I'm home. It's Friday. I work in 2 hours.

I got home from the canoe trip yesterday around 2:30. Although I was exhausted and a bit on edge by the end, it was a great time and I gathered a lot of useful information. I suppose I picked a bad time to cut my caffeine intake and quickly pressed 3 cups of damn strong coffee when I got home...

The group consisted of myself and 10 coworkers (that word looks funny to me).

We paddled a short stint of the Wisconsin River between Mazomanie and Lone Rock, stopping to set up camp both nights.

We also stopped at various areas to eat and hang out for a bit.

The overcast sky was nice, but this sandbar would have made for an even better picnic if it had been sunny and less windy! It looks like an island but there is actually water between those trees and the sand even though you can't tell from the photo.

The area on the way to Tower Hill State Park was pretty neat, despite the fact that everything we wanted to do there ended up being closed. That was okay though, it was nice to get out and take a quick hike to the top.

So yeah, I had a pretty good time. When Joe got home from work he wanted to hear all about it so I showed him the few photos that I took and told him a few stories (and vented a bit) and now he's pretty stoked about doing something similar.

When I had my interview at Rutabaga and was later offered the job, Joe and I decided that we were going to get a canoe or 2 kayaks (and everything that goes along with that sort of thing) this summer, since it would be an opportune time to do so. But about 2 months ago when we heard about the tax credit for first time home buyers, that thought pretty much flew out the window since we are in "must. buy. house." mode. I'm hoping that we will be able to pinch a bit of cash out of that fund because I know that we would have a great time for years to come and I feel like it would be stupid not to buy a boat right now (which is kind of like the house thing...) All I have to do is convince Joe that it's the right thing to do, which is the only roadblock in this situation. Damn houses and their downpayments! Oh well. One day we will have both luxuries and I can't wait for that.

What are you up to this weekend? I'm not sure what we're going to do on Sunday but I have the day off and I want to be sure to do something fun. You'll probably hear all about it if we do.