Goof Proof Doesn't Always = Idiot Proof

I have a mobile that's been sitting on my dining room table for a week, waiting for me to glue one of the birds back together.

So today I looked for the super glue I normally use and couldn't find it but I did see this on the Island King's desk.


Notice that it says Goof Proof.

I dabbed a little on the mobile and then held the two pieces together for a minute so they could bond.

They didn't bond.
The pieces fell right apart as soon as I let go.


What didn't come apart were my fingers - which bonded quite nicely to the broken piece of mobile.


And by bonded nicely I mean they were glued on tight. Really tight.

I went out into the office to show the Island King and see if he had any suggestions for getting the piece of mobile off my finger.

He held my hand up, pulled gently on my fingers and then gave me a really funny look.

I was trying to figure out what that look meant when he grabbed my fingers and YANKED them off the mobile.

I later learned that funny look was a "Sorry but this is really going to hurt" look.

It did hurt. And now my fingers are stinging like they're on fire.


Which is possibly a result of having the skin ripped right off of my fingertips.

I don't know where they got the 'Goof Proof' that they put on their label but obviously Goof Proof doesn't equal Idiot Proof.

Claudette Update

Tropical storm Claudette came ashore last night about 3 miles west our house.

Because we were so close to the center, most of the wind and rain stayed a little to the east and north of us.

We walked outside last night just after the center came ashore and it was a little windy with an occassional gust but nothing like the wind we've been seeing with our afternoon thunderstorms.

We've had some good steady rain as well but not the downpours they've been getting to the east of us.

All in all, you'd never know this was a tropical storm.

We spent the evening making a big pot of beef stew and playing games. At one point one of the boys asked when the storm was coming and we told him it was here right now. He looked confused and said "You can't even hear the wind blowing out there"

Today, it's cloudy and a little rainy and there are the occassional wind gusts but for the most part Claudette is over.

Very uneventful - which is good since I'm not a big fan of 120 mph winds and 10 foot storm surges.

Let's hope any other storms we have this season are as mild as Claudette.

Tropical Storm Claudette

Surprise! I woke up this morning, opened the newspaper and what did I see?

This.


Good grief. Where did that come from?

When I went to bed last night I checked on Ana and on Bill. They're still out in the Atlantic and not something I have to worry about for a few days.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and saw that Tropical Storm Claudette will be paying us a visit THIS EVENING.

What?

An advantage of living in Hurricane Land instead of Tornado Alley is that we have time to decide if we want to participate in the storm or not. We have days to watch the storm and to prepare to either stay home and ride it out or to run like hell for high ground.

I have no problem admitting that I'm a runner for any storm Cat 3 or higher.

Fortunately this will only be a tropical storm but it sure did sneak up on us.

I guess we won't be going fishing tonight like we'd planned.

Talk about a Sunday morning surprise LOL

Happy 100th Birthday Uncle Nick

Yesterday was my Uncle Nick's 100th Birthday.


The Knights of Columbus threw a big party for him at his church last night and of course we drove over for the celebration. You know you just don't get invited to a lot of 100th birthday parties.

Uncle Nick is truly an amazing man. You would never know that he's 100. He's sharp as a tack, still drives, and moves around without the help of a walker or cane.

He danced with Aunt Chris at the party and the whole room watched in absolute awe.

Can you imagine dancing with your spouse on your 100th birthday?

He told stories about his life


And took lots of pictures with his family.


It was nice to visit with so many of my cousins. At one point the Island Girl said "Are we related to all of these people?"
I laughed and told her not all of them but certainly the majority of them LOL

The Knights served up hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken wings and the food was really good.


My Mom wanted a picture of her grand kids so we took them outside to get a picture.
It took about 10 pictures to get one where everyone was looking at the camera.


The Island King was wrangling the kids and trying to get them to stand still and smile and at one point he looked at me and said "This is why I don't take people pictures - the houses I shoot all stand perfectly still" LOL

It was a nice party and Uncle Nick really enjoyed himself.

100 might sound old but Uncle Nick makes it look like 21.

Perseids Meteor Shower - Or Not

Did you see the Perseids Meteor Shower Tuesday night?

Tuesday morning I was reading the paper, saw an article about the meteor shower, and realized that I've never seen one.

So I planned a night mission to the beach for us all to watch the meteor shower.

I got snacks and drinks and told everyone to be ready to go at 9pm.

Island Girl didn't want to go (why are teenagers like that?) but the boys wanted to come and bring a friend and I was sure that we'd have a good time.

