“Happy Birthday Diana, don’t cause a fire!”
On Monday, Kenny invited Diana out for a birthday dinner at Superior Seafood. Diana particularly liked that Nina and Ian were able to join – the whole Kirsch family. They devoured several dozen oysters during the Happy Hour special.
We had a bit of an “oopsy” with the birthday cake. I joked to McD that she should blow it out. She did, with sparks flying towards my shirt. The waiter was quite concerned. No damage done and the Chief didn’t need to take any action.
Diana opened her birthday gift when we got home from dinner – a blue and white vase that she seemed to like quite a bit. I forgot to get a picture of her with it.
I may have created a monster by gifting a New York Times annual puzzle subscription. Diana has become addicted to the Spelling Bee – and in particular getting Queen Bee status by finding all possible words that are in the list:
After all that excitement, we proceeded to open Christmas stockings and gifts. I had been telling Kara, at dinner, about the silly high-end Italian oven that doesn’t even tell you the temperature it has reached or alert you when it gets to the right temperature. She suggested I get one of the thermometers that hang in the oven – great idea. An hour or so later and Santa had taken care of it for me.
We loved these Scottish pillows from my Mum. They’ll be fun for visitors to try to interpret. Mum also couldn’t resist another penguin friend for BP.
Oh no – a penguin face-off.
Tuesday was another travel day. This time a direct flight from New Orleans to San Francisco. Weather in San Francisco delayed our take off by a bit over two hours, resulting in over seven hours on the plane – we could have flown to Europe. Alicia was a good sport and picked us up at the airport shortly before midnight.
Wednesday was a pretty quiet work day on Gypsy Hill. Diana did babysit Massimo and Francesca for a few hours. We were both very tired from the traveling.
We did make it out of the house and off the Hill on Thursday. Diana offered to take me to lunch. We rejected trying to fight the crowds at Pedro Point and instead made the short drive to Half Moon Bay and La Costanero. This is a place we had visited with my birthday gift certificate. Diana had the trio of ceviche samplers and I enjoyed a very fresh beet salad with grapefruit and other goodies, followed by a mushroom empanada.
Diana spent much of Thursday and Friday procuring all the ingredients for the Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner on Christmas Eve. Always a ton of work and delicious.
I “helped” Adamo assemble Frankie’s bike on Christmas Eve.
“I’ve assembled so many bikes over the years, that there’s absolutely no reason to pay any attention to the instructions.”
“I think that front mudguard is on backwards.”
“That’s the only way it fits.”
“That’s because you’ve got the front fork the wrong way round.”
“Oh, I do, and it has a little arrow sticker pointing to the front.”
A classic Adamo interaction.
Now, we needed a test pilot:
Diana, Adamo and Alicia slaved away in the kitchen for several hours to create the Feast. Scallops, lobster, sole, angel hair with anchovies, sardines, shrimp dip – I always forget one of them. The gang had a great dinner:
Amy was talking about being allergic to poison oak, and then Jude pipes up with, “Andy’s highly allergic to ocelots.” Firstly, we had to look up a picture of an ocelot, then investigate the story. Apparently they had both held ocelot cubs at a nature reserve in Napa. Jude had no issue, but about ten minutes later, Andy was all up in a rash. He joked that he now shares that when asked by a doctor if he has any known allergies.
Clorinda really enjoys her silly animal toys that sign Christmas songs – they never fail to bring forward joyful laughter from her. Several more seem to have shown up recently.
I really like this picture of Diana talking to her Mum that Jude captured:
After dinner, the little monsters went home and prepared for Santa.
And then, everything was finally quiet. I’m not sure why I can’t see any lumps of coal in this picture:
I have a t-shirt that says “Be a New Orleanian, wherever you are.” Clorinda typically asks me what that means. I found a little tag in one of the Christmas gifts that explains it well:
New Orleans: Sunken and sultry,
Magical and mysterious,
Down home and slightly dangerous,
There is no other place like it.
When you truly love something, you want to share it with as many people as possible. So whether you’re born here, a transplant, or simply passing through, we hope you can be a New Orleanian wherever you are.
My first book this week was “The Modigliani Scandal”, by Ken Follett. I chose it at the library because it was a small paperback, ideal for travel, and from an author that I knew I would enjoy over the holidays.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Not his best, but an entertaining and interesting read. Here’s an online summary:
“A high-speed, high-stakes thriller from Ken Follett, the grand master of international action and suspense. Look out for Ken’s newest book, A Column of Fire, available now.
A fabulous “lost masterpiece” becomes the ultimate prize—for an art historian whose ambition consumes everyone around her, an angry young painter with a plan for revenge on the art establishment, and a desperate gallery owner who may have double-crossed his own life away. Behind the elegance and glamour of the art world, anything goes—theft, forgery, betrayal, and maybe even murder. . . .”
I’m working my way through the new Nathan Hill tome, “Wellness.” Not quite half way yet, so much more to come next week. This is a very well constructed book so far, jumping around in time and revealing secrets that add to the overall plot. Hill is a unique and gifted writer, who has clearly spent months researching. Here’s an online summary of a long and complicated plot:
“When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty ’90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other”
Let’s start with something from the late, great Greg Allman. So much emotion conveyed with that unique voice and style:
If you want to read about an interesting and varied life, look up Charley Crockett. Here’s one about the DFW river:
And finally something from another late, great:
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!
I had a haircut at Aidan Gill on Tuesday morning. I always like to pop next door to Juan’s Flying Burrito for lunch afterwards. I asked Diana if she’d like to join me, and she walked over. I forgot to mention that Aidan Gill’s was about a fifteen minute walk for me. It’s so nice to be able to walk to so many things. Juan’s is Timmy’s favourite place to eat and so we tortured him with pictures of our food and drinks.
We had been looking forward to trying Dakar NOLA for dinner on Saturday night. This West African and Senegalese restaurant serves a seven course tasting menu in one seating per night at 7pm. The chef and restaurant have won many awards over the last year or so:
Sunday was Kenny’s (The Chief) birthday. We celebrated by attending James Booker fest at the Maple Leaf. What a great group of New Orleans piano players paying tribute to the legendary guy who, along with Professor Longhair, started it all.
Some pretty flowers have emerged on the side of our house. Not sure what kind they are.
This was an excellent week of reading. “The Guncle” by Steven Rowley is one of my favourites in a long, long time. Alternating between laugh out loud humour and tear jerking sadness from one paragraph to the next, this is a writer at the very top of his game. I loved this book. I didn’t carry the hardback with me and so don’t have the quotations that I wanted to share. Here’s the online summary:
I was disappointed to find that Thom’s Market, just around the corner from our hotel, had stopped carrying Taco Deli breakfast tacos. I had been looking forward to my Tuesday morning breakfast treat. They had some new company providing tacos, and they were not nearly as good. Apparently they parted ways by “mutual understanding.” I’m going to have to go to the real Taco Deli next visit.
We were in Austin to attend my company Holiday Party on Wednesday night, and Tim (our CFO) invited the Executive Team to his home for dinner on Tuesday night. We drove around in circles for a while as our crack Administrative Assistant team had dropped one of the digits from the address. Had we been observant, we would have seen that there was only one house with a large blow up koala bear out front.
We had a lot of rain overnight on Friday, and several drainage pump units were not working properly. This made Rabbit’s Foot quite difficult to get to. I persevered only to find they weren’t able to open because too many employees couldn’t get there. Ugh!
Kenny’s official Fire Department retirement party was on Sunday. Denny was kind enough to pick us up and deliver us to the Union Hall. We had an enjoyable chat with Kenny’s mum, Miss Sue. She remembered meeting us last year and was still as sharp as a tack at ninety.
Diana and the girls had oyster Happy Hour on Tuesday evening, so Kenny came over and we went to watch a basketball that his son, Ian was helping to coach. Denny joined us and we decided to visit the local Milan lounge for some pre-game entertainment. The folks in the bar were entertained as Kenny yelled out answer after answer for Jeopardy questions.
On Wednesday night, we had Sips at Commander’s Palace down the street. This was an early birthday gift for Diana from Merry Lee and Jeff. One could sample around eighty different champagnes and wines, while enjoying the delicious snacks – the little cups of soup were ridiculous.
Marcia Ball, Shelley King, and Carolyn Wonderland had their “Home for the Holidays” show at the House of Blues on Thursday night. I had two suggestions for a pre-concert dinner for Diana to choose between – Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 49 or Kingfish. She opted for the tiki inspired option. The dinner was excellent, finishing with some perfectly cooked and very large scallops.
