Things you should know about August 31

Famous people sharing my birthday:

Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor
Commodus, Roman Emperor
Chris Tucker
Deborah Gibson
Richard Gere
Van Morrison
Itzhak Perlman
James Coburn
Buddy Hackett
Hassan Nasrallah
Fredric March

Notable events that took place on August 31:

1535 - Pope Paul II deposed and excommunicated King Henry VIII
1842 - US Naval Observatory authorized by an act of Congress
1888 - In Victorian London, Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim.
1895 - 1st pro football game (QB John Brallier paid $10 and won 12-0)
1897 - Thomas Edison patented his movie camera (Kinetograph)
1907 - England, Russia and France form Triple Entente
1951 - 1st 33 1/3 album introduced in Dusseldorf
1963 - "Hot line" between Moscow-Washington, DC installed
1980 - Poland's Solidarity labor union forms
1987 - Michael Jacskon's "Bad" video premieres on CBS TV
1990 - East and West Germany sign a treaty to join legal and political systems
1997 - Death of Princess Diana

End of Day 9 - Mood: exhausted, stressed

Well, the ceiling has been painted, the oven has been installed, and the island is taking shape (it even has two trash bins in it!) The couple of little things I noticed last night have been fixed (cabinet door not shutting properly), and I think that they are going to be able to do the countertop template on Friday, and they are going to install the floor tomorrow. That ought to be interesting.

Thankfully, I'm on my way to FL for the weekend, to DH's condo, which has a functioning kitchen. I'm so excited about having a kitchen sink again I am beside myself. Tonight I washed the dishes that I had inside of a giant black trash bag in the laundry sink in the basement. It worked out okay - although it was pretty disgusting. Anyway, I even washed the blackberry crisp dish - so that's good.

Here are today's pics:


An overview - painted ceiling!


Look, trash cans!


Check out the oven!


The island

A eulogy for my twenties

Well, we're here, faster than I ever expected. Today is the last day of my twenties; as of tomorrow I will have officially entered my thirties.

I'm not feeling too much nostalgia. The twenties were what they were, I don't know whether I would necessarily say they were the best period of my life (what am I comparing it against - my teens? Ugh), but there were some enjoyable moments.

High points:
- Graduating from Dickinson
- Meeting my DH
- Discovering St. John in the USVI
- Discovering Maine
- Seeing Mt. St. Helens
- Year in Germany
- Internships at the GHI and NASA
- Spending time in Italy (particularly Venice and Tuscany)
- Traveling in Europe (although there are some pretty low points in that period - Prague, I'm looking at you!)
- Fishing in the FL Keys with my grandfather
- Learning to SCUBA dive

I'm sure that's not an exhaustive list, and there are some glaring omissions (for example, I don't relly consider my wedding day a high point; I love DH, but the day itself was unrelenting drama). But it really does reflect what is important to me - discovering new places and returning to favorites, my relationship with DH and my grandfather, challenging and interesting jobs, etc.

As for wishes for my thirties - here's what I am hoping I will accomplish:

- Many, many SCUBA dives
- Getting out of college debt
- Seeing New Zealand, a Polynesian island, and somewhere in Central America
- Buying a Volkswagen Beetle convertible
- Traveling somewhere new at least every other year

Gosh, it really doesn't sound like much. I just want to stay healthy - emotionally and mentally as well as physically. I know that there will be some low points - there were certainly a few in my twenties - but that's just a part of life.

Anyway, I feel like I should be more retrospective and contemplative about this "major" life event, but I'm not really feeling it. Ask me again in a week, then we'll see what happens.

By the way, I had someone ask me about a week ago if I was a student intern. That's just great. I know that I look young, but jeez.

End of Day 8 - Mood: tired, bored, buyer's remorse?

So, there's been dramatic progress in my kitchen since renovation began last Tuesday, and as much as I hated my old kitchen, all this change is pretty intimidating. Nothing is finished yet, but having the new cabinets in a partially finished kitchen really makes them look awful. I have to remind myself that nothing is finished yet, that the door that seems a little out of square and isn't shutting completely is going to be fixed, that the 4 different colors on the wall will eventually be hidden behind one gleaming coat of new paint, and that the dusty, icky floor will be covered over.

Two-to-three weeks from now, I am sure that I will be saying that it is the finishing touches that really make the kitchen remodel worthwhile. The glossy black toekicks, the neat lighting, etc... all the little details that won't be there until the very end. Right now, I am looking at the mess in the kitchen, the mess in my living room, the mess in my dining room, the mess in my garage, and I am thinking about the mayhem and upheaval that this remodel has wrought, and I am wondering if it was all worth it.

I tend to cycle through emotions rather quickly - I am an emotional roller coaster under the best of circumstances - but right now I am so ready to be in Florida, relaxing with DH and living in a condo with a functioning kitchen.

So here is today's progress:


Look at all these new cabinets!


Think of all the stuff that is going to fill them


This is where I'll have a kitchen sink again.... someday


Nice close up of the chimney hood.

End of Day 7 / Week 1 - Mood: annoyed, impatient

Alright. I'm done with this whole kitchen renovation thing. I'm ready for it to be done.

Here are some pics of what was done today:



Look ma! Cabinets!

Good news is that I finally bought lighting today... here's what I bought;

This is the chandelier over the kitchen table...


This is two of the three pendant lights for over the island...


And this is the third pendant light for over the island

You've got to be f&%king kidding me - Part 2

So, here's the lastest from the NHC.


Note that the pink X marks where I am going to be on Thursday.

Of course the good news is that the storm is likely to be up in GA on Thursday when I fly in.

The bad news is that if it knocks out power in the area, my ice cream cake is going to melt in DH's freezer.

The good news is that the seas might calm down enough by Monday to go diving.

The bad news is that it is going to be hell flying through or around that muthafarking storm.

Grrrrrr.

You've got to be f&*king kidding me

About a month ago, I posted this, where I noted that a friggin' hurricane was aiming right for PBC (Palm Beach County) the single weekend I was supposed to go down. It roughed up the seas quite a bit, but the storm was killed by the mountains in Cuba or something and it never materialized in FL.

Well, here's my first trip back down to FL since then... and here's the latest f'ing forecast from the NHC. WTF? How is this possible?



If Ernesto screws up my 30th birthday weekend, I'm going to be royally pissed. There's just nothing more I can say about that.
At the very least, this storm is going to make my Thursday afternoon flight a bumpy one.

End of Day 6 - Mood: Stable, anxious

So, the poor kitchen guys are working all weekend. They were here yesterday at 7 am, and the appliance delivery guys were here at 7:30. I got a friggin' parking ticket for parking across the street for less than 12 hours while the contractor and delivery guys were doing their thing in my driveway, which pissed me off to no end. By 930 I was on my way to Leesburg, where I shopped until my credit card dropped. I spent almost $500 on clothes for myself - that's more than I've ever spent on myself in one go ever! Even including my wedding dress! Crazy.

I'll post the most recent kitchen pics shortly; the batteries in the digital camera are dead and being recharged right now. I'm getting better at finding ways to make do without having a kitchen. I made myself a latte yesterday and have been making somewhat healthy meals for myself each night. Tomorrow, however, my fridge is being moved into the garage, which isn't awful, but even more inconvienent. It is going to be a "regroup" day, apparently, between the designer and the contractor. They are going to revisit the design, make sure that it still works in the space and whatnot. It should be very interesting.

Whatever, I'm really looking forward to having this done. I haven't figured out what I want for pendant lights over the island and chandelier for over the table - a task I have been asked to complete. What a challenge!

Here are some pics!



Here's the kitchen at the end of day 5 - not much more done except for the drywall in this corner



This is the kitchen at the end of today - all the ceiling has been drywalled - phew.



Same day - different view



Same day - different view #2

And, if DH doubts the need for his side of the garage, forcing his car into the driveway, here's a pic of his side of the garage


Those are some of the new appliances and cabinets there.

End of Day 4 - Mood: Stablized, adjusted (mostly)

There haven't been any more major visible changes in the kitchen's status; I think that the electrician came by today, there are three new holes in the ceiling, and there are a lot more tools in the kitchen. The bad news is that they are going to be here at 7am tomorrow morning, which is killer. The appliances are also going to be here tomorrow - I really hope that I have enough room in the garage to store them! It's a fridge, double-oven, cooktop, and dishwasher. I'm nervous.

Tomorrow I plan to go shopping all day long! I recently received a cash bonus from work (a bonus from the government, get outta here! No really!) and I am going to do some much needed shopping for myself. Last weekend, when DH was home, we went shopping for him, and exercise that makes me so bitter. For some reason I have absolutely no problem finding unbelievable looking clothes for him that make him look fantastic. Me, on the other hand, it takes DAYS to pick out a pair of shoes.

Anyway, it should be an interesting couple of weeks. I leave for Florida on Thursday - my 30th birthday - and don't return until Tuesday morning. More importantly, after I leave the office Thursday I am away from my "normal" job until October 9th, because I will be on detail to another office. Yeah! Celebrate good times! I'm really looking forward to this change of pace.

I feel like a Scorpions song... "Winds of Change."

End of day 2 - Mood: Stable, acceptance, adjustment

Well, today was not quite as dramatic as yesterday. There was significantly less drama at the house today than yesterday. The electrician is not available until next Thursday, so there is a big pause in progress right now.

What did get done was a nice treat from the contractor. I opened the garage door when I got home and saw this:


What a nice surprise. We had talked that morning about hanging cabinets in the garage and the night before I had prepped the area for the fridge by moving all the myriad paint cans and other junk from that corner. Anyway, that's all that was accomplished today. That, and the contractor got in a round of golf with the owner of the home renovation business we used. Which is good.

I'm also substantially less stressed out than I was yesterday. I'm starting to adjust to not having a kitchen; last night I made couscous salad with a hot pot, and tonight I made chicken salad sandwiches. I'm trying to use as much disposable stuff as possible - plates and forks and whatnot - but in the end I have to dirty some stuff that I can't wash in the bathroom sink (which doesn't fit in the sink, and it's pretty gross to wash stuff in the bathroom anyway) So I am going to use a hillbilly dishwasher - I'm gonna hit Target for another rubbermade tub, and breakout the hose and dish soap. Woot! I'm collecting all the dishes that I dirty and I'll wash them this weekend!

So I am adjusting, and that's good.

End of Day 1 - Mood: Emotional, Shock

Wow. I got home and DH's car was in the driveway. Hmm. I opened the garage and ... whoa. It is totally full of cabinets - old and new. Whoa.

I'm ready to walk into the kitchen, which two days ago looked like this:


And this morning, after I had gotten all the cleaning done (and after they checked behind the oven) looked like this:


And after there was some of this:


Note: this is the electrician working on the island's power outlet. After I took this picture, he asked me not to take flash pictures while he was working, as it really gave him a fright.

I got home and my kitchen looked like this:

And so it begins...

My alarm forced me out of my dreams and into reality at 6am this morning. Today was the day that the contractors would begin tearing out my old kitchen and installing the new. Unfortunately, I hadn't really finished clearing out all of the stuff from the cabinets and dishwasher, so I had to get up, showered, dressed, and primped for the day as quickly as possible before they pulled up to the house between 630-700.

Luckily, they got there right at 700, giving me an extra half hour to get things organized. Not that there was really any hope of that. I had some dishes in the dishwasher and a few in the sink that I needed to clear out, plus some odds and ends that never really had a "category" per se that I had to find a home for.

Needless to say, the contractors were ruthless in their destruction. By the time I left for work around 800, I no longer had an island, light fixtures (both the flourescent and the chandelier over the breakfast nook were gone), upper cabinets, an oven, and a microwave/range hood. I'll post pictures when I get home tonight, but the quick pace of the demolition was suprising. I had no idea.

