Fresh Mullet, Lost Key and Melting Ice Cream

This past weekend, Thomas and Gracie came to visit and this time, they brought their Mom and Dad with them.  It just made the whole process of getting here and getting back home so much easier for them seeing how they can't drive themselves just yet. They got here around 2:30 on Saturday and for the most part, we just hung around (or actually under) the house the whole day and night.  Ricky, Jeannie and Riley also came by to visit.  The boys needed to go to the store and decided to take the golf cart. However, all three kids wanted to go, so Gary decided he needed to borrow Stev-O's golf cart because it is a two-seater.  When they got to the store, Joey bought the 3 kids a Sponge Bob ice cream treat. Apparently this particular ice cream treat is meant to be eaten with the utmost haste and not meant to be eaten in a warm environment ever, because, according to, and verified by all three guys, the stuff started melting immediately and despite their efforts to eat it before it completely melted, it just could not be done. Ricky said Riley looked up at him like "what the heck?" as he had ice cream running all down his arms.  Ricky finally tossed his overboard.  Gary said he had to pull over and hand Gracie over to Joey who was sitting with Thomas on the back seat.  He said hers had dripped all over his lap, down his arms, on his hands and had the steering wheel all sticky.  When they got back to the house, Gracie was crying because she didn't want to ride in the back and they were all covered with various shades of ice cream! Ricky asked me the next day after they left when Joey would be keeping the twins on his own because he was going to order him a case of Sponge Bob ice cream for that day!  Maybe the maker of the ice cream should put a warning lable indicating the use of a sponge when eating Sponge Bob ice cream is required. 

I really, really wanted to have some fresh out of the water mullet for dinner that night, so just before Christie and Joey got here, Gary and Ricky headed out to catch some mullet.  They had very good intentions, but much to their dismay, they were not having any luck catching any.  However, a guy near them was catching plenty and offered to sell them some.  (This guy has probably witnessed Gary trying to catch mullet before and followed him there for a sure-fire sell.)  They wound up buying about 10 from him.  When they got back to the house, Joey told Gary he wanted some for his Dad, so they got back in touch with the guy and got about 20 more.  Our friend Kit who was also throwing his net next to them came by the house a little later and dropped off a few more for, so we had the hook up on some mullet ya'll and they were so fresh their little fish lips were still puckering and they were flopping around.  Gary cleaned and cooked 10 for dinner and we also had cole slaw, french fries and hush puppies.  It was some kind'a good!  It's hard to beat fresh mullet.  I think we will probably send Gary and Ricky "fishing" again soon since they were so successful this time.  The dinner was very good, but I guess the highlight of the evening was that the keys to Steve-O's golf cart went missing.  Gary said he sawThomas with them while he was cleaning the fish and he told him to go put them back. Really? Do you tell a 2 1/2 year old to do something like and not check to see that they actually did it?  Well when he went to take the golf cart back, the key was not in it so we all began searching everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, for it.  We asked Thomas where he put it and he said "in the hole" so we started looking in anything (well almost) that could be considered a hole.  It was nowhere to be found.  Gary wound up getting a key from Rusty who sells and rents golfcarts and got the cart returned.  After giving it some thought we surmised that when Thomas said "in the hole" he probably meant the key hole.  The next day when Christie & Joey called to let us know they got back home okay, Christie asked if I thought maybe Ricky saw Thomas with it and perhaps put it in his pocket.  I said I guess he could have but it seemed like he would have found it by now.  Anyhoo, on Sunday evening Gary and I were sitting under the house and Ricky stopped back and said "Guess what I found" and layed the key on the table.  He said it was in his pocket!  He said he had thought about just bringing it back on Monday when he came to work and throwing it in the sand so we would find it! He's a nut!  Anyway Steve-O now has two keys for his golf cart and Thomas has been exonerated. 

On Sunday morning, we got up and had a big breakfast and Christie, Joey and the kids went down to the State Park for Connie's (Joey's sister) birthday picnic around noon.  They were not planning to stop back by our house before they left to go home, but did and when they pulled up, Gary ran to the golf cart to get the key out!  This was of course before we knew Ricky had the key.  The kids were T-A-R-D and were a little grumpy, but we stole us some goodbye sugars anyway.  Christie said Thomas slept almost all the way home but Gracie only slept about 30 minutes. 

Sunday, after dinner, Gary and I took the golf cart down to the Bay to watch the sunset.  The mullet were jumping all over the place and it was nice until the bugs started biting so it was time to move on.

Just'a Swang'n



Where Did I Put That Key?



Hummmmmm????? Wonder Where Thomas Put the Key?

I just want to go to sleeeeeeeeeeep.........and I Did not Lose the Key!

I Wonder if Thomas Put the Key in One of These Holes?

Grandpa Tickling the Grumps Away

Land Street Sunset on Sunday



Little Man Comes for A Visit

This past weekend Ryan and Ashley brought Sy down to spend Friday and Saturday night with us.  Friday night, Ricky, Jeannie and Riley came over and we ordered pizza and other stuff from BJ's and had dinner before Ryan and Ashley left to go back home.  Sy and Riley had a good time playing together.  That night, or should I say, morning, Sy woke Grandpa up at 4:00 to tell him he had to go pee.  Good job for doing that, but he didn't really want to go back to sleep.  He finally did, but woke back up around 7:00.  I heard them up and about, but decided they were doing just fine on their own so I slept in until around 8:00. 

On Saturday, we took Sy to the Estuarine and he really enjoyed looking at the sea life and picked out a black bear stuffed toy for his souvenir just like Thomas & Grace did.  We decided to name it Yogi.  We attempted to watch a movie while there, but he was not so interested in that, so we left and went to Apalachicola and had lunch at Burger King.  We were going to shop a little but it finally started to rain, so we only ran into Ace and the Family Dollar to pick up a few things.  And of course, he picked out a new Hot Wheel.  Saturday evening, we went down to the beach until just before sunset and he really had a good time running around playing with Grandpa.  

On Sunday, he woke his Grandpa up at about 6:00 wanting to watch TV and as hard as he tried Grandpa could not talk him into going back to sleep, so they finally got up around 7:00.  Grandma slept in until about about 8:00 again!  Whoo hooo!  We also made a couple of crafts to give to his Mommy and Daddy. He did a very good job gluing on the paper and flowers on the one for his Mommy and on the one for his daddy, we used hot glue, so I glued the items where he said he wanted them to go on the frame.

Around 11:00 we decided to take him home and we planned to do a little shopping on the way.  We were just outside of Sopchoppy when the phone rang and it was Ryan asking where we were going.  We let him know we were on our way to bring Sy back home and he said I know, we just passed you!  Soooooooo, we turned around and met them at Summer Camp.  Ashley had decided she would come do some office work for Gary so they followed us back home.  We basically just hung out and after she finished working, they left to go visit her Mom and Dad. 
 
Sy is a very sweet little fella and other than a few times when he got a little ticked off, he was next to perfect.  He is not very keen on loud noises though.  He was a little worried when it "dundered" and lightninged.  We let him know that the dunder wouldn't hurt him, but lightning would and that we had to be inside when it was lightning.  On Sunday, I tried to do a little vacuuming and the minute I picked up the hose he made a bee-line to our bedroom and jumped up on the bed! Well that was a good enough excuse for me not to do any house work so that was that!  He said so many funny and cute things, but my stupid 50+ year old mind can't remember any of them now.  I do remember he said something about "my favorite good thing" because I wrote it down, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was in reference to!  He is also very tender hearted.  When we were at the Estuarine, a little girl was crying and he got this really sad look and asked what was wrong with her.  And on the few times we did get on to him, his little bottom lip would poke out and his eyes would start watering.  
 
Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Grandma and Sy Looking Through the Fish Tank

Sy and Grandma

Sting Rays Are Pretty Cool

Grandpa and Sy

Can you Find the Flounder?

These Fish Are Pretty Cool Too

Wonder What They Are Talking About?

Sy and the Oyster Boat

Whale Backbones Make a Nice Resting Spot

Grandpa and Sy Looking Through the Fish Tank

Nature Movies Can Be Boring if You Are Only Almost 3

The Little Girl That is Crying Is Making Me Very Sad

Hi Ho Turtle!

Some Very Good Jumping!

What Are They Doing Now?



