“Watch my hand!”
You’ll have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. Why is that you ask? Off to watch the Cowboys game? No – I had hand surgery a couple of weeks ago and it was a pain to type with the wrap on my right hand. The surgery was to remove something called dupuytrens – a cyst like growth and ligament hardening common after prior surgeries on your hand. Everything was very smooth with the operation and I was in and out of the Craig Ranch Surgery Center (wonderful facility and people) in less than 2 hours.
A week later I went to have the dressing removed and all seems to be progressing well.
I needed to have a splint made to straighten my fingers out at night when sleeping. Leaving town the next day, I got an appointment for just after lunch. I stumbled on Mexican Cactus for a delicious taco lunch – great sauces. A nice new addition to the taco rotation. The splint appointment was painless and the lady also gave me a series of exercises to do every hour – I couldn’t say that I’ve been religious about doing them every single hour, but not too bad.
Diana had been gathering special ornaments for a small tree that she got for Finn. All his favourite things – Pokemon, Star Wars and Pandas. We had him over to deliver McD’s Christmas tree kit – he loved it all.
What a nice job Diana did on this, and she was very pleased when he had it all set up the next day.
Speaking of Diana and Christmas, a friend was visiting Clorinda and brought over a box of photos – including this gem. Two year old Diana with the baby Jesus from the nativity scene. Hasn’t changed a bit?
And continuing on the Diana theme – her retirement from NTTData was officially announced this week.
I know Timmy is very sorry to see her leaving him. This note from a colleague made me smile – Diana used to tell me that if I would just work a wee bit harder then I could be a “rock star.”
I’m working with Diana on a list of activities to keep her busy in retirement – officially beginning on January 10th.
Last week I met some colleagues in downtown Dallas for dinner. We went to a place called CBD Provisions, where the signature dish is pig’s head carnitas. And yes, it comes served as a complete pig’s head – a bit strange but very tasty. Traffic was awful on the drive down, taking more than 90 minutes (typically 40) and so I maybe wasn’t in the mood to fully enjoy such a different appetizer.
A few months ago, on a whim, we bought tickets to see Bryan Adams in Las Vegas. The show was last Friday and we flew to Vegas on our way out to San Francisco. Our room at the Encore by Wynn was very comfy and modern (Alexa was available to close the curtains and turn on the lights). The show was at the Encore theater and so we just needed to ride the elevator down to attend the show – much easier than our typical drives to and from the Kessler for concerts.
Diana made us reservations at La Cave for pre-concert dinner. What a great find this was – tapas style small plates and very creative. The small plates weren’t really that small and we really enjoyed the meal in a lovely setting. Diana liked her “Fizzies flight” – more fun than just one glass.
The concert was almost 90 minutes late in starting. Somebody had taken a tumble on the balcony and apparently it took that long to deal with it. The crowd was definitely getting restless by the time the band took the stage around 9:30.
It’s been 37 years since Adams released the “Reckless” album with so many of the hits that he’s still playing. The first big hit in the set was “Heaven” with the crowd doing a great job on the first verse. We think this song is a good one for Diana to learn on the piano – one of her retirement plans.
Next up was the classic “Summer of 69”, perhaps his best known song:
I enjoyed the guitar work on “Cuts Like a Knife”:
As is typical, Adams finished up with a couple of solo acoustic songs. Here’s “Straight from the heart”:
A very enjoyable and well produced show all around. Diana was very happy.
We stopped by the Eastside Lounge on the way back to our room and listened to the dueling pianos version of “Hotel California”:
We had a lazy start on Saturday with workouts in the fancy gym, lunch at the poolside restaurant, and then reading books by the lovely pool. BP kept watch from the room.
I had made dinner reservations at Brasserie Bardot in the Aria resort. We thought it was a good idea to walk the mile and half down the Vegas strip to dinner – work up an appetite. Not a great idea – the strip was so busy and I quickly grew tired of bobbing 
and weaving through the herds of people. When we finally arrived at Bardot we were seated inside next to a very loud table of guys. The entire place was soooo loud. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand it and so we moved out to the front patio – much better.
We weren’t super hungry and decided to order a selection of appetizers. Every one was amazing. I highly recommend the food at Bardot, just make sure you sit on the patio or wear ear plugs. We enjoyed foie gras two ways – as a torchon with black truffles, and seared over pineapple – both perfectly prepared.
As my regular readers know, it’s very hard for McD to say no to steak tartare. In addition to that we had escargots en croute, and I think this was my favourite dish – so different from the typical presentation.
After dinner we called it an early night and were well rested for our flight to San Francisco on Sunday. Again the airport was pleasantly uncrowded.
Monday was a busy work day for both of us, but things started to slow down on Tuesday and we were able to get out for a walk by the Pacifica beaches and to enjoy a coffee and a quiche at Soul Grind.
Andy and Jude invited us for Happy Hour in the evening and we enjoyed the wonderful sunset views.
We went for a walk on the hill on Wednesday morning and ran into the whole crew coming down. It takes a while to make progress with Frankie collecting rocks, Luciano melting down when he falls off his skateboard, and Massimo moving along on crutches. Here are some short videos that capture the scene.
Frankie yelled goodbye from her spot on top of the hill.
Grammie has been enjoying the lovely weather and her new patio set.
I highly recommend the new Tom Hanks movie “Finch.” It’s amazing how much we come to care about robots. Just a really well done and quiet movie.
I finished a couple of books over the last weeks. First was “Oh, William!” by Elizabeth Strout. Similar in style to the wonderful “Olive Kitteridge”, this follows the life of Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William. I didn’t enjoy this as much as “Olive” but it was still a very good read. This is the third book in a trilogy and I might have enjoyed it more had I read the first two books more recently.
My second book was “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles. I loved “A Gentleman in Moscow” and was excited to read his new book. I thoroughly enjoyed the tale – quite different than “A Gentleman”, with much more action and a faster paced story. At the same time, there was plenty of detail from 1954 (the book takes place over 10 days) to settle in and enjoy. Here’s what Amazon had to say about it:
The Lincoln Highway might just be one of the best novels of this decade, which is a feat considering A Gentleman in Moscow, also holds that distinction (in this reviewer’s mind, anyway). Set in the 1950s, The Lincoln Highway is filled with nostalgia as well as the gentle naïveté and hijinks of those who are young, optimistic, and on a mission. The story follows four boys who set out to travel the country in search of a fresh start: Emmett and Billy want to find their mother who left them when they were young, and Duchess and Woolly are on the hunt for a stashed wad of cash. Sometimes their dreams are aligned but often they are not. In other words, adventure ensues: There’s train hopping and car stealing, and with that comes the inevitability of trouble sparked from both good and bad intentions. Each of these young men is chasing his dreams, but their pasts—whether violent or sad—are never far behind. A remarkable work of storytelling that is a 2021 favorite.
Enough music already, so I’ll save some of my new finds for the next posting.
Stay safe and kind!