“Retirement Celebration”
We flew to Austin early Monday morning and checked into the Carpenter hotel. I had an executive committee meeting on Monday night, which turned into an early retirement party for me.
We went to the Guest House, which is an amazingly delicious Austin establishment. I had a parmesan crusted filet that was ridiculously tasty.
There were lots of toasts and speeches that almost brought me to tears. This has been such a wonderful work experience because of the people that I work with. The team gave me a $500 gift certificate to Shaya, one of my favourite New Orleans restaurants.
Nikki and I shared a martini that came with quite the presentation. Dry ice poured over the bottom:
Desert was quite a show:
What a lovely dinner and memory.
Tuesday was the annual holiday party at Bar Peached. Great food, drinks and company. They had a “Braveheart” cocktail in my honour:
Here I am with the IT team:
And here is a reprise of the “girls” from Roatan:
Here’s’ one of my favourites – the EXCO group (three of the people it has been a complete joy to work with.)
And finally with Neffie:
We had our usual pre-flight lunch at June’s. Lisa joined us and we saw Lachie (CEO) walking by and he joined us for a drink. This is where I had lunch after interviewing for my job, and where I had the last meal of my retirement celebration – seems appropriately bookended.
Here are my two cards:
And a ridiculously expensive bottle of bourbon from my team:
I enjoyed two separate free outdoor concerts on Saturday afternoon with most of the krewe. “The Walrus” performed Beatles songs at the corner of Marengo and Dryads. Such a good band.
That was followed by the Panorama Jazz Band at the Kingpin, which also had an outdoor Christmas market going.
Kenny will be arriving soon to shuttle Diana to her ladies brunch to celebrate her upcoming birthday. All she knows is that it’s somewhere in the French Quarter.
I continued to work my way through Demon Copperhead this week. Slow progress due to all the travel and holiday excitement. I look forward to finishing it up next week in the lull leading up to the real holidays.
I love this Ethiopian song that I heard at the Carpenter hotel:
And another one from the same source:
Very relaxing:
And finally, some classic Bonnie Raitt:
Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!