My Problem With Crab Legs (and other thoughts from Mobile Alabama)

First and foremost, before I begin... I wanted to say a prayer for my Farmhouse brother Tony Griffies who lost his wife this morning.  Tony, a Christ Follower, wrote this today on his Facebook page:  "Words cannot express how I feel knowing that you care and love the way you do. I will never forget these prayers and the warriors who have lifted them to our Father. I do not understand any of this, and do not know what to do, but I lean on you all, and my eyes are fixed on You, oh God"

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog that, when put in perspective, means not much of anything, really.

People ask me what The Lovely Steph Leann does for a living, or what her title is.  My answer varies, usually involving a combination of the words "analyst", "data", "records" and "organizer".  Sometimes I use all of those words, sometimes just a few, but the real answer is, I'm not exactly sure what she does.  Its like I'm married to Chandler Bing.  Only cuter.

Anyway, she works for Southern Company and helps keep their millions and millions of data files and blueprints and records in order.  She's good at it.  And once a month, she travels down to a plant in Pensacola to do a day's worth of work there.  And every now and again, I get to join her.. like today.

Normally, she/we would leave on early Thursday morning, get to Pensacola by midday, spend the next several hours working (I would help get it done quicker) and then adjourn to the hotel we reside in--usually its the Marriott--and head out to a nice seafood dinner.

This trip, though, she has to do a little extra work (hence, pulling me into a two day trip the Gulf Coast... for shame!) so we left on Wednesday, after I got off at S'bux.  We drove down in a big truck with a bed full of boxes, each full of documents and papers and such that all have to be filed away at Mobile plant.  Then its off to the Pensacola plant to do the regular work, off to a good meal at a local seafood dive (possibly with my college friend Dixon, whom I haven't seen since about 1997) and then resting and relaxing at the hotel.

The trip was uneventful, most of the laughs coming from the radio tuning... she is a fan of soft rock, so when got a hold of Mix 103.3 Soft Rock traveling to and through Montgomery, she locked in.  "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and Kiki Dee, "If I Could Turn Back Time" by Cher, "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett, "You Belong to Me" by Taylor Swift... the list goes on and on.  And she--and I--knew all the words.  Even "Hold the Line" by Toto was sung loudly. 

She drove, I played Angry Birds.  All the way down.  I vaguely remember the trip at all, but man I busted some pigs.  If you haven't purchased Angry Birds for your iPhone, you are missing one of the true pleasures of life.  Its the best 99 cents you'll spend. 

Anyway, she wanted to eat at The Original Oyster House, which is where we stopped for dinner.  She was immediately drawn to the crab claws--that woman loves her some crab claws--and ended up with a plate of the fried green tomatoes.

For an appetizer, I tried the Bourbon Wrapped Shrimp, which was fried shrimp wrapped in a roll-up, smothered with a Jack Daniels Bourbon Glaze and seasoned.  It was a bit spicy for my taste, but still good.  My entree was a plate of flounder, which was great, grilled shrimp, which was fantastic, and a few snow crab legs.  Let me say quickly, the cheese grits were the best cheese grits I've ever had.  Ever.  They were awesome.  But back to the crab legs...

Here's my thing with crab legs... I like them.  I do.  The meat is good, and when they are piping hot and you've got that melted butter, its number one baby, number one.

But, there are two things that keep me from enjoying crab legs the way I feel like I should enjoy them... first, I'm not all that great at getting them open.  My father in law, Big Daddy Ron, can snap at the top, do a little flick of the wrist and pull out this nine inch piece of crab meat that is perfectly shaped for dipping in the butter sauce.

Me?  I break them into a few pieces, I use that cracking tool and it does crack them all up and down, I've got that midget fork digging into the legs, pulling out shards and shreds of crab meat.  I would pay an extra ten bucks to have that crab meat come out in a big pile, with Juarez the cook already pulling all the stuff out so I wouldn't have to.  They can serve you BBQ pulled from the bone, why not crab meat pulled from the leg?

That brings me to my second thing, which is, crab legs are too much darn work.  Seriously.  Like, when I got to a Dairy Queen and get the overprice Mini Blizzard Meal, I tell them exactly what I want on that burger.  Mayo, mustard, ketchup, maybe a few pickles.  And cheese.  Done.  I pay a few bucks and they give it to me like I want.

But, when I go to a Ruby Tuesdays or a TGIFridays or wherever (though I must add in here, I never ever go to Ruby Tuesdays or TGIFridays unless I can help it) and order a burger... I pay twice as much for the burger, and then have to do the work myself.  They bring me the little cups (ramekins?) of mayo and mustard, and I have to use the ketchup on the table to make my burger like I want it. 

Why am I paying twice as much for a burger I have to work twice as hard to prepare to eat like I want?  Same with crab legs.  Too much work.  If I'm paying you $25 for a plate of crab legs, why do I need to spend half my dinner time working to eat my food?  

Is it just me?

Anyway, dessert was a piece of chocolate peanut butter pie.  And a few hours later, it is all still sitting right where I left it.  Now THAT is going to make for a good bathroom visit tomorrow

So here I am, sitting in the Courtyard by Marriott hotel room, third floor, next to an air conditioner that is freezing my head.  Watching the television in regular definition after spending a month deep in HD is like... well, its like eating those shrimp at the Oyster House then going back to Dairy Queen and getting a dish of those popcorn shrimp.  Just not the same somehow.

Behind me is a queen sized bed, where The Lovely Steph Leann is snoozing like an angel, on the television right now is "The Bridges of Madison County" (I wish I were kidding) and since we have a long day tomorrow, I'll say adeiu. 

Back online tomorrow night with more Mobile and Pensacola adventures, and hopefully details from a visit with Dixon from Troy.