Current location:	Home
Current mood:	cheerful
Current music:	Good Ol' 107.5 out of Portland

My kung fu needs work!
This weekend we took off for a couple of days of camping at the coast in Oregon. A great little state park with scads of sites all within walking distance to the beach and within a mile of Rogue Brewery...too sweet!

As we unpacked our pile of camping gear we realized it had in fact been something like five years since we last went camping. "Hey, that's where that went!" was uttered many times Friday evening as we found lots of long lost camping supplies.

I had been itching to go camping ever since we set foot in the state. However competing interests and the cool winter weather made that something less than ideal. We finally got there however, and armed with our new cheap Coleman tent (which has a freaking electric port/door no less) and a new cook stove we gleefully took over our small part of the campground.

There are a whole list of those things that seem just so typically Oregon and camping is one of them. I don't think you can spend much time in Oregon and not go camping...it would just be wrong. That got me to thinking about all the other things that are 'Oregonian' in nature. I'll make a list of them later, but back to the story. I realized that there was an entire gradient or skill set of Oregon adventures to be had. It reminds me of martial arts, or rather, what I have read about martial arts (not having taken any myself). I therefore determined that by going camping in Oregon we had just earned our Oregon Pink Belt! Sure, it doesn't sound as cool as a Black Belt, but you have to start somewhere. I think I may even be up to a Yellow Belt in Oregonian as I DID go crabbing at Newport last year! Damn, I am moving right up the ladder.

My brother and I determined that in order to get a Black Belt you'd have to walk up to a bear, kick it in the nuts, put it in a headlock and wrestle it to the ground. Scary as it may sound, I think I have met some people out here that might just very well have the Black Belt in Oregonian. It'll be a while before I kick a bear in the nuts. Next step...the Orange Belt ...salmon fishing or halibut fishing or some kind of cool big kick ass fishing. Catching it with your bare hands requires a much advanced belt. I don't know squat about fish...just that they are really tasty when grilled and served with butter. The rules for fishing out here should and probably do require their own badge. I'll let you know when I get that far.

In other news, we bought something a little more fuel efficient than the Cherokee! That could be pretty much anything, but as an early anniversary gift, I got Amy a 2006 New Beetle. It is diesel, which I like and I have to admit, it has tons more room in it than I originally thought it would. They are great cars and I am happy to drive that little 35mpg city/42 mpg highway bubble around. At least the diesel makes it sound a little more manly. Hmmm...what kind of flower do I want for the bud vase...could I just put a wrench or screwdriver in there to macho it up a bit?

The big plan is to eventually be brewing my own diesel. Trade in the Jeep for an older diesel truck to test it all out on and see how homemade biodiesel works. That'd be wicked cool. Maybe by the end of the year...we'll see. Hmmm...I wonder what color belt the biodiesel belt is?