Holiday Greetings

Kay did a fine job on her Merry Christmas greeting. I wanted to add my greetings to you all as well. I hope that each of you had a very Merry Christmas and that you never forget the reason for the season. I also want to wish you a Happy New Year. May 2009 be the best year ever! Love to all.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope 2009 brings us Peace , Love and Goodwill towards men and women....... Happy Birthday to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Luke 2
The Birth of Jesus

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Shepherds and the Angels

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

On a happier note.....

I am so thrilled to have a new "niece"......I'm excited for Linder and hope that Caroline knows what she has gotten herself into...... all kidding aside, I can't wait to meet her and look forward to some happy adventures while she is with us. I can't wait for our first road trip....I already know where we are going but I'm keeping it hush-hush for now !!!

Thanks be to God

I have felt terrible that Linder has been the only poster on T & B lately. It is not that I don't have any exciting stories to tell, it is just that I haven't had the time to tell them. But sometimes things make you slow down, take a look around and be thankful to God for his blessings. My dear friends Andy and Tacy and their daughters Anna Beth (6) and Alexis (12) got the scare of a lifetime this past Tuesday night. During the severe weather we had, an F2 tornado whipped through their neighborhood and did much damage. There were no human injuries, just downed trees, ripped roofs and shingles, water flowing, car & truck windows blown out, fences gone, the ski boat flipped around, but both dogs, all neighbors and my precious Overholsers are all well. Electric is back, gas hooked up and even cable and Internet in working order. Now just lots of fire wood to cut, mending to mend, and glass replaced and adjusting to be adjusted. Now the O's can always sit back and tell the tale of the family crammed in the bath tub as the sound of a freight train approached and ears popped and glass crashed and "in a flash" it was all quiet again. They said it was so quick that they didn't have time to really realize what all was happening......then you have to look around and see your precious home in shambles. But I bet they will remodel bigger and better and when it is all said and done, they will be stronger from it.....stronger in Faith, stronger in stamina and patience and stronger in family !!!

I'm a Mom!

This week I not only celebrated my birthday but I got the best present ever - a child. Yep, I said it - I have a child (thru the end of the school year). She is an exchange student from Germany. She has been here since August and has been in 3 different homes and 3 different schools prior to coming to live with me. Somehow the system failed her and she has had a terrible experience since she arrived in the USA but I intend on making it up to her and giving her a safe, fun place to live. Her name is Caroline and she is 17 years old. She is so cute and sweet. I think it is going to be fun having her around. She has already said that she likes to cook and wants to teach me about cooking German food and wants me to teach her about cooking American food. You all know how excited I am about that. She also sings, plays the piano and the trumbone, runs track and plays basketball. Stay tuned for stories of raising a teenager - I'm sure it will not be dull and boring! Is it scary to you all that Kay & I both have children now? Kinda freaks me out!

Coach

Word has it that MSU has a new coach - Chris Petersen from Boise State. It will not be officially announced until after his bowl game. He has only been BSU's head coach for 2 seasons, his record is 23-3 and he has taken his team to 2 bowl games. Pretty impressive if you ask me. Can't wait to see what he can do with the Bulldogs - can anyone say SEC Championship?????

Bad Friday

In true (as of late) Bulldog fashion they blew it Friday - and I mean BLEW IT!!! I don't think that MSU could have beaten Manchester Academy's football team. Ole Miss scored on their first possession and never let up. And as if that wasn't enough there was a very obnoxious Ole Miss fan about 5 rows up from us that in the 4th quarter was screaming at me to go home. I don't know why he was so upset - all I was doing was watching the game and his team was killing mine. I was not ringing my cowbell, in fact, I didn't even take it with me nor did I dress up in my usual MSU attire. I only had my MSU event cup and everyone knows that you do not travel anywhere without your event cup - what would you put your cocktails in??? My friends tell me that he acts like this at every game - he is the very kind of fan that makes you hate the school he is pulling for.

I guess I should thank Ole Miss for returning the favor to us this year. When we beat them last year their coach was fired - this year our coach quit. Now we have to wonder who will they get to replace him? Could Jeff Bower's name be on the list? What about Phil Fulmer - I'm not saying that I want him as our new coach but he is looking for a job. I hope whoever they get will be able to recruit and coach and take us to a national championship (hey, if you are going to dream, dream big!)

