8.29.2008

Am on the Lamb

I was all set to ride the storm out with Sonia and her family across the street. She said she's lived here in our little town all her life and they have never left for a storm. I guess Cappy knows I'm a nervous nut, or the kids up in NYS are, so he's having me go on over to stay with Aunt Gussie over in South Central Louisiana, and maybe from there if it looks like it's going to get bad, try to haul her up to Alexandria with me to stay at her brother's, Uncle Eugene and Aunt Marguerite's house.
Soooo, I'm rushing around trying to secure the yard, so that missles, like potted plants or bird baths don't go flying across the street at Sonia and Jude's house during the storm. I've got the SUV packed to the gills with stuff we'd want to keep, no matter what. Photo albums, and the like. In all the packing, I left little room for the two curly white dogs to fit. LOL...the guy who stopped by here last week from AT&T laughingly said they look like sheep. Yeah, they're little lambs alright...SparkyBear the Brat is watching my every move, packing their food, etc. and every time the car door opens, he jumps in. MarkyBear is watching with one eye as he's grown tired and is mostly napping. So, I just wanted 'yall' to know what I'm up to. Cappy insists on, once again, riding it out on his tugboat, tying up somewhere 'safe'. When they can't find a platform to tie up to, they tie up in the trees...strong trees. It's what he calls, "Chokin' a willow".
Alrighty, I'm outa here..."move over SparkyBear or I'll sit on ya...all the way to Aunt Gussie's house, ya Brat". (ON the 'lamb'...get it? well whaddaya want? I don't gots time fer poetry here.) God Bless!

Pegody and the "ArkyBears"

8.27.2008

O, We of Little Fay


Just a few scant days ago, on the news, there were a few people who were actually packing up and moving "outa Dodge" for the rainmaker, named Fay. True, the tropical storm had taken some lives, but for our area, it didn't appear that the storm was going to be all that alarming. Well, we were all keeping our eye on 'her', but when she finally got here, all she did here in our little town, was rain heavily and blow a little bit. I guess we were 'lucky', but it got everyone's collective adrenlin up, enough to make sure we were ready in case, in the future, somewhere down the road, 'the big one hit'. Before everybody got a chance to 'high five' one another about their successful 'practice run' with Fay, there came on the news a sudden awareness of some'one' more ominous lurking in the Carribean, who could very well be headed our way, on the heels of Fay. No breather in between...the 'further down the road' was already upon us.
We don't like the looks of the track of this 'Gustav'. It appears that it will enter the Gulf of Mexico and build into some kind of monster headed directly in our direction. Ok, now what to do...now what to do? Make sure important things are packed and ready to go, in case. But if I've already been through this before in the last seven years that I've lived in the New Orleans area, how many times have those folks who've lived here all their lives been through it? And now, they are asking one another in hushed tones, "What are you gonna do?" Some say, "Just ride it out...we are staying home, as usual". Some make a grimace and say in an almost whisper, "I don't know". Then to lighten the mood, it's always, "Heck...we don't even know if it's even going to come this way; you just never know".
I know one thing. I always get more upset and frightened if I listen to the Weather Channel. During the hurricane season, I've kept the tuner glued to the Weather Channel, and have always taken what they've been reporting seriously, and couldn't figure out why everyone around me were just taking the whole thing as business as usual. Well, about four years ago, I packed important papers, memorabilia, food stuffs, etc., etc. and waited to see what to do. Finally, at one point, Jim Cantore and his staff, were practically yelling into their microphones, to the people who lived in our area, "Evacuate...evacuate NOW!" Then as time wore on, they'd invoke the name of the Lord into the mix, "In the Name of God, you people don't know what you are dealing with...get out and get out NOW!!!" So I took SparkyBear and left town around three o'clock in the morning for....well, I didn't know where I was headed. Cappy said not to just go to family, who also live along the coast; what good would that do...go north...wayyyy north. So SparkyBear and I did. All the way I could almost feel the hot wind of the hurricane breathing down my neck...I was terrified. Along the way, when I'd pull in for gas, I was amazed that the stations were still open, and even more amazed at the calm demeanor of the people who worked there. "Hurricane? There's a hurricane coming? Really." Even when I told them how bad it was supposed to be, they were still unruffled. I wondered how they had gotten that way; so complacent. When I got into northern Texas, tho, I had a very hard time finding a place to stay; all the rooms having been booked up by other people who were running from the storm. Finally, I found a room at a hotel in a little town called Gilmer, TX for SparkyBear and me. I was also worried about having passed up Cappy's relatives...their towns...on the way to my safe haven. What about them??? Shame set in. I prayed that they would all be alright, and forgive me for deserting them like that.
When I unpacked in the hotel room and turned on the Weather Channel to watch, with anticipated horror and dread, all the devastation wiping out the area around our home and surrounding area, I was downright shocked! And angry and felt betrayed in the mix. There, on the screen, were Jim Cantore and others from their network, wearing blue slickers, out in the hurricane, laughing and playing; frolicking, one of them grabbing their crotch and doing the Michael Jackson 'moonwalk' in the high winds, having the times of their lives, practically doing cartwheels in the surf along the water's edge. There they were, having scared everybody else out of town, having a big old wonderful time in the deserted cities. Like the hurricane was a piece of cake...nothing to have feared at all. All that was lacking was for them to be looking into the camera and telling those, like myself, who were now sitting in hotel rooms, far away from home, "Gotcha!!! AHHHHAAAAAHHAAAA!!" So not much for that 'storm'. From that, I understood how that many years of that kind of dirty trick; crying "Wolf"...year after year, could make the public grow complacent. "Hurricane's coming? Big deal".
August 29, 2005. Hurricane's coming? Big Deal....what's her name? Katrina? No big whoop. Well, finally, the local media and public officials got involved and ordered mandatory evacuations; however, as Mr. (Mayor) Nagin says, "opportunists" decided to stay and take advantage of the situation, by looting the deserted city. But, too, there were those who had no way to get out of the city. The buses, who were supposed to bring people out, to safety, were never used. One of the bus drivers, when interviewed later, said, "Mayor Nagin said for everybody to get out of the city, so we did"...leaving their buses and people they were supposed to transport, sitting right where they were. The helpless victims sitting right there, alongside the 'opportunists', in the "soup bowl" that is New Orleans. I, on the other hand, got 'fooled' again into getting the heck out of town, mostly because a young woman we knew, had no way to get to her family in Utah, so I drove us to Texas, again. The hotel room that was reserved for us, was given to the first person who stopped in and asked "Ah-beed" for it, so on we drove til we got to Dallas, where another room that was reserved for us, was actually ready for us. (The young lady's step-father had some clout, so he was the one who reserved it, in 'stone' for us...God Bless him...I was exhausted from driving the whole way in one day).
From that hotel room, we watched the ridiculous Weather Channel doofuses, once again playing patty-cakes, or whatever out in the rain in New Orleans. Grrrrr. They got me again. The City of New Orleans and surrounding area had survived Katrina, but it was the levee which broke that flooded the City and killed so many people. There is much that has been said about all that ad infinitum. I do hope that the people, in the states to the east of New Orleans had evacuated, because it was there, indeed, along the coast that the real damage was done by Katrina, herself. Just terrible devastation. But we didn't hear much about them. We didn't hear much about the other loss of life and property that took place all along the southern reaches of Louisiana, either. The good and honest and hardworking people, who didn't wait on FEMA for anything, but pulled themselves and others up by their own bootstraps. The real people of Louisiana. (I'd better leave this all alone).
So, here we are again. The Weather Channel is about making me sick. They had gotten folks all upset about little Fay...at least she was little when she got to us. Now they are working themselves up into another lather over Gustav, probably wondering which blue rain slicker to wear, getting all packed, tuning up their voices to go singing and dancing in the rain.
This morning, the mail lady asked me...and my son, Thom, who is sitting safely up in western NY, asked me, "What are you going to do?" I said, "I don't know". And I don't. I asked the mail lady what she's going to do and she said she didn't know, either. I know I don't have faith in the danged ol' Weather Channel. I know Whom to put my faith and trust in, tho'. As for that Jim Cantore, he can go on out in the middle of the hurricane and let his smile be his umbrella. I hope he gets a pocketful of liquid sunshine and a snootful of it, too. Grrrrrr.

