A trip to the RS

I decided to leave town for a few days this weekend. It is the first time I have left the coast since Christmas Break, and it was much needed. I decided that i would go see my friends up at the Rural Studio, so i took Delores to the baby sitter's, packed my car, picked up my friend and took off.
We took the back roads there, and stopped in Tomaston, AL to see the Rural Heritage Center and the Farmers Market. This was my friend's first time at the Rural Studio, so we had to see as much as we could. I was delighted to find out that they are now serving brunch and dinner at the Rural Heritage Center. Their menu looked wonderful.
We made our way to Newbern, with quick stops at the Morrisette House, the pods, Sub Rosa, and the spencer house. We made our way to Greensboro, and called up danny, who has a sweet(some would say wicked) apartment downtown he was letting us crash in.
Ate Mexican , went to the new restaurant o'grands for a beer with Jeremy, the new bartender, and made our way out to Club 28 which makes Sweets look like the Beau Rivage.

The next day, we ran up to Mason's bend, then to Akron, to try to see Amos(the bad ass print maker) and the boys and girls club. Amos was not there, but the boys and girls club and the senior citizens center were. We headed to Perry Lakes Park, stopping at the Pig in Greensboro for picnic supplies. At Perry lakes park, we saw the pavillion, the bathrooms, the bridge, the walkways and the birding tower. But what we were aiming at in the park was the beach. It was a beautiful day... hot and sunny. We set out our towels stripped down to our bathing suits, and brought out our picnic, which included those little tuna kits, plums, oranges, apples, bananas, tomatoes and a 24 oz beer.

We got really good and hot laying out in the sun, and had to test our fate with the water of the Cahaba. It wasn't too cold, but at the same time it wasnt to easy to get in all of the way. Once we got used to the temperature of the water, it was really great and refreshing. I got back out, laid down on my towel and fell asleep for an hour or so. Apparently I was snoring.

We went back to greensboro, ate at O'grands, and hung out with some more friends. We watched danny , dan and mark dunk basketballs, and met Dan's sweet neighbor who runs the Martin Luther King Jr. Museum. The next morning we had to head back. I had to work at sweets, but thats ok. We took the smallest roads we could find, and only got lost once.

ahh what a good weekend.

Craw Fish!!! and a little dancing!

I had some of the best crawfish i have ever had on the Mississippi gulf coast last night at this place called S&B's in Waveland. It was so amazing. I went to see off a large group of students from the University of Minnesota on their last night on the coast. I believed we sent the staff of s&b's into a sea of confusion. I am not sure they have ever had that many people eating that much crawfish or drinking that much. I sucked the heads and pinched the tails of 2 lbs of crawfish. mMMMMMMMM

I think i have done something bad!

I am a pretty big believer that if you do good, good things will happen to you, and if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. Much like that Karma thing. Well, i am not really sure what i have done, but it must have been pretty bad.
this week has been pretty crazy.
first, my computer crashed. i mean bad crashed. blue screen of death... taking it to the geek squad to recover what ever they can, and then i am reformatting.... scary!

second, it has been raining a lot, so i have been forced to keep my puppy in the house. I bought her a lot of toys so she would have things to chew on.... and she chose to chew up my sofa. It is raining pretty bad again today, so i am having to pay some one to take care of her today, at least she is getting to play with other dogs, but... yeah.

third, last night was a night of fights at the bar. Two of them. This was the first time i have ever seen a fight at that bar, and they both happen under my watch, and both were a little scary. I am not sure i really like being around fights, but i do like working at sweets and i like the extra money i get from it.

Oh yeah, and friday, my dog ran away, and i got her back Saturday, but it was a worrisome evening


So... i hope today goes well. and nothing else happens.

alright, i hope my next blog contains some happy times. I must say that i am not unhappy, at all, there are just a lot of bad things happening, none of which are that big of a deal, but i want some good things to happen. i am not having a pity party, it is just one of those weeks. I am healthy, i have a roof, plumbing, food, clothes, shoes, a car, a little spending money, family, and a dog that loves me. I cant really cannot complain too much.

SWEETS!

Last night a bunch of my friends came into sweets. It was awesome. we again drastically changed the demographic in that bar. We had over 10 women in the bar which was amazing, and everyone but 3 folks were under the age of 35. It was amazing. A few of the people who came in started playing quarters with the regulars who had total perma grin on.

This is me dancing to that song, TRAMP, by otis redding. by far the best song on that juke box.
more later! my computer is fried... due to the blue screen of death. i am working on getting it back but until then, the blogs might be a lot slower! sorry

Dad, A bad museum and a great game of shuffleboard

This weekend was pretty great!
Friday night i was hanging out at sweets, and heard on the radio about the Rock Paper Scissors competition at the Grocery! I had to run (really drive, just with a fire under my rear) to the Grocery to get in the game. This was my second tournament. I was representing. I made it into the finals and made it into a close second place. The last game was really close. Next time. The next one is on the 16th and i will totally be there. the winner goes to the coastal tournament, and the winner of that goes to Vegas! just think i might have to ask my boss off for a week to play in the national rock paper scissors comp. Ha ha... i could only dream!

I got my house all clean Saturday morning, and oh did it need it. And, my dad was coming, so i had to get it into shape. My dad came just for the day to bring me furniture from my brothers house. Although it was a short trip, it was nice. We had a beer at sweets, unloaded the furniture, took Deloris on a walk to the beach, and went to Toronto's Boiler for craw fish and gumbo. We ate way way way too much. I need to emphasize that we ate too much. I had to work at sweets at 5 so dad decided to drive on back to Alabama.

Work was fun. It was pretty slow, but it was enjoyable. One of my friends came up there while i was working and kept me laughing all evening.

Sunday, all of the gals from the office met me in ocean springs at the waffle house south of the interstate (there is one north of the interstate too, two waffle houses at one exit) then we headed off for the museum in Mobile. The museum was alright. It was a really corporately designed, poorly lit, poorly curated, and overpriced. The gift shop was lacking in fun things (although i did get a package of Monet temporary tattoos, which is really awesome) and they did not even have a cafe. We went to see the William Christenberry exhibit. I love him, but the exhibit was not made of his strongest pieces. i did like a few of them, some that i had never seen before, but overall, i was not really excited about it when i left. They did have one of his models there, and i love those models. There was an amazing exhibit, also poorly lit, of Howard Cook's drawings. His drawings were mostly charcoal on news print. His drawings of the steal forgeries in Birmingham and cotton gins were very reminiscent of the movie Metropolis. Very futuristic in a southern language. His portraits were so sincere, and still had a bit of the futuristic feel. Their permanent collection was not really that great. Sorry Mobile. you gotta get your stuff together. especially the lighting, because you go to a museum to see things, not just be in their presence. Oh. but i do give props to the museum because of their great butterfly sculpture out front. It was made from old metal and it was huge, and way up in the air, and you pull a lever and its wings open. The best thing there by far! super beautiful.

After we left, we drove around mobile and saw their neat downtown and their beautiful old houses. I really love the historic neighborhood of mobile. it is so different from a lot of historic areas in the south because of the scale of the buildings. They were not the huge mansions that you see every where else. they were small little well built homes, close together. It was refreshing if you can call something that old refreshing. Well, the ocean is old, and it can be refreshing, so yes, mobile was refreshing!

We finally got back to ocean springs, and headed for the lynchburg for some shuffleboard. It was really nice to hang out with girls all day, and it was really great to hang out with them with my friends from ocean springs. Christine totally kicked major butt. Jody and Sarah did too. me... well i was off my game last night, but that is ok, i will bounce back. I am still in the second spot in the Rock Paper Scissors competition.

So, now i am going to continue working on that shrimp house. I will post pictures tomorrow once Christine posts them on her flickr.

If you are bored: Check out Yacht Rock on You Tube! Keep it smooth, and Ive got the fire!

THE SHRIMP HOUSE!!!

So, this is my first house to design from the ground up....

I am pretty excited about it.
this house is elevated 10' off of the ground, and is on a lot that is only 30' wide. the house is a one bedroom house, and it is 550 sqft. it is only 16'wide

anyway... this will be built in Biloxi, i am working on construction drawings, and i hope to be done soon.


if you want to see bigger pictures go to my flickr site