“Happy Christmas”
The new TV was mounted in the “family room” (also our bedroom) at Clorinda’s house on Monday afternoon. She was not at all happy about this activity initially, “You took down my pictures to put up a TV – ridiculous”, but soon warmed up to the idea of watching operas and even enjoyed watching the Saints game with me. I did enjoy Adamo’s advanced contractor input on the process: no need for a stud finder – just tap on the wall – and then his marking missed the stud; “my eyes are much better than a spirit level” – and then the TV is a little bit crooked. Diana is not happy with the ultimate placement, remarking that it needed to be 3 inches higher up. Some things are just much easier done by yourself.
Diana and Alicia went to visit their friend Amy Adirondack (my nickname for her – her real name is spelled something like Adamac) in Los Gatos on Monday evening. I took advantage of the quiet to enjoy a documentary called “Antidote” on Amazon. This is a really good film about creative ways that people and organizations are using to spread kindness in their communities. One of the segments is about a program at Amarillo college that helps single mothers and other needy students so that they can complete degrees and find better paying jobs.
Clorinda and I shared some dumplings for dinner and then Diana returned with some Thai food – turns out it came from my favourite – Thai Spice in Los Gatos. I miss having a great local Thai restaurant. There is a new one in McKinney getting great reviews that I should try.
Tuesday started with a walk for me, run for Diana, up and down Gyspy Hill a couple of times. We weren’t stealthy enough and were intercepted by Luciano and Massimo and some friends as we reached the top of the hill – it was really Phoebe the dog who gave us away. A side trip to the downtown Post Office ended up being fortuitous as my gift from Damon was waiting there – no mail on the hill. I could tell Damon was very proud of his gift and so we FaceTimed with him as I opened it. What an amazing piece of art he had commissioned one of our coworkers to create (with quite a bit of collusion from Diana).
Isn’t that just great? I love all the details she captured. This all started with a photo that Diana took on the day when I picked up Penelope several years ago. I really enjoyed seeing these pictures of the work in progress that Marcella shared with Damon to make sure she was on the right track:
I enjoyed another beautiful sunset from Clorinda’s deck:
Wednesday evening at Will and Christine’s new apartment had been planned for a while. We pushed the start time back to 5pm as Campbell worked a full day from their guest bedroom. They have so much more space in their new place and the high ceilings make a big difference in how large the space feels. Christine did a great job with interesting appetizers while Will created a smoke infused Manhattan for me with his new equipment.
Diana and Alicia look positively tiny amidst my boys. Will and I went for a drive in his race car to pick up a Neapolitan dinner from Terun in Palo Alto. The drive was just long enough for Will to demonstrate all the different exhaust sound and engine modes he has available, that and the multiple Bluetooth and WIFI connections with radar detectors and the like. I felt like I was ready for a massage after that. We had a lovely meal and lots of fun exchanging presents. I really love the pictures that Campbell put together in a guitar body frame:
Then we took some pictures of our own to commemorate what might be a new tradition – Christmas meal and gift exchange at Will and Christine’s place.
Hopefully vaccines will be widespread soon and we can all get together much more often.
Marco and kids arrived on Thursday afternoon to exchange gifts with Alicia before she left early on Friday to spend Christmas day with her Dad and brothers. Alicia’s gift to Marco was a Dopp kit (toilet bag where I’m from) that was hilariously filled with tiny bottles of different liquors. “Dopp” is such a weird word for a toilet bag that I did some research: the name derives from the early 20th century leather craftsman Charles Doppelt, whose company designed the case in 1926.
After Marco and family left, we exchanged our own gifts. Diana had run out of time for clever tags and so we presented each gift with a “talk track” to give a small hint about the contents. Here’s Diana presenting an album to Alicia and then Alicia opening her big gift – the very sizeable mixer.
Christmas Eve dinner featured the traditional “Feast of the Seven Fishes”. Here’s some research on what that’s all about:
“While the tradition of enjoying a large meatless Christmas Eve meal was (and remains) common across Italy—as well as many other Roman Catholic-dominated countries—the origins of the Feast of the Seven Fishes has its roots in southern Italy. The area, which is surrounded by bountiful coastline, has been known for its seafood for generations. It’s also historically poorer than the rest of Italy, with locals preferring fish because of its relative affordability.”
