Category: Books

“Mexico City to Dallas – No go!”

We had some very light snow flurries last Tuesday – certainly an omen of what was to come.

Both of  us had dental experiences last Tuesday.   I had a cleaning and Diana went to the orthodontist to see about Invisalign stuff.  I tried to go to a new empanada place I had read about close to Dr. Toney’s office but they were closed – next time.

The Ogans were in town for Cooper Clinic appointments on Thursday.  Anne particularly likes to have Tex-Mex food when in Dallas – the only cuisine that they can’t find a better version of in New Orleans.  We met them at Mena’s in Carrolton and had a lovely late lunch.  They had carried a king cake all the way for us – so thoughtful.

Last Saturday was pretty typical – workout and a visit to Duino for avocado toasts.  In the afternoon, I enjoyed this New Yorker article on the fantastic pianist, Brad Mehldau:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/brad-mehldau-trades-bach-for-the-beatles

Diana dropped me off last Sunday for my flight to Mexico City for our quarterly Board of Directors meeting.  We decided it was smart to move her Tuesday flight to San Francisco up to Monday, given the increasingly bleak weather forecast for the rest of the week.    I was able to watch the first half of the NFC Championship game between the Eagles and the 49ers on the flight.

Immigration in Mexico City was remarkably smooth and quick compared to prior experiences.  After a 20 minute limo ride, I was comfortably installed in the Intercontinental El Presidente hotel.  This is the sister hotel to the one we were married at in Cozumel.

Here are views of the city from my room and the elevator lobby on the 40th floor:

The hotel is in the Polanco district – apparently the fancy part of Mexico City.  There are several excellent restaurants in the hotel, and we enjoyed an outstanding Italian meal at Alfredo di Roma on Sunday evening.  They even provided a private room with a TV so that we could enjoy the AFC Championship game.  The baby octopus (pulpitos) were yummy and the tiramisu was the best I’ve ever tasted.

There is a lot of theater in these restaurants – here Blair’s seafood pasta is being prepared:

I got up at night to adjust the thermostat and was tackled by this sculpture – those black out shades are very effective.

Our rooms came with access to the Club lounge on the 39th floor for breakfast and happy hour.  I really enjoyed their chilaquiles with verde sauce, spicy chicken and eggs in the morning, and the excellent views.

I met Jose, who runs Latin America for me, for lunch at another hotel restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon, for lunch.  The French food was very good – foie gras mousse and scallops on a bed of risotto.  We enjoyed catching up face to face over a delicious meal.

I did some work in the afternoon, and then ran into Phil, our majority shareholder, who insisted that I join him and the Board members for dinner.  Guess where that was – yep, right back at Au Pied de Cochon.  I was able to sample some other delights.  The theater continued with dry ice smoking over the oysters and table side preparation of my steak tartare.

Here I am with Jorge, who runs Operations in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras at the dinner.

The Board meetings on Tuesday were very smooth and my presentation was well received, without any tough questions.  Then it was time for my favourite meal of the trip.  We went outside the hotel for dinner at La Buena Barra.  Pablo, our local Mexico City Board member, arranged a wonderful table on the terrace.  Then he proceeded to order up some amazing appetizers – soft shell crab tacos (best thing I ate), tuna tartare tostadas, and various other treats.

I had a massive octopus for my main course, and it was perfectly cooked on top of a hot stone.

The churro dessert presentation continued the creative trend.

If you’re ever in Mexico City – this is the place to eat.  Here’s a picture of the full group enjoying the meal:

I had planned to fly back to Dallas on Wednesday afternoon, but the ice storm caused all flights to be cancelled.

There are worse places to have to spend an extra night than the Intercontinental.  Nikki and Sunil were also stuck and we decided to revisit the amazing Italian restaurant.  I tried the mushroom risotto with truffles – so good.

I headed to the airport on Thursday morning to attempt a flight to Dallas.  The ice was forecast to melt during the day and then refreeze in the evening.  I was hoping flights would get out.  But no, my flight was pushed back six or seven times with arrival scheduled after the roads would have frozen again.  Time for a plan B.  There was a direct flight to San Francisco, and I decided to go and visit Diana and Clorinda for the weekend, letting things thaw out in Dallas.

I had forwarded Diana this boarding pass, but she didn’t initially notice that it was to San Francisco.  She did ultimately notice and picked me up in the afternoon.

We invited Andy and Jude down for Happy Hour on Friday.  They insisted on bringing a bunch of yummy Italian food from a new Pacifica restaurant.  We’ve been enjoying left overs for a couple of days.

