Lent

In our clutches . . .

We're happy to report that Mahjongg has taken hold at Sunrise Beach: Sunday we enjoyed egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches at Joyce's house for a MJ lunch, and taught two more newbies, Karen D and Billye how to play; Thursday afternoon at our house, we taught the other Karen, our semi-permanent neighbor, and she was such a quick study that she won a game in short order. And Susan already professes to be addicted--an excellent sign!

On the garden front, the lettuce is doing so well that we were encouraged to brave Home Depot's garden supply center to get more soil for additional planters. Even the parsley and dill are peeking through. Unfortunately we woke up at 2 AM this morning to a magnificent windstorm and severely dropping temperatures: it may be a day or two before we don our overalls again.

Micro-greens!

Culinarily speaking, we had several adventures. On Wednesday, while Karen was whomping up some pastitsio, Phil got a wild hair and invited a small party of SR beachers (current and former) for dinner. So we trooped over to join Susan & Charlie, Billye, and Sharon & the other Charlie for a good meal and lots of wine. We think we learned something really useful at this gathering (as we tend to do when the old timers get together), but there must have been too much wine in the mix, bc we sure can't remember what it was.

We've had this candle, a gift from Anne & Joe, for at least 15 years. We saw one exactly like it at Karen & Phil's the other night, and Susan says she has one too.

On Friday, E espied a notice of a fish fry (to benefit the poor in Walton Co.) that night at St. Rita's just up the road; we piled in the car and caught the last servings of a nice whitefish that we ate in the big hall next door to the sanctuary--along with about two hundred other greyhairs, mostly snowbirds. The most memorable part of the evening for E was when a worker, asked what fish we were eating, answered "Pacific Sway" and did a little hula. St. Rita's entire compound is understated and elegant, and the congregation appears to be far too well off to ever need bingo revenue. Alas.

Next weekend, for the first time since we've begun our adventure in moving, we are going to return to Tuscaloosa County for a visit with our pals. E wonders how many more seats have been added to the stadium in our absence. Stay tuned.

Impasse