Virtual beach party - come shake off the doldrums

I'm in a bit of a posting slump this week. Jay hurt his leg fairly badly last week and has been laid up at home for the past three days, I've had some real issues with my own feet this week too. Thankfully I'm walking fairly well today but we were quite the sight this week hobbling around the house. What a pair. Everything else is basically fine, kids are both fine, but my energy and creativity are feeling sapped. I figured this is a good time to do what any self-respecting blogger does in a slump - make her readers do the work!

So come on, help me kick my muse in the ass again. Let's start this summer off right with a virtual beach party. Bring something to eat, something to drink, a beach chair or blanket crash out in, and bring a goodtime summer attitude. Share your favorite posts or photos. Tell me silly stories. From a look around the blogosphere I'm definitely not the only one feeling flat this week, so let's shake things up a bit around here.

I'll start things rolling - here's a big batch of frozen goodness to get this party started:

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Image courtesy of Stock Food

Now who's got the chips and the music?

There and back again

As you may have guessed from my silence this weekend I didn't manage to liveblog our trip. I'd say it was because we were too busy having fun but the truth is it's more due to connectivity issues. We did in fact have fun, but I could have snuck a post or two in there had I managed to get and stay connected again. Oh well, better late than never.

We're back home again after a weekend of sun and fun. It hit 104 F (42 C) one day but the wind was strong enough that it kept things bearable. We went boating, swimming in the Red Sea complete with coral reefs (little ones, we didn't go to the main coral beach since the kids are still much too young to snorkel) and their associated fish, spent lots of time around the hotel pool (and jacuzzi - Maya's favorite part) and even made it back to the Underwater Observatory. The outside observation pools and Red Sea aquarium are usually my favorite haunts, but this year the actual "in ocean" underwater observatory was a real star. I've never seen so many fish in the open water before, there were even two large school of tiny little fish whipping this way and that. Maya particularly loved the Red Sea tanks (that's my girl) but overall the turtle eggs were their clear favorite again this year, no contest.

I'm whipped today. I spent the whole day racing around (oh my poor aching feet) on just four hours of sleep so I'm just going to shut up now and let the photos speak for themselves. It's not like I'm writing anything wildly coherent anyway... Oh, and happy Father's Day to all celebrating.

Eilat, 2008.

On the way to Eilat

I haven't disappeared on you. We're in Eilat for the weekend for Jay's company's annual event. It's not as hot as in previous years but this year's hotel is not at all up to snuff and the awful whiny music coming up from the pool for the past several hours as I tried to get Maya to sleep didn't help. We did have a nice lunch break near Mitzpeh Ramon on the way down though (climbing wall and scenery pic) and a nice swim in the hotel pool this this afternoon. Jay and Itai are out at an evening event at Park Timna now. Dragging Maya out for something that didn't even start until 9pm and wasn't really for her age group didn't sound like a winning plan so she and I stayed back at the hotel and saw a musical version of Tarzan put on by the hotel's entertainment team. (It was awful, she loved it.) After that they put on a bunch of kids music and let the kids go wild on stage, which if Maya's enthusiasm level was any indication she'll remember as one of the highlights of her life to date. Unfortunately you won't see it because I can't seem to get the correct version of the picture to upload. I hate using unfamiliar software, it makes me feel like an idiot. Hopefully I'll get it sorted tomorrow when Jay's around. I'm on his computer and things went a bit wacky. Also all of my post processing seems to have disappeared so the landscape pictures look totally washed out (not helped by the fact that I was shooting one handed while the other hand kept a death grip on Maya's arm to ensure she didn't go plummeting over the edge. You'll have to take my word for it, the views of the Machtesh Rimon crater were stunning. I'm not doing justice to them.

Come back tomorrow when I will hopefully have sorted out my technical frustrations and will be feeling less ornery. In the meantime have a great end of the week everyone.

WW - Pink umbrellas. And Feet.

No, there's no connection. Just playing around this morning, avoiding work.

Visit Wordless Wednesday to see what other people aren't saying.

Find the connection

What do Mrs. Brown, an English monarch, milk (or lack thereof), a tailor, Suzie Q and Mary-Ann all have in common?

Any idea?

Still nothing?

Not yet?

Come on, the oldsters among you have a better chance with this one. Think hard, you can get it.

