Month: January 2017

Week in Review – January 22, 2017

The big highlight this week was a trip to the Kessler in Oak Cliff for a concert by Eric Lindell on Thursday (my sister Elspeth’s birthday).  Brent accompanied us while poor Patty missed due to work travel.

We started with dinner at Bolsa (the first restaurant we tried in Oak Cliff a few years ago and still one of our favourites).  We started with smoked trout rillettes (a new term for me – an appetizer that is diced, seasoned, cooked and then pounded to the consistency of a spread) and beef tartare.  Then Diana had mussels and I had risotto with several kinds of mushrooms and other delicious vegetables.  Left overs were a great lunch on Friday as well.

Bobby Patterson opened the show and we got there just in time to catch his complete set.  We were glad we did as he put on a very enjoyable show – you could tell he was very happy to be back on stage and performing to a full house.  Patterson is 72 years old and has written songs recorded by Albert King and several others.  He was also a record producer and executive for many years.  He told a story about recording the song that was to have been the follow up to Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman”.  Percy was too drunk to show up for the session and so they had Bobby record it instead.

Eric Lindell played a great follow up set with Anson Funderburgh on lead guitar.  Funderburgh was born in Plano, Texas and has a great guitar sound and style – very reminiscent of Jimmie Vaughan.  Here’s a clip from the opening song, “Here I am in Dallas”, where Lindell sings about being stuck in Dallas and missing New Orleans.

I thoroughly enjoyed the guitar interplay between Eric and Anson and our seats close to the stage allowed me to watch exactly what they were doing on their guitars.  Brent really enjoyed the keyboard player who was playing bass with his left hand on one keyboard and piano accompaniment with his right hand as well as singing backup vocals

One of our favorite Lindell songs is “Lay Back Down”.  Here’s a short clip from that song.  I don’t think there’s anywhere better to see a show like this than at the Kessler theater with it’s amazing sound, great seating, and welcoming attitude from everyone who works there.

Other activities this week included meeting up with an old AIG colleague, Allen Livingston, who left about a year ago, and with Kevin Johnston, and old EDS/HP colleague that I hadn’t seen for over a year.

Week in Review – January 15, 2017

Sunday was Cowboys football playoff time!

But before we get to that, Saturday was a big night for Alicia.  She attended the Winter formal dance with several friends.  All the young ladies and gentlemen came over to take pictures before they headed to the dance and they all looked amazing.

I enjoyed watching the performance as Diana, the girls, and another Mom attempted to pin the boutonnieres to the boys’ lapels.

 

The trouble the boys and girls took to
coordinate ties with dresses and boutonnieres and corsages with their outfits was quite impressive.

We were treated to most of the group coming back over to our home after their dance to hang out for a while.  They all seemed to really enjoy the event.

 

Judy, my friend and EDS admin from California was in town to celebrate the birth of her first grandchild, Reagan Marie.  We had Judy and the Dilling clan, Patty and Brent, Wendy and Toby all over to watch the Cowboys play the Packers and to celebrate Nana and Papa Dilling.

I enjoyed holding a baby much smaller than any of my three ever were again.  Such a good baby – slept or watched the Cowboys all afternoon with no complaints.

We took a tip from the Winter formal bunch and had a picture of the group taken on the stairs.

Unfortunately the Cowboys lost 34 – 31 in the last few seconds of the game and couldn’t overcome a slow start in the fist half.  It was a very exciting game even if not the result we were all hoping for.

We enjoyed some great cocktails and snacks during the game.  Diana bought us the “Bacon 24/7” cookbook and made us some yummy cheese and bacon puffs.  I infused some bourbon with bacon and used it to make some Manhattans that were well received.  Judy had her usual lemon drop cocktails from the glitter ball martini glass that I got to celebrate her new grandmother status. Wendy brought a buffalo chicken dip that everyone really enjoyed and Patty and Brent made one of their excellent flatbreads with mozzarella, honey, and basil.  Multiple recipes were exchanged.

Old friends (and a one week old new friend) got to spend some fun time together and catch up despite the wrong result on the football game.

Just as everyone was about to leave, the heavens opened and some tornado warnings were broadcast.  Diana and I got pretty wet holding umbrellas for folks to leave and fortunately everyone made it home without incident.

Week in Review – January 8, 2017

My youngest baby turned 21 today.  Hard to believe and a happy milestone.

We celebrated at “The Boiling Hot Pot” in San Francisco.  This was Will’s choice and is one of his favorite haunts.  You pay a flat fee and then get as much as you can eat of various meats and seafoods to dunk in four different flavors of boiling hot pot.  Campbell and his friends had a ball and enjoyed the unlimited Saki and beer as well.  They had a process for making Saki bombs using chopsticks to suspend the Saki shot above the beer and then pounding on the table chanting, “Saki, Saki, Saki, Bomb”.  The “Bomb” coinciding with hard enough pounding to drop the shot into the beer.  I tried one and decided it wasn’t something my tummy appreciated.

Campbell clearly enjoyed his “all about me” day.  His friends left to right are Cody, Patrick, and Cameron (turtle).  He’s known them all since elementary school and  they’re a great bunch of friends.  Will and Christine, Melanie, Laquita, Campbell’s girlfriend Molly, and Diana (meeting Melanie and Laquita for the first time) all participated.  It was quite steamy as the evening wore on but the kids didn’t mind or even notice I don’t think.

Following dinner, the kids went back to Will’s house and got dressed to go clubbing at some fancy night club that Will had arranged.  I’m not sure what time that all finished and they crashed on couches Chez Will – but I’m sure I had been asleep for many hours when they retired.

Here’s Campbell with the engraved beer stein that I got him as a gift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was one of those rare occasions when all three of my sons are in the same place at the same time.  It was nice to see everyone having such a good time celebrating with Campbell and the folks meeting for the first time having pleasant conversations.