don't tell my sissy

we just spent about twenty minutes out on the balcony watching a relatively large (probably about five foot) shark swimming all around a couple of swimmers. i don't think the swimmers noticed him, even though he got as close as ten feet from them. we watched him swim out to sea and come back in around them again several times but i think he finally got tired of them and went out to sea for good. it was fascinating to watch. i had my camera ready but he was too far away (next building over) and staying too far under the water. it was a fun break anyhow. and, luckily, those two body surfers must not look very tasty.

companionship on a sleepless morning

i woke up just before 0400 because i had to pee. after that, i could not get back to sleep. i woke hubby up for a few minutes but he was able to go right back to sleepi (i hate that about him). i got up and went out to the balcony to watch the moon over the water for a bit. i rummaged in the dark through our closet to find batteries for my camera (both sets of batteries are dead; anyone know where my charger is???) and tried to take pictures of the moon but, as much as i heart my camera, it sucks in low light. it was beautiful though. it was a full, orange moon. it was behind a light cloud so the cloud was glowing orange with just the tip of the moon peeking out over top and then there was a trail of the orange moonlight all the way across the water into the shore. it was wonderous. shame about the lack of good photo. this doesn't do it justice at all. and it was after the clouds moved away.

about 0500 i laid back down and tried to go back to sleep. no such luck. at 0530 i decided to get up and go jogging on the beach. while i am not a morning person or jogger at all, it was very nice and peaceful out. there are no waves so the water just lapped at the shore and my feet a little. it was cool and quiet and relaxing (in a i-am-so-not-a-jogger/morning-person kind of way). my goal was to go to a building that would have made it about three miles round trip. i'd say i was about a quarter-mile from that buildng when i got an unexpected jogging companion. i kid you not, five feet away from me a shark was swimming the shoreline. it was only a baby, three feet from nose to tail, but it was soooo cool! i was very excited and ticked off that i didn't have my camera. it stayed five to eight feet away for probably thirty yards before it finally decided to swim back out to sea. i could have reached out and touched it, it was so close. i'm no shark expert, but i'm pretty sure it was a black tip based on body style. clearly, i need a super tiny, high-tech, spy camera. something tiny that i could carry on me at all times no matter what i'm doing but takes great pix. yes, i did vent to the shark about him having the audacity to show up when i was completely cameraless. maybe he'll come back around while we're kayaking this weekend so that i can get his closeup. we've also had a six foot or so eagle ray passing by the last couple of days. i had no batteries in my camera yesterday. i did get a couple pictures today but he was much farther out and you can't hardly make it out as an eagle ray.

duuude

i really am not sure what the deal is but i have been exhausted all week again. it's very frustrating. last week we were actually able to lunch-gym a couple of days. this week i just can't bring myself to do anything more than fail at taking a nap. i've had a hard time getting up in the mornings again - hubby kicked me out of bed this morning when i thought i had another snooze but i was actually late for work. of course, that was after i was wide awake at 05:41 and tried to convince myself to get up and go to the gym instead of trying to go back to sleep. oh well. maybe next week will be better again. however, we did just see our first sea turtle. i'm actually a bit surprised that we haven't seen any before. seems like turtles would be pretty common around here. not sure why it seems that way but it does. anyhow, YAY for another creature sighting!

sea cow

my cousin will find this especially interesting in light of her facebook gift to me today... we just had our first manatee sighting! at first, she was just a very large dark figure in the water, not all sleek and angular like the shark i saw. i guessed it might be a manatee because i didn't know of anything else with such a... ahem... rotund body shape but it seems like a strange time of year/day to see a manatee swimming along the beach. hubby broke out the binoculars and i watched her until she came up for a breath - confirmed manatee sighting! i saw her cute little ugly face take a deep breath and then her body arched over the water until her rounded tail waved goodbye. how exciting. that's one i never even expected to see. unfortunately, even though hubby did bring my camera to me, there was just no way to get a good pic of her. it's really tough to focus through the moving water that far out. maybe she'll come around again and be more photogenic next time.

"Barbara Manatee! You are the one for me! Sent from up above, you are the one I love."

rays of happiness

last night, whilst we sat on the balcony eating dinner, we noticed two four-packs of sting rays swimming right along the shoreline. i so enjoy watching the rays. they are delightfully playful. as we watched the two groups diverge in opposite directions, i commented how it was strange that i always see them in four-packs. then we noticed that a little further out, there were two groups of 12-15 each. rays everywhere, i tell ya! it was a great dinner-show. this morning, there is another four-pack again and another very large group again. have i mentioned how much i love our backyard?

SHARK!!!

i saw my first SHARK today! i was very excited when i looked down from my balcony and saw the large, dark, angular sea creature swimming in that very defining zigzag pattern. i wish my hubby had seen it too but he was down at the pool swimming (i had just gotten out of bed). unfortunately, i was so enthralled with watching it for the short time i was able to that i did not run back in to find my camera and shoot it. you can, however, take my word that it was SO COOL! happily, my wii hubby did come home to me late yesterday afternoon. we mostly relaxed last night and not much on the schedule for today. i think we're going to walk to some stores to see if we can find my boy a new kite. the wind broke his last time he was flying. i should do some masking and painting but i've been cooped up all week so i'm ready to get out a little. the paint will still be there tomorrow, right? and maybe we'll get around to building our mii's sometime too.