“Quine and Loon”
David arrived in Stewarton on Sunday evening in time for some of my Mum’s yummy steak pie. Diana found the two of us waiting patiently in anticipation of the pie quite entertaining for some reason.
We enjoyed breakfast at the Millhouse on Monday morning, prior to David driving us up to Aberdeen in what’s known as a “Duber” service (David’s Uber). We gave him a very good rating. The Millhouse is much nicer than when I visited the previous discotheque incarnation more than 35 years ago. The 4 hour drive (with a pleasant stop for coffee) concluded just in time for us to ooh and aah over the amazing rural views from Elspeth and David’s home before the early sunset.
That’s the Bennachie mountain range in the distance, and the highest peak, Mither Tap at 1,732 feet, on the left. How would you like to enjoy that view from your kitchen every day? A website says it should take about 2.5 hours to climb Mither Tap. I asked David how long it took him – about an hour – sounds pretty typical of the speed he moves.
David’s younger sister, Suzanne, and her family arrived shortly after us on Friday afternoon. They came even further than us – all the way from Brisbane, Australia. It was funny to watch David looking down the road and judging the size and speed of each car to determine if it could possibly be Suzanne. When they arrived, Suzanne said she knew she was at the right house because she saw the way David was walking through the window. It was a real treat to meet the entire Ruff family of Suzanne, Alan, Rebecca, Izzy (Isabelle), and Alex.
From the left: Izzy, Alex, Michael, Heather, Struan, Rebecca, Bramble in the foreground
David was a good sport and took the girls out to enjoy the night sky from the hot tub.
The Ruffs headed off to the Lecht Ski Center on Monday morning, in search of some snow for the girls – not much of that in Australia. David took us to an excellent coffee shop – the Coffee Apothecary near Pitmedden, a short drive from the house.
The coffee selection and presentation were great, as was the chicken liver pate. What a nice feature to have such an excellent place close by in such a rural setting.
After coffee and a snack, it was Bramble’s time to have some fun. Who’s Bramble? Sorry – the latest addition to David and Elspeth’s family, a red Labrador retriever. David took us to Fyvie castle to give her a good run. Another pet seemed to sneak in on the adventure – that crazy baby penguin certainly gets around.
Here’s a video of the exercise routine. It helps when Bramble keeps an eye on the ball all the way to hitting the ground. Diana survived a direct hit on the noggin with the tennis ball from the launcher shortly after this video was made.
Tuesday was a quiet and relaxing day. David, Suzanne, Bramble and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood. I wasn’t expecting to be doing quite as much “off-roading” through mud and long grass. Wind power is popular in Scotland, with turbines seen all over the landscape. We passed under a set used to power the ice cream making operation at Mackie’s farm, next door to Bonnyview.
Our hike lasted about an hour and we had worked up a good appetite by the time we finished. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was working their way slowly through a Christmas jigsaw puzzle. I’ll spoil the excitement and let you know that the puzzle was ultimately completed on Boxing Day afternoon. I hate to think how many man and woman hours were invested.
We expected an early start on Christmas Day with the young girls in the house. They were exceptionally patient, and even waited through breakfast before heading to the living room to open presents. There were lots of fun presents for everyone. Here’s McD with one of the stuffed trophy heads we received from Elspeth and David. Aren’t they hilarious? They did generate some interest on the trip home as they peeked out from Diana’s carry on bag, even getting the once over by the Dallas customs team.
The girls enjoyed the colouring book, pens and charm bracelet kit that Diana picked out for them.
Elspeth, David and Heather worked very hard on a delicious Christmas dinner. From the prawn and smoked salmon starter, through turkey with all possible fixings, through to Christmas cake and pudding (thanks Mum), everything was perfect.
The hilarity level went up a bit after dinner with board game time. We played several rounds of a game, the name of which I can’t remember now, where you had to describe a thing without using the word. The teams were evenly matched and so we kept having to play another deciding game.
That was followed up with a game of Cranium. I enjoy the variety and silliness of this game – everything from clay modeling, to charades, to blindfolded Pictionary. I was disappointed that nobody could guess my puppeteer work as I had Suzanne demonstrating how to milk a cow. It’s really lovely to see everyone laughing and having so much fun.
The Ruffs left early on Thursday morning. Not really that early to give David a good excuse for wearing his pajamas out to close the gate after them.
