Posts by Cottage Cheese

COTTAGE CHEESE:Punish Not My Evil Children

LIFE LESSON:  If one lives long enough he learns that the stresses of life are relevant and that his parenting skills will be challenged.  Challenged by his children and in the absence of actual children by his dogs.  And so it is.

You might have noticed the sun has been shining and the temperatures much warmer, lately.  This is a welcome change after having spent the weeks since Christmas in cold, bitter and biting sleet, snow, ice and gray skies along with three holy terrors that have been giving the Axis of Evil a run for the title.

My children.  My dogs. 

You see, as one of those who knew better than to procreate I went out and got pets.  How much trouble could they be?  It’s not like I’m raising three teens.  Or am I?

I turned off the central air, opened the windows and the door onto our deck.  I could almost hear the Fifth Dimension singing “Let The Sunshine In.”  I became buried in my work, encouraged by the fresh air.  Little did I know that same fresh air would also become doggy crack! 

 Moxie, by dainty, girly, white Westie decided there was buried treasure in the back yard (meaning there was a mole or some type of critter under the grass that she needed to meet) and she proceeded to dig a hole deep enough I could only see the tip of her tale wagging in the air as dirt, grass and mud was flying all around her.  Jett, my mischievious Black Scottie, made the decision to take all of his toys and scatter them throughout the yard.  And, when his toy box was empty he graduated to my closet and managed to do the same with all my shoes!  Barney, my senior Dachshund, who normally just naps most of the day, figured out the stuffed animals that Jett had strategically placed in all the dirt and mud Moxie dug up needed doggy CPR.  Inside the house.  Which consists of him making a hole in them and masterfully pulling the stuffing out.  All of the stuffing.  It was sunny outside, but it looked like my entire den was covered in snow!

I was now sharing my home with Satan’s Spawn, The Demon Seed and Cujo.  Again.

LIFE LESSON #2:  When the house gets too small and the walls start closing in head to Tybee!

Now, I’m sure you’ve had some experiences similar to mine.  You make the decision to spend the money on a little getaway.  You make the reservation.  You get there and find it’s so small you can hardly cuss a cat without getting fur in your mouth.  Not so at Mermaid Cottages.

And, when I determine that I need as much of a time out as my dogs I go for one of the bigger cottages.  That way we can each find our own quiet space, stay out of each others’ way.  We can lounge in the living room/den, while away the hours on a porch, read a book outside in the beautiful fenced in yard or take a nap in any of the many rooms available to us.  Everybody gets their own space.

That’s the great thing about Inlet Breeze Cottage.  Lots of space!

Well, that and the fact that right out the front door and across the road is Burton’s By The Beach!

Never let anyone tell you you won’t find incredible food choices on Tybee Island!  I love to stroll up to the window at Burton’s, order up one of my favorites like their famous Fish Tacos or their fantastic paella.  And, in the warmer months be sure to get the pistachio ice cream for dessert!

It’s about giving yourself a time out when you need it.  It’s about using your children or your dogs as an excuse when you feel you need one.  It’s as much about staying in an incredible beach cottage close to good eats as anything.

It’s COTTAGE CHEESE!



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COTTAGE CHEESE: Pillow Talk

“Buddy, you ain’t even the weirdest person in this room…nor at this party…let alone on Tybee Island”.

I was at a party on Tybee Island and  I had just announced that my goal was to be the quirkiest person on Tybee.  I had a goal.  I was on a mission.  Only to be shot down.

I was Shocked!  Shocked!  Shocked, I tell you!  And crushed!  Did I say I was SHOCKED?

For most of my life my parents did their best to try and give me instructions on how to live my life.  I heard the Desiderata more times than I can remember.

“Son, don’t ever let anyone put you down or make you think you’re not worthy of success and good things that happen to you.  But, most of all, never think that you’re better than anyone else.  You’re just as good as anyone else, but never let yourself think you’re better than anyone else.”

Along with, “You can be anything you want to be.  Dream it, believe it, be it.”  That’s what was said, but like most parents mine wanted to spare me from the uncertainties of this world by teaching me to always (and I mean ALWAYS) follow the rules.  Don’t make waves.  Don’t take unnecessary chances.  Don’t rock the boat.  Don’t color outside the lines.  Be a doctor, lawyer, accountant or something of value that you can always depend on.  Hard work will take you places.

For years I was wound so tight, buttoned all the way up, walked the straight and narrow and stayed well within the lines.

