A sombre shade of yellow

I'm not working this week, but I'm on vacation with my family and I believe that merits a bit of blathering - especially since this is not a 'GO! GO! GO!' kind of vacation. More just a relaxing, enjoyable, sand-filled week of bliss.

I took a walk on the beach this morning. Despite the fact that we're in Southern California, it was rather overcast and a bit cool. Not too cool for school, just cool enough to enjoy a walk on the beach. I felt, as I was sauntering along the shore, like I should have been in a seminary video and gaining a deep and abiding testimony of the Book of Mormon. I even stopped to ponder on an outcropping of rock. The biggest disadvantage to the cool weather (it's colder here than in Salt Lake this week) aside from the dead squid which had been cruelly displaced from their habitat by the tide, is the fact that there's not much to look at or enjoy on the beach *wink wink*...at least not in the morning when it's still overcast.

I love being an uncle. My most active nephew is about a year and half old and full of piss and vinegar...or juice and nilla wafers depending on the time of day. He dances, babbles in his car seat, and had the (insert generic colloquialism for fecal matter) scared out of him yesterday at the Angel's baseball game we went to. Two jets flew over the stadium directly after the small fireworks which followed the national anthem. No one was expecting them, least of all this tiny cherub. He jumped about 3 feet in the air and began to cry. For the rest of the night whenever they lit off any fireworks he would get a bit scared and look around for more jets. He may have been traumatized for life. On the upside I can still get him to dance with me whenever upbeat music starts to play.

We took family pictures on the beach. I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty much awesome. We even got a beginning to a sitcom 'running-up-the-beach-away-from-the-crashing-surf' picture with all of the siblings. I'm quite excited about that. I'm also excited about my far-too-contrived, yet all-too-attractive individual pictures. There's just something about the beach, a white shirt, and the late afternoon lighting that would make anyone look hot.

As a PS I'm including a picture of the spidery Canadian chandelier I mentioned earlier in my blog. Angie requested a picture, and my camera was being temperamental at the time, so I couldn't accommodate until now. To see said reference, please refer to the post entitled "Edge of the Tundra" from May 9.