8.18.2008

Red All About It

Seeing this picture reminds me of a Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others; one of these things do not belong..." This was taken on yet another trip to spend money getting Cappy's Jeep tinkered on. Even before I got the Jeep for him last Christmas, he had been ruminating about, "if we ever do get a Jeep, I'd want an older one, and of course, that would mean we'd have to adjust this or that on it, having it in the shop, getting it tweaked to our liking". He was right. The first thing that happened was that we took the "tuxedo" top off it, left her sitting in the driveway as we drove the SUV to Thibodaux to pick up a few things, came back to find that there had come a tremendous rainstorm in our absence, which then rendered the expensive radio/CD player useless, plus we had to bail out water, because the floor mats were covering the drain holes in the floor. An embarrassing and expensive lesson. In this photo, we are picking her up at a shop where they had just installed a new radio. See, she is again wearing her "tuxedo" top.
A few days before that, she was in Thibodaux, spending the night getting new tires.
We found a wonderful place in Gonzales, called SEARCHERS,which specializes in refurbishing old Jeeps, so we took her over there, where she spent a few days getting all tinkered on and in good shape. Actually, I had bought her over there in Gonzales, so the guys actually knew her, having worked on her in the past.
So, she was all set and 'good to go', looking all purdy sittin' in our driveway for a month, wearing her sharp black "tuxedo" top, while Cappy was out on the boat. Unfortunately, when he got home and fired her up, he discovered that, once again, the torrential rains, which are frequent here in South Louisiana, had gotten poured in through the windshield caulking and drowned the brand new radio, and her insides were all wet. So, we bailed and aired her all out again, had her back in the shop for new window caulking, seatbelts adjustments, and took her for several music-less drives to keep her motor purring. On one of the trips to Baton Rouge, we had talked about earlier, we picked her up a radio at a nautical store, that would withstand all kinds of weather; the kind they use on boats. Alrighty then. Cappy made an appointment to have it professionally installed, and the morning he went out to drive her to her appointment, he came in laughing, saying, "God has a sense of humor". It seems the radio had dried up and the Jeep was sitting out there happily blaring Lynard Skynyrd. Appointment canceled. While Cappy was back out on the boat, and I was on a shopping trip to Baton Rouge, I returned the nautical radio, as per his instructions.
The last time Cappy was home, he drove her back to SEARCHERS in Gonzales, where she spent the night and had a new, sturdy security trunk box installed, so that whenever we go on road trips, although it's kind of impossible to lock a Ranchero Jeep's doors, we could at least put any valuables in the trunk box, out of sight. The next day, Cappy took off her "tuxedo" top and put on her "bikini" top, then decided we should put out for a short road trip, perhaps down the long road below New Orleans along the Mississippi River, Route 23. He asked me if I'd like the doors on or off. I said that even tho' they weren't much security, I'd rather have them on. Before we left, I looked at the weather radar and became very apprehensive about going anywhere. He was so excited about going, and "pshawed" my hesitance, saying, "Naw, it'll be fine, c'mon lets GO, Cher, alon`". So, off we went, music blaring, Cappy's sporting a black dew rag, and my hair flying free. We had a wonderful time, in traffic, driving along toward New Orleans, then he noticed that there was thunder and lightening ahead, so decided we'd better turn back. Oh well, we'd just road trip in another direction, no problem. ...Problem. The dark 'red' storm I had seen on the radar was now in front of us, as well. We were surrounded. Cappy said, "Well, we'd better just go on home, then, and go another day". Uh huh. Driving back the other way in the heavy traffic, suddenly the sky got black and terribly windy, then the rain just poured down. It took to raining sideways on my side of the Jeep, the bikini top offering no protection, but lifting up in the wind to allow the torrents to