05-(22-24)-09

05-(22-24)-09
I can't sleep so I'm up at 5:30 and I go get the paper and sit down and open it up and it's like deja vu. The headlines are way too familiar and then I look at the date on the paper and it is yesterday's paper. I guess the delivery person had a left over one from the day before and threw it out by mistake. I buy one from the box. Dixie is up unusually early also,it's 7, she gets ready in a hurry and out the door she goes to her office. She is trying to fix her computer for her last closing and it just is not cooperating, she has to hand type the closing forms, whiteing out old forms and typing in new info like she did 25 years ago. At 10 :15 I am working out in the yard and Dixie calls me to say that the buyer is at her office to sign the papers on the building, no appointment he just shows up with 2 loan officers and the realtor. So I have to head up there to sign on the sale. Dixie is still changing paperwork due to an additional fee that a lender put on at the last minute. Finally we close, the deed is done. Dixie is now,like me, officially RETIRED from her job. Even though she had great people working for her and could go away for a month or so at a time she still always worried about her business, now as the Australians say, NO WORRIES MATE. Congratulate her when you see her. We finish locking up the building for the last time and head home to unload the car and truck of the last of a lifetimes work and head out to lunch. We are going to a local Riverview Place, Kazbor's. Kazbor owns all the Hungry Howies Pizza in the Tampa area and he has 6 Kazbors in Florida, his first one was in Riverview. It is connected to a Hungry Howies but he has more than Pizza. It is a full liquor bar with both a bar and dining area with booths, tables and TVs. A menu of sandwiches, pastas, soups, salads, fajitas, along with some of their specialty items gives you a nice mix to select from. Ashley comes to get our orders and brings ice tea for Dixie and an Ultra Draft for me. Dixie ordered the Chicken "Kazadillas"with chedder and mozarella, sauteed onions and peppers with jalapenos, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa on the side. I ordered their Tender beef tips. A kabob with steak, mushrooms and onions on a skewer and yellow rice and black beans on the side cooked a medium. All was perfectly cooked, presented properly and promptly by a proficient server in a pleasent setting. I guess I'm into Ps today. Plenty of good food. $27.49 two full meals two drafts and two ice teas. Not the Ritz but for a lunch or light dinner you won't go wrong. We piddle around the house and it is 6 o'clock and we are going to JF Kicks with Bobby and Mary Kay. They have not been there before. Kicks is a restaurant with a large inside dining area and bar and also an outside bar where they seem to always have live entertainment. Today there is a guy playing guitar and singing. The outside has a big fireplace where when it is cold they have a fire(gas) in it. It looks warm. A mix of locals from mainly surrounding sub-divisions, there seems to be a lot of single girls outside for some reason. Inside mostly familys and couples. They are slammed today as it is Friday at 6:30 when we arrive, it is happy hour so we order a few rounds of Ultra drafts, Bud Bottles and vodka and cranberry from Danielle and we check out the menu and order when Danielle brings the drinks. We order a variety of appetizers, baked brie en croute with homemade chips sliced apples and grapes drizzled with a jalapino sugar cane reduction, seared scallpos wrapped with paper thin bacon on a skewer drizzled with the sugar cane reduction but no jalapino, chicken quesedilla with chedder and monterey jack, and a blackened prime rib sanwich for all of us to split. Great bar food with a real stand out from the prime rib, it was tender and flavorful beyond any we have had before. $68.48 plus tip We take our drinks outside and find an old friend Keith is there with his girlfriend and we talk for awhile and listen to the guy singing and then out the door we went. We are now headed to Dixies Dockside where they have "Corroded Fuse" playing, they have a good following and there are lots of new faces. The lead singer thinks he's Jim Morrison singing without his shirt on, I talk to him for a while(can't remember his name due to alcohol) he seems like a cool guy and we take a picture together, you never know if he turns out to be famous some day. Glen is there but has to take off for the homestead as he has friends coming into town, about 10 minutes later a guy walks in that could be Glenn in 15 years, he looks like him but a decade older. Around 10 the place fills up with the regulars and we are partying till midnight when Bobby K says it is time for them to go home, actually it was time to go home a long time ago I just didn't have the sense to leave.They are riding with us so out the door we went. 05-23-09 I am writing my blog when my phone rings and it is Pete, Vicky Kays son. He is a manager at a Pizza place and he is young with no transportation to and from work so I am giving him my Zuma scooter to get back and forth. Actually I sold it to him for $1 with the condition that when he gets done with it that he gives it to someone else that needs transportation. He agrees and after giving him instructions on the controls, the title, the keys, and the instruction manual he is off. Bobby K came to pick up his H3, he left it at our house last night and we discuss how much fun we had last night. It's now time for lunch so we head off to Tres Amigos.This is a Cinderella Story. The Don Pablos restaurant was closing and the managers were laid off and as they are hauling away the furniture and fixtures, closing down the store, The owner of the property and building calls them and tells them that he is negotiating to purchase the stuff and to stay there untill he finds out if they have a deal with the liquidation company. He works it out to keep the stuff and sets up a partnership with the 3 managers to stay and run the place as owner/partners. So now they own the place instead of being out of a job they own the place. How cool is that? The day we are there, Anthony, one of the owners is making fresh tortillas on the machine flattening them out then cooking them on the grill. The restaurant is huge maybe 8,000 feet with 30' tall ceilings.We sit at the bar where Jen brings us fresh crisp thin chips and 2 bowls of salsa.I get a house margartita and Dixie diet coke.We decide to split the Marios Pork Carnitas. I thought that Dixie made the best Carnitas but these were killer,slow roasted perfectly seasoned pulled pork with freshly Anthony made tortillas sliced tomatoes,red onions,cilantro,and lime wedges,lettuce,sour cream, guacamole, refried beans with cheese on top, and rice. This is frekin fantastic pork, tender and moist it melts in your mouth. It is more than plenty for us to split. $26.71with 2 martaritas plus tip. They are still struggling everyday to keep this place open due to our screwed up economy, they are still saving to buy their $8,000 sign for the front of the building. We are going to DW's party that he is having. It is still raining or should I say pouring. It is 4:30 before it lets up enough for us to head to the Ks. Looks like Dixies Dockside crowd is all there and we all go over to DWs. Bobby and Judy are there along with Heide, so we go out back to his deck on the River. It's funny how sometimes everyone gets together and talks about nothing and then you go home and say, that was fun. Well that was fun, we didn't solve the worlds problems but I had fun talking with everyone. We are going to ABC Pizza for dinner. I can't stand eating inside the restaurant because it is so depressing. Low ceilings, decor from the 70s, dark it just depresses me eating there so we always order ToGO. I have been eating ABC since the first one opened on Hillsbough Ave in 1970 they now have about 8 stores in the Tampa area. They make the 3rd best Pizza that I know of, I always order the small House special and a large Greek salad, sometimes if the baklava looks good I'll get a piece of that, did not look fresh today so I passed. Their Greek salad, shredded lettuce, tomato wedges, grated feta cheese, onions, bell peppers, sliced pickled beets and their own house dressing(no potato salad) is a meal in itself and sometimes is for me but today the pizza is what I crave. It's a thin crust real cheese with pepperoni, onion, bell peppers, the best sausage, meatball, and mushroom combo. Sometimes nothing else will do so I have to have this fix about every 2 months. I love the food but hate their building. Samantha the cute girl behind the counter just graduated from High School so congratulate her when you go. $17.77 To Go. We boob tube it till 11 and now it's time to rest for tomorrow. Oh Yeah Dixie has now moved into 1st Place in the Anthony Bourdain Contest, Thanks to all of you for Voting, Keep up the good work. 05-24-09 It is 11AM and Dixie and I are at Wallmart buying beer because we are going boating. It is noon before we leave Glenn and Charlene's dock for Hula Bay. There are 8 people on the boat, Glenn and Charlene, Tim and Jen, they are friends of G & C from The Panhandle, Mary Kay and Bobby K, Dixie and me. It is a beautiful sunny day with light wind so there are no big waves, smooth boating. The girls are riding up front sitting on bean bag chairs and the guys are hanging around the helm. It is about a 45 minute cruise to Hula Bay. There is a large dry storage place for boats so there is constant boat traffic on this busy Memorial day weekend. It used to be "Rattlefish" but was closed down to the public when it was sold and was going to have condos built around it but the economy took care of those plans. They put in a pool, changed to deck and docks around and now it is an even better layout than before. We arrive and there is a DJ out on the Dock blasting music toward the buildings 200' across the water. There are plenty of new floating docks and a dock hand to help you secure your boat. There is even a full liquor bar on the dock in case you can't make it the 200 feet to the main bar without a drink. We get to Hula Bay and Dukes restaurant is calling us as we are starving but first we have to check out the pool with all the people that have paid $15 to use the pool and Cabanas. Our waitress, Rochelle, brings a round of drinks for everyone. We are all ordering appetizers, Dixie and I got The Maui Ahi, tuna, cream cheese, avocado, and smelt roe wrapped in soy paper: The Sunrise Shrimp Colada, 8 tempura shrimp, fresh pineapple, and cucumber with coconut miso; also Crabby Patties, crab cakes with lime and jalapeno, pan fried with remoulade and avocado aioli. The rest of the group ordered Grouper bites corn meal dusted, a large salad, Beach Tacos-blackened chicken with warm tortillas, yellow rice and black beans; and tempura lobobster fried with cucumber and mango with volcano and eel sauces. More rounds of drinks and we finish eating and it is time to go to the outside downstairs bar where the Jamaican Band is playing. We get a table right next to the band and they are playing and jokeing with the crowd, Dixie gets up and does the big black stick dance, the steel drums are beating, the beer is flowing, the shots are downing, followed by drink after drink. We are in 5th gear with the peddle to the floor, we are flying, this party won't stop. Glenn straps on the bands guitar and gets his instant rastafarian hairover, the girls are dancing, Bobby K gets a hat from the Malibu Rum Girls, Glenn gets presented with commerative flip flops, the Malibu Rum girls are there giving away free shots in little coconut shooter glasses, more beers, more shooters, more dancing. We meet up with Bobby and Judy and DW and Heide's crew, they came by boat also, followed by more dancing and drinking. I will say that this is the best boating bar on the west coast of Florida, it is lacking nothing, great food, 4 bars, booze, beers,babes, pool, muscle men, babes, bands, docks, valets, great service all in a place that is easy to get to by boat or car. We decide to go to River's Edge to show Jen and Tim a waterfront boaters and bikers bar that is not at all like Hula Bay. We are pulling away from the docks with the tunes blasting out of Glenns 1000 watt sound system and we are waving goodby to everyone on the dock, Glenn's boat is named No Drama but there is always plenty. We stop at Fantasy island to swim for a while, boobs are exposed, after a half hour of swimming and relaxing it's off toThe Edge. We go to on the Edge on the Alafia River only after we are trashed, and we are today, as Barney the owner does not keep the place up at all, it is dirty and nasty but we go there as it is the only bar on the River that serves liquor. The place has some docks that they just refurbished so we pull in, their sign is so faded you can barely read it, most of the time there is a band and a few hundred bikers but the place is empty today, there are a whole lot more biker bars now and I guess even the bikers have found a cleaner place to hang out.We are doing shooters at the outside bar. No one dares to use their bathrooms as they are disgusting. Thank God they only serve drinks in plastic cups as I would hate to catch something off one of their glasses. There is a Barney(No L)Stone painted on the patio, the decks are rotting, the siding is falling off the building, you would rather P behind a tree than enter the bathroom, the bar is dirty and dimmly lit. More boobs are exposed more shots are shot and we are now off to Dixies Dockside. We drop off everyone there, because the tide is rolling out like someone pulled the plug, and then Glen and I bring the boat to Glenn's dock. We are too late and we can not get the boat to the dock due to the low water, we are in the mud. We tie up the boat and wade through the River to the dock. I do a burn out on their new driveway(after asking Glenn if it is OK to do) and we are off to Dixies. It's 8 at Dixies Dockside and it too is slow here but many more people are there than at the Edge. Jess is working today, she comes to me and says that some dude is smoking a doober, I tell him that is not acceptable here and that he has to go, he gives me some lip and I show him my not so nice side and he is gone. John N. is there with some friends, I have not seen him for a while and we catch up on what's been happening. It is way past our "we should have been home before now time" so, out the door we went. See Ya Brian