Beach.

I remember the old days when going to the beach meant a 32-oz soda in a styrofoam cup, a towel, and a 2-minute car ride. Now it means packing chairs, an umbrella, spf 80 sunscreen (80--you read that right), and a cooler, and it's 4 hours by car. Worth it, though.

A word about the umbrella: I have officially fallen into the demographic that would not dream of going to the beach for longer than 5 minutes without some sort of shade. In fact, I pity people without umbrellas at the beach. Ten-Year's-Ago Me would have laughed in Today Me's face...and then thanked me for trying to keep our skin from looking like fruit leather.

On Friday morning, it looked ominous. 50% chance of rain.

 We tried to keep a positive attitude.

 And then we saw this.

Which I interpreted as God promising not to flood the beach that day. Or that I would find a whole sand dollar. (Broken sand dollars are all over the place in Port Aransas, but never any whole ones.)

Despite some early morning rain, we had two days more or less full of sun. But the rain brought something else that maybe you don't expect at the beach: mosquitoes. Mosquitoes the size of horseflies. They congregated here, at the boardwalk path between our house and the beach. Pretty, eh? Pretty dangerous.

I expect West Nile and/or hepatitis at any time now.

And look--I bought a faux cowboy hat! Am I a cute poseur or what?

Never did find that whole sand dollar.

Still fun anyway. And tan.

Haunted cabin.

The view from just down the street from the cabin.

We just booked tickets for a trip to California in July for a long weekend at my parents' cabin in Twain Hart. Our  friends Tekla and Jennifer are coming with us. The last time I went to the cabin with friends, we had a blast.Plus, there are enough rooms that everyone can sleep in a bed. Maybe with a ghost, even.

Everyone knows the cabin is haunted. If you didn't know, now you're "everyone." It's haunted. I've heard something, my dad's had some weird experiences, and my mom darn-near communes with the spirits every time she's there...though she would be mad that I'm telling people this, because it's hard to talk about your ghostly encounters without sounding insane.

The little lake down the street from the cabin.

Up to Speed

It's been two years since my last blog, and a lot has happened between then and now.

First, this:

 (Look at my secret Hook 'Em Horns sign.)

 Then this:

(Engaged! And I have short bangs!)

Followed by this:

 (Wedding on April 5, 2009)

Then we did this, here:

(Freezing out booties off in Monterey.)

And let's not forget this:

(He's very disappointed by how much you've been texting this month.)

So, you know: dating, marriage, travel, LOLCatting. The usual.