Tomorrow my husband and I jet off to Minneapolis, so this is probably my last entry til we get back.

Here are some vintage pictures of 2 of our favourite buildings in Minneapolis.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   Rand Tower

Foshay Tower

Here's the last of the freaky names...

• Naveah - "heaven spelled backwards, what a nice tribute to a baby." (if you must, why not just called her Heaven? If you have twins, talk to the Nature spelled backwards idiot. Oh my, looking further down the list, it got picked by 3 different people, help!)


• Nebula (so many amateur astronomers out there naming children


• Nirvana Genesis


• Noah Adym - "I don't like the name "Noah" for a boy, but I think it's
  such a cute name for a girl! I also love the name "Adym"(same as
  Adam) for a girl!" (Good plan to name your daughter after 2 of the
  best-known males in the Bible! The stupid -ym does not
  absolve you of this sin.)


• Orchid Blossom


• Patin -"It sounds quite patriotic, and reminds me of the star-
  spangled banner." (How the hell is that patriotic apart from
  starting with the same 3 letters? Quick dictionary check reveals it
  means "A plate, usually of gold or silver, that is used to hold the
  host during the celebration of the Eucharist." Hello, this is my
  daughter, Holy Plate.)


• Precious Promise (Pardon me while I throw up on the floor)


• Presley Riley -"I like this name because Presley Riley is femine and
  strong." (It's also the surname of a male singer, sounds like
  parsley, and Riley is a boy's name.)


• Psalm (Well, maybe if her brothers were Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
  and Acts.)


• Quynella Star


• Rainbow Blue-Aqua (Again with the bathroom cleaner-sounding stuff.


• Rebecquiquia (reb-ek-ik-ih-uh) -"I made this name up from Rebecca. I
  love the name Rebecca but it's just too common for me!!" (Or because you're a cruel moron. It looks like a drunk person started to spell out Rebecca and then got confused along the way.)


• Remington -"This is a very unique name for a girl. It's so strong
  which is important." (Hello, Remmington Steel, anyone? Also
  Remmington shavers and I believe it's a type of gun.)


• Romance -"It is a soft and very femine name that carries great
  significance with it. And it can be shortened to Romi, nance, or
  several other things as well." (It is stupid, she'll be depressed by
  its irony when she's a lovesick teen, and Romi and Nance suck as
  nicknames.)


• Romany


• Ruby-Tuesday Aries Saffryn - "[after a bunch of crap about her mother and the Rolling Stones and her star sign meaning the kid has part of her in her name]...i like giving 2 middle names in case my girls
  don't like their given names, so that's why i've got a fairly usual
  name with a different spelling as the last middle name." (This child
  will call herself the only non-stupid part, Ruby, and become an
  accountant. Plus, she's obviously forgotten that Ruby Tuesday's is now TGI Friday's type-restaurant in the States.)


• Sabitha -"I just love the sound of this one... I actually saw it as
  SABETHA, on a Semi's mudflap a few weeks ago." (Momma named ya after a mudflap, baby! Now go get ready for our trip to the Jerry Springer show. Wear yer good Sunday tube top, hear?)


• Sahara Rainbow


• Salvation (Nah, that won't give the child either a God complex or a
  serious inferiority one. And there won't be any Army jokes, either.


• Sasha Chicago - "Chicago is a beautiful city that I would love to one
  day visit." (Why would you name a child after a place you've never even been?)


• Sethlynn (Or Peterann, Jimbeth...)


• Shardonay -"Afri. Amer.- respelling of Chardonnay" (Again with the
  booze naming! What the hell is up with that? Why would anyone think it's appropriate????)


• Shire -"In England it's a city or a town, but it's a nice name for a
  girl, even if it is a little pretentious." (No, dear, you mean a bit
  ridiculous. These are my children Town, Village, Hamlet, Whistle-
  Stop, and City.)


• Silva-Gipsy Auburn Sunrise


• Simon - "I adore the name Simon for a girl. I found this name from a
  Novel that I was reading. I seem to have a thing for male names for
  girls, of course with alternate spellings and what not. Simon could
  be spelled; Sighmon, Simen, Siemon, Symon, etc." (It would still be
  Simon, a boy's name, and those all look really stupid. Try Simone, idiot.)


• Skyylar Mackenzy - "Its just a beautiful and unique name. (especially
  the spelling)" (No, it's two overused names wiith stupid spellings.


• Sparkle


• Stannleaigh (Stanley is a guy's name and not a particularly attractive one anymore.)


