Lobsters for lunch.

We surprised our neighbors J & J with a lobster lunch today...... we called them yesterday to see if they could have lunch with us because my husband drove into Clear Lake and found four huge lobsters at one of the local fish markets there. A while back, J had been telling us that the quality of seafood goes down as you get farther away from the coast, and he dearly missed fresh lobster dipped in butter... which prompted my husband to start searching for the perfect lobsters.

And he found four of them-- so big that we had to steam them in two pots. The fish markets around the waterfront area of Clear Lake have been re-built now-- they had all been destroyed when Hurricane Ike marched through the Gulf. There's no better place to get fresh fish, unless you go to the hundreds of seafood restaurants all over the Houston, Clear Lake, and Galveston area. Our town here has just two seafood restaurants.... one of which we've tried. It was good, not great, and we'd rather just have fish or lobster right here at home than go out and pay for an okay-meal. We have been spoiled by all the restaurant choices that we had when we lived closer to the city.

So there we were today...... the four of us in our dining room, surrounded by Halloween pumpkins, witches, black cats, and my crazy crooked Halloween tree..... and we were cracking lobsters. Delicious lunch. J and J were totally surprised, but we knew they would be. They were even more surprised that we were eating in the dining room. "Why not the smaller breakfast room?" -- Because the table is smaller...... and we like to eat in the dining room, especially when we have company... and isn't that what a dining room is for?


Hard to believe that Halloween is just a week away. And we didn't plan a party. After meeting most of the neighbors here, we don't think too many of them would be interested in Charades and a costume party. We could be wrong...... but we don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable. Better to wait...... and just do something smaller for our first party here. We may have a coffee and dessert party in early December, when all the Christmas decorations are up. Nothing like the huge parties with live music that we had in Clear Lake. It took years to put together that guest list..... we started with a few friends and neighbors, and just seemed to add new people to the party list every year as we met them. It was a such a wonderful group.... everyone just enjoyed one another's company..... and the few who didn't like that type of house party just quietly dropped out of the group.

We lived in our old neighborhood for years and years..... we had good neighbors, good friends, and the best parties with all of them. Any excuse for a party..... New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day, the summer Ice Cream party, Halloween, and (always the best) Christmas. Live music for those Christmas parties..... we all had such a blast. A different theme every year, a different band. Everyone enjoyed having a party so close by to go to..... and with such an eclectic group of friends....... it all just worked. Magical nights... with every party, we all said "We can never top this one!" But somehow, we always did.

Oh well.... we're not in Clear Lake anymore. No matter how many times you click your heels, you're not going back. And, I keep reminding myself..... with all the traffic, the over-building, the new roads, the over-passes leading to the Gulf Freeway........ it's not the place for us to be anyway.

We are right where we want to be. Right where we need to be. No hurricane threats. No traffic. No city noises. We have chickens in our yard and horses across the road. We can see The Milky Way at night, as well as zillions of stars. And the quiet..... so blissfully quiet. You can hear the sounds of a hummingbird's wings. And you can hear the crows picking apart the pecans in the trees. I can hear our chickens all the way across the property by the barn. And they hear me when I call them, and they come running, clucking and cooing all the way.

We look out over these hills as we drive into our quaint little town and we are still pinching ourselves that we're here.