Old Mexico

Mexico was safe, but very, very hot. Like 95 degrees with a good breeze. I was sweating, I never sweat. We rode down with James and Roma. James had a dentist appointment.

I had a lot of fun. I got an omega necklace and three "drops" to put on it. A pear shaped amber, a silver shell and silver star fish. It isn't real silver but it is real shiny. My friends bought them last year and they still look nice. I also got a very nice Dolce & Gabbana bag and wallet. The wallet is bright yellow and the drawstring bag is stripes of yellow, orange, green and pink. It is nicely made. All my favorite summer colors and cheap. Roma bargains hard.

Two weeks ago there was trouble along the Texas Border. Drug Czars were paying Mexicans to riot in 3 border towns, closing down the bridges. One was McAllen. The next day several of our friends went down, not knowing what was going on. The Border Patrol asked them not to go over, said that they were throwing grenades the day before. They went anyway and it was busy and peaceful. Progresso, where we always go, has a strong military presence. We felt safe.

Always Learning New Things

Top is a lovely pic of the Gaff's new pirate ship. The Frayed Knot.

I am sitting in the pickup pulling the ship in the next pic, ready to throw beads.

Then we have me, Susan and a jello shot.

Bottom is Susan, Carlie and Javiar.

We had three golf carts driving down the beach for the Mardi Gras Parade on Tuesday. It was a very beautiful day, sunny and 80 degrees, not too windy. First we went to Bernie's and they were giving out free shots of something, kind of sour, maybe Hurricanes. Or what goes in them? Then everyone wanted to go to the Gaff, where the parade started. I am thinking this is not a great idea, we have too many friends there and they will want us to get in the parade. Sure enough, first thing Javiar says is "ride in my truck with me," it was pulling the pirate ship. We had to say no, we wanted to see the parade and not lose our group. Then Susan taught me how to do jello shots. Then this guy says he has an empty seat in the back of this pickup. It sounded like a great idea to me! And it was so much fun. Throwing beads is a riot. And what a surprise for our group when I threw beads at them!

Virlene and Buck's 46th Anniversary Party

I added a picture of me since I am usually the photographer, and I was dressed up. Behind me are ladies that were singing for the happy couple.

Below is the singers with Buck and Verlene, in light blue, and her sister Dee.

Way down they are with the old Elvis.

We were invited to join a group of our friends at Pelican Landing for an anniversary party last night. And it was the last night that Elvis was entertaining there this winter. We play games with this group, the men, and Mavis, play poker. The wives play Mexican Train dominoes or Jokers (cards, marbles and a wooden piece that the marbles travel around.) Good games. Very fun after I get the hang of it.

Shirley, Dee and Virlene are sisters, raised in North Dakota, and they all come down here in the winter. They are very fun and nice. I could not believe that Virlene and Buck had been married 46 years, she hardly looks 46. But she was runner up in the Miss North Dakota contest, way back when. Her sisters say she and Buck were crazy when they were young, they would do anything. Yes, she was the youngest. Buck and his best friend, who was there too, used to pick fights in bars just for fun. He had a cerebral hemorrhage five years ago and doctors said he'd never walk again. He is doing pretty well, walks fine, talks fine, a totally different personality, and he gets lost easy. Can't ever be alone. Their son played football for the Falcons. We meet the most interesting folks here.

So the party was fun. The food was excellent. I had shrimp and pasta with 3 cheese sauce, and baked. Paul had beef terracki, which was filet in a nice sauce. Elvis was in the other room, but he sang ok. He walked in to see the happy couple. He was pretty old and scary looking. I have one pic.

Sunday Night Dancin'

Above is Eileen, Mavis, Gary and Shirlene

Roma, Rick and Mike to the right.

Next is Rev. James and Uncle Bob.

Then Uncle Bob and Wendy doing the twist!

Another Sunday night dancing at Bernies. Next Sunday, Whiskey River plays and then there is three weeks of spring break and the kids take over the bar.

Bob is a good dancer, he is 71, it was close to CPR after this long LaBamb/Twist song.

The Butt Dancing Bride - Warning This Post Is R Rated

The party was in full swing when we got to Bernie's, it was DJ night. They music was kind of rap, and the floor was full of young women rubbing their butts together. The girl on stage was very entertaining, wearing cowboy boots and Daisy Duke's, she was exercising her very large and bouncy butt muscles. She had amazing control of those muscles. We were thinking ex stripper. Her girlfriend had bigger muscles but didn't move them as well.

This is just a tiny part of the show. Paul just walks up to kids and starts talking. The group of four large and well toned young men to our right had just gotten in town and were going to work on the oil rigs in the gulf, until 2012. They on on and off the rigs, don't know the schedules. They were buff and handsome and drinking jag. Beyond them were some heavily muscled young black guys, on the island for a business function. ??? They automatically doubled the black population of Port A. It didn't seem prudent to have those two groups together, but they weren't for long. One young women thoughtfully got the four rig workers out of there after some intense negotiations which seemed to consiste of her licking one tight belly. I had to poke Paul in the ribs and tell him to stop staring, he said "But I can't stop looking!" Kind of like a car wreck.