fly on in, soaking us...particularly me, I thought. When we stopped at redlights, the top would buckle and drop a couple buckets of water down inside the window onto us, on either side. Then the lightening got terrible, flashing constantly; we could see it and hear it at the same time, just outside the plastic 'windows'. The wind was so bad trees were about bending over, the sky became a sickly green, the windshield wipers were going full blast, but not accomplishing much, visibility was very, very bad, and cars...the ones we could almost see, were creeping along, in the dark, wild fury of whipping rain. I just knew there had to be a tornado in the mix, somewhere, but even if there was, it would be upon us before we could see it. As far as I knew, it was lightening and raining on the inside of the Jeep as much as it was on the outside. Once, I thought I got hit in the head by lightening because I had a sudden, blinding headache. (I guess I didn't, but there was such a froth of loud confusion and water everywhere.) It was so scarey, I couldn't look anymore. I just covered my eyes and prayed. Cappy was over there laughing, having the time of his life. I was not amused. At all. The only thing that kept me from freezing to death in that water bucket was the fact that I was fuming. I was ticked. I knew we should never have gone for the ride in the first place. And now we may just never see home again. It went on for what seemed forever and got, somehow worse than ever. My senses were on overload, with no escape. So, I just prayed. Our faith teaches us to have Peace, when all around us, there is no peace. Now either that's for real, or it's not. Maybe I was delerious from the terror of the situation, but it's as if, as I was praying, I heard from somewhere wayyyyy back in my mind, "Don't you trust me, Peggy??" And in all the turmoil and rushing water flying in sideways, the question hung there;... getting louder in my ears. My eyes were 'squinched' shut, and my heart was racing, still in fear, but I mouthed the words, "Yes, I trust you....but this is crazy stuff...this was not using wisdom, coming out in this kind of weather." I looked over at Cappy, and he had his mouth wide open laughing his ol' head off. At the same time I could imagine The Lord, with his arms around both of us, His head over next to Cappy's laughing along with him in the midst of the storm. I just rolled my eyes, and said to myself, "Not funny, Lord. You are siding with Cappy". The thunder and lightening, and rain and hail kept up til we practically got home, and it was just awful, but at least I had a modicum of peace, now, that had been dropped into my spirit. As we drove into our town, the clouds parted, and a sunny, blue sky appeared, just as we had left it a couple of hours before. Like nothing had ever happened...except we were drenched, and had to bail the Jeep out again. The only thing that had dampened Cappy's mood, was that during the storm, the brand new radio had drowned. Again.
During my sleep that night, the name for the Jeep "Came" to me. Like a whisper. "Tinker Bail". Cappy has always liked the "sexy" little cartoon Tinker Bell, anyhow. When I told him that the Jeep's name should be Tinker Bail, he was, well, not smitten with the name. He said, "It doesn't speak to me". I thought I'd let him mull it over. I sat down to the computer to write a little, while he went outside to check out the Jeep, changing her top back to either her raincoat, or back to her "tuxedo". A couple of minutes he came back in and just stood there beside me, til I noticed. He was DRENCHED. He said, as he was taking the top off, a big pile of water came down on him. I asked, "Does the name 'Tinker Bail' speak to you now?" He said slowly, "yeahhhhhhppp".
So, we came up with the little drawing, of Tinker Bail with a tool belt and a pail. Now, as to the spelling, I was thinking that the word "Bail", to other readers, along the road, that it might have a connotation of someone trying to get out of jail; making bail, therefore we came up with another spelling. Sometimes cute little girls like having their names spelled differently, so we'll do that for Tinker Bayl. It's appropriate, too... saying her name sounds kinda like a Southern accent, which is just too right, given the circumstances, don'cha think?
And I think Cappy's right; God does have a good sense of humor.

8.13.2008

In Da Dawg House

Since Cappy's been out on the boat, I've had plenty to keep myself occupied. I worked to get things back to normal after the Seafood Courtboullion and Jambalaya family reunion. Cleaning and reorganizing. Now I'm going through the closets, etc., with a fine-tooth comb, either taking Cappy's mantra to heart: "To da Road!", or bagging stuff up and delivering them to Goodwill. In doing so, I rediscovered the gifts I have been stashing since...well, even before last Christmas, for this Christmas.The next time Cappy gets off the boat, we are planning on taking a road trip to western NY to visit family. (YEAH!!!) Since it usually costs us a lot of money to mail the gifts to NY, I hit on a brainstorm to go ahead and finish my Christmas shopping, wrap everything, and take the Christmas presents with us when we go. Now what a swirl of disorganization I've created for myself. My winter paper blizzard has come early, due to the computer room resorting I started before I unearthed said gifts. Now the gifts and wrapping paper, and lists are comingled with ...well, gosh...everything. I know there are better systems for doing this, but since I've already taken the plunge, I'm going to keep going. Or dah tryin' anyhow.
My curlie white companions, who are usually at my side, are mad at me presently. MarkyBear, our 'cow' boy, who should weigh around 20 lbs, clocked in at the vet's at 42 lbs. and SparkyBear, who would do well at ~15 lbs is about 29 lbs. Geepers...I wonder why they are fat?! They take after their 'parents'. Well, the vet didn't say anything about Cappy or me, but she is having one fit about Mark, so now, they both are on a diet and excercise plan. No more treats. No more me cooking for them, which I had been doing, ever since that Chinese pet food scare. MarkyBear had even been throwing up back then, so that really worried me. I cooked for them, pampered them and downright spoiled them, to the point that they totally disdained dog food. They still do. When, this morning, I cheerily put their bowls down, as I always do, saying, "This is for SparkyBear..and this is for MarkyBear", they walked, grudgingly, to their bowls, took one whiff, looked at the other one's bowl, snorted, walked away, threw themselves down, each in a different corner and glared at me, then moped. Even as I speak, they are not in here with me. From where I am sitting, I can see the legs and tail of one of them in the hall, and don't know where the other one had flopped, pouting.
MarkyBear has been having 'hot spots', too, so he's just not been happy, all around. Cappy said that having Mark groomed with a real short haircut would make him feel better, because of the heat, too, so today, I loaded up both 'boys' and took them to a new groomer. Mark, to get the 'works', and SparkyBear to lend moral support. While they were there, the girl said that I could come back later for them, if I had shopping to do. So, off I went.
I wandered around 'Wally-woild', picking up some very good bargains on my quest to, as afore mentioned, finish up my Christmas shopping. Good deals! I have tried to adopt Mr. Bebe`, one of our friend's techniques for getting on the better side of the store clerks. It has got to be something I'm doing (but I swear, I don't know what) that sets them off. Now yesterday at Rouse's, I smiled pleasantly at a a Miss Rebecca, and said, "Hello, Miss Rebecca, I hope you are having a good day". She smiled back, but seemed kind of nervous and kept furtively looking back toward 'the office' as she ran a basket load of my groceries across the scanner and bagged them. Just as I was about to pay for them, she told me that she had forgotten to mention that the computers were not accepting debit or credit cards just then. Well, that's all I had with me. She told me to shove my stuff over to the customer service department, run to the bank and get some cash, come back to the customer service and pay for them. nice. Still kinda/sorta smiling, I wandered, slightly confused toward the door, and noticed that there were several other carts there, laden with defrosting groceries, as well, waiting for their 'owners' to come back from the bank to retrieve them. Resignedly, I got that taken care of and came home. Home again, Home again, jiggety jig, I always say.
Today at "Malwart", I was getting such good bargains, and SMILING. I thought the clerks had pep rallies every morning to get them all in good spirits. No? The only one who smiled back was the lady at the jewelry case, who waited on me. The rest of them seemed downright surly. Not a usual occurance at that store, I thought. Although the store was getting busy, I found a short checkout line and soon discovered why. I noticed the gal waiting on us, was having a difficult time with the customer ahead of me. Or was it the computer she was angry with? As I was putting my things on the conveyer belt, keeping a big distance, between the person ahead of me, as I turned away, I heard a loud bang, turned to see the cashier had loudly slammed one of those divider thingys between my things and the lady ahead of me. There was at least a foot and a half on either side of it. She glared at me, and the lady ahead of me looked at me apologetically, so I said, "Gosh, I wasn't going to crowd my things in there". The cashier snapped, "If I don't put it there, I'll get myself all confused". I was thinking, "we aren't supposed to be afraid of our checkout people, are we?" and was almost relieved when a gal came up behind me, who was only holding a couple of items, so I let her go ahead of me, thinking maybe by the time I got to the cashier, she'd have time to cool down. It was not to be. She fussed with that woman's debit card because the computer was fighting with it, although the information on it was correct, they said. She was clearly aggitated, and I was seriously thinking about either putting my things back into the cart and finding another line, or just leaving the store. Too late, she grabbed my first item and tried to scan it, but once again, the computer was being beligerant. "Well, Miss Courtney, it looks like you are having a bad day, eh?" She actually smiled. She got the computer to work and everything else sailed right through. I was thinking Mr. Bebe` might have something there, about reading the label names and addressing them pleasantly, by their name. Miss Courtney began telling me about her miserable day, and I smiled, nodding my head...poor thing. Then she said she was going to go to Houma after work, get drunk and get 'laid', even if she couldn't find her boyfriend. (!!!!) TMI!! TMI!!! Wayyyy, too much information. And there was more....but, I dragged my blushing self out of there, saying I hope her day would get better...I think I even did one of those "...and have a nice day" things. Yow! I was wondering if all the ladies had somehow managed to all get on the same 'cycle' and were all "PMS-ing"? I nearly made a clean break of the store when the usually sweet gray-haired lady, amid the loud shoplifting alarm that was going off, said sternly, "You! You come back here so I can check your cart!" (and I've know this lady for years. I often stop to chat with her.) It seemed while I was shopping, that every few minutes that alarm kept going off, so by then, I was almost oblivious to it. "Oh! That was my cart that set it off??" As she started pawing through my bags, she said, "Yes it was". People started stacking up, as she went through every single bag, to no avail. Then she said, "Alright, let me see your bra". I was taken aback. My bra??? Then as she pointed to one of the bags in my cart, I remembered, oh yes, I was purchasing a new one. Sure enough, some kind of BIG plastic dangling clip was still afixed, so she had to write everything down about it, and told me I could cut it off at home before I wore it. I surely would have done that, and tried to get her to smile. Well, she almost did, but she had a lot of other people to tend to, so I slunk out to my SUV and drove back to the groomer to pick up my dogs. Well, they were glad to see me. Til we got home, where their dishes still contained the miserable dry diet dawg food. It's my own fault; I should have never let myself become a short-order cook for a dog.
What a day; what a day. One week down of Cappy being away. Hurry home, Cappy; the natives are restless. (yes we are;... yes we are.)

8.07.2008

Our Annual Family Jambalaya 2008

Well, they dressed in style and we went hog wild, me oh my oh; son of a gun, we had big fun on da 'bayou'. What a wonderful two weeks! Cappy was home, we rushed around getting ready for the family reunion aka Jambalaya, then friends and family began showing up to help, then we party'd!!!
Grandson, "RJ" arrived Thursday night at the airport, then the next night, son, Dan, with fambly in tow arrived. (I had to laugh, because I had been talking with son, Joe, who said, "Gee, everytime I try getting ahold of Dan, I can't; he doesn't answer his phone, then when I go look at the Blog, I see his face on there". All I can say, Joe, is, "Brought yerself on down here". We'll spoil you rotten.) As Cappy said in the last post, I, (Peggy) had been taking photos all along, but as soon as Dan and Jennifer & the kids got here, all bets were off, so we don't even have pictures of them being here for the Seafood Courtboullion, but they were here. The next day, (Saturday) although I didn't take my video camera, (for I still have so much to learn about editing, etc. with the danged thing) I did take plenty-plenty pictures of the 'peeps' at the Jambalaya.
The family reunion was a lot of fun, as usual, but we missed those who couldn't make it this year. We are grateful for Cappy's sister, Maria and her husband Darryl for being such gracious hosts for opening their hearts and home to us. We are one rowdy bunch, to be sure.
One thing that made it extra special was that there was a young man in attendance, who is a cultural exchange visitor from France. He took quite an interest as to how the jambalaya was prepared. Seeing his face as he tasted it for the first time was priceless.
As usual, the gathering started out at a fast pace, because that's how things flowed, then after the meal, people slowed down, and got more mellow to let their tummies digest. It was just one wonderful day, all the way around.

And to son, Joe, yes, that's where Dan has been again. Son of a gun!


Da link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-Al6xigfVE4

8.04.2008

Our 2008 Seafood Courtboullion

Our family reunion weekend always starts on Friday. Family, who travel aways to get here, often drive in on Friday afternoon, so as not to miss any o' da doings on Saturday. Peggy and I spend Friday doing all the prep work for the Jambalaya and cook a big pot full of seafood courtboullion (coo-bee-yaw`) for the family, as they start drifting in, in the evening. This year, a friend Stephen R. came over and was a great help chopping, deboning marinating, drinkin', jammin', and visiting, as we prepared the 30lb. of pork 15lb. of both, sausage and onion, for the jambalaya. While doing that, we also smoked 6 slabs of pork ribs on da bbq for the non seafoodies. While Steve and I did that, Peggy and her friend Lona L. sat inside visiting, while fixin Peggy's coleslaw, and her amazing BBQ sauce. I gotta tell yall her sauce does my Ribs proud. I hadda smile when I noticed one of the neighborhood kids with a bowl of rice with Peggy's BBQ sauce on it. He was using the sauce for gravy. Think about it, the kid had all that seafood, slaw, bbq, amazing bread pudding, etc. he coulda ate but he CHOSE Peggy's sauce over rice. That just shows ya how good this stuff is. We got started choppin' at 12:30 pm and had a good crowd by 5:00 pm,then ate and visited till after dark, at which time we topped it off with a big back yard fireworks show for da kids. It took us forever, but we finally got a slide show put together. I must tell ya though, that Peggy was in charge of pictures and did a great job.... that is until grandson Chase showed up. Then the camera forgotten it was maw-maw time. Hope yall enjoy the slide show here's da link:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dn0FWGBpN8A