1/29

We are finally back on line with a new hard drive.

Friday, Billie and Norm Fahrner stopped by and we had a nice visit.  Good people.

Saturday I took J on a home tour.  Six homes on Ono Island - a long, narrow, private strip of land with a guarded entrance and million dollar homes.  J has wanted to get on the island for several years, and finally succeeded.  One of the homes had a marble shower in the garage.  Must be nice.

Monday we explored Pensacola.  Nice city.  Lots of nice old homes that have been converted to office, and new buildings that were designed to look old.  J was disappointed that it was Monday - museums are closed, so we will return.

1/20

Great weather has returned to the Gulf - for the time being.  Sun, light breezes, temp in the 60s.  Sunday was the perfect day to spend the afternoon on the balcony with a cigar.  Thursday, the rains return and will be here when the Fahrners visit.  At least we don't have to shovel anything.  We want to go to Old Town Pensacola tomorrow while the weather is still good.

1/18

Well, the Gulf Coast has not run out of oysters yet.

We now refer to ourselves as Winter Residents.  While the locals love the money Snowbirds pump into the economy, they marvel at some of the strange antics of the damn yankees.  We have talked with employees of several restaurants, all of whom laugh about snowbirds stealing salt and pepper shakers.  I note that our unit is fully furnished with everything except salt and pepper shakers.

1/8

Yesterday we drove to the art museum in Mobile and toured their exhibit of Mardi Gras memorabilia and attire.  You may recall that Mobile is the home of the first celebration of Mardi Gras, even though New Orleans gets the press.  Worth the trip.

We returned to OBA in time for an early dinner.  One of our favorite restaurants has a series of regional menus during the winter, which is their slow time.  (One of the chefs told us that during the summer they serve in an hour as many as the serve all day during the winter.)  The current menu is Pan Pacific, with Spam as one of the choices.  It reminded me of the Spam sushi we had in Hawaii.  I like Spam once every few years, but I passed in favorite of the Steel Head Trout.  Good choice.

When we returned to the condo, the rant-a-cop told us the elevators were on the blitz.  The temp was already in the 40s (it dropped to the low 20s last night, with STRONG winds), and there was no way I was going to try to walk 5 flights.  So we went to another restaurant for a leisurely dessert  We got a call around 8 informing us that the elevators were operational.

Off to our first cooking class of the year today.  Wild mushroom and arugula tart.

1/2/15

How about those Spartans?  And the Ducks!  Now we won't have to listen to that stupid fsu war chant on the 12th.  Unfortunately, we will have to watch Ohio while we cheer for the Ducks.

Those damned snowbirds are back from up north.  More cars in the parking lot and on the roads and more sirens of emergency vehicles rushing to the scene of a snowbird accident.

New Year

Good bye 2014.  Hello 2015.  As usual, we were home before the sun went down.  No need to be out with the amateurs.  We had lobster tails for dinner.  Then our favorite handyman stopped by with a bottle of bourbon distilled by his buddy."Confederate Spirits".  We will try it tonight.  We watched the ball drop in NY (11PM central time), and J stayed up to watch the crab drop in Maryland,  the Shoe drop in Key West, the Pelican drop in Pensacola and of course, the Moon Pie in Mobile.  We are watching the Rose Bowl parade.  The agenda today is Sparty On, Roll Tide, and go Oregon.  I forgot to mention that Villanova beat Butler yesterday to remain undefeated.

We have trouble findng trigger fish this year,  But we have found 3 restaurants that feature snapper:  queen, hog, and red.  J doesn't like fish, and I keep telling her I did not drive down her to eat hamburgers.

Happy New Year to one and al.