So here's Shawna smell'in the flowers at Port City Java. Or PCJ as we call it. This is our usual hangout for tea and chatt'in. If ya wanna join us, your more then welcome. Shawna just back from Denmark and Sweden gave me the scoop on her adventures. She had a great time and I got a really cool eco friendly food shopping bag with multicoloured reindeer on it and some wash cloths with fancy Swedish designs. Thanks Shawna I love them.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to wake up really early and go to Wrightsville Beach to see The Saurus Dance Festival opening ceremonies at sunrise on the beach. Well lets just say I was on the fence about the whole idea. Yes, I would love to see the sun rise over the ocean.
But really, I have to leave before 5:45 am. Well, I'm wasn't to sure about that.
But I bit the bullit, also my friend Dixon did a little coaxing with "come on, it's gonna be so fun".
So I did.

Wow, was I ever glad I did. What a gloriously spectacular morning. The sunrise was awesome.
But the dancers combined with the ocean and the beautiful morning sunlight was heavenly.
I took the most amazing pictures that I do not take any credit for. It was the beauty of the morning. The place, the subject and the light all came together and simply made magic.

Our friend Sylvia has returned to Iceland. She had been living here for over a year working as a Chaplin at the local hospital.
So we had a girls night out to say Bon Voyage to our Icelandic friend. The girls, Me, Shawna, Sylvia, Alison, Anna and Emily went to Indochine. Which is one of the best restaurants in Wilmington. It is a Thai/Indonesian Restaurant. Let's just say it is yummy, yummy, yummy!!!
Indochine is one of our favorite restaurants and we find ourselves going there for all special occasions. Birthdays, anniversaries etc. We had a great night. I brought my camera and got to take lovely photos of the gardens and patios surrounding the restaurant. We sat outside on a side patio that had this amazing Buddha shrine behind us. There are Buddhas all around hidden in the gardens. I had fun trolling around with my camera photographing them all.

So I'm finally back from the land of post surgery yuckiness. I feel fabulous. Still a little tired and sore but the pain, that I have had radiating in my lower back for about
10 or 12 years is gone, gone, gone. I'm amazed at how much different I feel. I think I had gotten so used to living in pain that it had become normal to me. So yeah, yeah, yeah!!!
Now I have started exercising to build up my strenth and I'll be ready to roll.


Jeff and I had a casual get together with some friends by the pool yesterday.
His band "The Clams" played and we barbacued and hung out.
We have a lovely pool and a gazebo that you can rent out for the afternoon in our complex.
I forgot my camera but here is a photo of "The Clam's at the last Wisteria Fest.
Which is an overnight musical and camping hippie fest extravaganza. Ten bands play all day and night it's free and "The Clams" are the house band. Tucker is the ringleader of the Fest.
It's his land and he puts on the party. What a party, there were 500 people there last spring. There is one comming up this fall if anyone wants to come. We will fill you in on the details.

I'm going to have a bit of surgery on friday. Right now I'm trying to get my house ship shape for when I'm out of commission.
Think good thoughts for me. Until then, here's a little ray of sunshine for everyone.
Keira Bella Dennison.
My cousin Maureen's baby.
Isn't she a doll?
Cheers

June 10, 2000

So tomorrow is our 8th wedding anniversary. I think we have reached a comfortableness in our relationship that was not there before. It's a good kind of comfortableness, not a boring one.
We like each other immensely. We get along very well. But most of all we make a great team.
Thats the most important. I think that we have both grown tremendously since we met. We have allowed each other to explore things that we may never have if we were alone.
But again what I have realized, in this coming of our 8th anniversary, is that as a team we are better than we are sperate. We have a better life, happier times and lot's more fun.
Like yin and yang we just work together. Don't get me wrong there have been plenty of bumps in the road. Year 7 was not a walk in the park. But one year later looking back, I see that everyone needs those bumps. So that we can see what is really, really important to us and how sticking together and working through the rough spots and being a team is what love and life is all about.

Here are more photos from that day....

About two weeks ago we had a lovely weekend when my Cousin Katie and her husband Rodney visited with their two boys. The Kids are on soccer teams and every May they have the finals here in Wilmington. It's a great family reunion. They stayed at a beautiful hotel right on the beach.
After the games were over we sat by the hotel pool sipping cocktails with the family. My Mom and Aunt hung out and my Uncle came down from NJ to see his Grandchildren play. It was a beautiful day with fabulous weather and a great family to hang out with.

Today is going to be a hot one. I just checked the weather and it say 96 by 3:00.
Jeff has a cold. I'm taking care of him to get him all better. I imagine it's from all the AC cranking. I guess we will go hang out at the pool when he gets home from work. It's so lovely to have the pool and also to be so close to the beach.
I have to take a ride downtown later. I'll take some photos and put them up tomorrow.
I usually meet Shawna downtown at Port City Java for a quick coffee and a chat. It's one of my favorite things to do. Wilmington has quite a few cafes. It's not uncommon to walk into a cafe for a quick cup and bump into some friends and have a quick chat. It's great. You always see someone you know. Not to mention the coffee is great too. Here are some pics of Wrightsville Beach... Oh yea, that's Leonard at the beach. He likes the sand but is not to crazy about the waves trying to wet his paws. He runs away when the water comes near him. He is very silly.

Here is Jeff doing his thing for Radio La Gran D.
He is producing local commercials to be broadcast on the station.
This is one of his favorite things to do. He loves his new job.
He's getting tons of great experience and he looks super cute sitting at the board.
Stay tuned for great things to come...

Here are some pictures from our memorial day party and from last weekend hanging out by the pool with friends. That's Jeff and Tucker (He's in Jeff's band "The Clams") and Barbara and Tim, neighbors. Then there is Josh, Dylan (Clams) and our neighbor Zelito jamming in the living room. The last picture is our good friends Shawna and her husband Rich and Matt (where's Alison? She must be sunning herself by the pool.) We live in a great place with a lovely pool.
We really take advantage of the beachie lifestyle here and have as many parties and get togethers with friends as we can. The Wilmington look is.... flip flops, shorts with a slight coconut suntan lotion smell. It's a nice life.

So I started up this blog and then I put the ball down. So here I am again blogging away.
My friend Shawna seems to want me to pick that ball back up. She has been emailing me,
instant messaging me on myspace, whatever, just to get be back on the stick.
Soon she will be channeling me through my dreams. She's a writer and teaches writing.
So she has a lot of respect for the written word and it's magical powers. So here it is Shawna...
I've picked up the ball and I will not put it down again. Here's a picture of Shawna at
Flaming Amys Burrito Barn. She loooooooovvvvveeeeeesssssssss herself some hot sauce
almost as much as she loves the written word. Thanks Shawna

So to start a blog or not to start a blog. It seems a bit self indulgent to think that others would even be remotely interested in my life or how it is going. But then I think about how I am so interested in my friends lives that I can view online. Between Myspace, Flicker and blogs we can stay in touch and in the loop just by turning on a computer. How wonderful that a friend can move across the country but I can still witness her life and child growing up. Voila, courtesy of the internet.
I can send her a comment on Myspace, check out photos on Flicker or call them up with my Skype camera. It's just like they are in my living room. Yes, email can be very annoying. There are not enough hours in the day to answer them all. Computers take up so much of our time.
But how wonderful is it at this time when friends and family live in all corners of the world that you can have a glimpse into their daily life. I think it is an opportunity that I don't want to pass up. So here it is... an unguarded moment in my life. Welcome.