We live about 40 minutes from the beach. More specifically, the Jersey Shore. You know, the place that gave birth to GTL, Snooki, and the Situation. But it’s also the place that gave us big old boardwalk slices of pizza, funnel cake, arcade games and oh yeah, the beach.
Because it was sunny. Because it was a perfect 65 degrees. Because I needed to extract myself away from the TV. We headed to the beach.
This was also the place hit hard by Hurricane Sandy – and although they were still rebuilding parts of the boardwalk – doors were open.
Here’s my babies playing an overpriced game that can’t possibly be worth the crappy stuffed toy that they will eventually win. Everything is back to normal.
I took this video for my boy – who is in mad love with this cat. Since it’s Friday and my brain can’t function – I decided to use it as my post too. A nice Friday cheat.
I came down this morning to find Lexi sleeping in her spot and making a noise. Kinda like snoring or sleep meowing. I dunno.
She was doing it loudly enough for me to hear it in the kitchen. By the time I decided to go get my phone and tape her, she’d mellowed a bit.
Stick with the video…around the 2o second mark, like a great whale, she starts again.
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The round blob of fur is hard to figure out.
Here she is in all her fat, whiskery, stank eye splendor
Ever notice that people usually say you have a nice camera when they see a photo they like? This cracks me up. Maybe it’s my incredibly talented eye. Or my amazing sense of lighting and mood? Hee hee.
Here are some photos taken with a camera phone, a Nikon, a Kodak disposable, and an old school Polaroid camera. Betcha you can’t figure out which is which is which. And really, who cares.
I’ve never done an all nighter. Not even in college. So, last Saturday night, well into my 40s, I did it. We had 3 short days to enjoy in Vermont and my daughter had a dance she couldn’t miss. So around midnight, we loaded up the kids and left. In 6 hours we’d be having breakfast in our favorite spot in town.
My husband drove. We had coffee. We had snacks. We were on our way.
I fell asleep before we hit the highway.
To be fair, I did get up a few times. So it wasn’t a deep sleep. Does that count?
Here I am waking up at 2am…
And then 5am…
And 6:30am…(apparently I slept thru an accident that set us back an hour)
And then I woke up to this…
And this…
Totally worth the lack of sleep (on my husband’s part).
Last summer we spent a day at this lake, sitting, eating, playing all sorts of catch, reading gossip magazines, taking random photos, trying to guess what that building in the distance was, spraying on buckets of sunscreen and bug spray. It was 90 something degrees and humid. At one point my husband took the kids for a walk around the lake and I didn’t go. I kept our cooler company and stayed put. I remember thinking about nothing, staring at the clouds and zoning out. I’d like to zone out for a living. I could be the VP of zoning out. I could project manage the shit out of zoning out. Hi. I’m the head of the zoning out group. How can I do absolutely nothing for you? sigh.
Except I’m doing the opposite of saving the world.
I’m just doing conference calls, and meetings, and yelling about homework, and yelling about cleaning.
Know what I’m not doing? Working out. Volunteering. Blogging. Cuddling with my babies and watching Christmas movies (not that those giants want me to cuddle with them but you get the point).
Hope you are doing well in your worlds. Hope you are enjoying the season. The rainy, humid, foggy, season.
Right now, at this minute, we are supposed to be tucked away in Vermont. But instead we’re home, having cut our trip short. Doesn’t everyone drive 6 1/2 hours each way for a day and a half? I’m not bitter. It was a great little visit full of food and family and fun.
The East Coast of the country is a flutter – the perfect storm, a hybrid Frankenstorm is on its way! Save yourselves!
I’m not making light of it. I hope everyone is safe and sound.
So we headed home and bought a ton of crap and some booze to get us through. Isn’t that really what storm preparedness is all about?
Here’s some quick shots of our weekend.
All good times start with my munchkins -here they are on the farm. We missed the foliage by about 2 weeks – typical.
So during that short time, we went on a cheese tasting and a maple syrup tasting. We were busy. I liked the lightest and darkest versions of the syrup. All or nothing for me baby.
Cheese wise I’m not picky – except for anything “smoked” which is the devil.
And because I’m making a conscious effort to “stay in the picture” (read Allison Tate’s post on The Huffington Post called,”The Mom Stays in the Picture”). Here’s me with my husband’s gorgeous cousin. She’s the hot blond on the right. That’s her hubby getting personal with a horse on the farm.
We went to Quechee Gorge which was really cool and funky. It also reminded me of what a chicken shit I am about heights, large falls, falling to my death, etc.
Here’s my girl and my sister-in-law – this is one of 40 photos I took titled “Gorge Glam”. What?
As I posted this I noticed that my girl is a wee bit taller than her god mother! Then I cried about how fast time goes by and about how my sister-in-law was just holding her swaddled up in a rocking chair. Yesterday. Anyway. I digress.
It’s been a month full of festivities. Last weekend we kicked-off the fun by inviting some family and friends to ring in the Fall.
My sister-in-law took this shot of my hubby and his pals. She always gets these shots of him. Not just smiling, but literally giddy. Some spirits were involved.
Here’s a shot of my boy and some of his pals from that same get together. Please notice the can of soda that was imbedded into his hand the entire night. A good time was had by all.
Cut to this weekend.
We were invited to Staten Island to go to a local Oktoberfest – how could we refuse? I like this picture because it masks all my problem areas and was taken at a slight angle down – not to mention the photog was miles away from us. Perfect.
This morning we hosted my baby’s 9th Birthday party a few days early. Glow Golf anyone? Because I’m so together and organized I forgot to take my camera and had to rely on my phone, which did the job but everyone has evil eyes. And yes, I could fix them all, but I’m tired!
There are a few more fun weekends ahead. Then I plan on getting into my winter cave and not coming out ’till the New Year. Just sayin’.
Sorry the posts have been so far apart. It’s hard to do things and think and write. For me anyway.
Today’s post was supposed to be about the following things: picking up my babies from camp & the Olympics.
I plan to be at the gates of the camp as soon as it opens. Just kidding. Not really. The two weeks both flew by and took forever. I’ll never send them away again. Just kidding. Not really.
The Olympic opening ceremonies are on tonight! Danny Boyle directed the production so I fully expect a little “jai ho” slipped in there. When I was little, the summer olympics were a major ritual in our house. Cooking shows were tuned off. Bollywood movies were put on hold for it. It was big.
So of course I sprung out of bed and bolted downstairs to post this before my big day – and look what I found waiting for me.
**warning** This is gross, offensive, disgusting and revolting (that’s how I felt anyway). For your protection I only included a thumbnail photo.
Sorry. But I think you need to know what happens here. It’s like a war zone.
I did what any sane person would do – I screamed and woke my husband up to clean it. He came downstairs, said a few swear words and told me that the cat is sick.
Yes…Sick. Twisted. Wild. Needs to be in the woods. This is why we shouldn’t have pets indoors. What were we talking about?
This now concludes the overshare.
I’m going to go back to my happy place now. A place that does not involve cat puke or poop or whatever that was!