• Sunshine Melody (This child will grow up to be the most un-cheerful being on earth simply to distance herself from that name.)


• Surreal - "a character in one of the books i've been reading, a
  very...strange character" (Maybe that's because she's...oh....surreal???)


• Tiara Noelle (What you wear on your head at Christmas parties.


• Truitt Wagner - "I like the name Truitt because it brings to
  mind "Truth" --an important virtue-- and it is interesting and
  unique. Wagner is my street's name." (And yet it doesn't actually
  mean anything at all...and what if you lived on 8th Avenue?)


• Unique (I can't be bothered to come up with a unique name, I'll just call her Unique so everyone will think she is.)


• Utopia


• Waters


• Whisper
  Wynter Soileil (saw-leel) (Oo, a so-unique way of saying winter sun! Which would be a stupid name no matter how it's spelled or which language it's in.)


• Wyatt Electra (A cowgirl with a boy's name who wants to kill her
  mother.)


• Zaigan


• Zephyr

There you have it. Whew! And that's just the ones that really hurt my eyes, not the mediocre dumb ones.  I am frightened by the hell these children will endure.

The scary thing is that for a lot of them, boys and girls, people chose the names because they thought they sounded "sexy" - yeah, that's my criteria for naming an infant! Also rather alarming the number that came from soap operas.

• Jazzayer Maree (what??)


• Jensen (sounds like the name of a butler)


• Jenuffa - "There is one name I have not seen there-or anywhere for that matter." (Hmmm...wonder why? Because it's hideous, perhaps.)


• Jersey (you get either cream jokes, cow jokes, or being worn by football players jokes)


• Jeseeka/Jessyka and Jewlee/Juelie/Juelle (Again, buggering the spelling does not make a new name, it just makes an old name look stupid.)


• Jubiliation (I'm all for being happy about the birth of a child, but no.)


• Jupiter (Hello, if you're going to use a planet for a girl, at least use Venus, you nitwit.)


• Jilljill - "We thought about naming our daughter Jilljill. It looks kewl written, and both her grandmothers are named Jill. We didn't want one to always think "Oh she's name after the other one so we made it so they would both know that they were both in our hearts and thoughts." (Um, one Jill would've done that just fine.)


• Jordania Davaenn Keire (Jordania sounds like what Jordan would be
  called if it ruled the world. And what the hell is Davaenn??)


• Juslyn Paulena - "after my love, who I hope to share the rest of my life with (Justin) and after my mother (Paula Lena)" - (Paulena for one's mom I can see, but Juslyn??? Hello, Justine!)


• Justice Sweet - "Justice Its a beautiful name it also has a beautiful meaning.it goes well with the middle name Sweet because when you say it it sounds like Just as Sweet. Also spelled Justyce or Cweet" (the normal spelling is bad enough, just as sweet is nauseating, and Cweet might take the take for the stupidest one yet.)


• Kaitney - "I love the name Kaitlin but since it is so overused I think this is a nice variation." (I agree about Kaitlin, but it's not a nice variation, it's putting Kaitlyn and Britney, the 2 most overused names together. And it sounds like kidney.)


• Kallyko (Why not go all the way and name her Kallyko Kittie?)


• Kalvery - "I LIKE THE NAME KALVERY BECAUSE IT A RELIGIOUS NAME WITH A UNIQU SPELLING." (YES LET'S NAME A LITTLE GIRL AFTER THE SITE OF THE KRUKIFIXION!)


• Kandellessa (makes me think of reduced-fat yogurt for some reason


• Kasio (she makes excellent watches, headphones and other electronics!)


• Kaylawni Dezziraye (just bad, once again)


• Kaytymay Delaiqua (Katie Mae, good. Kaytymay - stupid. Delaiqua -
  beyond stupid.)


• Kennedi/Kenady (that one MTV VJ named Kennedy was bad enough 10 years ago)


• Kennly Brekkin


• Kiri Snow


• Kitland (when all the Kits of the world form their own country)


• Lady Madeleine (I like Madeleine but Lady?? Sounds like the
  name of a poodle or that you're setting your kid up for some real
  entitlement issues)


• Laredo -"If you have a simple last name, I think Laredo works well
  because it's unique but not stupid sounding." (You're wrong.)


• Lauranthalas (huh?)


• Lexton


• Lexus Bleue (As if Alexis and Blue weren't horrible enough, plus,
  it's a car)


• Liberty Belle (that's just mean)


• Nacole (no, it's Nicole)


• Llima (all the fun of spitting animals and gross beans in one!)


