Category: Travel

“Happy Retirement, Tim”

The New York Knicks had a 2-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs going into game three of the NBA finals on Monday evening.  I loved watching the Spurs come rallying back for a win.

They are a very young team and have the potential to be contenders for many years to come.

Before I was even out of bed on Tuesday, American Airlines had let me know that my flight to visit Tim and Deirdre in Philadelphia was delayed by two and a half hours.  They’re trying to get better about giving reasons for the delays – this one seemed a bit light:

I watched a movie on the plane that I would describe as a psychological thriller – “The Housemaid.”  I was telling Denny about it yesterday and he teased me relentlessly that the movie’s target audience was ladies in the 18 – 25 year old demographic.  Not sure I believe him – but he is now cut off from my movie recommendations.  His loss.

Tim had planned to pick us up at the airport, and we let him off the hook as our flight would now be arriving in rush hour.  We took an Uber and arrived around 7pm for some delicious Tim cooked ribs.  Diana said they were the best she had tasted.  I wonder what’s Tim’s secret?

Tim loves to decorate for all holidays – Christmas, July 4th, Halloween, Autumn, St. Patrick’s Day, and any number of others.  Deirdre keeps him restricted in how soon and late his decorations can stay.  He is in full July 4th mode right now – particularly down in his new basement bar.  There have been many improvements since I visited 15+ years ago – a new deck, a completely refinished basement with bar (beautifully stocked with whiskies and snacks), TV room and gym, and a downstairs patio.

Buddy the Beagle likes to go out early in the morning – around 5am.  He came to visit me and make sure all was good when he came back inside.  It’s been a while since I woke up to a dog in my face.  We took advantage of the early start to go out for a walk on the very well maintained trails through the woods.  It’s already starting to get warm in Pennsylvania early in the morning.

Our main activity for Tuesday was a visit to Peddler’s Village – about a 30 minute drive.  What is that place all about?  Here’s the advertising scoop:

We started with lunch on the patio at the Buttonwood Grill.  The food was good and we did hear something very entertaining as we were deciding on our orders.  “I’m allergic to mushrooms,” said Tim.  “No you’re not,” was the quick rebuttal from Dee.  The theme was revisited many times throughout the day, with Dee ultimately admitting that she had seen Tim eat things that contained mushrooms that he didn’t know about, and he had survived just fine.  “Who are you?  Sneaking mushrooms into my food.”

Walking around the artisanal shops with a drink is encouraged.  There is a local distillery and brewery to choose from.  I get a moonshine margarita slushy – not sweet at all due to the moonshine bite.

Each season seems to bring a different set of exhibits to the village – scarecrows, Christmas trees, and for our visit, sand sculptures.  Titled “Sights in Sand – an American Road Trip,” these very large sculptures were quite impressive.

The big question we all had was, “What holds the sculptures together?”  Apparently they are periodically sprayed with a blend of water and wood glue.  Each sculpture took around 125 hours to complete, and they will be on display through the end of August.

We made a quick stop on the way home to pick up sandwiches for our outing on Wednesday.  Then a quick visit to Wormwood farms brewery before heading home for Tim to grill a tri-tip.  It’s a while since I had this cut of meat – always popular at sporting events in California, and rarely seen in New Orleans.  Grill master Tim did another excellent job – finishing just before the “meat” of a rainstorm arrived.

Caitlin, Tim and Dee’s oldest daughter, visited for dinner – still in scrubs from her occupational therapy job – I believe related to patients suffering with brain trauma.  I would guess that it’s 15 years since I last saw Caitlin.

After dinner, Tim and I watched game 4 of the Spurs and Knicks basketball finals in the basement.  The Spurs had a 29 point lead and so I retired to bed at half time.  The big news in the morning – the Knicks were the first team in history to overcome a 29 point lead, and now lead the series 3-1.  Ugh!

We took our sandwiches to Bishop Estate winery for lunch on Thursday.  We each tried a flight of wines and then voted on which bottle to get for lunch – the Chardonnay won.

Diana picked up a couple of red white and blue wine glasses to go with Tim’s decor.

After the “allergic to mushrooms” theme died down a bit, the complaints about Tim’s birthday falling on father’s day ratcheted up.  So…he got one glass for his birthday and one for father’s day.  Here they are in the bar:

Tim got a night off from cooking, and we enjoyed dinner on the patio at 59 Almshouse.

In the evening Tim opened the retirement gift that Dee had hidden away for us when we had it shipped there.  More “Who are you, sneaking around and hiding things?”

It’s a line art sculpture of a Beagle, and was well received.

Friday was a smooth travel day back to New Orleans.

Kenny, Kara, Nina, Denny, and Anne met us at Merry Lee and Jeff’s pool on Saturday afternoon.  Diana had organized a cabana and so we were able to have a fridge and soccer on TV, and a place to shelter during a brief but heavy rain shower.

I had to oscillate between two sporting events on Saturday evening – Scotland vs Haiti in the World Cup, and Spurs vs Knicks basketball.

Scotland did win but played unimpressively and gave what I would describe as a flat effort.  They did lead their group for a while:

And the Spurs lost, giving the Knicks their first NBA Championship in over 50 years.

My book this week was “The Fine Art of Lying” by Alexandra Andrews.  Denny would probably say that I’m not in the target demographic for this book,  and I don’t care as I enjoyed the read.

Here’s an online summary of the plot:

“From the critically acclaimed author of Who is Maud Dixon? comes a riveting new novel about a young wife and mother thrust into a world of wealth and privilege, whose rash mistake sets off a domino effect of murder and betrayal.

In the beginning, there was art.

It was Clare Bast’s love of art that saved her from a bleak, predictable life in upstate New York, and drew her to the cultured world of Manhattan’s Upper East Side where she met Jed, her doting, affluent husband.

Despite her best efforts—including a half-finished PhD, abandoned when her daughter Sadie was born—Clare secretly can’t help but feel like an imposter in Jed’s one-percent, Park-Avenue life.

When the well-connected wife of Jed’s new boss introduces her to influential friends—a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad—Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs . . . until she finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece. Caught in the perfectly wrong place at the perfectly wrong time, every clue the investigation uncovers points back to her.

Suddenly, Clare is trapped inside a dark and treacherous art world filled with unscrupulous dealers and international criminals. What, exactly, has she gotten herself into . . . and how is she going to get herself, and her family, out?”

This paragraph made me smile – we have the same anniversary and will celebrate later this week.

“She brought it to the living room and sat on the couch. Noodle lifted up his head to look at her before settling back down in his cage. Clare tapped in Jed’s password—0617, their anniversary—and the display opened onto a picture of Sadie and her in the pool in East Hampton. She swiped down and searched”

Have you heard of Erma Franklin?  I had not.  She is the older sister of Aretha and recorded the original version of this song, nominated for a Grammy.

The famous version was recorded by Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company a year later.

The first Rush shows of their much anticipated tour happened in LA this week.  The reviews rave about Anika Niles, the new female drummer, replacing the late Neal Peart.  I watched a video of them performing the entire 2112 suite for the first time in 29 years.

“A Relaxing Week – for the most part”

The week began with the usual early alarms so that Diana could make her 8am pickleball session.  Yeah!

Tuesday began with me joining a retirement financial meeting with Paul and Diana heading off to her pickleball tournament.  I followed that with a swim, steam and sauna at the New Orleans Athletic Club (NOAC) in an attempt to stretch out my back.  Trivia in the evening worked out well for me for the first time in a while.  Here’s Kenny’s scoring and notes sheet.

My contributions:  William the Conqueror, correct first names for Lamborghini and Prada, infra-red waveband, and “Francis” as the F in F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Denny wore his new “Dude” t-shirt that we got for his birthday in San Sebastian.  The design is by the same illustrator who did my Miles Davis cutout wall hanging.

The typical run and yoga in Audubon park sessions kicked off Wednesday for Diana.  Then she spent some time packing up for her trip to California.

She left for the trip to attend Ashley’s wedding on Thursday morning.  There were delays in Dallas due to weather in San Francisco, but nothing too extreme, arriving on Gypsy Hill in the early evening.

I watched the “Accidental Tourist” movie on Thursday night.  This is the 1988 adaptation of Anne Tyler’s wonderful book and stars William Hurt, Geena Davis and Kathleen Turner.  Geena Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance.

This is my kind of movie – quiet, understated with deep themes and humour.

I found a recipe for the perfect “Vesper” – the James Bond drink and would have enjoyed one with the movie, but did not have the ingredients.  I’m adding it here so that I know where to find the recipe:

Friday, my first “unsupervised” day, was a busy one.  I spent the morning and early afternoon at Kenny’s rental houses.  We were trying to use my pressure washer to spray “Wet it and forget it” on the bricks and siding of the houses.  A series of unfortunate events prevented us from doing that and I’ve now ordered up what I think will be a much easier approach to accomplishing our goal.

After that frustration, Kenny took me on a tour of the Lakeview area of New Orleans (very nice and upscale) and then we shared a burger at Desi Vegas Burger house – one of the better burgers that I’ve had in a while.

In the evening, we gathered at the Bon Temps dive bar to support our friends who were running in the Barathon – a run of around 3.5 miles that visits 5 bars, where participants have to finish a beer before continuing to the next stops.  There were a surprising number of participants:

Our team:

Katherine, Fred and Brennen did a good job – coming in the top 25% in my estimation – very impressive.  How did the winners complete all of that in around 30 minutes?  Crazy.

While all of that was underway, Diana was making the trip from Pacifica to Gardnerville, Nevada.  Julie was almost on time for the departure and they made reasonable time on the 4+ hour drive.

I met Chris Peet at Casimiro for breakfast on Saturday.  This is a new brunch place from the ladies that operate Acamaya (one of my top 5 New Orleans restaurants.)  Mexican breakfast dishes are one of my favourite food groups.  We started with the Tetela de Hongos al Ajillo (triangles of corn masa stuffed with mushrooms and served with salsa verde and crema – I will be back just for these.  Then I had the chilaquiles with chicken – ridiculously good and enough to eat all day long.

We both tried the Cafe de Olla – coffee with cinnamon, spices and a slight sweetness – I had two and it was not Chris’ thing.

I really enjoyed catching up with Chris – been a while since we got time for a nice chat.

Denny and Anne invited me over for dinner on Saturday evening.  Chef Denny did his usual amazing job – hanger steak, gnocchi with spinach, and carrots on a Greek yogurt base.  It’s nice to have friends that worry about me when Diana is gone.

Here are some pictures from Ashley and Nick’s wedding in Nevada:

It seems that Diana had a good time and is glad she made the effort to attend.

A week after Mother’s Day and Diana’s flowers from Alicia are still going strong.  I’ve been changing out the water and adding ice cubes – apparently the secret to elongated life.

My book this week was “Doxology” by Nell Zink.  The online review says “this novel follows three friends – Pam, Daniel, and Joe – through the 1980s and 90s New York City music scene, exploring their relationships, the impact of 9/11, and the subsequent political landscape through the eyes of their daughter, Flora, as she grows up and becomes an activist. The book is an ambitious, generational saga that contrasts the punk-rock idealism of their youth with the political realities of post-9/11 America, touching on themes of family, fame, and the search for meaning. “

I find this book equally entertaining and clever with the musical references, and at the same time overly New York Times hipsterish and trying too hard.  I’m about 30% complete and will try to stick with it and have more to report next week.

I did find an interesting reference to Jane Birkin and the role she played in creating the Hermes Birkin bag.  This was a trivia clue that I knew because we sold so many of those ridiculously expensive bags in our stores.

Spotify shared some data this week – the first song that I listened to on the platform and how many since:

Let’s see – 31,500 songs over 12 years = 2,625 songs/year.  That’s a little over 200 songs/month and 7 songs/day – sounds about right.

I read an article about the albums that most influenced Tom Waits:

Some very good ones in that list.

“University Reunion”

Diana’s week started out with a long walk and after that she was ready for a nice lunch at the Laird’s table outside Fenwick.  This is the restaurant with views out onto a fly-fishing lake.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch with all three of us trying different seafood dishes.  Here’s a picture Diana took after lunch:

After lunch we made a trip to the Marks and Spencer’s Food store in the Newton Mearns mall.  This is a wonderful store, quite unlike anything we find in the US.  So many pre-packaged meals, cheeses, meats, and everything else you could hope for.  We picked out some lunch and dinner treats.  After that, we made a short side trip to B&Q home store to look for a new magnetic shower door strip.  That was a no-go – only available online.

Diana ventured out into the Scottish countryside again for a long run and walk on Tuesday morning.  Then we drove Mum’s car through to Edinburgh to meet up with my university friends for our 41st graduation anniversary get together.