David and I used our time in the afternoon to coach Michael through enhancing a picture that we had jokingly titled the “Elf on the Shelf”. I shared this with Brent, who in typical clever fashion, suggested “impaired on the stairs”.
We drove to the nearest decent sized town, Inverurie (Diana can do a decent Scottish accent on this one), for an Indian dinner. Rajpoot was very good, with everyone really enjoying their meals. The owner thought he was funny bringing me a kids dessert served in “Miss Pinky” – I had laughed when I saw them on the menu.
Our visit was drawing to a close and we did our best to organize our packing for an early start to the airport on Friday.
The airport is located less than a mile from where I worked my first job out of University at Gearhart. The area has changed a lot since 1985, but the Four Mile Inn (a regular lunch spot back in the day) is still there and looks much the same. The Aberdeen airport was small and pain free (other than not having jet bridges, resulting in us having to haul our carry on luggage up slippy metal stairs), and we were soon in some very comfy seats (particularly for a shuttle flight to Heathrow) and enjoying a massage.
The flight to Dallas was around 10 hours and a bit hot and stuffy. I was glad to get home and stretch out. I did catch up on some movies and enjoyed a TV series by Billy Connolly about traveling through the east coast of the United States. I had been reading his autobiography (a present from Mum and Dad) on the earlier flight.
We got a much needed work out in early on Saturday (early to bed and early awake thanks to time changes) and then enjoyed coffee and a crossword in downtown McKinney. We enjoyed reflecting back on how enjoyable our visit to Stewarton and Bonnyview had been. We are fortunate to enjoy spending time with our family as much as we do.
We exchanged gifts that were too much to carry to Scotland on Saturday afternoon. These penguins nest like Russian dolls. One of several very creative gifts that Diana picked out for me. She got another puzzle – this one double sided for extra fun.
I finished “Olive Again” by Elizabeth Strout this week. I had recently watched a TV series based on the original “Olive Kitteridge” book, and starring Bill Murray and Frances McDormand. I kept visualising them as I read this sequel. It’s a bit of a depressing story as each chapter chronicles residents of the town and their interactions with the aging Olive, but Strout is an excellent writer who can create a very vivid picture of a character in just a few paragraphs.
I’m not a huge fan of Christmas music, so try to find twists on it that I enjoy. As usual, New Orleans to the rescue. Here’s a big band version of a classic carol.
And here’s a couple from a great New Orleans Christmas album:
I heard this more raucous and irreverent carol by the Pogues on the Scottish radio:
Tuesday evening was spent at Adamo’s house enjoying Italian take out. We were glad to finally diagnose why Phoebe constantly barks whenever Grammie shows up in the house – her hearing aids emit a high frequency noise that drives the poor dog nuts.
spent some quality time having Massimo read me his favourite books – he has them very well memorized for a 3 year old. The chameleon doesn’t have a colour of his own is his current favourite.
I headed up to Adamo’s home early on Thanksgiving afternoon to watch the Cowboys play the Bills and wish I hadn’t bothered – one of their weaker performances in a while. One of the cats was more interested and determined to block my view.
I finished a trio of books this week. My favourite was “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett. I had brought this book to read on my previous trip to Pacifica, but Clorinda ended up getting engrossed in it. We were able to discuss it this time and she regularly asked me where I was in the story.
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Amazon book review when one of my favourite authors recommended two new books that he had enjoyed very much – I ordered them up and put them in the to be read stack. The first, “Very Nice” by Marcy Dermansky is described as:
The next recommendation, “All this could be yours”, by Jami Attenberg, had a bit more substance. One back jacket cover review captures the feel well:
Austin City Limits (ACL) is a long running and totally excellent Public Television music series filmed live in Austin. I’ve been enjoying the show for at least 20 years now. The ACL music festival was born in 2002 and has grown into a mammoth production, staged over two weekends in October. The event has 8 stages across Zilker Park and this year is October 4-6 and 11-13. 450,000 people attended last year and so you can imagine that central Austin is very busy right now.
beautiful sunny day outside, I suggested lunch on the rooftop of the Thompson hotel in the Gulch area. My wife quickly approved that plan. One of our party should have applied sunscreen prior to the walk over to the Gulch and time in the direct sun on the rooftop. I’m sure it’s difficult for you to imagine who could have been so silly.
destination – we saw so many groups riding around town in open topped buses and trailers, even a party fire truck, dancing and having a good time. At least it keeps them out of the way of folks trying to enjoy the restaurants. The book that our bill was delivered in sent us on a trip down memory lane – Beatrix Potter. I read some in my best upper crust English accent.
setting off for the madness of Broadway. This is a street similar to 6th street in Austin – one honky tonk with live music after another for 3 or 4 blocks. It was particularly packed at lunchtime on Saturday.
My navigational skills failed me again after lunch. I was trying to follow the walking directions on my phone to get to the Ryman auditorium. Diana was quite convinced we were headed in the completely wrong direction – even more annoying because I was headed uphill. Of course she was correct, and we got some unnecessary exercise in after the large lunch.
bar just off Broadway to watch the game. The Corner Pub had a massive screen showing all the games and we found a good spot in time for kickoff. What a horrible first half – nothing working for the Cowboys and everything clicking for the Packers. Ugh! The Boys pulled it together in the second half with some good play, but it was all too little and too late. What a disappointment.
Can you guess what wasn’t a disappointment on Sunday? That’s right – Marc Cohn. Mark Erelli opened the show – a very talented singer songwriter, who had recently played at the Ryman. The sound in the City Winery is really fabulous. I appreciated his song “By Degrees”, which I believe is about the need for improved gun control. Erelli showed up later to play guitar on several Marc Cohn songs – and did an excellent job on slide guitar.
She wasn’t so happy the next morning with her 4am start to get back to Dallas for a client meeting. I had a more leisurely start, time for breakfast, and even the best shoe shine I think I’ve had, before flying back to Austin.
I spent the first week in Austin, while McD headed to Wisconsin for a few days. Sunrise on Tuesday was described as “crepuscular” by the TV weather guy. It was quite impressive and I looked up what that meant:
I do enjoy waking up with sunrise over downtown Austin. Meanwhile Diana was enjoying what Wisconsin had to offer – much cooler weather, and some good steakhouses (no relation to the New Orleans institution of the same name).
On Saturday morning, we caught a flight to San Francisco for a few days with family. Crosswords are a good way to pass the time, and I always enjoy the view of the Sierras with a small snow cap remaining.
surf boarding behind a ski boat in Lake Tahoe when you can’t float with a life jacket, living in a one bedroom apartment in North Beach with a baby grand and not being able to concentrate on music if the kitchen wasn’t fully organized, and making a 21 layer rice crispie cake for Adamo. For desert we chose a butterscotch pot de creme (yummy). We both enjoyed our 2 hour plus lunch experience.
I loved the book “Henry, Himself” by Stewart O’Nan. 
We covered a lot of ground this week. I drove down to Austin on Monday to prepare for a presentation to the Board of Directors on Tuesday, driving back to McKinney when the session finished up. We worked from home on Wednesday, and then caught a flight to Palm Springs for an adventure with the Ogans and two other couples who I’ll introduce you to in due course.
Breakfast was included, and served on a gorgeous patio in front of the hotel, by some very happy and kind ladies. I really enjoyed the avocado toast with a sunny-side egg and tomatoes. The group managed to rustle up some champagne so that everyone could enjoy mimosas and get the day off to a good start. I should clarify – the rest of the group had already been on a strenuous hike, climbing around 1500 feet in the roasting temperatures, before D and I joined them for breakfast.
For dinner we chose tacos and margaritas at El Jefe in the funky, retro Saguaro hotel. The shishito peppers, queso fundido, tacos (particularly the shrimp), and margaritas were all very good. Unfortunately “Karaoke Kenny” wasn’t able to perform as that’s only available at El Jefe during high season.
Diana and Anne made a visit to Trina Turk’s clothes shop, while the rest of us picked up coffees and a blue balloon dog for Anne. Denny and I were both looking for casual lunch spots en route to our next hotel, and both decided on Dillon’s Burgers and Beers at the same time. This dive bar has been operating for over 70 years and delivered exactly what it advertised – delicious burgers and beer. A highlight of the visit was playing pool, with Anne receiving detailed instructions from Karaoke Kenny – “Slow your roll, and see through the ball”.
On the outside were stables, saloons, and jails, and on the inside, were ice cream parlors, bowling alleys, and motels. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Russell Hayden, and the Sons of the Pioneers (for whom the town was named) were some of the original investors and personalities who helped build and invent Pioneertown. More than 50 films and several television shows were filmed in Pioneertown throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s.
