Diana’s Mom, Clorinda, and a.k.a. Grammie joined us for Thanksgiving week. Part of her mission was to babysit Alicia after she had her wisdom teeth extracted on Tuesday and she did a very good job of that.
On Wednesday we braved the attic to bring down the Christmas stuff – tree, decorations, and garland. I think we scared Grammie going up and down the fold down steps in the garage to the attic – that didn’t stop her making sure she got some pictures.
The ornaments are carefully unpacked and sorted by various categories before being hung on the tree. That’s followed by a couple of days of “tweaking” the arrangement until it’s perfectly balanced (and this commentary is going to get me in trouble quickly – so that’s enough for now).
After dinner on Wednesday night, we unpacked some new ornaments. Here we are with Scot
tish Santa – we’ve named him “Peaty” since his bagpipes are bottles of Scotch whisky and my favorite single malts are the peaty flavored ones from Islay.
Diana and Grammie went to church on Thursday morning and then the Thanksgiving meal 
preparations got into full swing. A fifteen pound turkey was prepped and set to bake in the oven. Diana made some very tasty stuffing with a combination of regular and spicy Italian sausage, corn, and celery. It was a huge hit and I’m still enjoying the leftovers. Sweet potatoes were baked, potatoes mashed, and green beans cooked up. A thoroughly delicious and successful first Thanksgiving meal cooked at home for Diana and me.
The timing worked out perfectly with lunch over for the start of the Cowboys game. Another great win to take the record for the season to 10-1 (another new winning streak record for the franchise).
Grammie headed home on Friday afternoon and then we made an impromptu decision to go and see the Grammy (slightly different spelling) award winning Rebirth Brass Band at the Granada. They must be quite proud of the award because that’s how the name was printed on the tickets. Alicia drove us and seemed to really enjoy the show. We were expecting a hundred or so folks at the show like when we see them at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans. The word was definitely out though as the Granada was close to sold out with a lot of folks looking to enjoy some classic New Orleans brass band music after Thanksgiving. Here’s a video – you can see the crowd really enjoying themselves to the almost chaotic sound of the band.
On Sunday chauffeur Alicia took us to brunch at Smoke in Plano where Diana and I shared our usual pulled pork eggs Benedict and a side of the cheesy hominy grits – as delicious as always.
Then it was over to the Willow Bend mall to select some tags from the Salvation Army angel tree. Diana and I both separately selected young kids whose “need” was a car seat and “want” was a musical toy – a piano specifically for Diana’s. Shopping is so easy with Amazon and we found what we needed within a few minutes of arriving home. The mall was remarkably quiet with no trouble parking or navigating. The challenge will be getting the gifts back there after they arrive.
Off to finish Christmas decorating and then to reflect on a very enjoyable and relaxing week of Thanksgiving.
Greg) for cocktails at what is reported to be the “World’s Best Cocktail Bar”. The “Dead Rabbit” has won all the major best cocktail bar awards for the last few years and it did not disappoint. I had a “Fifth Gear” which was based on Irish whiskey and very strong. That was accompanied by my favorite pub food – a shepherd’s pie made with lamb.
was a full day of meetings. The organizers tried to spice things up with some “lightning talks” – 5 mins or less on any topic an attendee had in mind. We submitted topics in advance and the audience voted. My talk, “Humble and Kind”, was selected first. The idea came to me after enduring the prior week of hateful speech from all sides and particularly the reports from our schools. The talk seemed to be well received and the song “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw was played at the end of the day 
on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
ng provided a real musical highlight. We saw Marc Broussard perform at the Granada theater. Dinner before at the Sundown restaurant next door to the theater was very good. Marc has a great voice and a solid band including 3 horns. We enjoyed a couple of soaring saxophone solos. My highlight of the show was a cover of “Sneaking Sally Through the Alley”, originally recorded by Robert Palmer with The Meters from New Orleans as his band. The George Porter bass line is one of my favorites.
I don’t think there’s anywhere better to see a concert than at the Kessler theater in Oakcliff, just south of downtown Dallas. The sound is pristine no matter what band is playing, the staff are friendly and helpful, the bar is great and the reserved table seating in front of the stage is excellent.
e’s. This was a recommendation from the Wahba’s and a great new place for us in the Bishop Arts district. It describes itself as “An American Bistro with a southern low-country influence”. The interior is quite elegant but casual. We started with a beet salad which was interesting in that it included strawberries – turned out to be a good combination.
Then we split some perfectly cooked New Zealand lamb chops while Patty and Brent had one of their favorite shrimp and grits in Dallas.
ew to New York again on Monday to attend work meetings for a few days. On Monday night I met up with a few work colleagues for dinner and then Darrell Crane took me to a jazz club called Mezzrow. This was a very nice surprise of a place. During breaks in the music they played classic albums on a turntable by the door. Our table was so close it almost felt like we were in the 3 piece band – piano, bass and drums. Several different drummers sat in with the band playing only high hat and snare drum with brushes since the venue was so tiny.
t to see Chick Corea perform at the Blue Note. The show was part of his 75th birthday celebration and on the night that I attended he did a tribute to Miles Davis. The concert was sold out and there was quite a line when I got there but I was still able to get a great seat with an excellent view of the entire band. And an all star band it was! Mike Stern, who played guitar with Miles in the early 80s, Marcus Miller who co-wrote and played bass on Miles’ Tutu album, Kenny Garret who played saxophone with Miles in the late 80s, Wallace Roney who inherited Miles’ trumpet, and the amazing Brian Blade on drums.
The show didn’t start until almost 11pm but was really a one of a kind treat and easily worth the loss of a few hours of sleep.
ve until you review all of life’s journeys since those graduation ceremonies. We spent the weekend in California to attend Diana’s 30 year Santa Clara University reunion.
realize that it certainly has been 30 years since graduation. The food at this Peruvian restaurant was very different and good. Will had an excellent paella and I tried these “causa masaki” – like sushi rolls but wrapped in causa which is yellow potato puree infused with lime and Peruvian ahi – yum. I met Finn the next day at one of my favorite places on Santana Row in San Jose, the Straits cafe. Singaporean food and all delicious.
in Colorado. We flew into Grand Junction and then drove to Telluride with a short stop in Montrose for refreshments at an interesting dive bar (Niko’s).
Saturday began with the first of a couple of torture sessions that I was in store for – a hike 1200 feet up the Beaver Creek trail to some waterfalls. Breath doesn’t come easy at that altitude and climbing that quickly. And for pure humiliation I was passed by a 3 legged chihuahua on the way up and down. The views were excellent though. There was no time for lolly-gagging on the trail since the Grand Tasting started at the festival at 11am. This is an event where 30 or so local breweries provide tastings of their brews – and it’s included in the price of admission and so not to be missed.
The next morning, after a multi-course breakfast buffet, it was off to Montmartre for one of our favorite meals. We almost worked off our breakfast climbing the never ending stairs from the Abesses metro station to Montmartre but weren’t quite ready for lunch. Stopped at a great open air cafe for a Bloody Mary and the crossword. Then on to Cafe Bruant for their amazing duck and foie gras salad and a huge pot of moules frites.
arrival celebration champagne. As usual I was thoroughly spoiled by my Mum with great cooking – Stornoway black pudding for breakfast, steak pies, fantastic deserts. On Friday the fishmonger comes to the house and delivers “Fresh Fish” – delicious and now known as “Fresh Fish Friday”. We had a nice trip over to the beach at Irvine where the wind blew out any remaining cobwebs from our jetlagged heads.
My Mum gave my Dad an iPad for his birthday present. It was loaded up with pictures from the dinner (see selfie of Diana and my brother in law, David, below) and pictures and videos from the family. We were quite nervous about the technical challenges that the gift might present, but are happily surprised with the ease that Dad places facetime calls on Sundays.
I was able to enjoy a couple of good nights out in Tokyo with our excellent hosts. Here’s Deepak with his model of the “Black Ship” that Captain Perry sailed to Yokohama in 1854, and began opening up Japan to the West.
Our second outing was to Mixology, a craft cocktail bar in Akasaka. This is an area of Tokyo with a lot of small and very unique stores. The cocktails were excellent and watching the precision and detailed work by the bar tenders was very educational. 
I had a cocktail that was mixed with smoke in a skull vodka bottle – very good – almost like a Talisker peaty scotch from Islay. The food was very creative as well – here’s a picture of an egg with a syringe of Sauterne wine that was injected after the soft boiled egg had cooled for a few 
minutes. I can’t imagine this dish would be allowed in the United States.
The flight home was smooth and uneventful. Just a few days to rest and get time zone adjusted before heading to Scotland for my Dad’s 80th birthday celebration.
finished their diving certifications on Thursday and Friday. Here they are hitting the beach after certification dives on Thursday while we relax under an umbrella with Blood Marys. We joined them on the boat on Friday as they finished up the checkout dives.
enjoying the sunset on our last evening. I head the question, “Can’t we just stay one more day?”, several times throughout the day.