Downpours, and lightning, and hail, oh my!

What a wild ride to work this morning! We were at a near-standstill on 295 as rain came down in sheets, and then, if that wasn't enough, hail started pinging off my windshield. Nothing big enough to do damage, but it was still a bit unnerving. Oh yeh, there was some Hollywood-worthy lightning, too. Sheesh! Got to work safely and without incident, if not a little late. The it was intermittently sunny and cloudy the rest of the day with no more showers. Crazy.

After work today I met a friend for dinner while John took care of some errands of his own. I stopped at Target, too, to get some boring things like Febreze and Tide, but also to get two new lampshades! I inherited a nice table lamp, but its shade was a little too Giddy Up Corral for me, so it had to go. And the shade on the Ikea lamp in the living room was pretty much incapable of holding its shape after some 4 years and 2 moves. And so, the home sprucing continues!

Bedside lamp, before:

Bedside lamp, after: breezy and light.

Living room lamp, after (cuz I forgot to take a before apparently).

In backlog sprucing news, I have tackled the problem under the sink! There are two small repairs that are needed--the hot water knob is really wonky; and the pipe sometimes leaks. So there's still an old throwaway bake pan under there to catch drips until we get them repaired. I do love me some organizational helpers!

It came from beneath the kitchen sink...

But then its neatnick cousin visited and we have this...

Next project, new shoe storage. Still searching for something I like to corral the kicks.

And lastly, my once-drowned caladiums (in the front yellow pots) are making an extreme comeback! This is what they looked like a few weeks ago, and below is what the look like now!

Hubby and I spent Saturday at our beloved Ocean City, NJ. We left early, grabbed some Wawa for the cooler, and were on the sand by 9:30. Ahhhh. The air was warm, and so was the water, even if we had to trek through about three feet of broken shards of shells that had washed up in Friday night's storms. We spent hours riding swells, floating around, and laying in the sand.We stumbled upon a wedding--literally. We walked out of a shop on the boardwalk to find OCBP had blocked boardwalk traffic so the bride and her dad could process across and down onto the beach where about 50 guests, a photographer, and her groom were waiting. It was awesome and beautiful. John and I John and I watched for a while, then continued on our way. We even had a delicious and romantic dinner at a restaurant right on the boardwalk.It was my perfect day. We paid a bit in the end, though...as it was our first outing, our pale flesh burned in the relentless sun. But we were strict in reapplying sunblock, so it wasn't too bad, and nothing we can't nurse with nice, cool, from-the-fridge aloe. No pics to share, though, since I had a completely unplugged day. I didn't turn my phone on at all, didn't even take it with me. And likewise left my camera home. I even left my purse, grabbing only the few bare essentials I'd need. Perfect, glorious, blissful. More, please.