Cuteness x 3

Shea sent me this photo taken over the weekend---are Ryan and Leah just too dang cute for words or what?

And that sweet little thing peeking through Leah's stroller is Ned's and Catherine's daughter. (You may remember Ned and Catherine are known as Nate and Jill to everyone except the Dockins family).

Isn't she adorable? I'm not sure what name Ned and Catherine gave her when she was born, but I say her name is now "Lucy".

Weekend with the family

We had a GREAT time this weekend with Matt, Michelle, Tony, Kory and Heather. We swam and soaked in the (very) hot sun and I think we ate ourselves senseless while we were at it. Not only was it the first weekend we've spent at the boat all year, it was the first time we've gone swimming. So much fun, so little weekend.

Matt captained the boat on the final trip back to the dock and he did great. In fact, Morley was so impressed with him at the helm that we actually took a seat at the back of the cockpit and enjoyed being passengers for a change. We don't get to do that very often and it was a real luxury.

We fell totally in love with Matt last week and only because I like Tammy so much did I consent to giving him back after his visit came to an end--actually I was afraid that she might give me one of those infamous "whoopins" if I didn't give him back (Brad might have also gotten a little cranky if we hadn't returned his kid, but Brad doesn't scare me--let us not forget that I judo-flipped him on Mom's concrete patio back in childhood. But that's another story entirely).

Anyway, it was a wonderful time and thank you Mike for the use of the guest house, also known as "your boat". We crammed it full of tired kids who were very grateful for the nice comfy beds and air conditioning after a long day of sun and water.

...and finally, here's a video of Matt exiting the boat with style. I've never worked up the courage to do this myself:

The Butt Ugly Boat

If you read the prior post, you have been forewarned about how butt ugly the new boat is right now. But last night we crawled around the boat to take a closer look and of course I took my camera along.

And here, in all it's butt ugly glory, is a photo of our new butt ugly boat which is soon to be rechristened "Seas the Moment 2":

And just in case the photo above doesn't convey the true ugliness of the real thing, here's that photo again of another identical boat that has been updated and redecorated:

Big difference, huh. Do the words "dark and cave-like" seem to apply? Yeah, I think so too. But all that dark blue carpet and upholstery and everything else that's dark and gloomy is gonna get ripped out and carried to the dumpster about ten minutes after we close on this baby.

And here's a shot of the not-so elegant master stateroom. It's gonna get stripped down to the bare bones too:

And here is a photo of Matt inspecting the dark blue interior. He hates dark blue too. Even if he didn't hate it before, he hates it now. He OD'd on dark blue while touring the butt ugly boat.

PS Isn't Matt handsome?

And here's Matt driving the Seas The Moment--he did great. He captained that boat like he'd been doing it for years. I think we've converted him into a boater and an engineer this week.

Retirement Planning, Step One

Yesterday we took the first step in our long range retirement plan: we bought a boat we can live aboard for a year or two while we decide where we want to live on land.

Granted, this is a crazy time for us to be thinking about buying boats or retiring since we are already half crazy with all work and no play, but sometimes you have to strike when the iron is hot. Or in this case, when the good deals fall in your lap. So we did just that and we bought a boat.

I have loved this boat from afar since the first time I saw it--it sits two slips down from ours--but I always assumed it was out of my league, or more specifically out of our budget. Who knew? I was wrong. Our dockmate hardly ever used it (I've only seen it leave the dock twice in four years) and last week he suddenly decided he wanted to get out of boating, and he wanted to get out in a hurry. He's a commercial airline pilot and those guys are a little edgy these days worrying about their own job security and retirement plans.

So he put a "for sale" sign on it last Saturday and by Wednesday night we had it under contract. I don't want to jinx anything until the deal is done, but let's just say we got exactly the boat we wanted at the price we are willing--make that "estatic"--to pay.

This has happened pretty quickly so I don't have a photo of the actual boat to show you but here is a photo of an identical boat I found on the internet:

Love those classic lines. This baby has three staterooms (one of which we plan to convert to an office), a pilot house plus a flybridge--meaning you can drive the boat from inside or outside--plus two full baths (one with a bathtub!), a full galley you can actually cook in, a washer/dryer, icemaker, trash compactor, tender (dingy) to get to shore, plus a lot of other stuff. Best of all, it is a "blue water" boat built for cruising long distances in salt water, and its tanks hold 400 gallons of diesel fuel which will only cost us about a bazillion dollars to fill up.

To give you an idea of what these things look like inside, I found photos on the internet of other boats exactly like ours that have been updated and redecorated: Disclaimer: please note that at the moment our boat looks nothing--nothing!--like these photos. The one we bought needs updating--a LOT of updating. Lots and lots and lots of updating. It has dark blue carpet and flowery upholstery, and bedspreads that are at least ten years old, and there is awful artwork on the walls everywhere, and there is way too much stuff sitting around. Frankly, she is butt ugly at the moment but butt ugly does not scare me one bit. In fact butt ugly is my fav because you can buy a lot of butt ugly boat for the same price you'd pay for a tricked out smaller boat, and ugly can be fixed.

But just to show you how cool these boats look when they've been de-uglied, look at these photos. These are the same model, just updated and decorated. This is what we'll be shooting for as we start ripping into our renovation plan that will take us the next couple of years to complete:

I've always wanted a mega size martini glass for my coffee table. Well, I haven't always wanted one, but now that I've seen this one, I want one now.

And here's what the salon can look like once you tear out the dark blue carpet and flowery upholstery:

And that last boat photo has a piano in it. I want one of those too. Neither of us can actually play a piano but the thought of having one sitting on a boat is cool. Well, we might take a pass on the piano, but I just might have to find one of those cool wood engravings of a tall ship.

This weekend we're going to the lake to look over our new vessel, and I'll be sure to take my camera. Photos of the actual boat--to be named Seas the Moment 2--to follow.

Politics, Tennessee Style

Bradley turned me on to this: two East Tennesseans talking politics--they call themselves Red State Update. Is it just me or does this remind anybody of Roger and Brad sitting on Mom's patio? (Minus the Budweisers, of course).

By the way, be forewarned that if you go to their YouTube or MySpace page (here) you'll spend the next couple of hours watching all their videos. You can't watch just one, serious.

Hillary Wins Pennsylvania