Company Picnic

Today was my company's picnic. Much fun. Clam chowder first thing in the morning, we got to choose between steak and lobster - there was swimming and water balloon and egg tosses. A blow-up obstacle course/boot camp. I had to go through it with the CEO of the company. He beat me. I have some solid scrapes on my foot and on my face. A couple of bloody noses from the others. My hubby was great - he tried it a couple of times before competing - but he is very tall and it was built for shorter people. We all had fun. Very muggy, very hot, but still a lot of fun.

Photos

Some photos from the Cape:

This beach was about a five minute walk from our house. You had to walk down these steps to get to the beach.

This is the view from my sister's cottage. You walk on those planks and you end up on the beach. It smells like beach grass, salt water and honeysuckle.

The view of Provincetown from the back deck on our house. This deck was on the third level. There was also a deck below this one.

Enormous lobster 8 of us ate for dinner one night. In spite of its size, it was actually quite yummy. My hubby had to crack the claws with a hammer on the deck.

I'm back!

And I'm feeling a bit fuzzy. It's very surreal to be back at work. Last week was a blur. Fun, relaxing, dreamy. It seems like another lifetime already. I'll have photos for you soon. I drank too much, ate too much, spent too much. My hubby and I are a bit out of sorts with each other. For me, I think it was too much time spent together. Me forcing my vacation traditions on him and seeing the effects. Which were, he got very tired of the beach and the shopping and the family. At least that was how I felt by the end of the week. It's funny, we live together, and have been living together for almost 10 years now. But it is not until you take a vacation together that you realize how much time you don't see the other person. We work/go to school every day. And then do separate things when we get home. Vacations force you to be with the other person the whole time. Not that there is anything wrong with that - I just think we weren't prepared. We were snippy with each other the last day. And have been since we got back. I'm sure he has a totally different take on it. Ah well, I'll give it some time and things will go back to normal-ish.

The kitties missed us terribly - both have lost a little weight. And Otto has been meowing non-stop. Maybe he kept himself silent for a whole week and now he has to let it all out? The tomatoes and hot peppers survived the week. I was a bit worried because our cat sitter has said that she is awful with plants. So, either she watered them each time she was there - or my neighbors took pity on my plants and watered them. I'm starting to see tomatoes growing - looks like there are maybe 3 different kinds. I bought the heirloom tomato plants at a farmer's market so I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to get.

All in all, it was a good week. I bought some art - a lino print of some dock pilings and a panoramic photo of the tip of the Cape. Also a very cool glass ring. And some other assorted goodies. I'm a bit more tan despite my sunscreen and big hat efforts.

Hope you all behaved yourselves.

Smell Ya Later!

We are leaving first thing in the morning to head to CAPE COD!!! And we are spending a WEEK there! I'm so excited! I haven't been to Provincetown in almost 10 years. I'm craving it. The beaches, the seafood, the smells, the sights. All of it.

Have a lovely week without me. I will hopefully come back rested, revived and restored. My tooth is feeling better. People at work have called me, so far: "Stitch Mouth", "Frankentooth" and "Is that a spider in your mouth?". Okay, so the last one was not exactly a nickname.

I'm thankful to get away from mr. annoying. He did his best to annoy me right out of the door today. And I even made sure to avoid him on my way out to my vacation - I snuck, with head held high, out the back door and into my car to freedom. ;) As you can see, I'm dealing with the annoyance head on.

Don't miss me too much.

Ouch

Well, I had a dentist appointment today. About 4ish years ago, I had a front tooth removed and an implant put in. And it was all good and pretty and fine for about 2 years. And then it got infected. So they opened it up again and cleaned it out, stitched it back up and sent me on my way.

All fine for the next 2 years. Now it keeps getting infected. And today was the determination of whether the implant needed to come out. Luckily, it did not.

But to determine this, they had to shoot me full of novacaine, cut open my gum, clean the implant, scrape and prod and shove. The novacaine wore off - THREE FRICKIN' TIMES. I like this dentist, luckily. I'm home, my mouth's numbness is wearing off and my gum looks like a battlefield. There are three black stitches right above my tooth.

I think I might need to take a nap.

Stella

Everyone, let me introduce you to my sister's dog Stella. She is a crazy, running around fool. She especially likes frogs and chipmunks. She can leap high fences in a single bound and scare the living crap out of you when she barks.

Very Funny

Animation from JibJab - "This land is your land"

Friday!

Sorry I haven't been writing much. I keep playing KoL and it's taking up my computer time. Countdown 1 week until we head to the Cape for vacation. We are going to be staying in North Truro - close to Provincetown but less expensive. 8 of us are going to be sharing a house. Should be interesting. My younger sister, her husband, my brother, his wife, my husband and two of my brother's friends from England.

I LOVE the Cape. We used to vacation there every summer when we were younger. And then we all stopped going once the kids starting going away to college, etc. All of my siblings and I have a connection to the place. And I've visited upper Cape and it is just not the same. (Why is Provincetown considered lower Cape? That I'll never know).

So this next week is going to be laundry and overall preparation for taking a week off.

I have tomato and jalapeno plants that I'm hoping aren't ready to pick while we are gone. I went with the heirloom tomatoes this year, so I'm excited to see what they look like. And I love me some spicy food, so the jalapenos are a favorite. No, I don't have a garden - I'm doing it all in big containers sort of on the walkway to our apartment. I'll have to take a picture. I keep promising pictures, don't I?

As an update on the idiot at work situation. I've taken to avoiding him. He just makes my skin crawl and until I think of a good torture or comeback in advance, I'm just going to keep avoiding him. Life is really too short to deal with people like that.

I've been going to the gym and really working out. Because I have one week left to try and look okay in my bathing suit. I've been sticking to working out for 65 - 70 minutes a day, 30 minutes on this arc trainer thing-a-ma-bob and then the rest of the time on the XTrainer - which is an elliptical trainer with the arm thingies. And then alternating each time between arm weights and leg weights.

We have also stopped drinking until we go to the Cape. That should help with the love handles a bit, I think.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

My new favorite snack is plain yogurt with a little packet of Splenda, blueberries and chopped, roasted hazelnuts. Yummy! Protein, good carbs, a little bit of good fat.

The diet we put Tabitha on (basically, giving her a very small spoonful of wet food in the morning as opposed to a bigger spoonful) seems to be working. Her fur looks better and she looks a little bit more slim. Of course, she has a tiny head so she will always look chubby, poor thing.

Otto is as annoying as ever.
Words he "understands": "Look!", "Cookies?", "SHUT UP!"

And, finally, I hope you all have a great weekend.

Frickin' Amazing

We are now home. Have been home for a couple of hours. Most of the drive was uneventful except for a stretch of traffic and downpour. And by downpour, I mean about 10 feet of visibility. That thankfully only lasted for about 45 minutes. So the drive back took us about an hour longer than normal.

I'm now sitting at home playing KoL and there is a massive thunder and lightening storm passing over me (My hubby's out playing games with little soldiers) - huge flashes of light and then really, incredibly loud thunder. I love it. It makes me think about how the early people must have felt. In awe of the sky gods because of their power and might. It seems to have mostly passed by. It is still raining very heavily but the thunder has moved on. Among the knowledge my grandfather (the farmer) passed on - start counting after you see lightening, when you hear thunder - each second counts for one mile of distance. That way, you can see how close the lightening is to you.

We had a great weekend. Very relaxing, fun, lots of laughs. My parents put us to work - hauling wood, chopping prickers back, cleaning out marlin birdhouses. And then we BBQd clams and corn and veggies and drank gin&tonics and beer and played cards and got a bit of sun and avoided the bugs and laughed at crazy Stella (my sister's dog). And because it wasn't the whole family - Aaron and I got to sleep on actual beds this time! Loved it.

I hope you had a great weekend.

I'm going to kick his ass

Have you ever worked with someone who is constantly insinuating that he can do your job better than you? And he is a 40 year old, accoustic guitar-playing temp? And he knows nothing about your job nor what you do on a daily basis?! And he keeps making statements in a really annoying tone of voice, really SLOWLY to imply that you are dumb!?!

Yeah, that was my day today. I had some really great comebacks, but I thought of all of them on my way home. I think my best resort at this point is torture. Find out what he is most afraid of and inflict this on him.

In other news, we are headed to Lake Ontario for the weekend. My parents have a cottage there. Should be nice and relaxing. My younger sister, her husband and their crazy dog will be there, too. Pictures will follow, I'm sure.

I also framed some photos from June. That is last June, mind you. I'm very bad about framing things. I'm very bad about putting things in to albums, never mind framing them. So this is a big accomplishment. They are photos from my brother's wedding. My sisters and I, my niece dancing, my grandmother and aunts. I also have a photo my aunt took in Africa. And a watercolor print by Alex Deauchamp (girlsatplay.com). All framed, AND hung! I think I deserve a glass of wine. Oh yeah, I have a glass right here. ;)

We are headed out first thing on Saturday morning (and by first thing, I mean around 7 or so). It takes about 4 hours to get up to the cottage. And then lots of sitting in the hammock. Playing cards. Drinking. Eating. Swatting mosquitos. Watching Fireworks. Love it.