Who's On First?

Abbott and Costello are one of the best comedy teams of all time. My favorite bit is “Who’s On First?”

It’s funny because of the confusion and/or mis-communication between the two when discussing a baseball team roster. The roster is:

Position	Name
1st Base	Who
2nd Base	What
3rd Base	I Don’t Know
Short Stop	I Don’t Give A Darn
Left Field	Why
Center Field	Because
Right Field	Costello???
Pitcher	Tomorrow
Catcher	Today

Now, that all makes sense, but you could see how if one person did not know that those were actually the player’s names, they would become more and more confused as the conversation progressed. Here’s just a part of it:

Costello: What's the guy's name on first base?

Abbott: What is on second.

Costello: I'm not asking you who's on second.

Abbott: Who's on first.

Costello: I don't know.

Abbott: He's on third, we're not talking about him.

Costello: Now how did I get on third base?

Abbott: Why you mentioned his name.

Costello: If I mentioned the third baseman's name, who did I say is playing third?

Abbott: No. Who's playing first.

Costello: What's on base?

Abbott: What's on second.

Costello: I don't know.

Abbott: He's on third.

Costello: There I go, back on third again! PAUSE

Costello: Would you just stay on third base and don't go off it.

Abbott: Alright, what do you want to know?

Costello: Now who's playing third base?

Abbott: Why do you insist on putting Who on third base?

Costello: What am I putting on third.

Abbott: No. What is on second.

Anyway, they make their way through all the players this way – and crack me up! The entire text and audio can be found here.

Now, after that long into, I’ll get to the real story.

There was a float trip this weekend. Just down one of the canals in into the big lake in Pleasantville.

While we were picnicking afterward, we got to talking about how in the olden days (before kids) we would camp for two nights with one of the days completely consuming what should have been a four hour float trip. When you bottom out every twenty feet, take time to eat lunch, don’t use the paddles at all, take time to remove swim trunks, vomit over the side of the raft, and take shelter during a rain storm that you though for sure was going to “blow over”, a four hour float trip takes at least eight hours.

Anywho, now that we have kids, the guys can take them and stop dragging us ladies out into the wilderness.

It’s only the end of August, not too late for a camping trip, right?

Well, maybe it is when you’re talking about five or six families. Here’s how this discussion went (and I’m so not using names because there are just too many – just assume it is never the same two people in a row):

How about next weekend?

No, we’ve got the alley party next weekend.

You guys should do it on the 10th – I’m hosting Bunco and that will get you all out of the house.

We’ve got a wedding that weekend.

What about October 3rd?

That’s the charity golf tournament.

We’ve got a birthday.

The 10th?

I said that and it got nixed already.

No, the 10th of October.

How can the 10th of October be a Saturday? I’ve got Bunco on the 10th of September and it’s always a Saturday.

Doesn’t matter, we’ve got a wedding on the 9th.

Of September?

No, October.

Wait, so what’s the second Saturday in September?

The 12th.

They’ve got a wedding.

Yah, in October, I was talking about September.

No, they’ve got a wedding (pointing to another couple).

Well, the 19th is out, that’s the block party.

I’m calling Thanksgiving.

[crickets chirping]

26th?

Of October?

No, September.

The 10th?

What month?

I don’t know.

THIRD BASE!

Believe it or not, this is the short version. We had to be going on for at least 15 minutes.

I’m not sure we ever set a date for the camping trip.

Silver lining:

1. I’m sure the guys will hammer this out at Guys’ Night.


2. It was a beautiful day for a float trip.


3. It was a great day to just hang out with friends.

Let's Go Camping-ish

Ahh, the “reward” system.

Be good or Santa will leave you coal in your stocking.

Be good or the Easter Bunny won’t leave you any candy.

I want a good report or you won’t be able to go to the party.

If we get any notes from school, you’re not going camping.

That last one was the threat of the week.

A couple of years ago Hubby took Cupie camping at Jellystone Park. She has never forgotten and continually asks when they will get to go back. Hubby finally decided to give in and we decided on this past weekend. This time Stinkles was old enough for camping so he was going to take BOTH girls and I’d have a wonderfully, relaxing weekend free of whining (not wining, there would be plenty of that).

I was going to take pictures all around Pleasantville to enter in Kristi Sauer’s Photo Hunt Challenge for the month of August. I love photography and I don’t get a lot of opportunities to just wander about taking pictures (you can see my best stuff over at Picture This).

Bliss was mine!

This summer has been unusually mild. This past weekend was no different. I opened every window in the house and let the 70 degree breezes waft throughout.

Because of the temperature, Hubby decided it would be too chilly to swim at Jellystone.

If there’s no swimming, what am I going to do with them. There’s a train and mini golf, but that doesn’t take up much time. And they’re going to be freezing at night.

He also hadn’t completely though through the bathroom situation. Unlike boys, it’s not so easy for a girl to go potty in the woods. Let alone a three or five year old. They’d get pee all over their panties & nightgowns. What a nightmare.

Hubby convinced the kids it would be more fun to camp at home. He would set the tent up in the office, blow up the air mattress, and put their sleeping bags inside.

Our office is 13 X 14. It contains a futon on one wall, a desk on another, an electric keyboard, and a low file cabinet which holds the cage where our bird, George, lives.

We could move the keyboard. Everything else was either too heavy, awkward, or just had no place to go.

The remaining space measured about 11 X 11 - MAX.

The tent is 11 X 12.

It’s a dome tent so it was flexible, but we had to assemble it in the room.

Those poles are at least 16 feet long.

Some time ago I wrote a post about our friends bringing popcorn to watch the show Hubby & I put on assembling a tent. If only they could see us this time. As a safety precaution, no popcorn would be allowed. They would have been laughing so hard, they might have inhaled the popcorn and choked to death. That would put a damper on the whole camping thing.

Anyway, we’re lucky no one lost an eye with the unwieldy tent poles.

The air mattress was blown up and sleeping bags, pillows, special animals were all placed inside.

We had “camping” food for dinner: Cheeseburgers, corn, baked beans, Doritos. We made S’mores (which they didn’t even like) and Jiffy Pop popcorn (the kind with the foil that you hold over a flame to pop). Then, we enjoyed a luxury generally not available when camping. They got to watch a movie! This was mostly to tire out Stinkles. She has a tendency to goof around and sing and chit-chat when she should be sleeping. We needed her good and tired so she fell asleep quickly.

We tucked the girls into bed, Hubby slept on the couch and I snuggled up in my nice, warm, comfortable bed.

Turns out not only does Stinkles talk non-stop while awake, she also talks in her sleep! Cupie couldn’t sleep in the tent with her so she ended up sleeping in the chair/lounger in the family room.

Some camping trip, huh?

Silver lining:

1. I got to sleep in my own bed.


2. I still got to go out and take pictures. I did this on Sunday afternoon with Cupie so it was a nice bonding time.


3. The camping bug has been quelled for another year.