so i’m sitting down at the laptop ordering photos from flickr the other night. one of the things i like about flickr is that it tells you how many times a photo has been looked at. it’s always interesting to see what pics get the most looks, right? so i’m scrolling through the photos and i notice that there’s one photo that has a lot of hits. like the most out of any of our pics, by a healthy margin.

now of course, i’m a little leery at this point because it’s a rather innocuous photo of ella and i in the kiddie pool in florida. you can’t even see the rather stunning bikini top i’m in or anything. not that there’s anything to look at anyway, mind you. and both of us are looking away from the camera. so this is the photo i give the title, ” i can’t help staring at daddy’s thong swimsuit either, ella.” this photo has 63 views. of course there aren’t any thongs in the photo, but it’s a funny title, no?

i take my new information to my tech guy, tony, who always has some helpful troubleshooting ideas. well, it comes out that if you search flickr for “thong” guess what picture is like number 4 or something? yup. me and ella. there’s a not so flattering borat thong picture nearby. and a lot of other thong pictures. and me and ella. we’re a little out of our element in that photo group, i think. so now i think it’s funny. for the most part. i’m still deciding if we’ll change the title or not. for now it stays. it’s funny, i think. but then i’m a little grossed out by the fact you can search for “thong” on flickr and whatever grosso yuck is out there eyeballing us.
so a lesson has been learned. think about how you title things in the future. i know i will.

we got back yesterday morning from panama city beach, florida. we were gone for one glorious, sun-filled, sand-encrusted, wave-lapping week. it was delicious. every morning i would wake up and go out to the deck of our 23-story condo and look out over the ocean. i saw some sting rays combing the shallows, there were dolphins, and a few jelly fish out and about amongst the early birds at the beach. the only sounds were that of the wind and the waves hitting the shore. if i close my eyes i can almost hear its sound over my neighbor’s band practice….

i was a little concerned that ella would be freaked out by the ocean and scream and carry on. quite the contrary! she kept me on my toes seeing how she would run right into the water all by her big girl self. crazy kid. who needs mommy when i can do it all by myself? no bother that waves could knock her down; fear is for sissies! she would barely tolerate me holding on to her hands, but would acquiesce if pulled her around so she could “swim”. it was all very cute. then i tried putting her in a big bird floaty thing, but she wanted nothing to do with it. i think she has very particular tastes for a nineteen month old, but who am i to talk?

being on and around the beach for a week has given us a lovely warm glow. i’m enjoying it while i can because i know my pasty white skin will shortly make its return. in the meantime, i’ll offset my glow with my raging cold that i got from ella. i’m getting no sympathy from my coworkers, mind you. gone for a week in florida, and now you got a cold? awww. too bad.

tony had to take ella in to the doctor’s today to get her checked out. she has an ear infection in addition to her cold, poor boo. she was showing the signs late last week, but i was hoping that it was just my imagination. no luck. and now that she’s older and wiser, she has an aversion to the doctor and all related medical supplies. tony and i have to take off her shirt, hold her arms down, and practically force open her mouth to get her to take her medicine. she see’s the dropper and runs the other way. then when we manage to get it into her mouth, she spits it out. she’s quite clever. so if you have any suggestions short of intravenous injections, let me know.

i’m back to making my lunch and going to bed at a reasonable hour. no more eating out. no more beach. no more sand in my ear. no more karoake bars. no more sunscreen.

my vacation is officially over.