GOIN' UP THE COUNTRY

I managed to get the day off on Friday and I'll be heading up to my buddy Jared's annual birthday hoo-hah upstate in Garnerville tomorrow afternoon, so it's unlikely that I'll put anything up here on the Vault until Monday. I have a couple of articles percolating in draft stage, and I'll be able to get back to EL BUNCHO'S BALLS OUT STAR TREK next week as well, so I promise not to deprive you of my rambling drivel for long. Every year when Jared does his birthday cookout I get up there a day in advance so he and I — sometimes accompanied by our pal, Rob — can shop and do whatever prep and pre-cooking is required, thereby eliminating most of the next day's work and allowing time to socialize and be our idiotic selves with the rest of our equally-idiotic extended family. I can hardly wait to see friends since college (and before) who have become more important to me than the majority of my blood relatives, and their offspring who hail me as Uncle Bunche (heartstrings getting tugged). Those lucky (?) kids will get a dose of age-appropriate but nonetheless ridiculous fare from my DVD collection if it rains, and if it's nice I'll see how much Ribald Songbirding I can get away with by way of a PG-rated introductory course. Anyway, I'm outta here for a bit, so stay naughty!