There are days when I get annoyed about where we live. In the winter, when we’re isolated due to snow. Or when the rain and tides threaten to wash out our causeway, I get nervous.

But then there are hot days when living a few minutes from the beach is fabulous. And then there are days like the 4th. There’s a beautiful beach that we can see from our beach, and it’s well known in the area. Unlike our beach, though, you need to ay to get in, and while it’s almost free for residents, it’s still a bit of a drive to get there. They also have a 4th party with music, face painting, etc and fireworks. This costs money, and we’re cheap frugal.

So the girls camped out with blankets on the lawn, and I had one of the lawn chairs. We watched the neighbors’ fireworks for about 45 minutes, and then the “real” fireworks lasted for about the same length of time. It was beautiful!

We could see a ton of legal and illegal fireworks, all without leaving our yard. It was great, and our 5th year doing this. We had friends over 2 years ago, and should really invite people next time. The wind was just right this year, so we could hear the music from the other beach.

Now we’re relaxing and enjoying the weekend. B took Monday off, so we have some nice quiet time before everything gets hectic again! 2 more weeks of kids here before camp starts, so lots of memories to collect and store in their heads!

Yesterday started off rather meh, but then there were several surprises. The first surprise was getting the mail - no bills and 3 packages, a shirt.woot tshirt trade (a design by this guy, whose phoenix I also love), a book by Jane Porter, and a great new tote-bag from my recipes site sponsor, FoodBuzz. The tote bag has a Rachel’s Recipe Box pin on it, too.

Then we went to the beach for a bit, only to come home early when a thunderstorm started. And yes, we had walked to the beach. 10 minutes in a thunderstorm will get you plenty wet, fyi.

Then I got home, and had an amazing surprise - two designs I had created for the shirt.woot Derby had risen, 1 was in the top 20, the other still in the top 40. Now one has dropped, but they are both still in the top 40 as of this writing. yippeeee!

If you’ve ever bought something from any of the woot websites, you can log in and vote for great designs. Like mine.

But then there was the big downer of the day. During the t-storm, lightning hit close to us, and BG & MG were opening a door and got shocked, but they’re fine. Unfortunately, our FIOS service got a worse shock, no tv, phone, or internet at our house now. Our DVD/VCR seems to have perished, too. Maybe our TV, too. I’m waiting to see what else. It’s very exciting. B is lucky that it didn’t whack out his computer, my laptop wasn’t plugged in and wasn’t downstairs where the shocking happened. Thank goodness the microwave is ok.

I’ve been through this before at my mom’s house, and I’m glad it wasn’t as big a hit as what we dealt with then. Now let’s see how the rest of the weekend goes.

I’m spending Sunday through Tuesday at my grandmother’s house again, so internet will be spotty until I get home. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

I was listening to npr on my way to the therapist last night, and I heard a story about gender identity, and treating children who self-identify as the opposite gender early in life. I missed part of the story as I picked up meds & had to go into the building, so I was happy to be able to read the story online. My heart aches for families in this situation, but my heart especially breaks for the boy who had his toys taken away.

For something completely different, I found this cool comic strip while haunting the halls of shirt.woot. Today’s comic about genes and whips reminds me of Tom Lehrer’s “Masochism Tango”, but with genes. Geeky is cool, who’da thunk it?

I’ve mentioned the cool t-shirts over at Threadless before. Well, another shirt.woot designer has an intense Threadless submission up titled Apocalypse, be sure to vote for it! jimiyo creates work with such an incredible level of detail. Very cool.

Rachel’s tip for the day: if you work in a checkout lane and ask someone for ID, don’t say “oh, my mom is your age”. Gah. I was feeling old enough when BG turned 10, knowing someone younger than me has a child working in the grocery store completely freaked me out.

While reading the Maximum Ride series, my girls are committed to saving the environment. (When they remember, of course!) We were all thrilled when our local grocery store switched to printing on both sides of the receipt! They aren’t printing goofy ads on the back, either - it’s the regular receipt of purchases, but put on both sides of the paper.

B’s company has also put more green ideas into practice - they gave each employee 3 reusable grocery bags (the nice ones that fold up), and took away the styrofoam and plastic cups for water and coffee, replacing them with a ton of mugs, a rack for the mugs, and special pens so folks can put their names on them. They also have special parking for hybrids, so they’re on the “good” end of businesses!

My brain is continuing to be fried. So, here are some links to things that aren’t here:

1. You can win a contest for a lavish trip to London if you’re over 40

2. One of the books I reviewed, Blood Moon is a part of a charity auction, the hardcover includes a quote from my review, so go vote!
3. My shirt.woot! entry this week has more votes than any of the previous ones! I also tend to think it’s more well done than the earlier ones, too.
4. We just ordered BG’s 10th birthday invitations from Tiny Prints, and are really looking forward to them! She’s having a party at the Roller Palace!

That’s all I’ve got. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

My brain is fried. I don’t know what hit me, but I’m feeling down. I haven’t been up to reading some of my books for review, I need lite, fun books. Yes, even lighter than what I usually read.

It felt good to help my friend on Friday, running her errands so she could be with her sick son. It also allowed her to stay home this weekend rather than running all over town, which meant she could hang out with her son and her (not sick, but still needing mom) daughter.

That said, it was hard emotionally to see such a strong person I admire needing help. It was also hard to see her son still sick.

Saturday B had to work, and today I’ve been feeling headachy and dizzy. Tomorrow B has to be at work at 8, which is always a joy. The week needs to get better from here! OK, on Tuesday we’re “celebrating” the 1 year anniversary of a friend’s daughter’s birth, and honoring her short life of only a few hours. It’s good to support friends in their times of need, but it probably won’t be an easy time.

In lieu of a regular post, here are this week’s Unconscious Mutterings

1. Questioning :: Authority
2. Immunity :: Witness Protection
3. Online dating :: match.com ads
4. Calcium :: vitamin D
5. Dressing :: herself (ie: daughters)
6. Bucket :: there’s a hole in the …
7. Stain :: Oxyclean
8. Advanced :: material
9. Dramatic :: actress
10. Self-medication :: Woodchuck Hard Cider

Very few April Fools day jokes here, everyone seems to take them personally.

But, 2 non-pranks happened that we didn’t expect!

Today was a beautiful, warm (60s!) day, and quite windy. It felt like a real springy day, and I could almost imagine the trees having leaves..

But the girls decided to fly kites, so the Hello Kitty kite is now impaled on one of the trees in our yard.

After going to the park with friends, I asked MG to pick up her fleece coat to come inside. Because she’s MG, she tossed it in the air. It’s now stuck in a tree.

Yes, they are in different trees. Of course, they’re also in trees that aren’t good climbing trees. How on earth are we going to get them down?

Cute park pictures to be posted tomorrow. Today was exhausting! But it meant the dogs & girls are exhausted, too, which is a great thing.

BG & MG and I have been voting in the shirt.woot! derby for the past few weeks, and since this week’s topic is turning text into art, we thought we’d take a shot at it. Our entry passed the “not lame” test, at least!

Oddly enough, the girls don’t have a woot! username, so it’s posted under my name only, despite the collaboration. Right now, our entry has more votes than can be explained by family voting! Our goal was to get a vote from someone other than me and B, and while anything else is gravy, it would be a great spot of light on a dreary snowy spring day if we got more votes!

I feel wiped out. Almost like someone sucked my brain straight out of my head. We did a few chores around the house, but everyone (even the puppy!) is wiped out today. Hes probably still tired after the jumping-into-the-pond experience yesterday!