My uncle Rick sent this link out to the fam this weekend – totally killed me.

Working a TON this week at the surf shop then managed to procure the weekend (what!? two in a single month!?) to finalize the Fulbrightness. I will only let the internet distract me briefly, this week, see if I don’t!

Kelly

Man, I love days off. I feel all revitalized and stuff! I accomplished a great many small things with these two days – I had Japanese food with a new friend, took an EPIC afternoon nap (glorious!), cooked delicious things and then had the time and energy to give the kitchen a thorough cleaning afterwards, spruced up my blog, started to use Twitter in earnest, kicked ass at Facebook scrabble… Like I said, little things. Now I’m sitting on my bed, listening to the rain and enjoying the accompanying temperature drop and smell of the bay rum trees. Not too shabby.

Plus, I’ve got a working draft of my personal statement for my Fulbright application (due in just weeks now – yipes! O_O). Slow but surely, though, my to-do list is being winnowed down. Deep breaths.

What else do I have of note? Oh, go listen to Imogen Heap’s new album: http://www.imogenheap.com/ellipse/ No, seriously. Go. It’s fabulous.

Oh! I really love my new wallpaper:

It’s very summery, I think, though it does make me pine for decent produce. Oh heirloom tomatoes, I miss you so. (This came, btw, from interfacelift.com. If you haven’t been, you should.)

Until next time,
Kelly

Today was downright lovely. We finished up the Sun Times‘ September issue right on time, completely finished at 2pm. This. Never. Happens.    Ever.    So that was good. I made honey and vanilla madeleines (thanks, Mum, for sending my pan!) while we waited for the printer to review the files and then took a nap with Ella’s new puppy sleeping on my tummy. Adorabizzle! (She even has super-short hair, so she doesn’t give my allergies trouble! Bonus!)

On top of the good work juju, Bill is swirling safely by out in the Atlantic, which is a relief. Check out the updated version of the sat imagery:

He’s still one scary-looking storm (nearly 600 miles across!!! O_O), and his influence is significant enough that we’re getting some fabulous winds across the mountain, and these incredibly intense – like, surreal, almost mystical – bands of stormclouds interspersed with patches of sun. Not bad. Plus, Ana scrubbed the Sahara dust from the air, so we’re back to crystal clear sunlight and stunningly blue skies. Not bad, at all.

But enough of weather. The real news is that I have TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF! Like in a row!! I’m beside myself. I’m going to do some writing (only minorly work-related), loads of cooking (pasties stuffed with chicken, apricots and rice – some might call them darioles, though they’d be totally wrong… -_^), and most importantly, I’m going to finish my application essays for Fulbright and study some Italian! Come on weekend – I’m ready for you! : )

It’s possible there may be more posts in my near future. You never can tell…
Kelly

So the biggest damage dealt by Ana was that I didn’t get much sleep last night, listening to her blow through. (Well, plus a coupla trees came down – but what’s that compared with the loss of my beauty rest?) The sky at dawn was the most unsettling shade of orange I’ve ever seen. Weird weird weird. The thing that’s strangest to me about storm season is how surreal it is when there’s a storm tracking in your direction. I’m sure it’s just ’cause I’m still not used to it, but I get all keyed up and keep looking at the horizon, as if I could see it coming, even when it’s still days out. Anyway, Ana’s well past us, but Bill is looming, in the classic, super-menacing sense of the word. Check out this satellite image:

Seriously. I mean there he is, all spinning and gathering strength out to sea, busy being as big as our entire friggin’ island chain. Sheesh.

Chances are still real good that he’ll bear north before he has a chance to give us any trouble. (Bermuda’s on their own, though…) But still, given its size, it wouldn’t take much of a course alteration to put us back in its path. So cross your fingers for us!

Serendipitously, in mostly-non-weather-related news, our print deadline for this issue of the Sun Times got unexpectedly pushed up to Wednesday, instead of Friday. This was momentarily stressful, but actually may work out real tidy, like. If Bill is going to be on our doorstep, he’s due around Thursday, after we’ve got the issue off our desks. Beats the heck out of Omar, last year, when we only abandoned production when the office began to take on water. : ) Good grief.

So, I know most of y’all that are reading this also have blogs. Let’s hear it from your lives!

Two posts in three days!? Bam, said the lady.
Kelly

First two named storms of the season! Tropical Storm Ana (pronounced ah-na, not that anybody’s paying attention to that) is due within 30 miles of us on Monday, and TS Bill (“…I thought it might be Antoine or Basil or, like, Langford maybe, but Bill?”) is due within 150, as at least a Cat 2, on Thursday… and there’s a third on the books for Saturday. Weehee. Wish us luck!

Kelly

p.s. Hey look! I have a blog! O_O