“We’re engaged, did you guys all know about this?”
Jose and his crew were coming to replace the kitchen floor last Monday, so we decided to exchange our Christmas stockings on Sunday night. I love these three little penguins nesting in my stocking.
There were a couple of gifts that I couldn’t resist for Diana, but which didn’t fit in her extra large stocking. She had mentioned enjoying spirograph a few months ago, and I was trying to describe the fancy set I had. She’s pretty excited to try out this classic set when we get back to McKinney. I’m not sure if that will be before or after she tackles the “Where the Crawdads Sing” jigsaw puzzle.
I saw the “Champagne Clutch” from Neiman Marcus and knew that McD needed one of those also. Enough room for a bottle of champagne, a credit card and an ID.
My favourite gift is this Pooh cushion. The other side has the “We’ll be friends for ever, right Pooh? Even longer,” classic quote.
We think we may stick with the stocking stuffer only Christmas gift tradition.
Spending the night at the Grand Hotel in downtown McKinney seemed like a better plan than getting in the way of Jose and the flooring crew. The Grand is such a lovely, old school hotel with a great location on the square. We had dinner at the Urban Bar and Grill – a new restaurant where Bayou Jack’s used to be (I loved that New Orleans style place.) Our meals were great – particularly Diana’s mussels.
We took advantage of some of the photo opportunities on our walk back from dinner. Diana always says we rarely get pictures of the two of us at busy times like this – so here you go D:
I saw storms and flight disruptions forecast for San Francisco on Wednesday, and so changed our flights to Tuesday. That way I could be sure to be ready to go to celebrate Will and Christine’s engagement. You hadn’t heard about that? Oh my goodness, what a production.
But before that, we celebrated McD’s birthday again with Adamo, Amy and crew. A creative cake indeed. It wouldn’t be a complete visit if Diana didn’t have kids hanging off her.
Now back to the engagement event – eleven of us were staged in a limo bus just down the street from the site of the proposal – in a “taxi” outside Christine’s house, where they first met. We were provided with a detailed set of instructions, including a dress code. As we exited the bus to offer congratulations, Christine said, “Did you guys all know about this? Oh, of course you did.” Pictures were taken in front of the old apartment, and then we all rode in the bus to the restaurant where Will and Christine were going to have a special celebration dinner.
It turned out the place Will had chosen for dinner was right next to the Tadich Grill, a favourite of mine when I would occasionally work in downtown San Francisco. This is the oldest restaurant in California, dating back to 1849. We decided to have dinner there rather than riding back in the bus and catching an Uber from the drop off point. This was a great decision – wonderful oysters Rockefeller, petrale sole and cioppino.
After dinner Diana wanted to check on the newly engaged couple. She asked the maitre d’ to take us to the couple with the white jackets.
We had our gift exchange with Will, Christine, Campbell and Ollie in Redwood City on Thursday night. That was followed by a delicious meal (outside so that Ollie could attend) at Terun.
The visit gave the girls a chance to admire Christine’s rock again.
I think I was a pretty good helper for Diana as we assembled Christmas dinner from the remainder of the seven fishes dinner from the previous evening. Marco and Giancarlo’s families joined us and we had a very nice time.
We certainly got plenty of celebrating and time with family in this week.
I did find enough time to finish up “I Dream He Talks to Me” by Allison Moorer. This is about her experiences raising a non-verbal autistic son, John Henry. The book certainly brings perspective to the challenges of raising our kids.
“I suspect he hears music all around him because he stops what he’s doing and he listens. My son has taught me countless lessons, but the biggest one may be that there is music in everything. I don’t know what role it will ultimately play in his life, whether he will pursue it professionally or if he will just enjoy it. I only know that music might very well be his language in some way. What he cannot say, he might one day sing too.”
A beautifully written book about treasuring all the small moments in life.
I love this song by The Delines, a band from Portland who describe themselves as retro-country:
And here’s one from the Scottish band The Blue Nile. Their music is always so well produced:
Stay safe (it’s getting crazy out there again) and kind.
