Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004I was up in time to watch the sunrise. This time I took a blanket out on the back deck which was a bit damp. Did it rain last night? I don't think the neighbor's sprinkler system can reach this far. Got to see the whole thing this time. What little clouds there were went from mauve to pink to gold as the sun rose. I waited 'til the pinkish orange disc was up before heading inside.
The early risers (ecurbh, Hair, and Wneighbor) already had teh coffee made and were out by the pool so I joined them. The steaks were still with me this morning, so I skipped the bacon and just had pancakes, some hash browns, and the coffee. The kids are watching Finding Nemo. Most of us went down to the beach to see the shark that one of the fisher guys had caught. It was a little 2 1/2 foot shark that he had in water in a white bucket. He held the shark so the kids could pet it before he released it. One of the other fisher guys caught a shark about the same size (I thought it was a bit smaller) a few minutes later. I picked up some shells, a cool-looking rock and a gray feather. Woo Hoo! Souvenires!!! We're getting ready to go down to a park to see wildlife...hopefully a manatee. Hmmmm...do we have enough vehicle space? Yes! We have vehicle space...everyone went and we locked the Castle and went to this (state, I think) park called "Seashore Inlet", if I remember correctly. I resumed doing my lizard-sunning-on- the-rock thing. The others went wading or swimming. Brought my camera and took some shots....wonder how good these disposable cameras are. looking through the viewfinder you'd think they were using a wide-angle lens...and everything looks too far away. I guess I'll find out.
I didn't see any manatees. Saw birdses and parasails out in the distance. Poor Becky didn't like sharing the water with the crabs: I didn't like shareing the shore with the fire ants. Hehehe.....g'nad was down in a rocky pool doing his Smeagol fish song. Too bad he didn't have a fish in hand.
Hair and ecurbh brought Flat Frodo for some pictures. Poor Frodo is looking a little rough around the edges lately. There was this jetty....a line of rocks built out into the inlet that the took him out on. Wneighbor and ecurbh didn't seem to have too much problem traversing them. Hair said she was afraid of heights and made her way out there eventually. Frodo made it there and back (again) without getting wet....good ol' Frodo! However, to Ruthy, Becky, and I that little row of rocks looked like Emyn Muil with razor sharp rocks...and then it gets worse! Some rocks just didn't have nice, flat horizontal surfaces to step on, some were loose or wet and slippery....and there I was clambering about with that camera in one hand and all my medical insurance cards back in KC! We got as far as half way before getting some hobbit-sense and stopping and left the whole job to the more sure-footed (or the more cracked!)
We went back to the Castle for lunch. Lots of leftover steak that Hair slice for steak sandwiches, the cold cuts were out along with the taquitos, cookies, chips, salsa...had all kinds of food and drink to consume before tomorrow morning. Good Moot....no one really wants to leave but I miss my cat and Hair is worried about her horses. Some good news from teh outside world....ksen ahs a job interview on Monday.
We settle in to watch The Movie...and had a rousing chorus of "Nah, nah, nah, nah. Nah, nah, nah, nah. Hey, hey, hey. Good-bye!" as the elves made their way to the Grey Havens. I was half-watching The Movie and half-watching the fishing birds fold their wings, drop, and splash into the water. It must have been a good day for it...every few minutes or so you could see those splashes.
The next movie was Life of Brian. I did some FReeping and had "Entmoot send greetings by FReepmail to Constitution Day and mykdsmom. Heh....Melbourne is where MKM wants to move. There's some laundry and packing going on. On the thread, ItsOurTimeNow ordered the Bakshi LOTR just to see if it was as bad as we made out. Poor guy....I hope he's a drinking man. Mykdsmom replied a few minutes later...Hair was confused..."Who is this person?" We didn't hear from Constitution Day that evening although I expect "Entmoot" will eventually. I was careful to send greetings on the last night so he wouldn't have time to deploy the Thermobaric Bomb.
There was a run to the store for more snacks. Rosie got a case of Vernor's to take back to Vermont. There was discussion of who is taking whom to the airport tomorrow. It is decided: g'nad's folks will pick up his family so g'nad can take JenB, Rosie, Bilbo, and Mug in the van. Ramius, Hair, and ecurbh are taking Wneighbor and me and then hang out or something until they return the Explorer to the rental place. We have a plan.
More food, more drink. Rosie, Bilbo, and Mug played for a bit on the patio by the pool. G'nad got up and sang "And teh Band Played Waltzing Matilda." I think that's the name of the song....I'm really bad at remembering song titles. It was a song about Gallipoli by a veteran of that battle who had lost both legs....*sniff*. He also sang a spiritual/lullaby ...no I don't remember the name. More talking, more food. We had split up into two groups: one at the table outside the pool where they were talking about bands and one indoors. Hehehe...they took more pictures of Corin's shoes: first with g'nad wearing them and then a shot of the shoes on a float in the pool with a drink.
More food G'nad finished off the wings (with a little extra Tabasco sauce.) We started The Movie again - for the "Anime group" mostly. By the time it ended after 1:00, it was just me and ksen's daughter left. I made sure ecurbh's disc was out of the player before going to bed.