It's Been Awhile

I know, but Rusty and I have been busy with home improvements. We painted the bedroom - twice thanks to poor paint matching on our part and the machine's part. Bought and finished our bedroom set. Set meaning the armoire and nightstands. We found them at Lowe's and they were a steal. Little did we know how much work is involved in staining and polyurethaning them! We learned our lesson on that part of life. It was just that they were $200 less than anything we had found and we weren't real crazy about the designs, but now we know that the $200 is worth it!

We had some out of town visitors; they just left today in fact. My friends Sara and Angie and Angie's baby Brady. They arrived Wednesday afternoon and left EARLY Sunday AM. It was a lot of fun, but I felt bad that the weather was so cool while they were here.

We went fishing on the bay and the water was a little choppy so it was rough riding on the way back to the boat landing. The wind just blew through us! Everyone but Brady that is, he didn't mind his big chunky life jacket and with all of the blankets and the umbrella he did well. He enjoyed the sand and had a great time playing in it, possibly eating a little of it. Angie did catch a couple of Sheephead. She had caught those in MN, but these were a little bigger. We then went over to a sand island/bar and hung out there for a little while. It was nice and much warmer than being on the water.

OH! The coolest thing was while we were out there we had a few different visitors. Joe and his family stopped by - he is a co-worker and good friend of Rusty's. They are really nice people and funny! Joe tries to come off as really redneck but he is a great person so is his wife Kim. They got a little bait from us in the form of mullet - Rusty snatched a few from the canal just before we left to go fishing. Nothing like live bait to reel them in! J/K I don't think we actually used them, just the shrimp they bought.

Our second set of visitors were a pair of porpoises or dolphins. I knew they were out here but had not seen them on our previous boat trips. I had been watching a loon (at least I'm pretty sure it was a loon) and thought that I was seeing another making some splashes going under for a fish. I looked again and only saw a dorsal fin. Now, because I am paranoid, my first thought was "SHARK"! I even did one of those catch your breath things where you can't even scream, which I would have done at the top of my lungs if there really had been a shark - followed by me running across the water Scobby Doo style which will also probably happen the first time I see a shark. Anywho - I quickly realized the bottle noses didn't belong to sharks (sharks also don't travel in such a charming way as a set of dolphins do) but to a sweet trio of dolphins. They swam in a little half circle around the group of boats and people fishing in the pass, and everyone stopped to watch. It seems that know matter who you are you can't help but be charmed by dolphins. Now before you criticize, we tried to get photos but couldn't quite time them right so no pictures of the event this time. Hopefully sometime this summer Rusty and I will get a picture to include in a blog.

Seeing the dolphins has now prompted Rusty to tell me stories of shark sightings by him and his friends. He thought it funny I would react so strongly to seeing a shark while I was safely in a boat. Um HELLO! Did he miss Jaws and the fact the f-in shark ate the end of the boat?! Crazy people I tell you. He needs to stop telling those stories if he thinks I am going out onto the Gulf with him. If we see such things in the Bay you know they are bigger and there are more of them in the Gulf.

We had a little excitement on our block this afternoon. We had gone to see Million Dollar Baby ( very good - Michelle A. I thought of you when I saw it) and have a late lunch at Hub Stacey's. On the way back we ran into 3 sheriff cars, an ambulance, and fire station vehicles (not the trucks a car and some kind of utility vehicle) ON OUR STREET! Apparently some doped up drunk guy had been walking down the street. The sheriff wanted to stop him and he took off running. First into the yard and subsequently the pontoon boat of the house down the street, then he somehow took off again right into our front yard! Crazy man! I guess the cops got him three times with the Tazer and he was still fighting them. When we pulled onto the street the EMTs were there to transport him strapped down to the hospital. The guy kept having fits. At first we thought it was the drugs or alcohol, but once we chatted with our neighbors we realized it was probably the residual effects of the Tazer. Those things are crazy! I understand they have a purpose but man, I am pretty sure I would drop to the ground at the thought of that thing being used on me. Of course I sincerely hope I am never in a situation in which one would need to be used on me.

All right, Last of the big news updates. As of Friday morning around 4:00 am. I have a new little nephew! My youngest sister Deena had her baby, Collin John Otto. He was about 6 pounds and 20 inches long. I guess he looks just like his daddy D.J. They are both doing well - she only pushed for 12 minutes! Dammit - if I ever do it, it will be one of those 36 hours of labor and 10 hours of pushing stories! I am very excited and will be home over Easter I think to meet my new nephew.

Take care all!
b