Vacation Updates in Friday Fragments Formation

Since my internet connection is a bad joke here in Louisiana, and getting anywhere in cyberspace is hit-and-miss at best, I thought this would be the perfect time to join in the fun of Fragment Friday, brought to you by the inimitable Mrs. 4444 from Half Past Kissin’ Time. If you haven’t scoped out her Blog yet, you really should…she’s always enjoyable to read! 🙂

In order to get an internet connection, I’ve had to stay outside for hours. Sure, there’s a gazebo to sit under, but holy cow has it been hot!! So I hope you forgive the limited blog-hopping and commenting I’ve been able to do this week, I’ve had to shut down and go in to cool off – though I push it to the last minute until I’m about ready to melt…which also seems to make my laptop a bit more sluggish than normal because it was getting pretty hot as well.

Oh, and as I was typing this, our friend came out to let me know that he has exceeded his limit on his internet connection…it doesn’t re-set until the 14th, and any usage I do will cost him ‘out the butt’ (his words). So for the rest of our vacation I will have no internet connection. Yay. I guess after the boys get back from the hardware store I’ll be off and running to try to find a wifi connection somewhere to get this post scheduled to upload.

For those of you who have requested the recipe for the crawfish boil we did last weekend, I’ll be posting that after we get back – I promise!

We’ve been having quite the enjoyable time visiting our friends here in Louisiana – it’s always nice to come down here and relax and hang out. When they lived in PA, we used to get together weekly to go a little mental, play various types of board games or card games and generally dissolve into uncontrollable laughter. When they moved to LA it was a little sad because those fun times became limited to once a year when we drive down for a visit. In true fashion, one night this week we decided it was time to play our favorite card game, 31. It’s a fun card game, and involves each participant to play with 3 quarters. I’ll explain the game at another time, if you’re interested.

We decided to play outside since it was getting stormy (what? you think that’s not a great idea?) They built a cool gazebo, so we were sheltered….mostly. The air got a little cooler after the rain passed through, so it was nice being outdoors listening to the sounds of nature as we razzed each other during the game. Rob had gotten Christy some sort of wine cooler or something, which she left in the brown paper bag for fun:

There was, however, one annoying tree frog that seemed to be competing with the raucous laughter and loud conversations going on. We decided to find out where he was, you know, to let him join in on the fun. We were surprised to find that the loud frog was a tiny thing – hanging out on the edge of the kiddie pool.

Rob had a great time getting him to crawl on his hand and arm…I covered my cleavage because he threatened to try to deposit him there like he tried with a moth and Japanese beetle. Luckily the frog decided he’d rather jump on my hubby instead. Then he made his escape because, well, he was a smart frog.

In case you’re wondering – and you know you are – yes, I enjoyed my full body massage. Christy was a bit disappointed in the atmosphere because she had been spoiled at a different place where it truly is a ‘spa experience’, whereas the place we both had gift certificates to was…….not. Picture a nail salon…then picture a small hallway that had two tiny rooms off to the side dedicated for massages. Yep, that’s what this place was. Literally.

In fact, when we arrived for our appointment, we had to wait no less than 20 minutes for the weathered and excessively made up coiffed woman finish a pedicure so she could come give one of us a massage. Lovely. She reminded me of a much older version of Flo:Much, much older. Like a Flo wannabe. I was waiting for her to say “Kiss my grits!” Christy was the one who followed her into one of the tiny dark rooms, while I followed the young gal that looked like a deer caught in headlights. Needless to say, while I enjoyed the massage itself, the experience left a lot to be desired and the girl that gave me my massage was as timid as a mouse. Next year we vowed to go to the actual spa experience place and get a real massage. Something to look forward to.

After our disappointing massages, we went out to lunch and had some enjoyable ‘girl talk’. We then had a couple of hours to kill before the tattoo place was open to check out the possibility of getting a tattoo. Christy has a frog tattoo she got when she was 19 and has regretted it ever since – she wanted to check into the option of having it removed, or morphed into something else. I’m sure you’re wondering if I went through with getting a tattoo. Yes. Yes, I did. On the back of my shoulder. Christy took a picture when the dude got finished with the basic outline:

I haven’t been tanning this year, so I’m as white as a ghost…you pretty much have to wear sunglasses around me to save your eyeballs from the glare. Anywhoo…the finished tattoo looks awesome. But you’ll have to come back next week for my Random Tuesday Thoughts post to see the finished pictures…because while the whole experience might need its own post, at least I can do the highlights (or lowlights) without turning Friday Fragments into a novel. 😉

While I was sitting outside baking in the heat playing the ‘hurry up and wait’ game for blog pages to load so I could read and comment, I glanced up and noticed this:

Not sure if it’s clearer when you’re not squinting in the bright light like I am right now, but we accidentally parked our cars ‘in order’…you know, with the 4th of July right around the corner – Red, White and Blue. It wasn’t intentional, we just randomly parked our vehicles in front of Rob’s cabinet building workshop – and that was the result. Yes, I’m easily amused – why do you ask? 😉

Later in the day we noticed that the neighbor across the gravel road behind Rob’s workshop had his horses out. One of them was within sight and Rob told my hubby not to turn around to look – you know, because my hubby happens to be afraid of horses. He looked. And I had to do one better and walk over to visit. And take pictures. Elvis was quite interested as well:A very pretty horse – apparently not quite ‘tame’ or trained yet, but still friendly enough to decide that the huge handful of long grass I grabbed on the way over looked enticing enough to approach the fence:He (or she) readily took the grass from me and was munching happily when I took this shot:Unfortunately it was getting dark enough that my autoflash decided it was the perfect moment to go off…right in the poor horsey’s eyes…and spooked him. So he gave me a look, then took off, still eating the mouthful of grass. When he got back over by the other horse, he kept giving me ‘Humph!’ looks:I’m going to try to make nice with the horse again before we leave – you know, not flash bright lights in his eyes and see if he’ll let me pet him. Then I’ll see if I can con persuade finagle convince hubby into getting in close proximity of the horse for pictures. I’ll keep you posted. 🙂

This is obviously turning into a very long post, so I’m going to stop now. You’re welcome. I am looking forward to checking out all the cool participants of Fragment Friday, but I might have to wait to do my fun reading and witty commenting when we’re at our halfway point stop at the motel on the way home next week…otherwise I’ll be sure to get around to everyone when we are officially home with our real and fast internet connection. 🙂