Oysters = Success

Have you ever had a craving for something and nothing else can satisfy that hunger?  Bubba is like that about raw oysters.  He loves them, but he refuses to pay $1.00 apiece for them because he can remember when they were a nickel apiece.  We planned our last camping trip to St. George Island with the sole objective of obtaining oysters to satisfy Bubba's craving.

During the preceding week, Bubba studied the weather like a professional meteorologist.  We were scheduled to begin our days at the park on Wednesday which only gave Bubba one day (Thursday) to oyster because the bays are closed to harvesting shellfish on the weekends now

Thursday morning arrived and Bubba headed out with his kayak and a bucket.  It didn't seem like he had been gone that long before he was back.  I thought something had gone wrong, but he had filled his bucket and had all the oysters he could eat over the next few days.  He was a happy man.

At today's prices, this is approximately $60 worth of oysters.

He may not be smiling, but this is a happy man.

The biggest criticism I have of the state park at St. George Island is that there is no tv reception.  That may seem like a strange complaint from a camper, but you would be surprised how much you miss watching the news and weather every evening.

We had some nice walks, but it sure was cold next to the water.

We rented several movies to watch in the evening from the Red Box at the local dollar store.  Bubba is not much on watching movies, but he surprised me and watched a movie with me on Thursday and Friday nights.  We watched Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day the first night and Mom's Night Out the second night.  I'm pleased to announce that he actually laughed out loud during both movies.  I think having an ice chest full of oysters put him in a really good mood.

How often do you see this when you go to the beach?  Their horse trailer tag

 said they were from British Columbia.

We had several good meals, did a lot of reading and relaxing, and of course a lot of oyster eating (just Bubba).  It was too cold to sit outside much but at night we could sleep with the window open a little bit and could sleep to the sound of the surf.  That was some good sleeping.  The next time we visit St. George Island Amelia will be with us and that should be fun.  She loves the beach.

The End

Mother/Daughter Day and Les Mis

With record-breaking cold temperatures forecast for both home and Atlanta, I packed two very big suitcases full of almost everything we own in the form of cold weather clothing, including my electric throw, and we commenced our trip to see Amy and Amelia.  (Darryl was in Brazil.)  On the way up, it was getting colder and colder but we didn't realize how cold it really was until Bubba decided to clean the windshield and the liquid froze before the wiper could get it.  That is cold!!

We arrived at their house a couple of hours before they were due in from school and I changed into warmer clothes and hooked up my electric throw and stayed cozy waiting for my girls.  I didn't want Amy to cook and we sure didn't want to go out in that kind of weather so I brought chicken and dumplings for our supper that night.

I gave Amelia the doll clothes I had made for her American Girl doll and she seemed very pleased.  Now she wants a witch dress and ghost costume, "not just a sheet" for them so I will work on that soon.  I intended to take a picture of everything I made, but I got the picture of the first dress and missed out on the others.  In addition to the dress pictured, I made a dress, a blouse with a ruffle, a skirt, and a jacket.  It was much easier than anything else I've tried so maybe I should stick to doll clothes.  I can work on them and stay in a good mood.

Following an appointment Amy had on Friday, we abandoned Bubba to his own devices and we did some fun shopping and had a girly lunch.  I bought two pairs of shoes and Amy contributed her $10 off coupon to my purchase.

We finished off the shopping by picking Amelia up at school.  We helped her get a bath and into pajamas and then we left Bubba to babysit while Amy and I went out to eat again and attended the musical, Les Mis, at the Aurora Theater in Lawrenceville.  I thought this was my fourth time to see this, but Amy thinks it was just my third (including the movie).  Whatever... I love it and would see it again.  This theater is small and there are no bad seats; however, we had very good seats and could almost touch the actors at different points in the play.

While we were waiting in the lobby for seating to begin, I saw two different people that I was sure were going to end up sitting next to me.  One was a goofy acting woman who was wearing a dog hat with the long pieces that come down to put your hands in.  I know that nothing is as proper as it used to be (thank goodness), but a grown woman in a dog hat at a musical has got to be a little "off".  The other was a woman who was so big that she could have used several seats to herself.  Now I've had plenty of tight squeezes myself so I am sympathetic to her plight, but I think I would have been claustrophobic if I had sat next to her.  (Now that I've been mean spirited and said that, I'll probably gain 50 pounds overnight.)

This is the dog hat.  I found it on Amazon.  

After worrying about that for a while, we were allowed to enter and I was pleasantly surprised that the person next to me was the father of one of the main actors in the musical.  He was pretty chatty and very interesting.  He knew the ins and outs of musical theater and was obviously a very proud dad.  The part of the printed program that introduced the actors mentioned that he had attended all of his daughter's performances.  How does he do that?   When the production started, he leaned forward with his chin resting on his hand and took in every aspect of what what happening on stage.

This is the daughter, Kelly, who played the part of Cosette.

Meanwhile, back at the house Paw-Paw and Amelia were entertaining each other.  He said that she got situated under my electric throw and told him that she was ready for her popcorn and hot chocolate.  Paw-Paw lives to serve.  Later she chose a very long version of Cinderella for her bedtime story.  They took turns reading, but finally Bubba told her I would finish it the next night and she was okay with that.  He heard her say her prayers and tucked her in for the night.

Does she have it made or what?

When we got home around midnight, Bubba was sitting up in the living room.  He said he wanted her to be able to find him if she got up during the night so he wouldn't go on to bed himself.  If you know Bubba, you know that is a very late night for him.

We ate lunch Saturday with my cousin, Vicky and her husband.  This is the first time that Robert has been available to eat with us in a long time and it was good to see him.  Saturday night we watched Amelia so that Amy could attend a church function.  She decided that we needed to make a movie and we did.  She assigned parts and told us what to do.  It was hilarious.

Sunday morning we headed home.  Thank you, Amy, for Friday.  The whole day was fun.  She "treated" me to the musical and dinner.  I thoroughly enjoyed it all.  Thank you, Bubba, for entertaining yourself Friday and for staying with Amelia Friday night so we could go out.  It was a warm weekend with family in spite of the cold weather.