We walked across to the Beehive pub ahead of our scheduled 7pm meeting time.  I was in line to order a drink when I received a WhatsApp message from Euan.  Thankfully that included a picture and a description of where he was sitting and the colour of shirt he was wearing.  I went across and introduced myself.  Bobby and Kirsty showed up a short while later and then Fiona and Patrick.  We made our way across the street to the restaurant at the Apex hotel.  The hotel is a remodel of the Heriot-Watt Mountbatten building where we studied Electrical Engineering all those 41 years ago.  The ramp that we walked up to enter the building is still there – now the handicapped entrance.  We walked up and noticed the red wall where our results were posted outside Dr. Davidson’s (head of electrical engineering department) office.

Left to right – Fiona, Bobby, and Euan.

Dinner was very enjoyable, the restaurant occupying what was one of two large lecture theaters in the building.

We reminisced about a “presentation skills” class we had taken in that theater all those years ago.  Euan talked about his experiences digging graves as a summer job, I shared how sound wavelengths operate in brass instruments (with live tuba and trombone demonstrations), Bobby discussed a new album that his country dancing band had released, and Fiona talked about gemstones with foils from a local museum.

All of the group are retired now (quite an achievement given we average 62) with Euan doing some occasional consulting with early-stage high tech startups.

This was a lovely evening from start to finish.  We’ll have to get together sooner if it’s going to happen again in these lifetimes.

We had a workout on Wednesday morning, followed by a “healthy” breakfast at a place called Hula in the Grassmarket.  I had a falafel bowl that was huge and delicious and brought a good bit of it home for later.  The drive back to Mum’s was smooth and easy, with a quick stop into Marks and Spencer for some special cookies and other snacks.  We chuckled at the alternatives to easter eggs:

We visited the Dunlops (Jeanette and Robert) on Thursday afternoon.  These are good friends of Mum’s who live one street away.  I babysat their children at least once many years ago.  We had a very enjoyable chat, with an “online shop” showing up during our visit.  This was included:

Prosecco without the alcohol.  Diana was horrified.  It’s also “suitable for vegans” according to the label.

Mum made beef olives for dinner on Thursday.  Ever heard of them?  Care to guess what they look like?

They are a Scottish dish of thin beef steaks wrapped around sausage meat, stuffing or even haggis.

Why the “olive” in the name?  There are no olives in the recipe.  It’s not clear to me – some online postings talk about the stuffed beef wrap looking like an olive – I’m not sure I see that.  Despite all of that, these made for a delicious dinner.

Julie and Robin invited us over to dinner on Friday evening.  We were joined by Lorna and Russell.

Dinner was a team effort – chicken tikka masala and naan bread by Julie, fancy rice with cinnamon sticks from Robin, and a raspberry meringue roulade from Lorna – all wonderful.

Lots of fun stories were shared.  It’s really such a lovely group.  The “Morgan” was mentioned several times during the evening, and Diana was confused about what that might be.  Any car enthusiasts reading that know?  Robin demonstrated as we were getting bundled up to leave – “Oh, It’s a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” said Diana.

Morgans are really unique.  They are still built using ash wood for the frame and are largely built by hand in the Malvern, England factory – the same one has been used for over 100 years.  Only a few hundred are built each year and the wait time can last up to 10 years.

We walked home a little after midnight (brrr!) and apparently missed the “clues” that were left to indicate that we were expecting a visit from Heather, Michael, and Hamish.

Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, Kara and Chris Peet, along with Nina, Ian and Hannah, were all running in the Crescent City Classic 10K.  There were over 20,000 runners involved.

Kara came across Chris and ran with the Love flag for a while.

We enjoyed a visit from Hamish, Heather and Michael on Saturday morning.  Diana was out for a run before major storm “Dave” arrived in the afternoon.  She returned in time to enjoy some Hamish time, including learning a new song about winding up a bobbin and pointing to the ceiling, floor, window and door.

Sunday was a long travel day.  Our regular taxi driver shared the audio of this Tom Jones performance as we were talking to him about Jazzfest experiences.

We were a bit nervous on seeing very limited visibility and sleet/snow from the airport lounge.

As we’ve learned, no reason to get too concerned as the weather will change in a few minutes.  True to form, the sun was out in ten minutes.

I’m always amazed at the quality of the service on the short flight from Glasgow to London.  We were presented with a food and drink menu and some delicious food.  Even a special Easter dessert.  The transatlantic folks could learn a lot from the folks working these flights.

We did not need to go through additional security or change terminals in London.  That meant more time in the lounge, Diana enjoying the selection of champagnes.

The menu on the transatlantic flight included a chicken tikka pie (reprising Julie’s dinner) and a carrot and ginger soup (Mum made this too).  I enjoyed them both.

I was trying to make some progress on Fred’s World War II book on the flight.  I was entertained to read of some characters trying to escape Spain via a ship from Bilbao with a stop at Saint-Jean-de-Luz – neither of which I would have known about prior to our holiday.

Clearing immigration in New Orleans couldn’t have been any easier – probably a much better option than going through Dublin.  After a short Uber ride we were finally home.  All seemed in order with our house.

I read in the newspaper that Easter Sunday has become a big day in the French Quarter – it certainly seems that way from the pictures.

Being in Edinburgh brough me back to Ian Rankin and his John Rebus books.  I don’t think I ever read the original in the series, “Knots and Crosses.”

Second week in San Sebastian

I took advantage of all the mirrors to capture a silly selfie:

Lunch was yet another gastronomic delight.  We started with truffled egg and mushrooms – amazing.  Do you know how they make a truffled egg?  I just learned on this trip – they sit truffles on top of the eggs for several days and the flavour of the truffle seeps into the eggs.

Missing New Orleans, and particularly the omnipresent live music, I reread “Groove Interrupted – Loss, Renewal, and the Music of New Orleans” by Keith Spera.  He covers music for the local newspaper and I really love his writing.  Here’s an online summary before I dive into some of the quotes from the chapters about how local musicians were impacted by Hurricane Katrina:

“First Week in San Sebastian”

Now that we’ve landed in the Basque region, you might be wondering where that is exactly and what the history of that region involves.  Here’s a map of the region – a small portion of what is now northeastern Spain and southwestern France:

Here’s an online summary of the extensive history of the region that helps one understand why these people have been pushing for recognition and independence for so long:

Monday lunch was at Rekondo.  This was a fancy restaurant (one tier below the very fancy Michelin star places) that was recommended to Denny by a shopkeeper in Old Town on Sunday.  The wine cellar is reported to be the best in Europe.  We had a tour after lunch, and it was extremely impressive.

