Back from the Beach

After a chock-full-o'-design spring and a refreshing beach vacation on Galveston Island...

Ah!  Hot shrimp gumbo, ice cold beer, and warm Gulf waters!

A view of Galveston beach at the turn of the last century by P.H. Rose, Wikimedia 

But now I'm back.  To Dallas.  To work.  To blogging.

While opening ten shows in five months this spring I did rather let the blogging thing slide, but I'll do better now.  At least until my (very faint) tan fades and the work schedule warms up.

Before getting back to Theatre... a beach book recommendation:  the brilliant graphic novel from the internet blog-comic by Sydney Padua:

The Thrilling Adventures of 

Lovelace and Babbage*

The (mostly) True Story of the First Computer

Review to follow, but why wait?  Buy it HERE, now.  

(That's The Author, by the way, struggling with her day job to find time to write.)

Beachy Break

More substantive posts comin' later, but for now I'm only reviewing sand (brown) and sea (salty).

Oh, and a classic pirate novel by Rafael Sabatini from 1922, Captain Blood.

A wonderfully old-fashioned swashbuckler!  The wronged and noble hero - a doctor - makes the mistake of tending the wounds of a rebel, is wrongly condemned for treason, sold into slavery in the Caribbean, rebels in his own turn, and escapes... into a life of piracy.  Turns out he's really really good at it.  Though secretly he's still darn noble, all for the love of a Good Woman.  Sea battles, intrigue, romance.  And all ends well.  Classic fun!

HERE's a Wikipedia article.

Early novel cover for Captain Blood, public domain  Wikipedia

Don't You Wish You Were at the Beach?

It's official, we've reached that part of the summer when the pavement is as hot as the hinges of Hell and all I can think is...  

"I wish I were at the beach."

This beach is the coast of Zeeland - on a surprisingly (to me) hot day.  The water was warmer than I expected too, but still cool enough to be refreshing  - not like our pool, whose temperature has reached bring-your-own-tea-bag.

Some of the best times ever are on the shady porch of a beach-side rental cottage, the warm breeze off the Gulf tugging at drying beach towels, drinking cold sweaty-bottled beer, listening to gulls.

Right now I hear lawn-mowers.