Wil's in the closet...

That's right, I said it...but it's not quite what you think. For years now we've been convincing ourselves that our closet was sufficient to hold all of our stuff...and while we kept adding to it...we were sure that the closet would still hold. Unfortunately, physics played a part and we were no longer able to deceive ourselves. I like to blame Wil since the closet was sufficient to hold my stuff, plus the few things he left here when he lived on the ship. But once he came home, that poor closet just couldn't handle another sock.


As I'm sure others before us, we had some serious decisions to make. Do we part with the "extra" clothes that we do not need, do we put an addition on the house just for my shoes and purses, or do we reorganize the closet in hopes that we can create more storage through better organization. Since I don't have "extra" clothes (yes, that's right--it's all needed) and we can't afford an addition right now...we opted for doing things the JWAC way...we reorganized. This thought actually started a few months ago and we had Oleg the Russian Mafia representative from Closets by Design come to give us a quote. After he gave us a quote that would probably be comparable to an addition, we said we'd think about it. Note to self, it is scary to tell the Russian Mafia no...but we did survive and learned many lessons from this experience.


Ultimately, we put this reorg plan off for a few months until the closet started to collapse around us. So this weekend, Wil was literally in the closet working on the destruction and then construction of the closet. Since we couldn't afford to hire Oleg, we opted for doing things the Home Depot way, that is buying pieces that work together, following the directions and putting them up. I have to give Wil some credit, he did a pretty good job. We divided up the tasks. I took about 6 sections and he took about 6 sections and we have it mostly put together after about 8 or 9 hours of work. Now, I will admit that there may have been some profanity and possibly some banging and tossing of things during this endeavor, but with the exception of a few finishing touches, the new closet looks pretty good. And I have to say that my non-handy, handy-man did pretty good. Who knows, maybe I can try to convince him to come all the way out of the closet and try some more home improvement projects. Hmmm...something to think about.

Birthdays...

When we're children birthdays are so exciting...there's cake, ice cream, party hats, and presents...what's not to love!?! But as we get older, birthdays seem to lose a bit of their excitment. Is it because after 21, there's really nothing good to look forward to as we age? I've rarely heard people say, great..."I'm no longer in my 20s, I'm in my 30s". And as they reach middle age, you usually don't hear, "YES! I've been waiting my whole life to be middle aged!" That being said, there are some who look forward to retirement. Myself being one of those. But I'm not looking forward to the age of retirement...just the time when I don't have to go to work, but I'll still keep getting a salary. Maybe if they bumped retirement up to say 40. Then you would've worked anywhere between 15 and 20 years depending on schooling and yet you're still "young" enough to really enjoy retirement. Now, that would motivate me to be excited about 40. But as I approach my mid-30s this year, with 40 looming in the not-so-distant future...I must admit that I'm not really looking forward to that.

I also think another part of the problem may be the way we celebrate birthdays as we age. As I mentioned, when we're young there are lots of good things to think about and get excited about for birthdays. But when we get older, the yummy thick-icing cake is exchanged for some low fat dessert because we just can't consume those calories guilt-free anymore...the ice cream just really doesn't go with the low fat dessert or you opt for the low fat or fat free version of ice cream/frozen yogurt...nobody wants to wear party hats unless they've been drinking for awhile...and presents...well, presents never go out of style...they're always good.

So, how do we, as adults, regain the thrill of celebrating our birthdays? Should we abandon common sense and act like children again for just that one day...wear the party hats, eat the full fat cake and ice creaming and rip open our presents? Or are we relegated to birthdays being a day of dread instead of a day of joy...

Baywatch, The Sequel

The sequel won't have a buxom Pamela Lee running along the beach. Instead it will have another attractive blonde...a blonde male...a blonde male golden retriever named Indiana.

That's right...imagine Indy running down the beach in his red bathing bandana carrying an orange life buoy. While you may think at first that this sounds a little far-fetched, that's only because you didn't see him in action at the beach in St. Augustine. We expected David Hasselhoff to appear any moment to offer him the job.

While at the beach, Jon-Christian, Wil, Eddie, and well everyone repeatedly tried to boogie board. Unfortunately, Indiana was concerned that they were getting a little too far out in the water, so as you can see, he would swim out and grab the cord from the boogie board and pull them back to shore.

This happened everytime we went to the beach. Occasionally, Wil would get a questioning look from Indiana...kind of a, "Hey, can you control these people! How many times do I HAVE to save them?" If the Baywatch option doesn’t come along, we’re considering sending him to the Coast Guard Academy.

Dorsal fins and shark's teeth

When do you know it’s time to get out of the ocean? Some may say when it’s lightening. Some may say when you are too burnt to walk or when the sun goes down or when it’s time for lunch? There are many answers to that question. None of which are probably wrong…but I think perhaps one of the most urgent times to get out of the ocean is when you’ve seen dorsal fins within swimming distance and then you find a shark’s tooth on the beach, like we did today.

written 07/01/08

Happy Feet or Burning Feet

If you ever get the choice…go with the happy feet. I recently became the victim of Florida’s most dreaded onland predator…the fire ant. And if this weren’t bad enough…imagine a fire ant bite on top of poison ivy. Trust me, this is not a pleasant sensation.

Blog Editorial Comment

We felt the need to clarify an issue that has been of apparent concern to some readers. It appears that our sarcastic use of the term “stalker fish” in the blog on June 5th titled “Vacation” has caused some angst about visiting the beach and some deep concern about the horrible bite that Wil received from the infamous Stalker Fish.

To be clear the term stalker is defined as "to pursue quarry or prey stealthily" or "to pursue obsessively and to the point of harassment." The term fish is defined as "an aquatic animal." When putting these two words together we thought it would be appropriate to call the fish that followed us around the water for about 10 minutes a “Stalker Fish”. However, our wording has caused some to think that they had indeed heard of the terrible Stalker Fish and how dangerous they can be. It also caused a family member (we will withhold their name to protect their privacy) such concern that he/she decided to google “Stalker Fish” to find out more details about this dangerous creature searching for its prey along the coast of Honduras.

So as a point of clarification, while the shark would be the quitisential "stalker fish"…and the 3 inch fish that attacked Wil would probably be called bait fish or captured for a home aquarium…we thought that given the semi-humorous event that we would embellish and identify this fish (because of its behaviour of following us around the water) as a Stalker Fish. We cannot, however, say definitively that this is the correct name of the fish. Perhaps it was part of a shark in training program…

Scalpel, Sponge, Tack?

There have been several news reports in recent years about surgeons accidentally leaving scalpels and sponges and other pieces of medical equipment inside people after performing operations. It seems appalling that this type of oversight could happen. However, during my recent exposure to the medical industry I’ve come to the conclusion that these incidents were not accidents, but instead were done diliberately to help medical professionals remember where they had previously performed some sort of medical procedure. At least that’s what they told me when they inserted a tack in me as a marker to always know where they had been…so I can only assume it goes for other, more complicated procedures. So, maybe the bigger the procedure, the bigger the instrument that they leave to mark their place?