In 1982, Harriet and her husband, Claude “Pappy” Allen, opened “Pappy&Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace”. While the bikers still hung around, Pappy&Harriet’s presence created more of a family atmosphere. With family style Tex-Mex cuisine and live music featuring Pappy, Harriet and their granddaughter Kristina, P&H quickly became a local favorite with all walks of life getting along under one roof!
And what’s Campout 15? Two bands formed by David Lowery, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, have hosted the Campout music festival at this location for the last 15 years. This was to be the final event. Lowery formed Camper Van Beethoven, an experimental indie band, in 1983 in Santa Cruz, CA, and then the more straight ahead, Cracker in the early 90s. I’m a very big Cracker fan – the “Kerosene Hat” album has been one of my favourites for many years.
That was followed by a Cracker set. The theme for the evening was “black”, to recognize the end of the Campout’s 15 year run. Here’s their best known song:
After a dip in the pool at the El Morocco, we headed up for night two of the Campout. The order was reversed with Camper Van Beethoven starting, and Cracker headlining. In between was an interesting experience, The Minus Five performed. Who are they? Well, they were formed by Scott McCaughey in 1993 with Peter Buck of REM. Prior to this band, McCaughey formed The Young Fresh Fellows with Chuck Caroll. What? That Chuck Carroll?
Yes – my neighbour in Los Gatos, Joe Carroll’s brother Chuck. I met him a few times and he can play Anything on the guitar. The Minus Five were much more animated than expected – kind of a cross between Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello in the late 80s. Here they are with a Beatles cover. Can you see Mike Mills and Peter Buck from REM on the right (they are used to much larger stadium audiences):
This bar is most famous for featuring in one of the late, great Anthony Bourdain’s television shows. Particularly the taco truck that parks out front. I do think that this is a great place to settle in with a good book.
Dos Jefes cigar bar doesn’t look like much from the outside (in typical New Orleans fashion) but features great live music every night of the week. John Fohl, best known as the guitar player in Dr. John’s band for many years, has a standing Monday night gig. We saw him there a few years ago and really enjoyed his set. I enjoyed this riff on James Booker’s “Classified”:
Anne was able to join us for the show and, as is pretty typical, took time to have a long conversation with Fohl. Mr. “Good Lord” Alex was also able to join us about half way through the first set. Here’s another one of the songs from an excellent first night in New Orleans:
Tuesday festivities started at a new restaurant, “Justine”, in the French Quarter – thanks to Anne for “Oganizing” reservations. This is the new venture from Justin Devillier, the chef/owner behind “La Petite Grocery” – a place we’ve loved for several years. Justin appeared on Top Chef season 11 and has won many awards since beginning his career as a line cook in 2004.
Diana and Anne didn’t have much of a rest before heading out for oyster and champagne Happy Hour at Pascal’s Manale. This is always one of the highlights of McD’s trips to New Orleans, as she gets to catch up with her New Orleans girlfriends.
As we were getting ready to head out for the evening, Denny’s neighbor asked for some help pushing his 1956 Thunderbird into the garage, resulting in this entertaining video:
We hadn’t had quite enough music yet, and rode over to the French Quarter again to see Dragon Smoke at One Eyed Jacks – now having rendezvoused with Diana. This band is a kind of New Orleans supergroup that has come together on the Tuesday night of the week between Jazzfest weekends to perform a one of a kind show for the last 19 years. The members are Ivan Neville (Neville Brothers and Dumpstaphunk), Eric Lindell, Stanton Moore (Galactic) and Robert Mercurio (Galactic). I laughed at the sign outside the venue stating “Early Show – Dragon Smoke – Sold Out” which I saw after 11pm still waiting for the band to assemble from their other various gigs and start.
We had an excellent dinner experience at Patois, just down the street from Denny and Anne’s home. I started with a duck mousse pate that was amazing and Diana had some beautifully cooked octopus in a sizzling skillet.
Thursday also began with a pleasant stroll through Audubon park. I always enjoy seeing the moss in the trees that is so typically Southern. This was used to make mattresses and I’m sure was pretty comfortable.
Norma, my CIO for Latin America and based in Guatemala, bought tickets to Jazzfest when the Rolling Stones were originally scheduled to play on Thursday. She kept her plans to visit New Orleans and met us for a delicious Peruvian dinner at Tito’s Ceviche and Pisco. The weather was good and we sat on the patio and enjoyed a good sampling of the menu. The lamb shank and hanger steak with pesto linguine were my favourites.
legend, Johnny Sansone, in the event space of Monkey Hill bar. This was an excellent show in a great small venue. The blue lights at the front of the stage made it challenging for me to get good pictures and video. Things started out very well with Luke Winslow King and Roberto Luti. Luke is a good friend of my old boss, Vince, who had sent me a signed copy of his last album – it was very nice to hear it live.
The excellent evening closed with some Blues royalty. The band including Fohl, Crowne, and Sansone, were joined by Benny Turner, younger brother of Freddie King and bass player for years in the Freddie King band. What a treat and what a character.
Our Friday at Jazzfest was upon us. This is the 50th anniversary of this wonderful institution and we were hoping for good weather and a great day. As you can see, the skies started off a bit overcast and threatening rain.
From Congo we made the walk through to the Gentilly stage for Shamarr Allen. What an amazingly small cornet he uses, but still gets a great sound. McD was annoyed when Shamarr started her favourite “Weekend Dance” song only to be shut down by the festival police as he reached the end of his time slot – nobody goes over time at Jazzfest.
Next was a quick jaunt back to the Fais Do Do stage (Anne’s favourite) where a lot of local Cajun style music is featured. Cedric Watson was a classic example of this style. I was entertained by his punk rock, Joan Jett looking, washboard player.
Getting tired of walking and too hot in the sun yet? Me too, so we stopped into the paddock area for a breather and some shade.
Diana faught her way up front to get a better view and got this picture from the screen looking out on the extensive Jazzfest crowd. Can you see us back there on the left side?
Our New Orleans vacation started to wind down on Saturday. We had a midday flight but managed to work in one final meal with Denny and Anne before heading to the airport. Echo’s Pizza offers a very nice brunch – Diana and I shared the Echo’s Breakfast – avocado toast, eggs, bacon, and potatoes (delicious). The heavens opened just as we were leaving and so Denny and Anne very kindly dropped us at the airport. Those two are the best hosts you could ever hope for and have been to us for so many years – very special!
I was a bit nervous about my first trip to New York in a few months on Tuesday morning – the weather forecast called for snow, freezing rain and ice pellets. Diana dropped me off at the airport in plenty of time, and sure enough, the flight was cancelled. It turned out that every other flight was cancelled to ease traffic in to La Guardia with the adverse weather conditions. I was able to get on the next flight and arrived only 30 mins later than planned.
It was very nice to catch up with Vince and to hear about his new job as CTO of insurance company QBE. I miss our time together in New York catching jazz performances and enjoying meals together.
Wednesday took me to 10 Hudson Yards, the office of BCG Digital Ventures – a company we are in partnership with to stand up a new digital business. The view from the 46th floor office down the Hudson river was amazing. I enjoyed experiencing the modern, hip office that I imagine is commonplace in internet 
companies like Google and Facebook – complete with a full espresso bar and all kinds of snacks and drinks. Most of the folks working with us on this project are based in Sydney and Diana is promoting the need to visit their home office pretty strongly. She really misses Sydney and would love to visit all her friends there.
but it’s already packed for Austin and I can’t remember where it is. My gift was a book of my blog entries from last year and we laughed when we compared it to the book from a couple of years ago – much fatter. Apparently I have a lot more to say about our activities these days. Dinner of sea bass, green beans, and eggplant was delicious – thanks D!
concert. We saw an excellent show at the same venue from Broussard last year. I thought it was around May but Diana was correct that it was almost exactly a year ago. This time around they didn’t offer cocktail tables downstairs (standing only) and so we had seats in the wrap around balcony upstairs. We claimed our seats and then enjoyed a yummy burger at PhD (across the street from the Kessler) before the show. Can you tell how cold and gloomy the weather is from the sky behind the Kessler?
I finished the book “Let’s Go, So We Can Get Back” by Jeff Tweedy this week. I enjoyed the conversational style of this book very much and highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this style of music.
Monday took me to Guatemala City for a few days of work. I had done some pre-reading on my destination but wasn’t really sure what to expect. Customs and immigration was a very quick process and I found myself looking around for my car service and without mobile phone service (should have double checked that before leaving). I had been strongly warned not to take a regular taxi but was close to taking that risk. Fortunately, the driver showed up about 20 minutes later and, after a short ride, I was checked into a very modern Marriott hotel and enjoying dinner. This was the view from my balcony.
