Heat, Humidity, and Work

While I have much to catch up on, things have been busy. Eventually I blog about out last few weeks (although most of it has been spent working). But, I needed to get in a quick rant. I think I am good for at least one per month. :)

The A/C is not functioning in our building at work. I walked in this morning and was hit by a wave of hot air. As I sat in my windowless office, the air got hotter and hotter throughout the day. I literally had to peel my clothes off when I got home. The really bad news is that the A/C won't be fixed until Monday because it needs a new motor. I have many questions surrounding this, like can the part be shipped overnight and installed sooner than over the weekend or why did they not replace the motor a long time ago as we seem to have A/C problems every summer? The list goes on, but my biggest issue is that working and actually concentrating on work is near unbearable with the heat. I am literally sitting in my own pool of sweat while trying to type and have conference calls. I had to apologize up and down to some people that came to my office to talk to me today. It is just so hot in there! IU does have an Adverse Working Conditions policy. I'm not sure how it works, how often it is used, or if it can be used in this case. I was really hoping that would kick into effect because I cannot function well in this kind of heat! However, no such luck. I can already tell tomorrow is going to be a long day...

You are what you eat...

I wish I had my camera at work. I would definitely have to snap a picture of the garbage can under my desk. Our garbage is emptied on Tuesday and Friday nights. This week, you can tell the kind of week it's been by looking at what is in my garbage! Lots of candy wrappers - mini candy bars, tootsie rolls, caramels, banana laffy taffy, etc. Yikes. I do spot one apple core down at the very bottom...

Home

Well, we made it home safely. We left the Outer Banks around 11am on Friday and drove for about 11 hours before stopping to get a hotel room. We drove the rest of the way this morning and picked the dog up from the kennel on the way home. Todd gets extra points for driving the whole time.

I think Lucy had a good time. She is sleeping as a thunderstorm is raging outside. Usually she is pacing back and forth and jumping at the sound of thunder. But, she is laid out on the floor sound asleep tonight!

We forgot to mention one of the cool things about the trip. On Monday we saw a ton of dolphins! We were out on the beach and they were swimming very close to the shore! Todd was out swimming close to them and they didn't seem to mind at all. We watched them for a good half hour come as close as 30-yards to the shore. We saw more on Tuesday, but they were out much further. Unfortunately, we didn't see any others the rest of the week.

One of the bad things about the trips were the mosquitoes. Not only do I have mosquito bites on my legs, but they have swollen up to huge welts! They also itch and burn like crazy. If we go back next year, we'll take some stronger bug spray.

Reality sets back in on Monday. Unfortunately, I have not been able to taken as much time off this summer as I had originally planned for several different reasons. I am hoping to steal a few more days here and there before the semester starts again on Sept. 3rd.

Vaca: Day 5

Our final and last day here! :(

We spent most of the day on the beach. The morning was perfect - sunny and warm, minus a rainstorm midday. I went for a run on the beach first thing this morning. All of the other times I ran along the sidewalks and trail system here. Today, I decided to go on the beach barefoot. It was a lot of fun, but next time I will remember to put sunblock on the tops of my feet! I will say that after a disappointing few days of shell collecting, I hit the mother load this morning! While out running, I ran across a ton of cool shells including two sand dollars that are in near perfect condition. Todd was very jealous I found more cool stuff than him. Of course, I had to run back with my hands full of shells for 1.5 miles, but it was worth it!

Todd spent most of the day using the body board he bought yesterday. He had several great rides in on the waves. I was going to try, but the waves were huge and it was high tide, so I chickened out. Maybe before we leave tomorrow.

We ended up the night eating out at Aqua S and sitting outside to watch the sunset. It was great until the mosquitoes started eating away at my legs. We moved inside to have dessert after the sun went down. It was an awesome sunset.

Overall, it has been a great trip! I am definitely not looking forward to the drive home, which begins tomorrow.

Vaca: Day 4

Unlike yesterday, today was cloudy, cold, and rainy. I got in a run this morning only to get to the beach and feel the rain drops 5 mins later. Bummer! So, we decided to go into town for lunch and tour around the area. We ate at the Red Sky Cafe again for lunch (they have a really great lunch menu and much cheaper than dinner). Then, we tried to check out some different shopping areas and parts of the OBX. However, because of the rain, so was everyone else. The traffic and parking was a disaster. Traffic on the highway was literally moving at like 5mph and there was no where to park anywhere we tried to go. So, we gave up on that and came back to the hotel for Todd to take a nap and for me to check up on work email (yeah for me - less than 1 hour per day on work email!). Once the rain cleared out, we headed back to the beach and took a long walk. It was still very cold and cloudy, but more people were out since the rain had stopped. I definitely had on long sleeves due to the wind! We are hoping tomorrow will be nice again since it is our last day here!

Since we really didn't do much today, I don't have any fun pictures to post. In fact, I was telling Todd that we haven't taken many pictures at all and have yet to get one with both of us (minus any parasailing pics that turn out). So, we will try to work on that tomorrow. We ate dinner at Mike & Dianna's Grill Room tonight. I would say it is okay. Both of us have had better. So far, Red Sky Cafe is the clear winner. They did have some awesome artichoke dip with their bread. But, I am ready for some home-cooked food! I am definitely reaching the point of not wanting to eat out anymore!