They did not encourage photos and so I wasn’t able to get the fancy entry part.

The wine list that we were presented was at least an inch thick and very intimidating.  Thankfully, they had a list of about six recommendations on the food menu.  The champagne was $26 which we assumed was for a fancy glass, and were pleased to find was for a bottle.

I had the black pudding ravioli with truffle to start and then the suckling pig with the fancy pineapple crisp.  Both wonderful.

Here we are outside the restaurant and fully sated:

We had heard that the shops and restaurants would be mostly closed on Tuesday for a “protest strike.”  Denny decided to rent a car and drive to Biarritz in France for the day.  This was a short and relatively easy drive, and we arrived at the fancy beach in the late morning.

Biarritz appeared to be a combination of a very fancy, elegant town and a surf destination.  The breaks were very impressive all the way up and down the coast from the town.

There was a travel poster from La Baule in our apartment, and this and discussion of the waves at Biarritz reminded Mum of a day that Dad and I had spent enjoying the waves at the La Baule beach – much to the concern of Mum and Elspeth as we disappeared in the swells.

I had lunch at a cafe on a square in the center of Biarritz – a tasty veggie galette.

This bar window in Biarritz reminded us that we were still in Basque country:

After that snack, Denny drove us down the coast to Saint Jean de Luz.  We had lunch at a small restaurant recommended by AI – we would never have found it (hidden on a back street) without help.

Returning to San Sebastian, we were entertained to find the beach in front of our apartment very busy with folks enjoying the sun.

Diana made her way to a store to purchase a San Sebastian beach towel so that she could join the sun worshippers.  The following days were not quite as hot but she gave it a good try.

Denny and Anne left for the airport on Wednesday morning.  They were flying to London, spending the night, and then on to New Orleans on Thursday.  We were sorry to see them go and the apartment seemed quiet.

A ride on the funicular was highly recommended by Denny before he left.  We gave that a shot on Wednesday afternoon but caught it during siesta nap time.  Lunch seemed like a good alternative plan, and we shared a couple of salads at the nearby Wimbledon tennis club.

We ate at El Bistro Ondaretta on Friday night.  Ondaretta is the area of town where our apartment is located and so this was less than a five-minute walk.  The restaurant is small and is run by a husband-and-wife couple.

Saturday was a busy walking day again, covering more than five miles in the morning.  I had committed to giving hiking up to the statue of Jesus a try.  On the way we noticed a bunch of football pitches (8) on the beach.  What a nice setting for the kids.

Here’s some information on the statue:

The Jesus statue, known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus or Cristo de Urgull,

stands atop Monte Urgull, overlooking San Sebastián and La Concha Bay.

The statue, created in the 1950s, depicts Jesus Christ with his hand on his 

heart and is a prominent landmark in San Sebastián. The sculpture itself 

measures over 12 meters in height, and when combined with its base, which houses a chapel, the entire monument reaches more than 24 meters, making it visible from miles around. It was 

commissioned by the city council in 1943 and has been a symbol of faith and civic pride since its installation in 1950.

I made it and we were able to take some pictures up top to celebrate the accomplishment and capture the views.

It seemed more than 400 feet up there.

My first book this week was “The Future Saints” by Ashley Winstead.  The reviews made this sound quite appealing, but I gave up early on.  It was like a bubblegum pop book and nothing close to what I was hoping for and expecting.  The comparisons to “Daisy Jones and the Six” should have tipped me off – I really didn’t enjoy that book either.

I switched over to “The Rest of Our Lives” by Ben Markovits.  This was much more my speed.  I realized a little into the read that I had previously read “Christmas in Austin” by Markovits and really enjoyed it.

“Touring the Scottish Highlands”

Monday was a day of rest after all the wedding excitement.  It was a typically cold and wet day and, as it turns out, a good example of what to expect for the rest of the week.  I worked on train tickets from Stewarton to Edinburgh, and was pleased to find a route that didn’t involve changing from Central to Queen St stations in Glasgow – not really much fun with luggage for Scotland and Spain.  That pleasure didn’t last long as I saw a news story showing a fire in Central station caused by a neighbouring vape shop.  It did not look like trains would be running from there for a while.  A call to British Rail was no help – they seemed to think it would all be good the next day. I knew it wouldn’t and so arranged a taxi to take us through to Queen St station where we could catch the train directly to Edinburgh.

Arriving in Edinburgh, we caught a taxi to the Apex hotel in the Grassmarket to meet up with the krewe (Denny, Anne, Todd and Lori.)  We enjoyed lunch at the Beehive – directly across the street from what used to be the Heriot Watt university electrical engineering building (last visited by me, via this ramp, in 1985 to view my degree results pinned to the wall.)

Denny had to do some “work” in the afternoon and the rest of the group walked up to the Natural History museum, stopping to pat Greyfriars Bobby on the way.

What a lot of interesting and varied things in the museum.  One attraction weighed you and then told you what animal you were closest to in heft.  Our results – an ostrich, a penguin, an anteater, and a porpoise.  I’m going to let you imagine who has which spirit animal.

I found an interesting creature in a space suit.  Penguin or anteater?

We made our way up to the rooftop and enjoyed some great views of the Edinburgh skyline.  Those white lines are the Hillend dry ski slope where I was able to break an ankle and a wrist during my university years.

Here’s the dome of the Usher Hall – an excellent music and performance venue where I saw  several concerts – Joan Armatrading is the one that sticks with me, and also performed a piece for brass band, choir, and organ with a broken ankle (this one from some hooligans in Glasgow, not the dry ski slope.)

I like this picture of McD with the castle behind, although her face may give a wee hint of being a bit scunnered with the weather.

A pretty view down to the Balmoral hotel and firth.

We decided to walk down to the Balmoral and see if they had a nice lobby bar.  Indeed they did and we enjoyed some fancy cocktails.

After a quick refresh at the hotel, we walked up the stairs to The Witchery for a fancy dinner in the ancient setting next to the castle esplanade.

I loved my red deer dinner:

After dinner we paid a visit to Deacon Brodie’s pub.  The krewe had been on a catacombs tour the night before and were well versed in the two personalities, serving as the inspiration for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Wednesday started with a full cooked breakfast at the hotel.   One of our group didn’t like the idea of baked beans on their breakfast plate.  At least they were secured in a bowl rather than spilling around all the other goodies.

It was pouring as we tried to enjoy the view with our breakfast.

No reason to worry – as happened throughout our tour, the weather cleared up and the sun came out a few minutes later.

That allowed Denny to help me go and retrieve our rental van.  We loaded up and I was successful in getting us out of Edinburgh with no major wrong side of the road drama.  We drove past the kelpies at Falkirk:

Then past Stirling castle, before pulling in to Doune castle.  This is where much of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was shot, as well as some of the scenes from Outlander.

We enjoyed the audio tour, although some were disappointed that the ramparts were closed for maintenance.

We had a walk around the castle area, down to the river and along the path.  One of us tried hard to lose their phone on the excursion (not the one in this picture.)

It was a short drive to Callander (gateway to the Highlands) and a stop for lunch at an Indian restaurant that Denny had found.

I know, an interesting choice and Scotland does have some wonderful Indian restaurants.  I enjoyed the murals in the tiny bar in front of the restaurant.  “The Big Yin” (Billy Conolly) and the Irn Bru slogan:

We enjoyed the shopping in Callander for a while – I think everyone made a purchase of some kind – nice shirts for the boys.

The weather deteriorated pretty quickly as we left Callander for Glencoe.  The photo stops in Glencoe were pretty quick affairs:

We navigated through the ever changing weather and ultimately arrived in Fort William.   We tried The Geographer for dinner but alas it was fully booked on a Tuesday, outside of tourist season, in horrible weather – must be as good as the reviews say, or the only game in town.  The Nevis bar across the street accommodated us nicely.  I really liked the haggis nachos and Diana enjoyed some mussels.

The “Heilan Coo” had been the topic of much discussion on the drive and none had been spotted.  Denny used his AI buddy, “Chad”, to find the best place to see some as we departed Fort William on Thursday morning.

Turns out the best place was in the Nevis valley, right around the corner from the hotel.  We found some quickly and jumped out to take some pictures with Ben Nevis (tallest mountain in Scotland) in the misty clouds behind.

Next stop was the West Highland museum located in central Fort William.  A small but interesting place.  The thing I remember most was a video of a Model T Ford being driven up Ben Nevis.

We drove down the coast from Fort William towards Oban, stopping at the second castle featured in the Monty Python movie.  It can’t be reached when the tide is in.

A very nice and casual lunch was had at the Poppy’s garden center outside of Oban.  We decided that driving back to Fort William to spend the night was a bad idea and found the lovely Perle hotel on the waterfront in Oban.

We had planned a tour of the Oban distillery in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, like other places, they were taking advantage of the low tourist season to make some upgrades – adding an elevator and other construction.  This meant no tours.  However, the very pleasant tasting room was open and we availed ourselves of that feature.

We stopped into the Oban Inn on the harbour and Anne got a recommendation for a seafood restaurant – EE-USK (Gaelic for fish?) – just around the corner on the waterfront.    Anne secured us reservations and we had a lovely meal.  I started with the scallop gratin and then had a three fish sampler – sea bass, sole, and hake.  Diana had some briny oysters.

The view from the Oban harbour was something:

We made our way back to Edinburgh airport on Friday morning.  I enjoyed a nice roll with egg and sausage from the cafe around the corner before starting the drive.  We had a reservation at the Loch Fyne Oyster restaurant and got there a bit early.  Denny suggested a walk amongst the tallest trees in Europe that were just around the loch.

We had a short walk and didn’t find the tallest trees – highly suspect to begin with.  Inverary castle was closed for the season and so we couldn’t get in to take a look at that either.

Another excellent meal ensued at Loch Fyne oysters.  Seafood and bacon soup, potato fritters, oysters Rockefeller, and salmon three or four ways.  All delicious.

We drove on down to Loch Lomond, with an initial stop at Firkin point for some pretty views.

A little further down was Luss – a very busy place in the summer, but quiet when we stopped for a coffee.

Denny accompanied me to return the bus – can’t say I was totally sorry to get rid of it.  Worked out well for us, just a bit of a work.  An easy dinner at the Doubletree hotel was next, with great service from Bulgarian Vladimir.  I posed for this picture that Denny enjoys:

We had a relatively early start on Saturday to catch our flight to Amsterdam and then Bilbao.  We just missed the bus to San Sebastian on arrival at Bilbao – the ticket process was not self evident.  We were quite travel weary on arrival at the apartment.

Sunday in San Sebastian began with pastries at an outstanding bakery around the corner from our apartment.  Turns out there were many just as good in a very small radius.

Then we walked along the beach front, around the point, and arrived in Old Town.

We sampled pintxos from three different places – all amazing and different.  Denny had done the usual helpful research to guide us to the best options.

Pintxo stop #1

Here’s a view of the pintxo cases at stop #1 – get in ma belly!

Pintxo stop #2

This was my favourite and we returned several times.  Great hot pintxos and excellent service.

The steak with potato foam and red pepper was a highlight:

Arriving home, we had covered six miles.   Not quite enough for Anne – she was off to check out the tennis place on the other side of the beach.

No time for reading this week.   Hoping to get back to it when things settle down a bit next week.

Some music that was playing on our Highlands tour:

“Struan and Emily’s Wedding”

Our five week European excursion was anchored by Struan and Emily’s wedding the first weekend.  The trip over on Wednesday was completely smooth, even Heathrow seemed easier and friendlier than we remembered.  I ask again, how does British Airways server better food in less than an hour than they do on an eight hour overnight flight?  The service and efficiency on those shuttle flights are excellent.  We had our usual taxi driver who is always very pleasant to chat with.

On Thursday, I drove to Kilmarnock to pick up Hamish’s wee kilt and jacket.  It had already been collected by Michael’s mum and dad.  Oh well, it gave me a chance to ease into my left hand side of the road driving – only one attempt to get on the wrong side of the road and one curb hit.  The kilt was dropped off and I had a nice visit with Jim about the upcoming Rush tour.  He has tickets to see them in Glasgow and told me about taking Christopher (now quite an accomplished drummer in several styles) to see them when he was six – promptly went off to sleep.

Here’s a fun “head” from the kilt shop:

On the way home we had coffee at the nice place on Stewarton Main Street.  Mum had sausage rolls (haven’t had one of those in years) for dinner and a yummy rhubarb cake with custard.

I visited the local book shop, now inside the library, on Friday to buy “The Correspondent” for Mother’s Day.  Other than that it was a quiet day of quiz shows and reading ahead of the wedding excitement.  We drove up to the Red Radisson on the Clyde on Friday afternoon.  We met for a drink and snack at the sky bar.

Diana went for a walk along the river before we had to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at a wonderful Indian restaurant called Dishoom.  Heather had eaten at the Edinburgh location and really enjoyed it.  She did an amazing job of listening to what everyone thought they might like and then creating an order that made everyone very happy.

Certainly one of the best Indian meals that I’ve had in a while – and very different in great ways.  I think Hamish agreed:

We enjoyed breakfast at the Radisson before making the drive over to the Boclair to get ready for the wedding.

We checked into our gorgeous rooms and got ready for the festivities.  Here are some pre-wedding shots:

Look at that trio of handsome gentlemen.  Robin and Russell are two of the best guys I know.

After a very nice service, we regrouped and prepared for the reception. Here are the new couple entering the reception behind the bagpipes:

David did the usual wonderful job with his speech.

The first dance:

The dancing picked up pretty quickly – particularly with the “Proud Mary” Tina Turner impression:

And then the Proclaimers “500 miles:

About an hour into the DJ dancing part of the program, a saxophone player emerged and really picked things up several notches:

And then it all finished up with a rousing “Loch Lomond”:

What a fun and exhausting day.

We had breakfast together at Boclair in the morning.  Hamish decided to entertain us as we packed up to leave:

We drove home, via the Clyde tunnel this time, making a stop at the large mall at Silverburn.  This has a large Marks and Spencers and Mum was able to help Diana pick out a new workout jacket (her uniform from M&S has worn out on the zipper after several years of daily use.)  The food options in this store were ridiculous – we have nothing like that in the US.

Later on Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk.  Diana felt a bird splat by the Millhouse and we ducked in to clean it up.  There was an old firm football match on inside and the atmosphere was quite intense.

What a busy and excellent week!

My book this week was “Mona’s Eyes”  by Thomas Schlesser.  I was about to launch into an explanation of the premise, and then realized that the online review can do that better than me:

“Much Colder in New Orleans”

I know that I’m having some trouble with videos.  The YouTube plugin for my blogging software is causing a problem with mobile rendering and I haven’t found the best workaround yet.  I spent hours on it yesterday just to determine which plugin was causing the problem.

We flew back home on Tuesday – thanks to Caroline for the airport ride – advance party and departure assistance.  All our Thanksgiving travels were completely smooth – not what it was looking like a week or two before with all the government shutdown and other nonsense.

While we were flying, the Bayou Boyz trivia teams in New Orleans and Boulder were plugging away.  The New Orleans version struggled with the final question – particularly how many territories there are in Risk – I would not have been any help as it’s 40 years since I played (at a minimum.)

The guys ended in third place – very respectable.  Meanwhile, in Boulder, CO, the other team came in a lower place – but against many more teams.

It was too cold for yoga and other stuff outside the house on Wednesday morning.  Diana ventured out to get stuff for butternut squash soup in the afternoon – it was a recipe I’d seen in the paper and asked her to consider making – she made the curry version and it is delicious (we have lots of leftovers.)  Those squash were hard to cut through – I had to take on a knife sharpening task after that.  And what do you know – Amazon popped up with an email recommending a Japanese knife sharpener to me – of course they’re not listening to us.

A beautiful calendar from Mum was delivered.  I always love the nature photographs and the clever titles.

I did some chopping for Diana with the newly sharpened knives on Thursday night.  She made a recipe that I had found and that we had shopped for earlier in the day – a Mediterranean style stir-fry featuring mushrooms.  Here’s the recipe – we substituted barley for the rice:

Mediterranean mushroom stir-fry

The Cowboys win streak ended – too good to be true.  The Detroit Lions were way too much for them.  This means they are for all intents and purposes eliminated from the playoffs – nothing to get too excited about for the rest of the year.

I invited Diana to lunch at N7 on Friday to celebrate our stock crossing the $20/share mark.  Not bad from $11 at the beginning of the year – amazing actually.  We sat in the inside dining room for the first time and had a lovely experience.  Great ambience, service, food and company.

We split the charred romaine salad with clever presentation plate.  Then followed that with the N7 burger – check out the squid ink infused bun.

To cap of the celebration we finished with a pavlova.  The meringue and cream were perfect – so unusual to get that chewy center in the U.S..

On the drive to N7 Diana was explaining the World Cup draw process to me – perfectly.  She had all the aspects covered, including the 6 remaining open spots and how that works.  Where is all this sports knowledge coming from?

Scotland has a touch group with Brazil:

When I think about Scotland and the World Cup, I always map to 1978 against Holland and the Kenny Dalglish goal.  I couldn’t tell you the score in the last Cowboys game, but I know Scotland won that match 3-2.

Kenny and Kara invited us to join them to watch a film by a friend that was playing at the Black Film Festival.  The event was headquartered at Cafe Istanbul which is in the community center on St Claude Avenue.

This is a very cool venue that supports a lot of local community events.  It turns out we got the wrong time for the film that we wanted to see.  No worries – we listened to the panel for the prior film and then transitioned over to the St Roch market.

I really like this venue.  It has space for 10 or 12 pop-up style restaurants and a great bar.  I was wandering around looking for some snacks for us while the other 3 settled in at the bar.  When I got there, Diana was in a conversation with the bartender.  He hails from the English Midlands and has an extremely strong accent.  I was amazed at Diana’s ability to carry on a conversation – she’s come a long way since Ian Fanning from Linlithgow.  The bartender was a very nice gentleman, recently a U.S. citizen, and interested to talk to me about what I missed from Scotland as compared to New Orleans and about the process to obtain citizenship.  He shared a single malt Welsh whisky with me – and it was very smooth.

We stopped into the Avenue Pub (one of my favourites) on the way back home.  This was Diana’s first visit and I talked her into trying some of their excellent food – this time the loaded tater tots with pork – they were very good.

I forgot to mention that before all those festivities took place, I was enlisted to help install the latest blow up holiday nonsense – a polar bear with penguins – hanging off the front porch.  Sitting on top of that hedge doesn’t look comfortable to me.

Our neighbour, Thomas, came walking by right as we started – “That’s perfect.”  Of course it is.  Should I expect an Easter bunny next?

Sunday brought the holiday parade, delayed by the weather from Saturday.

This was a fun parade – Diana found Debra in the hundreds of Dolly Partons and we enjoyed the penguin balloon and Santa:

I had asked Diana (new sports commentator) her opinion about whether Alabama would make it to the college playoffs.  She made some notes:

I finished “Flesh” by David Szalay this week.  I can appreciate the sparse writing style that led to this winning the Booker prize.  At the same time, that’s really not my preference.  I felt as if we jumped through things way too quickly without smooth transitions.  Here’s some online review thoughts:

“From Booker Prize-winning author David Szalay, comes a propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp.

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour—a married woman close to his mother’s age—as his only companion. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control.

As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the currents of the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.

Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.”

Spotify sends out an annual “wrapped” thing.  It tells you what you listened to most, and this year provided a “listening age” based on the release years of the songs you play most.  I listened to a lot of new stuff, and apparently a lot from 1970 and 1971 – giving me a listening age of 69.  Younger than Diana’s 89 – she played a lot of Sinatra for her Mom.  Here were my top albums:

Kenny had an age of 34 and Kara was in her forties.  Hopefully they’re keeping us young at heart.

Steve Cropper died this week.  He was a guitar giant, playing with Booker T and the MGs, on most of the famous Stax records, including Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay.”  He was also the guitar player on the Blues Brothers albums and in the movies.  Here are some of the more famous songs:

Steve Cropper songs

As we were driving home from N7, the local radio DJ played some Steve Cropper and gave a recap of his career.  Diana laughed as he said almost all the same things I had told her in the same order.  I told her she had to leave when she didn’t now who Cropper was – kidding as I didn’t expect her to.

“Happy Thanksgiving – Cowboys win 3 in a row”

We had a smooth flight to San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon with a helpful MUber (Marco’s Uber) pickup.  Caroline had kindly cleaned the house, made up the bed, and shopped for some staples.  What Marco calls our “advance party.”

Wednesday was pretty much an all day preparation day for Diana and Alicia.  The scalloped potatoes are usually Alicia’s dish and this year I gave her a “loaded” version of the recipe – adds in bacon and other cheeses.  Diana worked on her regular and vegan stuffings.  I think I provided adequate supervision as all dishes turned out well.  Ouch – that punch hurt.

One thing you can count on in most Pacifica visits – amazing sunsets.  No disappointment on this trip:

Thanksgiving started out well with ANOTHER Cowboys win – this time over the Kansas City Chiefs – the other Superbowl team from last year.  This is what makes it so difficult to be a Cowboys fan – they beat the elite teams and lose to all kinds of others.

We had a delicious meal and enjoyed the company and particularly the usual excellent hospitality from Amy and Adamo.

Friday was a take a breath day, with Diana enjoying some well deserved veggie time.

Joey (Diana’s stepson) and his lovely family came up to visit on Saturday.  The little monsters were selling cards and gift tags outside of Grace’s shop, Sirens, and so they all went down to support them.  Some amount of the money they raised is going to support a local “resource center.”

Joey’s wife, Bonna, made a wonderful tart with fig jam, goat cheese, and onions.  I’m hoping Diana was paying attention (think she was) as it seemed like a great party guest recipe.

Marco and Julie joined later on Saturday afternoon and we had a fun visit with everyone.

Caroline and Carolyn (Clorinda’s caregivers) came over on Sunday afternoon.  It was so nice to hang out with them in a non-stressful situation.  Carolyn brought over a deep frier and all the stuff to make her famous wontons – yummy!  And she cranks them out so effortlessly.  Caroline told me a funny story that I’m going to call “Tsunami’s Over!”  You can ask me to hear it – think I’ll get in too much trouble if I publish it here.

Later on Sunday the Gypsy Hill krewe – Adamo’s group plus Andy and Jude, Diana, Carolyn, and Caroline – decorated the tree by the entrance to the hill.  Apparently this has become an annual thing with hot chocolate, champagne and carols.   I like it!

I continued with the two books I started last week.  The first was “Licks of Love” by John Updike.  Not at the level of his prime “Rabbit” and other work, but still a great read.

Updike has a way of capturing things that just makes me smile.  For example:

“She was a solid, smooth-faced woman, so nearsighted that she moved with a splay-footed pugnacity, as if something she didn’t quite see might knock her over.”

Not necessarily a kind description, but paints a picture so elegantly.

One more example:

Just wonderful – “an increase of pedantry in her fluting voice.”

Here’s an online summary of the collection:

“In this brilliant late-career collection, John Updike revisits many of the locales of his early fiction: the small-town Pennsylvania of Olinger Stories, the sandstone farmhouse of Of the Farm, the exurban New England of Couples and Marry Me, and Henry Bech’s Manhattan of artistic ambition and taunting glamour. To a dozen short stories spanning the American Century, the author has added a novella-length coda to his quartet of novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Several strands of the Rabbit saga come together here as, during the fall and winter holidays of 1999, Harry’s survivors fitfully entertain his memory while pursuing their own happiness up to the edge of a new millennium. Love makes Updike’s fictional world go round—married love, filial love, feathery licks of erotic love, and love for the domestic particulars of Middle American life.”

The other book I dabbled in this week was “Flesh” by David Szalay.  I’ll say more about it next week.  It did win the Booker prize and is written in a quite different style – like a terse Hemingway.

I came across this on Youtube – just ridiculously talented:

Tom Stoppard died a few days ago.  You may not have heard of him – a famous British playwright who was knighted.  I studied “The Real Inspector Hound” in high school and may even have attended a performance at a theater in Glasgow.  I can still remember one line “vilified and pilloried in the stocks of common gossip.”  Crazy that just jumped into my head, given all that I can’t remember to save my life.

What’s this doing in the music section?  Fair question.  Be patient.

I read a post from our wonderful New Orleanian, originally from England, Jon Cleary.  He describes an evening from Jazzfest last year or the one before when he had Tom Stoppard at a backyard party.  Stoppard comes to see him at the tiny Chickie Wah Wah music club the following evening, and finds himself seated at the bar next to another Sir Tom – Jones.

Here’s a video of Sir Tom Jones joining in with Jon Cleary:

Here’s some of what Cleary reported:

“One Sir Tom, Tom Stoppard, the English one, was a knighted playwright, an icon of sixties and seventies London. The other Sir Tom, Tom Jones, the Welsh one, is a knighted singer of equal stature and also in the arts. They chatted amiably, amused to be seated next to one another by chance, caught up in the bonhomie, enjoying the ambience of a neighbourhood saloon bar in New Orleans at night. My job was to play the piano and and Sir Tom, the Welsh one, needed no arm-twisting to bounce over with jaunty enthusiasm to join me on the small stage to belt out an old Joe Turner tune to the delight and surprise of all the ladies in the audience (and the fellas too).”

I like that Jon uses the “proper” spelling on neighbourhood – generating a red spelling underline warning.  Don’t change it Jon.

I cite this as another example of things that only happen in New Orleans.

“Paradise Point”

Diana went for a run with Laurie on Monday morning.  I finished my reading and decided to get breakfast across the street at Chicory House.  They have a new menu and it sounded very good.  I gave it my best shot, but after waiting in line for five minutes with those entitled McGehee girls running back and forth, I couldn’t take it any more.  It’s like Diana says – “You have to time around the drop-off Moms and the annoying kids.”  Giving up, I had a snack at Ruby Slipper – the waitress forgot my drink and ketchup (two separate requests at two separate times) and so I gave her a good tip – something has to right this day.

Next stop was French Truck coffee – they have never been a problem, and true to form, they had my delicious macchiato out promptly in a “for here” cup.  Things are turning around.

I rambled my way down Magazine Street to Breaux Mart (local grocery store), where I picked up a new puzzle for McD and some other supplies.  The walk back with my purchases was a workout, but good for me.

Diana enjoyed her new “Blind Date with a Puzzle.”  I repurposed the wrapping from the last one and updated the clues:

Diana did not guess the subject of the puzzle yet.  Can you?

Here it is:

Yes – the streetcar that runs a few hundred feet from our house and can be heard from our bedroom in the middle of the night.

Around 3pm, we walked down to Bistro Aquila and split a burger and tater tots.  We had the choice of salad or fries, and one of us decided we needed tater tots.  “But their tots are so good.”

Monday was John Boutte’s birthday (of performance the night before at NOMA) and WWOZ was playing a montage of his songs (with him texting in suggestions – that’s when you know you live in a small town with a close knit musical community.)  I loved this collaboration with Jon Scofield:

Here’s another one from that wonderful album:

I know, sometimes the music and book parts spill over into the weekly update part.  Such is this blog.

On Tuesday we picked up Anne for a drive down to her condo in Navarre (Florida panhandle close to Fort Walton.)  We had dinner at the restaurant on the pier.  My drink was served in a fancy glass, while the girls got their wine in plastic cups.  On inquiry, I learned that “we have 4 of those fancy glasses for Old Fashioneds and the like”, not for wine.  Anne was considering donating some condo glasses.

The girls were very productive on Wednesday morning – boxing up an entire service of china to be passed down.  They earned some beach time in the afternoon.  The place was deserted – great weather, no wind and chilly water.  Perfect!

And later it got very calm and pretty:

Anne and McD made their way to Fort Walton Beach to meet up with Anne’s long time friends Tammy, Susie, and Beth for a pizza dinner:

I decided to enjoy a quiet night alone.

Thursday was similar, Diana and I went for a longish walk and then Diana helped Anne to pack up some glasses and such.  Then we relaxed out back on “Paradise Point”:

Anne’s Mum and Dad have plaques on a bench by the point:

We made our way home on Friday afternoon, stopping in Mobile, Alabama for lunch.  The girls chose “Noble South” as our stop.  It had just earned  a “Bib Gourmand” rating from the first ever Michelin review of the South and did very well from the “K Review.”

The food and service were very good.  Diana’s grain bowl was a stand out.

Diana was a trooper on Friday night, going out with the enlarged Krewe to see Hayes Carll at Tipitinas – I knew I would be too tired and stayed in.

This was the opener “A Drunken Poet’s Dream:”

And here’s the great pianist:

Diana bumbled home shortly after midnight to tell me about 45 Chop, a bar down from Tipitinas that I’ve been to a few times, but not in years.  Funnily, Debra and the 300 Dolly Parton marching ladies showed up on Saturday and reported that their afternoon started at 45 Chop – a place Diana hadn’t hear of before last night.

Saturday was free outside music day.  Laurel Street porch concert followed by the Kingpin.  Pedro, Martin and Oscar were together again at Laurel Street.  We had previously seen them at the NOMA last Sunday.  Here they shared all that positive and youthful energy again:

World class jazz musicians performing on a porch for free.  Only in New Orleans, in my opinion.  We saw the three of them perform some of the same music a week ago.  It was just as good the second time.

After that, we dropped by Martin (local wine store) to pick up supplies to make Spaghetts  for the boys at Denny’s later (MIller High Life, Aperol and lemon juice.)  And then on to the Iguanas at the Kingpin with all the Dolly Partons and Debra.  I finally met Diana’s running friend Laurie at the Kingpin.  Her husband, Michael, filled in for me at trivia on Tuesday and the team won first place – so you can imagine the chatter about that.

Denny and Anne invited a bunch of us over to watch the Alabama and LSU college football game on Saturday evening.  This was a very fun night with good friends.  Greg brought an amazing pork loin, stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon – that and a smoky spaghetti squash side.

My book this week was “The Librarians” by Sherry Thomas.

“”This delicious murder mystery is a must-read for any library lover!”—New York Times bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt

Murder disrupts four quirky librarians’ lives when they try to hide among books to keep their secrets.

A LIBRARY READS PICK!

Sometimes a workplace isn’t just a workplace but a place of safety, understanding, and acceptance. And sometimes murder threatens the sanctity of that beloved refuge….

In the leafy suburbs of Austin, Texas, a small branch library welcomes the public every day of the week. But the patrons who love the helpful, unobtrusive staff and leave rave reviews on Yelp don’t always realize that their librarians are human, too.

Hazel flees halfway across the world for what she hopes will be a new beginning. Jonathan, a six-foot-four former college football player, has never fit in anywhere else. Astrid tries to forget her heartbreak by immersing herself in work, but the man who ghosted her six months ago is back, promising trouble. And Sophie, who has the most to lose, maintains a careful and respectful distance from her coworkers, but soon that won’t be enough anymore.

When two patrons turn up dead after the library’s inaugural murder mystery–themed game night, the librarians’ quiet routines come crashing down. Something sinister has stirred, something that threatens every single one of them. And the only way the librarians can save the library—and themselves—is to let go of their secrets, trust one another, and band together….

All in a day’s work.”

I’m about half way through and am enjoying this book quite a bit.  I put it on Diana’s list – she loves to try and solve the mystery.

I am a huge Rick Wakeman  fan – all the over the top stagings and bankrupting performances notwithstanding.   Here’s a recent performance of the magnificent “The Six Wives of  Henry VIII:”

I lost the recent performance clip and so gave you the old vinyl version.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all.