Day Two of Birthday week......

Yesterday completed day two of the now famous Birthday Week.

Unfortunately, nobody provided me with fodder for my blog like someone did on Monday. It would have been a far more exciting day if someone in the theatre had taken their clothes off....but they didn't (and I looked....). So, we just did our thing.

First, we went up to the Maine State Music Theater in Brunswick to see My Fair Lady during the Matinee. They always do a great job, and yesterday was no exception, despite my seat behind a woman with the biggest head I've ever seen. (She kept her clothes on....) This theater is on the beautiful campus of Bowdoin College.

The Pickard Theatre

Summer offerings.

Following that....the highlight of 'my' day. A dream come true. A Genie in a Bottle type of event.

(((((We had dessert first! ))))) A stop a Dairy Queen in Westbrook. Oh yes, there is a God.

A half chocolate, half vanilla cone for me and a Mocha Chip Blizzard for the Birthday Boy.

True ecstasy, truth be told, would have been a Peanut Buster Parfait, but my doctor       ( read this in a really whiny voice) told me not to have salt.....and peanuts have salt. 

I'm a good girl. I do what I'm told. (Stop laughing Birdman aka Mr. DEDS....)

The grand finale of the day was a free pizza from a local pizza/gas station. Buy at least eight gallons of gas, 12 times, and you get a free pizza. (Right, Annie's Mom and friend?)

Day two of Birthday Week is history.

Birthday week.....who knew?

So my husband announces last night that his 'Birthday Week' is beginning, henceforth, tomorrow. Meaning today. Yeah, I know his birthday is Thursday, but what's up with this 'Birthday Week'? And how come when it's my birthday, it's basically a birthday '30 minutes'?

So, anyway, the plan apparently is to do something different everyday until his birthday, so off we trudged to Willard Beach in South Portland, Maine.

It was in the 80's and sunny, so why the heck not? We packed our lunches, piled our beach paraphernalia into the car and headed out.

The beach was not too crowded...it is a Monday and most people were in work. We found a nice spot, settled in and Mr. Downeastdoingstuff says, "Look at that suit."

"huh?"

"Look at that guy's suit", he said as he nodded his head backwards.

Now, I love to people watch, see what they are up to, check out what they are wearing, stuff like that. 

But this is one for the books.....(click on this photo to biggify it....please...)
Yup, that's his suit. If you look real close, you can see the threads that are holding it on.

You know that joke, " Is that a _________(fill in the blank), or are you just happy to see me?"

For some reason, that joke came to mind.

Then, oh yes, then, he sat up. Almost more disturbing.

About 45 minutes later, we hear all kinds of chatter and ruckus. I glance to the right and see a pile of teenagers (and younger) coming down the steps to the beach. 

I pray, "Don't turn left. Don't turn left"

"Go left !" I hear one of their counselors bellow. (There were about 40 of them, I counted.)

Marching forward, they all turned left towards us, and, ahem, toward 'him'.

Well, I just sat back and watched the show.

The word 'giggles' was made specifically for what ensued. Lots and lots of giggles, surreptitious pointing and averted eyes. I loved it.

The counselor all of a sudden demanded, "Don't go past that white boat!" (The one you see in the above photo, which was next to me where I was sitting)

'HE' was to my left.

I watched 'him' to see if he would try to cover up or something. Nope. Nothing phased him at all. He even rolled onto his side, (toward the kids) , reached into his bag (the one on the blanket...get your mind out of the gutter) and grabbed a sandwich and had his lunch, still in his stretched out, check me out, pose.  If he wasn't facing me, I would have snapped a shot of that, too.

But I'm not the pervert here! 

Disclaimer: God, I hope he doesn't read this blog...if he does...."Hey, who put these photos of the nice man sunning himself on my blog???" 

After only about 30 minutes, the kids left. Kinda a short beach day, I think it was just their lunch break from a day camp at SMCC. So Mr. DEDS and I took a walk. That's the birthday boy in the above photo, doing what he always does....getting into contorted shapes to take photos with his super, duper camera for his blog.
Upon returning to our encampment, I created this sand Angel from junk around my beach chair.

Heavenly, isn't she?

This is her, in the below photo, on the weekends, letting it all hang out....
Apparently it was time to go home. 'HE' left (I didn't even get the pleasure of seeing him stand up), the food was gone, and clouds were coming in.

So we went home. Stopped at the liquor store and bought ingredients to make the following:
Yummm.....

First day of Birthday Week under our belts. Can't wait for tomorrow.......

   24 years ago tonight.....ah, yes. What a mish mash of emotions. Something that hurt so much produced something so wonderful. Weird, huh? I can see where the phrase 'no pain, no gain' comes from. My little boy was born.

   This photo was taken during his first day on this earth. How Mr. Downeast doing stuff caught this smile with his camera, is beyond me...but he did. Had no idea he captured it until the film was developed. (Remember the old days...actually developing film?) (Although, that particular picture was developed in a darkroom by Mr. DEDS himself.)

   Now, just to clarify, that mysterious smile disappeared once we got home. And it wasn't Mr. DEDS's housekeeping skills while I was sequestered in the hospital. Something called 'colic' took over, and he cried for three entire months. Three long months. The doctor told me that it would probably last ONLY three months. After ONLY three months, TO THE DAY, he woke up smiling again and he's been smiling ever since. (I didn't mind it too, too much however,....I got to hold him almost all his waking hours. He always smelled nice.) (ummm, in retrospect I didn't mind it...) 

   As a matter of fact, he has the most beautiful smile I've ever seen. Really. A tiny part of it is thanks to his orthodontist, but mostly it's him.

   And you know what? He makes me feel like smiling, too. 

   I love you, little bird.

   Happy Birthday my baby.

The First Kiss

9 Day Explorer of the Seas Cruise to the Caribbean.....

We're back!

Here are some random photos of our cruise to Bermuda, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and San Juan, Puerto Rico, sailing off from Cape Liberty, New Jersey. This was our fourth cruise.

An absolutely wonderful, fun vacation celebrating our 35th Anniversary.

Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas.

Balcony Stateroom.

I think this is St. Maarten.....

Docked in Bermuda.

St. Maarten street....

A towel creature appeared every night.

St. Maarten

St. Thomas.

Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas.

The Solarium, an adult only pool on the ship.

San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A Caribbean sunset from the ship.

Looking down a staircase on the ship.

The Royal Promenade on the ship.

The hot tub in the gym on the ship.

The basketball court and rock climbing wall aft....

Mini golf on the ship.

The other two pools and three hot tubs. A band played here every afternoon.

A dream vacation. Thank you, Birdman, for more wonderful memories.

I'm achieving my goals !

A pictorial update.....

First, a recap....my summer list....

Paint (actual paintings and latex around the house)

Read

Garden

Take day trips and one big trip

Eat

Sleep

Item number one....paint..

The beginnings of a painting of downtown Portland, Maine....Congress St.

A book I just started, to take along on the cruise.....

My gardens......one of them.....

I eat......coffee yogurt....my lunch of choice for over 30 years. (not much else, dieting for the cruise.)

And, of course, I sleep.

It's wonderful making a short list of things to do. Why didn't I think of this before??

Note: I can't get out of my head the comment that Empress Bee left on my last post....you know....the 'cake' part. Might have to add that to the list!

 Empress Bee (of the High Sea)said...

it's summer vacation honey, relax and enjoy, just do what you feel like doing. toss the list. have a little cake, you'll feel better.

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxox

Happy Father's Day, Daddy and Birdman! Love you both more than you'll ever know.

Summer Vacation.....

Today is the first day of Summer Vacation!! This day is golden in my book. This is the day I pen all my lists of what I’m going to do during the summer. Making a list is on my list.

Labor Day is when I throw them in the woodstove to ward off the chill in the air that arrives too soon here in Maine. MAYBE 2 things will be scratched off the list. Maybe.....

Oh well, I don’t know why I bother.

My pathetic goals for this summer: (and I actually don’t need to write them down)

Paint (actual paintings and latex around the house)

Read

Garden

Take day trips and one big trip

Eat

Sleep

That’s it. This is Vacationland officially, you know.

Update: It’s the end of the third day of summer vacation.

I worked in the garden.....only to discover something ate all my precious little baby carrot, basil, beet, spinach, stringbean, and zinnia seedlings. The garden is fenced in so it’s probably not a varmint. Probably bugs. God, I hate bugs.

Took a trip to North Conway, New Hampshire. Had lunch looking at Mount Washington.

I read.

I ate.

I slept.

So far so good,‘cept for the garden....and I did not paint anything.

What to do, what to do...

In a few weeks we will be going on a cruise. I am trying to pick out an excursion for us to participate in on one of the Islands. 

There are so many exciting things to do like going to a place called Butterflies Galore or going on a high speed boat that will get you soaking wet making 180 degree turns thus making you puke. (really)

What to do....what to do.

So upon perusing all the choices, I came across this one....

ZT01 - Scuba Dive With Equipment

PRICE: ADULT: 119.00 / CHILD: 119.00 USD

DURATION: 4 Hours Approx.

OR

ZT02 - Scuba Dive Without Equipment

PRICE: ADULT: 109.00 / CHILD: 109.00 USD

DURATION: 4 Hours Approx.

Now I'm no diving expert, I can't even open my eyes under water, but I do know that in order to Scuba Dive YOU HAVE TO HAVE SOME SORT OF EQUIPMENT!!!

(Don't you?)

WD 40, 50 and 60....

My sister-in-law sent us a list of exactly what WD-40 can do for you. She says that the main ingredient in the stuff is fish oil! Fish oil plus other things, so don't go spraying it in your mouth everyday for extra Omega 3's in your system.

Check this out...

WD-40 uses:

1. Protects silver from tarnishing.

2. Removes road tar and grime from cars.

3. Cleans and lubricates guitar strings.

4. Gives floors that 'just-waxed' sheen without making them slippery.

5.. Keeps flies off cows.

6. Restores and cleans chalkboards.

7. Removes lipstick stains.

8.. Loosens stubborn zippers.

9. Untangles jewelry chains.

10. Removes stains from stainless steel sinks.

11. Removes dirt and grime from the barbecue grill.

12. Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing.

13. Removes tomato stains from clothing.

14. Keeps glass shower doors free of water spots.

15. Camouflages scratches in ceramic and marble floors.

16. Keeps scissors working smoothly..

17. Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes.

18. It removes black scuff marks from the kitchen floor! Use WD-40 for those nasty tar and scuff marks on flooring. It doesn't seem to harm the finish and you won't have to scrub nearly as hard to get them off. Just remember to open some windows if you have a lot of marks.

19. Bug guts will eat away the finish on your car if not removed quickly! Use WD-40!

20. Gives a children's playground gym slide a shine for a super fast slide.

21. Lubricates gear shift and mower deck lever for ease of handling on riding mowers...

22.. Rids kids rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises.

23. Lubricates tracks in sticking home windows and makes them easier to open..

24. Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close.

25. Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles, as well as vinyl bumpers.

26. Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles.

27. Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans

28. Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons, and bicycles for easy handling.

29. Lubricates fan belts on washers and dryers and keeps them running smoothly.

30. Keeps rust from forming on saws and saw blades, and other tools.

31. Removes splattered grease on stove.

32. Keeps bathroom mirror from fogging.

33. Lubricates prosthetic limbs.

34. Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).

35. Removes all traces of duct tape.

36. Folks even spray it on their arms, hands, and knees to relieve arthritis pain.

37. Florida ’s favorite use is: 'cleans and removes love bugs from grills and bumpers.'

38. The favorite use in the state of New York , WD-40 protects the Statue of Liberty from the elements.

39. WD-40 attracts fish. Spray a little on live bait or lures and you will be catching the big one in no time. Also, it's a lot cheaper than the chemical attractants that are made for just that purpose. Keep in mind though, using some chemical laced baits or lures for fishing are not allowed in some states.

40. Use it for fire ant bites.. It takes the sting away immediately and stops the itch.

41. WD-40 is great for removing crayon from walls. Spray on the mark and wipe with a clean rag.

42. Also, if you've discovered that your teenage daughter has washed and dried a tube of lipstick with a load of laundry, satur ate the lipstick spots with WD-40 and rewash. Presto! The lipstick is gone!

43. If you sprayed WD-40 on the distributor cap, it would displace the moisture and allow the car to start.

Pretty cool, huh. Who knew?

Anyway, after perusing the list, I find that there were some things missing, or maybe things that 'I' think are missing.

Such as....

1. Spray WD-40 on a sink full of dishes and they will wash themselves and dry themselves in 45 seconds or less.

2. Spray it on your tax returns and you will get a larger refund.

3. Use a few spritz's for hairspray and your hair will never frizz up when it's raining out.

4. Spray it around yourself when you are walking in the rain and you will stay dry and not get pissed off.

5. Spray it on your tummy and it will tighten up flat a a board. (or not...)

6. Spray it under your beds and couches and it will keep the dust bunnies out.

7. Spray it on your birth certificate and it will subtract 15 years or so from your birthdate.

And in my book, the best one....8. Spray it on a Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait and all the calories will be removed.

But of course, they'd have to rename the stuff to be WD 50 or 60 ....probably.