Monday, Again

Is it just my imagination, or does Monday come around pretty frequently
these days?  I'm thinking about once a week. . . .

Howard and Dion and I had a busy four-day weekend.

On Thursday, we braved snowy New Jersey roads and headed for New York's eastern Long Island.

We were heading for our family beach house, meeting up with my sister Peg and her husband Bill.

Before we knew it -- if by "before we knew it" we mean "after 2 toll bridges,

The Bronx, and 2-1/2 hours" -- we were on eastern Long Island.

It's way flatter than New Jersey, but we don't hold that against it.

 Plus its trees are shorter.  New Jersey's trees could totally beat up Long Island's trees.

This is why we keep them on opposite sides of the Hudson River.

There wasn't much snow at the beach house, and it melted quickly.  That was A Good Thing.

Our welcoming committee, below, didn't stay long, but did leave calling cards; that was not A Good Thing.

We had all the needed equipment for a successful work weekend:

cleaning supplies, coffee maker, case of wine, and -- in the white box -- a dark chocolate and cheese coffee cake

from Junda Bakery on the main road in Jamesport.  If you have never been, go.  That is an order.

It's in an old house, looks a little spooky, but seriously . . . go.

My sister made us go, and we will be forever grateful.  And fatter.

 Breakfast -- freshly made black coffee and a sliver (OK, maybe a slab) of flaky

cheese filled coffee cake, thickly drizzled with dark chocolate, at the table in the dining nook.

 The sun rises across the inlet, pretty much every day.  The morning sparkle can be blinding.

In warmer weather, afternoon means a glass of wine on the deck, and our

traditional beach house Happy Hour snack: Cheez-Its.

Yeah, we are classy.  Sometimes we even get White Cheddar Cheez-Its.

Crazy, I know.   We are outta control.

 This weekend, we spent hours contemplating wall colors.  There are swatches taped all over the place.

Sea and sand -- that's the palette.

Nothing seemed perfect.

Too yellow.

  Too green.

 Too gray.

 Too blue!

 Too dark.

But we did agree on new kitchen flooring,

which I don't have a picture of,

and also on carpet for the living & dining area:

In person it looks very much like sisal.

 The hunt for the perfect wall color continues.  We want something that 

will reflect the beautiful light from the water, but not glow too much.

We had a good 4 days, with a crazy swing of emotions, lots of laughs and memories, but also a bit of

panic at the thought of the four "kids" being the responsible parties for this big house on the water.

And knowing we can't pick up the phone and call our Pop to ask, "What does this switch do?"

or a thousand other questions.

I think that everyone, no matter how "grown up" he or she is, must get that feeling

when both parents are gone; you are really on your own. 

When we got home late Sunday afternoon . . . our Wednesday snow was still with us!

till tomorrow . . . Cass

Cielo at The House In The Roses hosts
Show Off Your Cottage Monday.

Visit her here!

And Mary (my fellow New Jersey girl) hosts
Mosaic Monday at her beautiful
Little Red House blog.

 Visit Mary here!