Learning

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The thing about hanging out with other people is that you can learn from them. And learning is good — something about keeping your brain cells strong, I think. Take, for instance, this arrangement of seashells and dried grasses. A friend of mine who loves to collect shells at the beach put some of her best ones in this clear large-mouthed glass vase and used the shells to anchor a couple of bunches of grass she bought at a craft store. Result? Simple, easy and inexpensive with a definite wow factor. She just sort of threw this together while I sat and watched, amazed. The main requirement is a clear vase or container that’s wide enough for your shells. And if you don’t have any shells, you can buy them in bulk at most craft stores — although I bet you’ve got a forgotten box of them tucked away in the garage from your most recent vacation when you found these lovely shells on the beach and dragged them home because you knew you could do something with them. Well, you were right! See, you can learn tons of things from your favorite people. Such as my 23-month-old grandson, Capt. Adorable. Every day I spend with him is a learning experience — from repurposing toy boxes into comfy reading chairs to innovative uses for mashed potatoes (clay, glue, finger paint, hair gel). Read more lessons the Captain has taught me in my weekly newspaper column at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100305/ARTICLES/3055005.

Style

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Oh my goodness. Or, as my 23-month-old grandson Capt. Adorable says with a huge grin, “Oh my cookies!” When I was wandering through our local mall and spied this window display of new spring things, I had two thoughts: 1) Those are so cute! 2) Too bad I’m about 30 years too old to wear them. and 3) These are psychedelic T-shirts? Kids today don’t know the meaning of the words! And, okay, I know that’s three thoughts. That’s how disturbed I was at seeing these versions of what I spent my teen-age years in. I means, we were the ones who pioneered the statement T-shirt! We were the ones who liberated the humble T and turned it into cool! We were the ones who unleashed the power of Peter Max on the fashion industry! Well, you’re right, it was really our older brothers and sisters — I always say that I would have made a great hippie in the 60s but my parents made me go to bed at 8. By the time I hit my teens in the early 1970s, the hard work had been done and jeans and Ts were the uniform of the young and all I had to do was reap the benefits. Before the flower-power fashion revolution, “new clothes for spring” meant white gloves and pillbox hats. Today, thanks to the Love Generation, it means light-weight groovy T-shirts. Young people today have no idea. Oh my cookies!

Oscars

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Every year I imagine I’ll throw a fabulous Oscar-watching party. I imagine everyone — me, included — wearing Caifornia-chic casual style. I imagine a creative bounty of innovative finger food. I imagine intelligent movie-savvy conversation. But of course what happens instead is that I forget it’s Oscar night until three minutes before and I end up watching in my ratty pajamas and eating out of a Cheetos bag and saying things to the cats such as “‘An Education’? I’ve never heard of that movie before.” The cats are not impressed. However, if you imagine a glittering and successful Oscar-watching party and you have faith that you will actually do it, then take a look at this AP article about Oscar-inspired cocktails: http://www.heraldnews.com/lifestyle/x655498432/Oscar-inspired-cocktails-toast-the-movies It might have shown up in your local newspaper but in case it didn’t, you’ll want to take a look. Raise a glass for me, and I’ll in turn toast you with a Cheeto.

Food and Friends

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What could be better than friends and food? My cooking club, the GINGERS (Girls In Need of Gourmet Experience Really Soon) got together recently for a Chinese meal, Southern-style. We were all impressed with the tableware our hostess used: A set of dishes her ex-father-in-law had bought in Southeast Asia decades ago. And even better was the food everybody brought to put on these dishes: Seaweed salad, barbecue chicken wings with peppers, a mushroom medley, jasmine rice, spicy cookies and other yummy dishes. I’m always amazed at how culinarily creative and innovative my fellow GINGERS are — I’m definitely the weak link and I think they keep me around only because I’m the one with the most e-mail patience when it comes to setting our meeting dates (“If Polly can’t do Saturday the 15th and Sarah can’t come on Tuesday the 23rd and Cheryl’s out of town on Monday, can everybody do next Friday, instead?”) My contributions to the evening were quick run-into-the-store additions to the menu: Chinese wine and beer, vegetable and brown rice sushi, almond cookies and some chocolate-covered Piroutte-like cookies. But I have an excuse: I was babysitting my 23-month-old grandson, Capt. Adorable. Plus, believe me when I say anything I could buy would serioulsy taste tons better than anything I could make. One of the best things one of us brought, however, wasn’t food at all. One GINGER has a granddaughter adopted from China. She brought one of the traditional gift bags her granddaughter had given her classmates to celebrate the recent Chinese New Year and told us all about what the various items represented — fascinating! So we learned as well as ate and talked and laughed. Our evening was a balanced blend of exploring authentic Chinese food and celebrating the Americanized versions we’ve all come to know and love. Now we’re trying to decide if we want to tackle Irish or not. The only thing I know about Irish cooking is that I love the fried mashed potatoes at McGuire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola, Florida — but I’m willing to learn.

Food

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If you’re headed down to the Alabama/Florida Gulf Coast — and a yet-again winter storm headed our way here in north Alabama makes me ready to go anytime — you’ve got to try Cobalt, a fairly new restaurant in Orange Beach, Alabama. Under the bridge on Perdido Beach Boulevard next to the Caribe Resort, Cobalt is a must-go especially during nice weather when you can stroll along the water and eat outside in the breeze. When I went with friends a couple weeks ago, it definitely was a cool and gray stay-inside-sort-of-day. But that was all right, because inside is nice, too. Cobalt is a huge space but it didn’t feel too big — just sort of light and airy but spacious enough to handle how every many we could crowd around our table. We were there for lunch. The menu featured seafood dishes, of course, with salads and sandwiches, too. Food was good, beer was cold and service was friendly — and I’m sure this place is hopping during prime time. There was a fascinating salt-water tank in the lobby that was less an aquarium and more of a sort of river where you could stand for a while and watch all sorts of fish swim lazily by. I didn’t take many photos because I was too busy eating and drinking and talking my camera batteries were weak but I did manage to shoot two of the most important features: the immaculate and sparkly women’s restroom and the wonderful array of goodies available for take-out. Check it out yourself at http://www.cobaltdining.com/ — and save me a truffle, please.

Olympics

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I got a new gig this weekend — I got to write a sports column for the Tupelo newspaper, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal! Yes, you are right that I know nothing about sports whatsoever. But I do know the sports editor — my husband, John Pitts — and he wanted to have something about the Olympics from a civilian’s point-of-view. I am a huge Olympics fan and every two years — I still can’t get used to saying “two years” instead of “four years,” can you? — I get so caught up in the competitions and so wrapped up in the athletes’ stories that I’m definitely sort of morose when the torch goes out and it’s all over. So I wrote about that at http://nems360.com/view/full_story/6487694/article-CATHY-WOOD. Go read it and check out the stellar job my husband does and the great other columnists, especially my friend Ginna Parson’s food stories on Wednesdays — great recipes.

And this past Friday in my weekly newspaper column in the TimesDaily, I wrote about girlfriend getaways — how to organize one and why you should. Read it at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100226/ARTICLES/2265001/ and then gather up your best friends and go have some fun.

Shopping

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There is no way in the world that I could ever wear these shoes, but that does not stop me from drooling all over them and creating a scene at the mall. Actually, I was creating a scene by taking pictures of these beauties, which people don’t usually do at my local mall — but I am a determined blogger dedicated to bringing you the newest and the best, no matter the cost. And, truthfully, when I first walked by, my immediate reaction was, “Have they installed a Lady-Gaga section now?” Even more truthfully, my original immediate reaction was, “Have they installed a hootchie-mama section now?” but when I used the term “hootchie mama” the other day my 23-year-old daughter claimed she’d never heard that saying so I figured I’d better act as if I’m in the 21st century and put “hootchie mama” to rest. And, just to be clear, I in no way think Lady Gaga is a hootchie mama. She is a talented and hard-working performer and I wish her every success. It’s just that nobody can deny she wears hootchie-mama shoes. And we all know that a little bit of hootchie mama can be a good thing.

