I know that this has not been a great summer weather-wise, but I feel like Jay and I have had a cloud over our heads every time we try to do anything together. So I wasn’t really surprised that our weekend in Fontana Wisconsin was cold and overcast. Not surprised, but a little disappointed.

Fontana is a cute little beach town on Geneva Lake – smaller than Lake Geneva (the town) with fewer rich old people shopping for antiques and more rich middle aged people drinking beer and engaging in watersports.

We used to go for day trips to the Fontana beach every summer when I was a kid, and I always loved the town, so I convinced Jay and 6 other people to rent two apartments at Heritage House. This place was awesome. I wish we could have convinced a few more people to come with, so we could have rented the whole house, but the 2 apartments were more than enough room for 8 adults and 2 kids. We could have fit 4 more adults, easily.

Saturday’s high was only barely above 60, but we still managed to rent a pontoon boat and tool around the lake for half a day. The weather was better today – still cold, but at least it was sunny…

Now, we’re watching the Bears game, and it’s freezing outside. I guess summer is really over? Rilly? Oh well… I always liked fall better anyway.

The photo below is one Mr. Roger Federer, warming up for the Western and Southern Financial Masters tournament in Cincinnati this morning. Jay and I drove out for the final, staying in Indianapolis on Friday night, and arriving in Cincy Saturday afternoon.

We checked in to the Cincinnati/Blue Ash Hyatt Place around 2pm and ate lunch at a place called Trio, which had pretty good food, but the most awkward waiter in the world. Also, maybe it was the weird time, but the place seemed like a retirement home, despite its efforts to be trendy. So, whatever, we watched Federer take care of Andy Murray in the semifinals on tv.

From there, we went to the Cincinnati Marriot Northeast, because we read online that’s where the players stay. (side note: we are driving home right now, and a bird just dove into our windshield.)

So, we were having beers at the Marriott lobby bar, talking about how we probably wouldn’t even recognize most of the players other than Fed and Nadal, and Jay gestures at a guy walking by with a tennis bag and says “that could be Andy Murray for all I know.” Well, sure enough, it was Andy Murray. Not two hours after losing his match, he is checking out of the hotel, looking pretty dejected, if you ask me.

In case you have never seen a professional tennis player in person, they are much smaller and scrawnier than a professional athlete should be.

That fact was confirmed for us this morning when we entered the tennis stadium to see Roger Federer warming up not 50 ft away. Much smaller than I expected, and he did not have a halo or even a glow. Just a floppy haired guy hitting some balls around.

The people working at the tennis center were really nice and encouraged people to go down into the fancy pants box seats to get better photos. Our seats were not bad, but I was really psyched to see the players up close during the warm ups.

I usually root for Federer, especially when he’s playing Nadal. I don’t really have a good reason for that, except for the fact that he has better hair and never seems to sweat. But lately he has started to seem a little full of himself. I think showing up to Wimbledon in that liberace gold-lame get-up did some real damage… So I was rooting for the underdog, Novak Djokovic, who is from Serbia and doesn’t have obnoxious taste in athleticwear. He didn’t win – was pretty much destroyed in the first set, but put up a decent fight in the second. I’m pretty sure when Roger Federer said after the match “I was awesome this week,” maybe he didn’t quite mean it that way, but I think I’ll be rooting for Djokovic in the US Open.

I am usually pretty good about not buying more food than I can eat and not letting food go bad before I can eat it. But on the occasion that food does go bad, I am TERRIBLE at removing it from the fridge and putting it in the trash. And so, without further ado, I give you:

Gross Shit In My Fridge

This is half a lemon. I used the other half for sangria some months ago.

Ginger root, with mold. I used this to make a bengali fish recipe. I do not have a lot of opportunity to use ginger root.

Assorted Meats (mixed media). The one that looks like salami is actually a shriveled piece of canadian bacon. There is also 1 piece of slim turkey and some bits of pre-cut ham. I’m certain that Jay bought the pre-cut ham, because he is too lazy to cut his own ham.

Month old chicken broth. I boiled some chicken a while ago for shredded chicken empanadas. This broth was a bi-product, which I hoped to use in a future recipe. FYI, homemade chicken broth congeals after about 3 days.

Eggnog is only available one month a year. This was purchased in that month.

