October 31, 2021 – Keith Robertson

“Happy 90th Birthday to Clorinda”

I dropped Diana at DFW on Wednesday afternoon so that she could fly to San Francisco to prepare for her Mom’s 90th birthday. Then I continued on to the Woodlands Resort (about 45 minutes North of Houston) for our annual company awards fiesta. The resort was quite beautiful and I had a room with a nice patio overlooking one of the golf courses. Here are the views from there early on Thursday morning:

This was a very nice celebration event where all the top performing folks were recognized. Everyone got to choose an event – golf, concert etc. I chose to attend the Doobie Brothers 50th anniversary tour on Thursday night. I enjoyed dinner with a colleague at Jasper’s before the concert. I always love their blue cheese chips – it really is a single serving. Here are a few members of my team at the event.

The Doobie Brothers show was very good, with Michael McDonald joining the original lineup for the first time on this tour. The crowd seemed to enjoy his songs more than those from what I consider the classic lineup – which was a bit disappointing. Here’s “China Grove” – funny every time I hear it because Joe Carroll tried to convince me “China Grove” was in the Santa Cruz mountains, despite the line “Down Around San Antone”.

The set finished with the crowd favourite, “Listen to the Music”:

I was feeling quite cramped in Penelope on Friday morning, as I drove back from Houston to McKinney. Then a call came in from the VW dealership to tell me that the new car had been delivered. With a limited window to execute all the paperwork, I Ubered over and got it all taken care of. I really like the size and comfort of the Atlas Cross Sport.

I got a kick out of the floor lighting when I pulled the Beast into the garage.

After a quiet night at home alone, it was time to catch my flight to San Francisco. A last minute first class upgrade was very pleasant. Diana picked me up at SFO and we headed over to Adamo’s for a party he was hosting to celebrate their wedding anniversary and several other events that had been missed over the last year. Will, Christine, and Ollie were able to come for a while and enjoy Adamo’s cooking and the Sam Hunt band. Ollie was sporting his Halloween pumpkin haircut and enjoyed playing with the other party dogs. The Sam Hunt band is the same one that played at Alicia’s 21st birthday party last year. They are really interesting with a cello and trumpet adding to the unique sound:

Fortunately the rain held off most of the day on Saturday for the party. That was not the case on Sunday for Clorinda’s 90th party. The “cyclone bomb” hit early in the morning and dumped rain all day. The gravel area in front of Clorinda’s house clearly wasn’t going to be a good party destination, and so Diana had arranged to use the Little Brown Church (home of the historical society that Clorinda belongs to) as a plan B. We had set up tables and chairs on Saturday, and so just some finishing touches with flowers and caterer set up remained for Sunday.

The event was a huge success with all of Clorinda’s kids and all but one of her grandkids in attendance.

Diana had the idea to set up a small table for Clorinda so that folks could come and visit with her throughout the event. It worked out perfectly.

I love this picture of Frankie trying to retrieve her lost balloon:

We enjoyed several musical performances and speeches. Marco did an excellent job as always:

Renee, Giancarlo and Carlo sang a song and then Giancarlo read a poem he wrote for the event:

Diana’s catering selection was excellent – such a kind and efficient crew:

And then it was time to sing “Happy Birthday” (accompaniment by Renee and Alicia) and enjoy cake.

What a great event Diana arranged and we were fortunate that around 50 people chose to brave the horrible rain to attend. Clorinda had a fantastic time.

Monday was the antithesis of Sunday with bright sunshine all day. We assembled Clorinda’s gift and she took full advantage of the new table and chairs to enjoy the sun and some champagne with her daughter.