One thing that I wished I had had more forethought into was preparing to clear out the kitchen. DH and I spent the weekend at Target buying these giant rubbermade bins in which to store all the stuff I couldn't use while the kitchen was under construction, and then filled them - probably very inefficiently - with everything we could pull out of the cabinets. Stuff is everywhere.

I really wish that before they had started the demolition, I had taken time to:
- clean out the fridge. It's still pretty full, and I have my tiny dorm room backup upstairs. I'm really worried that everything in there is going to spoil, because they have the circuit in the kitchen off while they're working on the electric upgrades. At the very least I should have better prepared a place for it in the garage so that it could just be moved there. i think that this is going to be a very stinky mistake.

- clean out all the unwanted crap. I've got two Crock-pots, a stand mixer that I have never used and I am not even sure whether it works, some weird glasses and mugs and stuff that never get touched, and a junk drawer that I just spilled into a bag. I think that I did organize 80% of the bulk fairly well and only have what is necessary, but the remaining 20% caused me such agita last night and this morning.

- prepared some meals ahead of time. Of course this goes against the whole "cleaning out the fridge" thing, but I left so much of the kitchen drama to the last minute that I never took the time to make a few salads or something that I could have stored in tupperware containers and thrown into the little fridge. I'm really worried that I am going to come home and just not be able to deal with the amount of upheaval that this kitchen renovation is bringing into my life, and the added expense (and general unhealthiness) of take-out food is really unappealing to me right now.

I'll post some in progress pic's tonight, and I have to say that I am very appreciative of the professionalism of the crew. Hopefully the offer of fresh tomatoes from the garden will win their hearts and they'll do an extra good job. If only I had a good regular coffee maker, I'd make sure they had coffee every morning to start their day.

I'll keep you uprised of the ktichen's progress.

It's almost the weekend! Yippee

Agh! I'm so excited. Tomorrow DH is flying home for the weekend, and it's going to be very nice. The lawn will be mowed, the kitchen will have to be cleaned out in preperation for the destruction that is going to hit the house Tuesday, and the kitty litter will get scooped.

We're going to pick blackberries (the fruit, not the PDA) Saturday morning, and I've promised to make DH a blackberry cobbler to bring back with him to FL. Only, I wonder, if blackberry cobbler is going to be considered a liquid or gel, and therefore not allowed on his flight home. I mean, it gets liquidy when it cooks, then when it cools it is kind of gel-like. Hmmm. I wonder if the TSA has any guidelines on cobblers, crumbles, compotes, and crackles. I'm pretty sure that sorbets, custards, sherbets, and ice creams are right out. I think that bars, cakes, muffins, and cookies are probably okay. What about pies, turnovers, and tortes?

I'd better check with the TSA website to see if they have any advice for fresh fruit pastry travel.

Countdown to 30: 15 days left

This month is flying by much faster than I anticipated. I took a look at the calendar today and realized that there are only 15 days left in my twenties. Which I am fine with, but which also makes me think a bit.

I don't really believe that turning 30 somehow makes a lot of life options unavailable to me; I really believe that if I wanted to change my career or lifestyle or whatnot at any point here forward I certainly have the capability to do so. But all the same, it gets harder to do so as time marches on. While I've opted not to take on some of the responsibilities that many my age do (kids!), I also recognize that my primary reason for doing so is because I have other ideas for what I want to do, ideas that become responsibilities in their own right.

When I turned 25, I was newly married, about to leave my first post-college job, and about to radically change what I was doing and the trajectory I thought I was on. There were a lot of challenges working against me that year (for example: I didn't get accepted to Georgetown on my first try, moving and buying a house was a brutal process with tons of its own obstacles and pitfalls, making sure that DH had a job to move to and that I had something to do when we moved was huge ordeal as well). Five years later, I'm not 100% certain that all the decisions that I made that year were the best ones, and I don't think that I am where I thought I would be when I made those decisions.

