Another beach day today, but high winds made it a sandy experience. We got down there at 10:30 and had more room to spread out than Sunday. I made sand castles and Finn smushed every one of them with a giggle. We played wave keepaway and collected shells and dug in the sand and waded in about knee-deep, but stayed away from the breakers. Two hours later we left with an exhausted and cranky girl in tow. The afternoon was spent in the pool, which was warm and calm and free of sand, and next to the hot tub.
We’ve got a generator humming noisily in the backyard, connected via a 100-foot cord to our refrigerator. We had to throw out a couple hundred dollars’ worth of frozen food yesterday, even after we’d iced it down, which made me sick to my stomach. BG&E still claims we’ll be online sometime Friday evening, but I don’t believe anything they say right now. It seems like Baltimore County is the only place left in Maryland having problems getting power back.
We’ve got alternate housing plans for the Outer Banks next week; a house has been reserved in our name between Duck and Corolla north of the bridge, which means we just need to get down there in time to avoid Hurricane Katia. Special thanks go to Mr. Scout and his lovely wife, who did the legwork to save Christmas.
Hey, this looks cool! the USA Spec iPod® Interface is designed to add a dock plug to the OEM radio in our CR-V, and you can control the iPod with the controls on the steering wheel. I’d rather buy this than an entirely new head unit.
I navigated the slippery streets and alleys of Hampden the other day to pick this up from a co-worker who is moving out of town. It’s a Sears XCargo 50, which will extend the liveable space in the CR-V tremendously when we travel. (20 cubic feet? Hell yes.) I have to pick up a set of cargo bars to mount it on, but I found a Thule kit that will fit the rails we have for about $200 without all of the special feet/attachment/lock foolishness.
Swimming in the warm Atlantic Ocean with Finn
Sunrise and 70°
Clear, breezy, cloudless weather
Seashells on the beach
Warm, heated pool water
Finn’s first boat ride
Great company and great friends
Pina Coladas, Dark & Stormys, and rum in general
Delicious home-cooked meals each night (usually starring fresh local seafood)
Cold, cold beer
Barbecue at twilight
Finn’s second birthday
Fire, S’mores, and UFOs on the beach
The full moon, stars, and Jupiter in view
Lunch on Okracoke on the water
Fresh guacamole and MeMaw’s dip
Watching Finn dance to Bob Marley
Normally, I find the subject of air disasters morbidly fascinating, but this particular example is noteworthy because I flew on this very plane only two years before the crash.
[Youtube has since removed this video for copyright reasons]
Mama graciously let Finn and I sleep in until 8:20 this morning, so tired were we after our three-day adventure to New York for Great-Grandpa’s 95th birthday party. Finn got to spend time with her grandparents, meet a huge swath of her extended family on my side (this was one of the biggest turnouts we’ve had in years) and play in the lake, something she did not stop asking to do even as the stars were out and the fireworks were going off.
And now I’m back to missing her and her Mama terribly as I go back to the grind.
My daily commute takes me past the Baltimore City Courthouse right around the time potential jurors need to queue up out front to go through the vetting process. Often, as I’m sitting at one of the lights in front, I’ll see buttoned-up lawyers dragging carts loaded with file boxes of papers, nervous-looking plaintiffs accompanied by family members, or news crews set up under the shadow of double-parked media vans. Today, however, I was amused by the sight of two young women in Daisy Dukes and tightly tied t-shirts advertising a bail bonds service, attempting to cross the street in platform heels. They clacked their way onto the sidewalk, up the stairs, and entered the courthouse, on their mission of mercy, trailing behind a conservatively dressed woman (who I assume is the one who hands out business cards).
Capitalism at its finest, no?