A skink(not a skank)

I took Peanut to a park yesterday and noticed a funny looking lizard.



My field guide says it a striped racerback anole but I've heard people call them skinks.


**Correction: it's not an anole, it's a Rainbow Blue Tailed Skink. oops

I waited for Noah's Ark(last week)

We went to the beach a few days ago right before the weather got really bad. The waves weren't THAT big yet but the tide was really high and as you can see from my hair, it was pretty windy.

The rain was coming down sideways, as you can see my shirt got wet but I didn't care. The air smelled so fresh.

Look how dark it was to the South compared to looking Northward. That's how I knew the worst wasn't even here yet.

We were lucky though. There wasn't any flooding in my neighborhood.

These two were taken about a week before the storm but since we're on a Noah's Ark theme here, they seem fitting. Even if it is out of correct order. I mean the rainbow did appear after a big storm, just not this one. I woke from a nap and there it was in my window.

If you look closely, it was actually a double rainbow.

And did I find any shark teeth over the weekend? Yes, I did. Yes. I. Did.

Fay, my foe (and my friend?)

We are in the midst of a tropical storm/hurricane situation and everyone on the news has been freaking out. Please. I hate when they do that. My Olympics are being interrupted every 5 minutes and they keep trying to scare everyone. And our stupid weatherman seems to be peeing in his pants with glee over getting to be on Special Weather updates. Of course he never has anything definitive to say because no one can really predict this kind of weather with exact certainty. I can easily look at the radar and make just as good a guess as he can. It's not like he works for NASA. But I can tell he's enjoying his chance to be everyone's hero.....Of course I have a beef with our local weatherman- he was a jerk to me once at Burger King when I was 12 but that's another story.

I'm not one to take a hurricane lightly but I lived in Palm Beach during the '04 and '05 seasons. So this is like a walk in the park for salty dogs like us in comparison. You prepare, stay alert, and evacuate if you're told- that's all one can do. I heard a good rule of thumb once: Run from water, hide from wind. Meaning if you're in a flood zone, leave. If not, board up, supply yourself, and hunker down.(Of course this does not apply if you happen to live in a trailer. In that case, run anyway.) Trust me, as close to the ocean as I live, if a big one was coming, Peanut and I will be kicking up some dust on our way out because MrPea enjoys a good scary storm. But this, we can handle.

I've only seen pictures but the sea is so angry right now. You can only imagine how much I'm dying inside to get to the beach and look for shark teeth. The rain, I can handle but I'm not very good at riding a bike in 25-40 mph wind gusts. If only this hurricane/tropical storm- whatever the hell it is they're calling it this hour would finish up. Of course I don't want anyone to get hurt and I'd just as soon celebrate if suddenly there were no such things as hurricanes. Right now though, in my most selfish moments I'm going crazy with excitement conjuring up all kinds of images of big shark teeth washing up on that angry shore.....sigh.

Um. Ok. Again.

I've been trained by my Grandmother in the matter of social situations and small talk so I'm probably one of the most polite people you'll ever meet. I often find myself in conversations like this screaming with laughter on the inside but smiling sweetly on the outside.Remember this? I think I met one of her relatives at a party my husband talked me into going recently. He was pretty creepy and BTW staring at everyone's breasts.

Creepy: I live in -------.

Me: Really that's not far from me. I recently saw a piece on the news about the beach erosion there. Is that near you?

Creepy: No but I wish the county would do something about that.

Me: Well I think since it's a private beach, the county can't really do anything about it. It's a shame though, those homes are going to fall right into the sea, it looks like.

Creepy: Yeah. Nobody knows what hell's the problem over there.

Me: Well I wrote a theory about it once for a Marine Biology project when I was in college. Our class did some measuring in that area and given our findings, we came to believe it may be due to development and the jetties blocking the natural flow of sand from the North. It was a really interesting study.

Creepy:(loudly) NO! NO! NO! That's not it.

Me: Oh. ok.

Creepy: You couldn't be more wrong. You're totally wrong. That's not it.

Me: Oh. I wasn't saying that I knew for....

Creepy: Yeah you got it all wrong, you don't know what you're talking about.

Me: Oh.....um....are you an Oceanographer?

Creepy: No I don't even know what the hell an Oceanographer does.


(still expecting him to say he's in the field of someone with more knowledge about beach erosion)
Me: Oh what do you do?

Creepy:(sarcastically) I'm an accountant.

Me: Um. Ok.

Random Fitness

-I recently commented about this on Maury's post last week so if it looks familiar bear with me. Sometimes I jog at a park and sometimes I work out in the 'fitness room' of my neighborhood clubhouse. Lately with the rain and lack of transportation I've been in the fitness room. Now I've told ya'll before that my neighborhood is 80% senior citizens right? Ok I live in Florida, that's how it goes. Not that this bothers me. I rather prefer it to living in a more trendy area. My neighborhood is quiet, Peanut gets all kinds of pats and kisses, I usually have the pool to myself, and I get all kinds of Grandma advice and cooking tips. The older men who use the fitness room however are a little, um, too competitive. I'm not a damn Olympic athlete, I exercise to stay strong and healthy. In fact I truly believe from my whole cancer experience, I had a fast recovery because of how healthy I was to begin with. I jog a couple miles, maybe get on the stair climber for a few minutes and that's it. I don't really do weights too much, I don't "body sculpt" or any of that crap. Sometimes I only do one mile or if I'm tired, I'll walk a quick 10 minutes. These men, I'm telling you, are going to give themselves heart attacks trying to outdo each other and, YES even me. Every time I go in there, there's one guy who, when I get on the treadmill, waits until I get to my fastest speed and then puts his higher and higher, smirking at me all the while. I'm 4'11", ok? It doesn't take steroids to outrun, outdo, outlast me ok Mister? The other two make a big deal out of lifting and make sure we can all hear their grunting and huffing noises. Sometimes I get grossed out because it sounds very, ahem, sexual.

-I'm sort of lazy and I HATE routine exercise. I like the way I feel right after and but.... It's so boring. That's why I started going to the park because I've heard people say it's better outside. No it's not. Still sucks.

-In order to make sure I work out, I usually put my exercise clothes on as soon as I get up. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I skip the whole thing and go to the beach instead.

-And please don't mistake me for someone who eats only healthy things. I don't like sugar-free, fat-free crap. I like fried chicken and gravy dammit. And real ice cream and real Oreo cookies. I like sugar and cream in my coffee please. A friend of mine is obsessed with all that Splenda sugar substitutes and fat free diet stuff. She pays over a hundred and thirty dollars a month for this ridiculous pyramid scheme "health" drink. I found the same ingredients at the GNC store for around $35. I didn't buy it, I don't believe in all that stuff. I take a multivitamin and eat real food. I have a bigger appetite than she does too and I still maintain a healthy weight. I've been telling her for years all those chemicals they put in "sugar-free" and "fat-free" stuff are actually worse than the natural fats and sugars our bodies are accustomed to digesting so you might as well just have the real thing. Just don't eat it in buckets. Of course she at least stopped using sugar substitutes but not because I told her to but because some man told her. This gets on my nerves for some reason.

I forgot to show ya'll this

My BFF's baby brother(say that 5 times really fast) showed us his secret fishing spot a couple weeks ago. BTW he is well into his twenties but he will always be W's baby brother to me since I've known him since he was 4 and had a raspy voice. Anyway, I'm not allowed to say exactly where this is but check it out. We weren't there five minutes when he had already caught a small snapper. But he put it back in the water because it was so small.

I was intrigued by the fact that it was so sandy and rocky on one side, full of marsh on the other. Well the big rocks were obviously not originally there before.

I wasn't expecting to find or even looking for shark teeth since we were on the intra-coastal but I found a tiny one. My friend found a bigger one which I think was a sand tiger shark tooth but I forgot to snap a photo of hers. This was the only one I found. I imagine this is one of the shark 'nurseries' I learned about in high school.

There was also a bunny who hopped away as soon as I aimed my camera but the view sans bunny is just as pretty.

It was a cloudy day but not bad all the same.

Will I come back here? Of course. But I promised not to tell anyone where it is exactly......

oops

I sort of, accidentally had coffee today.(NOT!)

I was feeling a little slow because of the HUGE lunch I pigged out on and I accidentally thought to myself, "wouldn't a cup of coffee be nice?" It was raining outside and it seemed like a nice, cozy thing to do. Of course I meant decaf since it's been months since my last caffeine cup of coffee. I even have some half and half I bought to use in my mac-n-cheese recipe. Ok.

I accidentally never threw away the big canister of caramel flavored coffee my inlaws bought when they were here a couple months ago. So it was by complete accident that it was still next to the coffee maker. I also accidentally put the decaf on a shelf that I could not reach last time I was reorganizing because the canister is not as cute as the caramel one is. I accidentally hurt my leg power walking with Peanut yesterday so obviously climbing the stool for the decaf was out of question even though my other leg is in perfectly good condition. So I accidentally brewed several cups of wonderfully smooth CAFFEINE coffee and accidentally drank 2 cups, enjoying every caramel flavored drop. Oh what a klutz I am.....right?