The Time of My Life

Julia & I have been loosely planning dinner together for a week or so, but have been put off by delightful occasions and,a couple of other interruptions. The best delightful occasion was last night, which was Kobe beef chili with Esther, Julia & Miles. GG was here, also. We heard about the train engineer who honked the train horn for them, and Miles told us "how the train goes". What an adventure! Julia was able to see Lisa, Maeve & Addie this afternoon, can't wait to see them myself.

Tonight, after a pretty heavy day in EA, demands comment. We opened a Veuve, and drank moderately, a good bit left in it, but it was so good. Then, we made chicken rice for GG, who has a bug. Next, salt & pepper on thick slices of Hudson valley FG (foie gras, amazingly almost pure calories from fat) browned up then put on spring mix with raspberry and late harvest Vidal from Widmer reduction. Remarkably excellent wine, making us proud to be from NY. The FG is from NY, also, come to think of it. Bursting with pride. You can't drink sweet wine much more than a small glass, so we opened a '99 Dominus, crappy California wine. We have been pretty moderate, but we won't wash the good glasses until morning.

We are listening to my Pandora mix, Great Big Sea presently, which leads to Ireland talk, which leads to reminiscences of past travel. Julia & I have been so fortunate to have taken trips while we are still young enough to remember them. That will probably change before too long. What were we talking about?

Well, tomorrow is Friday. We are all on the edge of our seats for Mike, who probably got the highest score in history on the bar. There must be a frontal lobotomy joke about the bar somewhere in here. I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, anyway, and hope to with Mike this weekend. Amy Winehouse is singing about rehab now, but the night is really young, so this must be a Pandora mistake.

Louis had a good meeting with a banker today. All it takes is good looks & a whole lotta money, you know. It will be incredible to go back into Garvey's all together, to eat Brendan's food (and Ian's) and drink at Lou's bar.

The students, Ceil & Mary, are being crushed, as often happens this time of year. I am proud of them and pray for their good grades, prayers of thanks, of course. Ann Marie's daughter is beginning to student teach, and the hamster in her classroom, Cupcake, expired in front of the third grade today. Not in the lesson plan.

Deer season opens in two days. Louis, John & I erected the world's most awesome hunting stand last Saturday. It was a miraculous series of events that took us from General Welding, to Bach's for a flatbed truck to carry it home, to the field, where nobody was seriously injured. There is still time, though.

Julia has just returned from getting GG into bed. We will hang out together for a while, then go to bed ourselves. The Five Blind Boys of Alabama are now singing LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. Pandora does not make many mistakes.

The Good Old Hockey Game

Well, we had a fine evening at the good old hockey game, but we lost kinda painfully. There were mercifully few of the usual "hosers in the other team's sweater", thank You, God. The lead up to the game is emotional Buffalo, super concentrated. I am so happy to live here. One of Mary's Iroquois classmates, Megan, was at the game with her father. He had won the tickets in a golf tournament.

Working in EA today, pretty relaxed, bunch of patients we know. I have learned a lot of EA history just talking with patients there. Modest amount of gossip, too. I got to see Miles this afternoon, before he had to go home. We went to say goodbye to GG, then we enjoyed a few minutes on the deck. It was pretty cool in the wind, but the lure of the swingset was strong, especially with the grass so wet. Next time, Miles.

Julia has made a delicious beef barley soup for dinner. Brilliant! It is the perfect night for a hearty soup. I am going to enjoy dinner, and I'll let you know how it was , later.

Fall colors, hunting, hockey and wine

It has been a few weeks since the last post. I went back to Dallas with Mohamed, which turned out to be a cool trip. I had a weekend with Julia, Frank & Mary Pat in Canandaigua, mostly winery visiting. It was a terrific weekend trip with folks we are grateful to have in our lives. How blessed we are on that topic! We met up with Dawn and her friend Jim for the Bills game that Sunday, so getting back to work seemed like a slower pace.

It is fall, for sure, today. John & Mike brought the camera card in from the trail cam, with several new bucks photographed. One of the bow hunters took a buck, and another got a doe. We had a good venison stew together on Sunday, with the little ones enjoying the day, also. My favorite kind of day.

Going to see the Sabres tonight, playing Ottawa, should win. Julia elects not to go on nights preceding her days with the grandchildren, so Mike, Frank and Dan (Katie's) will come. Like everything else in Buffalo, there are always people you know, so we will surely see some of our friends. I'll let you know how the game went.

a beautiful day in the neighborhood

It is fairly early on Staurday morning, the rest of the fam is asleep, except Rae. The dew outside is exceptionally heavy, but the sun is rising fast. So quiet and beautiful. Many of the fam are coming out to the country today, we always have such a great time, one of the best parts of my already excellent life. There are a couple of doe in the back, so beautiful, but I know we will not see them so easily when the season starts. MMMM...sausage!

Poor old rae is incontinent. We took her to the vet, he gave her DES, which totally surprised me. Such an evil drug. Papa was involved in the original legal action against it. There is a very funny description of trial lawyers in one of the Grisham books, no common denominator except they are mostly wild men who fully believe they are working for individuals seeking redress against powerful companies. The old man was passionate about that. The DES does not seem to be helping, I am so sorry to say.

I picked up some sea bass from Hayes last night. We had steamed red jacket potatoes, a terrific salad with Newman dressing (what an awesome man) garlic sourdough crab cakes & fish, baked in Dijon and crumbs. We began with southwestern corn chowder (V8 soups are terrific, especially, big surprise, the tomato soup) and had a bottle of 01 Elu, drinking nicely, and a couple of lesser stars as the evening progressed. We watched a lot of liberal political TV, too.

Eventually, just Julia & I were home. Totally great, but we are such geezers we basically went to bed. We should get to the farmers market together this morning, and I will make sure there are at least a few romantic moments over the weekend. There is nothing more inviting or optimistic than Saturday morning.

Only a wooden snake at the Rattlesnake Bar

Julia & I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Dallas. Our day with the financial guy was intense, as usual, but we had three very good dinners and some pretty good wine. We also made a few visits to the Rattlesnake Bar in the hotel. The hotel gets a terrific review from us, the Ritz uptown. The mirror in our bathroom had a TV embedded in it. The club concierge got whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted it: coffee, food of all kinds, drinks. We even had extra feather pillows. Took a cab ride to Ft. Worth and saw an excellent collection of impressionists at the Kimbell museum. We rode past the new Cowboys stadium, which is, of course, Texas size.

We upgraded to first class on the way down. Julia objected but it was mild protest. So we enjoyed a pretty good flight down. The first leg of return was upgraded, but not the flight from Charlotte to Big B. That one was delayed by about an hour, but was again, not too bad. We went to vote, had a bite at Tantalus, came home. Julia's candidate, Alice Krysan, beat her opponents like rented mules. So the whole trip and return was just great, as traveling together always seems to be.

This weekend is relaxed. Mike & the girls are out because Lisa is seeing some shows in NYC. Mary is home. Lou & I finally got the brush hog on the little tractor, then it began to rain. So into the kitchen to prepare the things we got at the farmers market this morning, and meatloaf, and a little Veuve.

Julia is going to visit Dawn in NC this weekend, and Mohamed & I go to Dallas. We will be meeting the financial guys for a seminar. This is going to be very different without my love, but I'm sure the reunion will be memorable.

My best to you all. I hope you enjoy the weekend.

On the road again

Julia & I are finishing the last minute packing for our trip to Dallas, which we should be leaving for the airport for about now. The hurricane worried us a little, but was, as usual, somewhat overstated by the weatherman, Mr. C. Little. We have terrific dinner reservations in the big D, which as a Buffalo sports fan, probably stands for Dopey.

Our visit to Toronto was "great success". Jersey Boys was excellent. I must say that I had some serious reservations about that show, because I never really liked the Four Seasons music too much, but I thought the show was great. Even has Joe Pesci. Both Canoe and North44 were outstanding. I love these trips with Julia. She is a terrific traveling companion, among many other sterling qualities.

We took Grandma to Dan's award dinner on Thursday. Brian Higgins presented the award to Dan from the EA Chamber of Commerce. Brian was also the speaker, and he was very good. Dan was predictably out of control, making the hall howl. Jim & Don Bach were rather high profile, also. We met Jim's father in law, Sean, who has a pub south of Galway. I hope to visit him when we take our trip.

I hope you all have a great weekend. We will get together on our return.