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:

Summer!

We've just looked at our calendars and seen that we did nothing much of note last week. Unless you count eating quesadillas with salsa made from fresh local ingredients an event. Which we kinda do. Even more eventful, we had our first BLT--the sign of Summer. AND E finished the book she started reading 4 years ago when we retired. But otherwise, it was tai chi, bingo (which is twice as far away these days bc of the logjam on Hwy 98), dentist and peer over the fence at Karen & Frank's pool. And water the garden. And water it again.

It's hot here.

Three things are on our minds: 1) the impending visit of Kathryn, Salli and Wendy for a weekend of MahJongg; 2) the number of days we've had houseguests since we moved here 10 months ago [44]; and 3) our impending nomination of Squeak for the Pet of the Day feature in the NW Florida Daily News. Tom took this great pic, and we're determined to think of something pithy to say that will insure our Kitten McWhitten gets the glory she so richly deserves.

Squeaky, a Bama Belle, moved to the Emerald Coast, fell in love with the beach, and bought herself a Yolo Board.

Food Glorious Food

It seems as if we spent the last ten days eating: we treated ourselves to Fat Clemenza's again; we went to Fire again, this time with Jess and Tom; we indulged in Pig Alley BBQ; we tried Fabrice for lunch (waste of time--and way too much time at that!); and Saturday morning E got beignets at Flip Flops while S got a burrito at Seagrove Coyote's and we met on the communal terrace for breakfast. Not to mention the many meals we cooked in the company of Tom & Pep when they were here. If there's anything remarkable about this, it might be that both of us put in some serious time at the dentist too . . .

The true highlight was, of course, the visit with Pep & Tom: S&T played tons of Wii games (T destroying S on the tennis court: she is now in serious training hoping for a rematch); E&P logged hours of Spite & Malice (just one more, one more, one more); our plan to drive through some artsy light display in Alys Beach was abandoned when we learned we would have to pay 20 bux a pop for the pleasure (c'mon, those people are LOADED--it should be free!); and we cooked, which led, naturally, to eating. (Tom took all the pix for the flik that follows--which should be obvious to those of you familiar w/S's camera prowess....)





It will be yet a couple more weeks until we have company again, so S did a little household project that's been on the back burner for months, sewing up a shoe caddy for the owner's closet door. It's not pretty, but so far it's holding together and staying hung. (Sewing has new challenges ever since the movers apparently set a 500 pound weight on top of the sewing machine's soft case, wrenching the whole shebang out of alignment.) And we watched one of our backlogged Tivoed programs: amazingly enough, 24 ends with Jack's life hanging in the balance. Suspense! We got new cell phones (same nos.) and had to learn how to use them. Or begin to learn how to use them. And for the first time since we've owned BAR we went for a swim in the pool! (Much to Squeak's startled horror.)


The local CSA has finally opened: we received a box this week full of summer squash, cukes, a few cherry tomatoes, some dried garlic, practically a peck of basil (S made a huge batch of pesto and froze it in ice cubes trays), a couple gallons of green beans (E cleaned it all and S blanched it and froze it too), and a whole lot of sprouts and pea shoots that S has been gnawing her way thru at lunch time like a horse. And as you can see, S discovered the movie-making toy in Picassa. Be sure to get a load (as it were) of the guy spraying concrete in the new pool at the neighbor's house.

A Little Movie Courtesy of Tom

Okay, we're sluggards. We have our reasons. But while you're waiting for our post, enjoy this:

Wat Mongkolratanaram NOT

E is incommunicado at her desk as she combs the WWW looking for images of the Thai Temple Sunday Foodfest in Fort Walton Beach at which we were hoping to stuff our faces with delicacies this weekend. Alas, when we arose on Sunday morning, it was just too damn hot to think about hanging around on picnic benches in the temple courtyard, no matter how abundant and varied the food. Unless there's an atypical cold snap this summer, we'll probably have to wait until fall to sample the weekly offerings of the huge FWB Thai community. "Oh well," says E, "I can't find them." They were beautiful and tempting. Maybe another time...

Squeak visited the fancy schmancy vet, and while we liked the woman better than the cat did, at least we ALL had the satisfaction of the consequences: no more fleas! Sad to say, so uneventful was our week, this might have been the high point! Even the French Open is disappointing, since the coverage is meagre and already Venus is out of the Women's Singles competition. At least we each won something at Bingo--and E really scored, hitting what's known as The Big One (tho she had to share with one other person, too bad). We did learn an interesting thing about the locals: for his 21st birthday, Wilson, the guy who did S's pedicure, is being given one-of-the-houses that are owned by his aunt-who-also-owns-the-nail spa. He said, "Now I'll probably have to work for her forever." Turns out that the guy who did E's treatment lives in one of auntie's houses too.

In the neighborhood there has been a tiny bit of excitment: Karen & Frank, behind us, are putting in a pool. S stands on a stool and peers over the fence to keep abreast of progress, but Squeak tromps around the perimeter and even ventures into the pit! The claw marks of the backhoe are a tad unnerving, but seeing the layers of sand and dirt is edifying--that there's actually dirt at all is a bit of a surprise!

Tonite, for supper, a little something from our garden. Tah dah!