8 April 2002

Yes, it was a good vacation. Yes, I wrote in a paper journal, but I'm not going to transcribe any of it. Why? Because half of it is just me saying how great the house is and how nice it is to be at the beach and not doing anything; and the other half is notes to myself for some Hall plots I want to do in a couple of months.

(Yes, I'm sure my fellow Hall-ers are curious to see those notes, but I'm not going to share until it's time. So nyah.)

So instead, let's just look at some pictures, okay? Okay.

Here we are... proof that I was really at the beach! I really like this shot, actually. This was taken up on the house's widow's-walk - you can see just how close we were to the beach.

 

Another shot from the widow's-walk. I was taking pictures of the beach and didn't realize that a fog was rolling in until I went back to look at one picture and realized I could no longer distinguish the ocean from the sky. I think this is the picture just before that... The little covered bit is on the public-access walkway that was about half a block from us. I thought it was picturesque.

 

Another shot, with better light, from much the same angle. The other house you can see, here, was more or less next door to us, set closer to the beach. We coveted it - it was enormous, had a private pool in the back yard, and an enormous deck overlooking the ocean, without any other houses in the way. Though our house was nicer than I'd expected.

 

Here we have Matt and Colleen, sitting on the beach after a game of catch, looking up at me as I come over the dune toward them.

 

Here I am, actually on the beach... No, we're really not trying to be arty and cute with all these indirect shots... The sun was setting directly behind Matt as he was taking this shot, so in all the face-on pictures he tried, I'm squinting.

 

Poor Richard... He really wanted to see the sun rise over the ocean. He got up at least four or five mornings before dawn to give it a try... Every morning, it was too cloudy to actually see the sun. Even the almost perfectly clear morning had one cloud bank... directly in front of the sun. But the colors in the clouds were absolutely lovely.

 

See? I even went wading. Got in up to my ankles, which is to say I got splashed up to my knees. Better than Richard, who lost his glasses to a particularly enthusiastic wave less than an hour after we arrived!

 

This was pretty typical, here... Lots of napping and sleeping and lounging around with books and stuff. It's exactly what I wanted. It was fantastic. This one sunbeam claimed a lot of victims in the late mornings...

 

There was a terrific thunderstorm Thursday evening. The wind was really something. I'm only standing about two feet outside the house, here, on a sheltered porch, and my hair was still sideways. Matt was vastly amused - hence, the picture.

 

It only got windier as the storm progressed, too - it's a good thing Matt has a long ponytail, or we might have lost Carl altogether!

 

And finally, for your amusement... Taming The Wild Colleen. Actually, I wanted a video camera for this bit. Carl and Matt very nearly put on a show, a la "Crocodile Hunter" wherein they lured from her "nest" and confronted her. Richard and I were laughing our asses off.

It was actually just about the perfect length of vacation for me, too - By Friday, I was starting to get restless, wanting to go home. I'm not even all that grumpy about being back at work this morning. I'm rested, relaxed, and ready to go.

They're all screaming, after a week of inactivity. I'll just leave it at that... Well, one anecdote, to demonstrate that I've been playing way too many male characters lately...

We got to the beach, and Colleen and I trooped off to the grocery store. While we were wandering around, I picked up some snack, and Colleen told me that Matt would give me a hard time over it. I said, "Matt can..."

"...Kiss your ass?" Colleen suggested.

I had to confess to her that the phrase that had actually leapt immediately to mind was, "Matt can suck my dick."

I spent some time that evening working very hard on prying Dawn out of my forebrain...

Oh! And before I forget... K.T. has posted pages for Mace and Bienca, if you're curious... I know I was...

--Liz