I walked home from work without a jacket on today.
People, this is huge. This means it’s finally almost summer. Which means it’s time for me to make my annual “What I Want To Do This Summer” list.
1. Go boating on the Columbia with Paul and Jen as many times as possible.
2. Visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I mean, I love cheese, and I love ice cream. You’d think in the seven years I’ve lived in Oregon I would have made visiting Tillamook a priority. But the truth is that in that time I’ve only been to the coast twice, and neither time included a trip to the cheese capitol of my world.
3. Go to my friends‘ brewery on Flathead Lake in Montana. I had some of their beers last weekend when I was home (they brought about half a dozen growlers to a barbecue at my dad’s house and we finished them off in no time). They’re also throwing around the idea of naming a beer after my pops, which would be incredible. (They want to call it “Dr. Tom’s Pils”.)
4. I also think I may join a Dragon Boating team… Although the details are still in the works. But it seems like a great alternative to summer bowling (indoors when it’s 90 degrees? Yuck.) and kickball (doesn’t work with my schedule). It’s outside, I get to meet new people, and I get a little bit of a workout without going to the gym.
5. I can’t leave out the 6th Annual International Barbecue Symposium. An entire day full of grilling, eating, and drinking beer with my friends in Adam’s backyard. Could it get any better?
And, of course, I’m looking forward to lots of hiking and bikeriding, sunbathing with a good/trashy/interesting book, and beers on the deck. Not that I have a deck, mind you. But I know a guy.
*My friend Lindsay in High School thought those were the lyrics to the song.
