hello there.
the other day when matt and i went to the beach there was a funny (well, just unbelievable) scene.
these 3 guys were sitting on a grassy area in the middle of ocean beach (beach on one side, street on the other) and passing around what looked to be a joint. they weren't even being secretive about it, either! i did a double take, and sure enough, it was a fatty. i said to matt, "is that pot?" and he said, "yep!". talk about risk-takers--there seriously were hundreds of people around, not to mention a police station less than 100 yards away! wow...

anyhoo, had a lazy day yesterday, preparing some stuff for our future vacation...making lists, spreadsheets, you know, mare, maps of how everything is going to be packed in our suitcases!!!

oh, and some good news for our condo. the plumber and both realtors went to check out the source of the leak yesterday. they pulled up the whole deck and found no moisture around the jacuzzi. so that eliminated the jacuzzi as being the source of the leak. then as they tore up boards by our wall and fence, they discovered that the neighbor has wet mulch (which is designed to retain moisture) that is covering 6 inches of the stucco. apparently, you are not allowed to have dirt or anything piled up higher than the foundation for this very reason. the mulch is right where our two walls meet and the water is travelling into the house through the ground and wicking its way up the wall (on our side). so it's a pretty easy solution, that dude (who we met and who is really nice) just has to move his mulch back.

so it looks like everything is a go, but i'm still not going to get too excited until we have our final walk through and the keys are in our hands.
we've prayed for God's will, so we'll see what happens!

well, i'm going for a walk.

"yeah we've been walking
barefoot
all summer
why can't we just decide
to live like this all the time?
why can't we just quit?"

yeah, really! 10 weeks off is not enough. my summer vacation is nearly halfway through--how in the world did that happen???
tracey
p.s. mare, do you have any birthday ideas?

it's early and the sun is out again!!! yeah! it's beach time for me!

i got up on tuesday and the weather was pulling its usual number of cloudiness in the morning so i drove 10 miles inland to mission valley trails and went hiking by myself. it was warm and totally sunny (justin, can you explain that phenomenon to me again? i know you learned about it in your weather class!). i hiked to this dam and river first, then through dry, fire-burned grasslands, then up a (small!) mountain. i was practically the only one out there so i enjoyed the sounds of nature, including a strange insect? that made a funny rattling sound throughout my hike. i finished off by doing a loop around this lake and stopped to read a sign which said, "beware of rattle snakes". uh, right, then... this happened to me earlier in the year with a mountain lion (except i never encountered one, that i know of--i just discovered the warning sign after my hike). probably better to not know of these things or i would be really jumpy.

and now for some personal messages:
grammy: i hope you are feeling better!
dad and mary and casey: have fun with grampy! tell him we say hi!
emily: yay! glad to see you're blogging again! oh, also, i um, er, watch pet psychic on occasion. shu-up! i can't help it!!! it's so great!
justy, mikey, and mommy: hope you're having fun on your trips! mom, we haven't been to that restaurant, maybe we'll try it when you guys come out for labor day weekend. just and mike, are you guys coming out, too?
ry dogg: where are you guy?
michelle: no mayonnaise? :)

welp, i'm going to start my day of relaxation...

the world can wait
-over the rhine

tracey

well i finally updated everyones new blog sites on my links (dad, michelle, mikey)!
dad edwards, we miss you all too, it would be so fun to be home with everyone right now!
michelle-- i can't wait to hear about you american idol adventures! did you watch amazing race?

yesterday, we went to check out the condo. still really at the same stage, but our realtor wanted us to see it for ourselves. they have removed a piece of the drywall (where the water stain was) and have exposed all the layers of stuff in the walls. nothing looked wet, but the moisture detector revealed some places that still are. so they're going to get a contractor out there to find the source of the leak, remove some floorboards from the deck, inspect/repair the jacuzzi, and hopefully fix it all. actually, this holdup is sort of nice--if we could push our closing date (july 28th) into august, we might be able to avoid paying our mortgage until october. that would be very nice!

after we took a look at our condo, matt and i hung out at ocean beach for a few hours. man!!! the tourists are everywhere! the waves were huge and long and it was so fun to watch the surfers catch some good waves. then we went to see "the pirates of the caribbean", which was pretty good! johnny depp's character was funny, that girl from bend it like beckham wasn't nearly as annoying as she could have been, and it was a fairly interesting plot. very enjoyable. dad, i'm glad to hear you liked "down with love"--i agree with you! it was a great movie!

i think i'm going for a hike at cowles mountain or torrey pines today, and then to veg out on the beach after i'm done.
have a great monday, everyone!

let me go
to the shore
on a beach where we belong
i always pray for sun
-travoltas "pray for sun"

tracey

MARY AND CASEY YOU ARE TOTALLY INSANE!!!!!!!!!
in a good way, of course!

i would have given anything to see the looks on the fam's faces when you walked in the door!!!!
mom and dad, i bet you are completely thrilled!!!
matt said that you guys (mare and casey) might stop by to visit--that would be so great! and we could also meet somewhere along the coast during our vacation. we're working our way north starting on august 10th and on august 12th and 13th we are going to stay in big sur (that campsite on the ocean that we talked about earlier) and a couple more places before we end up in san fran on the 15th and 16th-so if you want to get in on any or all of that scence, that would be cool as well.

i had such a fun time back in cincy these past two weeks, but i am so glad to be home! (i missed seeing mom and dad edwards, though--our schedules just didn't match up :( ) mike and justy, hope you are having fun on your trips and hope you can make it out here this summer!

man i missed this place!!! just the smell of the air here is so refreshing and clean and beachy. matt took me to the ocean right away when i got back and we walked along the beach, checked out the dogs, and finally just set up our beach chairs and hung out for a couple of hours, just looking at the ocean and relaxing. and yes, i know that was a run-on sentence, but it is summer and i am on vacation--so no rules apply!!!!

we're going to check out the work they're doing on the condo today, and get some more details as well, so that should be fun.

it is early morning and sunny already so i am going for a run on sunset clifffs.

"it gets me going in ways that i can't explain"
-spymob (thanks for the props, matt!!! ha!)

farewell, people!
tracey