Hello Canadensis!

Well, our trip up to camp yesterday was very successful.  Me, Eric, Terri and Neil met with a few contractors to discuss some different projects we will be putting into motion for future summers.  It was very exciting and we will unleash our plans as soon as everything is finalized.  However, one area that is already underway is our main office.  It is getting a face lift with a new roof and new front.  Here are some pics of what it looks like so far…

I love how camp looks this time of year.  The trees at the far end of Lake Lenape are all changing colors.  It is just magnificent.  Fall is a big time up in Canadensis.  In fact, Halloween is a very big deal.  In fact, Canadensis, for the day of Halloween, has it’s name changed to “Scarecroweville.”  Seriously.  Here are some pics of the trees across the lake…

It was also so windy yesterday at camp.  Lake Lenape looked like an ocean with mini waves.  It was really intense!  Here is a pic of me and Eric.  You can see my hair and Eric’s jacket whipping in the wind!

With all of the wind, all of the pine needles have come off the trees.  A lot of the roads at camp are completely covered in them.  Here is a pic of my house.  You can see all of  pine needles everywhere.

After leaving camp, I had to stop off at Callie’s Candy Kitchen for some treats!  In fact, a few years ago, Aunt Terri introduced me to one of her favorite items there…pretzel balls.  They are awesome!  They are exactly what they sound like.  Little balls of pretzel.  They are so crunchy and delicious.  Anyway, a few years ago, I bought some bags to bring home with me.  One day, I had a few friends over and I put out a bowl of pretzel balls for everyone to snack on.  And, what do you know?  My friends are like, “Where did you get these?”  So, I tell them.  Now, everytime I go up to camp, I have to buy everyone pretzel balls.  Let’s just say I left Callie’s with two large shopping bags of pretzel balls.  But, they are so good!

Camp Mom Steph also sent me some great photos the other day.  Every few weeks or so, Steph, her husband Stu and their friends have a gourmet club evening in which one couple hosts others for a night of themed dining.  Well, this time it was Steph’s turn.  What was her theme?  COLOR WAR!  Awesome!  Well, her teams were the Hippies vs. the Preppies (sound familiar).  Events included a cake decorating competition and even a rope burn in the backyard!  In the end, the Hippies were victorious.  Here are the pics…

Awesome job, Steph!  Way to keep the camp spirit alive even while you are at home!

So, a lot of good pictures in today’s blog.  Hence, the subject of today’s blog.  Anyone know who sings it?  First one to comment gets Color War bands!  By the way, congratulations to Ellen Kilman (mother of Girls Bunk 5’s Emily Kilman) who answered  my last question correctly.  “My Morning Song” is a song of The Black Crowes.  Ellen and Emily, the bands are on the way.

Well, that’s all for today.  More tomorrow.

Until then…have a great day…Brian

Hey Guys,

Yesterday I had to chance to go up to camp and check up on things. Here are some pictures of what camps look like! I promise a new blog post soon! Also be on the look out for more guest bloggers next week.

Hello Canadensis!

Do any of you wake up to a clock radio anymore?  Well, I still do.  For those of you that still wake up to some sort of music (maybe a song on your cell phone), do you sometimes have that song in your head all day long.  Today is one of those days for me…call it My Morning Song.  Trivia Question:  What band has a song titled “My Morning Song”?  The first to answer wins Color War bands!  Anyway, my morning song today was Katy Perry’s “Hot ‘N Cold.”  Now, I am okay with the song, but it has been in my head all day long.  Over and over, I keep singing to myself, “You’re hot then you’re cold.  You’re yes then you’re no.”  Over and over!  It’s killing me!

Hope all is well on this beautiful Tuesday.  Sorry about not being able to blog yesterday, but the day got away from me.  A busy morning and early afternoon came and went.  I had to leave at around 2:30 to volunteer at a wonderful event that raised a ton of money.

The cause was for the Ryan Wolfe Kossar Foundation and the event was their Fifth Annual Million Dollar Golf Classic.  Ryan Kossar died five years ago of SIDS and now his family and friends raise money for research of this terrible affliction.  This golf outing is one of their biggest events and also includes a silent auction and auction.  The million dollar part comes into play in the morning.  Golfers pay for the chance to take one shot for a $1 million.  Apparently, one golfer missed the million by 18 inches!  Anyway, the event probably raised a little over $150,000, all which goes to SIDS research.