The Atlas came back from getting wheels “powder coated” on Thursday. Diana is quite happy with the way the all black rims now look.
I got a haircut on Friday and decided to have a snack at the neighboring Lion and Crown afterwards. Scotch Eggs! This place had all the classic pub food favourites and I’ll have to plan another stop in.
My next book, “Mayflies” by Andrew O’Hagan, is a Christmas present from Mum that I couldn’t resist sampling, and then couldn’t resist finishing. It’s in two parts – a group of mates from the Glasgow area attending a music festival in Manchester in 1986 as teenagers, is part one, and part two is the same group in their 50s in recent years. Part one got a bit repetitive after a while – kids being silly at a music festival, but part two was excellent.
My third book was “Lucky” by Marissa Stapley. This is a quick and fun read that I finished in two sittings this weekend. I think Diana will figure out the puzzle quicker than I did.
This is the week when most of the leaves from the neighbor’s tree blow into our pool. Diana spent a lot of time keeping the skimmers emptied and leaves out of the pool. I appreciate a pool girl that’s on the job before she’s dressed for the day – that’s dedicated D.
Our two favourite NFL teams played each other on Thursday night – Cowboys vs Saints in New Orleans. The Cowboys didn’t play particularly well but did win the game – mostly because of good defensive play. Campbell found a Cowboys place near his apartment – some kind of barbeque restaurant.
Will, Christine, Campbell and Ollie arrived at the same time as we did, for their first Gypsy Hill Thanksgiving experience. Christine had to deal with a hungry Clorinda as she assembled this delicious appetizer. Grammie didn’t want to wait for the dill sauce and sprig and was happy to help herself to the cucumber and lox bases.
The girls (Diana, Alicia, and Caroline) spent a chunk of Friday putting up Clorinda’s Christmas tree and decorations. Clorinda was quite happy to sit and read “The Lincoln Highway” that I had shared with her, while all the activity took place around her. It wasn’t until Saturday morning that she really took time to investigate and enjoy all the decorations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 new VW Atlas performed very well on the drive – very comfy and smooth and with all the modern electronics that Penelope is lacking. We met the Ogans for tacos at Nixta before checking into the hotel. This is a place that I had been hoping to try for a while, and it was excellent. Very creative and tasty tacos and tostadas. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed the garden patio setting very much. I had a beet tartare tostada that had some kind of whipped avocado base – highly recommended.
We loved everything about the concert. Three terrific artists/band were inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame. We had excellent seats and plenty of room. I’m going to share the pictures in order with the setlist from the evening.
The Ogans flew back to New Orleans on Friday morning, and so we had the day to ourselves. We started out with a good long run along the river – that we seriously payed for over the next few days – not sure why our legs hurt so much. I made a lunch reservation at June’s and teased D by asking her where she would like to pick for lunch – she ultimately got to June’s and wondered if we could get a reservation 🙂 It was another lovely afternoon and we were able to sit out on the patio. What did Diana have for lunch? Yes – the trifecta of steak tartare was completed. I enjoyed some salt cod croquettes and delicious curried escargot.
It was time to move again. We walked about a mile and a half over to South Lamar and had a coffee on the wonderful Opa! patio. One of the places we really miss for Sunday mornings.
After Tiki, I gave D the option of TG BAD (two guitars, bass, and drums) at the Saxon pub or an earlier than planned dinner at the Odd Duck. She decided the Odd Duck couldn’t wait. Wise move.
anniversary tour on Thursday night. I enjoyed dinner with a colleague at Jasper’s before the concert. I always love their blue cheese chips – it really is a single serving. Here are a few members of my team at the event.
I was feeling quite cramped in Penelope on Friday morning, as I drove back from Houston to McKinney. Then a call came in from the VW dealership to tell me that the new car had been delivered. With a limited window to execute all the paperwork, I Ubered over and got it all taken care of. I really like the size and comfort of the Atlas Cross Sport.
me up at SFO and we headed over to Adamo’s for a party he was hosting to celebrate their wedding anniversary and several other events that had been missed over the last year. Will, Christine, and Ollie were able to come for a while and enjoy Adamo’s cooking and the Sam Hunt band. Ollie was sporting his Halloween pumpkin haircut and enjoyed playing with the other party dogs. The Sam Hunt band is the same one that played at Alicia’s 21st birthday party last year. They are really interesting with a cello and trumpet adding to the unique sound:
When I left you last week, the Cowboys were about to play the New York Giants. I was nervous as they tend to lose these games when heavily favoured. It must have been Campbell and Honey’s support that drove them to a solid win, 44-20, and a 4-1 lead in their division.
We borrowed Jens’s SUV on Thursday and moved the rest of the stuff. And finally the place was ready for Finn to spend the night by himself. He said that he slept really well and is enjoying the place.
Friday was employee appreciation day at Market Street and Finn was very happy with the gift card he won, and the burgers and hotdogs that were served for lunch. He made the comment that the place he worked in Los Gatos would never dream of having an appreciation day. It’s amazing how far a little thank you goes.
We booked appointments to get flu shots on Saturday morning and hoped to add on COVID booster shots when we got there. Success – we’re all boosted and ready for the winter.
Not too much reading this week with all the moving activity. I did start “Harlem Shuffle” by Colson Whitehead, and I think I’m going to enjoy it quite a bit. Whitehead is famous for “The Underground Railroad”, which I haven’t read yet.
I had another enjoyable run on Wednesday morning. This time below 60 degrees – perfect. After that, it was a busy day of packing and shipping. First, we loaded the Passat for shipping to Alicia in San Jose, CA. It should arrive early Monday. Sorry to see such a good car go. It served us well on multiple road trips to Austin and California.
Car shipped, it was time to turn attention to the storage unit and unearthing the furniture that Finn will use in his new apartment. You can see that boxes were stacked in a very higgledy piggledy way, and so the only option was to unpack everything and then repack with the furniture needed at the front. This was not something that Finn or I thought our backs would be able to endure, and so hired a few helpers to do the hard work. They had things unpacked and reorganized for the official move in no time and I didn’t even break a sweat supervising.
We did take advantage of being close to downtown McKinney in the morning to stop in for coffees and quiches at Filtered. They have finished the sidewalk expansion and put in new flower planters. Very pretty view for our coffee talk. We’ll try a more remote location next week. Appointments for new licenses are booking out in February of next year, so we need to figure out a walk-in alternative.
Penelope has been enjoying having the entire garage to herself – parking sideways to flaunt it – silly girl. That will be coming to a quick end as we put a deposit down on a VW Atlas Cross Sport on Saturday morning. It’s black with burgundy and black seats. I was quite surprised that McD agreed to two tone seats – but she seems genuinely fine with it. The car should arrive in a few days – maybe we’ll have it by next weekend to finish moving Finn. Here’s an old but funny commercial for the Atlas:
I thoroughly enjoyed the overall meal and experience. The shrimp empanada appetizer (served in a burlap sack) was a great start. My dry aged chorizo steak was a wonderful way to continue. I’ve never had such a large table side menu before. That’s Norma (my LATAM CIO) and Francisco (LATAM COO) in the picture.
I took Finn for sushi after I picked him up from work on Thursday. He loved the place I chose. The salsa dancer (pictured here) was a great dish, and we picked out a couple of others that were equally delicious. McD was surprised that I wouldn’t go for sushi with her but took Finn. Can’t win!
Ollie made a trip down to San Jose on Saturday and accompanied Will on the patio of Rosie’s Irish Pub while he enjoyed a shepherd’s pie. I’ve had that there before and it’s delicious.
I was texting my friend Tom in New York on Sunday to see what was new. Was not expecting him to reply that he had triplet grand-children. The guy in the middle, Michael, was only 1 lb. at birth and spent 4 months in the NICU- I’m sure he’ll catch up quickly.
I really enjoyed S. A. Cosby’s “Razorblade Tears.” Even better than his last, “Blacktop Wasteland”, with more complex and relatable characters and more vivid action. Not for the feint of heart, but really well done. Here’s the Amazon review: