Okra Strut Weekend

The Familia Shealy-a went out to Irmo this weekend, for the annual Okra Strut festival. Check out the cover of the special issue of the Irmo News, showing my oldest monkey trying her first piece of fried okra last year!

Something tells me her Uncle Moose had a hand in that...

This year our little cover-girl got to ride a few rides, like the caterpillar and the hot air balloons and the bouncy room. The little guy could only watch.

Sounds like "Daddy" to me...

Video post

Here's my two-year-old being a monkey.

Cone... gone!

My heart skipped a beat this weekend as we passed by the illuminated neon "Hot Doughnuts Now" sign on 12th Street and headed into Triangle City. Something was awry, and it wasn't just the fact that Triangle City is neither a triangle nor a city. After all, Mount Pleasant is not a mount, nor is it pleasant, and I've never thought twice about it. But I digress.

It was the skyline -- an emblem of my youth was missing. The towering, chocolate-glazed ice cream cone, one of the Seven Wonders of West Columbia, was gone.

Calm down, calm down. The enormous Zesto ice cream cone is only temporarily AWOL.

Apparently, they've had a few inquiries. This explanation was in the window to pacify the unruly masses, and provide a picture tutorial for "giant cone removal."