(no subject)
Jul. 3rd, 2006 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicicadabonjour!
we are back from the beach. it was lovely, but we are here now and recovering from the reality shock. the first day and last day were perfectly sunny. on some of the less good days we went to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and Kill Devil Hills/Jockey's Ridge. on each of these days we were dealing with some level of clouds and rain in transit, but not during the actual excursion. the closest call was going to Kill Devil Hills to see the Wright Brothers Memorial. rumbles of thunder in the distance as one approaches the unquestioned highest point in the area can be somewhat disturbing. we counted seconds between flashes and were constantly expecting it to rain, but it never did. while at the base of the memorial itself, we had sandwiches and chips. it was a pleasant picnic, although sylvia was not sure of our sanity. i flew a kite at Jockey's Ridge along with many other people. from what we could tell, it seemed that the lightning we saw while at the Kill Devil Hills, was at Jockey's Ridge - very convenient. as we were leaving, we heard vast whooping sirens. our best guess was that this was to tell the hang gliders and kite enthusiasts to get the hell off the dunes. so, in every way, a well timed visit. when not at the beach or playing tourist, we spent most of our time at the beach house, grilling steaks, eating scallops etc. it was ridiculously idyllic although interspersed with periods of 'bad toddler'.
sylvia had a great time at the beach. initially this limited to running maniacally towards and away from the very edges of the surf. however, on the last day, she did finally really start to enjoy getting in the actual ocean with mommy and daddy - bliss! this wore her out so profoundly that she actually fell asleep on her beachtowel. and then, something even more magical happened. each beach area tends to be frequented by the people renting/living in the closest beach houses so you start at least recognizing the faces of the people at the beach. a nice older lady who we had seen hanging out at the beach most days offered to watch sylvia sleep so that jeff and i could splash in the ocean together. she said that she had enjoyed seeing sylvia and us play the rest of the week and promised that she was not an axe murderer. jeff and i looked at each other, checked for signs of an axe and warned the lady jokingly that we would be checking carefully for blade wounds on our return. we then ran into the ocean and proceeded to splash and act in a giggly and silly manner for all of ten minutes. it was nice, and well timed. the lady's husband came out 10 minutes after that and they packed up their cabana. jeff ran into the ocean for a ritual last swim and we proceeded to gently wake a very sleepy girl and take her back to the beach house. she was not amused, but eventually perked up when we went out to get cookies and pizza. yes, we let her have a cookie before dinner. she was very tired and the pizza was real pizza cooked in a pizza oven so it took a while to prepare. she was pleased. sylvia and i walked around the marina and saw where the ferries for Ocracoke take off. it looks like a fun idea, but we did not feel like we needed to try to fit everything into this trip - perhaps next time.
by the time we left, our salt and sand tanks were full, sylvia had lost her fears of the ocean, we were all tanned, but not burnt, and had tons of loot. i enjoyed the pirate motif of the outer banks and got a shirt proclaiming my tendencies towards 'mischief and mayhem' and a temporary tattoo. i know, such the wild child.
the beach house had a main deck with a table for dining and several heavy duty deck chairs. we made extensive use of this during every meal where the rain was not sweeping from one end to the other. however, even better, there was an 'upper deck' which we told sylvia was the 'adult deck' so that she would not always be running up and down from one deck to another. jeff and i up there as often as we could to enjoy a late night beer and/or whiskey.
now, we're back and i am facing MTWHF French classes as well as the remainder of the Technological Catastrophes & Distance Ed PE course. i'm looking forward to the French, but I'm glad we took a break. the Philosophy of Science class is over and I am very glad of that. I did pull off an A-, but only because of the professor's severely curved grading scale. my average was in the low 70's and it was not pleasant despite the respectable outcome. i am still not sure if that is because of problems on my part or the professor deliberately being obtuse. if i have time before my access is cut off from the online course, i will post one of the practice exams.
tonight i will be working an 'extended third shift' as part of my portion of holiday coverage. i will be working from 11pm to 11am on the 4th of july. the good news is that i will still be able to see fireworks with the family after a very sincere nap tomorrow afternoon. i have instructed jeff to pour me in the car if necessary. for tonight, i believe that i've gotten good naps, but it will still be a bit of a stretch. anyone wishing to amuse me with posts or comments can feel free to do so. i'm going to try to get ahead in my French class. the professor asked us for bio info and our experiences in French and expressed concern about my available time for preparation. well, yeah, it's going to be a lot of work, but i know how to use my weird pieces of time. the Techno course is fairly low intensity at this point and my only problem with it will be squeezing in time to do a research paper. he has not released information about that yet, but i have not had any problems with his request for wordage in the past. i still have to work very hard to do well in my english courses, but it seems that when i am outside my major, my writing is more than adequate.
more later. there is no chance that i will (or should) try to catch up on all of the lj posts i missed over the last week. however, i will catching up on specfic journals. i will add the ob postvacation meme and ask you to let me know if anything truly important has happened to you in the past week such as getting married/divorced, becoming pregnant, moving across the country or being abducted by aliens. if you have done ALL of that in the past week, please point me to a specific post because i am unlikely it will fit in the comments ;).