Regardless, even if I am really not closer to being what I want to be/do (which I don't think is entirely true), I do think that I am somewhat closer to knowing what I want to be/do. As I grow older, I start acknowledging what bits of fluff in my life I can do without, what bits I don't have and want to pursue, and above all else to be thankful for all that I do have that is important to me.

11 days after my 25th birthday was September 11, 2001. I'd spent my birthday in Florida - where I was born - visiting all the sites that I knew and loved as a child. We'd flown home on Tuesday, September 4th. I hate the constant invocation of Sept. 11th as a moment that changed history. It wasn't for me; my decisions to change my life had already been made. Nevertheless, the reminder that twists of fate cut short lives with so much potential, a reminder that resonates intensely with me, pushed away the fear that accompanied any doubts I had.

I'll likely also spend part of my 30th birthday in Florida, again probably visiting somewhere that was an important part of my childhood, but also incorporating elements that are becoming an important part of who I want to be as an adult.

It's pretty exciting.

Bringing obsession to its natural conclusion

I have this thing about stuff I get obsessed with. Well, first of all, I get obsessed with things very easily, but I also have a short attention span. Hot fires burn fast and all that sort of thing.

Lately my obsession has been with the Smashing Pumpkins. I've been listening to their discography over and over again - particularly their last two albums - and I've discovered that YouTube has most of their videos posted.

Naturally, I wasn't content to watch the grainy, TV-logo videos on YouTube for long (and frankly, I don't think that I had seen any of the videos except for "Tonight, Tonight" and "Bullet with Butterfly Wings") so I went out and bought their Greatest Hits Video Collection - 1991-2000. Which I have watched a million times now, commentary and videos and documentaries and all that.

Every time I watch their stuff, I fall more and more in love with their use of imagery. I'm particularly fascinated by the video for "Stand Inside Your Love," for which the images are so striking. I love the song and video more than should be considered normal. I think that I am starting to sound like a 14 year old obsessing over a Backstreet Boys video (like for Bye Bye Bye or something).

Anyway, I think that admitting that you have a problem is the first step to solving a problem. Whatever. The music and the videos rock.

Awesome new vacation ideas!

I was looking at CNN this morning and saw this little story buried on the bottom of the page about "5 'Smart' Vacation Ideas." I looked at the five suggestions, and totally fell in love with one or two of them.

In particular, I really want to go on Earthwatch.org's possible expeditions. They have ones that I'm really interested in all over the Caribbean basin. Maybe I'll help a team assess the health of coral reefs in San Salvador (where Columbus supposedly first set foot on the New World), or help with Marine Mammal surveys in the Abacos, Bahamas. Or do manatee surveys in Belize.

I'd also like to do the cooking school thing in Florence; that sounded really neat.

Way cool!

What's the hype about: Brokeback Mountain

Rather than going out to a movie, which meant subjecting my experience to the rude and immature public that frequently ruins it with cell phones and attempts to create their own MST3K, I decided to stay in and "rent" a movie through the Comcast on Demand feature. I popped popcorn, had my lime-flavored water, allowed a kitten to curl up with me, and watched "Brokeback Mountain."

What a bunch of schlock! I mean, really. The entire movie is cobbled together vignettes that seem to have little or no relation with one another. I think that Jake and Heath are utterly unbelievable (I couldn't get Toby Maguire out of my head every time Jake was on the screen, and what was with the porn 'stash - it didn't age him, it made him look ridiculous), there doesn't seem to be any logical development. What is the deal with Ennis's relationship with his daughter? Why does Heath have to talk as if his mouth was full of marbles - geez I watched Trainspotting last night and understood heavy Scottish dialect more easily than I could interpret whatever the hell Heath was mumbling. Anne Hathaway was gorg (even with the Texas blond hair) but what was the point of her?

I don't know, maybe I'm missing all kinds of hidden messages or something, but this was a terrible movie. There were so many logical inconsistencies (what, they didn't fish at all? You've got to be kidding me) and there was no logic as to why we had to jump from scene to scene (what was the point of the waitress character?).