I had an awesome weekend.  The Bruce Springsteen show I went to was absolutely amazing!  I must say, for a guy in his 60’s, Bruce is still one of the best live acts today.  If you haven’t seen him yet, go!  He still plays for 3+ hours, gets the crowd singing and dancing.  It was terrific, even in our horrible seats in Section 315, Row 27.  My friends and I had a blast!  I can’t wait until I go again on…Friday!  Ha Ha!

And, the Big Blue kept on rolling with another win.  Now 4-0, the Giants will play the Raiders at home on Sunday.  The Raiders are the favorite team of Swimming Head Eric Rosenauer, who I got an e-mail from today.  The Giants have played three games on the road in a row, so it will finally be good to have a tailgate again.  Menu planning for our group always starts on Wednesday.  I don’t know what we are going to make this week.  Maybe chicken quesadillas?  I definitely think there will be French toast and bacon on the menu.  Mmmmm…

In my e-mail from Eric, by the way, he let me know that he was nominated for Teacher of the Year down in his school in Florida.  Way to go, Eric!  Eric said that he loved his first summer at Canadensis and can’t wait to get back for his second.  He has some really wonderful plans for the pools next year which we will let you in on as they become finalized.  I think our older campers in particular will be very excited.

Well, now to make everyone jealous.  I get to go to camp tomorrow!  That’s right.  I will be in the 18325 all day!  Eric, Terri and Neil are joining me up there as well as we begin to talk about projects for next summer.  Should be a great trip.  I will post pics of what camp looks like as I hope the leaves up at camp are turning all sorts of amazing colors!  Well, that’s all for today.  I will be back tomorrow after I get back from camp.

Until then…Have a great day…Brian

Hello Blogland! I’m BACKKKK, but not for long. I am back at my home in Philadelphia (or more aptly called my temporary dwelling!) this week and in the winter office today, Thursday, and Friday. Where will I be on Wednesday might you ask? CAMP! I will be heading up to camp tomorrow for the day to have a look around at some winter projects.

As I have been reporting the past few months, we are renovating the main office exterior as well as the grove and landscaping. From what I understand, it is coming along nicely. While up at camp, we are meeting with our paver to discuss which roads we will be paving throughout camp. As many of you noticed, last year we repaved the entrance road (the entire length) up to the parking lot area and then all of lower boys as well as near the health center. So we will be continuing this year with additional paving. I can’t quite tell you what else we will be doing this winter just yet, but between the 3 blogs, Canadensis Today shows, and the Canadensis Courier, we will let you in on the “secrets!”

Flashback to last week- Thanks to Jaycal for the wonderful virtual birthday cake. I appreciate the virtual one posted on my blog as it’s calorie free:) Down in Florida, I spent time with Robin (girls head counselor), Julie (office manager), Eric R. (pool director), and Harold (baker) and his lovely wife Phyllis. To be honest, I didn’t do all that much. I sat at the pool enjoying the sun, went to the gym (shocker), and just relaxed a bit. Oh, I can’t forget Chuck E Cheese. I took Shane (Robin’s friend’s son) there and it was awesome. I haven’t been to one in probably 20 years and it was so much fun to run around, play some video games, and watch him having a blast. Work wise I went to visit an alumnus who lives in FL and has 3 kids. They were a great family and will hopefully be sending the next generation to camp this coming summer! I also met with a referral service representative. Referral services are important to us as they send us prospective families to follow-up with. She repeated numerous times how much she loves Canadensis as she came to visit us in 2007. I told her she has to come back and see the new amphitheatre, canteen, The Summit, Canadensis Today, and much more! Hopefully, she will be coming back again this coming summer for a visit.

I hope you enjoyed all of the guest bloggers. Special thanks to all of them as they helped keep the blog going while I was away. If you missed out on the blog last week- shame on you (just kidding!). Please make sure you scroll back to the archives and see each of our guest blogger entries.

Speaking of going away, this is the month for camp directors to hibernate and catch up a little on some R&R, and I plan to take full advantage of that! After working 6 months, 7-days a week, I can use some breathing time. So, next week I will be heading to the Caribbean with Carnival Cruise Lines and relaxing for a full 7 days! Rough life, right?? The truth is while I am away I miss camp and on each of my cruises so far I have found a few kids out at the pool area who challenge me to go down the slide, etc. So, camp is close to me (especially with all of my camp t-shirts I wear every day!) and perhaps the Carnival Kids Camp Program will need some help planning activities!

