The Birthday/Crab Feed

First off, we opened that bottle of wine. It took two strong men and an assortment of knives and wine openers. But they prevailed.

Val thanked them. OK, we all thanked them. We managed to finish the wine and now I can't let go of the empty bottle. It's so neat. And useless. I need a Throw Away That Special Yet Empty Bottle of Wine Day next.

The Chesapeake Blue Crabs were amazing. A local fisherman caught us a bushel of crabs that morning, steamed them that afternoon and delivered them to us hot.

We poured the Old Bay and hammered away.

The wonderful thing about blue crabs is that it takes hours. They're nothing like king or snow crab legs or even bodies. They're smaller for one, the flavor is different of course, and there are techniques and toxic body parts and it's laborious and extremely rewarding. The crabs are delicious hot when you start out and still hours later when they're cold. You dip them in Old Bay and butter. And it's a very drawn out and relaxed event. You just sit and talk and pick crabs and eat potato salad and coleslaw and talk and drink beer or wine and melt more butter and pick more crabs as the sun goes down.

Molly's 'Please give me more crab meat' face?

And things wind down.

Tadd's stories keep us laughing.

There's really nothing picturesque about crab bones and guts, but there it is, how ends one of the best birthdays this 28 years has seen.

P.S. I couldn't decide - we had both avocado and sweet corn ice cream for dessert, both yummmmm!