Diana did all the shopping and then we prepped the scallops, shrimp, salmon, smoked salmon, dover sole and anchovy pasta for dinner with Adamo and crew. Wait, I hear you say, that’s only six fishes. Adamo to the rescue with a tee-shirt featuring a fish picture.
That seemed like an awful lot of scallops but only two were left after dinner. Adamo did a great job of cooking up all the fishes and then Alicia was a huge help with the clean up. Alicia and Diana exhibited some superior team work putting together the requisite meat and cheese platter.
Here’s Adamo and Amy’s crew all ready for bed on Christmas Eve. I’m not sure if you can see the antlers on Francesca’s onesie – she’s a deer which led to all kinds of punny comments on Christmas morning.
Christmas Day started with a photo shoot so that we had some pictures of Diana and Alicia together. I think I did a passable job as the official photographer. We had to start early as the angry red sunrise foretold bad weather coming.
Next was a visit to Adamo’s home to exchange gifts. Amy and Adamo were so excited about their gift for us – they adopted a penguin in our names from the World Wildlife Fund. Amy was jumping up and down and so excited. Frankie was very gentle with the new adoptee – subsequently named Parker.
Here’s the official adoption certificate:
We had a brief respite in the early afternoon when Clorinda and I enjoyed the Saints football game, and then Marco and family arrived for Christmas dinner. We had a delicious honey ham with green beans and mashed potatoes – successfully avoiding all the turkey work for the first time in ages. One of the funniest parts of the week was when Clorinda opened the singing llama present from Marco. Olivia told the story of him in the store setting off 5 or 6 of them so that they were all singing “in the round”.
Adamo and Amy cooked up some fantastic lamp chop lollipops for dinner on Boxing Day. I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed a “Halo Moon” before – Adamo pointed this one out.
Sunday marked the start of the long drive home to McKinney. We hit the road in the late morning and arrived at Aria in Las Vegas in time for dinner and a drink before bed. A different but very enjoyable Christmas holiday in the books.
We listened to “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles on the drive. This has been made into a new film starring Tom Hanks and it’s amazing how clearly you can see him in the role of “Captain” and hear him speaking the lines.
The story revolves around the Captain’s exploits in transporting a young girl, rescued from an Indian tribe, from Wichita Falls to San Antonio. Along the way he stops in towns to read the news from various east coast and overseas newspapers for the townspeople – this being the only way they get news from afar. It’s amazing to think about how long a trip like this took in the early 1800s – several months, and with all kinds of dangers along the way. The girl, Johanna, was captured by Indians around age 6 and spent 4 or 5 years with them – speaking their language and practicing their customs. The Captain has a lot of patience as he teaches her acceptable manners and tries to get her to remember the English she learned at a younger age. An interesting listen.
I finally finished reading “Utopia Avenue” by David Mitchell this week. I really enjoyed parts of the book and found other parts just silly and a bit nonsensical.
The musical details are typically well described:
“Griff started with a tom-tom and came in with a minute’s solo in the style of Cozy Cole. Then he grabbed his sticks and played a solo, heavy on backbeats and rimshots, with a snare interlude. Elf watched his hands with a faraway smile on her face. Griff showed off an Art Blakey press-roll; a skipping run of ostinato; an Elvin Jones rolling triplet pulse; some swing-era cymbal playing; and a glorious free-form crescendo as Elf’s hand slowly rose…and…fell.”
This paragraph reminded me of Alicia explaining what a “cacophony” sounds like:
“Beneath the party chatter and Sam Cooke singing “Lost and Lookin'” lies a composite hum of engines, cars, trains, lifts, horns, sirens, dogs…everything. Doors, locks, drains, kitchens, robberies, lovers. “It’s like an orchestra tuning up,” says Elf, “except it’s the main show. A cacophony symphony.”
“She says things like that,” says Dean to Lenny.”
Lenny is Leonard Cohen who the band members meet at a rooftop party at the Chelsea hotel in New York, hosted by Janis Joplin.
I’m going to skip the music section this week as I’m running out of time.
