Tuesday, April 24, 2012

3521 Uh....

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”
-- Friedrich Nietzsche --

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When did "convo" become a verb?  A transitive one, at that?  "Convo me if you're interested in my product."

Yes, I understand it includes call, text, and email, but doesn't "contact" work as well?  In fact, "contact" implies that you are to initiate the conversation.  What meaning does "convo" add that "contact" doesn't already have?
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3520 Hair

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Barbara Kingsolver's character Adah in The Poisonwood Bible points out that God created vermin and microbes as well as humans, and "He's not necessarily rooting for just the humans."

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Hair cut:
Week 1 - much too short
Week 2 - too short
Week 3 - too short
Week 4 - a little too short
Week 5 - almost right
Week 6 - PERFECT!
Week 7 - too long, unruly, can't do a thing with it, aaaaggghh!
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3519 My weekend at the shore, Part 2

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I thought about committing suicide, but in Buffalo, suicide is redundant.
-- A Chorus Line --

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On Saturday morning we awoke to fog. And voices.  And the boom of feet on boards.  When I went out, this is what I saw:


 There were thousands of them, and they kept passing for hours.  They were running from Asbury Park (next town to the north) to a few miles south, then back again, and then turned around and did it several more times.  Some were running a 5K, some were running a half marathon.  Some were running alone, some were running as teams, some were passing a baton to team members at each end (relay?).  Some people were still running at 1 pm.

I wanted to stick a number on the Nugget and take her for a walk on the boardwalk.  That would have been funny.

The fog cleared, and it turned into a nice but windy day.  I stayed at the hotel while Nugget took her midday nap and her parents went window shopping. Nugget woke up before they got back, so she and I snuck out to the beach.  It was Nugget's first sand.

We walked down the stairs from the boardwalk to the sand, and she took three barefoot steps on the sand, was surprised by the texture, plopped down, and checked it out.  She was fascinated by how she couldn't hold a handful.  The way it blew away as it sifted through her fist.  The way it was so easy to dig in it.  The way you could bury your feet by kicking them, and then find them again.

She found a flattish piece of shell and dug with that.  Buried it.  Dug it up again.

The wind was helpful.  I turned her with her back to the wind, and the wind kept the sand out of her face.

We were still sitting there when Daughter and Hercules returned to the hotel, found us gone, and called my cell in a panic.  They came down, we played a little more, Nugget demonstrated the special properties of sand for them, and then they decided to carry her to the water.

The waves are really far from the boardwalk.  I declined to walk that far on soft sand, so they went without me.  They returned pretty quickly, actually, with Nugget half naked wrapped in a jacket, and Daughter looking panicked.

When they got to the wet sand, easier to walk on, they had set the Nugget down.  She hit the ground running and was waist deep in a wave before they caught her.  Cold cold water, wind.

Back at the hotel Hercules and the Nugget found a cabinet in the lobby filled with ancient board games.  Nugget's favorites were the dominoes and the playing cards.

We left Sunday about 11:30 am, and I was home by noon.

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Nugget's friend Sky had visited for the birthday party, and earlier Saturday a little girl named Rain had come into the lobby with her parents.  Sky and Rain?**  I feel like I have to make it clear that "Nugget" is not my granddaughter's name. Her name is a respectable old name.

** That might actually be Skye and Rayne or whatever fancified spelling.  Same thing....
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Monday, April 23, 2012

3518 My weekend at the shore

Monday, April 23, 2012

You don't have to be a thing of beauty to be a joy forever.
-- Flip Wilson, as Geraldine --

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Daughter, Hercules, Nugget and I all spent the weekend at a shore-front B&B in Ocean Grove.  The original plan was for a big family gathering on Saturday to celebrate the Nugget's first birthday (which is actually this coming Thursday), but no other family members accepted the invitation.  Sheesh.  Nugget's little playmate Sky and Sky's parents came, and that was ok.

Daughter didn't get a cake for Nugget - she got a custard & fruit pie - and given the Nugget's speed at grabbing we didn't use candles.  But there were balloons!




In the photo above, she already has two big strawberries in her mouth and is reaching for more.




 Nugget actually ate half that pie!  There was a second pie for the adults.  (The t-shirt says "Nobody puts Baby in a corner".)


 Balloons!  Nugget moves so fast these days it's difficult to get a still photo when she's on her feet.

The above is the hotel as seen from the boardwalk in the Saturday morning fog. My room was second floor left.
The above is the view from my room's porch, on Friday evening.  Yeah, it needs editing, but no time right now.

Hmmm.  I just tried to upload a second video (a more interesting one) showing what I woke up to on Saturday morning, but when I click on the "Upload a video" button now, it just sits and stares at me.  I have to leave for dance class in a few minutes (yeah, Gypsy, it's BD, but again I'm not really dancing, just exercising), so I'll have to try again in a later post.

To be continued....
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