Sy on the Beach Under An Almost Full Moon



Making Mama's Present

The Finished Product!



Making Dad's Present



The Finished Product

Asleep Just Outside East Point

Best Buds Walking Into the Surf

 

Sheer Joy!

Sy and Riley Playing Cars in the Sand Table

The Big 54, Mother's Day, Havana Festival and 37th Wedding Anniversary

As I mentioned in my previous post, Cinco de Mayo is the day before my birthday, so that would make Seis de Mayo my birthday.  On my actual birthday, we had lunch over at Steve & Linda C's.  A friend of ours had friends in town and he wanted to treat them to a fish fry, so Steve-O and Toby cooked mullet, shrimp, oysters and french fries and it was the bomb!  Linda made some fantabulous chocolate cookies and stuck a birthday candle in the batch in my honor.  Toby slipped me a dollar bill accompanied by a saying:  "Money's tight and times are hard, so here's your -----ing birthday card"! How sweet is that? It brought a tear to my eye.  I also got a Kuerig Coffee Maker, an Amazon Kindle, a mason jar of beautiful flowers, $50, bath soap and a coconut shell candle as birthday/Mother's Day/anniversay presents.  I really racked up huh?!

On Saturday we drove up to Havana where we joined up with Mama, Ryan, Ashley, Sy, Christie, Thomas and Gracie at the Havana Festival.  It was a nice festival, but it was a bit hot and most everything was out in the open so there wasn't much shade.  The kids all attempted to ride the ponies, but were only in the saddle a second or two before deciding they wanted no part of it.  Sy even tried twice and he is a veteran pony rider!  Gracie was considering it real hard, but when I walked up to try to convince her it would be okay, my hat fell off my head and freaked the pony out a little so that scared her even more so Gampa took her off.  He really didn't have a choice because she was grabbing for him like there was no tomorrow!  The two boys had similar reactions except I didn't freak their ponies out.  There was a pole barn with various games set up for the kids to play and they did enjoy that for a while.  After that, we had hotdogs, corn dogs, fried pickles, curly fries and ice tea.  Mama had been hankering for a hotdog and she finally got one and even had chili on it like she was hoping for.  After eating, we walked around a bit and the kids all took turns sitting in a fire truck.  Afterwards, Gary and I went to Mama and Daddy's to visit and give her her Mother's Day present.  Ryan, Ashley and Christie went home to put the kids down for a nap, although I heard later there wasn't much napping going on! 

On Mother's Day we tried to go to the Owl for Sunday brunch, but it was packed so we wound up at Tamara's which wasn't crowded at all.  Gary had grilled pork loin with hashbrowns, eggs and toast and I had a Greek omelet with toast and we shared an order of French Toast with strawberries and blueberry syrup.  We pigged out for sure, but it was very good!

Our actual anniversary is tomorrow and we plan to go to the Owl and have dinner.

If you double-click on each collage, you can view a larger version. 

Fish Fry and Birthday Stuff

Chowing Down at the Havana Festival

Fun and Games at the Havana Festival

Brunch on Mother's Day at Tamara's



Cinco de Mayo

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, which I also fondly call "the day before my birthday".  As is the tradition here, the festivities were held at Sometimes it's Hotter.  The event is also a fund raiser for the Humane Society so it's not just about partying.  This year, I decided to enter the salsa contest since I have been off all week and had the time.  I am by all means no expert at making salsa, but have made some pretty decent batches a time or two.  Anyway, I bought all the ingredients the day before and made it that night.  I wasn't particularly pleased with the outcome, but it was okay.  I mean you didn't want to spit it out the minute you tasted it, so I figured I would go ahead and enter it. The festivities began at 4:00, but we showed up around 6:30ish after receiving a phone call from Wesley telling us Steve-O was about to sing.  Well actually they were taking donations for him NOT to sing.  We didn't get there in time to witness that, but apparently he never sang at all, although he did say he danced.  There were a lot of folks there and as we were weaving our way to the bar, we were hailed by Judy, who advised that I had come in 3rd place in the salsa contest.  Imagine my surprise!  I asked her if there were only three entries or something because, as I mentioned before, I didn't think my salsa was all that good.  Shows what I know huh?  Coming in third place netted me a $15 gift certificate from Sometimes It's Hotter, a tiny sombrero and a toy thingy for which I don't know the proper name.  In addition to beer and wine, they were serving tacos and nachos.  I had the taco and it was quite yummy. Gary never got to eat what with all the socializing and all. Another event was a raffle and silent auction.  I didn't bid on anything in the silent auction, but Gary bought $20 of raffle tickets and I had to run around the "prize" tables to quickly put our tickets in for the items of interest to me.  It was getting down to the end and Gary's name was eventually pulled for two items - one was a car tag with the famous Madinger Jewelers SGI logo and the other was a soap basket from a shop in Apalach.  Pinky J and I were both hoping to get this nice turtle painting and agreed that if either of us did, we would share joint custody.  Well guess what!?  She got it!  I figure the custody deal will be troublesome, so I will just let her have sole custody and maybe I can have visitation rights.  To top off the evening Linda C asked the "piano man" to sing Happy Birthday to me.  How sweet is that?  It was a very nice evening and I feel sure it was another successful fund raiser for the Humane Society as well.  Here are a few pictures.

