Happy Little Cottages By The Sea

Cottage Charm, Coastal Calm

April 12, 2009

Danny is so in the dog house!! He ate the Peeps!

Danny the cupcake eating dog has added new things to be eating that he shouldn’t. On Saturday he screwed up not once but twice!!!!!

He began the day as his lovable self ( and he truly is a loving dog). I had baked one of my sour cream peach pound cakes for the Bark Park Raffle at Seaside Sisters. Was running behind because it’s such a busy Saturday for us and left the cake on the counter to cool. I thought I’d adhered to the 12″ counter rule ( he can’t get his paws past 12 inches on the counter.) but I was off by a few inches. Turned my back to do something else and sure enough that darn dog got up on the counter and within 30 seconds ate half that cake… Even though the raffle was a fundraiser for the dog parks, I didn’t think that even major dog lovers could go for a half eaten cake by a dog.

But Danny’s day wasn’t done yet. I made a gorgeous coconut cake for Easter Brunch and some killer brownies for another Easter gathering ( who knew Easter was such a social event). Since it’s Easter, then Peeps needed to be part of the decoration. I had waited till the last minute to buy my Peeps and only found some green bunnies and pink chicks at Publix– knew I waited too long! Guess who else was buying her Peeps today- Paula Deen and Michael! This is the second time in three years I’ve been buying my Easter candies the exact same time and place as Paula. Two years ago she was buying all her Easter candies at Wal-Mart when I was! She was in her celebrity disguise today, baseball hat and large sun glasses, but Michael was just himself so of course we all recognized her.
Back to Danny- I took Max outside to do his business and Danny wouldn’t go which was unusual. He’d been watching me in the kitchen all evening and sure enough, when I took Max out, Danny got up on the counter and ate several of the Peeps from the box… When I came back inside, he was looking at me with green and pink sugar all over his muzzle… guilty didn’t began to describe the look on his dog face. Or maybe it was just the sugar buzz from eating pure sugar bunnies and chicks.
Then I got on line and my sister had sent me this great photography contest- submit your pictures of your Peeps and places they have gone! I’ m going to send in this picture of Danny and his remaining Peeps friends and tell his story. Danny the Peeps eating dog….

These are pictures of the Coconut Cake with Peeps. If you look carefully at the one picture , you can just see Danny’s face peering up from the floor eyeing those Peeps…. To add to how funny all this is, I just opened my Easter Goodie Box from my sister and the card was this yellow lab dressed like an Easter Bunny talking about eating off the counter! Good job sissie! The other picture shows Danny and Max both eyeing the remaining Peeps in the box.
Check out this fun website on the traveling Peeps and if any of you are traveling with your Peeps this summer, send the pictures to me and we’ll post them. Peeps on the beach, beach staying in a Mermaid Cottage, Peeps going to Seaside Sisters, Peeps buying shrimp…. the possibilities are endless!

MBWA

When I was with Marriott , one of the things both Mr. Marriott Senior and the current Mr. Marriott always preached was MBWA : Management by walking around. They truly believed that the best hotel General Managers did not sit in their offices, but walked around the hotel seeing what the guests and the associates were doing. You can’t manage your business from behind a closed door.

My Tybee version is to walk the dogs around the island around 6PM every day. It’s amazing the people you see and the things you experience at this time of the day. Partly it’s because the folks are coming off the beach, heading to dinner or just relaxing and walking themselves.

Here’s all the things that happened to me today on my 6PM walk around the island.

  • Espy found his bike! Thanks to everyone’s assistance, the bike was found on South Campbell fully intact. He was riding his bike around happy as can be. He thanks everyone on the island for their help and in his words ” This is why I love Tybee!”
  • I talked to three separate groups of first time visitors and gave them suggestions on places to go and eat on the island. Also gave them Mermaid Cottages website so they can stay with us next visit. Wisconsin and Ohio visitors here on their first trip. They loved getting to hear the “local” feedback.
  • Saw some of my wonderful team who had finished a great day of work. Everyone is so happy to be back working again after a quiet winter. We love our visitors and so glad season is here!
  • Saw the beautiful brand new landscaping of the newest Mermaid Cottage- Breeze Inn… stay tuned for the pictures and details on this amazing newly restored beach cottage… Kelly our organic gardener created magic yet again!

Whee! All this happening in a 50 minute walk!