My Birthday Week is now officially over. The torch was passed to Alicia on Saturday morning. I did enjoy a lovely week of celebrations and gifts – thanks Diana. And again, I jump ahead of myself…
The streak was broken on Monday – we had arranged to meet for lunch and then work things got in the way. I used the extra time to take Diana’s car for a bath – first time since moving to Austin, so the Passat had many layers of dust built up. I’ll have to tell Denny about the features at this car wash – free shoe shine and massage while you wait. The shoe shine guy was quite the showman, flipping his brushes around and polishing in different directions with each hand. Not sure these shoes have ever been this shiny and well oiled.
Another excellent card and gift were waiting on me when I arrived home. And it was another hand crafted card at that, from the “Kards for Keith” collection. The card talks about “Happy Music” and was accompanied by a Saxon Pub coaster – a place where my “Happy Music Face” has been seen several times.
For dinner on Monday night I chose TLV, an Israeli street food counter in the Fareground food hall. This is a collection of 5 or 6 restaurants in the bottom of the building at the corner of Congress Ave and 2nd Street – so a short walk for us. The food was excellent, with the hummus almost on a par with Shaya in New Orleans.
We explored the new Line hotel, across the street from Fareground, after dinner. Very nice restaurants and bars and there was an author presenting their book to a pretty large crowd as well.
We made a visit to the Continental Club for the free happy hour show on Tuesday night. Shelley King and her band were performing. We’ve seen 
Shelley several times now, and always enjoyed her songs. Four Aussies took the seats in the row in front of us and we had a great chat while we waited for the band to start. Then the first of several surprises happened. Diana noticed Carolyn Wonderland setting up her guitar. She’s not a regular part of Shelley’s band and was obviously going to sit in. We love her singing and guitar playing – this is the lady that I took my sister and family to see when they visited almost 2 years ago now. I really enjoyed the smile on Carolyn’s face as she listened to Shelley and band before sitting in.
Here’s what Carolyn sounds like on the guitar:
Then the next surprise – my friend Damon showed up. There had been some unauthorized texting by McD. The band took a break and Shelly announced surprise number three – Marcia Ball would be joining after the break. Marcia is one of my very favourite performers. What a birthday week treat – and all for no cover charge. Here’s one of their great songs together:
Surprise number four – my friend Mark showed up. Some more unauthorized communication from both McD and Damon. Mark lived behind the Continental Club for a while and had been too intimated to try it out – it doesn’t look fancy from the outside at all. He loved the music. Here’s a highlight from the second set:
I have to finish up by sharing a song that Marcia Ball took the lead on, with great lyrics:
By this point, everyone was quite hungry and so the four of us plus the four Aussies headed across the street to Hopdoddy for burgers.
We stopped into the beautiful courtyard at the San Jose hotel on the walk home and then came surprise number five. As we were almost home, we saw an electric scooter rider take a hard fall on the Congress Ave bridge. We got him off the street to find that he had a broken wrist and some nasty cuts on his head and legs. He called some friends but they hadn’t showed up after 20 minutes and he wasn’t doing very well with the wrist pain and head bonk. Damon saw Diana home and I took Brandon (scooter rider) to the emergency room in an Uber. I got him checked in (without any ID), handed over to the triage nurse, and then Ubered back home. An exceptionally fun evening (minus the ER trip) – thanks Diana for organizing and going with the flow with the surprises that you didn’t orchestrate!
My birthday present from Mum and Dad was waiting when I got back to the apartment from the ER, a bit after 1am, and McD was quite insistent that I open it up. Meet Harris McCoo (left) and Donald McDee (right). There from the Scottish artist Steven Brown who is becoming quite famous these days. I really love his work and these selections.
My poor wife had a long day on Wednesday – bus ride back to Dallas and then a fancy work dinner that didn’t end until around 10pm. I had considered going to see the Blues on the Green concert in Zilker Park, but was too tired leaving work to deal with getting there and back. Diana did make it home with a load of great leftovers that I enjoyed after driving up from Austin on Thursday night.
I was happy to find the garden doing very well in my absence – it’s amazing what a lot of rain does for the plants.
While troubleshooting a big work issue, my amazing and fierce wife also whipped up a delicious made from scratch “end of birthday week” dinner of my favourites. Pavlova birthday cake and two kinds of meat pies (the best versions yet). Alicia gets a lot of credit for helping as Diana had to jump on and off calls and send update emails. The results of all their toil were excellent.
I almost forgot to mention the delicious cheese and meat appetizer platter they created for me:
I was quick to make a wish and blow out those double nickel candles.
Then it was time to open some more presents. A very unique “Cool Stones” box from Campbell – stones that you put in the freezer and use in your drink to prevent melting ice from watering it down.
And Will with an equally unique gift of some “Maritime” cologne.
Midnight rolled around and the birthday week torch was passed over to Alicia. We started with a lovely dinner out at The Keeper in Plano. Diana and I think they have the best calamari we’ve tasted, and all of their seafood is fresh and tasty. Alicia enjoyed her meal very much.
We got some bad news as we left to go for workouts on Sunday morning. Our favourite neighbours across the street are moving to Frisco. Apparently they started out looking to downsize, and then found a home with the perfect outdoor living situation and couldn’t resist. We’ll really miss having them there if we ever need anything. I enjoyed a good, long swim and then we came home to complete the crosswords as McD was still working to finish up the work issue. I did some yard work and then retired inside to the air conditioning, while Diana was ultimately able to enjoy some well deserved pool time.
This excellent live version of Greg Allman covering Jackson Browne’s “These Days” popped up on my Discover Weekly list from Spotify – what a nice pop-up surprise.
I heard this amazing song from the most underrated band, The Kinks on the radio this week.
The Boz Scaggs album “Out of the Blues” got my attention this week. I listened to it last year on release, but missed that the excellent guitar work was from the combination of Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton (of Arc Angels fame). Jim Keltner also provides solid drumming.
Finally, a new album from a jazz pianist that I enjoy very much, Brad Mehdlau. This is quite an experimental album with a bit of political commentary. I’ve only listened once and think I’ll enjoy it more and more with repeated listens.