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.

Why we watch the Tour de France...

We hope you all had a great weekend! Moving right along, and July's almost over...

Gary left for Vermont on Thursday night for one last touch on the Pashby deck - and more importantly the deck railing - before they have tons of people up in a couple of weeks. I stayed behind to run the Osterville Free Library road race (4.12 miles) Saturday morning and to celebrate my friend Nancy's baby shower. Then we both drove from different directions to Quechee, Vermont, to meet up with best friend Pete and fam who's in town from Colorado! Such a great time of cooking big meals and lounging on the deck, overlooking the mountains!

Things are good on the homefront. We both are silly with work right now, but we're also thoroughly enjoying the Tour de France every night! The riders are amazing, but we probably watch it equally for the incredible scenery and outlandish fans!



Seems like every weekend is booked up now through early September, but all good stuff and a lot of it is right here at home. We really need to gear up for a big hiking/camping weekend in the early (and all through) fall!

Enjoy the end of the month!

Ahoy Maties!

We're coming off a great 4th of July week on Cape Cod, and hoping you enjoyed yours!

Ours started with Gary up in Vermont and Stacey helping to throw Kelly & Joe a Cape engagement party with the Foxes. Oh, and Stacey working Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night until 1:30 in the morning, ugh. The Hedmans came down and Stacey and Sandra had a great time shopping for fabrics and making new cushions for the outdoor furniture! Great to hang with my parents on the back deck too.

We got to spend some time at beach and meandering the Main Street shops of the Cape during the week. Wonderful to have quality time with our neices and little nephew. The 4th was actually a windy and odd day, but we still sat on the beach for a bit and toasted the holiday. We also got to have our friend Emily with us a bunch!

Saturday was really nice, gathering up a bunch of friends on the boat and spending the day on Sampson's Island in Cotuit! Sounds like each and every one of us got too much color that day though... amatuers, ha ha!

I also need to give ourselves props for having completed the Fairfield Half Marathon!! Thanks to Eric for getting us out there, and to the kids for cheering us on!

The Northside / Sea Goat / whatever...

Lots has been going on! We’re very excited to welcome a new baby into our family – potentially named the Northside or EEK, the Sea Goat?! Our new boat - a 21’ Cobia! We came to the realization that the fixer-upper approach wasn’t going to get us on the water any time soon. And if any of you have made the trip to Sandy Neck with us in the smaller boat, you know that you’re not always guaranteed to fit for a ride back before the tide reaches your shorts.

Problem solved! Exit car payment, enter much smaller boat payment. We’re now better equipped to gather up a plentitude of friends, and much safer to take our nieces and nephew for a ride. The first voyage will take place on my BIRTHDAY weekend next weekend!

More photos can be found at www.saltyhedman.com/cobia.htm.

Aside from all that hoopalah, we spent four days this past weekend helping the Pashbys build a large deck around their new hot tub – can’t wait to reap the rewards when it’s all completed! Our training for our suddenly planned Fairfield Half-Marathon is going great as well – we’re up past six miles right now and hoping to reach eight this weekend. Makes four seem like chump change, which is an odd mental state to be in. Four was my “long run” like two weeks ago.

Gary and our friend Paul are heading over to Martha’s Vineyard this Saturday evening for the overnight fly-fishing tournament, while myself and Kristin cuddle up at home with various wedding prep (their wedding in August), a good girly movie or two, and the requisite bottles of wine. The two of them are moving to DC at the end of this month, which we don’t like to talk about, so it’ll be fun to have this weekend farewell.

Lastly…

Our friend Nathan, in whose honor we ride the Ride for Brain Tumor Research each year, is going through a tough time right now. Our thoughts and embraces are with him, Kim, and their families as they call upon their strength and faith right now to meet the challenges.

I hope you all find sunshine in your day!

Hedman Bootcamp

Gary and I biked 50 miles this morning for the Brain Tumor Society's Bike for Brain Tumor Research! It was an awesome time, even with 40 miles of it being in the rain. We were able to ride the last ten with all of Stacey's high school girlfriends too - Team NAVINS! (Nathan & Kim in the photo)

Oddly enough, we committed the night before to running the Fairfield Half Marathon (CT) on June 24th! So it looks like we're putting the bikes away for a bit, eek! One month till go-time.
Yep, that's us... it's really rather typical.

Other than that, we're currently puppy-sitting for Rigley Foster while my parents are touring Copper Canyon in Mexico. Turns out he's extremely well-behaved when he doesn't need to show off for his owners - a pleasant surprise for us! Next week is Memorial Day weekend, of all things... very hard to believe. We've been spending some time planting flowers around the yard and hanging plants, so we're ready to go whenever the sun decides to come out and join us!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend ahead and kick-off to summer!

S&G

Your Street Image

What do you look like when you walk down the street? Are you looking around at everything or are you completely lost in thought? Are you trying to think of who you could call to maximize your time? Is the world a blur and you can only see the Starbucks sign defined?

Did ya catch that 70-year old woman with the bright pink lipstick, rainbow scarf, and orange socks pulled up to her knees?

I have a long and interesting commute. Sometimes it's the best part of my day. I walk about 15 minutes twice a day, to and from the bus, and in those 15 minutes I really get to see the true joys of spring! Not the flowers or the fountains running...

Boston's finest WACKOS are out. I'm not kidding about the old lady dressed like Punky Brewster. I really think AARP magazine printed a fashion spread that accidentally came out in flourescent colors this spring. I actually admire these women - maybe you reach a certain point where that's just good hearty fun! (personally, I'll be sipping mojitos at 7am and eating mac n' cheese for breakfast). Either way, from young to old, everyone seems to be opening up their windows to the sunshine and thinking "today's the day" for that exotic/eclectic/unique... bad/inappropriate fashion twist.

This also brings me to the past week's collage of facial expressions. I've seen women annngry at the world (like the look of a - of my - Portuguese grandmother). They might not be, but their mouths are turned down as far as they can go and their eyes are piercing. For all I know, they're on the way to buy more chocolate chips and bake cookies. Then there's the tall, awkward man with his mouth wide open and head tilted back. That's dangerous, buddy... You don't know what's flying around those streets in the wind lately.

So now I can't stop my attentive glaring at everyone on the street - this is fun. Thank goodness I can hide behind my new SHADES :-)

About twice a week someone asks me how I can stand my commute... YOU TRY IT!!