Well I better get back to work. I am trying to catch up from being out a week, just in time to leave for another week of vacation! From what I understand, Jaycal has a whole line up of guest bloggers (hint: Tarnoff!) to continue with our guest blogging series next week. And remember, if you want to be a guest blogger we would love to hear from you. Please email editor@canadensis.com and Jaycal will set you up!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIELLE FADEN!!!

It is officially my favorite part of the off season! Staff from summer 2009 are starting to call the office and say “YES! I would love to come back for another great season!!!”. These calls make my day in a big way. Once we have an idea of who is coming back, we get to begin interviewing and hiring new counselors. I love getting to interview new staff. It’s so much fun to tell them about Canadensis, and get to hear about all of their hobbies, interests, and most importantly, why they want to work at camp! Eventually I will hit the road early next year for another hiring road trip, another highlight of my off-season.

Today has been eventful, everyone is all abuzz with talk of next summer. Eric Forti is especially excited that his favorite “popchips” arrived in the mail.  It’s also been a very campy week. Over the weekend I was with my mom and sister (counselor Dani Corradetti) getting some Ice Cream, and I saw the Rapoport family!

Dani and I also enjoyed our usual lunch date with Rebecca Waxman and Jess Cook. We enjoyed a delightful cheesecake factory lunch, and spent the rest of the day shopping for anything and everything we could imagine. After we were totally exhausted from the mall, we all returned to the Waxman-Cook house, got to see Rachael Hannah Cook, and meet their new PUPPIES! We had so much fun watching them play, and trample all over each other. One day they will be big enough for Rachael to put a saddle on them and go riding. After putting on a brief fashion show for Mommy Beth Cook, Dani and I hopped back in the car and headed home.

I also met the fabulous Captain Karen Sharir for a coffee date in Plymouth Meeting! I was going through some serious Karen withdraw, especially after living together so closely during precamp, and it was so good to laugh about the summer and make plans to get together during the year.

I’m sure most of you who know me know that the only other thing I love as much as camp is my sorority, so a special congratulations to all of our counselors who made it through recruitment and are new members of their organizations, especially Miss Danielle Cook, who called me every day to tell me about recruitment and let me live vicariously through her fun. She and I also spent some time shopping together, online of course, since she is in Rhode Island. We bought matching tote bags! We’re also planning to spend Thanksgiving break making sorority crafts, watching movies, and learning to make SUSHI! More on that in a later blog, for sure!

Anways, I have big plans this weekend to do some major fall cleaning. Twice a year my mom and sister and I go through our closets and put together a few donation bags. Out with the old, in with the new, and all for a good cause. So I’ll be up to my ears in clothing all weekend, but I love that feeling on Sunday afternoon when we all feel so accomplished and ready for winter’s arrival. I might even drive up to camp for a bit to make sure my cabin is ready for winter, and bring home anything I might have left behind. If I do, pictures will definitely follow!

As much as I love the summer, I am really looking forward to the arrival of the chilly weather. I have a serious love for winter boots, especially my cushy uggs… I’m really a Vermonter at heart!

PS: To all the Gossip Girl, Greek, and Glee lovers out there, this is sure to be an awesome week of television!

In honor of Danielle Faden’s birthday (Happy Birthday!!!!) here is a recycling cheat sheet for you to use next summer at camp, which I found on cnn.com today during lunchtime.

Here, a cheat sheet for recycling.

No. 1: Polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PETE), the most widely recycled plastic, is used for soft-drink bottles and is also commonly found in textiles, which explains why a bottle can be turned into fleece.

No. 2: High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is used for detergent bottles and grocery bags.

No. 3: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl) is what salad-bar containers are made from.

No. 4: Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is used for dry-cleaning and fresh-produce bags.

No. 5: Polypropylene (PP) is what makes bottle caps, yogurt cups, and drinking straws.

No. 6: Polystyrene (PS) is also known as Styrofoam.

No. 7: These “other” plastics, such as polycarbonate baby bottles, are generally not recyclable at most centers.

Hello Canadensis!

A busy Friday for me, but I couldn’t leave for the weekend without some blogging first!

I was on the phone for most of the day today.  Between speaking with parents and some of our vendors, I don’t know where the day went.  At around 2 pm today, I totally remembered that I needed to eat lunch!  Ha Ha!  Got to speak with Girls Head Counselor Rachel Bachman for a little bit, too, which was great!  Rachel is doing well in Dillsburg, PA and she says that teaching this year is just great and that her classes are really good.  Rachel is also taking two graduate courses in Education Administration so her schedule is really busy.  She says hello to everyone at Canadensis!

