I guess I’m getting into the habit of posting on my days off… well, that seems like a pretty good ritual.  I worked a LOT this week, but it’s been mostly good and I had a hefty tip share waiting for me at the shop today.  Still, a day of freedom was very welcome.  The weather here has been absolutely perfect lately – it’s been sunny and warm, but the oppressive Outer Banks heat that is normally keeping us company by this point in the summer has just not showed up yet!  It’s been about 80 degrees and slightly breezy, and even nicer right on the beach.  I went to the beach again this afternoon and spent a blissful couple of hours.  It doesn’t get much better than that (for those of you who were unaware of my obsession with the royal wedding… now you know)!  I had to leave the beach earlier than I planned, though, because I ran out of sunscreen.  Enjoying the southern sun requires that I reapply SPF 50 at least every half hour in order to maintain my ghostly complexion (hey, it was desirable in Jane Austen’s day), and today I literally sprayed the bottle dry.  This one didn’t even last a full two weeks!  Luckily I had bought more this morning, but I hadn’t brought it with me to the beach because I didn’t think I was quite that close to running out!  Ah, the difficult life of a pale-skinned northerner…

Our latest downstairs renter was supposed to arrive this morning, but no sign of her so far.  It’s a Russian girl this time.  Anyone familiar with my past two summers here knows that Abby and I had some interesting experiences with the foreign work study students who have rented “The Cave,” as we fondly call it.  I forewarned my new roommate, Sarah, but hopefully we won’t really have the same issues this summer since we’re not sharing our kitchen with whoever’s downstairs.  Anyway, our current cave dweller has yet to materialize.  Other than waiting around for a while around the time she was supposed to arrive and going to the beach, I went to Starbucks (blasphemous, I know) to get a free ten-song summer mix with the purchase of a Frappuccino, stopped in to Front Porch to see Kasey after her doctor’s appointment this morning (it’s a boy!!!), and went grocery shopping.  This is Perry’s latest handicap/decoration, depending on how you look at it: