Sad Poodles & Beaches

Why is Pierre sad?  Because after years of searching, his twin brother has been found--living with ZootSuit Mama!  But that's a good thing you say.  Mais non!  Pourquoi?  Because Z-Mama is about to award Jacques and a bunch of other goodies to the lucky winner of her 50 Follower Giveaway (details here).

I've got this bad habit of seeing things on other people's blogs and wanting them--so far I've purchased a planter from Shara at Monkeybox and traded planters with Mick at the Casablanca.  Oh, and of course won AND purchased pendants from Rachel at Two Dog Farm.

So here I am, riding in the car with the husband after we'd gone to the beach to inspect our still-unclosed-on condo and I'm using my iPhone to read emails and then go to my blog and see where ZootSuitMama is having a 50 Follower Giveaway AND THERE'S MY POODLE'S LONG LOST BROTHER!

What do I do about this?  Do I just hope I win it?  I already left her a comment telling her about the situation, and as you can see from my pic and hers, I'm 99.99% certain they're a pair.

Or am I just being stupid about this and let it drop and keep hoping that Pierre and Jacques were part of a big litter in mid-century Japan and there are more of their kin out there and one day, some day, I'll find them.

In the meantime, more sad stuff.  We decided to drive over to Pensacola yesterday and visit the condo that is still waiting for us to occupy it.  I am disheartened (yet happy, I guess) to report that it looks like the closing will happen later this week (yay!) which means our long-anticipated trip to Mick's in Texas isn't going to happen (waaaaaah).  However, I'm not going to cancel our reservation at the La Quinta until we know FOR SURE what's happening.  Anyway, first we dropped down off I-10 to see what was happening in Gulf Shores, AL.  The beach was literally like a ghost town.  The Gulf Shores State Park ranger we talked to said that by this time of the day on a Sunday there would be none of  these:

(empty parking spaces, and LOTS more all up and down the beach)

This beach would normally be full of tourists. 

(Way offshore you can just see several shrimp boats.  They are not shrimping.  They are skimming).

You may have noticed the empty lifeguard station.  I said to the ranger, "Well, that's sad for the lifeguards--I guess they got laid off," and she said, "Oh, no, they're busier than ever!"

And here's why:

The double red flag means "We're not kidding, folks.  STAY OUT OF THE FREAKIN' WATER!"

And guess why the lifeguards are so busy?  They are constantly having to order people OUT OF THE WATER THAT IS FULL OF OIL GLOBS! 

We were somewhat heartened to see that, as we drove further east towards the condo the beach flags were now yellow, which means, "OK, you can go in the water but don't blame us if you get an oil glob down your pants."

So, since we don't yet own our condo, we parked outside the gates and walked in.  There it was, so near and yet so far away . . .

That's our little piece of paradise in the front--there's another condo behind us and you can see a couple more.  We have some open area between us and the neighbors but of course I always look at trees as potential roof-destroyers.  The master bedroom on the second floor has a cute little balcony. 

We talked with a nice man who was an owner--he's a college professor from Colorado who spends his summers in his condo here.  He kept telling us to come by when we got our condo and we probably will since his trash consisted of newspapers and an empty Franzia wine box.  He also said he goes swimming at the beach nearby every day and hadn't seen "much" oil in the water, just a little at high tide. 

I'm going to stick with the condo pool and the Tiki Bar until this all clears up, however.