Memorial Day Weekend 2016

This weekend marks the beginning of summer and the end of another fast-moving month.  May has been very busy, like everyone came out of the doldrums of winter all at once!  This weekend, though, doesn't reflect that. Yesterday and today have been dark and rainy as a storm passes through.  So far, it has been steady, moderate rain, unlike what happened a week or so ago. Over the last two or three years we have had occasional rain storms like that shown in the photo.  Inches of water filled the yard, and it was still pouring, fast and furious. Thankfully, it stopped before coming into the sun room.  

Since Eileen's visit, I have been keeping an "activity calendar" for myself as I did for her visit.  It's quite surprising how much is going on in the area once it's compiled!  I would often read of coming events and, before I knew it, they had already happened.  Now, I just make a note of them and, when time and interest permits, I can take advantage of them.  There always seems to be something happening.  Most recently, Rhonda and I went to Fiesta de Mayo in Shelter Cove.....lots of good food, great Latin music, and fun people watching.  When we arrived, the crowd was sparse; but, by the time we left at 4PM, it was packed.  It went on until 10PM and I can imagine that the music and dancing got better as the evening progressed!




Elaine and I went to Port Royal to see "Daddy's Dyin' - Whose Got the Will?  It was by the same group that did "The Great American Trailer Park Musical", which was hilarious!  We figured this would be as well since the advertising stated:

• Adult language
• Extremely colorful swearing and language occurs frequently and throughout show
• Drugs/alcohol referenced. Beer is consumed
• Sexual references used

It was set in the 80's in Texas, so you can imagine the dysfunctional-family hilarity that ensued.

Most recently, Chris and I went to a fair put on by the Chamber of Commerce entitled Re-imagining Life after 50.  It was informative and enjoyable, ending with tasty munchies and wine.  It also gave is time to catch up a bit, which I really enjoyed.

May has also been a good month for local Democrats.Our Drinking/Living Liberally group joined with two other Democrat groups to have a Purple Rain night (at our usual DL location). Prince music was played and the political connection was that to go from a red state to a blue state, you have to go through purple!!  Maybe a far stretch (especially for SC!), but it was lots of fun.  We had a large crowd and it was great to see people that I usually see in other settings.  

Liberal Ladies of the Lowcountry had their usual monthly meeting, as well as a 5 year anniversary cocktail party.  It was at the beach house in Port Royal Plantation ( where we used to live), overlooking the water on a beautiful afternoon.  My take-away from that was that I discovered that a neighbor is a democrat!  We see each other frequently when we walk our dogs in the morning.  As we spotted each other at the party, I said, "Bogie's mom!" and she said, "Rosie's mom"!  We then introduced ourselves - we knew our dogs' names, but we hadn't introduced ourselves!  Now our morning chats are much more lively!, They have also attended Drinking Liberally!  Anyway, the anniversary party was great and the entertainment were these young ladies shown below.  I saw them several years ago when they performed at Bloom and was impressed by their demeanor and talent.  Even at that time (the younger was only 7!), they were very composed and professional.  After their program, they circulated around the room and spoke to everyone, which the residents loved.  They do those performances as practice and as community service.  They are just delightful and, needless to say, their mother is also quite impressive also.



You can see them as they appeared on the afternoon of the cocktail party (and doing a Michael Jackson tune) HERE.  This is the video I wanted to include but couldn't get it to work, though I was happy to find the one above on YouTube.  I love that they are in their frilly, formal dress and , what appears to be, flip-flops!  My kind of girls!

With all the socializing, I have managed to get a little done around the house, the primary thing being closet cleaning!  I couldn't face doing it all at once so I broke it down into about 5 steps.  What you see here is Step 1 - Everything on the floor of ONE closet!!  From this you can see that I could never have tackled the whole thing at once.....just too much crap.  After two car loads to the thrift shop, it looks much better.  All coat hangers are hanging backward, so next time I go through, I can get rid of even more. I'm really getting into the swing of "lightening up" and I hope to continue the process.

I continue to experiment with my magic/Instant Pot.  Today I have yogurt on the make and it's very experimental.....first time trying it, making it with vanilla almond milk instead of  dairy, etc. So, it will be very interesting to see how/if it turns out. I've also found a slicer/dicer that actually works the way they are all advertised to work....but don't!  It's German made and it works because the blades are SHARP.  Knowing that and following all precautions, yesterday I lopped off the side of my right ring finger (and part of the nail). It happened so fast that it didn't hurt, but it took forever to stop bleeding.  It is now well bandaged and makes typing a challenge.

I'm going to leave you with some love from sassy, sweet  Rosie, as she is lying on my back cushion, overseeing this whole operation.  She is such a character and adds laughter and love to each day. 

This is just.......

Eileen's Visit

It's taken me a while, but here I am again.  I wanted to do a slideshow of Eileen's visit and have only now gotten around to it.  I knew if I did a post first I'd never do the slideshow.  Anyway, we had a great visit and it was wonderful to see her. Rosie fell in love with her right away and totally deserted me!  She followed Eileen like her shadow.  By the time Eileen arrived, I had a list of options to fill our time.  Many of the things we did were new to me, as well as Eileen; so, it was like a vacation for me also.  The great part was that we did everything at a comfortable pace, which I found totally enjoyable.

Eileen arrived on Thursday around noontime.  We had time to relax and catch up a bit before going to the local Farmer's Market. It's supposed to be one of the best in the state.  We took the new bus service, which was nice and breezy. We had a nice walk-around, stopping for a glass of wine and a listen to the resident singer.

• Friday - a day of shopping and lunch at Chipotle, which was my first time there.
• Saturday - wine bottling.  I had hoped to have it ready, but things were delayed due to Brent's illness.  Eileen jumped right in and it was fun sharing the experience.
• We did a quick walk through of The Taste of Bluffton fair.  It was crowded and windy, so we opted for lunch at Fat Patties.  From there we went to Palmetto Bluff, where they were preparing for a huge, elaborate wedding.  I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the event.
• Sunday - a nice, long walk on Pinckney Island, where we saw lots of birds.  Unfortunately, they do not show up well on the photos, but they were fun to see in real time.  
• In the afternoon we went to a free concert by the Stardust Orchestra at Lowcountry Presbyterian Church.  It was big band kind of music, but very well done.  
• More shopping at Stein Mart before calling it a day.
• Monday - a good day for the beach, so we explored Mitchelville Beach, something I had not previously done. Mitchelville was the first self-governed freedmen's town in America. There are interesting informational signs about the settlement, as well as a cabin like those of the day.  The wonderful part was that the beach was practically deserted.  It is not a good beach for swimming, but it was perfect for what we were doing - sunbathing, looking for shark's teeth (no luck!), walking and reading.  It was a wonderful afternoon.
• Tuesday - another day of shopping/browsing.
• Wednesday - a day of talking politics and eating out.  Eileen went with me to lunch with my Progressive Ladies' group AND Drinking Liberally in the evening.  I don't think anyone was surprised when she told us how crazy the rest of the world thinks we are.  No contest!!
• Thursday - a day in Beaufort, again doing something I had never done.  We went to Port Royal and walked the Cypress Wetlands trail.  It's a well designed, short walk through the natural wetlands.  The birds were a little easier to see here, and there were lots of turtles, but we only saw one small gator.  From there we walked into Port Royal township, stopping at Moondoggies for lunch. From there we continue to the Sands, which is a long boardwalk with a 3-level viewing tower.  All in all, a lot of walking, but good.
• Friday - a late lunch at the Boathouse for Eileen to have some shrimp before leaving the Lowcountry.
• Saturday - it all came to and end.  We were at the airport by 10am and EIleen was off on the second let of her 3-part journey.

Needless to say, in the midst of everything we did, there was lots of catching up and reminiscing.  I hope Eileen enjoyed it as much as I did, and I'm eager to hear about the other parts of her trip.  

In the meantime, I've been trying to get back to some type of constructive routine.......I became too accustomed to vacationing!!  Rosie has adjusted to only having me around and misses the excitement of having a captive audience. Our weather has been beautiful and I'm partially successful at developing a walking routine.  Eileen introduced me to several good mystery writers and I've been reading more.....And there's always the political circus!!