• Lucrezia - "I will name my first daughter after Lucrezia Borgia. I
  love the sound of it (Lew-cray-see-uh) as well as the history behind
  it."  (Um....do you *know* the history behind it??? - murder and incest, you twit)


• Luwiess - "another spelling of louise. a more unsual version of a nice
  but boring name"  (no, it's far from boring...it's also far from attractive or from making any sense as a name)


• Maddox - ( a) male name, b) not a very attractive one at that, c)
  wasn't he a TV detective? Oh, no, that was Mannix. Still sounds like
  one, though. :) Oh, and now it's the name of Angelina Jolie's baby boy, too. )


• Maesen/Mayson/Maison (Mason is a boy's name no matter how you cutesy it and Maison is a French house. Her brother's name is Fenetre (window :) ) )


• Makayla Makenzie (Can you say insanely overly trendy and rather
  redundant?)


• Makenzie Chablis - "sounds rich like a movie star!"  (A rich, drunk, stupid movie star, maybe. She should get together with the Chardonnay kid.)


• Mariliz (mary-liz) -"a twist on Mary Elizabeth." (how about a twisted Mary Elizabeth?)


• Marlaneah - "It just sounds so classy." (yet looks so stupid.)


• Meadow Sunshine (ah, the Age of the Aquarius lives on...)


• Meklin (what?)


• Meiyer (Meyer is a last name or just maybe a boy's name, but it's not a girl's name no matter how you spell it)


• Memphis Eve (and Charleston Morn)


• Merrick - "the title of an Anne Rice book I have not read. It sounds
  dynamic and strong, yet strangely feminine." (And was also the last name of the Elephant Man. And I love that they haven't even read the book - if you're going to saddle your kid with a book character's name, at least love the book!!)


• Miral "(pronounced mih-RAHL) From Star Trek: Voyager; the name of Tom Parris and B'Elanna Torres' daughter...it is a "Klingon" name."  (Well, then it's perfect for a human baby who isn't on television!)


• Misery -"from the Stephen King book. After reading the novel, I absolutely fell in love with the name (in the case of twins, it could go along with Ecstasy)" (You are a complete shithead. Why on earth would you saddle a child with the name Misery? What the hell is wrong with you?? It's not even a name, it's a noun! The only Stephen King books you can used as a name are Carrie and Christine.)


• Moaghna Lighsa "(Moh-nuh Lee-suh) This is a twist on Mona Lisa. I love the way it sounds, but could I spell it the boring ol' common way?? Nope!" (No, of course not, that would be silly, unlike that insane name.)


• Moon-Flower Dido Blossom (Lord help us all. Moon-Flower???)


• Morvan Sanddollar - "Morvan is a name I created from Mordred and Raven {characters in Arthurian legend) and Sanddollar is a name that can apply to either girls or boys and flows well with Morvan." (So can Starfish, Squid, Kelp, or Lobster. Morvan sounds like a pain reliever. Why not Guinvelot? And I don't believe Raven is really an Arthurian character.)


• MyeLeigh Khrystyanna (sigh)
  

The scary baby girl name list continues...

• Daffodil Sunflower (I get hayfever just looking at it)


• Dargana ("The name Dargana refers to anything dark, evil hearted, dragon-like, or daughter of darkness." - the name isn't *all* that bad, but why would you knowingly name an innocent child this?? Is her brother called Lucifer?)


• Aleeta Darrenique (yes, her father's name is Darren.What next? Teddifer? Davette?)& nbsp;


• Dawnalyn ( "(pronounced Donna-Lynn) a unique spelling for a classic name." - you can try to take the girl out of the trailer park...)


• Destinee (ooo, even better than that already-so-unique Destiny!)


• Dust ("I know this doesn't sound to spectacular but Dust is the name of the main character in one of my novels and she was really cool therefor making the name cool." - only if you're going to homeschool the child.)


• Ekaterina Rosalind (just mix those cultures up, woo!)


• Eleteddia (sounds like a toy elephant)


• Elliot London ("this is another tradionally male name that i think would be better on a girl." - no, it wouldn't. And as much as I love London, it doesn't belong in a kid's name. There was also a Londynn.)


• Emylee (no, no...what's wrong with just lovely Emily??)


• Eneday ("Dene' in pig latin, pronounced EN-eh-day" - to honour your pig latin heritage??)


• Epiphany (as in "My stars, this is such a horrible name for a child!!")


• Erutan ("And another one of my absolute faves is Erutan. This is nature spelled backwards and it is beautiful." - no, it's stupid and it sounds like Etruscan.


• Essence


• Estherre (Esther is a horrific name in the 21st century no matter how you spell it)


• Evony Fayne


• Farideh Amethyst


• Feodora (and her brother Steotson)


• Firefly (would be a rather cute nickname, but you can't be Prime Minister Firefly Smith.)


• Gabrial (if it's a girl it's Gabrielle, if it's a boy it's Gabriel and that is the end of it


• Genesis (and her brother Revelations)


• Genesy Lace


• Graycen Makenna (Mackenna is a sad attempt to revamp Mackenzie and Grayson is a boy's name. Just use Grace Mackenzie and have done with it.


• Gypsy Rose (that's it, name her after a stripper)


• Hampton (everyone in New York will want to book her for their vacation)


• Haviland


• Hayleigh ("The spelling makes the name unique!" - once again, no, it
  does not!)


• Heavana ("heaven-uh") Moon (I'm a big fan of the moon, but you cannot put it in a child's name or they will be seeing people's asses forever. Plus, Heavana? Sounds like Havana and that's not even how you spell heaven.)


• Hennalyse Gipsy


• Hopper (boing, boing, boing!)


• Indubala (indubitably stupid)


• Integrity


• Isaiah/Jonah/James (hello, boy's names!)


• Italia Lake ("this combo just reminds me of the Italian lakes and it
  sounds so beautiful" - maybe because it's just one letter way from the words "Italian lake"?)
  
  

By this time next week, my husband and I will be in Minneapolis, hooray! We're heading down there for a week to visit his family and friends and see more of Minnesota, since we're renting a car. We're hoping to visit the Minnesota State Fair and the Renaissance Festival.

I'm excited about both, but especially the Ren Fest, because I've always wanted to go to one. My husband went a lot when he was younger and was once even crowned "King of the Log" because he was able to knock all of his opponents over while they were balanced on a log. When he asked the guy if there was a prize, he said "You can take the log." But apparently no-one in the history of King Log has ever taken it. My husband's buddy was keen at first, though, but he couldn't figure out how they'd fit it in his Trans-Am. Had we been married at the time, I guess I'd have been Queen Log for the day. His buddies also paid to have him put in the stocks one year and he had to sing I'm a Little Teapot as his punishment. I'm also looking forward to all the hokey Middle Ages stuff like everyone shouting huzzah and saying things like "Wrap your lips around the king's meat!"

Part two...

• Aries Sunset


• Atari ("Inspired by the godfather of home video gaming. It just came
  to me one day that this would make a fabulous name for a girl." - um, no, it wouldn't. It's like Ramona Quimby calling her doll
  Chevrolet because she thought it was pretty. But she was 8 and
  fictional, she had an excuse!)


• Audriy Jzylise ( "(Audrey jz-i-lease) i just love this name! Its
  classic and new." - no, the first is a re-spelling of an old name and the second is unprounounceable.)


• Aureleigh (let's start the orally jokes right now.)


• Autumnbow (what??)


• Ayqua-Breeze (sounds like a drink or a bathroom cleaner.)


• Bailee Brielle (ugh and put the y back in Bailey, you idiot)


• Belladonna (sounds rather neat, I admit, but hello, deadly plant


• Bellamy Brantyn (ugh again)


• Belldandy ("the main character of an anime called Oh My Goddess! She is known to be very sweet and polite, and an excellent cook. I think those are traits that a little girl should have." - oh, barf. Do not let this person have children.)


• Breelee/Bryleigh


• Brettney (no, that does *not* mean you're not naming you're child
  Britney, it's a pathetic excuse to be able to use it and pretend
  you're not a sheep at the same time)


• Brintacia (sounds like an undiscovered continent)


• Butterfly Justice (sounds like an insect superhero cartoon)


• Caledonia Holland ("these names are special to me because Caledonia was an ancient name for Scotland, it sounds so sweet for a girl & one
  of my friend's lives in Amsterdam, and i thought that would be a good way to honor her without actually using her name." - well...
  okay....Caledonia is another neat-sounding word, but not for a baby's name!)


• Calexi (sounds like she could be on Star Trek)


• Calixta (for when you *almost* want to name your child after a skinnyTV actress)


• Callasandra (Is it Calla? Cassandra? Alessandra? Sandra? why not
  squish 'em all in!)


• Candle (in the wind jokes)


• Caory


• Carralaigne (because Caroline's no fun!)


• Catsurina (sounds like a planet)


• Cezanne (and her brother Emily Carr!)


• Channing Morrissey (the person says this is unisex - equal
  opportunity misery! And yes, it's from Carol Channing and Morrissey
  of the Smiths. Just bizarrely wrong, rather like Marilyn Manson.


• Charlamaigne ("another traditionally male name which i would give to
  a girl. it has a certain ellegance about it which i absolutely
  love." - yup, I went to school with lots of little Charlemagnes, very
  traditional and appropriate outside of 9th century Europe!


• CharTameka ("Afr.-Amer. I like this name because my friend told me
  that she was concieved off of Chardonnay (wine), so I combined Char with Tameka" - yup, and she goes to school with BeerJaneesa and ChampShavonne; how lovely to remind your child for life that she was a drunken mistake)


• Chateau (again, the Chevrolet phenom)


• Clordiea (trying to redo Claudia yet making it sound like a PMS drug,
  somehow)


• Coco Greenleigh


• Corrtlyn Ryann


• Courtney Charisma ("also the name of a perfume" - and yes, there was also a Shalimar on the list. Actually, Coco is, too. I vote for naming mine Eternity and Obsession)


• Czarina (it's a now-defunct Russian title, you nit, not a name)
  

Librarianguish made this comment on my list of stupid names below "We see all sorts of strange names, and even stranger spellings of names that ought to be more simple, just due to parent's stupidity or ignorance. Wanting to have your child have a different name than everyone else is one thing, but don't saddle them with a name that everyone screws up!" and it reminded me of a web site I saw a few years ago that invited you to submit your own "unique" baby name. The ones people came up with were so insane that I e-mailed them to my then-fiance with a bunch of snarky comments. Unfortuantely that site now seems to be defunct and I never got a chance to do the boy names, but I kept the highlights of the girl list, complete with my snarky comments in parantheses (the text in quotations were the submitters' reasons for choose them or other explanations). It's very long and they're so dreadful that I'll just share a few at a time. :)

• Anodyne (means capable of soothing or relieving pain - it's an adjective for heaven's sake)


• Abbileigh (yuck, why not just Abby Leigh?)


• Aberdeen - "the name of a city in Oregon"  (um...and just maybe
  Scotland, too? Actually, I've always thought it sounded really
  pretty, but I can't name my child after a city, even if it's a non-
  trendy one, unlike Brooklyn. :) )


• Adisyn Cheyenne (dear lord, call the trendoid police right this
  instant!)


• Adragon (Aphoenix, Agriffin, Aunicorn....)


• Alabama Jane (rootin'-est, tootin'-est baby on the block!)


• Alexandriah Jonahleigh (this -leigh thing is getting out of control


• Alexenya Blue


• Alextreena


• America Rouge-Starshine (oh...my...god)


• Angelyce Myranda (bleagh!!! when did substituting y become a good
  idea? I really like Miranda, but with a y? Ugh.)


• Apple Anna Sorcha (Apple??? Come on!!!! Sorcha's not a bad Irish name but Apple is just stupid. She'll be "for the teacher" through 13
  years of school. [Gwyneth hadn't had her little golden delicious yet.])

I went out to lunch with one of my best friends today, who I hadn't seen for a couple of weeks, and when she saw me she said "You look fantastic!!!" It totally made my day. I'm tempted to blame it on wearing a semi-flattering shirt today, but I weighed myself this morning and found I'd lost another couple of pounds. And for the last 3 days I've been swimming til I'm sore all over, so I guess that's helping. I'm trying to get back on the exercise track - I'd been focusing on getting just enough exercise after eating to get my blood sugar down and kind of overlooking that the overall goal is to lose weight so my body can use its insulin more effectively. So I'm trying to get back on track, although it's hard when it's so hot out. That's why the swimming has been good.

I got my 3-month blood test results in the mail today but didn't want to open it before my lunch with my friend. I was going to open it when I got to work, but forgot, so now I think I'll wait til I get home so my husband can give me a hug, if needed. I hope they're okay. I have a feeling that all of my pigging out at Birch Bay is not going to have done good things for my average.

Cyberpal pointed out that today is National Underwear Day http://www.tblog.com/templates/index.php?bid=cyberpal&" title="http://www.tblog.com/templates/index.php?bid=cyberpal&" target="_blank"http://www.tblog.com/template...;static=256722. It ties in with something I read about in Jane magazine this week - the Anti-panti! http://www.antipanti.com" title="http://www.antipanti.com" target="_blank"http://www.antipanti.com

"Anti-panti is the answer to all this underwear nonsense. Thongs, g-strings, low-riders, briefs, boy-cut, bikini - the list never ends. With anti-panti you do not have to choose. You do not have to think about which underwear works with which pants, or which is low enough not to peek out of the back of your jeans. Anti-panti is an adhesive-backed cotton disc that sticks to the inside of your pants and eliminates the need to wear underwear."