I’m recovering from Lollapalooza today – probably should have taken today off, seeing as how I’m old now and can’t really stay up until 1 am and still get up at 6. Ok, who am I kidding? I could never do that. I’ve always been a lame-o.

Overall, Lolla was way better than when I went in 94, but not as good as I imagine 92 would have been if my mom would have let me go. (Maybe it was 93? I can’t remember becaus I’m OLD.)

Things that were better:

• Beer. I was not of legal drinking age in 94. Not even close.
• Bands. More of them! We saw Friendly Fires, the Ravonettes, Kaiser Chiefs, Neko Case, Dan Auerbach, Lou Reed, Mstrkrft, Silversun Pickups and The Killers.
• Timeliness. I didn’t go with Lacy, so we didn’t arrive 5 hours late.
• Company. In 94 I broke up with my boyfriend shortly before Lolla. I planned to sell my ticket at the gates but we were running so late that it was going to be too late, so I brought Lacy’s little sister. She’s a nice girl, but I think she was 12 at the time.

Things that were worse:

• All the asshole trying to walk while talking on their mobile phones.

I was perusing Geek-tastic.com (the one with a hyphen) the other day, when it dawned on me that I really have no business calling myself geektastic anymore. When I started this blog, I was in the process of learning PERL, studying for my M.A. in rhetoric, and living the lonely, alcohol-soaked life of a graduate student.

Now the only thing about me that even resembles that life is the alcohol part. Maybe I should really call this blog “boringtastic” or “preoccupied-by-worktastic.” I mean, I have never even seen one episode of Battlestar Galactica. I couldn’t even tell you what it’s about.

On the other hand, I still keep a blog, which is such a pathetically retro thing to do that it might possibly be considered geeky. I might as well take up ham radio, right? And I do quite enjoy Doctor Who, so I have that going for me…

I wonder if my hyphenated friends over at Geek-tastic have ever visited this site. I bet they’d be disappointed.

So, in their honor, I will just put this out there: Christopher Eccleston was a better Doctor than David Tennant. Discuss. (That should bring in the old Google hits, eh?)

P.S. I’m not actually turning comment on, because 1) I don’t want all the rabid David Tennant fans flaming my comments 2) Nobody except spammers ever comments anyway and 3) I don’t know how to turn comments on from the WordPress iPhone app. So what I really meant is discuss with yourself or whoever is sitting next to you, which we all know is no one since you are totally a major geek.

Idea: weekly maid service

That was the text message I sent to Jay during lunch yesterday. I don’t know how it came up, but once it entered my brain, it became clear to me that I would outsource anything to do with chemical cleaning agents. Not only will I be saving myself from the most unpleasant household chores, but I will also be helping my local economy. Genius!

This decision has, of course, drawn the ire of my mom, the cleanest person in the world (hi mom!) who thinks it is a total waste of money. Apparently a good Polish lady doesn’t need someone to clean the house for her. Anyway, I invited her to come take a shower in my tub or walk barefoot on my kitchen floor, because it is G.R.O.S.S. in here, even despite the fact (or maybe because) we have no kids or pets and we are hardly eve home. I would post a picture but we are trying to sell this place and I don’t want any documentation of my terrible housekeeping skills. It cleans up well, though, I swear.

How cool is it that tehnology has progressed to the point that I can blog from a campsite in Big Foot State Park? Very cool! In fact, it’s almost not like camping. More like “blogging while outdoors.”

If this thing is workin properly, you will see a photo here of out campsite. Behind our tent you can see our campsite neighbor “guy with 4 dogs and a huge camper.” Despite the fact that h hwckled us a bit while we were putting up the tent, he seems nice enough. I think his wife and daughter are also with him. They seem to talk to their dogs more than to each other, though.

On the other side of us are 2 couples who appear to be in their late 20′s maybe early 30′s. They kind of gave us the stink eye when we pulled in… Maybe because they put one of their tents up about 4 feet from our firepit, so they will probably end up catching on fire. Also, I heard one of them say “huzzah” so they are probably ren faire people.

So this place already has two strikes against it in comparison to my personal favorite campground (Bong): no flush toilets, no private campsites. The third strike may well be the no-alcohol policy. It’s not like we’re throwing a keg party or anything, so unless they do spot checks and demand to taste my beverage (which will be consumed out of a travel coffee mug for maximum covertness), we should be fine.

Oh! I think ye olde campers next door are about to play charades! Fun!