Category: Weekly Updates

Week in Review – February 25th, 2024

“Willow wins State!”

Campbell sent me these pictures from an engagement party he put together in San Diego for Molly last weekend.  They look so happy!

We’re so happy that we were part of the proposal and celebration in New Orleans.

Denny and Anne had me over for dinner on Wednesday – they always take care of me when Diana’s out of town.  Denny’s hanger steak with chimichurri sauce was delicious as always.

As a thank you, I drove Denny, Anne and Thom over to Hammond for the state soccer final on Thursday night.  Jack is an assistant coach for the Willow school – he and Mason won the state championship a few years ago at that school (called Lusher at the time.)

It was about an hour drive, and we stopped at Middendorf’s for dinner on the way.  This is a place that has been around forever, and has recovered from several hurricanes and floods.  Denny talked about it being a destination when he was a kid – his parents would drive him out there for Sunday lunch.  Here’s some history from the menu:

I chuckled at the wine list, and was glad Diana wasn’t there to critique – Kung Fu white wine would not be atop her preferred list.

Middendorf’s specialty is “thin catfish” and it was really good:

The game was a lot of fun – the Willow team was incredibly well coached – the passing and vision so good it was hard to believe this was a high school team.  They dominated the midfield, but just couldn’t get at the goal.  That finally happened at 70 minutes, with Trent’s son scoring the first goal.  They ultimately won 2-0, winning 3 of the last 4 state championships.  That’s a heck of a coaching accomplishment.

I didn’t get home until almost midnight, but really enjoyed the evening.  It’s been a while since I watched some really good soccer live.

We went to the Broadside concert venue on Friday night.  This is just across from the Broad movie theater.  I loved the venue – outside and with all kinds of seating options.  Tinsley Ellis started the show.  According to Billboard magazine, “nobody has released more consistently excellent blues albums than Atlanta’s Tinsley Ellis.”  I enjoyed his songs and his stories.  Here’s a recording and some live music:

Marcia Ball was next – always one of my favourites.  She had a number of ballads mixed in with her boogie woogie piano hits.  Here’s “Saint Gabriel”, such a good song:

And one of her boogie woogie numbers, with the foot kicking in time:

There is a food truck embedded in the venue – Cochon BBQ – I loved the food they offered and the stickers on their window – “Music the Healer.”

Saturday was a gorgeous day – 74 degrees and no humidity.  Perfect for the kickoff of the Kingpin bar Saturday music series.  This is a local bar that showcases music out front and encourages folks to bring chairs to set up in the small park out front.  This week was the Bessarabia brass band:

Diana flew back to New Orleans during the show – “Would it be ok if you Ubered over to the Kingpin instead of me coming to pick you up?”  She was a trooper and did exactly that.  She did get to meet up with the extensive krewe out enjoying the show – including rare Libby and Laura sightings.  I’m looking forward to the next few Saturday afternoon shows before it gets oppressively hot.

It’s nice to have my wife back home.  Off to Miami Beach tomorrow.

We’re skipping the book and music sections again until I catch up on the few weeks I missed.  I do have a few hours on airplanes and so should get some reading done this week.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

 

Week in Review – February 18th, 2024

“Happy Mardi Gras”

Will and Christine left for home on Monday morning.  We took Campbell and Molly to celebrate their engagement at Lundi Gras brunch at Commander’s Palace.  This is a hard reservation to get and always a lot of fun.  We were seated at the “Reagan Table” – the one where Ronnie and Nancy always sat.  It does have a nice view of the entire room.

For the first time, I got the blue ribbon across the table to indicate “regular patrons.”  The roaming jazz band was very good and took a lot of requests.  Here’s a video:

 

The food was excellent, as always, right through to the soufflé with whisky cream sauce.

We caught some of the last parades on Monday night and then had an early night, in anticipation of Mardi Gras day.

It was out the door shortly after 6am to start the Mardi Gras adventure.  Chris Pete woke up the street with his tricycle and boombox.

Diana had a warm version of her Mardi Gras outfit ready to go:

Greg and Dave worked on bringing Buttercup, the rolling chicken, out from behind Hugh’s staircase.  Greg, stopping to make sure he had his yellow webbed feet in place.

We hustled over to Jackson and St. Charles and the start of the parade route.  We needed to get going before the Zulu parade started.  I pushed, D rode on the float, Dave steered, Greg and Colleen took turns with the big heads on, and everyone alternated turns on the boombox bicycle.  Diana had a huge amount of fun throwing beads and treats to the early crowd.

I told you she had a blast.  Here are some more pictures of the krewe making their way through the French Quarter.

Looking like a kid on Christmas morning!

We parked Buttercup outside Jean Lafitte’s – oldest bar in New Orleans – for a short break.

From there, we continued on down into the Marigny to enjoy some of the crazy costumes.  I particularly enjoyed Chris parting the sea of humanity so that I could push Buttercup across the intersection.

We met up with some other friends outside Harry’s Corner bar.  Amy (ladybug), Randy (toadstool), Larry (not sure) and John were all very entertainingly clad.

Then a little dance party broke out.  Greg is foghorn leghorn and Lily is the other bird.

Diana and I were getting very tired around 1pm, so we finally found an Uber that could be convinced there was a way to get us close to home around the parade route.  We had to walk across the Rex parade to make it all the way home.  That was easy due to the parade being stalled for an extended period of time – Boeuf Gras was right at our intersection, spouting smoke from his nostrils.

We were glad to get home and be able to relax after so many parades, entertaining the kids, the excitement of the engagement, and on and on.

Here’s a fun picture of Buttercup from ten years ago, with Greg and Colleen’s girls riding inside.

A week or two ago, it seemed like a good idea to make a reservation at a local restaurant for Valentine’s dinner.  We stuck to it and enjoyed an early meal at Beggar’s Banquet – just down the street on Prytania.  The mushroom toast was amazing, and the rest of the offerings were “fine.”  That’ll teach me to be an amateur and go out to eat on the actual Valentine’s day.

 

I walked over to Aidan Gill for a haircut on Thursday, passing Molly’s Rise and Shine, where Campbell took Molly for brunch before the proposal.  It doesn’t look much when closed, but there is a consistent line out the door when open.

Diana left for San Francisco on Friday afternoon – travels were all smooth.  She did encounter some very windy weather that had her a bit nervous on the hill.  She enjoyed the jazz band playing in the airport:

I walked down to District for breakfast on Saturday morning – they have really excellent breakfast biscuits – not sure if I prefer them to Gracious bakery or not.  The ambience is a lot nicer.

In the afternoon, I met the gang (Alex, Fred, Brennen,  Jack and Denny ) at Ale on Oak for a drink before watching the Willow soccer team (Jack is a coach) in the state semi-final game.  It was very cold and so we just stayed through the first half.  Kids just don’t feel the cold:

Willow ended up with a 1-0 victory, and will travel to Hammond on Thursday for the state final.  Denny and I will likely make the drive.

Kenny and Kara joined me for brunch at Mister Mao’s on Sunday.  Diana thinks the food there is too spicy, and so I decided to give it a try while she was out of town.  The food was very good, the San Francisco garlic noodles were my favourite, and nothing was overly spicy this time.

After brunch, we picked up Denny and headed to the Broad Theater to see the new Bob Marley documentary movie.

The reviews from the group were consistent – good but not great.  The Broad does have an excellent sound system, and so the music was very enjoyable.

Quite an interesting week, filled with all the things we moved here for – unique experiences, great friends, good food and music.

I’m way behind on these postings, and so will forgo the music and book sections until I get caught up a bit – hopefully next Sunday.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

 

 

Weeks in Review – February 11th, 2024

“Parades, parades, and more parades – and an engagement”

Okay – I’m finally catching up to those missing Mardi Gras weeks.  Our house is so close to the parade route, that it was hard to pass up an evening of parades.

This will mostly be a pictorial blog, as I didn’t capture the specific parades and floats for many of them, and don’t remember now for sure.  Let’s start with some of the amazing floats:

I always love to see the Budweiser Clydesdales and wagon.  Such majestic beasts:

The flambeau walkers are a rarer sight in parades these days:

The kids arrived for the second weekend, and of course Will had some appropriate shirts and outfits:

Nyx and Muses are two of my favourite parades.  The girls caught the fancy hand decorated purses from Nyx, and Molly caught a Muses shoe from the second to last float:

It was funny to see our local weather forecaster, Margaret Orr, in the Head of Muses shoe:

Here are some shots of the groups, including Campbell’s purple wig:

We worked hard to catch camo rain hats for everyone.  Good throws as it rained heavily that night.

Buttercup made her first appearance on the parade route, preparing for the full parade route on Mardi Gras day:

Friday, February 9th, was a very special day.  Campbell and Molly got engaged by the Tree of Life in Audubon park.  It was a bit of work for Campbell to get away from the group and take Molly for a walk by the tree.  He passed up on the first attempt – a couple were getting married by the tree.  Shortly after, we received this lovely picture and were ready to appear from our hidden vehicle with a champagne toast.  Denny and Anne showed up shortly after.

The group enjoyed a celebratory drink and snack at the Columns, continuing our Friday Happy Hour tradition:

Here’s the proud future father-in-law with his awesome future daughter-in-law:

Here’s a picture from their early dating days:

Diana and I met Gary, one of our Board members, at Commanders Palace briefly on the engagement evening.  They invited us to join for dinner, but there’s only so many times in a short period that you can eat there, and we had all the parade excitement to return to.

Wow – I’m committing to myself again to never get this far behind with updates.

Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!

 

 

 

Week in Review – January 21st, 2024

“Cigar Box Guitars”

On Tuesday evening, we drove over to visit Merry Lee and Jeff at their condominium in the Warehouse District.  It’s very modern and comes with lots of nice amenities – pool, bike room, gym, game room etc.  The Superdome is just a couple of hundred yards away.

It’s quite the opposite of a Garden District home built in 1860.  It’s nice that we’re just a five minute drive apart.

We had planned to eat at Tito’s on St. Charles, but with the bitter cold, decided on something very close to the condo.  Merry Lee organized Maypop.  This is how they describe their food:

“Our dishes are inspired by the vibrant, diverse culture of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, creating unique flavors and bringing a contemporary, locally-sourced twist to classic Southern-Asian dishes.”

The food was different,  interesting, and very tasty.  We tried the satsuma octopus and tuna appetizers.  I had the spaghetti with crab – absolutely delicious with great broth to sop up with the Roti bread.  Here are the appetizer and dinner menus:

The restaurant was quite modern and almost industrial looking:

It was well below freezing on Tuesday night and so we had all the taps dripping overnight.  No damage so far. Phew!  The New Orleanians never lack for humour – here’s the Mardi Gras beads being utilized as snow chains:

The next couple of days were cold, but not as cold, and so we stayed inside for the most part.  Things warmed up on Thursday and I suggested that we go for an afternoon walk.  We wandered down the street car line on St. Charles – enjoying watching folks setting up their front yard viewing platforms for the parades.  They go to quite a bit of work to make sure they are appropriately decorated.  Next week I’ll share a picture of the Mardi Gras flag and decorations that we have on the front of the house.  Right when we arrived at Jefferson Ave., about 1.5 miles from home, the heavens opened.  I had just a t-shirt and jeans on and got completely drenched very quickly.  We ducked under the library porch and waited for the heaviest rain to pass.  I was hoping to jump a streetcar back to Washington Ave., but none came.  Oh well, let’s make the 1.5 mile trek home in the drizzle and light rain.  I did check the forecast and radar minutes before our walk – how can a huge downpour be missed like that?

Diana met up with Merry Lee on Friday.  They walked from our home down to Magazine for a sushi lunch at Sake Café.  The Chihuly glass sculptures coming down form the ceiling caught McD’s attention.  We did a walking tour of those at the Dallas Arboretum that was really something.

They wandered through several shops after lunch but didn’t purchase too much.  Not knowing the weather for Mardi Gras makes it tough to decide.

We were double booked on Saturday – we had tickets to the New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar festival and the Chewbacchus parade was happening – with Kara, Nina, and Debra all walking as Wonder Women.  I’ll talk about the Cigar Box event first.

This was a three day festival with cigar box guitar nerds from around the world exchanging tunes and tips.  Argentina, France, and all over the United States were represented.  It was nice to observe the close knit community they have developed over the years.  The event ran from 3pm until 6pm, an hour for dinner, and then 7pm until 10pm.  Here’s one of the early set performers – he was working really hard.

We walked a few blocks to Manolito, a tiny Cuban restaurant for dinner.  Here’s what they say about themselves and their name:

Our dinner and drinks were excellent as always from this little, delicious place.  Kenny thinks their banana daiquiri is the best he’s had.  His brother owns several daiquiri shops on Bourbon St. – quite a different drink!

The second cigar box set was excellent – starting out with the New Orleans based Cigar Box Serenaders.  Sounds like something you might here in the Spotted Cat Music Club on Frenchman Street – but precisely executed:

d

That was a dresser drawer bass and a drum kit of pails and coffee cans.  Very  clever.

After this set, we braved the cold wind to watch a bit of the parade.  No sign of Kara and the Wonder Women amongst the 3,000 walking participants:

Kenny and I returned to the inside and warmth pretty quickly, while Diana did her best to wait for the Wonder Women.  After 45 minutes, she was back inside for this treat:

Memphis Lightning had huge energy and amazing guitar skills, capped off by his demonstration of being able to play guitar with both his right and left hands on this crazy double neck cigar box guitar.

We stayed for a couple of songs of the final act, Erin Coburn.  A pretty lady who took us by surprise with a very heavy and noisy set to finish out the night.  We left after a couple of songs.  What an eclectic and somewhat typical NOLA day.

During the week, Billy (handyman), dropped off some delicious gumbo for us.  Would a handyman in McKinney ever do that – no way.  That’s on top of the fresh crabs and sauce he dropped off last week.  I showed him my diagnosis on one of the faucet leaks – needs a new O-ring here:

We figured out the other leak as well.  Kohler provides lifetime free replacement parts – so this should be with me for installation next week.  We’ll see how I do.  Better than a very expensive replacement faucet if I can make it work reliably.  The service from Kohler was amazing (a total contrast from Thermador) – I would recommend them to anyone that plans to have their products for a few years – free replacement parts and instructions.

I’ve just watched the NFC Divisional game between Detroit and Atlanta – a really competitive game that the Lions won.  Just when I’ve almost put the Cowboys disappointment behind me, another online joke picture comes along:

I was reading some New Orleans history – particularly about some of the great writers who have lived here.  Most notably, Tennessee Williams, who wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” while living here and remained until his death.  And of course, Anne Rice and her vampire novels, written in a house just around the corner from us.  I was taken with an explanation of where the title, “A Confederacy of Dunces” , came from.  This is the title of a well known New Orleans based book by John Kennedy Toole.  The book’s title comes from Jonathan Swift’s essay “Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting”: When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

I really didn’t love “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.”  I tried, given so many number one best of the year reviews.  Way too many insignificant and underdeveloped characters – I almost had to make a chart to keep up with them all.  The main characters in a story like this need to be more fully developed.  I almost felt like McBride was trying to appeal to every ethnic and religious group.  Did any of you really enjoy this book?

 

I sampled a decent amount of “Let Us Descend” by Jesmyn Ward.  Really not my scene at all.

All the rave reviews:

“OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • Instant New York Times Bestseller • Shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow—comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.

“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” —Inferno, Dante Alighieri
 
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.”

This was just too harsh for me to bear.  I know it’s historically accurate, but not what I need to spend my free time reading about.

This is the first time in a long time that I’ve returned two books to the library unfinished.  I infer that I need to stop following the “best of” reviews.

Let’s start with a fantastic song from the Kinks.

“You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood BoulevardSome that you recognize, some that you’ve hardly even heard ofPeople who worked and suffered and struggled for fameSome who succeeded and some who suffered in vain”

To honour the passing of Shane McGowan.  We loved seeing him at Tipitinas last year:

And finally, something from the king of “laid back.”  Found it on a Spotify J.J. Cale radio station:

Coexist peacefully, with patience and compassion for all!

 

 

Week in Review – January 14th, 2024

“Resting Up”

When I left you, I was settling in to watch the Cowboys game.  It was a good one, and they won the division.  On to the playoffs!  Thanks to Diana for signing me up for NFL Sunday Ticket so that I could watch the “out of market” game.  I could even watch four games at once:

We did not make it to the Joe Krown show at the Maple Leaf.  The girls were worn out from their afternoon in the French Quarter.

The middle part of the week was pretty quiet – recovering from all the New Year excitement and resting up for Mardi Gras.

We did make a trip to the nearest Home Depot to pick up pipe insulation and spigot covers for the upcoming below freezing temperatures.  Diana remarked on the barbed wire around the top of the wall around Home Depot.  I pointed out that it was actually razor wire – they really don’t want anyone climbing over that wall.  Interestingly, there was a wall all the way around the parking lot and only one entry/exit point.  We didn’t think we were in that bad of a neighborhood.  Anne filled us in – that was put up right after Katrina when the store was constantly looted.

I decided to check a few things off my Diana To Do list.  They were mostly outside of my skillset, or things I just didn’t fancy tackling.  It seems like everything I take on with this house ends up being much more difficult than anticipated.  I asked Tommy, our air conditioning guy, if he knew a handyman.  “Sure, my brother will do it.”  Billy showed up later in the day to check things out.  And, yes, he’s as much of a character as Tommy.  Just a great fellow.  He just stopped by to drop off a bunch of fresh crabs and sauce for Diana – left over from his weekend feast.

Billy fixed a “broken” outlet, put a new outlet in the upstairs closet for the Dyson to charge, and ran power and mounted a new ceiling fan in the third floor area.  Replacing the kitchen faucet and finishing the ceiling repairs are on deck for later this week.  “Broken” is in quotes because there was really nothing wrong with the outlet – it had worked for a while and then stopped.  Diana had mentioned to Billy that she’d like to figure out what the fourth switch on the kitchen wall went to.  After checking all the fuse boxes and testing the outlet, Billy was at a loss.  Then it occurred to him – the fourth switch.  Ha!

I walked over to Aidan Gill’s for a haircut on Friday, and followed that by stopping in to try the Latin American restaurant across the street.  Maya’s is a small place that I see each time I’m down on that part of Magazine, but had never tried.  Their empanadas were good, and the large plates that other folks were having looked great.

 

 

Anne called on Friday afternoon and invited us to Happy Hour at Pizza Domenica.  Another great place on Magazine street.  Wine and pizza were half off between 3 and 5pm.  What a deal!  We had a pleasant visit and won’t see Anne again for a few weeks – she was off to visit her Mom in Florida, and then meeting up with Denny in Boulder.

I took Diana to a new place on Saturday afternoon – the Broad Theater is a very cool cinema in an interesting part of Mid City.  It has so much more character than the massive AMC cineplexes.  Diana was quite chuffed that a refill of wine and her large popcorn bucket was all of $5.  We saw “American Fiction”, starring Jeffrey Wright.

The movie was very enjoyable – a humorous send up of “woke” culture and the clamoring around African American literature.  McD enjoyed it as well – I wasn’t sure that she would.

I did battle with the Kamado Joe smoker on Sunday morning.  My intent was to make a rack of baby back ribs to accompany the Cowboys playoff game.  The plan was to cook at 220 degrees for 3 hours.  The Kamado wanted to be hotter than that, and when I closed the vents sufficiently to get down to 220, it stayed for about an hour and then it seemed like the fire went out.  The ribs were finished off on the regular grill and tasted good but not as great as they would have if cooked slower.  My new bluetooth thermometer (Christmas from Diana) was very helpful in letting me know what was going on in the smoker.

And then there was the Cowboys playoff game against the Green Bay Packers.  What a disaster from start to finish.  A huge disappointment from the team that has the number one offense in football.  I’m contemplating becoming a Saints fan next year.  There have just been so many years like this – a great regular season and then a complete choke in the first playoff game.

While I was yelling at the TV – I gave up when it became apparent that the Cowboys had no chance, Diana was staying out of the way with her new birthday puzzle that Mum sent.  She really enjoyed it – with the “whimsy” pieces:

And of course she wasn’t walking away from the table until it was completed:

I’m working my way through “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride.  It topped a number of “Best of 2023” lists.  I’m not sure I like it that much yet, but I have quite a bit left to go, so I’ll let you know.  Here’s an online synopsis.

“In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.”

I may have shared this Duane Allman classic before.  Either way, it’s worth repeating:

A very pleasant Jimmy Buffet cover:

And finally, a fun new sound that I came across:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

Week in Review – January 7th, 2024

“Carnival Time”

The clean up from our New Year’s Eve party didn’t take too long, and then we were off to Oyster Fest at Denny and Anne’s home.  This is one of my favourite events of the year.  Very casual, with all kinds of friends coming and going on the back patio and enjoying oysters prepared in so many ways.  Denny had promised to simplify the number of offerings this year, but I didn’t see very much evidence of that.  The hardest part is shucking all the oysters to start.  Denny and Greg are experts:

Thom took a turn at charbroiled oysters – all good until he poured on too much sauce and caused some very high flames.

This was the first year that all five of Kelly and Fred’s kids were in attendance.  What a great group:

Thanks for another great year, Denny!

The return to work on Tuesday felt a bit harsh, but I struggled through.

Jack and Mason’s 21st birthdays were celebrated at Commander’s Palace on Thursday.  It’s so nice that this is just 600 feet from our new home.  It’s tradition that we accompany them on this birthday lunch.  The old school service never ceases to make me smile.  All dishes put in front of everyone at the same time – so much coordination needed.  And I’ve never seen the wrong dish in front of the wrong person.

Of course birthdays get balloons on the table and chef toques:

That’s the ridiculous bread pudding soufflé with whiskey sauce in front of Jack.  Mom and Dad look very proud:

The lunch was so leisurely (over 2 hours) that I had to walk back home to take a 2pm meeting.  Poor planning on my part.  I won’t need to worry about that next year.

Alicia arrived on Thursday evening.  Diana took her for a ramble along Magazine street on Friday morning – stopping for an Empanola empanada and then lunch at Tito’s ceviche.  I met them there and shared some of the excellent ceviche and quinoa salad.

It was an early start for Alicia and Diana on Saturday.  They had committed to outdoor yoga in the sculpture garden with Kenny, Kara, and Nina.  It rained on Friday and was pretty cold.  They sucked it up and seemed to enjoy the yoga, and the coffee and beignets afterwards at Café du Monde.

Alicia was getting restless on Saturday afternoon, and so Diana took her for a walk to Superior Seafood.  She tried an oyster and ended up liking them.  Maybe not quite as much as the frozen French 75.

While the girls were out, I took a final stab at fixing the freezer door ice dispenser.  I had called out a high end appliance repair guy on Friday and he was zero help.  Couldn’t even find the parts diagram that I had up on my computer.  I rebuilt the entire mechanism from scratch and made one washer position adjustment.  Success!  That was a lot of work.

Carnival/Mardi Gras season started on Saturday evening (Twelfth Night.)  The first event is the Phunny Phorty Phellows and the Funky Uptown Crew riding streetcars and celebrating.  We walked the 100 feet down to St. Charles and enjoyed the revelry.  Some neighbors had hired a brass band to celebrate with the Krewes.  Here are some videos.

Alicia enjoyed the festivities and meeting our neighbours, Roeland and Jules, and their dog, Lumi.

I’m watching the Saints game as I write this.  They are not off to a great start.  Shortly, I’ll be dropping the girls plus Kara in the French Quarter for lunch, and coming back to watch the final Cowboys game.  They win the division if they win today, besting the Eagles.

If we’re still up for it, there is a good show with Joe Krown and Papa Mali at the Maple Leaf tonight.  We’ll see.

I’m almost finished with “Wellness.”  Here are some passages that I enjoyed so far.  This is funny because Diana has some different features in each ear:

“She insists that one of her earlobes is slightly larger than the other, and he doesn’t believe her at first, not until they get our the ruler and measure.”

An entertaining simile:

“Agatha looks at her with red, wet, puffy eyes and a balled up chin.  “Nooooo,” she says.  “It’s not youuuuuuu.”  Her words are coming out with a kind of musical fall to them, like bagpipes deflating.”

A very good description of what I witness often at gatherings in California:

“The presence of new people in the house seemed to serve as a kind of trigger for children to get aggressively and sometimes violently attention-seeking, and the parents, perhaps on their best behavior and not wanting to discipline their children harshly in the presence of friends, would just let it all kind of happen, and the kids, testing their delicious newfound freedom, would start acting up and shouting and roughhousing, whereby the parents would become even more frustrated, and the whole spiraling thing made Elizabeth feel guilty for being there at all.”

The reason for the title:

“What they did at Wellness was test claims made by specious health-related products to see if the products achieved results any better than a placebo.  Basically they were a watchdog group, a subcontractor to the FCA and FTC, sniffing out bullshit.  In 2008, some of the more well-known products that had come through the lab included:  the SlimSkirt, a miniskirt made of some tight, rubbery, tensile material that felt like a big rubber band around your legs.”

Elizabeth makes a fortune pitching this idea to United Airlines:

“This was the solution!  Make the seats even narrower, the lines even longer, the competition for overhead space even more cutthroat – make it all famously bad and then tell people they can avoid it all and have a more or less normally below-average experience for a modest fee.  Thus, if they knew beforehand that the experience would be dreadful but they didn’t pay the fee to avoid it, they would be less unhappy about the dreadful experience because, ultimately, they chose to have it.  They did it to themselves.

It was her eureka moment, the moment that changed everything, the moment that led to her pitching the idea to United Airlines and collecting their fee, a fee so substantial that she and Jack could finally afford to make a down payment on a home – their forever home, out in the suburbs.”

I have a few more passages that I highlighted, but that’s enough for now.  This is a very unique and enjoyable read.

 

A very pleasant and laidback track:

And something from the excellent Shuggie Otis album:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

 

 

 

 

Week in Review – December 31st, 2023

“We all survived Christmas”

We ventured into the dangerous territory of Number Three Gypsy Hill on Christmas morning.  The monsters were in pretty good form, and enjoyed their Pokemon gifts.

Francesca was excited about her unicorn sockies and the books signed by the Bush girls.  I’m not sure Adamo was a huge fan of the books.

We didn’t stay too long and the crew needed to get packed up to head to their other Grammie’s house.

 

 

Back in the kitchen for Diana and Alicia.  This time a ham and au gratin potatoes.  Diana managed the timing of the ham with great results, and Alicia’s spuds were delicious.  My contribution?  Massive – I poured the glaze over and pinned the pineapple on as the ham went back in to finish.  Here’s the group enjoying dinner:

The gift exchange was entertaining.  Gianluca is getting concerned about his appearance and totally owned the “Bro Glo” self tanning cream that we selected from his list.

 

 

 

Giancarlo came with a number of books and artifacts to share.  He said a little about each item, and then we each made a choice.  Wasn’t sure where it was going at the start, but it worked out fine in the end.

 

And then things got really entertaining – Clorinda loves her silly animal toys that sing Christmas songs.  So, Marco thought it was a good idea to get her and us both a new penguin that runs around the floor in circles and sings Jingle Bells.

It all started with the singing llama a few years back.  It never ceases to get a big laugh from Clorinda.  Here’s Marco doing the llama dance:

I found out earlier in the day that Marco and Julie’s little white dog, Yeti, was going to be staying at Clorinda’s home for several days under Alicia’s care.  Clorinda has pretty strong feelings that a dogs place is outside, so I was interested to see how this would go.  There was sufficient activity to distract her and, by the next morning, she seemed resigned to tolerating things.

Here’s a picture that Jude composed.  I really like it.

I went on an excursion to Mavericks with Adamo and Luciano on Boxing Day afternoon.  If you’re not familiar with Mavericks, it’s a surfing break near Half Moon Bay (about 10 mins from Pacifica.)  It has some of the largest waves in the world and some very unique challenges.  There’s a famous annual surfing competition about this time of year that draws thousands of spectators.  You can’t really get a feel from the scale in this video, and there were about 30 crazy souls out there surfing.  Very fun to watch.

The walk along the beaches to arrive at Mavericks was a lot of fun.  Adamo and Luciano insisted on paddling around in the gooey sand.

I forgot to mention that, prior to the expedition, I helped Francesca give the kitties a bath.  Hilarious.

Will, Christine, and Ollie came for dinner on Boxing Day evening.  Grammie was certainly a bit concerned when Ollie and Yeti started rough-housing around.  The Indian food, and ceviche that they brought from Redwood City, were all excellent.  A real feast.

After dinner we did a small gift exchange.  Last year, or the year before, we gave Campbell a Mardi Gras cushion that had sequins on one side.  Clorinda was very entertained pushing the sequins one way and the other to make patterns.  So…Will and Christine were very excited to gift her one of their well traveled pillows with the same feature.  Apparently this has been to Burning Man and several other crazy festivals.  Clorinda was initially quite excited with all the coloured tissue paper and then loved the pillow.

A hilarious game of throwing the pillow at Keith, getting wadded up tissue paper back, telling Diana to tickle Keith’s bare feet and such ensued.  It brought poor Diana to tears.

Our flight home to New Orleans on Wednesday morning was delayed a couple of hours due to crew on a delayed flight.  The airport was very busy, but we made the best of it and made it home smoothly.

Now it was time to start preparing for hosting the Krewe on New Year’s Eve.  I took another stab at trying to get the ice dispenser to work.  All the parts fell out and I had to guess how to reassemble.  I have an exploded view now, so will be able to fix it in no time.  Suffice to say – no ice dispensed via the door at the party.

We spent some happy time cleaning the wood floors and all the bathrooms, and then decided to “work together” on assembling a folding table for the food.  You can see here what happens when the table isn’t locked in the middle before we try to stretch the cocktail skirt around it.  What a pair!

Fortunately, Diana’s work on the dining table was much smoother.

Denny brought over a keg for the kegerator outside.  He was not impressed with the new Cowboys tap that I got as a Christmas gift from Will.

Now it was time for me to go and pick up the catered food in Old Metairie.  I thought I’d walk around the corner to Gracious bakery before making the drive.  Is that a brass band I hear in somebody’s front yard?

Sure enough, somebody had hired a decent sized band to kick off New Year’s Eve.  I wasn’t able to navigate past the crowd to pick up baguettes, and so opted to drive to the catering place and do that later.

The Italian shop was classic old school.  Very friendly and helpful folks, with what appeared to be an excellent sandwich counter.  The lady kindly helped me carry the trays out to the car.  All of the food was excellent and well received by the Krewe.

 

I watched some of the Sugar Bowl parade in the afternoon and was amazed that those guys were brave enough to march Bevo, the longhorn mascot, through such large and boisterous crowds.  He didn’t seem phased at all.

Folks started arriving around 7pm.  The kids dropped off their parents and stayed for a short while.  Here’s a glimpse into the hubbub:

And here’s a collection of pictures from the rest of the evening.  We think our first party in the new home was a success.  Happy New Year to all of you!

I’m still working through “Wellness” – it is a 650 page tome.  The writing and story are very good so far – particularly a section on how Facebook algorithms really work.  I’ll have much more to say next week – when we don’t have any big events happening.  Time to rest up for Mardi Gras.

Butch Walker – such a great voice, and an amazing producer:

You know I’m a sucker for Mark Knopfler’s guitar sound and style:

That’s another year of blogging drawing to a close.  Now I have to work on getting a book printed, so that we can review in old school fashion.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!

Week in Review – December 24, 2023

“Happy Birthday Diana, don’t cause a fire!”

On Monday, Kenny invited Diana out for a birthday dinner at Superior Seafood.  Diana particularly liked that Nina and Ian were able to join – the whole Kirsch family.  They devoured several dozen oysters during the Happy Hour special.

We had a bit of an “oopsy” with the birthday cake.  I joked to McD that she should blow it out.  She did, with sparks flying towards my shirt.  The waiter was quite concerned.  No damage done and the Chief didn’t need to take any action.

Diana opened her birthday gift when we got home from dinner – a blue and white vase that she seemed to like quite a bit.  I forgot to get a picture of her with it.

I may have created a monster by gifting a New York Times annual puzzle subscription.  Diana has become addicted to the Spelling Bee – and in particular getting Queen Bee status by finding all possible words that are in the list:

After all that excitement, we proceeded to open Christmas stockings and gifts.  I had been telling Kara, at dinner, about the silly high-end Italian oven that doesn’t even tell you the temperature it has reached or alert you when it gets to the right temperature.  She suggested I get one of the thermometers that hang in the oven – great idea.  An hour or so later and Santa had taken care of it for me.

 

We loved these Scottish pillows from my Mum.  They’ll be fun for visitors to try to interpret.  Mum also couldn’t resist another penguin friend for BP.

 

 

 

 

Oh no – a penguin face-off.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was another travel day.  This time a direct flight from New Orleans to San Francisco.  Weather in San Francisco delayed our take off by a bit over two hours, resulting in over seven hours on the plane – we could have flown to Europe.  Alicia was a good sport and picked us up at the airport shortly before midnight.

Wednesday was a pretty quiet work day on Gypsy Hill.  Diana did babysit Massimo and Francesca for a few hours.  We were both very tired from the traveling.

We did make it out of the house and off the Hill on Thursday.  Diana offered to take me to lunch.  We rejected trying to fight the crowds at Pedro Point and instead made the short drive to Half Moon Bay and La Costanero.  This is a place we had visited with my birthday gift certificate.  Diana had the trio of ceviche samplers and I enjoyed a very fresh beet salad with grapefruit and other goodies, followed by a mushroom empanada.

Diana spent much of Thursday and Friday procuring all the ingredients for the Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner on Christmas Eve.  Always a ton of work and delicious.

I “helped” Adamo assemble Frankie’s bike on Christmas Eve.

“I’ve assembled so many bikes over the years, that there’s absolutely no reason to pay any attention to the instructions.”

“I think that front mudguard is on backwards.”

“That’s the only way it fits.”

“That’s because you’ve got the front fork the wrong way round.”

“Oh, I do, and it has a little arrow sticker pointing to the front.”

A classic Adamo interaction.

Now, we needed a test pilot:

Diana, Adamo and Alicia slaved away in the kitchen for several hours to create the Feast.  Scallops, lobster, sole, angel hair with anchovies, sardines, shrimp dip – I always forget one of them.  The gang had a great dinner:

Amy was talking about being allergic to poison oak, and then Jude pipes up with, “Andy’s highly allergic to ocelots.”  Firstly, we had to look up a picture of an ocelot, then investigate the story.  Apparently they had both held ocelot cubs at a nature reserve in Napa.  Jude had no issue, but about ten minutes later, Andy was all up in a rash.  He joked that he now shares that when asked by a doctor if he has any known allergies.

Clorinda really enjoys her silly animal toys that sign Christmas songs – they never fail to bring forward joyful laughter from her.  Several more seem to have shown up recently.

I really like this picture of Diana talking to her Mum that Jude captured:

 

 

After dinner, the little monsters went home and prepared for Santa.

And then, everything was finally quiet.  I’m not sure why I can’t see any lumps of coal in this picture:

I have a t-shirt that says “Be a New Orleanian, wherever you are.”  Clorinda typically asks me what that means.  I found a little tag in one of the Christmas gifts that explains it well:

New Orleans: Sunken and sultry,

Magical and mysterious,

Down home and slightly dangerous,

There is no other place like it.

When you truly love something, you want to share it with as many people as possible.  So whether you’re born here, a transplant, or simply passing through, we hope you can be a New Orleanian wherever you are.

My first book this week was “The Modigliani Scandal”, by Ken Follett.  I chose it at the library because it was a small paperback, ideal for travel, and from an author that I knew I would enjoy over the holidays.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit.  Not his best, but an entertaining and interesting read.  Here’s an online summary:

“A high-speed, high-stakes thriller from Ken Follett, the grand master of international action and suspense. Look out for Ken’s newest book, A Column of Fire, available now.

A fabulous “lost masterpiece” becomes the ultimate prize—for an art historian whose ambition consumes everyone around her, an angry young painter with a plan for revenge on the art establishment, and a desperate gallery owner who may have double-crossed his own life away. Behind the elegance and glamour of the art world, anything goes—theft, forgery, betrayal, and maybe even murder. . . .”

I’m working my way through the new Nathan Hill tome, “Wellness.”  Not quite half way yet, so much more to come next week.  This is a very well constructed book so far, jumping around in time and revealing secrets that add to the overall plot.  Hill is a unique and gifted writer, who has clearly spent months researching.  Here’s an online summary of a long and complicated plot:

“When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty ’90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria. 
 
For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other”

Let’s start with something from the late, great Greg Allman.  So much emotion conveyed with that unique voice and style:

If you want to read about an interesting and varied life, look up Charley Crockett.  Here’s one about the DFW river:

And finally something from another late, great:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

 

Week in Review – December 17, 2023

“Happy Almost Birthday, Diana

I had a haircut at Aidan Gill on Tuesday morning.  I always like to pop next door to Juan’s Flying Burrito for lunch afterwards.  I asked Diana if she’d like to join me, and she walked over.  I forgot to mention that Aidan Gill’s was about a fifteen minute walk for me.  It’s so nice to be able to walk to so many things. Juan’s is Timmy’s favourite place to eat and so we tortured him with pictures of our food and drinks.

 

I talked Denny and Greg into joining us at Dos Jefes on Tuesday evening to listen to Joe Krown.  He recognized Denny as “the carwash guy.”  And as usual, Denny didn’t have any coupons with him to share.  Joe never disappoints – just an excellent pianist, even on a somewhat out of tune old upright.

It seems Santa was a bit “sleepy” at the Dos Jefes bar:

We  flew to Dallas on  Wednesday to have dinner with H0lly and Finn.  We chose Rick’s Chophouse  because we were able to stay in the hotel upstairs, and because I believe they have the best shrimp and grits to be found  – still better than any I’ve had in New Orleans.  Everyone enjoyed their dinners and we exchanged some fun gifts.

It was chilly outside, but we managed to snap a few pictures of the kids with the holiday decorations:

Travel home on Thursday was smooth, and we rested up on Friday.

We had been looking forward to trying Dakar NOLA for dinner on Saturday night.  This West African and Senegalese restaurant serves a seven course tasting menu in one seating per night at 7pm.  The chef and restaurant have won many awards over the last year or so:

https://nola.eater.com/2022/11/15/23460203/dakar-nola-new-orleans-most-exciting-tasting-menu-opens-forever-home

We enjoyed this experience tremendously – it was an excellent early birthday dinner for Diana.  Here are an early seafood dish and the pecan pie like dessert:

And here’s the full menu:

The wonderful evening concluded with a group picture in front of the wall of West African masks:

Longtime Cowboys fans knew that the very impressive winning streak couldn’t last.  And on Sunday, it all came crashing down, with a pitiful loss to the Buffalo Bills.  We’ll see where things go from here.  Maybe they got it out of their systems.

Sunday was Kenny’s (The Chief) birthday.  We celebrated by attending James Booker fest at the Maple Leaf.  What a great group of New Orleans piano players paying tribute to the legendary guy who, along with Professor Longhair, started it all.

 

 

 

Some pretty flowers have emerged on the side of our house.  Not sure what kind they are.

 

 

 

 

This was an excellent week of reading.  “The Guncle” by Steven Rowley is one of my favourites in a long, long time.  Alternating between laugh out loud humour and tear jerking sadness from one paragraph to the next, this is a writer at the very top of his game.  I loved this book.  I didn’t carry the hardback with me and so don’t have the quotations that I wanted to share.  Here’s the online summary:

“Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is, honestly, overwhelmed.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled acting career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting–even if temporary–isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.

With the humor and heart we’ve come to expect from bestselling author Steven Rowley, The Guncle is a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times.”

Here’s my annual list from Spotify of most listened songs:

I even got a short video from Jeff Tweedy thanking me for listening to so much Wilco.  I remember I couldn’t get enough of “Take Me as I Am” after the Tedeschi Trucks performance at Jazzfest.

A good version of the Nick Lowe classic that I ran across this week:

I’ve been assembling a New Year’s Eve playlist as we’re hosting this year.  This is a good one:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

Fortnight in Review – December 10th, 2023

“Chefs Timmy and Denny”

I really had great intentions of posting here every week – any  more and it’s too much work to remember the details.  Things just got too busy again.  Anyway, here goes with what I can remember.

On Monday, November 27th, we flew from San Francisco to Austin.  This time we chose Alaska airlines as they had the only direct flight.  The flight was comfortable and uneventful.  The food on American is certainly better than on Alaska.

I was disappointed to find that Thom’s Market, just around the corner from our hotel, had stopped carrying Taco Deli breakfast tacos.  I had been looking forward to my Tuesday morning breakfast treat.  They had some new company providing tacos, and they were not nearly as good.  Apparently they parted ways by “mutual understanding.”  I’m going to have to go to the real Taco Deli next visit.

We were in Austin to attend my company Holiday Party on Wednesday night, and Tim (our CFO) invited the Executive Team to his home for dinner on Tuesday night.  We drove around in circles for a while as our crack Administrative Assistant team had dropped one of the digits from the address.  Had we been observant, we would have seen that there was only one house with a large blow up koala bear out front.

Tim and his wife, Heidi, put together an excellent feast for us.  Tim loves to cook meat on his various grills, and this time served a delicious, melt in your mouth ribeye steak.  We all commented that it was much nicer to eat like a family around the dining room table than to go to a restaurant.

The Holiday Party was a big success.  We hosted it at Bar Peached again and had the whole restaurant and outside areas to ourselves.  I thought the cocktail menu was very clever, and the snacks were delicious – particularly the hoisin duck baos.  Spouses were invited this year and so Diana and Lisa had a good time chatting with everyone.

We flew from Austin back to New Orleans on Thursday afternoon.  The flight was a little late, but otherwise all was smooth with the trip.

On Friday, I made another excursion to the Louisiana Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV.)  I thought that I had all the papers necessary to register our car, but no – missing a copy of the title.  I’ll round that up and try again…

I heard on Friday afternoon that two of my favourite restaurants were closing – Rabbit’s Foot and Seafood Sally’s.  I was just getting used to walking to Rabbit’s Foot and enjoying a nice coffee and wonderful breakfast sandwich.  Seafood Sally’s had a good oyster happy hour and a great outdoor seating location on Oak Street.  Rabbit’s Foot was carrying too much debt from a very slow summer, and Sally’s had a kitchen floor inspection issue that shut them down for several months.  Very sad, but I was determined to have one more visit to Rabbit’s Foot.

We had a lot of rain overnight on Friday, and several drainage pump units were not working properly.  This made Rabbit’s Foot quite difficult to get to.  I persevered only to find they weren’t able to open because too many employees couldn’t get there.  Ugh!

This was the scene on the street to the right of the photo of the coffee shop:

 

After things dried out a bit and the flooding subsided, Diana and I visited the local toy shop to get some gifts for the “Toys for Tots” party on Saturday night.  I really enjoyed browsing around the small, local toy shop.  The party was two houses down from us at Roeland and Jules home.  There were well over a hundred people in attendance, and you would not have known anything was going on from outside.  We had a nice time and had a very interesting chat with our neighbor Hugh, Colleen’s brother from across the street.  He has some 3-D printing businesses and is in the process of testing printed lungs in baboons – crazy technology.

Kenny’s official Fire Department retirement party was on Sunday.  Denny was kind enough to pick us up and deliver us to the Union Hall.  We had an enjoyable chat with Kenny’s mum, Miss Sue.  She remembered meeting us last year and was still as sharp as a tack at ninety.

On Tuesday, I made another excursion to the Louisiana Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV.)  This time I had all the documents they could possibly need and was successful in obtaining a new license plate for the BBB.  I was shocked when it came time to pay – online information had me thinking it would be around $66.  Then the lady said it was over $1,200 – bit of a discrepancy.  Apparently some sales tax scam for new residents.  I had already paid sales tax in Texas, but that didn’t seem to make any difference.  Always something with this move.  At least we’re all legal now.

Diana and the girls had oyster Happy Hour on Tuesday evening, so Kenny came over and we went to watch a basketball that his son, Ian was helping to coach.  Denny joined us and we decided to visit the local Milan lounge for some pre-game entertainment.  The folks in the bar were entertained as Kenny yelled out answer after answer for Jeopardy questions.

The basketball was good entertainment, with the Willow team losing in the last minute.  We met Diana and Kara at the Kingpin, and were entertained to find Fred with a friend at a table in there.

On Wednesday night, we had Sips at Commander’s Palace down the street.  This was an early birthday gift for Diana from Merry Lee and Jeff.  One could sample around eighty different champagnes and wines, while enjoying the delicious snacks – the little cups of soup were ridiculous.

Jeff and Merry Lee came back to the house for a while and we listened to some eclectic Christmas music on the turntable.

Marcia Ball, Shelley King, and Carolyn Wonderland had their “Home for the Holidays” show at the House of Blues on Thursday night.  I had two suggestions for a pre-concert dinner for Diana to choose between – Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 49 or Kingfish.  She opted for the tiki inspired option.  The dinner was excellent, finishing with some perfectly cooked and very large scallops.

 

A short walk, and we were seated and ready for the show.

The girls did their usual great job and we enjoyed it very much.  Here are a couple of clips:

We walked several miles on Saturday morning, checking for gift inspiration in the small, local stores on Magazine Street.  Unfortunately, we returned empty handed.  Diana couldn’t even find any shoes in the “Feet First” store – very unusual.

Chef Denny invited the boys over for a steak night on Saturday.  Alex, Kenny, Greg, Thom and I enjoyed the feast that Denny had put together.  Hangar steak, twice baked potatoes, creamed spinach, and a yummy red wine sauce.  Thom brought a selection of wines that we sampled.  Good fun hanging out with the boys.

Sunday began with a couple of laps around Audubon park.  Twenty mile an hour plus winds blew out the cobwebs during that walk.  The Saints had a good win, and now I’m getting excited for the Cowboys and Eagles game this evening – a very important game for playoff positioning.

I borrowed “The Descendants” by Kaui Hart Hemmings  from Clorinda’s library.  This was a good read – mixing some ribald teenage character humour, with some very poignant and sad scenes.  I would recommend it.  It did take me a while to stop thinking of the main character as George Clooney, who played him in the movie version.  Here’s an online summary:

“Narrated in a bold, fearless, unforgettable voice and set against the lush, panoramic backdrop of Hawaii, The Descendants is a stunning debut novel about an unconventional family forced to come together and re-create its own legacy.

Matthew King was once considered one of the most fortunate men in Hawaii. His missionary ancestors were financially and culturally progressive–one even married a Hawaiian princess, making Matt a royal descendant and one of the state’s largest landowners.

Now his luck has changed. His two daughters are out of control: Ten-year-old Scottie is a smart-ass with a desperate need for attention, and seventeen-year-old Alex, a former model, is a recovering drug addict. Matt’s charismatic, thrill-seeking, high-maintenance wife, Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat-racing accident and will soon be taken off life support. The Kings can hardly picture life without her, but as they come to terms with this tragedy, their sadness is mixed with a sense of freedom that shames them–and spurs them into surprising actions.

Before honoring Joanie’s living will, Matt must gather her friends and family to say their final goodbyes, a difficult situation made worse by the sudden discovery that there is one person who hasn’t been told: the man with whom Joanie had been having an affair, quite possibly the one man she ever truly loved. Forced to examine what he owes not only to the living but to the dead, Matt takes to the road with his daughters to find his wife’s lover, a memorable journey that leads to both painful revelations and unforeseen humor and growth.”

Kenny sent me this video of Joe Krown playing Booker’s “Classified” at Dos Jefes.  It’s like he has four hands:

A great song from the new Band of Heathens acoustic album:

And finally, something from Josh Ritter:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!