August is THE Month

Hard to beat August, especially if you're on the Cape! Traffic has died down, there are more seats on my bus every morning, the weather is impeccable... and the dogs are tired.

We hosted EEE's 30th Birthday this Saturday! Started with the beach with the girls, bbqing with friends Friday, and taking the boat out to Sampson's Island all day Saturday. Saturday night was a blast, with all of us in our pink and green polo shirts! I'm a little afraid I might start getting birthday cake orders though... It was so great to plan things and hang out more with Em's fam and friends.

This morning, with nine of us waking up to three dogs' excitement, we made a leisurely decision to head out on the boat off the north side. It was too early for any good tide out there, but what a fantastic day it turned out to be! Time seemed to move really slowly all day, while the tide of course moved quickly. There's an average of about a 10-foot change in tide off Sandy Neck. The water is tourquoise over the sand, and throughout the day there's more and more sand showing. Made for some great splashing around and a good game of extreme-bocce on the beach.

We even had our first canine captain! Porter turns out to be QUITE the beach dog!!! (see you again soon, Jess & Gordon :-)

I'm back to work this evening... as sad and as caffeinated as that may be. Mom and Dad Hedman are coming down tomorrow for the rest of the week, with a friend from Wales, so that's fun!

Hope the rest of you are able to enjoy this season! Stay tuned for more after the week and the Labor Day holiday!

Whirlwind of Life

Sometimes you just don't know where to start.... It seems like things with both work and personal life are a whirlwind. I gotta apologize for being so very out of touch with friends and family lately - as in the entire summer. Our greatest absence has been up to Dorset and I hope we're up there a lot in the coming months. The air is crisp and kind of exciting!

This past weekend went from Pats game (THANKS EMILY!!!) to Pashby visit (four dogs) to beach to boat to boat to wedding (CONGRATS Paul & Kristin!) to work to Cape girls to coffee date (BG and Sam are ENGAGED!) to work to more Emily bonding (she had QUITE the exciting weekend).... back to work now, and two nights of visitors this coming weekend. One big BIRTHDAY bash for Emily! And then Mom Hedman and a friend are coming all week next week, to be followed by more Pashbys and dogs and more Hedmans over Labor Day weekend. We're meanwhile missing the BON VOYAGE of cousin Kate to vet school on St. Kitts!




Yeahhhh. If you think you're having a hard time following that...

Even with all the excitement, though, there have been equal parts sad things going on in the lives of our friends and family. I'm a heart-stretcher by nature, I guess, and my heart is stretching wider than ever this month.

Meanwhile, Gary's tearing down what was the "boat shanty" and gearing up to construct the world's best adult-sized slip n' slide in our back yard. His work has also had him all over the place, but rest assured he's getting plenty of time for a sunglass tan line on his temples :-) We've even been cooking up our own fish more lately!

I've also been looking into a lot of international development work lately. There are a couple of local groups between Boston and the Cape that I would love to volunteer my skills to, and I would love to build up my aresnal of contacts in that area - both for current life and future. I'm currently reading You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy thanks to a girl who doesn't even know she recommended it to me (now she does!), and it really sparks a lot of thought about the difference between corporate investment and government aid to a country. I'm not a policy girl, but I love corporate strategy.

And I'm over 30 now - which puts me in a growing HEAP of friends who are thinking "wait, life's really short! where was I going?"

So anyway... My folks are in Alaska right now, so we have the precious and rambunctious Rigley at our house. They have been wanting to go to Alaska for as long as I've known them, and I'm very happy to be receiving a call like this morning when it's 5am there and my mom's watching the cruise ship pull into Juneau... Where will we all be vacationing when we retire?

I hope you're all doing well and full of energy as the summer winds down. We're thinking of literally every single one of you, and we'll -uh- be in touch soon!
SDH

Farewell to a Friend

It's been a very busy month since the last post. Nantucket, Vermont, the Falmouth Road Race... and just a L O T of work for both of us. This coming weekend we have the Pashby's coming (and dogs!), and Paul & Kristin's wedding!

We did, however, have to say good bye to our friend Nathan yesterday, in the most beautiful services I could ever imagine. Nathan and Kim have been an amazing couple and role models for strength as he was diagnosed and treated for brain cancer over the past two years. We know he's in the right place now to be happy, and we will think of him often in our lives.