Ugh. What a bunch of tripe.

Oh yeah, once you forget how crappy the story and the characters are, then there is the uber-annoying music. UBER annoying music that seemed to say "Gay moment ahead;" the entire movie seemed to be so conscious of it's "progressiveness" that it had to shout it at every opportunity. Look, here's a real progressive movie because we feature two gay men as main characters. Whatever.

What do you when it's gorgeous outside? Housecleaning of course!

It's fabulous outside, no humidity and moderate temperatures. I've got all the windows open, and there are great fresh breezes blowing through some of the stale corners of the house. Instead of being outside and enjoying the bliss that is this mid-August weather, I'm totally cleaning house. Top to bottom, all rooms. I've got so much trash in the hallway ready to take out it's simply insane.

How do I keep motivated to keep cleaning 'til every room is open house ready? I burn myself a CD of songs that will keep me going. A little Pumpkins (keeping with recent obsession), some old U2, some Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, and some fluffy weird spanish music thrown in for a little upbeat rhythm (I love the songs from the Kill Bill soundtrack and Bamboleo by the Gypsy Kings). Of course, I couldn't fit everything that I wanted on one CD, which annoyed me because I had sequenced the order quite specifically - making sure that transitions between songs made sense. So now I have a break in my playlist right in the middle - grr. Of course, it took about an hour and a half to create said playlist (called "Housecleaning in iTunes) and burn it onto a CD; time that I might have used to, you know, actually clean. Eh. Whatever.

Since DH is coming home next weekend I thought it might be nice to have him come home to a house cleaner than when he left. Not that that is too hard of a goal to accomplish. We're just not very neat people.

The cats, needless to say, are very confused.

When does driving 3.1 miles take 44 minutes?

Answer: When the MontCo police are too stupid to close a two lane road where there is an opportunity to detour, thereby making everyone drive up to the scene of the drama, turn around, and go back exactly the way they came to a stoplight where people could just have turned left and not wasted 20 minutes of their life. Nevermind that the drama occured just beyond another detour option - but since they closed that as well they screwed those of us who know the back roads enough to know how to get around.

As I was getting into the elevator to come home this evening, someone said to me "why do you look so down? It's Friday?"

"It's not Friday until I walk in my door." I replied. After a half-hour train delay and a 44 minute drive home (as opposed to my normal 7 minutes), I had no idea how prescient I can be.

Here's a picture of a cute kitty.

It's a post about nothing

It's a show about nothing!

So, yeah, whatever. Nothing really is going on right now. Work stinks (nothing new there), DH is still in Florida (nothing new there), the garden is growing out of control (nothing new there) my kitties are crazy and don't let me sleep a full night through (nothing new there), and I'm generally just gettin' by.

I'm kinda lookin' forward to the weekend. I don't have any plans, but that's kind of the best part. After running around for the last few weekends, it'll be nice to take some time and get some housework done, catch up on yardwork, "me" time. Nothing new there.

So yeah, at this point my life would make a real good show about nothing. Exciting, eh.

What do you mean my weekend's over?

So here it is, Sunday night. I fly back to DC tomorrow morning, and then it's another two weeks before DH and I are together again. How the time flies! So sad.

At least this was a good weekend! Saturday we went snorkeling at John MacArthur Park on Singer Island. It was a gorgeous location, lots of rocks in the water for some fun snorkeling. I'm looking forward to the wintertime and kayaking in the natural estuary there. We saw lots of flying mullet in the estuary too! That afternoon, after doing DH's weekly chores (grocery shopping, etc) we relaxed by the pool for a little while.

Today we rented a bike for me and rode all over Palm Beach. We got caught in a Florida rainstorm while at the Palm Beach Inlet, got soaking wet, and once the sun came out starting sweating again. Both Saturday and Sunday we had lunch at Too Jays, a fantastic South Florida deli chain. I cannot recommend the shrimp salad enough. It's awesome. Again, we closed the afternoon with a bit of time by the pool.