Defeat

For those of you that know me you know I do NOT like to lose but it is time to suck it up and admit defeat. Yep, the Bulldogs let me down and Brett has officially won the bet. I have the tickets to the Egg Bowl, several places to party in The Grove, a place to stay and next week I will go buy the bottle of Johnny Walker Black.
MSU was the first school in the SEC to set a record by hiring the first black coach - wonder if they'll set another one by firing him??? If Croom does not get rid of the offensive coordinator and special teams coach then something has to be done. I'm about ready to go back to cheating and winning - where's Jackie???? Can anyone tell me???
While we are on the subject of football - November 22 is Jere Barrier's birthday. That is also the day that Ole Miss plays LSU in Baton Rouge. Now for those of you that did not have the pleasure of knowing Jere, she was a HUGE Ole Miss fan. I've had a very strong feeling for the last week that Ole Miss would defeat LSU in Tiger Stadium next Saturday - In memory of Jere I'll be pulling for the Rebels and will even do a Hoddy Toddy -Happy Birthday DooDah!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2cDkFxpYrc

Guests & Gumbo

I got a most welcome but unexpected text message last week. Lee Ann was still in Grenada, Mary Lee had the weekend off and they wanted to come to Jackson on Saturday. Kay decided to come spend the night too.

To my delight the weather was tuning cool and this would be the perfect weekend to cook gumbo. It is an all day affair but well worth the time and effort. The first thing you need to do is cook some bacon, ham and andouille sausage in the pot you are using for the gumbo. Take out of pot when done, save for later. You may need to add some more oil to the pot in order to make your roux. Add plain flour, stirring constantly and cook until dark brown. When the roux reaches the desired color add your chopped vegetables (5-6 small-medium onions, 1 green bell pepper, 3-4 cloves garlic). Cook the vegetables for a few minutes and then add about 2 cups hot water (more if needed), 2 bay leaves, 1 Tbsp Louisiana Hot Sauce, 1Tbsp K's Cajun Seasoning (recipe to follow), 1 tsp thyme, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire, juice & pulp of 1 lemon. Add 2-3 cans fire roasted tomatoes. Add the bacon/ham/sausage back to the pot and a bag of cut okra. Let simmer until

vegetables are tender. While this is cooking peel/devane your shrimp.

Add shrimp to pot - cook until done - serve over rice - and don't forget the garlic bread.

K's Cajun Seasoning: 1(26 oz) box salt; 3 Tbsp black pepper; 2 Tbsp garlic powder; 1 tsp onion powder; 1 tsp nutmeg; 2 Tbsp Accent; 2 Tbsp dried parsley flakes; 4 Tbsp Cayenne pepper; 2 Tbsp chili powder (this makes a lot, store in air tight container and keep in the freezer)

The Saga of The Bet

Ole Miss has now won 5 games while MS State has only won 3. Both teams have this weekend off (thank goodness, I don't think I could take another weekend like this past one). Let me refresh your memory - I said the bet was that State would have a better season than Ole Miss AND kick their ass in Oxford at The Egg Bowl. Well, it pains me to admit this but I do not have a snowballs chance in hell of winning (thank you Bulldogs) even if they win their next 2 games. In order for Brett not to be able to collect on the bet Ole Miss would have to lose their next 2 games and State would have to win their next 2 and then we would be tied going into the Egg Bowl. The bet said "better season and win in Oxford" so if by some strange miracle we are tied going into the EB then I think it is a toss up. I would ask all of you what you think but I really don't care, after all it is my big fat mouth that got me into this bet so I think I get to make all the rules.

Sassy Sows

The Sassys have missed the last 2 BBQ contests and now we are down to our last one - yep, our last chance to win a spot in the MBN championship contest next June. This weekend we will be going to Oxford (yes, I said Oxford) to compete. I'm not sure who all will be there but I'm sure it will be some fierce comeptition. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Stay tuned - results will follow next week.

Octoberfest

I started this post on Oct. 16 and here it is Oct. 23 and I'm just now getting back to it. Since I've taken so long to write about it I have decided to just give you the short version - Kay & I went up there Friday morning and ended up staying until Sunday. We had a great time - the weather was perfect for being outside and the contest was a big success with 10 MBN teams and 38 patio teams. The contest winners are as follows: 1st place Hog Ubon's; 1st place shoulder Red Hot Smokers; 1st place ribs Ghost River Smoke-a-holics - Grand Champion was Ubon's. Congratulations to all these fine teams - again I say, job well done!

