Dear Friends and Family,
Sure enough, Monday morning some men came out and drained my chandelier. They also walked around on the roof and pointed and speculated how the water got in through the bottom of the upper windows, noting that most of the other units had the same problem except I alone received the water fountain chandelier feature. Then they did some pounding and plugging and caulking and when they were done I asked, “ what if the storm comes from the other side of the house next time?” To which they replied with a smile, “ Oh, we don’t get bad storms from that direction.” Ok now, everybody reach up and pull your eyebrows down. I had to.
Have I mentioned the birds landing on my deck? Let me tell you, they’re just about landing on my head now. I feel like I’m stepping out onto a set of an animated Disney movie. Enough already with the birds, let’s talk about the shrimp. That’s one of the reasons we moved down here: cheap shrimp and cheap avocados (58 cents instead of 2.99 each, but no story to go with avocados yet). Now for those of you who are allergic to shrimp and one bite might cause you to blow up faster then a party doll at one of Paul Ettore’s soirees, this next chapter will not excite you. This is the chapter called LIVE SHRIMP.
In Cleveland we never get to have such a luxury as LIVE SHRIMP. Down here, not only can you get them LIVE, but there are 50 different varieties: Brown shrimp, Pink shrimp, Bay shrimp, Gulf shrimp, etc. Because we are from Ohio and stupid about shrimp, we saw a sign that said LIVE SHRIMP 10 lbs. for $20. Wow. Screech. Pull over. They were snapping their fingers and tapping their toes live. And they have their heads on with beady little black eyes live, too. But no problem, I’ve eaten peel and eat shrimp before. Oh, but I’ve never broken their gushy heads off first and then peeled and eaten them. Uggh, gross. Meanwhile, Doug is trying to cook up 10 pounds of shrimp in the one little sauce pan we brought with us the first week. That was the day of our first fortuitous UPS delivery, the soup pot! But we still had to remove the heads, so Doug took that gross job and I took the boring peeling job and we got through about 5 pounds before our hands were wrinkled and poked raw and our enthusiasm for live shrimp dramatically waned. This is the part we like to call the EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE. What we have learned is you can’t throw a rock on the island without hitting live shrimp. So the next time we will just go out and pay the $9.99 a pound for the tennis shoe size shrimp, cleaned and ready to eat and be done with it, eatin’ fat and sassy fresh CLEANED shrimp.
Our new furniture was delivered on Thursday and we are trying to adjust. First, Molly is not the sharpest pencil in our school box, so for some reason, she is very nervous to walk on the chic bamboo area rugs I picked out and only paces around the edges. She has also started a new pastime in the evenings of licking the living room windows trying to get the little green frogs that are stuck on the outside. Doug is not quite as weird but he did sprawl backwards onto the new red chair when he forgot the ottoman was in front. I just keep staring starry eyed at all the furniture. I love getting new furniture. I picked much of this stuff out over the Internet so it is very exciting to see it all come together “in person”. Plus, I designed the living room around a very retro ballerina lamp that was my mother’s. I had it re-wired and a new silk shade put on. I always say you can take a cheap lamp and make it look like a hundred bucks if you just spend $180.00 dollars on it. I have attached some pictures, but the place still needs some curtains and big plants to cozy it up.
Other highlights of the week in Port A: it has been raining like crazy, a 48 year record, there was a Red Fish fishing competition this weekend that was going to be aired on ESPN2, and the spinner dolphin that beached itself, named "Harley", is doing much better.
Love,
Janis