Thanks everyone. I miss you too, but thank the stars that my DH brought his laptop and we can get a connection. We are here with my DH's parents and sister and hubby and their 2 teenager kids. Our room is on the third floor and that just happens to be the only level in this house that we can get a connect. (happy me!) The ocean here is not bathtub warm, but it is warm. Feels cool, but you can just go right in with having to get used to the temp, no matter how hot it is. Feels cooler at night but still not chilly by any means. It seems much saltier to me than the Pacific...maybe because this is an inlet...dunno. Is the Atlantic saltier? Body buoyancy is much greater as a result (or could it be that my increased body fat just makes me float like a cork?----hmmmm. :) They are shooting fireworks again. The Garden City pier is 1.7 miles northeast of our beach house. A nice walk that I have become accustomed to doing every morning. The first day, it was all I could do to climb the stairs every day. I thought I would die from lack of air! I took it a little at a time, and walked a bit further each day and swam out a bit farther each day. Now I am able to comfortably stroll down the beach every morning and having a blast in the surf. At low tide every morning around 5:30, I go out and comb the beach for shells and things. Most of the shells are broken, but some manage to make shore intact. The moonstones are lovely - tumbled pieces of shell or quartz, about half the size of a dime. So lovely. I am finding black shells, which I had never before seen. Found a piece of branch coral yesterday. That is very rare in the inlet. There were some guys on the beach this morning that had been finding tiny shark's teeth. They gave me one - the best one they had. Very cool! I am enjoying the children on the beach. they are so cute to watch and delightful to chat with. The Legend of Captain Jack is one that is famous around here. I asked two little kids this morning who were sitting at the shore digging if they had found any of Jack's treasure yet. They looked up with complete earnest and said, "Nope, not yet". I said, "Me neither. Darn." they bobbed their heads in complete agreement of my sentiments. I asked them if they were searching for buried treasure and they looked up and beamed, "Ya!" "Have you found any yet?" "Nah, but we think these might be broken pieces. Not sure" They held up little black pointed slivers of something, and I could for certain say whether they were or were not pieces of shark teeth, but I suspect they were in all actuality slivers of black oyster shells and not shark's teeth at all....but I was not going to spoil their enthusiasm and fun. Darling little sprouts they were of about 5 or 6. ((HUGS)) ~ Annie Down here with some sorry "sunny beaches", but having a great time in spite of it all.

Thanks everyone for your comments and compliments. The dl's get all the credit, I just try to take care of them and take photos of them. :) For those of you who love Another Chance Today, as I do, here's an earlier photo of it that I don't think I posted. I think it's even nicer with the slightly recurving petals. Jan

There's a good DVD remote substitute, called pig snouts, that are soft enough for smaller dogs, but provide satisfying chewing for them. Used to get them at Tom Thumb, but last time we ordered from an on-line source, in bulk. Ours also like the "Grandpaws" chews that are made the same way, from beef hide, instead of pig noses. They are smaller pieces, that provide chewing satisfaction for the day. The only toy they like, is a small soccer ball in soft latex, with a squeaker. They don't like hard balls, although they will tolerate small dog sized tennis balls. Once in a great while, they will play with a tug of war toy.

Lonepiper..I completely agree with you. If I have to ask my parents for money, then in my opinion, anything that is not essential has to be put on the backburner until the situation improves. Update on this situation...We got into another big argument about it last night. We had come to the agreement that we would pay our half now instead of waiting the 30 days the divorce decree allows, just to try to be amicable. Since we came up with that offer, DH has been trying to reach BM and discuss this arrangement with her. She finally called him back yesterday 1 hour before he was to pick his girls up for their 2 week uninterrupted visit with us and started going off on him..telling him he is nickel and diming his daughters..how she can't pay her bills because he isn't paying enough CS,..on and on. So, he caved and told her we would pay the entire bill since she is so strapped. I FLIPPED OUT! What happened to our agreement? He tells me.."I have you on one side saying one thing and her on the other, and I feel stuck in the middle". Newsflash..you put yourself in the middle. She isn't your wife anymore (HER CHOICE) and chose to marry a man who makes 1/3 what you do. If she can't pay her bills..that's her problem. And guess what..we don't have the money either. Why is it ok for her to say she doesn't have the money, but when he does, he is a bad parent. When my DH lost his job last year, he had 500 dollars left to pay her from the divorce decree due 15 days after he lost his job. We asked her for a little time until he found another job...she absolutely refused..told him our finances weren't her problem. So, again we borrowed the money from my parents so he could pay her off. She didn't care about our money problems...I could care less about hers. I know her lack of money right now isn't going to keep the kids from eating because WE HAVE THEM FOR THE NEXT 2 WEEKS, so I am more concerned with keeping my refrigerator stocked for them. Anyway, after this blow out where I totally lost it, he went out to start his car and it's DEAD. Hopefully, he will just need a new battery, but it totally proved my point that we can't just be throwing good money after bad because his car is 12 years old and we have to think it is going to have problems. It is very frustrating, and I told him that contacts were low on the priority list...I am going to pay car insurance, health insurance premium, DS's school tuition (before anybody jumps and says I care about my kids before the sk's-this is my son from a previous marriage and his dad pays more than enough CS to cover his school) and the water and power bill first. To me, all of those things are more important than contacts this week and I am going to fight this battle to my death (hopefully not necessary). Usually, I give in just to regain the peace, but I know I am right on this one, and I refuse to put this family in hardship when we offerred a compromise that BM is unwilling to accept.