When are we leaving on our camping trip? That’s what we’re all wondering, you and me both. We were scheduled to leave Tuesday or Wednesday of this week but we’ll be lucky if we leave by Thursday. I’m actually fine with that, as I’m quite used to Toby’s work schedule. I just hope we leave before we are scheduled to come home. I’m kidding…mostly.

The good news is this allows me plenty of time to get ready for this trip. I’ve got a great big list that I add to and check off daily. I won’t lie to you, while I’m very excited to go on a big adventure with my little family, I’m also a bit scared. I’ll just list my fears to save time.

1. Food. I’m the matriarch these days and that means I need to remember that we need to eat three times a day. It’s up to me to make sure hunger doesn’t ruin our fun. We’ll do most of our shopping up north before we head up the mountain but I still need to have a plan. We can’t just go shopping willy nilly and live off twinkies for a week.

2. Water. As in the water in the lake is what I’m afraid of. Not the drinking water, though now that I mention it I should probably worry about that too. We will be next to a lake with a small person who cannot swim for a whole week. I’m having nightmares about her drowning.

3. Bugs. We don’t have a problem with mosquitos here so I am completely unprepared for flying/crawling things that can bite. Hasn’t it recently been proven that Deet causes cancer or something? Should I rub garlic on our skin? Marigold oil? I have no clue. I feel like a city slicker.

4. Shoes. Toby instructed me to buy water-shoes. I nearly went postal today at REI trying to find water sandals in my size. Apparently, the season is over and they sold all the size 7’s over Labor Day. I did find some that fit but they are butt-ugly. I wanted to buy the cute ones but they chafed at the heel. Comfort is more important than vanity when hiking and camping right?

5. Clean clothes. I’m trying desperately not to wear the clothes I want to pack but as the days go by I’m thinking I’m going to have to make another last minute trip to the laundromat. Also what will the weather be like? Warm in the day, cold at night? What does that mean? Pack everything? Ack.

6. What to do about this blog while I’m gone. I haven’t lined up any guest posters. I may have cell phone reception which means I could upload phone photos with a brief description… I could create a little back log of eye-spy posts. I might do that… who knows. I might just hang up a “gone fishin'” sign and call it a week off.

I think that’s about it. Though I’m sure I’ll think of seventy other things to worry about before we leave.

However I meant to write about my new camera! Remember how the waterproof minivan dolt camera died after I took those killer under-water shots? Well, I took it to Ritz and they said they’d fix it or give me a new one is four to six weeks. Six weeks finally rolled around and I got a letter with a gift card saying I could buy another camera because they couldn’t fix it and they no longer carried anything comparable. Usually that would be good news except when I stopped in to check out what they did sell they had nothing good to offer. We are camera snobs in this family and I wasn’t about to settle.

I came home dejected. But then Toby said he’d order me the new Canon waterproof camera and use my gift card to buy something for himself like a CF card or something that he needed anyway. Great plan, I said. Two days later a box from B&H arrived and it was like I got a really cool anniversary present.

So I’ve been testing it. I’m not quite ready to write a full review but it’s cool. It’s definitely idiot proof. It’s slick looking, I think. It sort of reminds me of a tiny submarine, which is appropriate. Best of all it’s survived my purse for the last week (which everyone knows is more treacherous than anything you’d ever find in nature). I think it will work.