Today, my sister turns 26, which means she is past a quarter of a century and well on her way to being quite old. 😀

And I couldn’t really decide what to get her.

I thought maybe this:

But then, no, I said, she’d like this better:

Then I stumbled upon this, and thought, “that’s the ticket!”:

Until I saw this, and realized, ah yes, she’s like me:

Sadly, I chose instead to send her dinner, which in the end, I think she liked just as much.

Even if a Louis Vuitton [cake] was her dream. 😉

All images, Charm City Cakes.

Best thing about summer: Chop and I just made reservations for an apartment in Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod.

Plans for next weekend: double feature at the Drive-In on CC (Shrek 3 and Spiderman 3), frisbee with Reggie on the National Seashore, delicious food in P-town, shopping!, swimming and sunning.

Doodoodoo.. I finally get a vacation! Yay!

My adoration for Top Chef knows no bounds. To be truthful, I just love me some Bravo TV. Between Project Runway and Top Chef, for reality TV, Bravo is where it’s at, yo. 😀

Chop and I did watch Top Design and Shear Genius, and save for a couple of shining moments, those two couldn’t hold a candle to the others. And really, I’m not entirely sure why. I think it’s a combination of weird judges (hi, did you see what that crazy Kelly wore on TD every week? and her hair too? wtf?), pretty-but-useless-and-hard-to-understand hosts (SG guy is Dutch? And has no qualifications save for being pretty? See, even this guy is checking him out! Granted, he’s posing, but seriously, wtf?) and weirdly uninspired challenges (particularly TD..also, Goil got shafted. SG had a few funny ones). It’s also possible that most of the people on those two are sorta forgettable, while hearing the name Stephen from season one of Top Chef still raises my hackles and makes me say, “why? why? why?” and “where?”

Anyway, my point is.. Top Chef is coming back! And even more fun… Season 1 and 2 are having a throwdown. The last four contestants from each season are having a cooking “grudge match” (their words, not mine).

Fun, fun, fun.

The best (and possibly worst) part about where we live is that I’m beginning to feel as if I’m constantly on vacation.

Don’t get me wrong. We get up early.. the dog has a small bladder.. and we work all day during the week, but it just doesn’t seem as if this is a real place to live. I just walked the dog on the beach (for the second time today). She chased seagulls, I had a chat with a swan (don’t ask). Our neighbors are either active retirees or couples with young children.. they’re sweet, they say hi every day, we chat about boats and the weather and ticks (Reggie had one) and lice (her daughter, and son, and other daughter.. who all three are now sporting uneven pageboys, lol) while we get the mail. It’s nice here.

We don’t even lock the door.

As I sit here I see boaters coming back to dock, Reggie hears seagulls she’d love to pin down and I can smell the ocean.

Part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop… lol.

One cat is on my lap, Regina’s at my feet in her basket, the other cat is finally out of hiding and sitting on top of the bed, as opposed to under, and the Porkchop is getting coffee.

Lovely way to work from home.

We’re home from the work trip, it sucked, and I hate work trips, but I did get good schwag, so I guess it wasn’t a total bust. Eh.

We went back to the shelter yesterday (we had gone a couple of weeks ago), and looked at dogs again… and this time, we found one. 🙂

She’s an Australian Blue Cattle Dog, her name is Regina (well, now it is) and she is seven months old. We aren’t picking her up until Wednesday, so I don’t have any pics yet, but she’s a sweetie and we are really looking forward to being dog parents.

Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure the cats are ready for us to adopt a relative of the canine persuasion. We have a towel that has her smell on it, and while they aren’t entirely averse to it, they don’t seem particularly thrilled, either.

I’m sure I’ll have a doozy of a home video on Wednesday afternoon, lol.

And it’s the greatest thing in the world.

Truly, it is.

It’s a cotton Mexihammock that I picked up a few years ago and it’s quite lovely.

The Wookie and I accomplished a great deal today. 😀

The Wookie loves the hammock. 🙂

Working from home… 😉

Nice view..

I don’t have a lot to say about the VTech shooting, mainly because it’s all been said, but also because it was my first year in high school when Columbine happened and everyone involved was older than I. This time, almost all of the students were my age or younger and that’s devastating to me. The coverage has been prolific, and deservedly so, even though I know the survivors feel it’s too much.

But survivors have felt that way in every tragedy.

April is a crappy, crappy month.

The Chop has a hard time with all the coverage, but not because he feels it’s intrusive. No, he’s instead upset that all the other human tragedies that are happening in the world are under-covered and that we as Americans are so involved when things happen in our space, yet unconcerned with the daily mass murders being perpetrated all over the world.

I understand where he’s coming from, but what I know is that I feel more personally involved with this shooting than with what is happening overseas. Not that I don’t think it should have equal coverage, but I understand how we (as Americans) want more information and feel more sadness about this than about anything that happens there. It’s here. It’s home. It was unexpected. It made no sense.

So that’s that.

I love This American Life on NPR. It is one of the best hours of commentary on radio and I adore it… especially now, because I can listen to the archives while I’m working.

They recently redesigned their website and included ALL of their archives since 1995. The best part? You can stream it free.

Good lord, I will never be bored at work again. 🙂

We’ve been in the new place for a little over a week, and so far, we love it. 🙂

View from the front porch…

View from the driveway, looking toward the water.

View of the front porch.

The house, from the driveway.

View of the living room from the French doors (and Izzie)..

  Half view of the living room from the bathroom..
Kitchen

So it’s a bit messy, but all in all, it’s gorgeous.