News from the beach

Not much goes on here. That's the whole point of the beach, really, so I have little to report.

That said, I do have food news, as I promised: the CaBobcake is no more.

As always, click on a photo to see a larger version of it.

The crumbs that remain in this photo found their way into mouths before I managed to throw away the disposable base on which the once proud CaBobcake once sat.

The Bobcake, however, continues to exist despite our many attempts to consume it. With another 24 hours behind us, it is still larger than most cakes we see during the year.

In other food updates, Kyle decided that tonight's pasta dish, which Sarah prepared using a recipe from Italy, was so good that no normal bowl would suffice to hold its gloriousness.

Okay, he was just polishing off the small amount of remaining pasta, which was indeed delicious.

The beach food report

Dinner tonight took us to the best of the local Mexican-food joints, where we enjoyed chips, cheese dip, and a wide variety of entrees. Kyle's burrito drew special attention due to its enormous size.

As always, click on an image to see a larger version.

Yes, it really was roughly the size of his forearm.

In other news of the edible, the house has nearly beaten the CaBobcake.

I predict that it will not survive the next twenty-four hours.

The Bobcake, on the other hand, has weathered a furious assault and is still standing more than two-thirds intacts.

Still, we are a determined group, so in the end, it will fall.

The Bobcake report: 24 hours in

Earlier today, we hit twenty-four hours since the first slice of Bobcake and CaBobcake headed toward a hungry mouth. For a day, our contest has pitted twenty hungry eaters vs. two massive cakes.

The results are mixed.

On the one hand, the people are definitely gaining on the CaBobcake, as you can see.

As always, click on an image to see a larger version.

Yes, we're nearly halfway through this massive cylinder of carroty deliciousness. I believe that in no time we will have polished off the denser but smaller CaBobcake.

The Bobcake, on the other hand, as always stands strong. Our many slices have left its one side battered but largely intact.

Perhaps when all of our attentions focus squarely on the Bobcake--well, on it and on the 19 remaining pints (down from 28) of ice cream, four trays of bars, and two key lime pies--we will gain more ground against its massiveness.

Time will tell, and your loyal reporter will chronicle the tale.

The beach house vs. the Bobcakes

Yes, the fabulously rich, dense, chocolate cake from Bob is back, and we brave souls in the beach house are planning to tackle it.

Here it is, sitting on a table and the slab of reinforced cardboard necessary to support its weight. Note the pen for scale.

As always, click on an image to see a larger version.

This year, though, we decided that one Bobcake was not enough.  We have proven we can vanquish a single Bobcake, but what if there were two?  As good fortune would have it, Bob makes a second delicious dessert, a carrot spice cake with cream cheese icing, that Rose says she likes even more than the Bobcake itself.

Our choice was clear: we had to have one.

Thus, enter the CaBobcake.

Though you cannot, of course, tell from looking at it, the CaBobcake weighs nearly as much as the larger Bobcake. 

The two cakes fill an entire shelf in a full-size refrigerator.

We are looking forward to delicious experimentation as we face these twin menaces! I hope to chronicle the battle over the coming days.

Brave

After yesterday's post, enough folks have asked me how I felt about this movie that I decided to answer their questions here.

Overall, I liked and enjoyed the film, and I recommend it if you haven't seen it. 

The story was straightforward but fun, with an interesting mother-daughter relationship at its heart and the usual cast of cute characters.  The lesson that learning to accept responsibility is a key part of growing up was both spot-on and something the film delivered well. 

The graphics were as lovely as always.  Hair is extremely difficult to animate, and as many articles have remarked, Pixar worked very hard on Merida's hair.  The result was wonderful; in many ways, Merida's hair was the most compelling character in the movie. I frequently found myself marveling at it. 

All that said, Brave was not anywhere close to Pixar's best. The story was too straightforward, too simple.  When the movie ended, I felt vaguely cheated, as if somewhere on the cutting-room floor sat fifteen minutes of subplots I really wish I could have seen. 

The father was also a completely useless buffoon who happened to be a king.  His role was necessarily secondary to the main story, but he could have been at least vaguely competent at something without distracting from the main plot. 

Again, though, I enjoyed the movie and on balance recommend it. 

What do these three movies have in common?

We watched them, in this order, today at the beach. At least two of us even enjoyed all of them.

Yes, we ate that--and other pictures

Lunch today took us to a local place that had been a favorite--"had been" because after experiencing its reduced menu, many of us won't be back.

Kyle and I, though, ordered the most unusual dish on that menu:  The Big Dog. 

As always, click on any photo to see a bigger version.

What makes The Big Dog so special is the sheer volume of its unhealthy ingredients. The recipe goes something like this:

Take a quarter-pound hot dog.
Wrap it in bacon.
Fry it.
Put it in an extra-large "gourmet" bun.
Cover it with French fries.
Cover all of that with chili.
Cover all of that with cheese sauce.

Oh, yeah, we're talking health food.

For Kyle, though, that wasn't enough. He added fried plantains.

Next up for us was a stop at a new shop that makes its own ice cream. After all, when The Big Dog is threatening to poke pieces of bacon straight out of your gut, clearly the only rational choice is to tamp it all down with some delicious, homemade, creamy goodness.

At that shop, we saw this lovely rocker.

I would absolutely put that on my deck.

We then wandered across the road and down a bit to a den of true craziness, a place that wasn't open but that had intrigued us all over the years. I won't reveal its true identity, but here are a few happy snaps to give you a flavor of the place.

Note the spider web in the middle of the grill.

The fake body in this car is a nice touch.

I particularly like the sign on the ground here.

The missing apostrophe is just a bonus.