Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 165

Beach day

Sleep late, though never late enough.

Walk.

Pool.  (Yes, at the beach, that's both a noun and a verb.)

Eat too much lunch.

Nap, briefly.

Movie out.

Dinner.

Movie in.

Hot tub and pool.

Movie in.

Along the way, some desserts.

Bobcake strong but slowly losing.


A beach day.

Don't watch

the movie Dead Hooker In a Trunk.  Though it racked up some favorable reviews, and despite the fact that American Mary, the second film by the Soska sisters, the twins who created this one, was a strange and disturbing piece of work, Dead Hooker In a Trunk tonight grabbed the title of Worst Movie Ever At the Beach.  Given all that we've watched over the years, that is some accomplishment.  It drove everyone except Kyle and me from the room, and we stayed only out of sheer determination to see every movie to its end.

Instead, try looking at something much prettier, such as this photo, courtesy of Gina, of sunrise at the beach.

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I can't imagine getting up early enough to see a sunrise here, but it is lovely.  

For those tracking the progress of the Bobcake, we have now cracked past the halfway mark. 


It is mighty, but we are many, and we are determined.  (Well, some of us are.  I must confess to having no Bobcake today; I was just too full from other yummy food.)

Today's two miles passed largely in a light rain, an interesting and reasonably pleasant way to take a walk.

Ah, life at the beach is so easy.

No walk...but cake!

Rain consumed most of the daylight hours today, and it was glorious.  I love the sound of rain falling, the look of it hitting the ground and buildings and cars, the smell of it filling the air.  Rain smells to me like hope and happiness, probably from childhood summers in which frequently the only times I didn't have to work were those when it was raining. 

The showers fell hard enough that we chose not to walk today, so I did not log my usual couple of miles of light exercise. 

Rain or shine, however, this beach house has cake--though far less now than yesterday.

I'd show you a picture of the ChBobcake, but its last small piece vanished sometime early today.

The CaBobcake also gave up the ghost today.  All that remained before the nightly trash run was the empty base on which it came.

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The Bobcake is the last survivor of Bob's baking, as it always is.  We have passed the halfway mark, but tomorrow our numbers shrink a bit, so I expect the consumption rate to slow. 


It is a mighty beast, the Bobcake.  We who remain salute it.

Way too much food

No amount of walking, swimming, or moving about can possibly compensate for all the food most of us eat here at the beach.  I will definitely have more weight to lose upon my return.

At dinner tonight at a local Mexican food joint, I managed to stay largely under control, but Scott and Kyle each had one of the larger burritos I've seen.

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Though the angle of my shot makes them appear to be different, they were the same:  huge, full of meat and beans and onions, and covered in a "special gravy." 

Those are beach meals.

No amount of food out can stop our brave eaters from their continued assault on the Bobcakes.  The ChBobcake is almost gone, a victim of cheesecake lust.


The CaBobcake is faring only a tiny bit better.


I don't expect either of these to last all day Friday.

The Bobcake, though continues to stand tough, with more than half of its enormous chocolate mass still remaining.


Of course, additional desserts--donut holes, the 21 pints of ice cream we brought here (seven remain), a large bowl of homemade chocolate brownie ice cream, two packs of Klondike bars, brownies, peanut butter cookies, key lime pies, and a chocolate pie--have come to its assistance and distracted many of the hungry.  I expect it to live well into next week, though of course I could be wrong.

As I write this, a hard rain is falling.  The sound is superb.  A big storm is grand; a big storm at the beach is a wonder indeed.  I look forward to falling asleep to it.

Serene tonight

The beach, that is, not I.  I am rarely serene.

The beach, though, is.

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As is the lovely sky over the end of the island.


In news of the Bobcakes, the ChBobcake survived the day, but I'll be surprised if it sees Friday noon.


The CaBobcake is faring slightly better but has passed the halfway mark. 


The Bobcake, though clearly under serious attack, remains strong and still has way more than half of its mass intact. 


One day, though, it, too, will fall!

Bobmeal

Each year at the beach, we ask Bob, a local chef and co-owner of our favorite lunch place, to cater a dinner for us.  Tonight, we enjoyed the feast he prepared.

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We had a little something for everyone:  grilled cheese sandwiches, cheeseburgers, hamburgers, hot dogs, chili to go on the hot dogs, salmon, tuna, dill sauce for the fish, salad, potato salad, buns, various burger and dog fixings, and dressings and condiments.  Suffice to say that we fed a crowd of 17 and had plenty of leftovers.

Later in the evening, we all enjoyed one of Bob's desserts.  Traditionally, we have selected as that dessert his death-by-chocolate cake, which we call simply the Bobcake.  This beast is dark, huge, delicious, and rich.  It's so big, in fact, that our large crowd typically needs more than a week to consume it.  This year, to help us chart progress, we put grid marks on the tray that supports the cake.


As we did last year, we asked Bob to make us a second cake, his incredibly sweet and delicious carrot cake, aka CaBobcake.


For the first time, we felt a third cake was in order, Bob's chocolate swirl cheesecake, aka ChBobcake.


The three desserts together pose a formidable challenge.


Fortunately, we are up to it and anticipate success in our battle with the cakes.

That said, we have little in the way of proof of our belief, because after one evening's consumption, the Bobcake sneers at our puny efforts.


The other two cakes, being of less sturdy stuff, are definitely well on their way to disappearing.


More in tomorrow's report of the Bobcakes.

As daylight fades

the views from the beach house remain lovely, whether you're facing down the island, toward other houses,

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or out to the ocean.


It is good to be here.

Walking a couple of miles for exercise is a lot more fun

when you get to finish by heading straight into a lovely pool.

That's what passes for an insight today at the beach. 

I'm at the beach

and it is as wonderfully relaxing as always.  Once here, our group stopped, as always, at my favorite local little restaurant for lunch.  The first beach lunch of 2013 was (drum roll, please)

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the Crazy Club Sub, add roast beef.  Sides were chips and a small bowl of dill shrimp pasta salad. 

Kyle brought an xBox 360 that we used to buy the UFC PPV tonight, so we were watching live as the great Anderson Silva finally lost his title, partly to challenger Chris Weidman and partly to his own hubris.  It was not the outcome I expected.

It's good to be here.

How I'm reading now

I love reading, but I also love books, their feel, look, heft, smell, pretty much everything about them.  Consequently, when I decided to do my six-week sabbatical trip with just a small carry-on suitcase and a backpack, I was worried.  I knew I'd read a fair number of books during the trip, but I also simply could not carry many books with me.  I opted finally to take a tablet and read only ebooks.  I did not take a single paper book with me.

I enjoyed the experience, which taught me that I could indeed go a long time without reading a physical book.

I still, though, prefer reading paper books.  In fact, I prefer hardbacks over paperbacks.  My next two trips were short enough that I could afford to carry two hardbacks and still fit everything I needed into the small carry-on suitcase and the backpack, so I did.

Today, I packed for two weeks at the beach, a time during which I typically read a fair number of books.  Space is free--multiple vehicles are heading there together--but carrying a lot of books up and down stairs is a hassle, and I now know I could get along just fine with ebooks.

So what am I doing?

Packing a big bag full of heavy, paper, glorious, lovely books. 

I'm sure I will have trips in which I take only a tablet--the upcoming journey to the U.K. for World Fantasy Con 2013 springs to mind--but for now, I'm traveling with paper books whenever I reasonably can.