three laps in the gulf (a gulf lap is considered one full length of our building) and intended laps in the pool but it was inexplicably crowded so we ended up just floating around trading the bodily coating of salt for chlorine. the gulf is wonderful today. it is as calm as the pool and clearer than i’ve ever seen it. our gulf works like this, there are two sand bars and then a deeper “trench” about 150 yards out and then another shallower area again before it turns to deep blue sea. it is so calm and shallow and clear right now that i can actually see through to the bottom of the deep “trench” from our balcony. i’ve never been able to see through that little band of water. it’s lovely. i adore my backyard. it really helps other stuff to melt away. a little. for a short time.

yesterday was a very headachy day. to the point that i had to stop working for a couple hours and lay down so that it would stop the babooming. luckily, it did get more bearable after that. in the afternoon, we dug out our snorkel gear and headed down to the beach to play around a bit. not that we expected there to be anything much to see but we’ve got to get ready for our carribean snorkeling in a month. it was fun and the fins made swimming through the water so much more effortless. i’m all for effortless. anyhow, we had a good time and found some nice, whole shells. we also went to the pool and swam some laps. i think we managed ten – not great but something. this morning, i’m completely down about work. i wish i had more options. it’s such a shame that i’ve gotten so spoiled so young (been working from home pretty much since i was nineteen, don’t know if i could go back to a true desk job). at least i’m not getting dumped on (outside of work) too.

hubby and i went down to the beach and swam in the gulf for lunch. we did about four laps the length of our building. i’m estimating that was not quite 1,000 feet of swimming. i thought i was going to die. we then went up to the pool to rinse the salt off and swam a couple laps of it. hey, at least we did something, right?

my cousin left yesterday but we had a great weekend. sunday’s fun swimming and ‘yakking in the gulf in the morning. hubby and i paddled about a mile and a half which doesn’t sound like much but i was very proud of myself and my arms were exhausted by the time we got back. not to mention that my hands have blisters all over them from gripping the paddle. after a morning of watery fun, we grabbed some lunch and rested a bit before heading to our favorite shopping plaza to walk around in the way too hot sun. after our lap around there, we came back to the air conditioning for a little more relaxing before dinner. my cousin and i played a partial game of scrabble. i was smashing her until she managed a 92 point play and then we went back and forth for a bit. we never finished the game because hunger got the best of us. they were wanting seafood. apparently most people feel that it’s unnatural to be at the beach and not eat seafood. guess i’m just a weirdo. since we don’t go out to eat much, we couldn’t really reccommend a seafood place off the bat. we did mention a place that we keep hearing is great but we’ve not been. that’s where we went. i’m very pleased that my cousin, who is totally a foodie, could not stop raving about the food. we now have a seafood place to take people to. it was actually a nice place too. looks like such a hole-in-the-wall from the road. after dinner, we came back for more beach fun. my cousin swam by herself while me and the boys hung out on the beach. when it got dark, the crabbing commenced. hubby and my cousin were hunting the water crabs while cousin-n-law and i hunted beach crabs. i’m sure she’ll have pix up at some point on her blog. after crabbing, there was pre-bedtime wii fun. we really had a great time all weekend. i’m so glad they came to visit! after they left yesterday morning, things got way busy around here. work exploded, it was messy. last night was a bunch of being lazy. who knows what’s on tap for tonight.

we’ve been having a great time with my cousin and cousin-n-law! yesterday, they entertained themselves about town while we worked and then we all went out kayaking when we got off. apparently, i tried to kill my cousin. i’m such a failure. such is life. after the harrowing experience, we relaxed with dinner, wine, and olympics. we went to bed earlier last night than i have all week. good thing the swimming and gymnastics are wrapping up. this morning, i woke up to news about a potential hurricane heading our way. makes sense. as my cousin was packing to come up here, she assured me that her visit would bring a hurricane our way. she’s good to her word, most of the time. i’m also fully expecting her to flood my house. after a yummy breakfast – i love having a good breakfast on the weekends – we headed to seaside, where the truman show was filmed. it was a very pretty town. we walked around for a couple of hours, consumed some tasty gelatos, and then started back toward home. we stopped along the way at a similarly planned community (actually, quite similar since it was developed by the same persons who developed seaside fourteen years earlier), rosemary beach. some friends of ours recently moved there and have been trying to talk us into following so we went into the realty office and were able to go into a few condos and a house there. i doubt we’ll be moving that way but it was fun to look. the architecture in these towns was amazing but i really wasn’t all that keen on the insides. i’ve always been that way. i like the exterior look of historic homes but i really need a modern interior. it’s just how i roll. we made a lap around that town and then headed home. my cousin was jonesing to get back on the proverbial horse. luckily the water was far calmer today (yellow flag as opposed to double red) and her and i had a very nice paddle in the ‘yaks. we then went out and swam around a bit while my hubby paddled some. there was an extraordinarily large (no joking, this was the biggest i’ve ever seen!) school of fish out there that we played around with and my cousin managed to get a nice fish pedicure out of them. it was wonderful water time. there was some talk of trying to get together with mrs who but plans fell through so we went from the gulf to the pool/hot tub. we then came back up for olympics and dinner. there will likely be rockband (hubby is really pushing the rockband) and/or scrabble in our future tonight.

