Foodie Friday's

We noticed that all of our posts start out with food in them. We never really noticed it. But I guess that makes us 'Foodies'. Of course that's not such a bad thing but it does mean we have to go the club every day to work it all off. Otherwise we'll blow up like a couple of helium balloons though we wouldn't float peacefully up into the sky. I can assure you of that!

I'm happy to report that this weekend did start like many of our weekends  - thank goodness and lucky me! But, we did not have French Night. That's because last weekend when we were at the fish market, the lobsters looked really good and they were relatively inexpensive. So, we decided to have a good ol' fashioned New England clambake on Friday night. We were really excited about our clambake - but I'm not sure those little lobsters were too excited ....

Nope, they weren't......

For sure.....

We had steamed clams, boiled lobster with warm butter, corn-on-the-cob from a local farm, homemade cole slaw with raisins, and fresh bread. And, we added some wonderful, homemade, hand-cut pomme frits and served them in our cone baskets. Neal hand-cut the potatoes, double-fried them in canola oil and then salted them. Sometimes it's hard not to eat them from the draining tray while they are piping hot!

Debbie came by to visit on her way home from the shop and stopped in for a little while, too. It was really great to see her!

On Saturday, we worked a lot outside. Neal finished pulling out the bushes in front of the house that he'd started last weekend. It looks pretty bare. Then he took all the brush to the town recycling center. It took him 4 trips.

Out With The Old And In With The New....I pulled out most of the summer flowers in the beds around the yard. I racked out all the gardens and then planted some Mums out front.

 I've never been much for fall plants. I'm not sure why but I just never got into planting them - though I enjoy the summer flowers a lot. I think it's probably because fall flowers don't really grow. They just hold out for as long as they can until Old Man Winter gets the best of them. But, this year I decided to try some because it looked bare out front. I'll have to wait and see if the bud's on them actually flower! Keep your fingers crossed.

On Saturday night (date night) we went to Home Depot to get some new shutters for the back of the house. Neal finished painting the back last weekend (primer and 2 coats of finish paint - he did a nice job and it shines in the sun) but some of the windows needed new shutters because they were cracked or chipped. So he bought 3 sets of shutters. By then it was about 9:00 pm so we went to the "99" to get something for supper and watch the Red Sox game for a while. It was a really good series against the Orioles. Too bad we can't say the same about Tom Terrific and those Patriots. But, there's always next Sunday for them.

On Sunday, we went to 9:00 am Mass then had our lattes at the counter. After that, Neal headed out to paint the new shutters and get a few of them hung.

I headed to No. Reading for a pedicure. Sorry, no pictures. We went to a wedding on Sunday night and I wanted to wear open toe shoes. Of course I couldn't go with unpolished toe nails!

And just so you don't think it's a labor camp around here, there was time for a little car ride on Sunday, too, thought it was only to the hardware store to get some screws for the new shutters.

The wedding on Sunday was at 4:30 pm on the coast up along Rt. 127 in Beverly. It was at a location called Mistlewood at Endicott College (next to my brother Jay's infamous wall fall). The ceremony was outside and it was just beautiful. The weather was warm, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, blue, blue. The location was just up the harbor from Jubilee Yacht Club where we used to keep our sail boat. Even though it was 4:30 in the afternoon there were still lots of sailboats out trying to get every last bit of breeze and puff of wind from an absolutely perfect Sunday for an afternoon sail. We never missed the boat a real lot but I have to tell you that sitting there watching the boats sailing on the water with a late afternoon breeze pushing them peacefully along - we both got that longing to be back out there.

The wedding was really nice. It was Neal's cousin, Richard, who got married. His new wife, Erica, is from Brazil so a lot of her family wasn't able to be there. She was a beautiful bride. The ceremony was outside on the lawn - gutsy for anytime in New England but probably a bit more so for mid-September. But, it was just perfect. Frank and Bernice looked wonderful and it was so nice to all be together with Dot and Stephen, too. Neal's Uncle Richard and Aunt Rose hosted a wonderful reception afterward and we all had  a lot of fun dancing and singing. Everything was fantastic and we had a wonderful evening.

You can see Baker's Island in the distance.

 Rose looked beautiful as she waited patiently for Ritchie to seat the bride's mother.

Then he came back to walk Rose down the aisle.

And finally, he walked Erica down the aisle.

Then the ceremony got underway.

The reception was right along the water.

Everyone was all dressed up and looked wonderful.

Ernie, Theresa and Neal had a few laughs

We got back home around 10:30 p.m. or so which was good because it wasn't too late. We both had to go to work the next morning.

It was another really fun weekend - lobsters, yard work, date night and the wedding. All under a perfect sunny sky. We hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed the sunny weather! Fall officially arrives on
Tuesday of this week.