That is…until my first trip to Tybee Island.  I was a late bloomer.  I had seen the movie.  I had read THE BOOK.  Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil.  I had been introduced  to a culture where colorful, kooky, weird, eccentric and quirky people had fun.  I had a revelation.  Life could be fun, laughs could be had and people that didn’t worry so much lived longer.

I was a caterpillar about to enter a cocoon with plans to emerge as a fully formed colorful social butterfly.  I was poised to let it all hang out.  I was going to earn a reputation.

Yet, it just wasn’t to be.  My hopes had been dashed.  Blown to smithereens by some guy in a corner at a party that had overheard my declaration.  He was full of truth serum (meaning Budweiser).  It was as if the universe had reminded me it was not in the stars for me to color outside the lines.

And I never even got to share my fascination with pillows.  Yep.  I’m a pillow freak.  I like them all.  The kind you sleep on.  The kind you sit on.  The kind you kick back and relax on.  In the bedroom.  In the den.  In the garden.  On the floor.   Pillows, pillows everywhere.  Cords, tassels, buttons, fringe, embroidery.  You name it.  Never met a pillow I didn’t like.

Lucky for me I get to indulge myself in the wonderful and colorful  pillows throughout the Mermaid Cottages collection.  I can flit from room to room.  Lie down on a pillow. Sit on a pillow.  Hug a pillow. Repose on a bed of pillows.  Fantasize.  Dream.  Relax. Be whomever I want to be.

Just like Doris Day and Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk. 

Just like pillows everywhere.

Life is better when you add your own flavor.

It’s about adding a little cord here.  Dangle a little fringe there.  Pop on a button or two.  Get the big box of 64 color crayons.  And most of all…color outside the lines as often as you can!

It’s COTTAGE CHEESE!

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COTTAGE CHEESE:Super Bowl, A Moving Experience

I say this with love.

I feel we’re very close.

The Super Bowl can be a moving experience.

Fun.  Food.  Family.  Friends.

Did I say FOOD?  At my home that means hot, spicy, gorgeous, involved, provocative, rich, emotional food.

I like to quote Paula Deen, “I’m your cook…not your cardiologist”!  If you ain’t ‘sposed to eat it don’t stuff it in your mouth.  You stick to the celery sticks filled with cream cheese or peanut butter and the rest of us will suffer through chili, hot wings, ribs, steamed oysters, jalapenos wrapped in bacon, clams and sausage, melon and tomatoes and feta salad.

Thus brings me to the top of the “Real Important Details” list for a Super Bowl party…W.O.S.

WIDE OPEN SPACES!

You gather a bunch of folks with little or no will power, provide them with unlimited gastronomic experiences and confine them to a limited space and it’ll be a lot like chasing a bobcat up a tree.  In just a rooster hair someone will be hollering, “Shoot up here amongst us!  One of us needs some relief”!

WIDE OPEN SPACES!  That’s the key to a successful Super Bowl party.  Mermaid Cottages on Tybee Island has got you covered.  Just open up any of the cottages, let the crowds spill out into the outdoor rooms and onto the vast yards and the life you save just may be your own or more importantly MINE!

The Super Bowl.  It’s a truly moving experience!

 It’s about the laws of physics!  It’s about understanding lots of spicy foods breeds a little too much familiarity!  It’s the Super Bowl!  It’s COTTAGE CHEESE!

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COTTAGE CHEESE:OF CONTENT AND CHARACTER

It’s been one of those weeks.  For the last several weeks.  I’ve been anxious to get back to Tybee to see my friends, walk with my dogs, have many, many awesome meals and to see all the activity going on at Mermaid Cottages.  There are new cottages joining their already fantastic collection of homes and I want to be there to experience them first hand.  Each cottage and home in the Mermaid Cottages collection has a content and a character that is unique and honorable and representative of what’s best in this life.

Yet. I have been delayed.  My journey has hit some bumps and snags.  The content and character of some situations have left me dumbfounded.  Bewitched, bothered and bewildered as the old song goes.

As you may remember from an earlier blog, on Christmas night a lady decided to turn her Volvo into a snow plow and demolished our little red convertible. Thus, our saga begins.  Our insurance company was also her insurance company, so what were they to do?  There was no other insurance company to go after to recoup our losses and no chance for said insurer to profit in this catastrophe.  Initially, this mutual insurer refused to declare our car a total loss even though it had substantial frame damage.  The adjusters claimed it could be fixed good as new if we would only agree to take it to a repair shop of their choice where they would only use the finest non-specific, no brand name, non manufacturer recommended replacement parts.  UGH!

