Memorial Day 2011

My three faithful readers may recall that in my May Moments posting, I wished that my boys would put some crab traps in the water and bring home a mess of stone crab claws (By the way 1 mess = 7 dozen). We had such a great meal last year when Davis caught stone crabs, and I've been hoping for more of the same.

Well, my wish came true.


All last week, Davis, Ben, and Stephen collaborated in catching the stone crabs, herding them on the dock, and removing one claw from each (By the way, that doesn't hurt the crabs a bit. In fact, they like it. That extra claw can be a real pain in the behind sometimes.). And for an extra surprise, Ben, Davis, and Bob also did some fishing off the dock on the Back River and caught eleven flounder. So last night, Bob and Tracy invited all of us to their Tybee summer rental, where we boiled said claws, fried said flounder and feasted on same.

Rubber mallets are the tool of choice when digging into those tasty morsels of crustacean meat. One person expert at pounding on crab claws is Kelley Remler (read more about Kelley in the posting below). She showed us all how it's done. Stephen, on the other hand, is the expert at scoring flounder, then frying them up until their perfectly crispy. The rest of us, of course, are experts at eating.

Here's to more of that this summer!

Kelleyville

Yesterday at a Remlerville crab-claw-eating, flounder-frying gathering on the back river (see posting above), I was busy snapping shots of folks and food when Kelley asked, "Are these pictures going on the Remlerville blog?"

"Of course," I replied. How in the world could I take such fantastic photos of stone crab claws and not post them online for my three devoted readers to see?

"Well, I want to be on the blog this time," she said. "I have never been on the Remlerville blog."

It took me a few minutes to pick my jaw up off the ground. After all those holidays, sporting events, and trips together, how could I not have put a photo of Kelley on Remlerville? But once I pulled myself together, I assured Kelley that she would definitely be in the next posting (Which she is. See posting above). Kelley's report about her absence on the blogosphere kept nagging at me, though. So this morning, I checked the blarchives. As it turns out, I did post one photo of Kelley on Remlerville. Back in 2007. Clearly, she's due for some photo coverage.

I do want to point out, though, that in January 2010, when I was doing my Remler Menu project, one of my postings honored Kelley and her turkey and rice recipe in "Kelley's Turkey with Rice and Gravy." And then I wrote about her again in "Kelley Saved the Poppyseed Chicken Casserole." In neither posting, though, is there a photo of Kelley.

We'll I'm going to fix that right now with this Kelley palooza of photos from 2005-2011:

May Moments

Is Memorial Day this weekend? Already? What happened to the month of May? It's usually my down time, but not this year. Too much has been happening. For instance...

BC Senior Review: BC's final ROTC event occurred earlier this month with Davis leading the battalion. He also won the American Legion Leadership Award, for which he got another medal. Davis better not walk in front of any magnets! The next week was BC's awards day, where Davis got the Principal's Award.



Cadets Go to Finals: Unfortunately, that's where the awards stopped. Although the Cadets had a great year in lacrosse, the championship just wasn't meant to be. The Cadets played hard, but Camden Military School played a little bit harder. And a little bit tougher. So they ended up taking the silver cup home. My proudest moment was when Davis got put in the penalty box. He tripped another player (I'm sure it was an accident). Those were thirty seconds I could rest assured no Remler bones would get broken.


Diet Coke and Mentos: Once a YouTube sensation, this lethal chemical reaction is now the stuff of sixth grade science. Lawson's final science project was to build a volcano. Back in the day, I mixed baking soda and vinegar with a little orange food coloring mixed in. These days, the teachers encourage the explosive alternative of Mentos and Coke. True to his little pyromaniac form, Lawson was all about it. Building the mountain around the Coke bottle proved a little menacing though. Lawson reported that his teacher required him to make his own dough out of flour, salt, and water. That would not have been a problem except that the teacher sent home instructions with no measurements on it. Lawson tried to wing it, but his volcano looked more like mashed potatoes than Mount Vesuvius. He finally gave up and resorted to paper mache. Once it dried, he took his volcano to school, along with all the other students, for a group eruption. I was unable to attend, but I'm told it was awesome.


Speaking of Mountains: Finally, after turning in all my grades, I loaded up the car and traveled with Lois, Pat, and Donna to Highlands, NC where we huddled up at Aunt Harriet's house (huddle being the operative word--it was 40 degrees up there!) for some quality writing time. I pounded out about four chapters, but while we were there, we managed a bit of time to purchase some amethyst and buy a steak dinner. The mango-rum smoothies were a big hit also. Felt almost like springtime!Now we're down to one last weekend in May. I think it should go out with a bang (but not a volcano). Perhaps I can persuade my sons to put some traps in the water for some stone crab claws. What a way to say hello to summer!

Enchanted April

This month has been full of sports, holidays, birthdays, visits with relatives, 1200 pages of a Russian novel, and the end of the semester. My family's been so busy that I just uploaded my Easter photos today (A whole week is a really long time for me. I don't like those pictures to wait around). Events have been happening so fast that I've had little time to blog about them. Now it's May1, and there's so much of April I haven't covered. So here it is, a whirlwind of April in one posting:

Easter: Once again at JoJo's house on Tybee, this Easter Sunday omitted the egg hunt. With grandchildren in their mid-twenties, JoJo finally decided they were too old for that. So the egg hunt is on hiatus until great-grandchildren arrive. However, nothing could keep the Remlers from celebrating Easter with food, ping-pong, and a bocce tournament. This year's winning team: Michael and Shelly Tucker!






An added feature to the Easter celebration was the authentic Easter bonnets, which JoJo found in a box after emptying her house on Dutch Island. These fabulous works of millinery belonged to JoJo's mother (and Bruce's mother, too, I think). In fact, the gray hat in the photo above--the one on the right that looks like a Frisbee--is the one JoJo's mother wore to JoJo and Bruce's wedding fifty-six years ago!Not only was the weather perfect for Easter bonnets, but these classic fashion statements also put us in the mood for the upcoming royal wedding.

St. Vincent's Prom: The following Friday I was up at 3:30 am to watch every moment of coverage of the royal wedding. Except for Princess Beatrice's hat, the occasion was perfect. Enchanting. Splendid.

Really, what was she thinking?
She needed to browse JoJo's box.

By the time it was over, I needed a nap. But that wasn't in the cards for me because I had to make a spaghetti casserole for the arrival of more relatives (see the next section). Then Davis had to get ready for prom. Yes, his prom was last weekend, but his girlfriend, Megan, invited him to her school's prom Friday night. Once Davis had duded up again in Stephen's tux (this time with a cummerbund rather than a vest), we followed him to Megan's house and then to the yacht club for another photo session. Don't they look handsome/lovely? What a good looking couple they are!


The Relatives Came: Once Davis and Megan were off to the prom, Stephen and I came back to the house for the arrival of the Harley Lawson family as well as Skippy! We had a fun-filled weekend of the beach, low-country boil, yoga (Harley's favorite part), and miniature golf!

First of all, I think Skippy went to the golf course for a few practice sessions before she came to Savannah. She could swing that club like a pro. What's more, I have decided that Asher has professional golf in his future. The video below serves as evidence supporting my conclusion. Look at that grip. That stance. That swing! When he's slipping on that green jacket a couple of decades from now, I'll have this video on hand to sell to the highest bidding sports magazine!



Harley got a little sunburned. I got a little fat. Asher got a hole in one! And Lawson got the blue ball in the center pocket. All indications of a fantastic weekend. We were sorry to see everyone go, and we hope they will all come back real soon.