Everybody’s surfin’ . . . surfin’ U.S.A. . . .

Saturday was a great day!  We headed down to the beach for a little party hosted by one of AJ’s work buddies.  He rents a little beach shack every six months or so, cranks up the barbeque pit, pulls out the catamaran and the surfboards and invites all all his co-workers and their families down to party on the sand! 

Everyone brings a little bit of this, a little bit of that . . . I made the ever-so popular “Goofy Cookies,” which came out beautifully now that I’ve got a new stove that maintains constant temperature and looks damned good while doing it.  The recipe follows below:

1 stick margarine

1 Duncan Hines yellow, white, or lemon cake mix

1 egg

1 8 oz. Package cream cheese

1 box powdered sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups chopped pecans

Melt stick of butter in 9 x 13 cake pan. Blend cake mix and 1 egg until thoroughly mixed. Pat into melted butter to form crust.

Blend cream cheese, powdered sugar and 2 eggs together thoroughly. Pour over crust. Sprinkle chopped pecans over this.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. (I use a glass Pyrex dish and so reduce the temp to 325 degrees and add 5 additional minutes bake time. Should be slightly golden without burning the pecans.)

Allow to cool and cut into bars. Absolutely delicious and very, very rich.

It was a lot of fun — Jami had a blast playing in the water and collecting seashells.  AJ took out a surfboard for the first time in 20 years . . . I managed to get a few seconds of video on my digital camera as proof-positive that he DID  in fact get up on the board (before falling off . . . )  He’s got the bug again and spent a good part of the remainder of the weekend looking for used surfboards in the newspaper.  The one he played on Saturday was a 10 and 1/2 foot longboard, single fin . . . absolutely beautiful artwork.  Mo paid $800 for it brand-new, so we’re going to see what we can find used for $300-$400.

We love the beach so much.  I think I, more than anyone in the family, would love to live there.  But storms frighten me . . . the thought of losing EVERYTHING in a hurricane gives one pause.  Of course, we’re less than a dozen miles from the beach where we are, so if the BIG ONE finally hits the coast, we’re probably toast, as well.  But the thought of sitting out on the deck gazing out at the gulf . . . it does tempt me so!

Yesterday after church AJ worked in his garden for a while and Jami and I went to the park.  We packed up a blanket, books, drawing pads and pencils, made a loop through the McD’s drive-thru and headed to one of the best parks in our area.  It has a pond with a fountain and lots of ducks and geese to watch.  We spread out the blanket, ate our lunch and had some great Mommy/Baby Girl time.  I can’t believe how quickly she is growing up, although I have been warned by those older and wiser than me.  Then she commenced to drawing the pond and ducks while I read some of my book.  When she got tired of drawing, she started reading, too, using me as a deck chair!  I was laying on my stomach and she laid down on my back . . . too funny!  We watched bumblebees going from clover blossom to clover blossom and she amazed me with how much she’s remembered from what she learned about bees earlier in the school year.  Unfortunately, those clover blossoms did a number on my nose and I’m suffering from allergy symptoms now. 

But it was definitely worth it . . .