“Multiple Birthdays”
When I left you last week, Kenny was coming to pick up Diana and shuttle her to the “Birthday Girl’s Brunch” in the French Quarter. The ladies loved their time at Broussard’s and the location was a complete surprise to Diana. Kenny and Keith know how to keep a secret!
Anne and Kara had spent some happy hours together crafting special cat eye glasses and bracelets:
Here they are modeling them in the Broussard’s lobby:
The ladies thought Diana needed a commemorative ornament:
Kenny had been trying to find a time when Diana would be gone for a few hours, so that he could execute on his birthday gift. He spent over three hours pressure washing the front bricks while the girls were at lunch. What a great job, and such a kind gift:
Look at the handmade card Kenny attached to the top of the stairs:
The ladies weren’t quite finished yet – they walked down Bourbon Street to Bar 33 (the bar owned by and next to Gallatoire’s) for French 75s.
Kenny drove down to the House of Blues to see a friend, Nina, perform and several of the ladies met him there. Thanks to Kenny and Kara for delivering the almost sixty year old home safely.
We surprised Merry Lee for a late birthday dinner at Acamaya on Monday evening. We arrived early and she was very happy to see us there. Jeff pulled off a great surprise. I love this restaurant – wonderfully creative Mexican seafood and different drinks.
After dinner we were looking for some music and I finally found a piano player at the Saturn bar – a short stroll from Acamaya. BC Coogan treated us to “Classified” by James Booker on arrival.
Tuesday brought another birthday – Kenny this time. Diana made some jambalaya, and the trivia group assembled at Kara and Kenny’s home for dinner and cake pre-trivia.
We did all right at trivia but did not place in the top three. After that, we got to the Maple Leaf in time to catch a good amount of Bookerfest – the annual tribute to James Booker on his birthday. This has become an annual celebration event with Kenny. It was entertaining to see our trivia master at the show – we had a good chat about music and trivia.
Here are two song clips from the wonderful Joe Krown:
The night finished up with six hands on the piano – so, so good and fun to watch:
A very enjoyable Tuesday night all around.
Are you feeling sleepy after all this activity? Well, time to catch a second wind because we have another birthday on Wednesday to talk about.
Beautiful birthday flowers from Kris and Cat:
And an excellent birthday song from Andy. He’s getting so good and seems to have quite the recording setup going these days:
I had reserved a section of Oak and Ale to host a birthday dinner for Diana. We had about twenty four people there.
We love that our friends kids are part of the group and wanted to attend the event:
Here’s a selection with friends:
Chickie called a few minutes before we were leaving for the restaurant – his flight to Vegas had been diverted to New Orleans due to an emergency. He wanted to know what we had planned. So we added him to the party list:
I think Diana had a good time with everyone.
Merry Lee came over for a walk with Diana on Thursday morning, and suggested that we meet Jeff downtown for lunch. We had another yummy meal at Meril – the restaurant that Emeril named after his daughter.
Friday was packing and organizing day. We had our own Christmas gift exchange in the evening, followed by an impromptu visit from Anne with some gifts.
Saturday came with an early start. Out the door at 4:30am for our 6:30am flight. Adamo picked us up at San Francisco airport around 9:30am. We made it smoothly and a bit early. Time to catch our breath and relax a bit. I enjoyed the UT and Clemson college football playoff game (UT won).
Today, we did some shopping for Christmas Eve dinner and I’m looking forward to the Cowboys game this evening. I’m comfortable enough to admit that I’m currently watching “A Merry Scottish Christmas” – a classic Hallmark style movie – with McD.
With all that activity, I had little time for reading or finding new music – so we’ll skip those sections this week.
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all.