This view from the office balcony shows shacks built into a valley, right next to a very modern office complex. It was a bit disconcerting to learn that all the executives in the office drive heavily armored and bullet proof cars but I was happy to know that on our way to dinner on Tuesday through some very interesting neighborhoods.
Wednesday was a long work day and so we opted for a local restaurant in walking distance of the hotel. Kacao provided a good sampling of local cuisine – very similar to the Mexican food we are familiar with . I had a very good mixed seafood ceviche.
We awoke to a light dusting of snow on Saturday morning and it’s been so cold this weekend that it hasn’t quite melted yet. You can imagine how much McD is enjoying the cold weather and biting wind. I heard the classic, “I’m ready to go and lie on a beach now”, comment this morning. Quickly followed up with “and I mean a warm beach!”.
The Kessler beckoned us to another excellent concert on Saturday night. We checked into the Nylo (now called the Canvas) hotel and Ubered over to Nova for a pre-concert dinner. The special of scallops on a bed of ratatouille was excellent.
The concert was by Joe Ely, a performer that I’ve seen a couple of times over the last close to 30 years and always enjoyed. He was born in Amarillo in 1947 and has spent most of his life based in Lubbock, TX (famously the home of Buddy Holly). Here is his performance of “Dallas”, one of his best known songs and the 2nd in the setlist:
There was some hilarity on our Uber ride back to the hotel after the show. We commented on a huge new gas station that we passed and our driver told us that the owner kept a bison, a longhorn, and a zonki behind the store. What’s a zonki? Exactly – we had no idea either. My Dad guessed correctly earlier today – a cross between a zebra and a donkey.
I chose Standard Pour as our brunch destination. This was our first time trying the food here (we learned from Martha, sitting next to us at the concert, that our favourite brunch location in South Dallas, Smoke, had closed a few weeks ago) and we enjoyed the whole experience. Diana chose the economical carafe of mimosas but didn’t quite finish it. That washed down a very stacked burger. We have lots of leftovers for dinner.
Will is spending the weekend in Lake Tahoe, snowboarding at the Heavenly resort. They have several feet of new snow and the conditions should be excellent. This is the first time Will has felt his knee is strong enough to ride in several years. I hope he’s having a great time, being safe, and has a smooth drive home after the snow abates a bit.
I finally finished “Independence Day” by Richard Ford this week. This 450 page, small font book has been with me for several weeks now.
Wednesday night brought a much better experience. I met Diana’s step son, John, at Geraldine’s in the Hotel Van Zandt. John was in Austin on business at the Convention Center and had a work dinner. I got there early and enjoyed a yummy snack of bourbon glazed cauliflower before John joined me. Geraldine’s has a nice music stage and great sound. We were treated to a quite unexpected performance by Ray Prim. He has a very pleasant, soulful voice and was joined by a string quartet – a unique sound for sure. Here’s one of his songs from that evening:
The view of the snow on the Sierras on my flight out reminded me of the Boz Scaggs song “Sierra” that I enjoy so much:
We arrived in New Orleans on Sunday night to welcome in the New Year with great friends, food, and music. After some delicious Denny snacks – crab dip and braised short ribs in a new modern version of a pressure cooker – Denny and I saw the trombone player, composer, and band leader, Rick Trolsen, at the Dos Jefes cigar bar and music club. This is a very small place but always seems to provide excellent music.
some fresh oysters.
Sadly, our time in New Orleans came to an end on Thursday. We wrapped up the visit with a perfect French brasserie meal at Couvant in the Eliza Jane hotel (a gorgeous new hotel with a great patio). This is one of several new French restaurants in New Orleans (a pleasant trend) and another excellent Denny recommendation. We shared chicken liver mousse, steak tartare, and mussels a la Normande, all accompanied with some very AAnice French wines available by the glass.
10:30pm. Friday was pretty much a full work day again for both of us after some good time off for the holidays. We were back to our normal routine on Saturday and Sunday with morning workouts and crossword and coffee sessions. I enjoyed the Cowboys playoff win over the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night very much albeit way more stressful than it needed to be. We’ll find out after the Eagles game tonight if the Cowboys play the New Orleans Saints or the Los Angeles Rams next week. Either one will be very much an uphill battle.