Arnasas Pass Shrimp Boil

It doesn't get any better than this!

Thursday, March 11, I only got three hours of sleep but I don't feel too bad considering. Nan and I walk at 8:30 so we can go to Joanne's Fabric in Corpus at 9:30. Tom is up when I go over there so he can go get shrimp with Bob for our big boil this afternoon. Bob thought they were leaving at 9:30 when Nan and I head to Corpus.

As we walk we run into Lois and Richard and their friends from Maryland who are visiting. By some odd coincidence their friends were looking for a puppy so they are now the proud owners of Tex, the stray cocker spaniel. Heather had just dropped him off and they were all bonding. The lady said her sister called from back home and said "I had a dream you brought a dog home from Texas!" Kind of eerie since the dog was named Tex by the guy across the road who found him wandering in Texas.

The bad news from the Graham household is that Tom put his phone through the wash in his pants pocket. What a bummer. It is drowned. He has insurance and can get one delivered Fed Ex tomorrow.

Nan and I leave for Corpus at 9:45. Bob and Tom are already gone to get the shrimp. We find Joanne's at SPID and Staples without Nan's Gabby Garmin. I find plastic wine glasses for all of these Social Hours for 30% off. Nan replaces hers too. She finds her embroidering floss that she came for. I also find a table runner so I don't have to always use my plastic postcard placemats if I want to have a little classier spread. At the last minute I spot Specs liquor store next door and get smaller bottles to replace my butter nipple supply. We pass on the Three Olives Root Beer Vodka at $24.99 per litre.

Tom takes the first batch of shrimp out of the big kettle

The Smart car pulls a wild maneuver to cross Staples to Target where I find a colorful plastic pinwheel plate. Nan finds her stuff and we head home by noon so Tom can go to Verizon and sort out his drowned phone. He's hoping someone can retrieve his contacts list.

Bob and I go to get mail, miss the FM road to the post office and end up taking the long way. Our mail is there. When I ask for a general delivery for Monat the guy says "Where you been?" I was so shocked by a postal employee with a sense of humor that I forgot to mail the package and correspondence I had stuck in my purse early this morning.

Back home Tom calls on Nan's phone around 3:00 to say the water is boiling for shrimp. We head over to supervise the operation. The shrimp is great, the weather is perfect and Bob and Tom take turns doing batches in the big pot Nan and Tom have. Tom got two potato salads at HEB, I add Corn & Pea Salad and my veges and we top it off with Ritz Almond Bark PB Cookies that Tom made in his spare time. We eat outside with the KOA plastic tablecloth.

Nan and Bob are ready for the next batch of shrimp

Afterwards I'm so stuffed that Nan and I take a walk. The air is chilly and drives us inside when we return. We chat at their place until 9:00. Next door Dan is all packed up and ready to go. It is getting foggy again. Another fun day on the Texas Coast with our new friends.

Classy KOA plastic tablecloth that Tom says cost him a fortune in campground fees

Ritz Almond Bark PB Cookies--the dark chocolate square in the center is for me!

Shopping in Austin with Glenda and Ellen

Monday, January 11, I was up at 7:00. Enjoyed coffee and read for a bit. The sun is out so I open the blinds. The low was 28 last night. We had a light breakfast and I get cleaned up. Glenda knocks at 9:45. She and Ellen came early so Ellen could get a tour of The Titanic. I give them each a sample of Christmas Date Cake. We bid farewell to Bob and we're off. First I point out the frozen Niagara Falls leftover ice chunks under the RV next door.

We duck traffic as we pull out onto Hwy 71 heading to Austin. Glenda takes 130, the new toll road, to Parmer. This is my first time on this stretch of the I-35 by-pass and I don't recognize anything. Glenda really knows her way around. Our first stop is Hobby Lobby at Parmer and I-35. I duck into Office Max and Best Buy to browse their digital photo frames. There is no sale going on for the one we saw in Bastrop. The young sales guy says they will honor all on-line prices we find that are lower but not 'other Best Buy stores.' Go figure. I bought a Cross pen refill and rejoined Glenda and Ellen. We all had a restroom break (wow, that place needed cleaning.) Glenda got Elvis material for a baked potato cooker for a friend. Ellen got backing for her Mother Goose cross-stitch baby quilt. I browsed for greenery and iron-on appliques but nada.

We head on to Cheddar's for lunch. I have Bourbon-glazed Salmon. Soup, salad, baked potato combos for Glenda and Ellen. We all split Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie-Yumm! Thus fortified we head on to Wal-Mart on the west side of I-35. I got a newspaper and contact solution. Glenda got ink and birdseed. Unfortunately they told Glenda only two Austin Wal-Marts still do one-hour photo processing; Round Rock and I-35 at 183. She passes on the 5-day turnaround.

Across the parking lot to AT&T next where Drew sets Glenda's cell phone to ring for 30 seconds before going to voice mail. He prints the instructions for me since I failed in my attempt. He's the 'go-to' guy at this location and even he had to look up how to do it.

On to Joanne's Fabrics (that burger place we saw on the commercials is right on the parking lot!) Ellen and I agonized with Glenda over yellow/green color combo for a baby boy quilt. We finally persevered and got a winner. We head back to Bastrop at 3:45--not very good timing but 183 to 71 is not too bad. What a fun day with the gals.

Bob sorted out the water filter (it was very rusty) and hoses and blocks of excess wood. He cut up veges for the fridge too. What a guy. We split a can of chicken and wild rice soup, read the paper and watched House, Fringe and Castle. It's 10:34 p.m. and 45 degrees. It is not supposed to freeze tonight. The top news story is about some guy in South Austin petitioning to get the moonlight tower over his house dimmed. There are only 17 of 34 of these famous towers from the 1890's left. And Austin is the only city in the U.S. that still has them. The City of Austin electric utility (Bob's former employer) maintains them.