Sand Art

I can barely make a sand castle...but some people are truly talented!

Busta Move

I took the boys to the Big Kahuna Water Park in Destin. It was packed with fun but well, it literally kicked my butt. The first slide I rode was the red power slide. I was going so fast that I can't say for sure, but I think I hit my back on the bottom of the slide and then landed at the bottom of the pool. Miss Graceful surely did something! I persevered, toughed it out for another five hours. Actually, running around seemed to take my mind off of the pain. However, the four hundred mile trip back in the van a few days later was excruciating! And I must admit that even now...a week later and I'm still sore! I went today to get xrays and see how much damage I really did. I guess I'm not 12 years old anymore. As my friend Ann said today: Getting Old is NOT for Sissies!!

Holy Mackerel

We got up EARLY and got on the boat in Destin at 6am.

Everyone caught fish!

The boat: "The Enterprise"...the Captain's name: Kirk, of course.



We left the Destin harbor and caught a lot of herring to use as bait. Then out to the open water. We went about 12 miles outside of Destin, Florida in all. We trolled.
I caught a mackerel but Cletus had to help me reel it in. Our first mate, Rusty, was very helpful and cleaned and fillet-ed our fish!


Cletus and Tdawg caught some Amberjack that either got away or were too small to keep. Then we all caught snapper while bottom fishing. It was a gawgeous and amazing day!

Guilty Pleasures

One of the best things about vacay is the guilty pleasures. Twirling on an intertube. Not thinking about calories. Watching mindless TV. Napping in the middle of the afternoon. And immersing yourself in a good beach read. Barbara at work gave me "Everyone Worth Knowing" by Lauren Weisberger. She also wrote "The Devil Wears Prada". I have not read that one, but the movie was good. And you know the book is always better.

Revenge

Tdawg executed his revenge on the crab that was eating his bait, by chowing down at Bayou Bills. He showed no mercy! :-)

Mornin' Bites

In the early morning, Cletus and Tdawg fished some more. Tdawg thought it was cool to see a crab on the top of the water eating a shrimp. That is until he realized that the shrimp was his bait and the crab had stolen it! Tdawg was just a fussin'!! Cletus caught a two foot long black-tipped reef shark. Sadly, no pictures of the shark...I was still snoozing. This picture will give you an idea:

Shore Enough

Sunday night, Cletus and Tdawg did some shore fishing. They caught some catfish.

Baytowne Wharf

We roadtripped to the San Destin and Destin areas to check out where we would be fishing. Then went to Hammerheads in Baytowne. I should have guessed by the extra E on the end and the gated community that it would be snooty. The TV advertisement called it reminiscent of the French Quarter in Louisiana. Don't know about that. But when the menu says "market price" you know it isn't going to be pretty: can you say "Cha-ching"? The food was good, but not what you would expect...must be paying for the ambiance.

Tdawg found out that there isn't a mudbugs (crawfish) that he doesn't like.

Ahh...Life is Good

Sunday was our chillax day. After the long drive, we were ready to chill:

It was a gawgeous day. And this was the extent of our adventure for the day. A nice stroll on the beach, collecting shells and reading:

Buddy had a good time sitting on the shore making sand castles and throwing all of the sand back into the ocean:

Tdawg brought his bike and rode to Inlet Beach an eighteen mile round trip.

Roadtrip

Ahhh, it is that time of year...Vacation-time! School starts in a few weeks. And I feel thrashed from a rough year. I'm ready to take off and forget about deadline, commitments, schedules and such. So, we headed out on a 375 mile trip to Paradise. There was all sorts of excitement: a high speed chase on I-65, stalls, wrecks, dumb drivers, lots of road construction and traffic jams. The worst traffic jam was a two hour wait going north through Montgomery. Thank goodness we were headed south! The drive got better after Montgomery, because we left I-65 and got on the country roads. Sometimes it felt like this is how fast we were traveling...


Cletus suggested that we play Redneck I-Spy. The object is to point out the most redneck items on a porch. We saw all sorts of appliances and furniture (including a huge console TV), a confederate flag, a life-sized nativity scene, Christmas lights and a full-sized car. By the time, we made it to the beach, we were ready to eat dinner and collapse. A long drive, but well worth it!!

Flash Back Friday

What a difference a year makes...last summer at Gulf Shores:

This summer at the aquarium in Chattanooga. Tdawg looks short, but he is 6' tall... and Buddy is 6'5"!

Golf

In the beginning, man beat on the ground with sticks...they now call it golf. Ha ha. Tdawg and I are trying to learn how to play golf. He has the added advantage of being athletic. Me, um, not so much. The first two pictures were taken last Sunday when Tdawg was practicing.


Wednesday, Tdawg played 18 holes at Fox Run and shot a 102. Quite good seeing as he had never played 18 before and has only been playing a couple of weeks.

Thursday, I played 9 holes at Richland and also shot a 102. Ha ha...actually we didn't keep score. I feel that I did pretty well for my first attempt. By the end, I was hitting the green (as pictured). I played with a lady from work and her friend. We are new and definitely duffers. I joked that we did a lot of hunting and fishing (for our golf balls). So, we should be on the golf ball search and rescue team! I think we are going to get tshirts printed up. We had a blast! After two hours in the heat, carrying my new clubs, I was thrashed! But I can't wait to go again!

My Mother's Daughter

Ahhh, sometimes I am my Mother. I have so much to do. So, I feel the urge to sit down, have a cup of coffee (ice tea, in my case), put my feet up and think about it...just like Mom would do. Mom also passed on her list obsession to me. It really is a just coping mechanism for the overwhelmed. Or in my case, I just love crossing things off of the list. I have been known to add things to my list that are already done...just so I can mark them off! (There must be a 12 step program for that!) But for now..so far this morning, I have packed my stuff for vacation; took Tdawg to the dentist; grocery shopped; ate lunch; got Tdawg's haircut; went to the bank; went to the post office; got a watch battery, washed, dryed and folded a load of clothes, loaded the dishwasher and stopped by the pharmacy. Not bad...seeing as it is only noon thirty. I would call that a rather productive morning. So, time for a break. Still have to help Buddy pack and organize the food and pool toys. Phew. I may have to have two glasses of tea!! Or better yet...a nap.

Saturday

Saturday's just are not long enough...or maybe I just don't have enough energy to get everything done that I would like to. This morning, I got caught up on computer things for an hour...during which time Buddy put together a 300 piece puzzle (amazing!). Then we took off for the pool. Dinner out (Little Tony's). And to the movies (Ice Age 3). Tdawg is off on a church weekend event, so this is as empty nest as we get. It sure is quiet!

Purdy

Thanks to Cletus' faithful watering these are alive and blooming:

Fireworks!

I had a good fourth. Buddy and I were lounge lizards at the pool for awhile. Cletus grilled. What could be better! And it is nice to live out in the county where you can set off your own fireworks! We have quite a few neighbors who just live for this day!! So we never have to go further than the driveway to see an amazing show. One neighbor must have set off a grands worth of mortars. And of course, we had two jumbo assorted packs of our own. Tdawg was in charge of the show for the first time. He set the dead grass we call a yard on fire twice...ok, so it was just smoldering. Not his fault, it has been ninety plus degrees for twenty days in a row with little to no rain. I did have to retrieve some burning embers from the neighbors' yard. I was a little panicky when one of the embers bounced down the neighbor's roof. It was pretty exciting when Tdawg lit an artillary shell and it imploded in the driveway. He realized later the he had it upside down! Buddy was mesmerized by the sparklers and roman candles. A good time was had by all!

Patriotic

We had Patriotic Day at work. Of course, we outdid ourselves! Lunch was fun. We wanted to torture Miss Red's daughter, who just started working at Sonic. So, we ate outside and cause quite a stir. Poor Mason...he is forced to work with a bunch of lunatic women. He is such a good sport! He didn't think twice about being seen in public with us. He looked like he was either the lead singer or our road manager (or maybe a parole officer?).

I don't think that A. was expecting so much attention! We were called A's Angels. But I'm not sure how angelic we are. (hee hee hee)

Miss Red

Miss White

and Mrs. Blue (I can't help it...I'm a blinker!) It kind of makes me look heavily medicated!

Whatever shall we do for the next holiday?? Hey, at least we make accounting fun!!

Fun

Look! Some one has bigger feet than Tdawg. Ha ha!

Life in a fish bowl:



Pretty blue tongue!