Thank you,

The Management

We get to the beach and there was maybe two other groups there, so in we went. When it is in the 90′s on land, that water gets cold. Once we were in it was nice, but the getting in was a bit chilly. The water was beautiful and clear, though.

And Pajamafin made a happy face sand castle.

Then we went on a nature hike and saw tons of osprey nesting, and a female green heron.

After the hike we went shopping for gifts for people and then we went to Surf Burger for lunch. I love their Aloha fries (french fries made from yams, yum). Then it was time to get on the boat to go try to find some dolphins.
And it was a big success!

After the dolphins we went to eat at a place on the beach called Crabs. While we were eating we got to see the tail end of the lunar eclipse in the red moon. There was so much moisture in the air that it was hard to get a descent picture.

Then the moon rose completely and was so bright it lit the beach up. With all the moisture in the air, it gave the beach an ethereal look. I thought it was absolutely beautiful.

Leaving tomorrow for home, but we may get up early and hit the beach again before check out.

We found him in an antique store, hanging forlornly by his broken strings, and I fell in love. (The backstory is I love puppets, and would have them hanging all over the house if I didn’t have any self control…) He just has so much character, and I should have taken pictures of him hanging up.
We are roughly estimating him to be from the 1910s, and he is in pretty good shape, except for his broken strings. I sat in the antique store and examined all of his joints and where is strings attach (they are just looped on at the joints, no holes to re-thread) and I THINK I can fix him. It will be my weekend project when we get back. I am excited to start.
AND he came with his own puppet stand, so that is a happy bonus!
I picked up a couple of gifts and this great old box that I am going to use to store art supplies in, and Pajamafin picked up a ten to fifteen year old clarinet that is in great condition, but it didn’t have a reed.
So, on the way back to the beach, we stopped at a little local music shop. Pajamafin got some reeds and a cherry red hard tail Epiphone Dot and a gig bag. It is a great guitar, very mellow and lovely. While he was testing it out and waiting to make his purchase, he, the co-owner, and a teenage boy who was very in to music, anime, and RPG games (and all I could think of, as he talked about them was, “What apout quests!?!” from Dot Dot Dot) struck up a conversation about all of those things while the co-owner taught the kid how to repair his bass. Before Pajamafin could check out, a little kid came in for his guitar lesson, so the co-owner passed us off to the other owner, an older Cajun man with an accent that I wanted to sit around and listen to all day, who rang him up and we were on our way.
I would like to take this time to point out that everyone who works in Pensacola that I have had any dealings with have been the epitome of courteous and friendly. They have all made us feel like we have lived here all of ours live instead of like we were just visiting, which is a feat, since a lot of the other tourists I have encountered have been rude rude rude. (Not all, but a good deal. WHY do you go on vacation to be rude? I don’t get it…) I really appreciate how friendly all the people from here are.

Then it was back over the bridge and time for lunch. We went to Flounder’s Chowder House, which, I have to admit, is a big fat misleading name. They do not have chowders. They have A chowder, and it is made of flounder, so I suppose technically it is correct, but still. I was expecting lots of chowders. That said, they had killer food. We ordered an appetizer called seafood nachos that could have feed four to six very easily. It was awesome. Shrimp, scallops, and fish with jalapenos and banana peppers, tomatoes, cheese, and black beans, it was wonderful and I was very sad to not be able to eat it all.
We also ordered a main course because we didn’t realize that the appetizer would be so huge. I ordered the beer battered oysters which were really great and Pajamafin ordered bourbon glazed trigger fish. He let me have a taste and it was delicious. We had to bring both of those back to the room in boxes though, as we were stuffed from the nachos.

We went back to the room with the intentions of dropping off the food before we went to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, but my eyes were itchy this morning so I had taken an allergy tab, and it, combined with running around on the beach in the sun and breathing in the sea air (which, coupled with the crashing waves, is super soothing to me) had caught up with me and I was asleep before Pajamafin had finished putting the food away.

~~~~This is me unconscious~~~~~

When I woke up Pajamafin had walked around the block and down on the beach and played both of his new instruments. So I got up and put on shoes, and off we went to Fort Pickens in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. We didn’t know it but it is sea bird nesting season and there were tons of little terns nesting right on the beach by the road. Which is why the speed limit is 20.

The sun was setting so we didn’t get to take a lot of pictures, but the seashore was beautiful, and there are tons of nesting osprey and pelicans. We even saw a couple of osprey with fish almost as big as they were, flying back to the nests. It was breathtaking.

Here are a couple of pictures of the old fort, but with the diminishing light we didn’t get to stick around that long.

We paid eight dollars and have a week pass, so we are thinking of going back tomorrow, or Thursday after we check out. Today was a good day, and now I can’t wait to fix Khan’s strings, and I really can’t wait for tomorrow when we go to see the dolphins!

It is that time again.  Every year since starting my new job (so, this would be the second summer…) I take my week’s vacation during the summer.  This year, Pajamafin and I packed up and went to Pensacola, Florida.

Day one, as mentioned early, started at 3:30 in the morning on the 12th.  We had been up late watching season one of Farscape (I love that show) and doing laundry, so I ended up with about an hour of sleep.  I drove first and managed to make it Louisiana before I started having a hard time keeping to my lane.  I grabbed a nap while Pajamafin drove, and woke up a couple hours later.

It was blue skies and lovely the entire drive, and then we hit Florida.  And then, right as we read “Welcome to Florida, The Sunshine State” the sky clouded up and the bottom fell out.  It rained pretty hard for about ten minutes, but was all clear by the time we got to the hotel.

We went to the beach after checking in and walked the beach a little.

And then exhaustion hit and I went up to the room where unconsciousness found me.

see more Historic LOL

INSTEAD.

I went to the Fort Worth Zoo.

The reason for this is actually pretty simple.  Last week I got diagnosed with bronchitis, and was given some medicine and an inhaler.  I have been short of breath just loading the dishwasher at work for most of the week, and so when this morning came around, I said to myself, “Self, I am much too tired to drive all the way to Austin at 5 in the morning.  I am going back to sleep.”

And so I did. 

And when I woke up again at around 9:30, I still didn’t feel like driving to Austin, even though I think the art show would have been fabulous.  So, I got a friend, and dragged them to the Forth Worth Zoo instead.

Now, let me just say, the Fort Worth Zoo on a Saturday is a mad house.  I don’t know if every Saturday is as busy a today was or if they had a special show going on, but the parking lot was actually full.  I have never seen the enormous parking lot at the Fort Worth Zoo filled.  Today it was.

Let me pause for a moment to say this:  Parents who put those little leashes on their children.  Thank you.  Thank you SO much for the four hours of amusement you brought me as I watched you try to drag your child around like a puppy while your child decided to impersonate a cat on a leash and refuse to go where you wanted them to go.  It was awesome.

And the animals were fun too! 

I have pictures that will be used in some drawings very soon, but my camera and this computer do not like each other and tend to freeze one another up, so posting of those will have to happen later.

The answer is, a big fat bunch of nothing.

I don’t get it.  Before the break started I was overjoyed.  Filled to bursting with all of the ideas for art projects and sculptures.  The break hits, and it started out pretty good.  I got most of my Christmas shopping done way in advance, got everything wrapped. Got the Christmas tree out and half the lights put up and then…

Nothing.

Everyone who was going to get a hand made presents has nothing since I didn’t make anything.  Instead, they got something bought.  The Christmas tree is still sitting with half the lights put up.

There are no new Little Mysteries.  In fact, the old Little Mysteries haven’t even been painted or finished.  I have lovely new sketchbooks that I haven’t cracked open.  Where did all my drive go?

Maybe it is because I got sick and haven’t yet shaken this energy sapping cold.  Maybe it is because I keep having bad dreams.  Hell, maybe I just caught the lazy bug.  I don’t know, but the thought of even sketching something hasn’t appealed to me at all.  In fact, I just realized that I haven’t even returned phone calls. How suck is that?

I have lovely photos of the lunar eclipse on the 21st.  Haven’t posted them.  I have wonderful pictures of Christmas.  Haven’t posted those either.  In fact, I was ten minutes late sending out Happy New Year messages on New Years Eve, a first, ever. 

And so, in an attempt to break out of the funk, I made myself start a new sketchbook.  And I did not let myself use anything to color in it except pencil, ink, and natural dyes.  So I now have pictures painted with coffee, raspberry and blackberry juices, and cilantro.  It smells nice and is interesting to look at, and maybe, I will post some pictures later. 

But not today.  Today I am just trying to recover.  Looks beter than Tuesday though.

This is becoming a tradition with us, the after Thanksgiving shop for odd things at the Ren Faire goodness (since it is the last weekend and everything is on sale, for the most part), and I love it. Last year I got all kinds of good Christmas presents. This year, since I am mostly done with my Christmas shopping, I got a couple of stocking stuffers, and some really neat wooden roses to put on top of packages, and that was it for Christmas things.

I did get the nicest hand made leather sketchbook with this wonderful cotton rag paper that is designed to roll up for easy handling, and when unrolled, lays flat. It is roughly, 12 by 18 flat, so a good size, nice and big for the art, and the paper is a good tooth for art goodness. I will post pictures of it over in the Dreamwood, where I should be spooging over art.

And B got me a stunning skull and cross bones toboggan to keep my head warm since it was awfully cool out this morning:

There were a TON of faeries running around this year. Last year I only saw two or three, but this year they were coming out of the woodwork. You couldn’t even turn around without running over a faerie. Most were not very good, and a lot of the really neat costumes were worn by little old ladies (which was awesome, but they glared a lot or were gone by the time I got my camera out so I didn’t get any pictures of them). My favorite was the red headed faerie with the green wings:

And then there was the wood sprite that would stand by trees like a big cicada and blend in:

There was also the woman in the dragon costume:

And the jolly troll woman who was doing bead work:

And the best Santa I have seen in quite some time:

It was a very nice day, and now on to the painting of the new Little Mysteries.

Also, as soon as I set up the lights and take the pictures, there will be new things over at the Dreamwood, and things up on the deviantART page.