Well, you may have read about our beach adventures in my last post, but what I failed to mention was that although it is May and we are still having spring temperatures and rain, on our perfect beach adventure, Dave and I got a bit crisp that day. We had bought some of the sunscreen shown above from Costco. We thought it would be good. It has SPF 45 and this new formula blocks both UVA and UVB rays. We thought we would like the spray sunscreen, but what we found was that even in the slightest wind you get spotty coverage. To say the least, I had major spots that just didn't get sprayed and ended up with some serious sunburn. You can even see me turning a little pink. We got home and I was a bit toasted and in a fair amount of pain. Fortunately, I had the foresight to throw some Solarcaine Aloe Spray into my bag. But you have to make sure that it dries completely before putting on clothes, so at an hour way past our bedtime, Dave covered me with spray and stood there with a cool hairdryer drying the aloe spray (with lidocaine) to make sure that it was all dry before we went to bed. He wasn't as burnt as I was, so he didn't need to be "dried" but I did. I thought it was the sweetest thing the way he looked after me when i was all burnt up. He took really good care of me. Although it certainly wasn't something that I planned on happening since it had been a while since I had been that burnt.

dinner @ cape cod, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

A Day at the Beach

Dave is now working on weekends again for skydiving season, so we've had to move our "weekends" to a day during the week. This week, that day was Wednesday and it was fantastic. We had almost 80 degree weather and not a cloud in the sky. We headed to Cape Cod for the day to a Beach in the town Sandwich called "Crane Neck Beach" This was pre-season so they didn't charge us to park there. I'll say this, the beach was unbelievably rocky. see here:

crane neck beach, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

But otherwise, it was great. We practically had the beach to ourselves and it was quiet and lovely. The water was a bit cold (think 41 degrees) so we didn't swim. We brought a volleyball and smashball, but couldn't play because it was way too rocky. But we laid out in the sun. ate a nice lunch on the beach blanket and then went hiking in the dunes with our flip flops on. We ended the day driving across to the "oceanside" part of the cape since we ended up on the "bayside" mostly just to check it out. It was a little too windy there for our taste so we saw it, we got back into the car and we went to go get ourselves a seafood cinco de Mayo dinner at a pub nearby. What a great day... can't wait for more adventures!

P1030261, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

P1030252, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

P1030290, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

P1030275, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

Pets

Recently I have a goose (sometimes two) that hang out on my lawn sleeping and eating things in the grass. I also have a pet beaver who swims and builds things along my shore. I usually see the beav swimming away as I come home from the lab. This morning I caught him on his way in. I think he likes my little piece of cove. So do the geese. This morning I fed my goose a little piece of bread that was the soggy end piece. He coo'd at me and ate it graciously. But then I went back inside, since I was out in my robe and crocs and the poor guy just stood out on the grass, confused as to where I dissappeared. He was sad about me leaving for a good 15 minutes or so, but he finally moved on. I think he'll be around for a while.

The Graduate!

Dave finished his B.S. in Economics on Wednesday. Hooray! One more year and the masters will be in the bag. Got him a little 'happy graduation' gift. I thought it was nice, he didn't love it, although he did humor me with a photo. What I should really do is learn that the boy does not like surprises, and if I want to get him a gift, I should ask him what he wants. The problem is, I LOVE surprises and it's not natural for me to say "hey, I was thinking of getting you a little something for your graduation, got any ideas?" I like having the clever ideas for gifts... oh well. I am sure that one of these times I'll get it right.