Arrrgh, me comments be comin' an' goin' but I think they be back

Arrrrparently me comments war corrupt'd again. But methinks th' Grand Lunar put them to rights again. I be hopin' they don't get corrupted again.

Anyway, here be pictures of our piratey day. Me apologies for not gettin' a picture of me eldest, I thought I had, but she must've snuck away.

The wee pirate:

The fearsome Sputnik:

The Jolly Tobiwarrrrrrghn:

The bonny Emarrrrnoodle:

Gark The Terrible:

The gory wooden eye:

And, o'course, the galley wench:

Yarrrr, I be givin' ye a heads up

Ahoy, Mateys!

Ye know how sometimes ye read somethin' cool on a blarg, an' see the' fun pictures, and ye realize ye missed out on celebratin' somethin' big?

Well I'm here t' give ye a heads up, afore th' day is over ~

Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day

An' lest ye not want to overly-glorify Pirate Scaliwags, I also be pointin' ye to this link which bears a bit more balanced view of th' scoundrels:

Pirates: A Reality Check - 9 Pirate Myths Examined

an lastly, if ye be thinkin' ye don't know how to talk like a pirate, I refer ye t' this handy online guide: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/howto.html ~ although I recommend ye look it over yerself and not necessarily be sendin' yer lil' monkeys to that site.

And So It Begins ...

The school year, that is. You know I was in denial all summer. Yet here it is, upon us. Apparently denial does not change reality. Who would've thought?

I'd like to pretend I'm busy and therefore not posting. And I am busier than I was. Really. With school and extracurricular activities, and church choir, and still all the usual household things to oversee. But mostly I haven't been posting 'cause I've been tired.

Turns out that getting up early, staying up and working most of the day, and going to bed late make you tired. Yeah. I know. I should get some sort of prize for figuring that out. Who knows, maybe walking more and being almost 40 and pregnant factor in, too. You never know.

But I'm still alive, in case you were starting to doubt that. I've even taken some pix for the blog. Imagine them: The third day of school (yeah, I know, most people take pictures of the FIRST day, but we were just trying to make sure we HAD a first day, way back then) ... the nice family walk to the local nature center ... stuff like that. But I didn't get any of them posted.

Since you have to imagine them, imagine a picture of us all sitting around the living room, cozy, reading together. The young ladies are knitting while listening. The boys are playing with blocks, but oh, so quietly, while they listen attentively. It is clean and comfortable, cozy, and everyone is learning so very much, and asking insightful and appropriate questions. Oh, and it smells like fresh baked bread.

Oh, I'm not saying that's the way school really goes, here. I'd like it if it did, but it doesn't. But since I haven't posted pictures of reality, that's the way I'd like you to imagine it. You may as well imagine me thin, too. While you're at it.

Put one foot in front of the other ... and soon you'll be walking 'cross the bridge

Our Labor Day excitement this year -- Iliacat and I got up at 3:30 in the morning and left at 4:00 am to drive up to Mackinaw City and walk across the Mackinac Bridge for the 51st Annual Bridge Walk.

For those not in the know, the Mackinac Bridge connects Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas and is, currently, the world's 3rd longest suspension bridge, and the longest one in the Western Hemisphere!

The total length of the Mackinac Bridge is 26,372 feet (5 miles). The length of the suspension bridge (the span that's actually suspended) is 8,614 feet (1.6 miles).

We arrived in Mackinaw City after driving through a beautiful foggy dawn, around 7 pm. We found a parking space - a free one, even - and then stood in a long but well organized serpentine cattle line.

We bought tickets ($5 a head) to cross the bridge on a bus, in order to walk back across and return to our car. If you happen to have someone to drop you off in St. Ignace and wait for you back in Mackinaw City, they would pay $3 each way, but the walking itself would be free. We rode a school bus in a long line of school buses while the first of the walkers came across the finish line. At the other side we wisely hopped into another line - for the last set of PortaPotties - before the end. There are huge banks of PortaPotties, but not ON the bridge, so once you get walking you're out of luck if you have to, you know, go. CattleLine wait - about 45 minutes. PortaPotty wait - about 45 minutes. Total line time - over 1.5 hours. But relatively pleasant, for waiting in line, really.

And then we began walking around 9 am.

Here's looking ahead at the bridge stretching out before us as we just begin, and iliacat very early in the walk, just as the bridge begins to be built up over the water

And here's me, walking the wrong way. Not really. I ran up ahead and walked backwards, trying hard not to trip or walk into anyone, so you could see the bridge behind me.

We got to walk on the grate part and see down through it. It was neat to see the water way way below, but also hard to look down and walk. Seeing the shifting perspective of the metal beams below made us feel kind of dizzy and like we were stepping off and falling. So we walked on it but didn't look down a lot

Just about to cross under the first support

And nearing the middle point - about 200 feet above the water

Around 10 am they closed one of the two open walking lanes, to accommodate southbound traffic, and everyone squeezed into one lane, causing a bit of walker-congestion and claustrophobia, while buses continued to bring people northbound to walk just feet from us.

The crowd evened out after awhile, and it was smooth walking to the finish. At the 2nd support we could see the photographers from newspapers up on the very top.

And then we finally came over, down, and up to the finish line.

Where we continued to walk, because we had to get back to our car, a mile away. We stopped ate some lunch and did a little shopping once we were back to the commercial area. My pedometer registered almost 6 miles of aerobic (continuous) steps which included the bridge and the trek into town, and another mile or two of standing in line and wandering around town steps. We bought some fudge to bring home, and a few little souvenirs - many things are on sale up there at the end of the summer! And we did not buy anything from, but were amused by this vending machine.

And then we drove home.

It was a good trip. If I could make just one change I would make the bridge a lot closer to home.

In which I decide - again - to be someone else when I grow up

I did something really cool today, but I'll have to blog it tomorrow.

Actually, it's already tomorrow. But I wasted the last part of the day looking for things I'd put "in safe places" so as not to lose them.

One of the items - an audio CD I need for schooly stuff - I'd already lost once, and found sometime somewhat recently - and then put in a "safe place"

Which, as I'm sure you've guessed, I can't find anywhere.

I've been up since 3:30 this morning (for the cool reason I don't have time to mention) and it's now after midnight and I can't find something I thought would be easy to find.

So I'm frustrated and angry and discouraged with myself.

And on that note I'll head to bed.