“Going to California”
Week Ending December 11th:
When I left you last week, we were headed to see a concert at the Kessler. Marcia Ball, Carolyn Wonderland, and Shelley King, affectionately known as King Wonderball, shared some excellent Xmas and holiday themed music.
Jens and Glenda joined us. We enjoyed dinner at Paradiso in the Bishop Arts area and all thoroughly enjoyed the show.
The highlight of the show for me and Diana was this cover of The Band’s “Christmas Must be Tonight”. It took us a few days to get the chorus out of our heads. Such a great song!
Here’s the original version:
The show reminded me of the impromptu birthday concert that Diana arranged for me in Austin a few years ago. We were only expecting Shelley King, and then the other two showed up to jam. That was the night we met the two wonderful Aussie couples.
I missed the Cowboys versus Indianapolis game due to the show. And what a game that turned out to be. The Boys won 54-19 with a massive 4th quarter. Campbell had texted during the show that Dak didn’t look too great. Well – that all changed at the end of the game with 33 points in the last 15 minutes. The defense and Tony Pollard were amazing.
After my doctor visit on Monday morning, I helped McD rake and bag way too many leaves from our massive oak tree. There has to be a better way for next year. It took us a collective five hours to complete the task. 99% of the leaves are now off all trees – Diana has been busy emptying out the pool skimmers and Stanley’s (the pool sweep) bag.
Penelope’s brake pad warning light came on and Diana was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off at Auto Hans to get them replaced on Tuesday. Always a hefty hit on the wallet.
By mid week, both of us were coughing up a storm with some kind of cold/flu bug that we haven’t quite beaten yet.
We finished up Christmas shopping at Cost Plus World Market on Friday – they always have some unique and different stocking stuffers. After that we dropped off jewelry at Tiffany’s for cleaning, and enjoyed a delicious lunch at Tommy Bahama’s. My Thai curry shrimp and scallops and crab bisque were delicious. We always forget what a good place this is.
The World Cup has been very entertaining this week. I particularly enjoyed the underdog stories with Croatia besting the favourite, Brazil, and Morocco playing a wonderful game to beat Portugal, and become the first African nation to advance to the semi-finals.
We were back at the Kessler on Saturday night for Marc Broussard.
Jon Muq, a young man from Uganda, was the opening act. He had wonderful intra-song banter and a very smooth voice. He was very excited to announce that he had recently been signed to Dan Auerbach’s record label.
Marc Broussard and his band were excellent. A much better experience than the last time he played the Kessler – it was all standing downstairs that night and very noisy.
I had an early start to attend the Cowboys game on Sunday morning, and so we decided to stay at the Doubletree hotel – pick up point for the bus to the game.
A vendor took several of us from work to the game, including a lovely brunch at a new hotel by the stadium.
I lost track of how many compliments I got on the special Cowboys jacket that Diana made me for the Saints game, several years ago.
The Cowboys tried very hard to lose the game to the Texans, pulling out an exciting last minute win. Tim and Robbie joined us back at the house for a small celebration after party. Thanks Diana for leaving us a meat and cheese platter before heading out for the day.
While I was at the game, Diana and Janelle enjoyed brunch and the Dallas Symphony Christmas Pops concert. Don’t get her started on what shouldn’t be included in a “Christmas” concert.
Phew – that was a busy week.
Here are a few pictures from California that I enjoyed. Grammie on the loose in Target:
Marco and his friend Jessica posing by the Golden Gate Bridge – he looks better and better every day:
Will with some artificial intelligence app that doctors his pictures:
Week Ending December 18th:
Christmas gift exchange with Finn was on Monday night. He was delighted with his stocking and the new coffee table that I labored so hard to assemble for him. He had some very thoughtful gifts for us. I laughed at my “Nope” Sunday t-shirt and our new penguin blankie.
The penguin key ring has a great message:
Diana has rarely taken off her penguin slippers since:
What a lovely night we had with Finn.
I dropped Diana at the Cooper Clinic early on Tuesday for her full head to toe physical appointment. She’ll be happy to tell you that she accomplished a “Superior” score on the heart stress test – one of only twelve this year.
After that, we made the drive down to Austin for my work holiday party at Bar Peached, a creative restaurant on West 6th street. Some folks were very festively dressed, including Tim:
We enjoyed the Nido rooftop restaurant when the party ended, staying out way too late for old folks.
I went to the office for a while on Wednesday and Diana met up with Lisa for a Mediterranean lunch. I chuckled as a colleague reported back that he had spotted them going out for a “coffee” on the patio. In fairness, there is coffee on the table.
We had an early fancy birthday dinner for Diana in the evening. The bar at Jeffrey’s was perfect – a lovely setting with wonderful food. Steak tartare amuse bouches, foie gras, duck with seared foie gras, and pork with lobster, finished up with a chocolate granache desert – all very decadent indeed.
After the traditional lunch at June’s All Day, we made the drive back to McKinney on Thursday afternoon. We had time for a quick unpack and pack again for the flight to San Francisco on Friday afternoon. And then it was time for our Christmas gift exchange. I think we did very well with our stockings and gifts – much more sensible than trying to cart gifts to San Francisco. Diana loved the fuzzy Christmas pants from Ogan Enterprises in New Orleans.
I watched an excellent movie, “The Swearing Jar” on the flight. A very emotional tale that was wonderfully acted.
Sunday was Diana’s birthday, and we were treated to a visit from John and Joey and their families. It was very sweet of them to make the drive up to celebrate with us.
The kids were a delight and wonderfully behaved. Lilly made a card for Diana based on what Alicia had told her were her favourite things. I love the “Itfulle tower” with the Koala climbing up.
Clorinda enjoyed having the kids around:
Brianna really has some flower arranging talent:
Caroline had a yummy lemon bar as a cake for the birthday girl:
Diana had such a lovely time!
My reading companion this week was “Like a Rolling Stone” by Jann S. Wenner.
Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner offers a “touchingly honest” and “wonderfully deep” memoir from the beating heart of classic rock and roll (Bruce Springsteen).
I only made it a couple of hundred pages into this massive volume, so will save some more commentary for when I finish it up back in McKinney.
We’ve had a lot of music already, so I’ll skip that section this week.
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all.