Vacation

What a weekend.

Brenda (Deb’s sister) and her family came down for a long weekend. We rented a beach house down in Kill Devil Hills, NC. It was a blast.

Every one of us got too much sun and we managed to do in all of our cheap body boards. I guess that I’ll have to break down and buy the more expensive ones.

We ate at a few local hot spots. I highly recommend them both.

The waves weren’t especially rough, but they were steady and were going anywhere from three to six feet. They were perfect for Christy and Davey to learn on. The dolphins even made an appearance.

I indulged in one of my favorite activities when we were back at the house. No one complained. I’m a decent cook and when I cook no one else has to. That is probably why no one complained. The best part of cooking was that everyone else volunteers to clean up.

In the evening we all played games and watched movies. It was all very relaxing.

I ended the vacation with a nasty head cold. That was the only down side of the long weekend.

Who says church can't be fun?

We attend a very small church. We first started attending 4 or 5 years ago and there were only about 20 people in entire the congregation. We have grown since then and 30 or so people attend the morning service and 120+ attend the afternoon service.

Grace Harbor is very layed back. They put us off a little at first. When we showed up everyone introduced themselves asked how we were and stayed in touch. We almost didn't go back. The long and the short of it is that we did go back. Now a lot of these people are very good friends of ours.

A few Sundays ago we had hospitality. Basically we make coffee and a large container of lemonade. We sit near the back entrance when we do this. These doors lead to the kitchen and bathroom areas.

We normally use our own coffee cups, but that day I forgot to grab mine and was drinking from a Styrofoam cup. We were three quarters of the way through service and I had just finished my coffee. We were singing and I set my cup on my chair (I had just finished my coffee and I was intending to throw it away). When the song finished we were invited to sit down. As I sit the lady behind me says "Watch out Henry." CRUNCH! I sit right on top of the Styrofoam cup. I stand up like I had just sat on a pin. I hear a snort from my left. Dearth is to my right and he has a hand, clamped tightly around his mouth, stifling a giggle. I look to my left and I see Debra running into the women's bathroom. Both of her hands are on her mouth. As soon as the door shuts gales of laughter echo from the room. No one else seems to have noticed.

Fortunately, we are far enough back that no one really notices except for us and the people right next to us. Deb makes 2 or 3 unsuccessful attempts to leave the bathroom, but she would come out take one look at me and dart back in. More laughter.

I'm just glad that I could brighten someones day. God finds the most interesting ways to humble you.

All Hail the Bloggers!

An internet friend told me to not bother reading her blog. Her reason was because she just writes any old thing down and it really wasn’t all that interesting. Those were not her exact words, but that was the long and the short of it.

I’ve known her for about ten years and she has been blogging for about five of those. When she told me this I laughed. The reason I read her blog is because she writes that way. She lives in England and her views on life and the way she describes is very refreshing to me.

I read blogs to see what other people are doing. I want to read about something that is different from the life I live. The blogs I link just happen to be people I am friends with. Alice and Jamie I met on the internet. John is a real life friend. All three of them lead lives so different from mine that I love to read about their adventures. In turn, I write about things going on in my life.

Thank you Alice for brightening my days with your musings. Jamie, my days would be boring if I did not have your blog to read. A lot of people dream about the life you live, but do not have the balls to live it. John, what can I say? Leaving your job, selling your house and moving into a large sailboat is one of the gutsiest things I have ever seen.

Keep blogging my friends. Others are more interested than you may think.

Boogey Boarding weekend

We went to North Carolina, with friends of ours, on Saturday. We spent about 6 hours on the beach. Dearth and I boogey boarded until our bodies couldn’t take it anymore. Deb watched and laughed at us.

The water was rough. It was probably the roughest we’ve ever boarded in. The waves were breaking in three different areas. In close (about calf deep), mid way (about waist deep) and about 20 feet out from there. The waist deep area is where we were trying to get to. From there you could hop the waves you did not want to ride and wait for a good one in reasonable safety.