Well, first we heard this and this, and then later this and this (but with them), and then saw this who did this, but we never did hear this*.

For those of you whose musical tastes are not older than dirt and who are now completely bewildered, I went tonight to go see Herman's Hermits and The Animals in concert, and they ROCKED! I hadn't seen Herman's Hermits since 1987 (and that was a reunion tour back then!) and had never seen the Animals. They were only playing ONE date in Israel in a city quite far away but I managed to find a few friends to go with and off we went to spend the night cheering, singing along, and hooting like schoolkids. It was a fabulous trip down memory lane to the days of my misspent youth.

And now, since it's 2:39 in the morning, I'm off to bed. I'm not nearly as young as I was the last time I saw these guys and morning is going to come much too soon.

*I suspect it was being saved for a final group encore but since it was already 1am and we had an hour+ drive home the woman driving decided to leave during the final set. What idiots put the weakest band (The Marmalade) on last anyway? At least that way we didn't feel like we missed anything (other than the encore and this fab song) by leaving a few minutes early.

I nearly lost a friend once

Many years ago I called the home of a very dear friend who lived in the US. His wife answered and told me he wasn't home. I wasn't all that fond of his wife, they had a very difficult relationship and I blamed her for it. I had known my friend for over a decade by then and after that many years of close friendship I knew him nearly as well as I knew myself - I knew his thoughts, his dreams, his disappointments, and yes, his marriage troubles, which were many. Still, as his friend I felt obligated to be polite to his wife and steeled myself for a few minutes of inane chitchat.

I got my world ripped apart instead. After a minute or two of polite how are you's I asked how things were going with my friend, more to make conversation than an honest desire to know. She responded by suddenly swearing me to secrecy and telling me that he had hit her. More than once. And that I couldn't say anything. To remember that I'd promised her I wouldn't. I suddenly couldn't breathe, it was as if all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the universe. This couldn't be happening. This man, my friend, would never. Could never. It was unfathomable. He'd always been a protector to me, how could he ever hurt someone? I felt utterly betrayed. It couldn't have hurt me worse if I'd been the one to he'd hit.

I was so angry. I have never been that angry in my life. It was as if he'd ripped apart the very fabric of my soul. I wanted to rip his heart out with my bare hands, but I had promised to keep this devastating secret and I was afraid of what might happen to his wife if he found out she had told me.

I kept the secret, not telling a soul. It took everything I had, but I had promised and I kept that promise. I paid a heavy price though. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, smoked way too much, fought with my own husband. It affected every aspect of my life. Everywhere I looked I saw only black despair. Week after week I held my ground and refused to answer my friend's repeated calls.

One night my husband and I were in the grocery store. I picked a fight over something stupid. My husband stopped and told me enough was enough. Whatever was weighing on my mind that was causing me to act this way, it had to come out. Now. No more hiding, no more pretending that everything was alright. And come out it did, right there in the middle of the grocery store. Before I had gotten two words out I was sobbing hysterically. When I finally calmed down enough to get the words out he asked me why I hadn't just confronted my friend. I explained that I had sworn I wouldn't. Jay got angry. How could I throw away over ten years of love and friendship without giving him so much as a chance to defend himself. After holding out for another hour or two I finally agreed to speak to my friend.

With a sick feeling in my stomach I placed the call. He was so happy to finally hear from me, and so hurt that I'd been rejecting him. I heard that and exploded. I let four months of pain and hurt and anger come flying out of my mouth almost of their own volition.

And through the phone line I heard a hurt which mirrored my own. In keeping silent, in becoming the judge and jury in this conviction without trial I had committed a betrayal of my own. A terrible betrayal.

Despite everything I knew about his wife and her history, it truly never occurred to me that she had lied just to drive a wedge between us, to remove me from the picture, and yet she had. She had lied and I had believed her.

It took years for our friendship to truly recover and only newer and more twisted examples of his wife's instability finally made it clear to both of us how this had happened, and how close we had come to losing each other. Another eight years later and they are enmeshed in a bitterly acrimonious divorce with no end in sight.

She nearly cost him his best friend, and she did cost him his dreams and his innocence. That pales in comparison to what she is doing now. I only pray she won't cost him his son as well.

The Writers Island prompt for this week was reconciliation.