Summer Begins With Dining Al Fresco

5:45

8:21

It's 8:30 and Evie's still sleeping, lucky gal.  I paddled for close to an hour and a half and spotted three different herons on my journey. I stopped and talked to a new neighbor, down in Victoria, who was out raking weeds, wondering how to deal with the debris. He's a neat guy, from the Chicago area but hopes to retire here full time in a couple of years.  

Kayak Morning

Bir (One In Turkish)

Iki

Uch 

Sunday was a get-ready for Linda's birthday dinner day so we were, as always, busy with prep.  Fortunately, Evie had baked the ribs on Saturday so all they needed was to be put on the grill for ten to fifteen minutes. The major chore was to make a chocolate cake, one we love but it takes quite a bit of time to put together, with both a ganache and a buttercream chocolate frosting as well as the chocolate cake.  So that took much of the morning, especially when Evie realized after she baked the cake she forgot a key ingredient and had to do a do-over! 

Once the cake was made, Evie could relax some but wanted to get the lawn cut so that's how she spent part of her afternoon, in the heat and humidity cutting the lawn.  I had soup for lunch, took a nap, watched some TV so I was practically a slug.  Late afternoon, I took the cover off the boat, cleaned it up, and set up a table for our booze cruise.  We both were sweaty from working in the sun, so Evie swam, then we showered and Linda and Ron arrived at 5:30. We had gotten everything ready for a cruise when Ron told us severe thunderstorms were predicted in the next half hour. I didn't believe it but Evie checked, said it was accurate, so I put the dam cover back on the boat.  We then sat out on the dock, enjoying a beer but within 15 minutes, we had to hurry off to the porch because of the rain. It poured for 15 to 20 minutes, then cleared up of course but it was too wet to go for a cruise.  We did enjoy our appetizer, shrimp in mayo with red onion and a couple more beers, and the sun came out.  

The Birthday Girl

It was nice enough to eat outside so I dried off the table and chairs and started up the grill.  Ron and I grilled the ribs, basting them with a hot barbecue sauce, for 15 minutes, then brought them over to the table.  While I was grilling, Evie was making an Asian noodles stir fry with squash and other vegetables.  It was a beautiful night to sit outside and enjoy a meal and everything was great, the ribs tender and tasty, the noodles, a recipe we will make again.  And the crowning delight was Linda's chocolate birthday cake, with seven and two candles. Needless to say, if you like chocolate, which we all do, then this cake was to die for.  We finished eating around 9:15 and after Linda and Ron headed home, we did up most of the dishes before going to bed.  Another good day on the lake.