Since renting a bike costs $25 every day, we found a $50 bike advertised on Craigslist and bought it. It needs some air in the tires and maybe a little WD-40 on the gears, brakes, and chain - but it's better than nothing. We can probably sell it when DH comes home for that much, so it'll be a wash.

Anyway, being down here this weekend I have walked at least 7 miles, biked about 8, and god knows how much swimming I've done.. I exercise far more here than I do at home. It's really a shame.

New Office Webisode!

It's Friday, and unless I watch "The Office" Thursday nights I forget that they post the webisodes on Thursdays. And seeing as I was sitting in Reagan National Airport last night an hour and a half longer than I expected to because of flight delays on USAir (grrrr) I missed the rerun last night. Luckily I remembered to watch today!

It's still not as funny as the first couple of episodes, but there is a moment when I just bust out laughing. Watch it for yourself and see if you can keep your composure.

BTW, I love USAir's flights to/from DCA from/to PBI - but these delays are starting to piss me off. The airport is just not an interesting enough place to spend an additional 1.5 hours - in addition to the hour pre-departure!

Anyway, I'm here in Palm Beach now, watching the intercoastal go from perfectly calm to an intermittant chop and knowing that this is totally going to ruin any chance that I have for snorkeling this weekend. Grrrr.

P.S. Since this is the view from DH's condo, I think that I can deal with airplane delays. Edited to add photo

Now boarding, USAir Flight to Palm Beach International

Yeah! After weeks of waiting, I'm finally on my way back to Florida to visit DH. Of course, there's been a little excitement with Tropical Storm Chris in the general vicinity; in fact, for a short time yesterday as he looked like he was going to gear up and be somebody, there was a chance that I would be in Tampa on Friday getting ready to fly into the hurricane. But, Chris died out, the flights to investigate the storm have been canceled, and now I'll neither get to go on my first hurricane flight, nor will I be able to go diving (seas are anticipated to be rough because of the east winds) So poopers... foiled on both accounts. I'll likely not even get to do any snorkeling with the rough surf either.

No matter, at least I'll be with DH for a few short days before coming back to the drama that is my job.

This is all you'll see of me come 5pm tonight:

Stuff I'd like to share

Here are three pictures I finally remembered to take today. This is the Discovery Channel's way of celebrating Shark Week.





Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up.

Arrrghhh!

As many of you may know, DH and I are awaiting major renovations to our kitchen. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting forEVER for just some dates around when the work is going to start. It was my belief/understanding/assumption that since the cabinets were scheduled to be delivered on August 16, work would have to begin at least a week beforehand; since the floors, tearout, electrical, plumbing, and other assorted prep work needed to be done in advance of installing the cabinets.

I've been trying for weeks! to get a timeframe nailed down for this whole mess, thinking that this was the case. I finally called the owner of the business today and got an answer! Apparently, they don't even think about beginning work until all the cabinets have been delivered and they are sure that nothing major is missing or damaged. Well, that's a far sight more detail than I think that I have gotten thus far. And it is kind of a major relief, too. I thought that I was going crazy!

So the project that we had hoped would start in June or at least have finished by September won't start until mid-August and probably won't finish until late October (6-8 week long project). Which is fine... but I really wished that I could have known this information about two weeks ago.

Grrrrrr.

Personal weather forecast: HOT HOT HOT, then a little breezy

Well, as anyone living on the Eastern Seaboard knows, it's hotter than hell out there. Today I brought my little $10 Target fan into work top get some air circulating in my cube. It's very nice. The weather is supposed to be blistering until Thursday, which is when I leave for Florida to visit DH.

I really was looking forward to this weekend - some fun in the sun on the beach, or maybe even a dive or two. Then I hear the news that a new Tropical Storm (Chris) has formed and is scheduled to make landfall near my beloved St John. And the five day forecasted track...



I'm headed for the pink "X." Isn't that just great?