There are a couple of photos from the contest that I just couldn't resist sharing. (We don't call this blog Torture & Bliss for nothing - you figure it out)

And this my friends is Ronnie Hamilton - the only man I know that wears a gold plated rib bone around his neck. The story is that this rib came from his hog that he won with in Memphis. Alan, this photo is for you - if you had been in Cleveland you could have met Ronnie and heard the story first hand.

The Bet

After the game last weekend when MSU beat Vandy - yep, that is what I said, MSU beat Vandy 17-14 - the score on the bet is now Linda 2, Brett 3 - watch out, I'm catching up

More BBQ

Last weekend was the BBQ contest at The Chapel of The Cross. They have had the Day in the Country festival for several years and 7 years ago they added the BBQ contest. There were 10 teams participating this year - just to name a few Ubon's, Diamond D, Steve's Magnificent, Fireman John's, Dr. Swinestein, and Barnyard. There were also arts and crafts booths there. Barnyard won Grand Champion and because they had already done this the pass down went to Diamond D's. Congratulations to all the teams that placed and to the winners - job well done! I hate that The Sassy Sows were not there participating but I certainly enjoyed getting to judge. If you have never been to this festival I strongly encourage you to check it out next year.



This weekend there is a BBQ contest in Cleveland, MS. I will be collecting Baby Kay in the morning and we'll buzz on up thru the Delta. This contest has been one of our favorites for years. The official name of it is Octoberfest. They will have live music on Friday night and arts/crafts on Saturday. While there I will also get a chance to run over to McCarty and purchase myself some new pottery. I'll have photos and stories of our adventure posted next week so check back in. In the meantime, have youself a good weekend!

Vidalia cont'd.

I left a couple of things off of the Vidalia write up that were just plain worth having their own mention. I have to tell just how inventive the group at Ubon's is. I think I'll start off with Jacob, the littlest Ubon (Leslie & Doc's son). I found him sitting on a cooler with the most intense look on his face stiring a "pot" of something. When I inquired as to what his recipe was I was informed that it was some type of "soup". I told him that it "must be documented" (I learned that from Beeve and Bradley) so off the cooler he came and here is he proudly displaying his
"soup". I see a BBQ chef in the making!

On Friday night before Dr. Father Vivian's birthday bash started I noticed that there was a new addition to the Ubon's site located just outside the fence. I am not quite sure if Beeve invented this on his own or if he had help. Anyway, here are his 2 precious daughters, Erin & Claire demonstrating the proper usage of this new addition. I'm not sure that they made any money off of it but it was quite creative.

And you really could see 2 states and a casino!

Cudos to Ubon's for creativity!

Ole Miss

Just wanted to say congrats to the Rebels for defeating Florida in the swamp - NOT!!! Where in the world did that victory come from - ooohhhh, I know - we lost 2 very good friends, Jere Barrier and Sidney Chaffin within the last few months - they were both die-hard Rebel fans and I just know that they had something to do with this - I will say this just for them (and nobody else):
Hotty Toddy - Gosh A'mighty - Who in the hell are we - hey, flem flam bim bam - Ole Miss BY DAMN!!! -
I love and miss you both!!

oh, yeah - Linda 1; Brett 3 - I'm not digging this score at all! Looks like I MAY possibly be buying my own bottle of wine to go with that lasagna BUT I'm not giving up - after the LSU game it looks like Coach Croome has finally realized that Lee needs to be our QB instead of Carroll - Wesley tried hard but he definitely needs some more work or needs to be moved into another position - hopefully they can regroup after being off this weekend and come back bigger and better - I have faith in them and I know they won't let me down!

Vidalia

This past weekend was the Jim Bowie Festival in Vidalia, LA. The Sassy Sows were the reigning champions of the BBQ contest -in fact we have won the past 2 years. We went down there with great anticipation - could we pull off a Three-peat??? We got there Friday morning and began setting up our area and prepping our ribs.

The weather was perfect - light little breeze blowing, sun shining and we did not have many love bugs to deal with. By late afternoon we had our area all decorated, the ribs were safely tucked in for the night and we were ready to relax for a while.

