Happy Birthday AJ

Today is Alice Jean's, aka AJ, birthday. Like Jack Benny, AJ remained 39 for many years until she discovered she could win free drinks by betting everyone at the bar that she was the oldest woman there. Pleep's pretty sure she is likely Butch McGuire's oldest, regular customer. She can still hold her own with all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. No one beats her on the dance floor at family weddings or events.

Because she gives up her beloved The Glenlivet for Advent, it's not likely she'll be doing much celebrating until Christmas Eve when she brings the bottle back out of the closet. Though there was an exception to that in 1998 when she turned 70. Unbeknownst to her, the family planned a surprise birthday party for her in Chicago. George was in on it and had insisted they drive to Chicago from Kansas before heading to Florida. Alice protested severely but finally agreed. The night before departure Ed, David Gates and Peggy joined with Alice and George to celebrate. Ed brought in his cask strength, silent distillery, single malt scotch. Alice thought turning 70 might be enough of an excuse to just have a sip, with one ice cube and a splash of water. One sip turned into more sips and ultimately sips with no water or ice. Needless to say, the next morning’s departure was a bit delayed as AJ had a touch of the Irish flu and a wee bit of a headache.

Have a great birthday. Love from the Troops.

Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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Pleep Celebrates The Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is one of Pleep's favorite holidays as it marks the shortest day of the year which also means starting tomorrow the days will be getting longer again. It also marks the first day of winter which in Florida we celebrate by spending time on the beach. Today the temperatures will be in the upper 70's and the visitors will be out in force. On yesterday's beach hike, we spotted snowmen made from sand, kids building sand castles and one BMW stuck in the soft sand. It had to be pulled out by a couple of Jeeps.

One year Peggy was visiting Ida, Perry, Beau and Harry for Christmas in London and decided it would be a good idea to visit Stonehenge for the solstice. Needless to say, it was a wacky experience as they all watched fully garbed druids marching around and celebrating the pagan holiday. Beau and Harry were unimpressed by the druids or the standing stones. Instead, they parked themselves on the viewing benches with their back to the stones and watched the passing traffic on the A303. They spent the entire visit counting the trucks and buses.

We are happy to welcome any visitors looking to escape snow, cold and generally bad weather up north.

Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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Pleep’s Favorite Classic & Modern Christmas Movies Lists Don’t Include Die Hard

Christmas is a great time to catch up on all our favorite holiday movies. Pleep has two lists. First are the classic movies which pretty much means made before 1960 and most are in black and white; no colorized versions allowed. Then the modern ones which include a few remakes of the classics. While a few from either list might be considered non-traditional, there is no way Die Hard makes the cut even though it is one of Ed's favorite movies, has Alan Rickman in it and does happen on Christmas Eve.

Classic list includes in no particular order: The Bishop's Wife, Christmas In Connecticut, Miracle on 34th Street, The Christmas Carol, We're No Angels, The Apartment, Come To The Stable, Holiday Inn, White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, The Shop Around The Corner.

Modern list, which is much shorter, includes: The Holiday, Love Actually, George C. Scott's Christmas Carol, Scrooged, A Christmas Story.

Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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Pleep Splurges On Ed’s Birthday

Ed’s birthday is today and Pleep spared no expense in acquiring his birthday present.  Ed was holding out for a new Alfa Guila or maybe an Aston Martin.  Pleep thought something a little more practical was in order.  Watching Ed do his morning pt exercises for the past umpteen years, he noticed Ed was missing the bigger ball he has back home in Kansas.  After much searching, he found the perfect one at Walgreens and was very happy see see Ed put it to good use this morning.  

Peggy & Ed will be heading to the Deck Down Under on the intercoastal to celebrate in style later this afternoon.

Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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Pleep Supervises Cookie Baking Marathon

Cookie production started out early this morning. Once the rolling area, decorating station and cooling zone were all set up, Ed cut the 3 dough logs into 6 pucks a piece. (Pleep named them pucks as he gets a big laugh every time he hears Ed tells Peggy to get the puck out.). For Ed, the process is really simple, get flour all over, roll out the dough until it's paper thin, cut out the shapes and flip them onto the cookie sheets. Then get on to the next puck.

Peggy claims that she has the stressful work: decorating, timing the baking which takes a total of 5 minutes a sheet. She has to turn the sheet halfway through the baking time. So every 2 1/2 minutes something has to happen. Then the cookies have to come off the sheets and get placed on the table. Thanks to Steve Jobs & her Apple Watch the timing process was much smoother this year. Then of course, there's the call from Ed for another puck. Sometimes Peggy says things that rhyme with puck when she is trying to coordinate decorating & turning the sheet in the oven.

About 7 hours after production started things were wrapped up, boxed up & cleaned up. About 500 cookies were baked and only a handful ended up getting "ALICED". Anyone who ever experienced Alice's cooking knows what that means. For those who have never had that fortunate experience, it means BURNT. If George were around the Aliced cookies who have been promptly gobbled up.

Now that all the baking is done, the bakers can head to the Shores Festhaus, aka surfer bar, for a few well deserved adult beverages and a bite or two to eat.


Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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SpaceX Finally Launches

After rescheduling the launch day several times, the Dragon Falcon 9 rocket launched precisely on time today. Pleep really enjoys watching the launches from our balcony. The sonic booms make for a nice bit of excitement too. The daytime launches are not as visually exciting as the night launches but everyone still turns out on the beach & balconies to view.

Today's launch was carrying supplies, equipment and science experiments to the astronauts in the space station. The booster rocket successfully returned, landing back on the launch pad. It's a very sensible approach for re-using the rockets and a credit to Elon Musk & private space exploration.

There's a few more launches scheduled between now and late January. With any luck, David & Patti Gates will get to see one when they visit. However, David Gates does have a history of jinxing rocket launches, most notably the Apollo 13 mishap.

Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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From Father To Son: The Accountant’s Now In Charge Of The Dough

Stan, Ed's dad, made Christmas cookies every year for more than 65 years. One cookie in particular became known as the Stan Cookie. Stan always just called them AP cookies - all purpose cookies. It's a very basic sugar cookie recipe but the secret is in the rolling. Stan rolled the dough so thin you could almost see through it. After they're baked they are about as thin as a potato chip which is why the Heidkamp family started calling them Stan's potato chip cookies.

From father to son, the tradition continues. As Ed got closer to retirement, he wanted to learn how to make these cookies. Fortunately, we had a few years with Stan to start the learning process. Stan had the ability to just judge the dough and adjust the flour as needed.

The recipe he left us called for 6 large cups of flour. Of course the issue is deciding how large a large cup of flour is. Enter the accountant. Over the past couple of years, having to make them without Stan's help, he's been gradually able to quantify things. So all the ingredients are weighed and we make notes every year. We found using Irish butter gave the best result and that it takes a bit more flour due to the higher butterfat content.

Today we will make the dough. Then it has to go in fridge overnight and the real production starts tomorrow. Stan, we treasure your memory and are certain you get a good chuckle every year as we go through this process.


Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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