Hot as dump!

Some may be thinking, "of course it's as hot as dump outside...its Florida...in the SUMMER...of course it's going to be hot." While I understand this line of thought, when I arrived in May, the temperatures actually weren't that bad. It was actually very tolerable. However, the days of semi-nice looking hair and not feeling perpetually sweaty have passed on, and the ravaging beast known as humidity has arrived with a b-slap to my face. In order to combat the humidity, we've gone to the beach a couple times....not too shabby. It was nice to park my chair right in the waves and read. I guess it's a nice trade off for the completely wakkie nu nu weather.

This little crab kept going in and out of his little hole in the sand right by all our stuff. He was pretty big, and as you can see, pretty creepy!

I wanted to make the ocean do something cool like Percy Jackson.

I did Cecilia's hair in these little pigtails....adorable! Moments later, she hit me in the face with the kazoo. When my sister told her, "We do NOT hit Auntie Steph with our kazoo!!" I laughed really hard and totally negated any disciplining. It was real funny.

Space Shuttle, we have a problem...you suck!

One of the cool things about having a brother in law in the Air Force is access to Cape Canaveral. This past Saturday there was supposed to be a space shuttle launch, so my brother in law, Matt, his sister, Katherine, and I wanted to go and see it, considering this will be one of the last launches since the shuttle is being discontinued soon. Anyway, the launch was scheduled for 7AM, meaning we had to wake up at 4:45 in order to leave by 5:30 to make it to base an hour early to get our premo seats at the Cape. Well, after dragging myself out of bed and the BC of D, we found out the launch was "scrubbed" because of a leak. So since we were all awake already, we went to the Cape anyway and Matt gave us an awesome tour. We got to climb through some cool stuff and explore an abandoned launch building (I forgot the technical term for it). However, as a history nerd, it was especially rewarding to see the launch pads for the very first space flight missions, and the place where the Challenger is buried (or at least its speculated location). What really shocked me though was that some of these really historically important places were totally dilapidated. When I asked Matt why none of these places were preserved better, he told me that one of the first things to get cut in the AF budget was funding for, "historical crap". Nice. We rounded out the day on Matt's friend's sailboat on the Bananna River. I saw at least 5 manatee's in the docks at the Marina, and by the end of the sailing trip, my face had morphed into one giant freckle. It was fun though....I love boats!

Yesterday, we heard the launch had been rescheduled for today at 5:40 AM. Being the dedicated nerds we are, we decided to wake up at 3:30 to make it to base to see the launch. And, after I went to bed at 9:45 PM ( probably for the first time since 3rd grade) and woke up, got dressed, and was all ready for the launch, we found out the launch was scrubbed AGAIN. Complete wakkie nu nu! I mean, don't get me wrong, I am glad that the astronauts won't get hurt from whatever keeps malfunctioning, but come on! That's why you suck, space shuttle.

Here's some pictures from our Cape tour:

The lighthouse

Inside one of the giant old launch sites

Me and Matt on the other side of the launch thingy. It was gross becuase there was a dead vulture down below us that ran into some powerlines...sick!

Launch place where the Apollo I fire happened, killing all three astronauts.

An underground escape hatch in case you got sealed inside the launch building. It was pitch black inside of this place, and all we had were 3 flashlights to look around.

1970 called...they want their launch computer back. After a while of being in this room, my lungs started to hurt. I probably inhaled asbestos. Oh well!

Yelling into the void

Pile of suck! (aka unlaunched shuttle)

Gator Land

So although FL can make you hate yourself becuase of the constant thick cloud of humidity resulting in constant sweatiness and horrible hair, it fully redeems itself though awesome one of a kind experiences, such as....witnessing a man pull/wrestle a gator in your backyard. This gator man, on the job for only six weeks, pulled out a 5 foot 6 inch gator from the lake behind the house. GATORS=AWESOME. the end.

fishing for the gator

there he is!

he sat on him. Ironically, the gator man was wearing crocs...

he brought the gator closer for my sister and the kiddos to see.

close up of his teeth. I was about 3 inches from his face!

gator!

What's Wakkie Nu Nu?

So I've decided to start a blog. I was resistant at first, not really thinking that my life merits any kind of excitement that would necessitate a blog, but certain friends and a few family members persisted that I give it a go anyway. So, here goes. Many may be wondering, "What the H is Wakkie Nu Nu and why is that the title she chose to call her blog?" Simple answer. It's hilarious! Right now, as many know, I am in Florida. On t.v., there are these crazy commericials from this place called "Appliance Direct." The main character of the commercial is an asian man who speaks poor english and uses awkward sentences to describe the greatness of Appliance Direct. One of his greatest exclamations about competitors prices or machinery is, "That's Wakkie Nu Nu!!!" (the phrase is also spelled out in cheesy WordArt on the screen). So naturally, this made me laugh real hard and filled me with the desire to work the phrase into my everyday vocabulary. So why Wakkie Nu Nu? Because life is Wakkie Nu Nu. That's why.