Getting past the close waves was real work. Sometimes they were too high to bounce over and they would catch the board and send you for a ride. If you were lucky that ride consisted of getting pushed back several feet and a face full of ocean. If you were unlucky you got swept off of your feet and you got up close and personal with the ocean floor. I had the wind knocked out of me several times when a wave would hit me in the stomach or back just right.

Once you made it to the waist deep water it was a lot of fun. The waves were averaging between 4 and 6 feet. All you had to do was kick off in front of one of those and the wave did the rest for you. If you kept the nose of your board up, and did not let it get ripped out of your hands, the wave would take you all the way to the shore.

When the nose of the board dipped it would catch in the water and the wave cheerfully launched you right over the top. Dearth has an abrasion on his right shoulder blade from one of these spectacular wipeouts. It was assholes, elbows and an epic yard sale (this is when everything goes in different directions).

I had my boogey board ripped out of my hands when I was close to shore. The wave dropped me a couple of feet and the hard landing pulled the board away. My arm got caught up in the lanyard and it raked up my arm and attempted to pull my little finger off. All of that happened while I was getting a face full of sand, rocks and seashells. That was my first ride and the last time I let the board get away.

Every three or four rides called for about an hour time out. I would throw my board down on the sand and sit in the beach chair (breathing like I just sprinted a mile). Debra would just roll her eyes.

I hate being reminded, by my body, that I'm not as young as I used to be. I felt like I had gone three long rounds with Tyson the next day. Dearth did not reapply sun block to his back so he got a pretty nasty burn. Both of us had numerous cuts and bruises up and down our legs and feet. I had marks on my right arm and fingers from the lanyard and Dearth had some on his back from the pro wipeout.

Someone asked me if we were afraid of sharks. I told them "In those waves sharks were the least of our worries". Heck, if a shark had gotten me out there it would have been a mercy killing.

I can’t wait to go again.

mmmmmmmmm..... Crab

Last Sunday friends of ours invited us over for crab. Being from Western NY we immediately thought of snow crab legs. We were in for a real treat though. They had bought a few dozen steamed blue crab.

Eating snow crab legs is fairly barbaric. Using wooden mallets, shell crackers and some other medieval looking torture devices you hack your way through the shell and get to the meat.

The blue crabs are steamed whole. Like lobster they are still quite alive until the steam hits them. They are served the same way. Eating these fellows take barbarism to a whole new level.

You rip the legs off (sucking the meat that comes out of the joint). You flip the apron up and remove it. Then you stick your finger into the body cavity and scrape out the fat and guts. Pulling the shell off is next. More scrapping of the guts and lungs follow. Now you take a knife and you split the crab from the middle to the where the legs attach to the body (two cuts). This gives you access to all of the meat in the leg area. Here is a video showing how it is done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUW6_CTZd9U

The meal was a lot of fun. I will definitely be eating those again. Just remember to get in with both hands, don’t worry about the mess and don’t wear white.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day to all of my friends in the United States.

To my friends in Great Britain, Thank you! I will be enjoying a nice cold Bass pale ale in celebration of the Fourth of July (even if it should be celebrated on the second).

Humor from work

Customer: "I had some work on done on the computer today and now I can't log in."

Me: "What kind of work was done and what do you see on the screen."

Customer: "I'm not sure what they did, but all I see is the Window's logo bouncing around my screen."

Me: "Shake your mouse."

Customer: "Shake my mouse?"

Me: "Yep. I relieves pent up frustration and..."

Customer: In a surprised voice "I'll be damned."

Me: "...has the added benefit of cancelling screen savers."

Customer: "I've never seen that before."

Me: "No worries. That is why we are here. Can I help you with anything else?"

Customer: "Nope that'll do it. Have a great day!"

Me: "You to."

Sometimes the customers are fun to talk to.