The 11th Annual Beef Party

Celebrating...

BEEF!

Two pounds per person... making it 32 pounds for the whole evening... there was beef to be had. This is a whole day event so not all the meat is cooked at the same time. Only one London Broil (weighing 4lbs. each) was cooked and then we would crowd around the table and eat it as he cut it. Thirty minutes to an hour later, Jay would prep the next hunk of meat and then start cooking it.

For years, I have heard about Jay's annual beef party but since he lived in New Jersey... I never went. But this was something his friends would drive through several states to go to... I could only assume that this had to be damn good.
Our host, Jay, is on the left... and the jolly guy on the right is Jarret. I believe they both went to college together.

Thanks again to Jay and his wife for having us over!

My Hometown

A small introduction to my hometown, St. Marys, Georgia. I'll have to get some more details about these buildings from my parents, as of right now, I'm using my own shoddy memory.


On the left, is the Riverside Hotel. It is 100 years old, easy... unfortunately, the owner does not seem to take good care of it. It looks pretty run down and depressing these days. Still, it is a staple in Downtown St. Marys.

This is the Market on the Square, a small gift shop that sells ice cream and chocolate fudge. Its owned and operated by a girl I used to go to elementary school with. When I pick up Ted from school, we would sometimes stop by here and get ice cream. Those days are now over as he is entering middle school next year... and we all know what happens to kids when they're in middle school--they turn into snotty brats. A phase we have all gone through!



Here is the Spencer House Inn... I honestly thought this was a Bed and Breakfast... I'm not sure when it was upgraded to an Inn. This house was built in 1872. A mere child to all you Europeans out there, but this is a pretty old building for the U.S. (and for the South, since so much of it was burned during the civil war).

This is Orange Hall, named so because of all the Orange Trees that are planted along side it. This house is rumored to have the ghost of a young girl in it. I'm told that there is a window in one of the bedrooms in which she is slowly etching her name. They apparently also have to remake her bed on occasion.

In St. Marys--being the small town that it is-- one can imagine the talk that this billboard started. There was chatter that some man must have gotten caught cheating on his wife --and she was pissed! A few weeks later, it said: "YOUR NEIGHBOR KNOWS TOO!" Oh boy, we all thought that there was some juicy gossip about to explode on the scene. A few weeks later, we were all disappointed to discover that it was an advertisement for a car dealership in Brunswick. So much for all that...

More to come!

Silver Glen Springs

After torturing Flo in St. Marys for a few days, I asked him what he'd like to do. He mentioned going to the Springs in Florida. After waiting an hour and a half for mom and dad to get ready, we finally left St. Marys and headed south...at 3:00pm! My mom told me it was a two hour drive to the springs... it turned out being three and a half hours (yes, yes, I know... it was because we tried to take the ferry across the river [another story]).

Much to my surprise, we arrived. My parents were well-behaved the whole day... it turned out to be a nice day.

So after all that driving, we only stayed in the springs for about thirty minutes. The water is really cold and it wasn't nearly hot enough outside to justify staying in it for very long.















And believe it or not, Flo was complaining that it was too cold... this after he goes swimming in Crozon every year. I think the water is much colder in Crozon!















My mother has a much higher tolerance for cold water than the rest of us... we had to wait for her to get out.