Linda & Kathy Serving up Tacos and Nachos!



Gary & Teresa




Charolette & Teresa Showing Off 3rd Place Salsa Contest Loot



Joanna With Her Raffle Goodies

High Level Conversations Going on Here

Pinky With "Our" Turtle Painting

Gary and His Tag

Gary and My Soap

John Ain't Scared to Show Off His Victoria's Secret Bag!



Staycation

I am officially on vacation, but am in fact, not going anywhere. Well, not anywhere significant anyway. 

My day started like any other day with a nice strong cup of coffee and a short walk on the beach in search of tar balls.  Sounds like a typical day at the beach right? I returned home with about 10 or so tar patties, an empty coffee cup and sea spray covered eye glasses.  I don't know why they call them tar "balls" because they are not balls at all.  They are more like little pancakes.  I wonder why they don't call them tar pancakes or tar patties?  They are investigating to see if they are from the Deep Water Horizon or some other source.  Apparently, the majority of them have been found in the State Park and the Plantation, but it didn't take me long and I didn't go far to find the ones I found.  I really, really had to look for them though.  It wasn't like they were all over the place and were sticking out like sore thumbs.  Thank goodness! That would just be weird. Sore thumbs sticking out all over the beach.

At around 11:00, Linda C, Linda Z and I went to Apalachicola and pretended we were tourist.  We started the day by having lunch at the Owl Cafe.  Linda C and I had the fish tacos with cilantro and Linda Z had an oyster po boy.  There were a lot of other locals eating there too.  After that, we walked around to the shops; one of which is called "Stir It Up" or something like that.  It's fairly new and none of us had been there before.  They have coffee, smoothies, granita and some pastries.  We decided to get the chocolate granita and it was G, double-O, D, good!  I bought myself a bling, bling $18 watch from Grady Market for a Cinco de Mayo/birthday/anniversay/Mother's day gift to myself.  We browsed through some other shops including the Tin Shed where I took all the pictures of the bouys.  On the way home, we stopped by Dollar General and picked up three bottles of that fruity tooty Arbor Mist wine.  One was blackberry Merlot, one was Sangria Zinfandel and the other was Tropical Fruit Chardonnay.  $12 for all three bottles!  I can just hear the wine snobs whining now, and you know what?  I don't care.  It might not be "real" wine, but it was (yes, I said "was" as we drank it all I believe) quite tasty.  Dollar General and wine - who would'a thunk?

Later, Jimmy C came over and brought us a muffuletta and some crawfish that Paul B brought back from New Orleans.  We had that for dinner and it was so flippin good that I ran downstairs just to give him a hug. 

Here are a few pictures from the day.



Got'a turn sideways to read this. This is the biggest tar patty I found.



Tar patty in the sand where I found it.



Bagged Up Tar Patties.  Date should say 5/3, not 5/2



Chocolata Granitas are Good! If you look real hard you can see my new bling bling watch.



Morning Glorys

 

Oh Bouy!

 

More Bouys, a Life Ring & a Barrel

  

More Bouys?

 

Bouys and Traps 



It should be against the law how good this is!



OMG!