Saturday was a rainy and miserable day and the only time we ventured out was for a coffee and snack at Soul Grind.  They have a new menu item – empanadas.  I chose a mushroom one and it was delicious.  We’d love to pick this place up and move it to McKinney.

Gianluca joined Alicia, Carolina, and Lucas for art and craft time on Saturday afternoon.  They created some really pretty pieces.

In the evening, the girls (Diana, Alicia, Aimee, Caroline and Carolina) went to the Eric Lindell show at the Longboard Margarita Bar – the local dive bar where I went to watch the Cowboys at Christmas.  They had a great time.  Aimee stayed over for a slumber party and we enjoyed catching up with her.

I stayed home and hung out with Clorinda, who was very well behaved.

The Ogans made a last minute trip to Park City, Utah for some skiing.  The conditions look excellent:

In other news, Alicia started a new job as a Project Coordinator at Communiversity – a community outreach program at San Jose State.  She had an internship there, and they liked her so much that they found a funded position for her to continue.  Way to go A!

My book this week was “Lucy, by the sea” by the wonderful Elizabeth Strout.  I loved this quick read and the way it captured all the fear and uncertainty of the COVID onset.  Here’s the online summary:

“With her trademark spare, crystalline prose—a voice infused with “intimate, fragile, desperate humanness” (The Washington Post)—Elizabeth Strout turns her exquisitely tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton through the early days of the pandemic.

As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea.

Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart—the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.”

There are several paragraphs that I had marked to include here, but I’m getting tired.  Trust me – this is another excellent book from Strout.

I love the spare guitar sound on this one from the Teskey Bros – an excellent new band from Australia:

One of the Board Members, Matt, recommended this band after we had been discussing our musical preferences for a while:

I can’t remember how Andy and I got on the topic of Glaswegian singer, songwriter John Martyn.  Oh now I do – I was telling him about Matt sending me every live Grateful Dead show on a drive, and he mentioned a bootleg recording he got in his record store from John Martyn.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

P.S. – the pilot on my United flight to San Francisco came out in the aisle and thanked everyone for flying with him.  He went on to say he had flown for United for 23 years, and for the US Air Force for 10 before that, training up multiple teams.  “You are all on my team today, and that means we treat everyone on board with kindness and respect.”  What a great representative of the airline.

“Happy New Year”

We finally made it up to Amy and Adamo’s home to exchange gifts on Monday afternoon.  Bad wind and rain was forecast for the evening and we wanted to be home before that.  It was a very strong storm, keeping us awake most of the night.  Francesca was quite pleased with her doctor kit.  She listened to our hearts, took blood pressure, gave shots as needed.  “I think you’re ok.”

We got clever gifts.  Our first matching tee shirts:

And a round jigsaw puzzle with fancy words.  They even have definitions and “use it in a sentences” inside the lid.

I took a minute to inspect the treehouse in the back yard that Adamo has been improving.  The decks and views are very impressive, with the original building needing some repair/upgrades.

Tuesday was a rainy, lazy day.  We watched the huge waves crashing on the pier from inside.  And, of course, Diana started on the jigsaw puzzle.  Thankfully, she didn’t stay up all night working on it.  It must have been Clorinda’s help that allowed completion at a regular hour.

The kids invaded in the afternoon, and opened their gifts from Grammie.

Wednesday was the first day that I had felt up to a workout – so we started our day with that.  Then we drove down to Redwood City and enjoyed a fun and delicious lunch at Pasha with Sean and Sheri.  Such good Mediterranean food, just around the corner from Will’s place.  It’s been a long time since we got to catch up with the Meeksies.

After lunch we drove over to Marco and Julie’s home to meet the new, as yet unnamed, Havanese puppy – Gianluca is pushing hard for “Yeti.”  The dog arrived on Monday – just in time to complete the move back into their home.

The Havanese is the national dog of Cuba and is part of the Bichon family.  He’s very fluffy, soft, and calm.

The move wasn’t entirely complete.  We helped Marco move Julie’s desk setup and the food from the freezer, before driving back up to Pacifica.  I did really enjoy seeing this picture that Marco’s cross country students made for him pre-surgery.

We flew home to McKinney on Friday.  This is an interesting cloud formation from the plane:

We were home just long enough to unpack, do some quick laundry, then repack for our flight to New Orleans midday Saturday.

Alex and Laura hosted the New Year’s Eve gathering this year, and it was very pleasant to be able to relax and catch up with friends that we hadn’t seen in a while.  Here are a selection of photos of the attendees:

The ladies commandeered the dining room for their private session:

Here’s our midnight selfie:

Denny was up early on New Year’s Day, making all of his oyster sauces and getting organized.

He dictated various recipes to Anne as he worked away – “In case somebody asks how they can help – I just give them the recipe card and off they go.”

You’ll notice an important note on the spinach salad card – “Do Not Ask Keith.”  That was after I spent a solid 30 minutes de-stemming the spinach leaves.

Folks started showing up around 1pm, with most leaving by 7pm or so.

The oyster shucking team did great work – Greg commenting that he hires a shucker for his parties.  Fred has some real skills, and as always, Frank was a big help.

Then it was down to the Three Musketeers – Greg, Denny, and Kenny, with the girls retiring early.  Denny was finally kicked back and relaxed.

And then it was just Denny and me.  “There’s a good show at the Maple Leaf.”  “I’m in.”  Joe Krowne was joined by an excellent drummer and amazing harmonica player.  Always a great venue to see a show.  My phone died prior to any video opportunities – it had been providing the patio soundtrack all day.

We had a lazy start into 2023 on Monday morning.  The boys left for Cooter Brown’s to watch college football games.  I opted for some more sleep, and then joined Diana and Anne at Basin Seafood for a late lunch.  We had a pleasant chat with saxophone Derek and his Mom as they arrived at the same restaurant.  The food was yummy – blue crab beignets and those wonderful little goat cheese croquettes in the beet salad.

We arrived home to a surprise.  All the guys were back, and had decided to fry the remaining oysters for po-boys.  Delicious.

Our flight home on Tuesday was a bit delayed, but overall, we continue to be lucky with our travels.

Settled at home, we started to worry about all the rain and very high wind in California.  As it turns out, we had good reason to worry.  Here’s Amy giving a tour of the damage:

And the challenges continued as the storms kept coming.  Fortunately Adamo and his crew were able to make quick work of unblocking the driveway:

I spent Saturday and part of Sunday on a bit of a silly mission.  The fluorescent light in the laundry room has been down for a while.  I replaced the bulbs and they still flickered dimly.  Time to replace the ballast.  I spent some happy time extracting it so that I could get a replacement at Home Depot.  In a call with Damon, he told me that I could get a new LED replacement unit for the same price as a ballast, and never have to replace a bulb again.  Sold!  Why didn’t I research that before all that work?

A new light unit was purchased, but now it’s smaller than the old fixture, and so the ceiling had to be painted before installation.  Next is to patch the part of the hole that sticks out.

After that fun, I moved on from playing electrician to plumber.  My Grandpa would be pleased.  Alicia’s sink has been stopping up, particularly when the A/C drains into it.  We had an A/C “expert” out again to look at it.  He gave me an illogical story, and I decided to purchase a drain snake and try to unblock it myself.  After some fun pushing and pulling the snake, and getting splattered with dirty gunk, the sink is now flowing freely.

A wobbly ceiling fan is next on the Handyman list for me.

While I was messing around with all of that, McD tackled the puzzle Mum gave her for Christmas.  Here she is 2 hours in:

And completion at the 5 hour mark.  So much patience.

Campbell was another year older on Sunday – sharing his birthday with Elvis.  He celebrated with a meal at Louisiana Purchase – a New Orleans style restaurant.  They had an alligator and andouille cheesecake, similar to the one that we enjoyed with them at Jacques-Imo’s in New Orleans.  Looks delicious.

Clorinda really enjoyed “West with Giraffes” by Lynda Rutledge, and I have it a shot these last few weeks.  Here’s the review summary:

“Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.”

I enjoyed this passage from the book – I agree that life is all about collecting interesting stories.

“It is a foolish man who thinks stories do not matter – when in the end, they may be all that matter and all the forever we’ll ever know.  So, shouldn’t you hear our story?  Shouldn’t you know how two darling giraffes saved me, you, and your mother, a woman I loved?  And it is a selfish man who takes stories to the grave that aren’t his and his alone.  Shouldn’t you know your mother’s brave heart and daring dreams?  And shouldn’t you know your friends, even though we’re gone?

I knew, then, there was something an old man could do.  I found a pencil and I began to write.”

I found this tale a bit slow at times, but did really enjoy the history of the Depression era and the Dust Bowl challenges in the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma.

Let’s start out with some classic Stevie Wonder:

And continue on with some classic funk:

Finishing up with some Aretha:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

“Christmas is Here”

John and family joined us again on Monday for brunch.  I loved watching Lilly assemble a meat and cheese platter, and then, without any prompting, creating a plate for Grammie.

On Wednesday evening, Diana and Alicia drove down to San Jose for a special “Cousins Christmas”, hosted by Joelle.  I made Clorinda a dinner that she wolfed down, and then described as “fine.”  She asked where Diana was.  I tried to tell her but she couldn’t hear me.  Ahh – I’ll use the notepad.  “Who’s Tooey?”  Good grief.  Finally, the lower case version worked.  “Why weren’t we invited?”  “It’s only for cousins.”  “But I’m a cousin.”  So entertaining.

The girls had a nice time at their exclusive event:

Thursday was the anniversary of the night that Will and Christine got engaged in San Francisco.  Diana and I had dinner at the Tadich Grill that night, next door to where the newly engaged couple was celebrating.  Will suggested that we all have dinner at the Tadich to celebrate.  What a great idea!

The restaurant was nicely decorated and I always like the old school white dinner jackets on the waiters and bar staff.

The seafood was just as wonderful and fresh as we remembered – oysters Rockefeller, lobster, petrale sole, cioppino, sea bass.  What a feast!

We celebrated the Robertson family Christmas on Friday evening.  Diana did a great job of putting together the first of three dinners in a row.  Alicia’s stuffed mushrooms were yummy.  I contributed a tiny bit to the rack of lamb – finding the recipe and helping set them up to marinade.

Dinner was very well received all around.

Campbell enjoyed his Mardi Gras themed gifts, and Clorinda wrestled her very large candle open:

Thanks Diana and Alicia for all the cooking and cleaning.

The Cowboys played on Christmas Eve, and the San Francisco 49ers played at the same time.  Diana and Alicia were gracious enough to offer me the home TV, and they would go to the bar.  I thought it would be a better idea for me to watch from the dive bar – the Longboard Margarita Bar – one of Pacifica’s finest.

A couple of friends were there to watch with me.

The Philly cheesesteak guy showed up and set up his station outside the bar.  Yum!

This sign made me chuckle:

There was a nice crowd of folks in the bar, including one Cowboys fan, Mike.  The 49ers fans were quite loud, but we had fun together.  And the Cowboys were able to eke out a win against the league rival Philadelphia Eagles.

The Saturday evening sunset was amazing – all the reds and oranges that made me think of our Cozumel wedding sunset.

Then it was time for another feast.  This time the pseudo feast of the seven fishes – angel hair pasta with anchovy sauce, and a bouillabaisse with excellent mussels and other seafood.  Adamo and family joined us, along with surprise guests Ken and Barbara, and Andy and Jude.  It was a lovely evening and we were all remiss in our photography – probably a sign of a good night.  The only picture I got was Frankie showing her manners, while serving me up a nice tea party.

Christmas morning started with Timmy sharing his creative reindeer and candy cane breakfast.

Clorinda enjoyed her new swiveling patio chairs and particularly her new, warm jammies.

I think Grammie enjoyed opening Alicia’s stocking just as much as she did.

Then Diana and Alicia were back in the kitchen for the third big feast in a row – lamb and ham this time around.  Marco and Giancarlo and families arrived and the festivities got underway.

Marco was delighted to finally get the Sorel boots he’d been hoping for 40 years ago.

It’s always heartwarming to see Clorinda enjoying a visit from her family.

Thanks once again to Diana and Alicia for all the time in the kitchen over the three day marathon.

In other news:  Raj sent me this delightful video of what happens when Pakistan and Scotland collaborate – the sound is really different and top quality:

And Vince sent this treat on Frank Zappa’s birthday.  Such a creative musician and excellent guitar player:

One of our project managers in Guatemala sent this out.  We are all on edge during our busiest days of the year, with most of the team on vacation:

My book this week was “Walking with Ghosts” by Gabriel Byrne, the Dublin born actor, best known for is roles in “The Usual Suspects” and “In Treatment.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir, finishing it in just over a day.  This review captures my thoughts well:

“In pared down prose both luminous and raw, Walking with Ghosts is about first things–parents, siblings, loves, heartbreaks, parts, failure, success, loss, but most of all it is a tender embrace of the past as Byrne discovers and accepts the truth of who he is in all his human struggle to be at peace with oneself and one’s imperfections. In a voice full of warmth, compassion, humor, and wonder, Byrne steps into the role of writer with the same assurance, humility, and intensity that he brings to his acting roles. More, this debut marks a welcome new voice that blends memory and imagination for an all-encompassing and wise memoir that reads like a novel.”

Speaking to his mother at the end of the book:

“I sat by the bed. You were smaller, the roots of your hair showing through the dye.  I thought of the gratitude I owed for what you had given me.  Your love of poetry, your love of the sound of words.  Yeats, Robert Burns.  Your favourite quote was from Shelley.  “Fear not the future, weep not for the past.”  I try to live by that still.

That last time we sat in a crowded room at a party, you recited Keats:

“O what can ail thee, knight at arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing.”

Everyone applauded and I realized maybe you had missed your career, that you might have been an actress or a performer of some kind, because you were so alive and so happy in that moment.

Had marriage and children been enough?”

Highly recommended!

An excellent solo piano rendition by Dr. John:

I Shazamed this in Thom’s Market in Austin, and was disappointed with myself – I love that album:

What a great rhythm and feel on this one:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

“Going to California”

Week Ending December 11th:

When I left you last week, we were headed to see a concert at the Kessler.  Marcia Ball, Carolyn Wonderland, and Shelley King, affectionately known as King Wonderball, shared some excellent Xmas and holiday themed music.

Jens and Glenda joined us.  We enjoyed dinner at Paradiso in the Bishop Arts area and all thoroughly enjoyed the show.

The highlight of the show for me and Diana was this cover of The Band’s “Christmas Must be Tonight”.  It took us a few days to get the chorus out of our heads.  Such a great song!

Here’s the original version:

The show reminded me of the impromptu birthday concert that Diana arranged for me in Austin a few years ago.  We were only expecting Shelley King, and then the other two showed up to jam.  That was the night we met the two wonderful Aussie couples.

I missed the Cowboys versus Indianapolis game due to the show.  And what a game that turned out to be.  The Boys won 54-19 with a massive 4th quarter.  Campbell had texted during the show that Dak didn’t look too great.  Well – that all changed at the end of the game with 33 points in the last 15 minutes.  The defense and Tony Pollard were amazing.

After my doctor visit on Monday morning, I helped McD rake and bag way too many leaves from our massive oak tree.  There has to be a better way for next year.  It took us a collective five hours to complete the task.  99% of the leaves are now off all trees – Diana has been busy emptying out the pool skimmers and Stanley’s (the pool sweep) bag.

Penelope’s brake pad warning light came on and Diana was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off at Auto Hans to get them replaced on Tuesday.  Always a hefty hit on the wallet.

By mid week, both of us were coughing up a storm with some kind of cold/flu bug that we haven’t quite beaten yet.

We finished up Christmas shopping at Cost Plus World Market on Friday – they always have some unique and different stocking stuffers.  After that we dropped off jewelry at Tiffany’s for cleaning, and enjoyed a delicious lunch at Tommy Bahama’s.  My Thai curry shrimp and scallops and crab bisque were delicious.  We always forget what a good place this is.

The World Cup has been very entertaining this week.  I particularly enjoyed the underdog stories with Croatia besting the favourite, Brazil, and Morocco playing a wonderful game to beat Portugal, and become the first African nation to advance to the semi-finals.

We were back at the Kessler on Saturday night for Marc Broussard.

Jon Muq, a young man from Uganda, was the opening act.  He had wonderful intra-song banter and a very smooth voice.  He was very excited to announce that he had recently been signed to Dan Auerbach’s record label.

Marc Broussard and his band were excellent.  A much better experience than the last time he played the Kessler – it was all standing downstairs that night and very noisy.

I had an early start to attend the Cowboys game on Sunday morning, and so we decided to stay at the Doubletree hotel – pick up point for the bus to the game.

A vendor took several of us from work to the game, including a lovely brunch at a new hotel by the stadium.

I lost track of how many compliments I got on the special Cowboys jacket that Diana made me for the Saints game, several years ago.

The Cowboys tried very hard to lose the game to the Texans, pulling out an exciting last minute win.  Tim and Robbie joined us back at the house for a small celebration after party.  Thanks Diana for leaving us a meat and cheese platter before heading out for the day.

While I was at the game, Diana and Janelle enjoyed brunch and the Dallas Symphony Christmas Pops concert.  Don’t get her started on what shouldn’t be included in a “Christmas” concert.

Phew – that was a busy week.

Here are a few pictures from California that I enjoyed.  Grammie on the loose in Target:

Marco and his friend Jessica posing by the Golden Gate Bridge – he looks better and better every day:

Will with some artificial intelligence app that doctors his pictures:

Week Ending December 18th:

Christmas gift exchange with Finn was on Monday night.  He was delighted with his stocking and the new coffee table that I labored so hard to assemble for him.  He had some very thoughtful gifts for us.  I laughed at my “Nope” Sunday t-shirt and our new penguin blankie.

The penguin key ring has a great message:

Diana has rarely taken off her penguin slippers since:

What a lovely night we had with Finn.

I dropped Diana at the Cooper Clinic early on Tuesday for her full head to toe physical appointment.  She’ll be happy to tell you that she accomplished a “Superior” score on the heart stress test – one of only twelve this year.

After that, we made the drive down to Austin for my work holiday party at Bar Peached, a creative restaurant on West 6th street.  Some folks were very festively dressed, including Tim:

We enjoyed the Nido rooftop restaurant when the party ended, staying out way too late for old folks.

I went to the office for a while on Wednesday and Diana met up with Lisa for a Mediterranean lunch.  I chuckled as a colleague reported back that he had spotted them going out for a “coffee” on the patio.  In fairness, there is coffee on the table.

We had an early fancy birthday dinner for Diana in the evening.  The bar at Jeffrey’s was perfect – a lovely setting with wonderful food.  Steak tartare amuse bouches, foie gras, duck with seared foie gras, and pork with lobster, finished up with a chocolate granache desert – all very decadent indeed.

After the traditional lunch at June’s All Day, we made the drive back to McKinney on Thursday afternoon.  We had time for a quick unpack and pack again for the flight to San Francisco on Friday afternoon.  And then it was time for our Christmas gift exchange.  I think we did very well with our stockings and gifts – much more sensible than trying to cart gifts to San Francisco.  Diana loved the fuzzy Christmas pants from Ogan Enterprises in New Orleans.

I watched an excellent movie, “The Swearing Jar” on the flight.  A very emotional tale that was wonderfully acted.

Sunday was Diana’s birthday, and we were treated to a visit from John and Joey and their families.  It was very sweet of them to make the drive up to celebrate with us.

The kids were a delight and wonderfully behaved.  Lilly made a card for Diana based on what Alicia had told her were her favourite things.  I love the “Itfulle tower” with the Koala climbing up.

Clorinda enjoyed having the kids around:

Brianna really has some flower arranging talent:

Caroline had a yummy lemon bar as a cake for the birthday girl:

Diana had such a lovely time!

My reading companion this week was “Like a Rolling Stone” by Jann S. Wenner.

Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner offers a “touchingly honest” and “wonderfully deep” memoir from the beating heart of classic rock and roll (Bruce Springsteen).

I only made it a couple of hundred pages into this massive volume, so will save some more commentary for when I finish it up back in McKinney.

We’ve had a lot of music already, so I’ll skip that section this week.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all.

“Give Thanks”

The Pacifica weather has been unusually beautiful all week.  Only very minor bouts of fog rolling in.  Amazing sunsets have been served up every evening.  It’s hard to tire of the view from Clorinda’s deck.

Here’s the view South from our room with interesting contrails on a pleasant day, and then with the fog rolled in:

We enjoyed a coffee at Soul Grind and then a pleasant walk along Lindamar beach on Monday afternoon.  I captured this picture of the sun going down over the Pacific Ocean on our walk back to the car.

The exercise put us in the mood to join the 24 Hour Fitness gym, down the hill from Clorinda’s home, and we’ve been there every morning since for a workout to start the day.  Don’t get the wrong impression, I’m not complaining – I’ve enjoyed watching World Cup matches from the elliptical.

So much work goes into preparing a Thanksgiving feast.  I did provide a little assistance as McD slaved away with the meat and vegetarian stuffing creation.  We eye-balled the proportions of bread, veggies, and meat, and I have to say the end result was delicious.

Diana and I were trying to plan out the Thanksgiving Day oven schedule at Clorinda’s home – ham, various dishes of stuffing, artichoke dip, all had to be warmed and transported up the hill.  Thankfully Adamo took pity on us and took the ham up to his oven – he was scared we were going to dry it out as we shuffled trays in and out of the oven.

Campbell came to Clorinda’s house early in the afternoon to watch the traditional Thanksgiving Cowboys game – this year playing the New York Giants.

It really was a rare treat to watch the game with Campbell (and later arriving Marco and Gianluca) – I typically just get to exchange text messages with him as we cheer or groan about plays during the game.  Maybe we can do it again over the Christmas break.  We had to migrate up to Amy and Adamo’s home mid-game, but got to see the conclusion – another great win for the Cowboys!

Here are a couple of pictures that I love that were snapped before we migrated up the Hill:

We had 24 folks for dinner.  The view from outside looks very welcoming as you can’t get a good sense for the volume inside.

Here’s what it looked like inside as dinner was served:

Will and Christine joined us for dinner, with Christine providing some excellent appetizers.  Will really enjoys Adamo’s company.

It really was heart warming to see Marco and Julie both looking so great:

After dinner, it was time to head out for some pictures before the sun was completely gone.

We had to reprimand Uncle Marco for encouraging more loud vocal activity from the youngsters:

And another crazy Campagna Thanksgiving was in the books!

Some other interesting activity from the visit.  Diana entertaining her Mom with some instructions:

A sign that we saw in the coffee shop that really resonated with me:

Earlier today, I enjoyed Clorinda’s company for breakfast on her deck.  It’s a joy to sit and listen to her stories and commentary with such a wonderful view:

We’ve been enjoying the Stanley Tucci series about food in Italy with Clorinda in the evenings – she really enjoys all the commentary and food.  I do highly recommend this series.

In other movie/TV news, I started watching a movie called “The Swimmers” in the gym this morning, and it looks excellent.  About a couple of girls, excellent swimmers with Olympic aspirations, trying to escape from the horror of Syria.  I left the movie at a particularly traumatic boat journey scene, and have some trepidation about picking it up again:

What I saw so far is excellent, and I will hope to finish this movie soon.

My book this week was “Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm” by Laura Warrell, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story.  It’s hard to imagine this is a debut novel from Warrell.  This was reviewed on the Today show, and I remember Diana turning to me and commenting that she thought I would enjoy it.

“It’s 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies’ man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. Instead of facing the necessary conversation, Circus flees, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life. Most notable among them is his teenage daughter, Koko, who idolizes him and is awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long-failed marriage and rejection by Circus. Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: how do we find belonging when love is unrequited?”

A passage that ties into the title and features Maggie, Circus’s true love:

“‘How do you know what your doing?’ Kamar asked.

‘Rhythm,’ she answered over the shimmy of the high hat. ‘Everything is rhythm.  Our bodies, time, the plane, man.  It’s all moving in beats you just have to catch.’

Maggie struck a slow roll against the snare because she’d missed hearing the sound, her eyes closed so she could feel its hum deep in her fingers.  She doubled her stroke, building to a buzz, then let the beads of the sticks roll against the toms before shifting to the pattern she’d dreamed up the night before and had been drumming into tabletops all day so she could get it into her hands.  Within seconds, she found it and played the pattern until her muscles started to know the rhythm’s shape.”

This is what I imagine Circus from my book sounds like:

A classic John Lee Hooker/Van Morrison collaboration that I came across again this week:

And finally, some typically English music that popped up on a playlist:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

“The Busy Travel Season Begins”

The fortnight began with a mostly quiet week.  On Monday we watched the latest Olivia Wilde movie “Don’t Worry Darling”, starring Harry Styles.  This was a really interesting film, featuring an alternate reality in the 1950s that virtual reality clients can sign up to participate in.  Styles wife is a stressed out doctor working 30 hour shifts and he plans to offer her a better life as a 50s housewife – and then it all starts to go awry.  Worth a watch.

Our midterm elections happened on Tuesday.  For the most part, we’re just delighted that all the crazy, inflammatory  commercials on TV are finally over.  I’ll spare you the rest of my political commentary.

I love the New Yorker magazine regular “Table for Two” articles.  They are wonderfully written and feature so many wonderful gems of New York dining.  The example this week is a very good sample:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/a-dominican-celebration-at-jalao-nyc/amp

As I said at the start, the week was pretty quiet – we went for a walk on Monday, a run on Tuesday, and a swim on Wednesday.  We took Finn to lunch at the Legacy West food hall on Thursday – maybe the first time he’s been outside the McKinney city limits in months.  He and D chose Velvet tacos (Finn said his brisket might have been the best ever taco), and I chose a really tasty Indian street food place.

We drove down to Austin early on Sunday so that I could watch the Cowboys and Packers game at the hotel.  That was a mistake – poor coaching decisions caused the Cowboys to lose in overtime.

Sunday wasn’t a complete loss though – we ran into my CEO in the lobby on our way to dinner in the hotel roof top restaurant, Nido.  It was his birthday, and we had a lovely celebration dinner – great service, yummy food, and entertaining story telling.

I loved my redfish Provençale and squash beignets, D her octopus carpaccio and oysters.  The view of downtown from the8th floor across the river was lovely.

The Loren is a brand new luxury hotel on the Austin riverfront.  It has a lot of kinks to work out.  On our first night the smoke detector was shining some kind of bright green laser light in the room every few seconds.  We moved to a new room, with the same problem, and then learned that the lights are controlled by a solar powered heat sensor – problem is the sensor isn’t anywhere close to light.  The engineer came up and shone a torch to charge the sensor.  The next morning a fake fire alarm woke us very loudly at 5am.  Good grief – two nights with interrupted sleep.  Tape on the smoke detector had improved things, only to be replaced by loud announcements.  The next morning at 6am, we had a reprise of the loud fire announcement.  Needless to say we have free rooms to use in the future.  A shame because the hotel and staff were really nice.

On Monday night we were lucky to score a reservation at Este, the new seafood restaurant from the Suerte (one of our favourite Austin places) folks.  The food was fantastic from start to finish – amazing ceviche, and several other seafood delights whose names I can’t remember.

Este is in a small house in an East Austin neighborhood and I can’t recommend it enough.

We met our old CEO (still a Board member) back at the rooftop Nido after dinner and that was interrupted by some Pacifica health scares – all fine in the end.  I did learn a new toast “Here’s to cheating, stealing, fighting and drinking.  May you cheat death, steal the heart of a woman, fight for your friends, and drink with me.”  I love it.  Nido has this beautiful fig tree in the entrance.

I had Board meetings all day on Tuesday, followed by a wonderful Executive Committee dinner, with special guests Diana and Lisa, at Qi – a wonderful Chinese place in downtown Austin.  That was followed by a very entertaining after dinner session at Nido – our CFO telling a more detailed version of his first trip to Burning Man.

On Wednesday, we executed our typical drive to Dallas day ritual – lunch at June’s all Day – always a lovely experience.  And the drive was very easy for once.  My Boursin omelet was delicious, as was D’s standard steak tartare order.

As if I hadn’t spent enough time with my work colleagues, I had another work dinner with the Executive crew on Thursday night.  It took forever to get to downtown Dallas, but we had a delicious meal at Sachet.  The octopus appetizer was a real highlight.

Friday morning came early, and fortunately our flight to San Francisco was delayed a few hours.  We Ubered down to Redwood City to borrow Marco’s car and then had an early night in Pacifica.

For some reason I thought a jazz show in San Francisco on Saturday night would be a good idea.  Diana was too tired to make it, so Alicia and I made the drive up.  An Arcade Fire concert, Opera, and Symphony were all going on at the same time within two blocks of each other.  Parking was a disaster.  I’m glad Alicia was driving, because I would have given up and driven back home.

We were only a few minutes late to SF Jazz, and quickly got our seats to watch Joe Lovano and John Scofield – two giants in the jazz world.  I have enjoyed Scofield in New York a few times, but had never heard Lovano.

There was a lot of what I call “noodling” in the early parts of the show – showing off musical ability without necessarily being musical.  The drummer, Joey Baron, was the star – demonstrating the amazing acoustics, as we could hear every delicate brush stroke and cymbal tap.  McD would certainly have been sleeping early on.  Things picked up towards the end with better musicality and this gorgeous saxophone sound:

Alicia did a very nice job of driving us home, just in time to say “Hi” to Julie and Marco as they collected Gianluca from his boring day hanging out on the Hill.

Watching the Cowboys game today was much more pleasant.  From the first play – Parsons sacking the Vikings quarterback, until the last it was total domination, leading to a 40-3 final score.  Where was that team last week?

Marco and Julie came by after Gianluca’s soccer game in San Francisco.  Always so much fun to spend time with them.

My book this week was “All This Could Be Different” by Sarah Thankam Matthews.  The wonderful Lauren Groff (author of my book last posting) says:

“This book is spiny and delicate, scathingly funny and wildly moving.  Sarah Thankam Matthews is a brilliant writer, one whose every ringing sentence holds both bite and heart.”

I found this book a bit silly and plodding to begin with, but was completely hooked and invested in the characters by the last hundred pages or so.

Springsteen has a new R&B cover album out this week.  Great stuff:

The wonderful Lukas Nelson with a song I first head this week, reminding me of Nathaniel Rattelife’s “It’s Still All Right”:

And finally, some classic Credence jamming:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!