The Island King, who never really listens when I talk, just nodded his head and threw a few "Whatever you want to do babe" comments at me and went on with his day.

When it was time to leave he came in scratching his head and asking where we were going and what we were doing so I explained, again, about the meteor shower and how I thought we'd be able to see it really well if we went to the beach and watched the sky out over the Gulf.

He looked skeptical but decided to go along with the plan so we loaded the truck and off to the beach we went.

We got to the beach and what did we see? Clouds. Big, dark, storm clouds. And because of the clouds we couldn't see the moon, any stars and most significantly, no meteor shower.

We were sitting on the beach, looking at the storm clouds when the Island King said "Did you check the weather before we left?"

Hmm. No, I didn't think to check the weather. I read about the meteor shower, made plans and never factored in the weather.

So we sat there for a while and the kids ran up and down the deserted beach and we didn't see the first meteor.




It was peaceful and relaxing so the night wasn't a complete bust.

But I still haven't seen a meteor shower. Maybe next time.

Sunday Afternoon

We spent Sunday afternoon at Henderson Beach State Park.



The sun was hot, the water was warm and the waves were just right for the kids to ride on their boogy boards.



At one point a small group of shorebirds showed up right in front of me.
They were looking at me and I was looking at them, wondering why they were looking at me.


They were squawking and edging closer and closer to me and then the Island Girl started laughing and showed me the bag of chips she'd stashed under my chair.

No wonder they were yelling at me - they thought I was holding out on the chips.

We'd been there a couple of hours and were out in the water when the Island Girl said "There's a jellyfish so I'm getting out of the water."

Sure enough, there was a moon jelly.


These jellies have small tentacles up underneath them and their sting doesn't hurt near as bad as the sea nettle jellies that come in on occasion but they do hurt if you get a direct hit from their tentacles.

Like the Youngest Island Boy got last week.


He ran and jumped into the water and landed with the jelly spread across his back.

So when he saw the jelly yesterday he immediately decided he'd had enough swimming and wanted to go home and shoot BB guns.

Which was ok with the rest of us so home we went.

Which is where I saw this.



A combination of swimming and trying to hang his head out of the truck window on the way home from the beach created this replica of the hairstyle Kate from Jon and Kate Plus 8 wears.

It's not a flattering style (on him or her) and I was glad to see that after his shower his hair went back to normal.

We have a mini range set up in the backyard so the boys can shoot their BB guns and they wanted to shoot for a while before it got too late. The Oldest Island Boy is content to stand there all day long shooting his Red Ryder.


The Youngest however has decided that he's going to join the FBI when he grows up so he yells "Freeze this is the FBI!" every time he shoots.


And he likes to sit in his play house shooting through the window.


He says he's the FBI but every time I see him do that I get flashes of Charles Whitman in the bell tower.

Then he had to go into cammo mode and shoot the Red Ryder through the shoots growing up the sides of my maple tree.


I worry about that boy sometimes.

Meet The Fish

The boys have been wanting me to set up an aquarium in their bedroom for some time now.

I had an old 10 gallon tank in the garage so the other day we pulled it out, cleaned it up and set it up in their room.


After letting it stabilize for a couple of days, it was time to add the fish.

We went to Petsmart and they took a long time looking at all of the fish, deliberating and deciding which ones they wanted.

Meet Big Al.

I don't know where the name Big Al came from but while we were still in Petsmart the Oldest had already picked the name.

This one is Code Red.


And Black Phantom.


This is Code Blue. The Youngest Island Boy named him and at the time I had no idea how prophetic his name would be.


He didn't make it and is now in my freezer waiting for me to return him to Petsmart.

Now that the boys have fish, the Island Girl has decided that she wants a Hedgehog.

That's not going to happen.

I think.

Thunderstorm Chaos

I was sitting at my computer this afternoon, the sun was shining, the boys were playing in the hose, the Island Girl had just left to go for a run and everything seemed peaceful.

Within 5 minutes the sky went dark and then a gust of wind came through that bent the tree in my front yard straight to the ground. And then another gust and another one right behind it and I swear for a second I wondered if we had a waterspout over our heads.

The wind was howling (truly hurricane sounding)and the boys came flying through the door yelling "Mom! Something's happening out there"

I was coming through the house, grabbing dogs, the cat and the boys along the way and wondering if I should put them in the closet or just all together in the living room.

And absolutely freaking out that the Island Girl was out in that mess.

