Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing. ~ Jim Rohn Yesterday's Entries 2000: Vet-erans TODAY's FOOD Breakfast:
Banana and toast CURRENTLY READING My Story
Check a Sheila Video
|
BACK TO THE BEACH 5 July 2004 The eighth annual Tom Sykes-Joe Lanza 4th of July/Birthday bash on the beach is now history. Tom and Walt's sister's boyfriend have gotten this extravaganza down to such a science that it went off without a hitch--even to making certain that the sun came out, after two days of grey skies. After a relaxing morning at home, Walt and I headed down to the beach around 11 a.m., stopping en route to uncover The Great Albertsons Bakery scam. Every year, I order a birthday cake from the Albertsons bakery, since it's so close to the house. Each year I get a half sheet cake and have it decorated. This year as I was standing in the check-out line to pay for my cake, I was thinking that it felt lighter than it should. I'm a cake decorator. I've carried a lot of cakes in my day and this was surprisingly light.
We continued down to the beach where a small but faithful band awaited us. People have been coming to this shindig for so long that they now know the drill. The invitation says that it starts at noon, but people know that food isn't served (well, except for the mountain of snacks) until around 4, so it was looking like a significantly smaller band this year until it got to be about 3 p.m., when they started pouring in from the highways and byways and we ended up with at least 50 people after all. Dick and Gerry even came down and joined us, and we could continue our reunion from the previous night.
 Someone brought a flag this year, this being Independence day and all, and getting it UP somewhere was a major production. There is a large kinetic sculpture which towers over the barbecue area and this guy and a group of helpers decided to tie the flag to the pole of the kinetic sculpture and it turned into quite a production. At one point I likened it to raising the flag on Iwo Jima!
 Tom and Joe had prepared the usual groaning board, which they cooked to perfection again. This year there were: 3 or 4 tri-tip roasts, 3 racks of ribs, a mountain of chicken parts, a huge salmon, a basket of shrimp that Laurel had marinated to perfection, a mountain of sausage and all sorts of veggies from onions to peppers of all colors to garlic, plus an assortment of side dishes contributed by everyone who had come. Anybody who went home hungry just wasn't trying!
 We were there until 8 p.m. or so, when everyone worked together to load everything back into the cars and leave the area for the waiting seagulls to pick over. When we returned home we were just in time for the fireworks, which you can see from the back deck of the house and as we all trudged off to bed, we proclamed that the day had been an unquestionable success. When I picked up e-mail at the end of the day, there was a note from our pet-sitter about my "perfect dog": sheila has been busy...while i am away...she chewed the arm of the chair down to the wood, she did not chew the wood (yet), but the stuffing and covering fabric have been chewed off, we had a stern discussion about it....... Sigh. |
||
|
|||
For more photos, please visit My Fotolog and My FoodLog |
|||
<--previous | next-->Journal home | bio | cast | archive | links | awards | Fotolog | Bev's Home Page |
Created 6/28/04
When I got to the car, I opened the box and saw immediately what they'd done. Whereas in the past a 2-layer cake was two layers, this year they had taken one layer and split it in half lengthwise in order to put in a filling. What this meant, essentially is that I was paying the same amount for half the cake, or double the price. Most people wouldn't even notice. Nice little money-maker there! 
