We took the 80-mile drive today to Red Stick. There we bought ski togs and seafood.

I can't tell you how ridiculous and wasteful it feels to be trying on thick gloves and jackets when a light cotton cardigan over a sleeveless t-shirt is burning me up. But most of these items we bought will have some use over the years, even if we never ski again, and don't gain a lot of weight.

I can say with confidence that if I break my neck on the slopes I will be wearing my most expensive outfit. I'm not a clothes horse.

More interesting to me as always was Tony's Seafood. It is a whopping business run by an Italian family of five or six brothers and sisters. On this Friday afternoon there were three people directing traffic in the parking lot.

They carry live catfish which they electrocute then clean on order, oysters, shrimp, crab, turtle, alligator, rabbit and more. No nutria. We had to downgrade from nutria to rabbit for the sauce piquant next weekend, to the relief of our guests.

We bought rabbit, Louisiana Fish Fry and two sacks of oysters in the shell, one for us and one for a friend. For $16.99 you buy close to a hundred oysters, give or take one or two. It is an "R" month and we are celebrating our anniversary. It will be a busy week at our house. If you hear the radio playing, don't knock.

And, of course, we forgot "The Rule of Three", which means that if you have more than three items to buy somewhere you'd best take a list. So, in the crowd, and our haste to drive home before dark, we forgot the crab for crab-stuffed mushrooms for the party next Saturday. Now we'll have to scrounge around here to see what we can find.

Sure, 80 miles is not a far drive, but we'll be busy.