As I came around the corner, the Island King was coming down the hall at a run wanting to know what was happening. Poor guy was in the bathroom when the wind hit, heard something big fall in the backyard and didn't know what was happening.

I'm yelling that the Island Girl is outside somewhere, the wind is still blowing really hard, raining is coming down in sheets, the dogs are barking at full volume and both boys are now sitting on the couch, eyes as big as dinner plates.

And the Island King looks ready to spring into action - except that he still doesn't even know what's happening. He did grasp that Island Girl was outside somewhere so he grabbed his keys and took off towards his truck.

I took a deep breath and then heard tires squeal and a horn blaring.

I look outside and the Island King must not have looked when he was backing out because another car was coming by at the same time and he backed right out in front of him. Missed the guy by about an inch.

After he left I looked out the Florida room door and saw that the noise the Island King heard must have been this.



I was really anxious for the Island King to get back with my girl so I stood at the door watching for them. The wind and rain died down a little and just as they pulled up I started hearing a horrible screaming sound from the front yard.

The Island King heard it too and went over to the tree to see what it was and the kids all followed.

The wind was still blowing hard and small limbs were falling and there was some serious lightning going on so I went out to tell them to come back inside.

And walked right up on a snake. On my driveway.

FC, you and Swamp Angel can start throwing tomatoes at me now but I HATE snakes and snakes in my yard are unacceptable. I don't live in the woods. I live in a neighborhood. My habitat - not theirs.

Immediately, all thoughts of the lightning and the tree limbs falling left and I started yelling "Snake! Kill it!" at the Island King.

I'm jumping up and down, yelling and pointing at the snake and the kids are crowding around to see the snake. Because the Island King knows that I have serious issues with snakes and that if he doesn't kill this one I'll have serious issues with him too, he comes over to kill the snake.

I guess I should tell you that this was a little snake. Little, like about a foot long and about as big around as a pencil. I should also tell you that it doesn't matter. Little snake, big snake, they're all the same to me. Terrifying.

The Island King walked up and put his foot over the snake and told the boys to get him something to kill the snake with.

While all of this is happening the wind is still howling, it's raining really hard and there's a lot of lightning. And all 5 of us are in the middle of the driveway. And whatever was making the horrible screaming noise has stopped.

The front door is wide open and the dogs can see us but are tied up in the living room so they can't get out and they are barking louder than I've ever heard them bark. Seriously loud.

Meanwhile the boys have brought little twigs to the Island King and he's frustrated because he's trapped in the rain and lightning with a snake under his foot and a crazy woman in front of him yelling "Kill it! Kill it!" so he snaps and starts yelling for someone to bring him a shovel.

I knew there was a shovel on the side of the house but it was raining and I was in a tizzy about the snake under my husband's foot and the lightning so I started yelling "There's a shovel next to the mailbox!"

Kids are scattering, all looking for the shovel and the dogs are barking so loud that we have to yell to be heard over them and then I see the Youngest Island Boy, standing out by the mailbox and I yelled at him to get back up here and help find the shovel.

And he has a meltdown in the rain, yelling that I told him to go out there and that there is no shovel out by the mailbox and that now he doesn't know what to do.

The Oldest Island Boy showed up with a little plastic shovel and I have to say that I really admire the restraint the Island King showed as he patiently explained that he needed the real shovel from the side of the house.

There he was, standing in the rain, lightning popping all around him, dogs barking, wife yelling, kids yelling, snake under his foot and for a moment I saw a "Just shoot me now" look on his face.

And then I started laughing. Between the dogs, the thunder, and the wind, the noise level was outrageous and as I looked around I realized that all the houses on the street were quiet. All but mine. Only in my front yard were dogs barking and people yelling. Only my house appeared to be in absolute chaos.

Which made me laugh even harder.

I wondered if this is what insanity feels like. You know, standing in the rain, laughing hysterically. Which made me laugh even harder.

The scary thing is that it felt really good.

Finally, the shovel appeared, the Island King killed the snake and we all ran inside. Where we should have been all along.

The storm moved on a little while later and we're left with a yard full of tree limbs and debris to clean up.

When I checked the weather this morning there was only a 10% chance of afternoon thunderstorms and nothing on the radar so this storm took us completely by surprise.

The Island King, who's been a little grumpy this evening, said "Did you notice that none of the other women on the block had their entire families outside in the middle of the storm so they could kill a pencil sized snake?"

Hmmp.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not like the other women on the block.