A very Happy New Year to all when it rolls around in a few days.
the crossing. I continue to turn into a “grumpy old man” – night driving with oncoming traffic not separated by a median is getting pretty difficult. I struggle to see where I’m going with the oncoming glare. So, the Pacheco Pass at night wasn’t really much fun. It’s very twisty and ill lit. That whining aside, we arrived at the hotel in Pacifica around 9pm. 1,950 miles in the books. I should have about 10 days now with no lengthy drives.
Once in our hotel room, Diana went on a mission to install the Amazon Firestick so that we could watch all our normal TV and streaming shows. She was so tired that it was easy to see her brain working but not easy to interpret what was (or wasn’t) being said. Problem one was that in order to connect to the hotel WiFi one needed to check the “Accept Terms and Conditions” box, but the remote wouldn’t go to the box. An hour later Diana noticed the “cursor mode” option and that problem was solved. Problem two – the firestick was installed and working fine but the remote wouldn’t control the TV volume and power, even after a bunch of fancy settings updates by McD. I looked at some YouTube videos of how to fix the issue and tried a number of things. An hour later, Diana finally gave up and sat down at her computer. I decided to try the regular TV remote that we had thought only controlled the Dish satellite system. Whaddaya know? Controlled volume perfectly. Two hours lost, but all TV and streaming options fully installed for our hotel stay. I wish I had some of that escapade on video. Funnily enough the firestick remote started controlling the volume just fine the next day with no changes.
After that interesting activity we were ready for some lunch. I spotted the City Kebabs and Gyros shop as we approached a traffic light and we decided to give it a try. The Mediterranean food was delicious with all my favourites – humus, falafels, dolmas, chicken and lamb. We were able to eat at the little table outside – one day before even patio dining was shut down.
We met Will and Christine for dinner at Town in San Carlos on Tuesday evening. The street was closed off and the restaurants had made some big investments in building outdoor dining. We were warm with the heaters and shades even though the temperature was in the forties. It was funny to listen to Diana and Will deciding on which steak and preparation they were going to share. I loved my sea bass and had some leftovers for lunch on Wednesday. It was a real treat to hang out and have a meal with Will and Christine. We had debated which night to meet and it was fortuitous that we chose Tuesday as all onsite dining shut down in California on Wednesday.
Diana chose to start her birthday with a run – and conquered the zig-zag path up the hill – most impressive. She had texted a picture to Marco (the ultra-marathoner) and asked if he thought she could do it. He coached her to stand up straight and take little strides – seemed to work. After her run we did another walk over for coffee and then enjoyed a sandwich from Dinosaur’s – such great Vietnamese sandwiches on yummy bread.
Those are lobsters that he caught diving and they were delicious. While the cooking was underway, Diana was reviewing her hand made cards from the boys.
We listened to the Ann Cleeves book “Raven Black” on the second section of our drive. This is the first in the Shetland series – I read the 4th “Blue Lighting” a year or two ago, a gift from Mum and Dad and enjoyed it. This one was a tad formulaic with the introduction and exploration of all potential guilty parties and Diana and I enjoyed trying to figure out who we thought were the leading contenders. Neither one of us was close.
The reprise of the road trip to California was scheduled to begin early on Friday morning and so we exchanged some gifts from under the tree on Thursday evening. I’m always so impressed with Diana’s wrapping skills. She got a special edition book of Winnie the Pooh stories and is looking forward to me reading bedtime stories from it. I’m working on the voices – it seems like everyone sounds a bit like Eeyore.
Saturday began with a walk across the hotel parking lot to the Marigold Café, a new place since our last trip. It combines Indian and American foods with New Mexico influences in creative ways. For example, my breakfast taco was served in fresh naan bread rather than a tortilla and included some delicious green chilis. Diana’s avocado toast was also excellent and she raved about the bacon. I’d like to return and sample the tikka mac ‘n cheese.
After checking into the lovely, historic La Fonda hotel, we walked over to Canyon Road and had a ramble past all the art galleries and sculpture gardens that line the street. I really enjoyed these wind machines – so creative and attention grabbing.
