we caught more species than I had expected (pike, perch, roach, common dace, ruffe, ide, bleak, Eurasian minnow, rudd, alpine bullhead).
3. [SAPPY BRAG ALERT]Looked at my older son´s first art exhibition. 90 or so local artists had a big exhibition in a park in my home town, of which 10-15 were not adults. However, there was a constant gaggle of onlookers around his table with sculptures, more so than the great majority of the rest of the artists. To boot, he got interviewed (with picture) in the local paper, and sold several hundred buck´s worth of his sculptures. Not a bad summer job earning´s for a 9-year old.[/SAPPY BRAG ALERT/] There are many sports parents, but I guess that I sound like the first "art dad". Smack me on the head if I get out of hand.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Inquartata]

There are things other than fencing?

[lindajdunn]

I had knee surgery.

There are things besides fencing and Physical Therapy? Besides work?

[chefencer]

We went to Cub Scout summer camp and it was very rejuvenating. I decided that if I were ever in charge of putting together some company's retreat (highly unlikely considering I'm a chef) that's where I would send them. It wasn't perfect (98-100 degrees for two days out of four) but the boys had a good time and it really reminded me of why I'm in scouting. It shook off the cobwebs and brought back a spirit that I'd lost to cynicism and jadedness and the boys discovered they wouldn't die without airconditioning, but that it was very nice to have!
The very next week we went to Vermont and enjoyed a slightly different weather (it was 46 degrees Sat. morning) and a very different 'city' life as I think there are only about 600,000 people in the whole state. It was lovely.

[Fencergrl]

I am about to go on vacation for two weeks.... packing up the husband, the dog, boat, and the ATV's and heading off into the bush.

We're off to explore an abandoned airstrip near a waterfall... that may end up being a place we can squat during our retirement... possibly travel to Bella Coola (a place I've wanted to explore for some time).

When I'm not booting around on my quad, I'll be kicking back reading, fishing, swimming, doing yoga, or sleeping....

I'm getting so excited... last night we serviced the quads. Tonight I'm pulling out the rest of our camping gear and packing our weather clothes...

LOL.... I may never come back!

[needle]

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

... packing up the husband ...

As he's about 80% liquid, with new airport security craze you might have to check him in

For my summer: moved to new house, took a trip to Sonoran desert in Arizona, stumbled on really interesting application of statistics in my area of work (can't really say more now, but could be big) - re-learning statistics to develop that idea further, just added a Sun server to the computer zoo that runs my home systems.

[Fencergrl]

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

LOL.... I may never come back!

I got a message "Don't say things like that"... to clarify "I may never come back" as in "I'm having such a wonderful experience I may never come back". Not in "I may be eaten by a bear and never come back".

Cities are far more dangerous than the backcountry... the difference with the backcountry is if you screw up you're on your own, something modern man is often ill-equipped to deal with (looking after themselves). This is part of the reason why I go to the backcountry. Sometimes you just want to walk away from the safety net and test if you really are capable of looking after yourself.

If something should happen... I rather die there than under a bus.

[Zilverzmurfen]

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

Sometimes you just want to walk away from the safety net and test if you really are capable of looking after yourself.

Wouldn't that be safety.net..?

And I certainly hope you return from the wild unharmed!

[Fencergrl]

In all likelihood I will... I actually am looking forward to it. I almost got ran over by a car running a red light the other day (while I was riding my bike)... this place is dangerous!

[KD5MDK]

I spent my entire summer vacation at Summer Nationals.

[Mr Epee]

Summer vacation highlights... that had NOTHING to do with my hair.

1. Week vacation to Colorado Springs. Took around 400 pictures of Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge, USOTC, Garden of the Gods, and other touristy stuff.

2. Worked as a moderator at the annual academic conference for the North American Society of Sport Management ... nothing compares with trying to wrap up a heated discussion over Bayesian analysis of nested logit models used to study of women's athletics in a timely maner - met two other fencers (both epeeists)

3. Went water skiing for the first time... ever... and was totally successful.

[JackOfHearts]

My summer activites:

1) Working

2)working

3)Reading

Yep. Most exciting summer ever.

[Go? Fencing?]

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

If something should happen... I rather die there than under a bus.

My great-grandfather got run over by a bus.

[AndrewH]

I'm in Canada right now, been hanging out in Penticton for the last few days, enjoying my ability to drink and gamble (19 in BC )

Fencergrl can probably appreciate this, today we drove back to Merritt, then took highway 8 up through the middle o nowhere, then down to Hells Gate. It was like a 5 hour trip...

And tomorrow we catch the ferry to Victoria for the next few days.

[Purple Fencer]

In between bouts of working, I've been practicing and performing with the SoCal Dream Sr. Drum & Bugle Corps out of Irvine, CA.

Had several competitions during the west coast drum corps season....2 more weeks and we fly back to Rochester, NY for sr championships....which we have a strong chance of winning.

Best part...I've got 2 solos for the first time in my corps career!!

[purpzeyFCLI]

So far I've fenced, watched TV, and prayed to get into law school.

However, I did get it and it was not all for naut.

It's somewhat interesting b/c I've been on vacation since the end of last January. I am genuinely looking forward to being copiously busy.

[Morion]

My wife and I spent 9 days in Oregon visiting friends. The first 4 days we stayed with friends who live on the coast near Nethalem. We then drove down the coast and inland to visit people we know in Eugene for 2 days. From there we drove north and stayed with an old college buddy of mine in Forest Grove for 2 days. The last day we went to see the Highland Games in Portland (how did throwing a telephone pole ever become a sport????) and met up with another friend whom we stayed with for our last night.

From there my wife continued on to visit Family in the Chicago area while I returned home. However, I was only there 4 days before I turned around to go visit my mother in Pennsylvania. That was a much quieter visit. I mainly just kept her company and did yard work for her. The down side to that was the last day I was doing work for her I got into a whole LOT of chiggers and ended up with between 40 and 60 bites per leg. That got to be seriously uncomfortable for about a week. I did get to the Pennsylvania Games for a vetrans Epee event. I met academe there (he recognised my Phoenix Cup shirt) and hung out with some of the fencers there. The next day I flew back to Tucson and met my wife at the airport when she arrived 2 hours after me.

And that is what I did on my summer vacation!

[Fencergrl]

Originally Posted by AndrewH

I'm in Canada right now, been hanging out in Penticton for the last few days, enjoying my ability to drink and gamble (19 in BC )

Fencergrl can probably appreciate this, today we drove back to Merritt, then took highway 8 up through the middle o nowhere, then down to Hells Gate. It was like a 5 hour trip...

And tomorrow we catch the ferry to Victoria for the next few days.

Hell's Gate is cool... I'll be driving by it in a few days.... yes on the way to no where....

Victoria is one of my favourite cities. Very charming.

LOL.... I'm laughing at ya Andrew coming back to BC! Enjoy everything it has to offer.

[Mauler]

Since returning from Summer Nationals.....

• Refereed in 4 different states in first 4 weeks (9 days' worth) -- MA, NJ, NY, CA. Could've turned it into 5 states and 10 days, but decided to take it easy instead.... considering that I had recently returned from 10 days of Refereeing Boot Camp where I picked up a couple of stress injuries (ordered to come see the trainer 3 times a day).
• Gave a lecture in one camp and taught in another.
• Bought 2 pairs of shoes that are NOT fencing shoes nor refereeing shoes.
• Got to eat fresh Maryland crabs (cheap and "no-manners-allowed" house rule).
• Visited family.
• Watched a synchronized swimming competition for the first time (invited by the coach). Spent most of the time there studying the referees.
• Randomly ran into an old student of mine while killing time at Universal Studios in CA (waiting for latenight airplane). Saw Superman Returns on 3D IMAX. Boogied with the Blues Brothers.
• Visited Fry's Electronics. I can die happily now.
• Tried out "Guitar Hero" on PS2 (beat "Bark at the Moon" and "Texas Flood" on first try set on Medium, for whatever it's worth).
• Paid pilgrimage to RITFencing's BBQ

That's all that comes to mind now. Probably missing a couple of WTF? episodes.....