good grief, arcanai!  are you ever going to get back into a routine?  you know all this laziness isn’t helping matters!

last year’s lobsterfest sand sculpture contest seemed to be a much bigger event than this year.  this year, there were less than ten sculptures, easily half of what we saw last year (although, sadly, i didn’t have a camera with me then).  we met up with scooter and sunny to hang out for a while.  we toured the piles of sand and waited for the first lobster weigh in.  it made for a fun, but super-freaking-hot, afternoon. and i had to cut it a little short for a girls-nigh-out dinner with panda and her friends.

first up, the amateur sculptures.  we had a buxom mer-lobster and seashell:

followed by a mer-lobster dude with a wicked six-pack:

of course, there are a few that did not pass my standards for posting but i had to include this cute little punch-bug.  these pix don’t really show all the details but there are windshield wipers, a vw emblem on the front, a peace sign on the back, and door handles.  i think it’s cute, i reply.

 this was the winner of the day.  i’m guessing not only because of the excellent execution and difficulty of technique (lots of arch pieces in the legs) but because it also did the best job of sticking with this year’s theme of “lobster sub”, which, by the way, was also exemplified by the world-record seventy foot lobster sub sandwich that was made and eaten earlier in the day.  anyhow, the winning sculpture also included a small replica of the restaurant which doesn’t seem to be in the pix i chose to post.  i loved the smile.

here’s the professional sculpture for this year.  while it is pretty cool, i don’t think it’s nearly as impressive as last year’s. 

and here was the first weigh-in of the tournament.  i think he was like 9.3lbs or so.  a friend of ours, stretch, has the winning team every year.  i think he said theirs was 10.8lbs.  that’s a lot of lobster.  moreover, have you ever noticed how freaking ugly these things are?  seriously, who wants to put that in their mouth?

and the sloth continues. what can i say? it’s been a tremendously low week. every time i thought about being active, i sank into despair and could hardly seem to breathe. there are just days like. and mother nature apparently sympathized since we’ve had more rain/storms this week than we have all year. the weather was a convenient excuse.

you know how everyone looks back at their high-school/teenage years and says “i sure wouldn’t want to do that again”? 

not me.  looking back, i really think seventeen was my favorite year.  other than the almost dying part, of course.  i was reckless and self-destructive but i was free.  my future was literally opening up before me and the paths i could take were infinite and of my own choosing.  i was responsible for myself and nothing else.  i was strong and confident and went after whatever i wanted.  i wielded power and had fun doing it.  sure, there was heartache but it never lasted long because possibility was around every corner.  

and really, the drama… i’ve come to learn that the drama doesn’t go away as we get older… the stakes just get higher. 

i learned that year how to hurt others the way i had been hurt and i learned that i didn’t want to be that hurtful.  i learned that the past can always come back to haunt you.  i learned that others cared about me as much as i cared about them.  i learned that forgiveness goes both ways.  i learned that i could rewrite my future at any time.

back then, i had the world figured out.  i was going to do great things.  i knew no fear.  i believed in love and happiness.

i’m a very different person today from who i was then or who i thought i would be.  most days, i know that i’m a better person.  some days, i really wish i could be me again.

so much for being more active with my cousin here and her training.  i’m such a sloth.

so, as is to be expected when you live at the beach and have visitors… most of the week was spent in or around the water. 

hubby

CIL/sherlock

cousin/writersblock

my cousin’s friend and her son came down from ‘bama tuesday night and they stayed through thursday.  wednesday, while we labored, they went to pensacola to see the blue angels train.  sounded like they had a lot of fun.  they spent thursday on the beach and touring town so as to leave us a nice, quiet work environment and then we dragged them to the bridge for some much needed torture.  happily, it was a much better run for my cousin than our midnight run and i think she had fun (in as much as forcing your body to drag itself over a bridge can be fun).  for me, it was my first time ever doing two laps over the bridge!  granted, i had to start thirty minutes before everyone else in order to finish with the rest of them and i was ready to die at the end, but i did two laps! 

friday, we took another day off and went to the state park so that they could do some fishing from the jetty.  while they were out in heat fishing, i found a nice shady gazebo and grabbed a nap.  until i was awoken by the naval hovercraft coming through the pass.

cool breeze + shade + beach sounds = naptime

hovercrafts are noisy

but still pretty cool - how do i get me one?

after doing some more touring of the park, we came back home where i started on dinner while hubby kayaked and cousin and CIL fished in the backyard.  apparently i missed quite the catch by my cousin when her fish decided to exact revenge by covering her in a healthy coat of blood.  obligatory in-mouth-spurts included.  blech!  sadly, this is also when she discovered that her brand new waterproof camera (same model as my cobalt) had died a watery death.  very, very, very sad, that.  after my fabulous dinner of bacon-wrapped fillets, asparagus, and cob corn, we all headed back down to the beach for some night fishing.  sadly, my cousin did not have any more spectacularly bloody catches but both CIL and hubby managed to reel something in.

writersblock assembling the perilous pink pole

sherlock's big beef stick strikes again!

sherlock's haul

hubby's proud catch

sherlock eyeing hubby's big fish

before leaving this morning, they took one last fishing trip to the beach.  i’m glad they enjoyed it so much but it’s a shame they didn’t get their fishing licenses earlier in the week so that they could have had fishing fun every day.  after a good breakfast, they got on the road around lunchtime.  it was a wonderful visit with my favoritest extended family!

i’ll admit that i was feeling pretty darned good after the midnight run the other night.  i felt like i was really turning a corner. 

today, my world was crushed.  and something that i never ever imagined myself considering crept into my mind.  i’m not going to talk about it but prayers are welcome. 

pre-race photo op

how far past my bedtime is it again?

the real start

OUR start

my finish

my cousin's finish

i would do it again.  although i would probably just bandit it because it really was not worth paying $15 when i didn’t even get a shirt.  they could have at least offered to mail one to me.  i really wanted the stupid shirt.  the nice thing about running at midnight is that it’s not quite as florida outside.  although i was still sweating like crazy by the time we finished.  so… next year then?

bossman and coworker hs were here last week.  this made for a completely weird spin on the home office dynamic but that’s okay.  the days were far louder than usual and, well, the nights were too…

hubby drumming, bossman strumming

add in hs on bass

look at them rock!

racking up the points

bossman tries drumming

with the bossman in town, there was too little activity and too much eating out.  i did accomplish the mile of laps which made me very proud so it wasn’t a completely forsaken week.  with my cousin visiting next week and her being in training, my activity should greatly increase. 

i did it… i swam a full mile today!!!  that’s thirty laps in the pool in just fifty-two minutes.  i have been so stinking proud of myself all afternoon!  and, strangely, a little bit sore.  go me!!!