Our White Water Rafting Trip

You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos, they aren't digital but the waterproof disposables. I figured that was the best way to go so each of us had our own camera which the boys truly enjoyed as they could snap whatever they wanted.

Mr. L's good friend, the guide, did "dumptruck" us and I apologize there are no action shots of that wonderful experience. There are photos of the aftermath but I have to order them from the company that sits like vultures at each of the rougher spots on the river and takes photos of people flippin' and dippin' and nose+toesing it. Let's just say that when Mr. L told me that on all his trips with his friend, no one had ever fallen out of the boat, I KNEW it was going to happen to us. You don't bring Murphy's Law Girl along and not get dumptrucked! I've had it happen before in the early 90's when I went whitewater rafting with my best friend J. So when the boat tipped, we all fell out except the guide and Mr. L's oldest son. The guide was hauling people in right and left and I was the last one in the boat, of course. (That happened last time with J!) We lost three oars out of seven. I'd been sitting towards the front of the boat and when I fell out, that's where I popped up. I was able to open my eyes once to see where I was, heard the guide yell everyone to grab the boat, so I grabbed the rope along the side, and then promptly went under a wave which was the end of me having my eyes open coz my contacts were no longer centrally eye-located. I still had my oar at this point but the waves were so big that I made the instinct decision to "screw the oar and hold the rope with both hands". While I was doing that, Mr. L, his oldest, and the son of the other couple on the trip all were holding on to me but because we were still going thru very big rapids, they couldn't pull me in the boat. The front of the boat where I was is the highest in the water so they had to wait for calmer water. All I know is that my eyes were shut, I had a death grip on the rope, whoever was holding me had a death grip (I didn't know who it was until I'd been hauled in and they told me), I could hear Mr. L's oldest telling me to hold on and they had me, and I felt the boat tilting in the rapids before I would get deluged each time and my legs sucked under the boat. I was trying very hard not to hyperventilate once they got me in the boat. I did swallow quite a bit of river water and had some pretty big unladylike belches for about half and hour afterwards.

This is us at a MUCH calmer spot in the river. Mr. L is on the far left, then the couple we went with, Mr. L's friend the guide is in the sunglasses in the back, Mr. L's youngest is lounging in the middle while his oldest takes the photo, and all the other kids are the other couple's. Such super nice people. Not sure why the girl has that expression as that is not how she was actually feeling.

This was taken by Mr. L's oldest as he was drifting in the swimming part of the river. That's all of us in the boat. I'd had enough of being in the water so I passed on floating.

Me and Mr. L resting directly after our spill. I should have taken my life jacket off too, it reeked of mothballs.

Mr. L's youngest was experimenting before we got on the river and got us in the corner, I cropped the pic and made us front and center.

I had a blast, the boys and Mr. L did too!

So I Think I've Finally Found a Way to Drink Green Tea

Sorry, all you tea drinkers and lovers, but tea totally tastes like nasty-ass dirtNgrass!

My friend J has done oodles of "research" and insists I start drinking green tea every day because it's so good for you. In addition to 2 cups of 100% blueberry juice. So on Tuesday I decided to go the "two birds, one stone" route and make a cup of tea, chill it, and put in frozen pureed blueberries to make a summer antioxidant smoothie.

Can you say GAG GAG GAG GAG?

I gave it the college try, I really did. I added agave to it to see if that would help. Nope! Just tasted like sweet blueberry nasty-ass dirtNgrass.

Called J and dropped the f-bomb numerous times while I tried downing the stuff in a hurry using her for a distraction. I was taking big spoonfuls and throwing them to the back of my throat to avoid tasting the crap. I managed to get a cup down before the back of my throat started to seriously rebel and the big gags set in.

Needless to say, I threw the failed experiment down the drain and told J, no way in hell am I a tea drinker.

I asked around at work the next day to see what other people did with their tea and while my reaction to tea amused them, no one had any good ideas on how to negate the taste of tea, basically coz they all LIKE it.

My ideas, like adding amaretto or key lime soda to it, were not any good coz the badness of them would cancel out the goodness of the tea. I finally came up with an idea very late in the afternoon yesterday... why not add Special Dark cocoa? That's strong, it's chocolate which I adore, AND dark chocolate has antioxidants too. (Special Dark is "dutch processed" so the container's caveat is that it has less than the unprocessed cocoa - I figure the green nasty-ass dirtNgrass tea more than makes up the difference.)

So I tried it this morning and while I definitely went a bit overboard with the cocoa (I will reduce it gradually to get the right ratio), I did not taste the nasty-ass dirtNgrass at all.

Hallelujah, praise the Universal Being, I have found a way to drink green tea in the morning and add it to my daily health-regimen of probiotic, turmeric, cranberry extract, Garlique, and 2 cups of 100% blueberry juice!

Land Sakes, Am I Living in Some Kind of Hell?

According to the average extremely high temperature of Maine the past 3 weeks, the trapped-in-someone's-mouth humidity levels, and the weeds taller than me that need to be attended to - I would have to say...

Why, yes, yes I am, living in Hell right now.

I'm actually doing much better than I expected and I'm getting chilly when it gets to 70 degrees. I can't say I enjoy it by any means, and tho my hair is absolutely frickin' fantastically spiral-curled every day (no hair dryer for me this summer), I have been avoiding any and all yard work other than laying out in the sun.

I had to mow two lawns for three weeks coz my neighbor went away for a while. She left me her gas mower so I took advantage and used her mower on my lawn after I mowed hers. Paid for using it with getting headaches, but damn, my lawn was taken care of quickly and looked all nice and even. Now that she's back, it's back to using my reel mower (hand pushing, no motor). Greener for the environment and no headaches, but not as nice looking a lawn. Oh well.

I weeded for 3 hours straight on Sunday and managed to complete both garden beds, the walkway between and behind the beds, the 3 half wine casks, and the back landscaping beds where my pumpkin plants are spreading out along the entire back of the house. I sweated so much that it pooled in my glasses as I was bent over. I filled up four large wheel-barrow's full of weeds, not just to the brim but mounded several feet above the brim. Very heavy and unwieldy. I still have to do my side landscaping and front beds. Saving that for another hot day.

I have managed to sunbake myself four times since I got back from my May vaca to visit my bestest and oldest friend in Florida. I went before the tarballs hit any of the Florida beaches. We went to the beach every damn day. It was so wonderful. I did not want to come back. We did NOTHING but beach it and lounge and talk and laugh. It was supremely restful. And this time I did the sunbathing right, no burns and came back with a lovely start to my color.

I laid out this past Saturday and it was HOT and HUMID and I was just wiped. Had a migraine I was fighting all day that finally did me in in the evening. Mr L rubbed my temples for me which helped but he fell asleep while doing that, the heat's been kicking his ass too. He works with animals and comes home exhausted and the place he's house-sitting at is in the midst of re-model/re-construction so it builds up heat throughout the day coz there is no air conditioning, the windows are absolutely ridiculous in that most of them do not open (literally, they are perma-windows, just glass, not made to open) and the ones that do open are too small to cool this huge house, not one curtain so the sun just streams in all day, and while it's considered waterfront (river) the trees block most of the wind off the water. I'm letting him borrow some of my fans but whenever I spend the night I have to bring my box fan with me otherwise I'd never sleep what little I do when I sleep over (12 years of nights sleeping on my own, I have to get used to another person again, getting better but definitely not more than 4 hours at the most so far).

I harvested three squash so far. Pepper plants are busily being eaten alive, I've Sevin-ed them twice. Pumpkin plants have made male flowers but no female/baby pumpkins ready yet - needs a bit more growing time I guess. My new rose bush is doing well, I weeded where I want to plant it (possibly this weekend) and have had to rose powder it twice as the Japanese beetles (or Japanise bettels) are munching on it.

Mr L's boys want me to make my Chinese dumplings which I've promised to do on a cooler weekend. They thoroughly enjoyed my Plaza Toast (thick-cut slices of bread, honey baked hams slices, Swiss cheese slices, half pears all baked in the oven til bread is crusty and chz is melted and then served up smothered in Hollandaise sauce - YUM!). Turns out the boys like me, so that is a VERY good thing, I was worried but it turned out okay. Going white-water rafting with them this Sunday.

Gotta go, an awesome book is calling me.

Oh, if you enjoy British humor and need a laugh - I totally recommend "Death At A Funeral", the 2007 version directed by Frank Oz. OMG!!! it's immensely hilarious. Simon is by far my favorite character.