Catching up is hard to do

Ok - I think I have a pretty good idea of where we have been. Ken and I just went over it and I think it's pretty accurate.

I left off with dinner at Flakowitz on Tuesday the 22nd - the night we arrived in Florida. The next day Ken helped Bernie on the boat and I went with Ingrid to a Goodwill type place looking for a mattress for the RV. Although I was pretty sure RV mattresses are shorter than regular ones, Bernie suggested (read: wouldn't take no for an answer) that we go down there and check them out anyway. This place was huge and had new as well as used items of all sorts for sale. I found a plate that matched my set, bought a few albums for Ken and picked up a hard cover of one of my all-time favorite books - A Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach. Read it if you get the chance - then tell me what you think!

From there, Ingrid and I went over to the house to help Joan get ready for the 'small' party they were having that weekend. We figured out which tablecloths fit which tables and where they were going, made a list of all the stuff that needed doing, wrote out shopping lists, and tweaked the menu a bit (to include Ken making potato latkes).

Eventually, the 'boys' joined us and we all went out to dinner together. We went to Ralph and Rosie's. It was a yummy meal (Italian) and we found out later that R&R live in the same community with Ingrid. We were invited to come back over to the restaurant on Christmas Eve when they do the Feast of the 7 Fish.

The next morning we met up with Joan and Bernard to go to the Green Grocer. It is a huge, fresh market with every fruit and vegetable you can imagine! We bought stuff for ourselves and they bought stuff for the party - including a dozen huge poinsettia plants!

We went back to the house with them to help unload and rearrange refrigerators (they have 2) and another general going over for the party on Saturday. After that, we were on our own.

We went back to the RV and took a walk down the road to the boat. We were enjoying the weather, hanging out on the dock, and just relaxing a bit. Eventually, we decided to go back to Ralph and Rosie's for Christmas Eve dinner. Let's see if I can remember the 7 fish dishes. There was shrimp cocktail and mussels marinara, anchovy Sicilian pizza and raw clams. There were raw oysters that Ken says are up there among the best he's ever had. There was a ziti dish and lots of garlic bread. I am forgetting something - but you get the idea. Merry Christmas - Italian style! Bernie stopped by on his way to the airport so we chatted a while and had a lovely time! He left to go get Charles, Lori and the kids and we headed back to the RV.

I don't want to make this post 'too' long so I will stop here and fill you in on dinner and the party in my next post. I am almost caught up on Florida though...so it's progress!

We are leaving Louisiana as early as we can in the morning so we can (hopefully) miss rush hour and meet up with Shelley and Jay for dinner. Wooo Hoooo! Can't wait!

~ Kass