Category: Weekly Updates

Monday was a tough day for my colleagues in Houston who got 15″ of rain in just a few hours.  Here are pictures of downtown Houston and the underwater roads next to the AIG office.

On Monday night we had tickets to see Lucinda Williams at the Kessler.  I was too tired for it (particularly the long drive home late at night) so we missed out.  Great reviews for the show:

http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article72400597.html

http://www.guidelive.com/music/2016/04/18/lucinda-williams-leaves-kessler-crowd-speechless-first-three-nights-dallas

The water levels continued to rise in Houston on Tuesday – here’s the view from a colleague’s house.

On Wednesday we had a leisurely lunch at Zin Zen in Adriatica (Croatian village styled area walking distance from our home) – greek salad, chicken florentine panini  and some great potato soup.  Finished the New York times crossword while enjoying a glass of wine.

I signed up for the Blue Apron cooking service this week and it arrived on Wednesday afternoon.  Everything you need, including recipes, to make 3 dinners for 2 people.

The first meal I tried was seared salmon and green potato salad with pickled mustard seeds.  It was good but the pickled mustard seeds cooked a bit long and the sugar hardened to more of a candy than a sauce.  First lesson learned.  The green potato salad was the highlight – it gets the green color from spinach, celery, and scallions and also includes sour cream and horseradish.  Next up was Korean Bao sliders with Gochujang Mayo and sweet potato tempura.  The sliders were delicious with ginger, gochuyang sauce, scallion, and black bean sauce added to the ground beef.  The Chinese steamed buns cooked up easily and were very tasty.  The combination of the soft steamed buns, crisp cucumber, patty, and spicy mayonnaise was excellent.  I think we’ll try this again.  The sweet potatoes needed to cook a few minutes longer – a bit too crispy – lesson #2.

On Saturday night we streamed the recent movie “Burnt”, starring Bradley Cooper.  It was mediocre but did a good job of presenting the food and the precision and chaos in high end kitchens.  The main character had moved to London from Paris and was trying to earn a third Michelin star for his restaurant – which he ultimately was able to accomplish when he treated his staff as a team and dialed back the egomania.

Sunday was a very leisurely day.  We read for quite a while – I enjoyed various Scottish words in my Kate Atkinson book – fusty, jotters, catarrh.  We took our Michelopolis painting of a New Orleans Victorian house in to be re-framed – hopefully it will match the living room better when we get it back.  Some good sour cream chicken enchiladas for dinner.

Penelope is still in the body shop being repaired.  Hoping to get her back today before the next round of hailstorms are expected to hit on Tuesday.

I finished the book, “Disrupted – My adventures in the start-up bubble”, by Dan Lyons this week in a couple of days.  Very funny, accurate, and sad at the same time – almost like a black comedy but unfortunately true.  A separate posting with more about this book is coming soon.

Lots of new vinyl was delivered this week including the “Vinyl, me please” monthly release – “The Score” by the Fugees, Chet Baker’s “Chet is Back”, and Louis Armstrong’s “Basin Street Blues” – more about these in another posting coming soon.  Chet Baker is the one that’s getting the most turntable time by far.

A lot of commuting this week with full days in the office Monday thru Thursday, dinners on Monday and Tuesday and a Happy Hour on Wednesday.  Penelope didn’t fare well on the Tuesday morning commute.  The car in front of me hit a cyclist and as I stopped to check on his injuries, I was rear-ended by a minivan that then left the scene.  “P” is currently at the body shop being repaired.  Fortunately the damage is minimal due to the fancy Porsche rear impact deflector guards.

We streamed the movie “Meru” on Amazon.  Great climbing movie with all the usual set backs and tragedy of this genre.  Jon Krakauer did great narration.  The team ultimately were the first to summit Meru.

From Wiki:

After attempting but failing to summit Meru in 2008, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk return to the mountain in order to conquer its peak – a 4,000 foot wall known as the “Shark’s Fin”. As they climb, the men also document their ascent. “You know, I’m always a climber first,” said Chin on balancing climbing with filmmaking. “I’m always thinking about the safety of myself and the team. And I make that evaluation before I take the camera out.”^[2] The film is a mixture of footage that chronicles both attempts (the failed 2008 and the successful 2011) while crafting a narrative about the climbers’ attempts to face their demons. After suffering a horrific accident while filming on location with Mr. Chin, Mr. Ozturk has a mere five months to recover before their second attempt, battling near-fatal injuries. Four days after Mr. Ozturk’s accident, Mr. Chin returns to the filming location to finish but is caught in a catastrophic avalanche that he miraculously survives with barely a scratch. Mr. Anker wrestles with bringing his mentor’s dream to fruition and the loss of both him and his climbing partner many years ago.

On Saturday afternoon we saw “Miles Ahead” a pseudo-biopic of Miles Davis starring and directed by Don Cheadle.  I give it a solid C – the plot was pretty convoluted around a stolen master tape of Miles’ return to music after 5 years – but the historical recaps and the music were good.  Ewan McGregor seemed quite out of place as a Rolling Stone journalist with a Scottish accent who befriends Miles.  Particularly enjoyed the “current day” Miles band at the end featuring Gary Clark Jr, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter.

On Sunday we did the typical early dinner while Alicia attended her SAT prep class.  Coal Vines in Plano was the destination this week – good sausage and pepper pizza, over-priced and weak Manhattan, and a Dallas Blonde beer from Deep Ellum brewery.  We finished out the week with the usual Madam Secretary and Good Wife viewing.