we are back from the beach. it was lovely, but we are here now and recovering from the reality shock. the first day and last day were perfectly sunny. on some of the less good days we went to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and Kill Devil Hills/Jockey's Ridge. on each of these days we were dealing with some level of clouds and rain in transit, but not during the actual excursion. the closest call was going to Kill Devil Hills to see the Wright Brothers Memorial. rumbles of thunder in the distance as one approaches the unquestioned highest point in the area can be somewhat disturbing. we counted seconds between flashes and were constantly expecting it to rain, but it never did. while at the base of the memorial itself, we had sandwiches and chips. it was a pleasant picnic, although sylvia was not sure of our sanity. i flew a kite at Jockey's Ridge along with many other people. from what we could tell, it seemed that the lightning we saw while at the Kill Devil Hills, was at Jockey's Ridge - very convenient. as we were leaving, we heard vast whooping sirens. our best guess was that this was to tell the hang gliders and kite enthusiasts to get the hell off the dunes. so, in every way, a well timed visit. when not at the beach or playing tourist, we spent most of our time at the beach house, grilling steaks, eating scallops etc. it was ridiculously idyllic although interspersed with periods of 'bad toddler'.
sylvia had a great time at the beach. initially this limited to running maniacally towards and away from the very edges of the surf. however, on the last day, she did finally really start to enjoy getting in the actual ocean with mommy and daddy - bliss! this wore her out so profoundly that she actually fell asleep on her beachtowel. and then, something even more magical happened. each beach area tends to be frequented by the people renting/living in the closest beach houses so you start at least recognizing the faces of the people at the beach. a nice older lady who we had seen hanging out at the beach most days offered to watch sylvia sleep so that jeff and i could splash in the ocean together. she said that she had enjoyed seeing sylvia and us play the rest of the week and promised that she was not an axe murderer. jeff and i looked at each other, checked for signs of an axe and warned the lady jokingly that we would be checking carefully for blade wounds on our return. we then ran into the ocean and proceeded to splash and act in a giggly and silly manner for all of ten minutes. it was nice, and well timed. the lady's husband came out 10 minutes after that and they packed up their cabana. jeff ran into the ocean for a ritual last swim and we proceeded to gently wake a very sleepy girl and take her back to the beach house. she was not amused, but eventually perked up when we went out to get cookies and pizza. yes, we let her have a cookie before dinner. she was very tired and the pizza was real pizza cooked in a pizza oven so it took a while to prepare. she was pleased. sylvia and i walked around the marina and saw where the ferries for Ocracoke take off. it looks like a fun idea, but we did not feel like we needed to try to fit everything into this trip - perhaps next time.
by the time we left, our salt and sand tanks were full, sylvia had lost her fears of the ocean, we were all tanned, but not burnt, and had tons of loot. i enjoyed the pirate motif of the outer banks and got a shirt proclaiming my tendencies towards 'mischief and mayhem' and a temporary tattoo. i know, such the wild child.
the beach house had a main deck with a table for dining and several heavy duty deck chairs. we made extensive use of this during every meal where the rain was not sweeping from one end to the other. however, even better, there was an 'upper deck' which we told sylvia was the 'adult deck' so that she would not always be running up and down from one deck to another. jeff and i up there as often as we could to enjoy a late night beer and/or whiskey.
now, we're back and i am facing MTWHF French classes as well as the remainder of the Technological Catastrophes & Distance Ed PE course. i'm looking forward to the French, but I'm glad we took a break. the Philosophy of Science class is over and I am very glad of that. I did pull off an A-, but only because of the professor's severely curved grading scale. my average was in the low 70's and it was not pleasant despite the respectable outcome. i am still not sure if that is because of problems on my part or the professor deliberately being obtuse. if i have time before my access is cut off from the online course, i will post one of the practice exams.
tonight i will be working an 'extended third shift' as part of my portion of holiday coverage. i will be working from 11pm to 11am on the 4th of july. the good news is that i will still be able to see fireworks with the family after a very sincere nap tomorrow afternoon. i have instructed jeff to pour me in the car if necessary. for tonight, i believe that i've gotten good naps, but it will still be a bit of a stretch. anyone wishing to amuse me with posts or comments can feel free to do so. i'm going to try to get ahead in my French class. the professor asked us for bio info and our experiences in French and expressed concern about my available time for preparation. well, yeah, it's going to be a lot of work, but i know how to use my weird pieces of time. the Techno course is fairly low intensity at this point and my only problem with it will be squeezing in time to do a research paper. he has not released information about that yet, but i have not had any problems with his request for wordage in the past. i still have to work very hard to do well in my english courses, but it seems that when i am outside my major, my writing is more than adequate.
more later. there is no chance that i will (or should) try to catch up on all of the lj posts i missed over the last week. however, i will catching up on specfic journals. i will add the ob postvacation meme and ask you to let me know if anything truly important has happened to you in the past week such as getting married/divorced, becoming pregnant, moving across the country or being abducted by aliens. if you have done ALL of that in the past week, please point me to a specific post because i am unlikely it will fit in the comments ;).
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 05:46 am (UTC)Welcome home.
Well, let's see, I could tell you I got pregnant, but that's a bit difficult with that hysterectomy I had back when I was 27, so I guess I need to settle for the alien abduction scenario.
(But you see, they're watching me and I can't mention the details on my LJ or I'll have to go back...)
lol
our joyride
in the spaceship we found
crash landing
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 06:28 am (UTC)working third
i remember distance
alters time.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-04 03:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 12:03 am (UTC)