Vaca: Day 3

Tuesday was hot! The sun was out and the temps were hot and humid. I tried to go for a longer run, but decided to cut it short and head back to the hotel. I could tell I was getting dehydrated. So, only 3.5 miles today, but still decent. (I am trying to say up on mileage for a 7-mile race I am doing with my brother-in-law when we visit them later this month.) We spent some time on the beach before heading out to try parasailing. Parasailing was a lot of fun! I must admit I was freaked out the entire time and screaming as we took off, but once we got up in the sky, it was pretty amazing. We did the 900-ft double option. So, Todd and I went up together and once we got to our height it was actually pretty quiet. The wind on the group was whipping around and the boat was very loud, but up in the air, you couldn't hear any of that. Todd and I had a normal conversation and looked around at the ocean and sound for miles. As we came back down to the boat, we got dipped in the water a few times before we were pulled back up in the air to land on the boat in a standing position. Overall, it was a lot of fun and I would probably do it again. We had some pictures taken, but they are on 35-mm film by the boat crew, so I have to have them developed. I'll post them when we get them back!

I also had my first ever pedicure in the afternoon, along with a manicure. I am not a fan of feet - my own or others. And it was a little weird to have some random person rubbing my feet and giving them a mask treatment, but it did feel pretty relaxing! I got an awesome color on my toes, too! Overall, I probably would not do it again, mainly because it takes more time and money than I am willing to spend on my feet and fingernails. But, here are my toes for now:

Other than those activities, the day included several trips to the beach. We didn't eat at any restaurants of note. In fact, we were disappointed in the restaurants we ate at today. At least they were not super expensive ones. Things around the Outer Banks are very overpriced (in my opinion). So, we have definitely been spending more on meals that I anticipated.

Vaca: Day 2

The great thing about being at a resort is that you get what you want when you need it - clean beach towels, sheets, and rooms, for instance. The bad thing is that you have to eat out every meal. I am already tired of that (although I don't think Todd is every upset about eating out). I started out the morning with a 5-mile run (needed to counteract the 5,000 calories I ate today). It was hot and there was no water along the way, but it was nice to jog along and check out the massive vacation homes. After that we hung out on the beach for a few hours and got totally sunburnt. We both had on tons of sunscreen, too! So, we decided to avoid direct sun in the afternoon. We toured the area a bit and checked out some of the shopping areas, beach shops and walked through a nature preserve area. We tried to go parasailing, but it was too windy. We'll try again tomorrow. I did schedule a manicure at the resort spa for tomorrow afternoon. I've never had one before! We went back to the beach in the early evening when the sun was going down and it was not as hot. I think we both agree this is the best time of the day.

When we were out and about, we stopped and got some breakfast items to eat in our room, thus avoiding at least one meal out and saving a little money. For lunch, we checked out a resaurant at the resort and for dinner we went to the Red Sky Cafe in Duck, NC. I thought it was just okay, but Todd raved about the crab cakes at Red Sky.

No pictures today! I took a few, but didn't haul my camera to the beach or shopping. I am worried about it getting covered with sand. Maybe tomorrow!

Vaca: Day 1

Well, we have arrived at the beach!! We spent Saturday driving 9.5 hours (about 9.5 hours too long for me) and stopped in Charlottesville, VA for dinner. The downtown area is so cool! It is a long brick road lined with different restaurants and shops. It is completely blocked off to traffic, which is so nice to just stroll around. One end also has a concert stage where they bring in some really big names. It is a lot like the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Indy, but this is right downtown. On Sunday morning we checked out the UVa campus (partially in search of good coffee for Todd) and decided to tour Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello. He was an amazing architect and created a mountaintop home that was completely self-sustaining. It is really amazing to see the different things he designed that were advanced for the period in which he built the home. The mountain was foggy and it was a bit rainy, so we didn't see to see all the amazing views, but we toured the grounds and home. We also stopped to see the family cemetery on his property, as well as the vineyards, which exist at one end of the 5,000 acres he farmed. After that, we stopped for lunch at Mitche Tavern. It has been open and operating since the 1765. It was pretty cool. We ate with camping-like plates and cups to keep to the period.

After that, we drove the final 3.5 hours to our destination at the Outer Banks - The Sanderling Resort. We checked in and took our first walk on the beach. Then, we checked out the The Blue Point for dinner. Of course, we have already eaten way too much, but so far it has been fun. We are hoping that Tropical Storm Bertha stays away!

Todd found his Starbucks on the UVa campus! It is a very cool area of town like Green Street (Illinois) or Kirkwood (Indiana).

Me at Monticello. The grassy area actually used to be a goat farm (sticking with Jefferson's plan to have a self-sustaining plantation), so it actually wasn't as nice back then.

We saw so many crabs when we were walking the beach. Todd is looking forward to the fish this week (Swordfish tonight...Tuna tomorrow night).

Scaredy Dog

No scaredy cats at our house, but there is one scaredy dog! Lucy is petrified of fireworks and thunderstorms. She freaks out by pacing, panting heavily, and sticking close, or even laying on top of us to feel safe. We haven't really figured this out since she is a hunting dog and has no problem with gun shots. The best I can figure is when she is hunting she knows what is going on and what sound to expect. She also knows that the gun shot sound might bring her a duck to retrieve, her favorite activity of all time. Whatever the problem, it is rather annoying. We don't have kids, but with the fireworks and stormy weather this time of year, it sure feels like it. Our scaredy dog=lots of sleepless of nights!