Yes, well, camera issues continue in our house. So here's a pic from my BlackBerry, which isn't uploading much.
We just spent a few days at our little home on the coast, opening it up after winter and waiting around for repairmen. :) The hot water heater is possibly possessed. When we got the new one, they installed the "Smart box" system that regulates how much hot water you actually get. While we were there, it decided we needed pretty close to none. Brrrr....
[I anticipate more of this nonsense as the government gets increasingly involved in our households. Can't blame it on the current administration, though. The hot water heater is about a year and a half old.]
We also waited around for the HVAC repairman. Slow leak in the copper line. One little bit of welding and charge of freon and a bill for $$$ later, and we weren't feeling quite so humid. What saved us on that one was that the pollen wasn't nearly as bad there as it has been at home. We were able to sleep with the windows open. It was nice.
I am excited about this summer. We hope to be at the beach more than we have before. Last year, of course, our condo was rented out from April through October.
[Recap about the condo rental... skip it if you know it: We loved CJ, our little tenant. She was supposed to stay a year, but she fell in love and moved out. We didn't have the heart to get ugly about her breaking the lease. We tried to find another long-term renter. Sweet CJ told us she had two different friends who were interested in it, but we waited a couple of months and didn't hear from either of them directly, so we decided we're taking as much time as we can this summer and hanging out down there ourselves. ]
After three years of having a vacation property and one year of having a rental property, we are back to having a vacation property again. And vacation is what we did in between repair calls.
We got to hang out on a huge sailing ship docked in Wilmington. Very cool. Also got to walk along the Wilmington waterfront at sunset. I got some great pictures. They are stuck on my BlackBerry. Feel free to ask me to show them to you if you see me. They are really cool, in all their 1" x 1" glory.
We took a long walk down the beach, all five of us. That was fun.
We slept late and read by the pool. We read on the balcony too.
We watched movies and TV and built fortresses out of Dominoes.
It was a pretty laid-back trip, for which I am exceedingly grateful.
On Monday we head back to school for the final stretch of the year. Thirty-five straight days with no breaks left.
Finish strong, finish strong is what I'm hearing in my head. It's my prayer, as exactly what my job will be next year is still a mystery to me. I have to finish this year the only way I know how... as unto the Lord. Where I am weak, there He is strong. He's going to be REALLY strong in this home stretch.
Some -- like APUSH reading (Mayflower), movie (John Adams - HBO mini-series), and flash cards, as well as APEng (Sophie's World essay) -- are complete. So are The Scarlet Pimpernel essays and a bridging-second-and-third-grade math workbook.
Other projects... are still about halfway there. (See song here.)
