pet sounds

first and foremost, meet jacques cousteau





and solomon cartwright





they are red-eared sliders, a freshwater turtle, that the mrc was giving away, so brad and i adopted two of them. aren't they cute? solomon is really shy (and always hiding under rocks) and jacques is all rambunctious and always swimming around. mmm i love turtles. these guys are just little babies too. awwww so fun. so now, not only did brad and i meet in a turtle lab and work there together, now we actually have turtles as pets too. some things you just can't shake, i suppose (not that i'm complaining. this is obviously just one of those never-ending jokes)

i also have some pictures i've been meaning to post, although everytime we have a beautiful day here i forget my camera, so cape cod pictures will have to come later.

a few weekends ago, brad and i went hiking along the mashpee river and came across a bench with this view:





the bugs were horrendous, but man, is it beautiful.

aaand when we went to lake champlain two weekends ago we ended up doing a detour through burlington (not on purpose) and i think this sign made the whole debacle worth it:





biggest washers and driers in vermont, ay? the ridiculousness of the claim (even if it is true (but how do you know)) made us laugh.

the camp at lake champlain is right on the water in the way north (as in almost canada) of vermont and you truly get some spectacular sunsets. we were lucky enough to see this one, complete with brad's dad and brother fishing off the dock.

eulogy

on my walk home from work last monday night, my beloved sunglasses fell out of my bag. and by the time i realised it the next day and retraced my steps, someone had stolen them.

when i was in high school, i was one of those "buy a ten dollar pair of sunglasses and then promptly lose them" sort-of people. for my graduation, my parents gave me a gift certificate to sunglass hut and told me that if i bought a nice pair of sunglasses, maybe i wouldn't lose them (which, being a teenager (what fun to say, "ohh yes when i was a teenager") i disagreed with), and, of course, they were right.

i bought a pair of oakley sunglasses and they went with me to europe that summer and have been with me in my transcontinental life and came with me all over new zealand and now ... they are gone.

but! oakley still carries the exact same style (and now ones that are polarised? is it worth the extra forty bucks?) and so, being completely unwilling to try something new, i am going to buy them again.

sunshine, sunshiny day

today is the kind of day that makes me fall more and more in love with cape cod. when the alarm went off this morning, the sun was sparkling through the trees, a nice contrast to the typical fog/mist combos that characterise most mornings here. the past few days have been quite dreery - overcast and rainy, so this is a welcome change.

it's still nice and cool outside, with a small breeze and clear blue skies. and the best part is that on my walk this morning, there was hardly any traffic or other people out. apparently 7 am is too early for most tourists (not that i can blame them).

i have a new job (hooray). somehow, i managed to get ridiculously lucky and get a bartending job at a bar/restaurant about two miles away, right on the beach. i saw the ad in the paper last week and figured i'd go and give it a shot, even if the paper was a few days old. turns out they'd been having all sorts of problems hiring people and what not, so they were pretty desperate. funny, the bar manager keeps saying he's so happy i'm there when really, i don't think he realises how desperate i was and how lucky and thankful and happy i am to be working there. not to mention the fact that the bar is gorgeous - big windows looking over the ocean towards the vineyard. almost (almost) as good as actually being outside.

it's a private club, which has its pros and cons, but, for the most part, i think i'm going to love working there. everyone seems really laid back and chill so far and it's nice to mix a wide variety drinks, rather than pouring beer (typical of the sports bars i worked in last summer and fall). i feel like i'm learning a lot. the bar manager has set me up with a regular schedule, and the pay is good. it doesn't get much better.

i'm working the lunch shift today, which means i have my morning off. i think i'm going to go to the beach, actually, to read and lie in the sun. i haven't even been yet, apart from walking along it. a tragedy, really, considering how beautiful it is. and since i'll be there before noon, i might even avoid the crowds.