Brian (aka Beeve) had a surprise b'day party planned for Dr. Father Vivian down at Ubon's site Friday night. The Sassys had not one but TWO cakes hidden safely in the coach (courtesy of Baby Kay and Becky, Egg Roll's wife). Egg Roll (aka Bob) and Dale were busy cooking none other than egg rolls and sweet potatoe fries for our dining pleasure and as usual, they were both delicious (thanks guys!) We had a "ride about parade" prior to the birthday

celebration. Now this did not compare to the grocery cart parade we had in Memphis but it was still fun. As soon as the parade was over the girls (Erin & Claire) got the banner that Baby Kay made and walked around the area where the cooking teams were to round everybody up and then we wished Dr. Father Vivian a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

After this it was time to go home, rest up and get ready for the big day on Saturday.

Now, back to The Sassy Sows - we were expecting great things from our ribs that day. The color was perfect, the flavor was perfect and the tenderness was perfect. I must apologize for not having a photo of the finished product but I was too busy to stop and take one and my "official photographer" Baby Kay was busy judging. Come to find out we did not make finals but after all was said and done we came in 4th which is not bad considering the competition that was there. I have to congratulate Ubon's for taking the #1 spot in whole hog - Beeve, job well done, hog was wonderful!!!

Also, congratulations is due to Mark and 10 Bone team for taking the #1 spot in shoulder and ribs - we apparently didn't take Mark thru the drive-thru liquor store enough (and that is a private joke)! Here's the Grand Champion photo - we are very proud for you I can not end this post without showing you a photo of the winning tropical drink done by our friends at Diamond D from Newton, MS. The name of the drink is the Blue Sunomi and here it is - Tracy outdid herself this year by adding the goldfish - I would love to come up with a drink to compete with her next year but I'm not sure that I can get this creative - I'm taking any suggestions that you readers want to contribute. Her father-in-law Mike came up with the actual drink recipe and he said that there is nothing in any bartender guide that duplicates it so it is a one of a kind. Tracy was kind enough to give me the recipe so we can have this any time we want but we will never enter it in any contest - EVER!

Congratulations again to all my friends - hopefully we will all be competing against each other soon. And many thanks to Donna, Regina & Findley and their helpers for taking on the job of orgainzing the contest and taking such good care of the teams and judges - we appreciate your efforts more than you will ever know.

The Bet

After this weekend the score remains Linda 1 and Brett 2. Unless miracles happen in Oxford and Starkville I'm thinking that the bet could be decided at The Egg Bowl. Both teams have rather difficult remaining schedules (with the exception of 1 game each) so I'm not looking for any either one of us to jump out with a huge lead over the other one.

I never thought that MSU would be doing so bad this year - we didn't lose that many players from last season. We can't seem to find an offense anywhere. Yesterday we started Carroll as QB and then late in the game switched to Lee. Now Lee did get us one touchdown on the board which made losing a little less painful. There is a lot of work to be done. Come on Bulldogs, PLEASE don't let me down.

Ole Miss started off good yesterday but in true Rebel fashion gave away their lead and the game. GO REBS!!!

Good Times In The Delta

I left Jackson Thursday morning headed to Indianola. It was a perfect day for a ride thru the Delta - sunshine and good music on the radio. I love riding up there when the cotton is starting to bloom and the farmers are working in the field.

Thursday night The Gin Mill was having their first annual blues contest. They had 5 bands signed up to participate. The winner was Mark Massey Band from Senatobia. Friday and Saturday night the band entertaining us was The Legends of The Blues from Tupelo. If you ever get a chance to hear either one of these bands take it - they were both good.

Friday afternoon I did find time to go check out the BB King Museum. It was buzzing with people trying to get ready for the big party that night. I highly recommend that everyone go check it out but be sure to give youself plenty of time. They have a lot of things to look at, videos to watch, music to listen to and things to read. I'll definitely go back again as I didn't have enough time to spend there.

Kay, Pat, Donna, Tacy, Alexis & Anna Beth came up Saturday afternoon. While at The Gin Mill I got to meet a lot of interesting people - Sonny Payne was one of them. He is the host of the radio show King Biscuit Time. He has been doing this for 40+ years. In fact he had to leave early Saturday because he had to get back home to do the show. I think by far the most entertaining group that we met was the boys from Chicago - Paullie, Eric and Sammy.

I have never met a guy that owned more shoes than me but I think I have now. One of them (I will not reveal which one) has to have matching shoes with every outfit. Now I'm not dissing this by any means. I just find it quite interesting and no, he is not gay! They had a long drive on Sunday - 10 hours to get back home. Thank goodness I only had an 1 1/2 hours. After being in Indianola for 4 days, working at the bar/restaurant and virtually getting no sleep I could not wait to get back to my house and on the couch for a long nap. I'll rest up for a day or two and then I'll be ready to go again - not sure what the next adventure will be but I'll keep you all posted.

Kubbee, and Meatpies and Wine....OH MY !!!!!!!

This is my dear friend Natalie, aka "Crazy Lady", not because she is insane but because she would have to be crazy to keep up the pace in her hectic life of family, church, friends, grand kids, church, community, a full time job, church, and Dirt Cheap..........She has been promising "the girls" a Lebanese cooking demo for over a year now.....to teach us to properly prepare kubbee (aka; kibbee, cubbee, heaven in a ball) and meat pies, and the only way to learn is "hands on" because the recipe goes like this......
6# lean, lean, double ground beef that you get fresh, fresh, fresh from the Sunflower by calling D.C. the butcher and saying, "I'd like 6 pounds of Natalie's kubbee meat, please"....
He will know exactly what to do. 5 cups #2 wheat, ice water, onion, salt, pepper, allspice and cinnamon......no measurements or directions to go by, you have to go learn how to do it....and Natalie's the Kubbee Diva of the Universe (only now that Big Nat has moved up to higher ground did Baby Girl get this honor.....)


We finally settled on a night to gather and gather we did.....wine, cocktails and appetizers were first on the list of steps. We can't do anything without eating and drinking !!! We started off with a toast to the evening and our hostess....





Being Episcopal I thought the Trinity was onion, celery and bell pepper but I found out from the Kubbee Diva that the Lebanese Trinity is lean meat, onion and wheat. Add the spice and work the mixture until it is right....you take a bowl of ice and water and dip your hands into the water mixture and work the meat.....over and over until ready to place in pan, layer with filling (more meat, onion and spices cooked till very brown), then more meat on top, score and bake....or make into balls and bake or fry (we baked ours).......

The raw Kubbee must be eaten to adjust the seasoning and that is the best part. You place the raw mixture on a plate, top with the hot filling, add a dribble of extra virgin olive oil and eat with pita bread or flour tortillas......divine......









While waiting for the dishes to bake we proceeded on to make meat pies, rolled out biscuit dough with the cooked filling in the middle, crimp and bake until golden brown and serve with Lebanese cheese (like sour cream, but thicker, get at the Mediterranean grocery store)....



Delicious......by this time we are getting a bit full....... we also had heart of palm salad with red bell pepper and peppercorn ranch dressing my Big Sis brought and Natalie made her traditional salad with garlic, oil and vinegar dressing...both were wonderful................

The evening wrapped up with promises of round two demo to learn how to make Tabbouleh (wheat, mint, & tomato salad) and unleavened bread..........and more Kubbee !!!!!!!!!!

Everyone enjoyed the night immensely and we went home fat and happy !!!




The Lebanese Connection

Blues

Today I'm off to the big city of Indianola for the weekend. Kay and "the crew" will join me on Saturday. The grand opening of the BB King Museum is this weekend. Our friend Tom owns The Gin Mill Galleries located next door to the museum www.ginmillgalleries.com. He is having a blues contest this week and I'm going to help him in the restaurant/bar. The festivites at the museum kick off on Saturday www.bbkingmuseum.com. Check out both websites for music details - if you get time ride on up - there will be great entertainment all weekend.

Sad Day

Today has been a very sad day for me. One year ago today I had to put my dog to sleep. Hard to believe it has been that long - seems like yesterday. I still miss her terribly but I know in my heart that I did the right thing. She was 13 years old and had a wonderful life. I miss you Miche!

Pay ME!

For those of you that read http://www.spectacular-toast.blogspot.com/ you know that Brett & I have a bet on the football seasons of MSU and Ole Miss. For reasons unknown to me he thinks that I am going to lose this bet.

I must point out that Ole Miss could have and should have won this past weekend against Wake Forest but in true Ole Miss fashion they chose to give the game away in the second half - not only in the second half but how about in the last quarter - oh, no, wait, it was actually in the last minute of the game - go Rebs!

MSU on the other hand put on a good show and won their game 34-10.

I'm thinking that 12 year old bottle of cabernet sauvignon I'm going to win will go nicely with my homemade lasagna.

Tales of the road trip

Well, Linda & I had a great weekend in Shreveport. Friday night we went out down town where the festival was going on. We went to The Blind Tiger for drinks and dinner. I was sadly disappointed in the food. Linda ordered a cup of gumbo and crab cakes. I tasted the gumbo and I have to say it was the worst I have ever had. You would think that a coon-ass could cook good gumbo but I'm here to tell you those in that kitchen could not. Perhaps they had some transplants from another state or country. The crabcakes were also terrible. They were definitely the frozen kind that you would find at Captain D's. I had a grilled chicken breast topped with a slice of tomato and melted swiss cheese and it was okay, my salad was bagged lettuce (YUK!!!). The drinks, however, were great but it is hard to screw up a Johnny Walker Black & water. After that we ventured out into the streets where the bands were playing. We found the most delightful little bar and hung inside there for a while. I did document the night with my brand new camera and like I've said before - I've got to figure out how to download the pictures, maybe I need a computer/camera class??? I'll try to get on that some time this week - I got some really good photos at the concert that I want you all to see.

Tom's lunch

It's a good thing Gin Mill has a variety of selections for both shopping and eating. While we were munching away on our delicious muffaletta, Tom was propped up at the bar enjoying his lunch. Oh yeah, baby, cold beer and monkey dicks, it don't get no better than that......

P.S. Linda called and questioned the MD lingo?? I thought everybody in the south new that Vienna sausage were called "monkey dicks" maybe it was only in my family?? Let me know.....................

Delta Tripin'

Every year for my birthday (yes, it's still going on.....), My buddy P.A.T. demands we take a delta road trip and drink bloody Mary's or vodka crans, eat lunch, and cruise up Hwy 61 to Merigold, Ms the home of the famous "McCarty Pottery" to purchase my birthday piece. http://www.mccartyspottery.com/home.html Check the site to view the history of this one of a kind, made from Mississippi River Clay pottery that is all the rage and a delta must have......

We both have an extensive collection, but that's a whole nuther post of it's own.




Donna Jean joined us for the "girl trip" and we headed out Saturday morning with drinks in hand, bugs on the windshield and money burning our pockets. Pat got us washed up and ready for adventure.
First stop was our friend Tom Bingham's Gin Mill Gallery in Indianola, MS. http://www.ginmillgalleries.com/ Check the website and get information on the 1st Annual Gin Mill Jam happening Sept. 9 -12, 2008 in hand with the Grand Opening of the B.B. King Museum html.bbkingmuseum.org/flash.html which happens to be a stone's throw away from Tom's place. Anyhoo, the Gin Mill has art, blues CD's, handcrafted pottery and woodwork, t-shirts, pepper jelly, cards and postcards, you just never know what new and clever item might slip into the Gin Mill. The juke joint is attached and serves lunch sandwiches, BBQ, all kinds of good eats. The weekend brings live blues and/or rock & roll bands to life and on Sunday there is a killer lunch plate and Sunday night is grill night..... We opted for the muffaletta sandwich, potato salad and pickle spear. Gin Mill makes one of the best muffaletta's in the delta, it will cure the craving until you can get down to the Big Easy . Donna Jean had grilled chicken breast po-boy, pasta salad and pickle spear and it was equally delightful, especially with a few cold Bud Light longnecks, just like DJ likes them, cold, cold, cold......






Hug, hug, kiss, kiss to Tom and we're off to Merigold. With our purchases out of the way, we fixed another cocktail and went site seeing. The old Merigold water tower stands tall and proud as we are leaving town. Back on Hwy 61, the blues highway, we stop for a photo op.......... Now we are officially "road ........" woman of the road, I should say.

On thru Cleveland, MS we traveled and hit a couple of downtown shops. Our usually drinking buddies in Cleveland were all out of pocket so we continued back toward Yazoo................



Back in Indianola we ran across a few sites that could only be found in the delta. This creative mailbox has been placed in front of one of our old friend boy's house since our last visit.


I'm more of a Chevy girl, but I have to give ol' Richard a big Ford shout out for classic style (the caddy) and cunning use of motor chassis and hubcaps..............you must click on the photo for maximum laughability.....On the right is a sign that had been placed outside of an old church and we couldn't resist getting it on film. This was actually in downtown, not off the beaten path somewhere....





We had a glorious afternoon of laughs, eat, drinks and good conversation and some

great Delta music. We cranked up my buddy Eden Brent's new CD, Mississippi No. 1, and that's the highway Eden grew up on outside of Greenville....http://edenbrent.com/ and she boogie woogie'd us back home .

Eden's a sweet magnolia just like us.........