My Bag is Packed

It is not very often that either Bruce, or I, have been drunk. I suspect you could count on one hand the number of times, however, there was one occasion that sticks in my mind.

The year was 2007, late summer, that I talked Bruce into a little trip to both Savannah, and Charleston. At the time I was still pretty weak, and in constant pain, but what the heck, you can only stay home for so long. So, we took off on a Friday evening, spending the night in Daytona, and on to Savannah the next day. I don't really remember all that much about our time in Savannah, HOWEVER, there is one part that neither of us can forget. We stayed at The Marshall House, and while taking a little stroll, I suppose for dinner, we came across a spot called Jen's & Friends. Martinis are their thing, and because it was in the midst of the martini craze, we figured, why not?

Now, you might assume that Bruce, being the strong guy that he is, would eschew sweet drinks, but that is most certainly not the case. He loves a good Pina Colada! So it was that he tried a (gasp!) Cosmopolitan--remember their popularity??? Very tasty he thought, I might just have another, and another.....and before long he was feeling pretty good. He even bought one of their t-shirts. While this was all going on, we were chatting with a couple seated at the adjacent table, who also were feeling pretty good. So good, that they wanted to keep partying, inviting us to accompany them to a music venue where drinks are served. After a short walk, we arrived, got a drink, and began listening to the music, however, by now Mr. Bruce was not feeling so good....seriously drunk, he asked me to take him back to the hotel. I did the best I could.

Although the trip, the following morning, to Charleston was a mere 106 miles from Savannah, it felt like much, much, further to our driver!

Fast forward to a month or so ago, to a day we were having lunch at a delicious new little restaurant called Se7en Bites on Primrose Avenue, a few miles from the house. While ordering, one of the chefs, noticing his now well-worn t-shirt, exclaimed how much she loved Jen's & Friends!

We are going back for a new, non faded t-shirt, and a few less martinis. Or so that is our plan. Upon our return I will let you know how it goes.

What did I leave out yesterday? Well, a work day at Bill's house on Saturday which found Bruce grinding the marble tiles to leave a straight edge in the opening, while Bill held the vacuum cleaner to catch the inevitable dust.

He proceeded to make a wood casing, which was much harder than it sounds. Before Bill's house, we took the stainless pieces over to Angela's neighbor, only to discover once we had everything in the back yard, that they made the top piece an inch too short.

I can assure you this was a low blow. See that wood stick thing? That's called a "dead man" for those of you not familiar with carpentry terms. My job was to hold said dead man, keeping the stainless in place, while Bruce screwed it into the fascia. Which meant another trip out to Oviedo for me on Monday to pick up the correctly sized piece, which Bruce installed yesterday afternoon, following his work day at Church Street!

Did I tell you it was KILLER hot? I should have. Anyway, after the installation, he removed the protective paper, and here's what it looks like.

And why would someone have two large pieces of stainless attached to their home? Apparently they grill all the time, and the above pictured grill has exhaust out the back which stains the house. So, now you know.

Because we were not going out on our actual anniversary, a nice home cooked meal was in order. I spent the afternoon baking, and I've a few tips to pass along. Making home made brownies is as easy as pie, well, much easier, and frankly, I don't know why that saying ever came into being, but I digress. I mentioned this once before, but it is so helpful, that it bears repeating. If you've a plastic knife, in my case, a lettuce knife, use it to cut perfect brownies.

We ended up eating so late, that instead of the brownies and ice cream I envisioned, I never even ate one, while B. ate two small ones. Then too, I'd been dying to, once again, make the incredibly delicious, albeit decadent, whipped cream pound cake from a recipe given to me by my 87 year old Alabama native neighbor. Pound cake--a Southern tradition. Deciding it might seem a wee bit less decadent with the addition of blueberries, I gave this a try; coating the berries in flour before adding to prevent sinking.

Although the picture makes it looks like it might be a possible solution to the pesky problem of sinking blueberries, I cannot, in all honesty, vouch for it. Freezing them beforehand is yet another trick, however, neither of them work all that great. I will say it prevented blueberry bleeding which is a plus. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears!

Now, here's something that does work pretty well.

There was a time when a whole box of spaghetti wasn't enough to feed my hungry boys, however, these days, with just the two of us, it is always a challenge figuring out a two person serving of pasta. I read about this somewhere, and although the next time I'd fill that empty spice bottle a tad more, it was just about right.

On this tiny part of the World Wide Web, you've seen lots of photographs of various creatures from our yard, but, drum roll please, this one is a FIRST.

You might think that in seven years of taking photographs most every single day, that I might have a snail photo, but you might think wrong. As Bruce was getting in the car he noticed this little guy on the driveway, moving him so as not to run him over. While I was taking this photo, he was inching his way to the safety of the grass.

Bill called just now, and during the course of our conversation, I asked him what he thought about his Mom writing a blog. He said he thought it was cool. I'll take that. What I told him is that events that are either mundane, or important, are recorded in real time, so what's really cool about having a blog is I know I felt about stuff when it was happening. As well, I told him I don't often go back in time, but for those who would prefer a shorter version of what I've described above, here's the link to my blog post recording the previous trip.

Back then I knew how to be succinct--what happened???