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: