October 27, 2026 – Keith Robertson

“Saints in Paris”

We met Nick “Chickie” for dinner on Monday night. Peche was as wonderful as ever with seafood and everything else – steak tartare with oyster aioli, raw and grilled oysters, shrimp toast, grill charred romaine salad, crab capellini, hanger steak with salsa verde, and a plethora of desserts. We spent several hours enjoying the wonderful food and service and then retired to Barrel Proof to close out the evening.

I wonder who loves the sweet desserts?

Our friends have the place right across from Barrel Proof, sadly dark as they made the mistake of traveling back to Sacramento for a while:

Diana had the usual pickleball and workout sessions on Monday and Tuesday. Listen to the squawking on this video of the girls pickling:

Trivia on Tuesday night was a hoot. Jeff was in town to check on his Mom and thankfully joined, otherwise we would not have known the answer to – “Who was the first Queen of Britain?” Jeff was confident on Mary Queen of Scots. After that was proven correct I got all kinds of nonsense about why I should have known that. Leading to the classic line from Mason, “He’s not from Scotland, he’s from Kenner.”

We have subsequently learned that this is incorrect. Mary Tudor (first queen) and Mary Queen of Scots are not the same person at all.

Do you know anything about canals? Didn’t think I did either, but we were able to pull this question off – put these canals in order from North to South:

Panama
Suez
Corinth
Erie

We were pretty confident but nobody really knew were Corinth was. I remembered the term “Fine Corinthian Leather” and thought that was either Italian or Greek – now I know it was in Greece.

The team had 97 points with the next best having 79 going into the final. This is maybe the largest lead we’ve ever had. We wagered 3 points, allowing us to win by 1 point if correct and having a good chance of at least 2nd place if wrong. We won with the correct answer from North to South:

Erie
Corinth
Suez
Panama

Erie was really the only one that got a lot of discussion – is upper New York really North of Greece/Italy? Yes it is.

Ken came out to do a survey of our property on Wednesday morning. Apparently an official one hasn’t been done since the house was built in 1845. Seems crazy that we need this after all these years and having a small rectangular lot, but the pool folks tell us we can’t move ahead with any permits without the survey.

I made a drive out to Metairie on Wednesday to get a new pair of tennis shoes for McD at Second Serve (the local tennis specialty shop.) I’m hoping she likes the Mizuno shoes that we selected. Her old shoes are completely worn out.

The new “Tenzing” movie had me very interested. Willem Dafoe plays a big role and I had no idea that Hillary was from New Zealand – I had always believed him to be an Englishman:

Nic and Sandi accompanied us to watch the show at the Ghost Manor on Magazine Street on Thursday evening.

I didn’t find the choice of music or the visuals quite as compelling as in prior years, but a fun activity nonetheless.

Sandi had a “witches’ lunch” at Commanders on Friday – apparently it’s a thing all over town on the Friday before Halloween. She joined us on the porch for a while afterwards.

Witch Kenny left and was replaced by Nic. We (McD) ordered Theo’s pizza and hung out for a while.

We had a walk in the park on Saturday morning. I heard this ridiculous song on the drive and had it stuck in my head the entire walk. Not good!

After the walk, we had a visit to Trader Joe’s to stock up for our Saints watch party on Sunday morning.

Saturday night was all about Krewe of Boo, the New Orleans style Halloween parade.

Chris and his Love tricycle were the lead off beacon for the parade tracker.

By the time the tricycle reached our spot by Vic’s Kangaroo bar there was a different rider who needed occasional steering assistance.

Chris sent Diana home with her own Love flag – we’ll figure out which way it goes later…

There we go:

Our krewe was assembled and ready for some entertaining marching groups.

My favourite, the 610 Stompers:

And the rolling Elvi always make me smile:

Diana loves her Peeps (yuk!) and was happy to catch some:

Keep that gooey marshmallow stuff away from me…

What an enjoyable outing.

The first NFL game to be played in Paris, Saints vs Steelers, generated a lot of excitement and build up around here. The Saints owner, Gayle Benson, met with President Macron, our Mayor and Governor met (separately) with all kinds of folks.

And our envoys (Larry, Jean, Amy, Randy and several others) seemed to be having a great time:

As the game started at 8:30am, Diana thought it would be a great idea to invite folks over for breakfast. It seemed like a decent idea and so we started work on menu planning: ham and cheese croissants, French onion soup focaccia, a double batch of our breakfast casserole, baguette and croissants fresh from Gracious bakery around the corner, mushroom brie, various jams, Bloody Marys, mimosas, espresso martinis, and palomas.

All well received, particularly my casserole. Diana is still amazed that I came up with the menu and put it all together with just a little bit of help. Not that she’s seen it, it’s going to be hard to pretend that I can’t do it going forward.

The Saints were very disappointing and did not keep our attention well, resulting in a lot of time out on the porch during the game and on into the afternoon.

A successful party to close out a fun filled week.

I started “Sophie, Standing There” by Meg Mason, and I’m not sure what I think about it. About half way through and trying to decide whether to continue isn’t great after the strong recommendations from Ann Patchett and Bonnie Garmus:

“The “brilliant” (Ann Patchett) and much beloved author of the critically acclaimed Sorrow and Bliss returns with a tender and hilarious novel about heartbreak and the journey from isolation and loneliness toward love.

Sophie Pattison loves books. And as well as a dream job at a local book festival, she has a husband she adores; a lifelong best friend, Emma; and a brother she’s always been close to. Which makes you wonder why since Christmas Sophie has been living alone, estranged from Emma, avoiding her brother, and about to be fired.

Now it feels like the only thing she has left is reading. When Sophie rediscovers an author she first read in her twenties, the words on the page reach her in a new way—becoming both solace and company. Sophie devours every one of the author’s novels and begins to dream of meeting her, but knows they never will. But what if they did? What if, by then, the author feels like a friend? What if, for Sophie, it feels almost like love?

In this much anticipated novel, Meg Mason captures the heartache and dark humor of our relationships in all their complexity, with a story about the power of connection and an ode to the inexplicable nature of the human heart.

“So smart, so funny, so moving. I absolutely loved it.” —Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry”