Home Sweet Home!

It's always so good to get home after a trip. We got on the road by 6:30 a.m. We made 3 stops---Preisters Pecans---where we sampled all flavors of pecans and dips, but left without a purchase. Next stop was Peach Park---we just had to take some peaches, and cantaloupe, and tomatoes, and okra, home---and we just had to have one more fresh peach ice cream cone. Our final stop was for gas and lunch at Five Guys (hamburgers) in Cullman, Alabama. We were home by 3 p.m. A very nice ride without much traffic.

The girls came for happy hour. Originally, we thought it was cancelled since Mindy wasn't supposed to get home until later. But, Steph called to see if we were "on." Butch said "yes." About 10 minutes after that, Mindy called to say she'd gotten home early. When she found out we were having happy hour, she said, "humph, I thought it was cancelled! Be there in 10." The girl doesn't want to miss a thing. Butch and I really have come to enjoy this Friday "kick off" to our weekend. It gives us all a chance to catch up with each other from the week.

I had planned to invite Stephanie and Nicky to stay for dinner. I brought fresh jumbo shrimp home from the beach. I decided to put them on the grill. Not to miss out, Mindy decided to stay---even though she doesn't like shrimp---it's a texture thing. We don't really get that since she loves crawfish and even sucks the heads! Gross! Anyway, I didn't really even have enough shrimp for her.

Butch asked me what I was going to do with the shrimp---marinate them, or put a sauce on them. I hadn't really figured that out. I'm not a "think up new stuff on your own" type of cook. So I did the next best thing. I called my cajun friends, the Broussards. Bruce and Karolyn know how to cook just about anything. Bruce advised peeling the shrimp, tossing them with olive oil, lime juice and Paul Prudhomme's blackened seasoning (they knew I had that from my fish tacos at the beach) and then grilling them. They were sooo good. Even Mindy decided she liked them. I sacrificed 2 of mine for her.
I rounded out the meal with a big salad and lima beans. Mindy loves limas and thought that at least she could have the salad with them.

After clean up, the girls left. We started watching the olympics around 8. Butch won't admit this, but I think he must have really missed me. He was quite chatty all evening. That's not like him. He's usually pretty quiet. I would say that it started to annoy me, but actually, I would never want to discourage him. That's his way of saying he missed me without actually saying it. I'm sure!

I'm off today to meet Mindy at the Apple store. It's tax free weekend. She's buying herself a MacBook Air. Her old Mac is from college. It still works, but is heavy and a bit slow.  She's excited. I'm going because I never pass up a chance to go to the Apple store. That place amazes me. It's always packed. Today is going to be a zoo. We're getting there a half hour before the store opens to stand in line. Hopefully we'll be out by 11. Hopefully...

Later...