Congratulations to Danielle Faden for correctly guessing that there is a U2 album entitled “October.”  Danielle, be honest.  Did you know the answer or did you google it?  In any event, your color war bands are on the way.  Way to go D-Fade!  For those of you that don’t know, Danielle lives and breathes Canadensis 24/7!

Today’s rock-n-roll subject line is an obvious one.  Of course, it’s The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.  Had to use it as my subject as I will be seeing Springsteen tomorrow at Giants Stadium.  I am very excited!  Bruce will be the last musician to play a show at Giants Stadium and these are the last five shows there.  In fact, he wrote a song that he played to open the show the other night about the closing of Giants Stadium.  You can watch the video here:  http://www.backstreets.com/news.html.

Of course, there will also be a BarbeKrug going on tomorrow in the Giants Stadium lot.  I don’t know exactly where we will be parked, but if you are going to the show, be on the lookout for me and stop by and say hi.  On the menu:  steak tips, shrimp and hamburgers.  Should be fun even if it is supposed be raining tomorrow.  That’s why you bring a tent, right?!

On Sunday, I will be in front of the TV for the Giants-Chiefs game.  Another game on the road for the Big Blue.  I am nervous as the Chiefs are 0-3 and looking for their first win.  Hopefully, that won’t happen.  We are definitely the better team and I would like to think that on Monday, I can say we are 4-0.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, the End of Summer ’09 Newsletter has been posted with this year’s Memory Page.  In trying to come up with my favorite memory, I’d have to say Color War break this year tends to stand out.  I loved that we actually broke Color War without anyone realizing it.  That was pretty cool.  THAT’S NOT IT!  Ha Ha!  I still remember after the helicopter dropped the papers seeing Mara Bernstein and Meg Mucatel.  They were so upset at me!  Sorry girls.  I love ya!  I also thought the CIT Fake Break was really good, too.  They did a nice job organizing that this year.  Other memories for me:  Rak Dan was awesome!  The MTV Night Finals was great!  Going on the Summit for the first time was fun!  Man, there are so many memories!

Also, if you haven’t seen the blooper real from the Canadensis Today show, check it out this weekend.  It’s hysterical!  It’s great to see what actually never made it to the final cut (and rightfully so).  We will continue to try and put as much stuff on the website as possible.

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll be back on Monday.  Until then…Have a great weekend…Brian.

Welcome to Day 5 of our special Guest Blogging series! Today we have camper Max Vorcheimer. Max was an Upper Inter this past summer and is currently in the 6th grade.

Hey Canadensis,

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Max Vorcheimer “Camp Mom Son”. I was in Boys Bunk 10 last year and can’t wait to be on the hill next summer! Since camp has been over, I was down the shore in Ocean City, NJ. I was also in Montauk, NY with my friend. After my vacations, school started. This is my first year in middle school and I am loving it. Besides school, I play tennis twice a week, basketball and hockey start soon and I just joined some clubs at my school. I want to give a shout-out to Boys Bunk 10…You guy’s rock!!! For all you Giant fans, GO BIG BLUE!!!! Were undefeated!!! And also a shout out to Derek Jeter for breaking the hit record!! Can’t wait to see you all at the reunion.

-Max Vorcheimer

Hello Canadensis!

After seeing my blog yesterday, J.Cal thought it would be cool if everyone of my subjects for my blogs for the whole month was a song lyric or song title.  I told him I would take him up on that challenge.  So, welcome to Rocktober!  For the whole month, my subjects will all be related to music.  Of course, this will start tomorrow.  However, there is a band that named an entire album of theirs “October.”  Do you know who it is?  First answer gets a 2009 Color War band.

A good day today as I got to have lunch with Camp Mom, Stephanie Vorcheimer.  Steph and I always love talking about camp.  We met at the Cheesecake Factory in Wayne, NJ.  I haven’t eaten at a Cheesecake Factory in a long, long time.  Their portions are huge!  Steph says hello to everyone in Canadensis Blogging World!

I also found out that Steven Scott’s new band “The Spelling Tree,” which I mentioned yesterday has a my space page with two of their songs on the site.  The address is:  http://www.myspace.com/thespellingtree .  The song “Fourth of July” has good potential in my opinion.

Well, that’s all for now.  Will have an XL Blog on Friday.

Until then…Have a Great Day…Brian