Like most of the rest of you, we've spent the last little while prepping for the holidays. In the Adventures in Cooking department, we practiced making our own lasagne noodles and the resulting lasagne was both beautiful and delicious--hope the holiday company likes pasta! Our biggest Adventure was our first trip out of town, leaving Squeak in the capable hands of Karen and Phil next door while we drove across the low country on the way to the casinos in Biloxi.
A favorite part of that drive is the stately Pascagoula River, which is ecologically significant as the only virtually "unaffected," that is un-dammed, river emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Could that be why it is so breath-taking?
The Beau Rivage, our home base in Biloxi, was ridiculously decorated, as these photos demonstrate. (What you can't see is the incessant xmas music, which fortunately did not extend to the casino floor.) On the advice of Susan and Charlie (serious gamblers), we visited a different casino, the Imperial Palace, which lacked the glitz of the Beau, but made up for it in the looseness of its slot machines and its down-hominess. And the food was certainly no worse. Asked by another patron at a blackjack table, one of the dealers opined that the clientele on Christmas Day fell into two camps: early in the day the casinos are populated with folks who have no family; late in the day, crowds of people who are sick of their families appear.
Most of our time away, this part of the coast was completely socked-in with dense fog, and there had recently been snow in New Orleans. This last phenomenon was explained by our bell-hop as a consequence of the first Vietnamese congressional representative having been elected in the state of Louisiana.
Where the carts go at night.
Squeak appeared none the worse for wear when we returned home (to the beach for the first time!), but we did learn from Karen that the one time she tried to pet our dear kitten, she hissed.
Most of what happened this week happened in the immediate neighborhood. Two pots of yellow mums, which Marina displayed on her steps for the month of October, until she returned to Switzerland, and which then moved to Daryn & John's house for the month of November, have, now that D&J are back in Tennessee, moved to Karen & Phil's, next door. We've not seen the flik about the traveling pants, so luckily we have this.
Finally. FINALLY our new door was delivered. Naturally, because measurements were only taken 37 times, it was too small by several inches. Nothing that Ronald & Leidy couldn't handle, but worthy of a half-hour of crepe-hanging on their part nonetheless. E very much hopes that this is the END of remodeling for a while, and S agrees that it's great to have it done for the holiday guests. This door is swanky, closes with authority, is designed to survive the battering it will inevitably take from the extreme conditions on the third floor. And best of all, there's absolutely NO WAY anybody can lock themselves out. In fact, figuring out how to lock it from the inside proved quite a challenge for S. For the first time, Squeaky got to see what was on the other side, and shouldered her way through the pickets in the railing to take a good look.
Because we were invited to Billye's for dinner (we thought) Thursday evening, and charged with bringing rolls, S spent a couple of days practicing to make some from scratch. E was a valiant crash-test dummy, for S is way out of practice in the dough department, and her good luck with pizza dough of late hasn't transferred to the more delicate sorts. The remains ultimately became a very tasty banana-rum-raisin bread pudding. S is at a crossroads, wondering if she's got the heart to teach herself how to make bread once again: the aroma is so amazing, it might just be worth it. Stay tuned.
Billye's dinner party turned out to be a mob scene, not the intimate little affair we thought we were in for. We met her three cats: Josh, Jake and Toby, whose Christmas stockings were already hung, in anticipation of KittySanta. The house is themed Sailboat. Turns out it's not Billye's taste at all, but a gesture toward the summer rental biz, and was all designed and executed by B's sister-in-law. Holiday decorations were abundant and lovely--and belonged to Susan (excluding the cats' stockings), who set them all up and planned to come back the next day and take them home again. B's actual personal taste is allegedly Asian/Modern/Minimalist. Twelve or so couples each brought a dish to accompany Billye's brisket and salad: the food put us in mind of our bunco party days. E was in a conversation about botox and we might be one step closer to getting together a local poker game--so a good night when all's said and done.
We spent part of a very blustery (and cold!) afternoon on the beach and our faithful Squeaky now ventures even further out onto the sand. Brave brave girl. S slayed the second of the giant squash and made a curry that received mixed reviews. We reorganized a closet and a set of dressers while watching the SEC championship game. Alas, our Tide was defeated, despite how loudly we yelled Stop Him, Stop Him, STOP HIM! One evening, while listening to TV in the office, waiting for Letterman to start, we caught the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and heard music that we loved, by The Ting Tings. Alas, the group's own vivid video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UX0p7uAW2s) can't be embedded, but you can look at the cute PINK short shorts on the runway and hear the song below:
Out in the larger world, we tested another quick lunch option, at PJ's Coffee, where we got most unremarkable muffaletta/panini sandwiches. If you ask S, there ought to be a ban on the use of ciabatta anywhere but Italy for at least a year. On the tasty dough front, we made an excursion to Panama City on a day when the Bagel Maker was open, and voila! yes! they DO make good bagels, including salt bagels (S's fave), one of which E & S ate sitting on tall stools in the store before they went off to play romp'em-stomp'em bingo at Bingo Paradise.
Two things about which we marvel: 1) there seems to be a rupture in the time/space continuum here at B-A-R. When E comes to bed upstairs and turns on the TV, programming runs a half hour behind the TV in the office she's just left downstairs. So she hears Dave interview the same guests, crack the same jokes, etc. 2) when we wake up every morning, we're happy.
Daryn & John's house is perfectly situated just across from the dune walkover, so they catch a great view of the water. At their party last night (where we think we sussed the identity of one of the one-in-ten creeps), we held onto the railing in what one of the other guests claimed was a 30-knot wind, to see the gulf roil. This morning, it's much tamer (and really cold), but still dramatic.
Squeak + Elizabeth + Sandy have moved to the beach and are learning their new neighborhood. Squeak prefers to explore when it's dark; Sandy & Elizabeth perambulate at all hours.