Once we finally won the right to have our battered car inspected by a collision specialist professional who summarily prescribed a “modest” repair estimate of over $20,000, we were informed we would be receiving a settlement that as of the writing of this blog is still in mediation.  Their people are talking to our people.  Well, you know how long that could take.  And mind you, once the insurer begrudgingly totaled our car they stopped paying for our rental car.

It was time to go car shopping.  Everyone loves a new car, right?  We sat down and began adding up our available resources.  We would have to go ahead and purchase a new car while we simultaneously battled our insurer over the replacement cost of our wrecked one.  I began checking my bank accounts and noticed something was amiss.  Even through I religiously schedule advance online payments to any open credit account I have, there was a note on two credit cards at one mega bank that said PAST DUE.  WHAT??????

I called the customer service number, patiently waited the requisite 40+ minutes for a live person to join me for a conversation only to get this response.  “We are sorry to inform you that we now have 28 million online banking customers, so sometimes mistakes happen.  You are correct in that you did properly schedule advance payment on your card balances, but we recently went through a substantial system upgrade to better serve you, our valued customer, and it resulted in the loss of pre-scheduled payments entered by you and many other of our customers.”  WHAT?????  I queried, ” So, in the interim, even though you folks knew this had happened you did not notify me or any other customer AND you charged me and everyone else late charges AND someone had the free time to construct this inane response just in case some sucker like me caught the errors and called to ask about them?” “Yep”, was the meek reply.  “You are correct.  I will reverse the late charges and make the corrections to your account, but you’ll need to continue to watch your account in case it happens again while we continue with our upgrades to serve you better.”   WHAT?????

Next, we sat down and did our research and decided we wanted to be good Americans and invest our hard earned money in an American auto in support of “Made in the USA” and an American car company, or so we thought.  Time after time we looked in shocked dismay at the cost of American cars and the information posted on the window stickers: Engine-Mexico; Transmission-France; Final Assembly Point-Canada. Hmmm.

Well, at this point some changes have occurred.  We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the coverage and treatment we now have at our new insurer’s office and are pondering  what we might do with the substantial savings we’ll now have from their lower premiums and higher converages.  We’ve already been approved for a much lower interest rate at our local, community credit union where we’ve moved our accounts as the representatives at our mega bank continued to declare to us how much they were doing to better serve us.  And, we finally found a new car that impressed us with its  national pride,  regard for quality and customer service and consistency of value; motor-Japan; transmission-Japan; final assembly point-Japan.

I’ll be headed back to Tybee soon.  I’ll finally get to visit my favorite haunts and experience the new cottages:

 and meet the newest Mermaid, Sophie, a black lab Rescue. 

BUT, after these recent experiences I am giving fair warning for my behavior:

 It’s about content and character.  It’s about knowing you and I have a choice.  It’s about feeling good about trusting your judgement.  It’s about not carrying the burden when others don’t live up to basic expectations. 
It’s about getting Tybee-ized when you need it.  It’s COTTAGE CHEESE!

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COTTAGE CHEESE:How You Gonna Keep Em Down On The Farm?

How you gonna keep em down on the farm, after they’ve seen the Tybee Community Garden?

Of the many wonderful things I’ve experienced on Tybee Island, I can’t get enough of this incredible community project known as the Tybee Community Garden!  It’s located between the YMCA and the Old School and it’s already producing harvests year round!

Individual plots are 4 x 8 ft spaces that rent for $50  and there is a communal space, as well. The garden is remarkable to me in that it is self sustaining.  Particpants and partners gather rain water and condensation from around the island to water the plants.  No city resources are used!  There’s even a compost area that will soon provide the necessary nutrients to amend the soil for future crops!

Currently, the garden is for individul consumption and swapping, but eventually it will mature into a local market with fresh vegetables for sale.  The garden can always use more garden hoses, rain barrels, fruit trees and wood for staking tomatoes and new members are also welcome so long as vacant plots are available.

Got any heirloom varieties you’d like to share with the garden?  Contact Karen Kelly at 912 786 9719 or at karenontybee@aol.com.

It’s about honoring your green thumb!  It’s about developing a community resource!  It’s about casting your seeds and sowing them with kindness to reap many delicious rewards to come!  And, it all goes great with COTTAGE CHEESE!

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