Practice

Dazed & Confused

If it's the weekend, forget it, there's no staying home in your slippers and watching TV.  This is The Beach, and strict standards for socializing are in force!  S slept until 8:30 am this morning, to give you an idea of just how intense the whole show has become.  Neighborhood feasts start promptly at 5:30 pm with appetizers and booze, continue with meals for 10-15 people, and conclude after Cadillac and dessert anywhere between 10 and 11 pm.  (Which dessert has lately been apple-something, since you know who bought themselves a bushel.  Or is it youknowwhom?  Dee?)  The householder of the evening is generally in charge of the big protein and maybe a side dish; everything else is schlepped in by the assorted guests.  Since we last wrote, our house has twice been the scene of one of these parties, most recently for Charlie's 72nd birthday.





In the old friends are the best friends department, Beach-A-Rama has also seen action, hosting some of the weekend guests for HarOLD's 60th birthday party, and having everybody over for Football Buffet during one of the season's Crimson Tide nailbiters.



Many of the local sustainable farms had tours one Sunday near the end of October, and we drove up to Bonifay to visit Renee's farm, source of our organic eggs, chickens, and--big anticipation here--our Thanksgiving duck.  Because many farms were visited by some folks, it was necessary for guests to dip the soles of their shoes in sanitizer before crossing the threshold: E's fave sight was the disinfection of a wagon in which a toddler was being pulled.

In addition to a number of repeat restaurant experiences (Smiling Fish, Harbor Docs, Pig Alley, Thai Elephant), we tried some new places: La Cocina in Rosemary Beach with a bunch of they neighbs (not a do-again, alas, tho it's very pretty in a how-can-we-make-something-new-that's-been-manufactured-in-North Carolina-look-like-a-Mexican-antique-sort-of-way) and the carry-out/deli-style Destin Ice, which was Just Fine.  Handy enough that it's likely we'll go back.

With the return of our neighbors, Squeaky's surrogate caretakers, we were able to leave home for the first time since April: Biloxi here we come!  While we didn't have any spectacular luck at the casino, we didn't lose ALL of our money, and S had what she proclaimed was one of the culinary events of her lifetime--and at the Imperial Palace buffet, to boot!  Best Pho broth imaginable!

Hoping not to go so long next summer without leaving town, we looked after Billye's FOUR cats for a week, visiting every afternoon with a thermos of coffee and our Skip-Bo cards, hanging out with Jake, Josh, Cydney and the ineffable Toby, aka Mr. Debonair.  Four plates of catfood will really perfume the air--that's all we're saying....

For our second tropical storm, Ida, we had the presence of mind to take down the bells on our porch, so weren't awake ALL night.  The storm's landfall was more than a hundred miles away, so relative to Claudette, things were calmer here.  But STILL the wind found the one place in the roof or a soffit that is not perfectly secured, so there was a tiny dripping for several hours right next to poor E's head...



We hosted Bunco for twelve people: having procured a punch bowl at the Indoo(r) Flea Market for this express purpose, we concocted a tasty cranberry punch (next to which we posted a gigantic bottle of vodka), made myriad tasty snacks, and had a hilarious party, successful in more than one respect, because E won the Most Bunco prize of $25.  Oddly enough, the biggest hit of the night might have been the Publix gumdrops.

Things on their way out:

Things on their way in:

And a fond memory:

Where the Hell have we Been?

We're looking at 6 days of non-stop rip-roaring activity--but we have yet to report on the past couple of weeks. Aiiyyy! Consider this a build-your-own-adventure posting, and we hope to get back on track in November...

We had a grand visit with Von, laughed SO HARD, and had a blast flying around the Wii Sport Resort islands. Upon one of which, Von now has a little house.

Tons of neighborhood peeps were in town for the HOA meeting, and predictable amounts of partying ensued.



And finally, our sweet Ms. Squeak was the NW Florida Daily News Pet of the Day. It's a measure of our integration into panhandle life that two locals sent us emails about our kitten's fame before we even opened the paper.

Oops, and don't forget: E's birthday is this Friday: Ray Roo!

We're Too Beat to Blog

The retired-old-lady social whirlwind goes like this: 1) we invited 5 people to pot roast dinner on Friday: 9 people sat down to the table, repeating the phenomenon of the loaves and the fishes. A game of Cadillac followed. That was last weekend. 2) This weekend, we played mahjongg all afternoon Friday, and were invited to stay for pizza and play Cadillac, however members of our tai chi class finally got a bunco game together, so we ventured out of the neighborhood, drove to Mallet Bayou in Freeport, and played 22 rounds of bunco with a whole new set of ladies. It took forever, and S knocked over a lamp, but E won the "rubber duck" prize by rolling the last bunco of the evening, so we came home with as much money as we took. 3) Saturday, we ran to the grocery and bought supplies with which to make a rum cake, our contribution to "Cuban Night," a party Wendi intended to use as a vehicle for showing off her brand new kitchen. But since the entire ground floor of her and Pete's house was completely ruined by a burst pipe that gushed for two weeks, she instead showed off her incredible resilience by whomping up a grand meal on her grill and serving it at Susan's house. Which meal was preceded by margaritas in 1-gallon glasses (see Billye and E eyeing their first, above) and concluded with a round of "semi-sober" Cadillac. Neither of us has yet won this damn game.

In other news, Wayne, our neighbor across the street, went out to sea and brought us back a skinned and filleted King Mackerel, a big fish from which we've already had a couple of meals (fish tacos and a nice grilled steak). We've been to the eye doctor and gotten the scoop on our cataracts: the guy told E it was good she had them or else she'd be dead! (The drift being that once you're over 60, boink!) S got no such story, just the count. And the big YOLO (You Only Live Once) board Stand Up and Paddle race was held at Seaside. We snagged a cool pic from the SoWal blog, but as of this writing, we can't get the page to accept a reformatting that will include it, so BAH!

Now we're looking forward to a tag-team of visitors: Harold & Petra -- and then Von. And a break in the weather, any minute now . . .

Fauna

Folks! We're in the midst of a retired-old-lady social whirlwind. Too bizzy to report our own doings! So we offer you some cool views into the local ecosystem, little videos we've found engaging, something to entertain you until calm is restored.

Check out this link for sure, the red wolves of south Walton county!

http://www.ubu-online.com/the_pack.html

The fish swimming with the sharks are cobia:



Timeless!

What?!?

Big doings here in the panhandle: the new Publix--a mere six minutes from Beach-A-Rama--opened on August 26, and we were among the first 1500 happy campers to walk thru the doors, netting us each a lurid green grocery bag and enough free samples to call it lunch.



Susan had us and Karen D (aka Kiki) and Julie over to play MahJongg last week, which lark was followed by dinner and a new-to-us card game, Cadillac. Which we loved! (Despite the fact that we lost: no small thing.) We got more of the intimate neighborhood feel when a small party of slightly tipsy folks crashed the party in the middle of the game--without even bothering to knock! After a brief cacaphonous interlude, the crashers departed and we got back to it.

By far and away, the most momentous events since our last posting were tied to a marvy visit over Labor Day Weekend from Tom & Jess and Wendy & Joel. E says, I don't know what to say about it: it was hilarious. So hilarious S almost wet her pants. Okay, maybe TMI.

But it _was_ fun, from our own game of Cadillac the first night, to hours of poker and Rummy-O (and even a bit of Skip-Bo and MahJongg), to an unforseen obsession with Tom & Pep's Wii Music handbell ringing game, to beach fun with the hordes and throngs, to the first Crimson Tide football game of the season, to some great meals cooked at B-A-R and a nice feast at Jambone, it was go go go and then go some more.

Due to the bell game, most of the weekend found somebody singing either Do-Re-Mi, Sukiyaki or Oh Tannenbaum! When they weren't hollering WHAT?!?!



We were sad to see everybody take off on Monday morning, so we thought to distract ourselves by playing bingo, but alas, we were so whipped that shortly after eating our bingo snack-shop lunch, we found ourselves nodding off in the middle of a 50/50-split-with-our-sponsor game. And one of us has nodded off in the middle of constructing this post . . .

The Adventures Continue

In addition to our one-year anniversary, there have been other firsts of late: Elizabeth participated in the canning of pears (And Sandy made more pepper jelly).

We went to two new restaurants: 1) Lin's Asian Cuisine, where beautiful vegetable carvings graced each plate and the world's coolest money-cat welcomed us in, and 2) Silver Sands at Harbor Docks, a great ramshackle joint on the water in Destin where the floors have been walked on so long the grain has risen. Good food both places, definitely Do Agains!

We survived our first Tropical Storm to make landfall within 20 miles of here: yowser, what a night!



We survived our first High Season: there has been a dramatic drop in the number of summer people--phew!

And (jaw-drop), finally our new dining room chairs arrived, having been dilly-dallying on a loading dock in Memphis for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow, when we host mahjongg with the local ladies, we'll test 'em out.

Are we Done Moving Yet?

On the one-year anniversary of our move to Beach-A-Rama (one year ago, weren't we stunned watching Frick and Frack make a hash of their packing job), we've made a list of what we miss most about Tuscaloosa.

1. It goes without saying that we miss our friends, but thanks to their generosity (and our good fortune to live at the beach) we get to see them pretty often and keep in touch with their lives.

2. Beyond that, we miss the CSA, the farmer's market, and the guy down the Tierce Patton Farm Road and his truck garden. Sunny Florida (or at least this very sandy part of it) has nothing much to offer in the way of produce, much less the truly gorgeous stuff to which we had grown accustomed.

3. We miss Scooter, tho what can be done about that?

But we're delighted that Squeaky has made such a great adjustment to the beach.

4. We miss Woodrow's (and Archibald's) and Taco Casa's tacos & sweet tea. But Oh Boy, are there some Great Restaurants here!

5. We miss the regular poker game, especially when it met at Wendy & Joel's house, where all manner of people were wont to drop in.

6. We miss Greenetrack Bingo and the proximity to the Silver Star--and for that matter Tunica--and the fact that we could split for the casinos whenever we wanted because Suni was ALWAYS available to catsit.

7. We miss the BuncoBabes--and having a neighborly connection with those women from around the lake.

Yet here we are in even closer touch with our neighbors--literally chatting whenever we want over the fence or on the beach walkover or in the middle of the street. It's kinda cool.

8. And natch we miss the lake itself, its constant change, reflections of it all moire-like on the great room ceiling.

9. And we miss the Focus on Senior Citizens Center, our introduction to tai chi, James (now gone, alas) and all the rest.

But here we've got Henry (and Ed) and Tai Chi as a martial art.

Turns out we can't even make this a top ten things because there's no number 10.

We celebrated our day all week long, playing bingo THREE times and eating our favorite dinner at Fat Clemenza's last night. In fact, we'll be eating it again tonite at home. Home!

Evidence

This blog has been remiss in that it failed to report that Tom & Jess gifted S w/a marvey new upgrade to the Wii, a Motion Plus sensor--and the suite of Wii Resort games that use it. One of the best BD prezzies ever! This bonus posting is designed not only to put that failure to rights, but to supply vindication! During the past couple of days, when S played table tennis, many of the in-game observers and some of her opponents have displayed bizarre facial features. When she reported this to T&J (who also have the game), their response, like that of her dear friend E, was that poor S must have gone 'round the bend. Well, c'mon, check this out:




Hope you caught the brief glimpse of Michael Jackson therein. Barack Obama has been appearing too, but we don't seem to have caught him on film. YET!

What follows is a slightly jerky taping of S taking on Bedroom Slipper Guy, filmed with her left hand as she played the game with her right. Note not only his "paddle," but the (eye)ball:

The Great Rearrange Continues

Since we're still without houseguests or most of our true neighbors (there are still PLENTY of summer people), we are continuing with our housekeeping chores. We took up all the carpet tiles in the living room, cycled out the grungiest and cycled in the cleanest, and sent two boxes of the dead back to the factory for recycling. In preparation for fall, if it ever comes, the Screen Queen came and repaired three of our screens, including the one into which Squeak had put a cat-sized hole. S moved on to the former laundry room (now the cat room), and attempted to at last put things where they might be useful and/or out of the way: this zone was where we stuffed things we didn't have a place for a year ago when we moved in and ever since we've been stuffing and stuffing.

Squeak, btw, has so far evaded the clutches of the jasmine, but she had a nasty set-to with a mean feral cat. We think that constant anxiety about letting her guard down with this beast on the prowl has made our poor kitten eschew the outdoor bathroom and return to her box. Oh, if only she had better aim! Part of the reorganization included moving the litter out of the specially-designed-for-it cupboard and away from the woodwork...

Mahjonng with Julie and Susan at Julie's condo was a major milestone: each of them seems to have become much less tentative and more imaginative in her play, and each of them won more than once. When the neighbors and the Canadians return this winter, we'll be ready to seriously rock and roll! Julie cooked up a feast: pork roast, green beans, yams, applesauce. We brought a bottle of wine and Suz brought brownies--scrumzo!

And Sunday's trip to the Bingo Castle yielded some nice surprises: S won a bingo and a half; E won a partial bingo; and S uncovered one of the $500 prizes on The Bingo Board. However, the Lotto tickets S bought at what looked to be the height of her streak have not yet netted us 23 million dollars. Which is why S has attempted to breathe new life into her greasiest t-shirts by tie-dying them a color that will hide some of the salsa and wine.

In an effort not to return to the amazingly crowded grocery store, where the checkout lines sometimes trail all the way back to the dairy section, we've been cooking down the larder at home. Most adventurous, perhaps, was S whomping up homemade ricotta; tastiest was E's batch of tomato sauce which has so far graced eggplant parmesan, stuffed peppers, cannelloni (homemade pasta, stuffed with the aforementioned ricotta), a quick noodle dinner--and is destined for tonight's fried eggplant. Which it might be time to macerate! Later, all.

Jasmine Attacks Household Pet!

Wimbledon is over (a bit anticlimactically, at least on the Women's side); the Tour de France is virtually over; Big Brother, however, marches on. At present we're rooting for Jordan, but she's on the block. Check out this footage and you might see in her what we do:


Our visit with Von was sweet.

Libations flowed, Rummy-O! tiles clicked and clacked, and V handed S her ass on the Wii Tennis Court. Turns out V has achieved "Pro Status" left-handed! Awesome!



After its injury in the Vet's parking lot, we finally took the Rav to get its dents pounded out and a new paint job. The greatest part of this adventure was borrowing Susan & Charlie's (well, Susan wants no part of it) croak truck ("croak" as in "fishing"). The thing makes as much noise as a helicopter, smells like a machine shop, and is sans power steering: merely riding around in it sets one on vibrate! But now the Rav looks great again--tho it lost its 30-A and SoWal stickers in the process. Our identity is in question for the moment.

We polished off Sandy's birthday with Bingo in our usual spot, but because on some level we don't want to believe that her winning streak is over (oh, it is, that seems certain), we indulged in a bonus bingo later in the week in PCB as well. In neither venue were we completely skunked, but the funds just aren't rolling in the way they were for a while there.

Karen of Karen & Frank (not to be confused with Karen of Karen & Phil) joined us for MahJongg last week--and won the second game she played! This coming Thursday we're meeting up with Susan & Julie at Julie's condo in Seagrove Beach for more MJ--curious to see Julie's digs: she's a quilter and her work is unusual in both its patterns and colors. (S knows this bc she saw some pix really fast while she was trying to help Susan get her Picassa software to behave.)

We're looking forward to Billye's return (next week, we hope): it's been a bit echoey around here with so many of the off-season folk away for the summer. We've been putting our extra free time to some good use, reorganizing the guest room closet and our office. Some of you have asked for pix of the new configuration, so, thanks to E's generosity to the birthday girl, you can check out a FlipVideo:

Wimbledon/Tour de France/Big Brother

These are the programs droning on as the backgound of our summer--which is in Full Swing. The most exciting events have been 1) the continuation of S's winning streak at bingo [followed by its inevitable attenuation and perhaps demise], 2) neighbor Susan's BD party in Frank & Karen's completed-just-in-time pool, 3) the discovery of a new bingo hall in Panama City Beach that's as close as the Bingo Castle when traffic on westward 98 is in summer gridlock. Which it almost always is.


The kitchen has been the source of some experiments: extensive online research led us to the conclusion that our popover pans had puffed their last puff and that nothing could be done to restore them. So we sucked it up and bought new ones and voila! Popovers--just in time for the Wimbledon Women's Final.

S tried to deal with the red hot chili pepper glut by making pepper jelly--oh, the Vesuvius of boiling over red goo E witnessed from her safe haven at the kitchen table. Let's just say that while the stuff is pretty and tastes just fine, its texture suffered horribly, perhaps from the boilover, perhaps from ????????? Renee (the egg/chicken/preserves lady), who avoids the use of pectin by putting up fruit exclusively, claims that pectin is always gummy, but we think not. More successful were the jars of pickled and marinated summer squash (because what else can one do with squash the size of one's forearm? aiyyy--our CSA does not quite have its act together), which will soon be ready to eat--yum!

We've been out and about doing jobs (car service, body work estimates for that crushed bumper) and hanging about the house ditto (new oven door hinges, AC condensation issues), shaking hands with and nodding agreeably to wrench-wristy types. And we're rearranging various storage places, planning to get rid of a couple of pieces of office furniture so we can more easily get to the windows, assuming the weather will ever be cool enough to open the damn things again. In addition to sampling a new bagel joint (nope) and eating breakfast once at The Donut Hole (crying children in spades), we returned to the Thai Elephant for a really swell meal--and ran into one of the hot local chefs, Philip MacDonald, who gave us a tip about a Turkish place in Ft. Walton Beach.

Susan (BD girl and MahJongg pal) with hubby Charlie (fisherman & wit)

Karen (foreground) & Frank (of the new pool) and Julie (quilter & MahJongger)

This weekend, some fun in store: a visit from Vonceil. Looking forward!

Devilled Eggs for Breakfast

The last week was basically a long lead-up to Gals' Getaway, the visit of Salli, Wendy & Kathryn for MahJongg and horsing around. They arrived bearing incredible gifts: fabulous champagne, a birthday bay plant for Sandy, nuts galore from The Nut Shop in T'oosa, Marcona almonds, a basket of Chilton Co. peaches, and homemade-by-Wendy ginger peach scones. Not to mention their much-loved faces, droll dispositions and Excellent Gossip.

The weekend revolved around games, beach walks, drinking (go figure) and eating (another big surprise). Let's start with eating. Friday night E&S roasted one of Renee's organic free-range chickens accommpanied by locally-grown grilled veggies and pestoed orzo. YUM (if we do say so ourselves)! Salli (a.k.a. Dr. Duster) remembered her great fondness for E's Crunch Drop cookies; it's hard to believe that there were actually a few left when Wendy's Subaru pulled out of the driveway on Sunday. Saturday night the visitors treated S&E to a gorgeous meal at 30-A, at which we all ate extremely well.

We drank RasMapolitans, French Kisses, Tanquery on the rocks w/olives (guess who?), and a civilized glass of wine. Starters included a grilled duck breast, tuna poke, and grilled jumbo gulf shrimp. Followed by Caprese salad, an ice-berg wedge (in honor of Dutch), a beet salad, and fried oysters and spinach. Entrees included two orders of wood oven roasted grouper, one order of butterfish, one succulent steak fritte, and yellow-fin tuna w/wasabi-infused oils. Dessert: banana beignets, creme brulee, and a chocolate lava cake. Throughout the meal we critiqued a small wedding party's dress, table decor and demeanor and gaped at the abundance of elective surgery by which we were surrounded. Good times!

On the gaming front, we buckled down to some serious Mahjongg, which occasionally sent Wendy, who's still new at this, roaring out the door down to the beach for a swim. Kathryn ended up with the biggest haul, altho Sandy & Salli both came out a bit ahead. As is their wont, E & W went head-to-head at Rummy-O and S&E each took on Kathryn at Spite & Malice (to show their teacher how diligent they'd been). A few minutes were set aside to introduce Kathryn & Salli to Wii--before we'd even shut it down, Kathryn was ordering up her own. It remains to be seen whether or not Salli was well and truly bit, but she DID whomp the crap out of Sandy at the Wii bowling lanes.

Sunday morning came way too soon, but we continued the celebration by concocting a novel breakfast of devilled eggs, little smokies, toast and fruit salad. Once the visitors had created some luncheon sandwiches for themselves (almost putting paid to one of the largest logs of liverwurst ever rolled into BAR) and piled into the car, S&E went on to bingo, remarkable for how many times S won (4--that's right, 4!) and the fact that E won a time and a half herself. People at the Bingo Castle were so glad to see us push back our chairs and pack up our daubers that they didn't even shush us once.

In the neighborhood/environs, the signs of summer are legion:

Renters at Karen & Phil's house drying out their beach umbrellas before packing the car.

Wayne, across the street, setting out early Sunday morning for a day of fishing.

Action at the Destin sandbar. Some of those boats are snackshops!

And check out the progress on Karen & Frank's pool: