Saturday afternoon the kids and I went to the Fall Festival at their elementary school. Much fun to be had. Ring toss, cake walks, the works.

At first Jordan seemed disinterested, or perhaps concerned that he was too grown up to participate. Eventually he decided we would be involved. I don't know if it was seeing teenagers fishing in the rubber ducky pond or realizing candy was involved.

The kids ate pizza, Bri won a Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-Cake, and then they jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped on the inflatables. Watching all that jumping made me tired.

Thanks to Tammy for watching our stuff while the kids jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped.

If you have ever come to visit me at work, the directions I gave you ended with "turn right at the big blue warehouse". If you had been anywhere in Huntsville this morning, it is very likely you would have noticed the billowing black smoke coming from the big blue warehouse.

There were at least 5 fire trucks present. I could see 5 from our parking lot. Harvest, Monrovia, and Huntsville. There were probably more around the corner too. I was told three of the local TV stations were also around the corner reporting "Live" on the scene.

The buildings were completely destroyed. The rumor mill says the first alarms rang around 6:00 AM. When the first fire truck arrived the gate was locked. This means no one was in the building. Fortunately. When I arrived shortly before 7:00 am the sides of the building were glowing orange.

The firemen did an awesome job. While the building was lost, it did not spread to any surrounding buildings. By lunch most of the smoke had stopped. This was no small feat as there was surely some tar in the building. That stuff burns forever.

Lunch today was at a local Mexican Restaraunt. While waiting on the food to be prepared, it occurred to me I had been having Mexican food a lot lately. I counted them up and discovered I had had Mexican food 7 times in the last 14 days. At dinner this evening, I updated the count to 8 times in 14 days. The count for Chinese food is only 3 meals in the last 4 days. Thai, zero. Maybe tomorrow.

Returned from a weekend camping trip this afternoon. We went to Savage Gorge in TN. AtHomeDaddy drove out from Texas to join us. The weather cooperated nicely. Plenty of Fall color to be seen. And plenty of coyotes to hear.

This weekends F1 race ends the season. I have it on Tivo though I haven't watched it yet. Done tell me who won yet!

Tomorrow I go to a local high school for orientation for field experience. I am looking forward to this. I have enjoyed it the past couple of times.

Terry was in on Thursday. She came to visit iMike and to give Bri her B'day presents.

We are home again but I still need to finish up the beach posts.

Tuesday night we tried a restaurant we had not visited before. The name of the place was Grafittis. The place was Italian and decorated rather eclecticly. While they had pizza on the menu I opted for some pasta. I selected a dish with a rather bland name, Seafood Pasta. The description ended with spicy marinara sauce. The world spicy was my sole reason for selecting it. Spicy turned out to be some red pepper. And it was good. The fresh shrimp and scallops didn't hurt either.

Wednesday was "Happy Bri-day". We made a day of it by going out to ride bumper boats, bumper cars, and go-karts. J was tall enough to drive himself this year. G says he fancied himself to be an F1 driver. After the racing we headed on down the street. Bri wanted to get her little ears pierced. It sounded painful to me, but it was what she wanted. I tried to look the other way. Afterwards we hit a few souvie shops and then an early dinner. Since it was HBD, we let her pick the restaurant. She wanted to go back to The Back Porch. We arrived early enough to get a table right away. G has the Grouper Florentine which was excellent. I had another pasta dish whose name eludes me right now. I won't be having it again though. It may have been called a shrimp Alfredo but that is not really what it was. Oh well.

Today we returned home.

I missed two classes this week. Tonight I was supposed to give a speech on the Electoral College. When I arrived at class I discovered the speech was postponed until next week. More time to prepare.

Life's a Beach

It's that time of year again.  We are at the beach.   Okaloosa Island the be a little more precise.  It is the beach front section of Fort Walton and is located just a couple of miles from Destin.   The Condos are located on Santa Rosa, a nice little dead-end road off the beaten path.  We are staying at the Island Princess this year.  One of the three elevators is out of order.  Naturally it is the one closest to our condo, but we are making due.  The stairs work fine, except after a big plate of fried seafood!

 

So far we have dined at The Back Porch and Pompano Joe's.  Both nights I have ordered what some places would call The Captain's Platter, a big plate of fried shrimp, scallops, fish, and oysters, knowing that I wouldn't be able to finish it and would be eating the leftovers for lunch the next day.  Oh the misery of it all.  I think I have gotten my fix of fried seafood and perhaps I will try something more adventurous tonight.

 

Now a few notes on TBP and PJ's.  Even at this time of year, showing up for dinner at 5:30 pm will incur at 30 to 60 minute wait.  Sunday night we arrived at TBP about 5:30.  The wait was just under a half hour.  There is plenty of space for waiting outside.  Our service was good this year and the foot came out fast.

 

Monday night we drove to Pompano Joe's.  PJ's is located a few miles to the other side of Destin which can seem like a considerable drive from Okaloosa Island if the traffic is bad through Destin.  Fortunately, it is the off season and traffic is not bad.  Parking at PJ's is always horrible, even this time of year.  I dropped the fam off at the door and parked the Tahoe a short distant away, less than a quarter of a mile, more than an 1/8th.  The walk not too bad and I took the opportunity to phone up my Father to see if he had any stock tips.  (Buy low, sell high.)   The wait was a little bit longer here, but still less than an hour.  G had the pasta with scallops.  It looked very good.  Both the waiter and the guy delivering the food made a comment about how much they enjoyed it.  Like TPB, PJ's has a row of window tables across the beach side looking out over the gulf.  Actually most of their tables look out to the beach and the windows are open so that you can hear the waves and feel the breeze when there is one.

 

I like both of these places, but one must be prepared to wait.  And don't expect fine dining but if your in the mood for some good seafood either of these will do fine.  Both places have a few picnic tables out on the beach where you can sit while you wait.

 

This evening we will probably try someplace we haven't been before.

 

I took at look back at the blog to see where we dined last year.  Turns out I forgot to do a write up.  No mention of Cafe 331 anywere.  Shame on me.

 

Tomorrow is Brianna's Birthday.  She is so sweet and she is growing up so fast.

 

 

 

 

I drove the old truck in a parade this morning. G and B rode along with me. J didn't. He didn't want the attention.

Tomorrow we head to the beach for a few days.

As they say in Finland, Ji hah!

Tastes Like Chicken

This afternoon while riding his bike in the driveway, J looked up at the sky, spotted a cloud and said "A man-eating fish!". He then looked at me and said do you think I meant a man eating fish or a man-eating fish? I heard man-eating fish when he said man-eating fish so I replied man-eating fish. He announced I was correct.

We quickly moved on to man-eating chickens, though around here it is usually the other way around.