We walked back to the square and then enjoyed coffee and a slice of quiche at the hotel. I was interested to see the red chilis hung as ornaments on the square. Here’s the view from our hotel room balcony. The cathedral bells are quite loud. Fortunately the Trump rally (no masks in sight) in front of the cathedral cleared out quickly.
Why did we take the time to detour up to Santa Fe on an already long road trip you ask? Very solid question. Our friends Amy and Ray were getting married on Saturday evening at the La Fonda hotel. We hadn’t planned on attending but couldn’t say no after Amy heard we were just going to be an hour away in Albuquerque. Here’s Diana dressed up for the wedding with the favour that Amy left at the front desk – red chili peppers.
We loaded up and headed out early on Sunday morning – destination Las Vegas – a mere 8 hours of driving away. On the road by 8am and we should be relaxing at the lovely Aria hotel on the Vegas strip by 6pm or so. All was smooth with some slow initial going on the snow in Santa Fe and the pace picking up when we merged onto the interstate down to Albuquerque. And then everything changed – and not for the better. There were multiple semi-truck accidents on I40 – we sat stopped on the highway amidst all the trucks for 2 hours straight at one point.
After our quick dinner, we walked down the strip to Bellagio and watched the fountain show with Christmas music. Always such an impressive sight. On the way we passed through a new and extremely upscale mall called “Crystals” something or other. We were amazed at this tree where each ornament was one of the Swarovski crystal special editions – I hate to think how much it cost to decorate that tree.
Passing the smaller Eiffel tower at Paris hotel reminded us of a wonderful dinner we enjoyed there and of the very special 50th birthday dinner that we enjoyed with Mum and Dad at the real version in the real Paris.
After a busy Thanksgiving weekend, this week was very quiet with our only real outing to downtown McKinney for coffee today. Diana took my picture with the Xmas display outside the coffee shop. Not quite a Christmas card since Diana and BP didn’t make it in.
She said several times that the grilled lobsters were perfectly cooked. A nicely cooked sea bass makes me happy. So we were both very happy with our meals – and had plenty of leftovers for a late dinner. I laughed when we checked in on the chaos at Amy and Adamo’s home and heard that Adamo had said, “maybe we can go out for lobster on Thanksgiving twenty years from now.”
After Peche, we walked across the street to the Parker Jazz Club (capacity reduced from over 100 to 30) and enjoyed our first live music in 9 months with 12 other folks. Kris and the team are trying really hard to keep the place going with very limited seating weekend shows and live-streaming. The house band was excellent as always – although the new drummer over plays too much for my liking. Kris might have played almost all of his 8 or 9 instruments – going from bass flute to multiple saxophones and a flugelhorn.
Brunch was at the Odd Duck – one of my top three Austin brunch spots. The shrimp and grits with a perfectly cooked deep fried egg were fabulous, as was the ceviche with green curry sauce. It’s always so hard to choose from all the options – and the menu is new every time we go. Diana loved their take on the Paloma cocktail. I’m now expected to try and replicate that – oops, maybe she’d forgotten already and I just reminded her.
Sunday was a dry day and so we were able to execute a 4 mile circuit around the river trail, culminating with another snack at TacoDeli. Then another excellent brunch at Suerte – my top ranked Mexican restaurant. The masa that they make all the corn tortillas and tostadas from is ridiculously good. Diana had a smoked salmon tostada and I tried the bacon and sweet potato tetela (like a corn based pie with bacon and sweet potato puree inside). They were both perfect – particularly the mornay sauce, which I learned is a classic béchamel sauce enriched with a blend of Gruyère and Parmesan cheeses. We have really missed the creative food that is so readily available in Austin. And the great live music.
After brunch we met our friend Neffie at Fixe – a new place she introduced us to that specializes in southern comfort food – supposedly the best biscuits (scones) in Austin.
We passed this sign on the walk to Fixe – so nice to be able to walk everywhere again. My Mum had just been telling us the story of the Battle of Bannockburn where the English tried to sneak up on the Scots at night, taking their boots off for stealth, but were foiled by the thistles that made them yelp and awake the sleeping Scots. And like a responsible Scotsman who payed attention in History class, I do indeed remember that happened in 1314.