Whaddya think? I wear pretty boring, baggy clothes, so I have no need, but if you actually look good in a tight pair of jeans, it might not be a bad idea. Although wouldn't you get a wedgie? 

Certainly not any common sense. Here's the gist of an article in Famous magazine (the freebie you pick up at movie theatres) that was sparked by Gwyneth Paltrow naming her baby Apple.

The trend started in t started with Demi Moore and Bruce Willis naming their kids all kinds of stupid things like Rumer, and the trend continues with Ving Rhames naming his kids Rainbow and Freedom, Gary Oldman's Gulliver, and Elle MacPherson's Aurelius.

But the even stupider trend is naming babies after nouns. Shannon Sossamon saddled her kid with Audio Science, Jason Lee has Pilot Inspektor (not only stupid, but spelled wrong - woo hoo!), Rachel Griffiths bore a boy called Banjo (almost wose than being a boy called Sue), and ER's Lisa Vidal decided to name her daughter Crumpet (which gives her the choice between being either a toasted bread product or, in British slang,  a nice piece of ass).

What the hell is wrong with people? I thought maybe it was just insane celebrities, but the article ends with US baby name stats from 2000. Regular folk have one-upped the celebs by naming their children after brand names. In 2000 there were:

• 55 Chevys


• 25 Infinitis


• 21 L'Oreals


• 7 DelMontes


• 6 Timberlands


• 571 Armanis


• 269 Chanels


• Numerous Evians and Guinnesses


• and (this one's my favourite) 2 ESPNs

I've also read several times about people naming their daughters Chardonnay and Chablis because that's what they were drunk on the night the children were conceived. Wow, what a special way to remember such a sacred event.

I vote we go back to naming children from the Bible. They may be old-fashioned, but at least they're actual human names!

We passed by Starbucks last night and my husband spotted the new bears and before I knew it, we had 2 new additions to the collection, yay! They're back to school bears, which is fun. (Their cute little school bags did me in.)

Not much going on here - it started raining on Tuesday and has been mostly grey since then. Everyone's having sinus problems due to the changing weather - lots o' snifflin'.

My hair has finally settled down, although I'm still not happy with it. I've found that the best thing to do is just leave it alone and not add any gunk to it. It still doesn't look great, but at least it doesn't look completely bizarre and unnatural. The yellow-ness has faded a bit, or maybe I've just gotten used to the brightness.

It's Friday, though - hooray! Gotta love having an ultra-short week. And I don't even have to work on Saturday, which is what usually mars my short weeks.

I'm back! We had a nice break. We:

- drove down the street I want to live on in Lynden again on our way to have a fab meal at Dutch Mother's restaurant (highly recommended if you're in the area)

- bought a lot of American junk food to bring home, including a bunch of sugar-free and low-carb stuff for me

- used our new pool noodles to bob around in the pool

- saw I, Robot

- read a lot

We also played mini-golf at this kinda weird indoor mini-golf course down there. It's a fun course, but the whole thing is made with astro-turf and duct tape and could do with a really good upgrade/cleaning. Last year, the owner's wife yelled at us twice, once because she thought I was walking about with the clubs and once because she thought our friend S was writing on the walls while doing the scorekeeping (he didn't use the official score-totalling spot with the calculator). Our husbands are 30 and 31 and my friend M and I are 29. We very obviously are not juvenile delinquents. But there's something about Birch Bay that makes the elderly treat us this way, it's weird. 

M, S, and I got scolded by a woman at the pool for not having a shower before going in. The fact that we'd actually had a proper shower at the trailer didn't matter to this officious old woman (who hadn't even had enough of a shower herself to get her hair wet and was taking up the shower room by gabbing with her friend, which is why we bypassed it), who even felt the need to point it out on the rule board. So we dutifully went and stepped into the spray for 10 seconds and got our midsections wet and went back in. Last time I checked, we were all well over the age of majority, but maybe anyone without grey hair looks the same age or something. The funny thing was, many of today's teenagers would've told her to go f**ck herself. She's lucky we grew up in the last semi-polite and respectful generation. (At least to her face, we certainly weren't polite in our discussions about her. :) )