and they were awake inexplicably early for vacationers. if i didn’t have to work, there’s no way i’d be up that early. weirdos. they made a quick attempt at getting online but it didn’t work right away so they gave up and headed down to the beach. as well they should. early morning and evening-night are the best times for enjoying the beach, imo. i really wish that i had been able to get today off so that i could enjoy spending time with my cousin and cousin-in-law instead of sitting here working and making them play by themselves (yeh, i know that they are absolutely miserable having to spend time alone together on the beach at the gulf of mexico!). is it five yet???

today is nine years since our first not-a-date. i’m so happy he stole my phone number off of his roommate’s caller id and asked me to hang out with him – you know, since he was new in town and didn’t know anyone. we have been nearly inseparable since then and it has been a truly happy nine years.

(and might i just say how much i miss being that flippin’ small?!)

yay! my cousin is coming to see me tonight!!! i hope the weather is cooperative this weekend. it’s unfortunate that the water is not very pretty right now. the very impressive storms that have come through the last few days have really mucked things up. at some point today i need to make a shopping list so that we can go right after work to get some groceries for the weekend. i’m at a loss because my cousin and cousin-in-law are gourmet cooks and i am so not. makes me wonder what i’ve fed them every other time they’ve come to visit us. hmm. in other news, the olympics are keeping me up way too late this week. i am guessing that is contributing to my migraines. it’s strange because i’ve never been an olympic watcher. really, i probably watched more last weekend than i had in my whole life. but i’ve really been enjoying it this week. not sure if i’ll really be into anything after the swimming and gymnastics are done but we’ll see. i’ve tried to get into the volleyball but i apparently have too short an attention span for that. it would be better for my head if my olympic viewing is over this weekend and i can go back to a decent bedtime next week.

since it’s been a migrainy and stormy day complete with multiple power outages, what better time to get the pix downloaded and read to post, eh? so without further ado, my pride and joy – the favors!

step one – decorating the box

step two – decorating the other side of the box

step three – personalizing chop sticks
(no, i don’t know why blogger chose to turn the pic the wrong way)

step four – candy coating the contents
turns out fortune cookies and chow mein noodles are excellent when covered in chocolate

assembly complete – commence beaming pride!

who’d’ve thought i could create something so pretty?

pretty as punch

it was such a tasty spread

i should’ve taken a closeup of the picture frame

the guests seemed to have a good time

as did the bride

i am very glad that i was able to put together a shower for one of my best friends. although i’m just as happy that it’s over. party planning is hard, stressful work! i do need to give a huge thank you to my sister’s whole family who all chipped in to help with whatever they could (not to mention lending me their house). also, without my fabulous hubby, i never would have made it. he stuck in there with me until everything was done, even after the guests started showing up. he was beyond helpful!

still no time for shower blogging but i wanted to do a quick update on previous prayers and make a new prayer request.

• coworker’s son cam has finally been moved out of the icu after six weeks. he is breathing on his own four to five hours a day but he gets tired and has to be put back on the respirator. he still has no control of anything below the chest but hope remains that that will change. he has bicep and wrist control but no fingers. with a special wristband that holds utensils, he is able to feed himself.
• my friend starts his chemo treatments tomorrow. i pray that he is able to get through these treatments with little ill-effects. he just hopes he can keep his hair.
• my sis-n-law’s mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer. she will be undergoing a radical mastectomy in the next week or so. please send prayers her way as her family has had its unfair share of cancer. SIL’s father died a few years ago from cancer and her sister had a very scary battle with it after that. they are naturally very worried about their mother and i worry about SIL’s genes.

it was an incredibly busy week but things went well. updates and pix of showereing to come. not tonight, far too tired. i’m glad to be home. it’s strange that this is really the first place that we really feel home. i love going to orlando because it’s the only place that we actually have a social life and it’s great to have so many friends to hang out with, but i miss home the whole time i’m there.

both at cards and balls. showering was less than successful but i’m still feeling good about progress for some strange reason.

i arranged to take my lunch break at the end of the day today so that i can run errands without worrying about getting back in an hour. i’ve got a few shower things i want to get done before heading to my cousin’s. i need to get all i can off the list since thursday and friday will also be cleaning days. i’m getting increasingly excited about the shower plans. hopefully, my first attempt at party planning will be a success.

the good news is that i feel like i finally have accomplished something on the bridal shower front (gee, you think it’s about time since the shower is in four days???). granted, it was mostly grocery shopping but that goes a long way toward establishing theme and such. so i’m feeling better about it and i mostly have a plan for the rest of it. who’d’ve known there was so much to party planning? since my sissy needed to make a sam’s run for nephew¹‘s party that will also be saturday (night), we left the chilluns with the men-folk and made a shopping night of it. tomorrow night i’ll be taking a fun-time break from showering in order to poke my cousin. when i go home, i greatly miss wednesdays in orlando.