Poo poo and a new do

I sit here writing this entry late on a Saturday afternoon while watching my new Jimmy Buffett concert DVD (Jimmy's playing Wrigley). I have spent the day removing quite a few items off my honey-do list, sitting in the pool enjoying two coconuts, several beers, beautiful sun and more Jimmy from my Ipod. This evening I am going to meet some friends at a restaurant on the beach for some great food, live music and more beer. If you have read this blog before, you would know that there is no way Vic or the kids would allow me an entire day to pretend to be staying at a Carribean resort. Well, this is another one of those quirks that come with expat life. While I am able to return home for a mere two or three weeks at a time, Vic and the kids stay in Florida for six or seven weeks at a time. I thought this freedom would be more than I could possibly imagine: beer, pizza every night, late nights watching any sporting event I could find, a lack of underwear, and a beard. The truth is that I find myself wandering through a house missing the routine of taking care of the kids, spending time with my wife with an upset stomach because I am no longer eating healthy or at normal times. Don't get me wrong, I'm having fun...it's just not as much relaxation as I thought it would be.

A quiet Saturday Afternoon...there's a coconut in the cooler.

On to the title of this entry: I remember sitting in college, confident that the world was mine to tackle, and planning my route. A great moment usually involved nothing more than an Auburn win, several friends and the fermented beverage of the moment. I nostalgically think back to these times because earlier this week Vic informed me that Sawyer had finally managed to take a dump in the toilet and not his pants, and this news lifted my spirits, made me smile and was reason to celebrate. If you are reading this and have kids, I'm curious to know if you felt the same way about your kid's crap. Anyway, we're not through with the toilet training, but this was a big step. Luckily, Vic is in Panama City so I don't have a picture of the event to post, but if you are curious, let me know and I'll make something up and email it to you. One of the inevitable conclusions of boredom and a lack of supervision is an alteration of my hairstyle. Following Katrina, this resulted in a beard for several months. This time, it resulted in a result in a decidedly different direction. I'll let you all take a look and let me know what you think. After being this way for a couple of weeks now, I'm used to it and I like it. It did take most of that time to get there though. The other outcome of this condition is that I tend to try things I haven't done in the past. Last time it was hang gliding off the side of a mountain. This time I went surfing. Depending on the person here, surfing is either very tame or more bold than running off the side of a mountain. My only comment is that I did receive more injuries surfing than hang gliding. Of the two, I plan to go surfing again tomorrow, but my hang gliding days are probably over, so I'll let you figure out which is more fun. It helped that I was able to get up on my first try and ride several waves to the beach, but I was shocked at the effort involved with moving a surfboard through waves and paddling around. I discovered several muscles that day in both my arms and my legs. Unfortunately, my photographer left before I got up, so the only pictures are on the beach; however, there were other witnesses and if you want testimony, email me and I will provide the names and numbers of these individuals.

A very small lycra shirt It's me...I swear

Hope everyone else's summer is as good as mine has been so far.