Sometime during the butt bumping and belly licking this guy wearing horizontally tie dyed blue and white pants and a tunic top with gathered sleeves and a four foot hula hoop come running on the dance floor. His hair was blonde with deep dark roots. James immediately said California reject. Which seemed like a fair assessment. He has a whole routine worked out of jumping, hooping and gyrating to the music. Hardly room for him to perform with all the dancers but soon he had joined the girls on the stage. The bride tried to hula hoop but it was too difficult in her long white dress.

Oh yes, before I forget the bride requested her favorite song from the DJ, I think it was "Get Your Back Up." It is never attractive to see a young women gyrating in a squat in her wedding dress and flip flops. She was pretty and her dress was nice. Must have been a beach wedding. So during this delightful display a guy who may or may not have been with the wedding came over and said to Paul "Aren't you proud of your granddaughter now?" When the hula hoop guy came out Paul went and said to him "Does your grandpa make you proud?" OK, you had to be there. Trust me, it was all a hoot.

The bride and her three butt dancing girl friends just danced with each other. Oh, occasionally someone would drag the groom out on the floor for a few minutes, but it was just a token. They seemed to be very good friends. I wish I had pictures, it is so hard to describe properly.

Eventually we tore ourselves away from this cultural train wreck and went looking for food. Whataburger was closed! No food in town. Fortunately there was a new place out near the park that serves until late. The food was good and cheap. And they had an extended menu with real food on it. It also has minature golf. Forget the name. Great hamburgers and shrimp and onion rings.

I am posting this without Paul's imput, as he is still abed. It was 1 am before we got home. Stay tuned for updates.

I Can't Believe I Forgot My Camera

I don't know where to start. Friday was an amazing day, it just got better and better. Every time something else would happen I would think "it can't get any more bizarre than this, how can I ever leave this town" and ten minutes later, it did!

Day started out normal, slaved over my house cleaning, (ten minutes to wipe the floor with a sponge and clean the bathroom). Read a book. We left for town in the golf cart about 1 pm. stopped and took some walk time. Had a snack attack and we split a Whataburger Jr. Went to Bernie's and sat at the bar. Had a good time talking to some folks and the waitress, discussing the upcoming Marti Gras Parade. Friends walked in and joined us, 15 minutes more friends walked in. Moved to a table. Good visiting. Guy walked in, Frank's friend, very nice. They start talking and Paul says, "did you get the new starter in your boat"? "Huh"? says he. Paul strings him along about what a small town it is and he heard about his boat on the beach, which he did. Pretty funny. So eventually we leave and get groceries. At a stop sign Paul's phone rings, Roma wants to know if we want to go out on the town. Of course, in 20 minutes when we get home. We get home put the milk in the fridge and they are picking us up.

Roma wants live music, we go to the Wild Horse, eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor, order some food. Good Philly Cheese Steak, so so nacho. Pretty soon a guy is up on stage singing, and he is good. Soon joined by a man and a woman. But time to move on.

Roma says there is karaoke at the Salty Dog. We have never been there, it looks very run down and tiny. But that is just the front, it is large by island standards and pretty nice and has a huge parking lot behind it. Roma loves to drink Salty Dogs. I try one and they are pretty good, gin and grapefruit juice. Karaoke is pretty interesting. There were awful singers and good singers. Scotty was awful, sang dreary depressing songs off key. The old guy with a long beard was skeleton thin and sang with his dog on his lap. Quite badly. But some sang very well. Like American Idol, some just chose the wrong song. Had to leave, and we went to Bernies.

And Bernie's deserves it's own post. This is when it gets good.

Nellie and Rex

Nellie and Rex have company this week, their grandson, the doctor.

He is really nice and reminds us so much of Larry, right down to his voice.

Nellie invited me to join My Space, so what could I do but join. She is 82, I have to try to keep up with her!!

I love the top picture. In the left pic Rex is just to the right of Nellie, next to Paul.

Fashion Show

Today was the Fashion Show at our park. The top picture is Shirlene. The second picture is Merna, who designed and did all the artistic touches for her table, where I got to sit! She is great! For this show we all bring either a salad, rolls or dessert. All were wonderful. Lots of beautiful clothes. Got to go shopping! All the stores are right here in Port Aransas.

Fun and Games

So on Sunday James and Roma asked us to go out for a drink with them. We left about 2 for Bernie's. We had a great time. James and Roma go out fishing in the gulf every nice day from April to November. They have great fishing stories. They catch fish we have never heard of. Not the 5 or 6 fish we eat in Michigan. James held the Texas record for hammerhead sharks for years, and sharks seem to be his speciality. Roma was so surprised that we have never eaten shark. I kept explaining "perch, cod, whitefish." Roma kept saying "how have you lived here for 5 years and not eaten shark?" Umm, they don't serve it at the Spaghetti Works? Whatafish?

We also stopped to see their boat. A nice big 26 foot catamaran with twin 140 motors on it. He can get 60 miles out in the gulf in two and a half hours. James has been fishing down here for 41 years. He has special shark spots, one spot the fish are so big that they can't bring them up. Another always has huge sting rays, six feet across. Apparently they are very strong and hard to bring up. They always cut them free, they are very dangerous to bring in.

I look at the boat, I see the huge gulf in my mind and that boat looks like an inner tube to me. One story Roma told was when she was trying to get a 7 foot shark in and it went under the boat and snagged on something, so James gave the pole a yank and it shot out. Soon the boat was filling with water. Apparently the shark was caught on the drain plug, and pulled it out. He threw the shark in the boat (it was still alive, eek eek!) and they headed for shore. It was so rough and they took on so much water that he couldn't get the boat up to drain it. And the bilge pump didn't work. Happily they made it in and James now carries extra plugs and two big pumps.

It sounds like fun and the fish are often colorful tropical fish, huge two foot long tetra type fish. I can't imagine. Need to go look at her pictures.

So, the band started playing at 5, Tumble Dry Low. James and Roma love to dance and used to go dancing every week when their kids were little. Very good dancers. We ordered hamburgers and bar b que chicken for dinner. Yum. We danced too. Got home about 9. Spontaneous is such fun!

Sunrise over the dunes

This morning the sunrise too good not to post. The weather has been beautiful, Wednesday was in the 80s and the sun is starting to be intense. We have been very busy. We both have had allergies again. Felt too good for it to have been a cold.

Some of our activities, beyond the usual happy hour gatherings in the hood: grilled steaks and ate with James and Roma and Susan and Dwayne. Very fun. Roma makes wonderful salads. On Monday we went to our church's Winter Dance. Last year the food was great, this year they were about 100 servings short. Skimpy servings. The band played big band music and waltzes. We left early and got hamburgers at the Wild Horse Saloon. Very good.

Last night we were stretching happy hour and Mavis said "Where we going for dinner?", so us and Rick and Shirlene and Mavis went to Finn's. It was Very Fun. They have family style servings. We had a huge delicious nacho, then a platter of fried shrimp, the best! And Coleslaw. Mavis got pretty tuned so she was very funny. Finn's is on the harbor with plenty of big boats to watch.

This is the best winter we have ever had here in Port Aransas, great weather and lots of good friends.

Oh, weirdness, apparently others think that our happy hours are a big drunken clique! Which is strange because we drag strangers in off the street (we sit in a driveway) and not half of us drink. Kind of like we woke up in the middle of "Revenge of the Nerds" as certainly most of us are just normal quiet folks. And very friendly. Nellie and Rex are in their 80s, many are in their 70s, lots of 60s and some baby 50s. The attitude is definitely baby boomer "no rules please." No one else welcomes the new kids and asks them over to gab with them.

Happy Super Bowl Party At the Shop

Sunday we went to Island Cycle-Lug Nuts for Sean's Super Bowl Party. It was the best SB party I have ever been to. Most everyone was supporting Arizona, because it is the South, and Texas is south. I liked Arizona because my brother lives in Arizona, and he deserves something after all those years of supporting the Lions.

The top pic is Sean grilling sausages for the party. Next we are watching the 3 D ads. Then the bar, the bartender works at the shop. Then Paul in front of the buffet table/bike stand. Then it is me and the choppers. The green trike is my favorite.

Earlier in the day we had breakfast with our Texas friends and later Paul played washers with them on the beach, and I watched and visited. It was another sunny 70s day.

Fun On Saturday

Thanks to a NW wind blowing down Red Cedar Pollen from Hill country, I am having a major allergy event. None the less, I managed to have fun on Saturday. We went with Javiar and Susan to Carlie's first basketball game. It is co-ed sixth graders. They played very well for that age group. It was fun.

After the game we went to Los Comoles Mexican Restaurant in Rockport. The food there is excellent. I had the avocado shrimp, which is very rich. I am going to change my favorite to Chicken Jalesco, which was Susan's choice. It was chicken marinated in wine, sauteed, with chopped fresh tomatoes, onions, peppers on top, a cheese was on it too. You could taste the wine, very nice. Javiar got quesidillas, steak and chicken. They were awsome. Carlie had beef something, which she liked. Paul had a burrito and it was good too.

Then we stopped at their home, visited with neighbors Donny and Shirley. Very nice folks. Then we went to the shop where Javiar works. It is brand new. Has 3 wonderful apartments over it. They are decorated very chi chi and even have granite counter tops. Way too nice to rent. The shop is nice too. It is oil changes and buggy and motor cycle rentals. He has 3 choppers, 3 Harleys and a crotch rocket of some kind. We are going there for a super bowl party this afternoon and I will get some pics to post.