Travel

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When the gray and cloudy days of winter seem as if they’ll go on forever, just remember that somewhere the sun is shining and the sky is blue — and sometimes that somewhere is just a few hours away. Some friends and I were lucky enough to get an early spring break this past week when we gathered for some girls-only time at Perdido Key, Florida. We stayed at Needle Rush Point, and if you are looking for a non-high-rise Gulf Coast vacation spot, you need to check it out. It”s comfortable and homey and just right for hanging around, talking and laughing and eating and not doing much of anything else — which is exactly what we needed. Needle Rush is on the Gulf and also across the street on the bay/river side, which faces famed and exclusive Ono Island. We tried our best to spot some of the rumored celebrities who might or might not have houses over there, but the only folks around were locals and snowbirds — retirees who’ve had enough of winter and come south to enjoy the sun. Of course, it still seemed chilly to us Alabamians, but when you can walk along the beach and eat fresh seafood, who’s complaining? Check out Needle Rush Point at http://www.needlerushpoint.com/

Fitness and Fashion

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Yup, that’s me. And Younger Daughter. This is the photo that goes along with my most recent Fashionably Speaking column in the quarterly magazine Shoals Woman. I wrote about workout wear — how women of my generation have bad memories of having to wear ugly and baggy clothes for those required PE classes in school and how those memories keep us in ugly and baggy clothes when we work out today. Women of Younger Daughter’s generation, however, don’t have that baggage. They know that sleek and fitted is the way to go — and when you look good and feel good about the way you look, then you’ll feel good about yourself. Or something like that. Anyway, we had a great time at our local YMCA taking these photos. Younger Daughter is a good sport to play along — but I can still outwalk her, no matter what I’m wearing. Although, it’s true, she can outrun me even if she were wearing heels and hose. Oh, well — we each have our talents! Read http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100224/SW/100229968/1085/sw to find more tips for incorporating fitness with fashion. For example, you can certainly consider your mad dash around the store to spend your 30-percent-0ff coupon when it’s five minutes before closing time as aerobic exercise. Works for me!

Food

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When winter is getting to you, isn’t it lucky to have friends with beachfront condos? Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mary Bonnie! She invited some of us to share one of her weeks at the Gulf coast condo she and her husband have — and just in time, too, since here in Alabama we’ve had enough snow and ice and cold to last us, thank you very much. We had a great time and I’ll tell you all about it, but first I want to give you a Florida wildlife report. No, not that kind of “wild life.” The nature kind — well, our version, anyway. One night we went to the Shrimp Basket in Perdido Key, Florida, when we all spied the most realistic statue of a blue heron ever and were in the midst of speculating why someone had placed such a statue so close to a parking space when suddenly the “statue” blinked its eye and we all jumped — and reached for our cameras. We got the distinct impression that the heron was posing for us and waiting for us to notice he (she?) had given us his (her?) best side for photography purposes. We didn’t see any dolphins/porpoises in the water while we were there, but we did spy an osprey perched high up in a tree next to its nest one day and walked along the beach with hundreds of twittering (in the non-online sense, of course) sandpipers. The weather was clear and sunny and gorgeous while we were there — too cold for us to get in the water although I did see a couple of energetic teenagers brave the waves one day. The sunsets were stunning — I caught a bit of the light in this photo. And the Shrimp Basket was great! Nothing fancy — just fresh good seafood and friendly service. It’s where the locals hang out and is about half the price of touristy seafood places (Crab Trap, we’re talking to you!). I had the blackened shrimp and fish with new potatoes, cole slaw (with shrimp in it) and hush puppies. Plus, I saved one of my oh-so-good raw oysters to show you. Other orders at our table were fried oysters, fried shrimp and tuna dip — everything was perfect. Check it out at http://www.shrimpbasket.com. There are locations all along the Alabama/Florida Gulf coast — just watch out for blue herons in the parking lot.