My cousins have lots of babies. They have lots of pretty babies. Three cousins had a girl each within a year of each other; the next year, another girl and twin boys arrived.

Today I’d like to share with you: the twins. They’re four months old.

I just spent three days with a fever in 30 degree weather, and even then, this picture cheered me up.  I spent five minutes today showing it to everyone I could find at the office just so I could spread the happiness, and the reaction was unanimous joy.

If you can look at this picture for more than five seconds without smiling - nay, without actually laughing out loud - then it becomes official: you have no soul.

I had a 10-hour staff party on the Mira (River) yesterday. Very fun! I took home three things: A balloon puppy:

Nine jillion mosquito bites:
(itchitchOWOWOWSCRATCHITDAMMIT)

And a jacket! With my name on it! And I’m a SENIOR Instructor! To hell with all those REGULAR Instructors, says my jacket!

This is actually kind of neat. I’ve never had a jacket (or much of anything) with my name on it before. I wasn’t one for any sports, much less the team kind. I kind of see why they do that, now - I DO feel part of a team. Part of something bigger. An IMPORTANT part of something bigger. Also, it doesn’t hurt that I had a little something to do with re-working our logo for these jackets. Even cooler is the logo for our sister company which I did entirely myself and which will be plastered all over the new company van that my friend gets to drive and over which logo the embroidery/van plastering guy swooned. I kept staring at the two people wearing the other jackets with “my” logo on ‘em, because I love looking at my work, and seeing it in this new format is really nifty.

In other news, I might be having a more eventful summer than I thought, travel-wise. I’ll probably be in Ontario at the end of July and in New York State in August! There’s a Ren Faire to which Otter is going and it’s during a week of vacation I’d already booked. Oooooh.

Beeeeeeeeeeeach. 

I was talking to my friend Colleen about jewellery and such when I remembered what I wanted to do today: Beachcombing! My mom got her shoes and made a lunch when I wasn’t looking (thank goodness!) and brought two hats and I grabbed my sunblock and a couple of bags, and away we went! We had no idea where we were going, I just knew I wanted to try the southeast side of the island, so I drove towards Glace Bay. First stop: Big Glace Bay Beach.

I got all kinds of great mussel bits here, and a few bits of beach glass. Next: some place in Donkin. I think.

NOT a good place. Stinky and full of human garbage that hadn’t been cleansed by the sea yet. I did find a few pieces of glass though. Next: Port Morien. Somewhere.

This was a great spit of land with way more pieces of beach glass than I’d expected. I found my only rare coloured pieces here - aqua, a teeny blue, and a pink! We also stopped here to eat our sandwiches, which were so weird and so delicious: raisin buns with strawberry jam and chunks of cheddar cheese. Also some fresh pineapple, grapes, and a lot of water. Soooo good. Next: Wadden’s Cove.

Aww, lookit my baby Delilah, faithfully taking us where we wanted to go! With TUNES. We didn’t do any beachcombing here, just a drive through the niftiest dirt road plus a great view at the end.

Finally, we landed at Mira Gut, where I was again surprised with a great number of clamshells. And purple rocks.

So what did I get? Oh, it’s a fabulous haul. Here’s the whole thing:

I wish I’d thought to use a plain towel for cleaning and sorting. But oh well. Also, I didn’t bother laying out the mussel shells nicely. Get over it.

Some of the great beach glass:

The GREAT snail shells I got. Man these are pretty.

Lots of clams.

I also got a very small amount of driftwood, like three or four teeny pieces. I wanted to get more but the smaller pieces aren’t as nice as the big ones - and even the big ones I found were kinda sucky.

AND I didn’t even get BURNED. Yay SPF 45!

Ok. Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

She’s a 2000 VW Golf 5-speed. Her name is Delilah. We’ve been having a great time. She costs $45 to fill up and has a 50-litre tank and she’ll take me nearly six hundred kilometres before she’s hungry again.

Why “Delilah”? Well, here’s the conversation where my friend spent literally 45 minutes throwing names at me. My head nearly exploded, but it worked!

[18:07] Gayle: guess what? i’ll have a Little Blue Wagon!
[18:07] Brent: LOL
[18:07] Gayle: i need to name it, too
[18:07] Brent: Blueriffic?
[18:07] Gayle: ew, no
[18:07] Brent: BluesClues?
[18:07] Brent: BlueBaller?
[18:07] Gayle: bwah!
[18:08] Brent: lol
[18:08] Brent: ‘Ol Blue?
[18:08] Gayle: stop with the blue!
[18:08] Brent: BlueBoobie?
[18:08] Brent: LOL
[18:08] Brent: Penelope?
[18:09] Brent: Sandra Blullock?
[18:09] Brent: hahaha
[18:09] Gayle: penelope would do except I knew a penelope once
[18:09] Brent: Christine
[18:09] Brent: ‘Chrissy’
[18:09] Gayle: nope.
[18:09] Brent: Gertrude?
[18:10] Brent: Layla?
[18:10] Brent: Shondelle?
[18:10] Brent: Alexandria!
[18:10] Gayle: ha ha ha!
[18:10] Gayle: you’re a riot.
[18:10] Gayle: what makes you think it’s a girl?
[18:10] Brent: hehe
[18:10] Brent: I dunno…
[18:11] Brent: Bruno?
[18:11] Brent: BillyBob
[18:11] Gayle: hee!
[18:11] Brent: Bruce?
[18:11] Brent: Bluce?
[18:11] Gayle: what’s with the B names?
[18:11] Brent: Serendipity?
[18:11] Gayle: oh!
[18:11] Brent: hehe
[18:11] Brent:
[18:11] Brent: Serenity?
[18:12] Brent: Jane?  LOL
[18:12] Brent: Doc Holliday?
[18:12] Gayle: JAYNE!!!!!!!
[18:12] Brent:
[18:12] Gayle: the car’s name might be jayne cobb!!!!
[18:12] Brent: ROFLMAO  :D :D
[18:12] Brent: we rule!
[18:12] Gayle: we DO.
[18:13] Brent: hehehe
[18:17] Brent: So… Jayne Cobb eh?  hehe
[18:17] Gayle: hm. maybe. i dunno?
[18:17] Brent: Any thought to Serendipity?
[18:17] Gayle: i like that one too
[18:17] Brent:
[18:17] Brent: Irving Steinbloom?
[18:17] Gayle: BWAH
[18:18] Brent: Rhonelda?
[18:18] Gayle: bwah!
[18:18] Brent: Roberto (said with a french accent)
[18:18] Gayle: HEE HEE
[18:19] Brent: hmmm
[18:19] Brent: Hubert!!
[18:19] Gayle: ha ha! stop it, you’re killing me.
[18:19] Brent: Yolanda?  Yohan?
[18:19] Gayle: hehe
[18:24] Brent: Oooooh, Vincint!
[18:24] Brent: Vinnie?
[18:24] Brent: He can be my cousin…
[18:24] Gayle: it has potential
[18:26] Brent: Julia Gulia?  LOL
[18:26] Gayle: bwah!
[18:27] Brent: Mistress Michelle!!
[18:28] Brent: Joey Tribiane?
[18:28] Gayle: you’re too cute
[18:28] Brent: thanks. 
[18:28] Brent:
[18:29] Brent: Seraphim!
[18:29] Brent: Sarah…
[18:29] Gayle: ooh
[18:29] Brent:
[18:30] Brent: Yosemmittie Sam
[18:30] Brent: Delilah?
[18:30] Gayle: mm, Delilah.
[18:31] Brent: Mod Flanders!!
[18:31] Gayle: no, I’m liking Delilah
[18:32] Brent: Cool. 
[18:33] Gayle: a new name might pop up once I drive around though. we shall s
[18:35] Brent: Anastasia!
[18:35] Brent: Amidala?
[18:35] Gayle: ew, no
[18:35] Brent: Jar-Jar?  ROFL   ok, that’s WAY too much
[18:35] Gayle: *throws monkeys*
[18:36] Brent: OUCH
[18:36] Brent: THEY”RE PULLING MY HAIR
[18:36] Brent: OW
[18:36] Brent: hehehe
[18:36] Gayle: hee hee
[18:36] Gayle: good monkeys! *throws bananas*
[18:36] Brent: lol
[18:36] Brent: *sigh*
[18:36] Brent: thanks
[18:37] Brent: *spanks monkeys*
[18:37] Brent:
[18:37] Gayle: ha!
[18:37] Brent: big monkeys
[18:37] Brent: !!
[18:37] Brent:
[18:37] Gayle: always.
[18:38] Brent: more like apes really
[18:38] Brent: baboons even
[18:38] Gayle: hee hee
[18:38] Brent: Oh
[18:38] Brent: Babette?
[18:38] Gayle: no.
[18:38] Brent: Bobette?
[18:38] Gayle: no.
[18:38] Brent: Bobbit?
[18:38] Brent: hehehe
[18:38] Gayle: NO.
[18:38] Brent: Wendy?
[18:38] Gayle: no
[18:38] Brent: Peter?
[18:39] Gayle: nope. not names of people I know.
[18:39] Gayle: know
[18:39] Brent: Persephany?
[18:39] Gayle: hm.
[18:39] Gayle: i still like deliklah
[18:39] Brent: Xavior
[18:39] Gayle: only without the k
[18:39] Brent: hehe
[18:39] Brent:
[18:39] Brent: Naomi?
[18:39] Brent: Narissa
[18:39] Gayle: maybe.
[18:39] Brent: Rochelle
[18:40] Brent: Cleveland!
[18:40] Brent: Homer
[18:40] Brent: Peter Gryffin
[18:40] Gayle: would you stop? you’re making me nuts!
[18:41] Brent: Sonja?
[18:41] Brent: Sonya?
[18:41] Gayle: nah
[18:42] Brent: Geneva
[18:42] Brent: Guenivere
[18:42] Brent: Horatio
[18:42] Brent: Helen
[18:42] Brent: Achilles
[18:42] Gayle: seriously! you’re KILLING ME you have to stop!
[18:42] Brent: Agustus
[18:42] Brent: LOL
[18:42] Brent: like, you’re laughing non-stop killing you?
[18:43] Gayle: no, like it’s JUST TOO MUCH INFORMATION
[18:43] Brent: Or like, your brain’s going to melt killing you?
[18:43] Gayle: the melting part
[18:43] Brent: oh, ok.
[18:43] Brent: lol
[18:43] Gayle: