We are down here in NOLA for the Sugar Bowl, but that's only one event.
You can't come this far and not go to Acme Oyster House. We like the location out by Lakeside Mall. The food is always good and the service comes with an accent that can't be beat. The best part of eating their chargrilled oysters is dipping the French bread into the drippings!
The ride into town took us past "Mother's" which had a line out the door a block long. Been there, done that. On to the Quarter! Parked near the Westin, total for the day, $40, not bad considering the time and place.
Had a ball handing our my red and blue beads to people wearing the right colors. Even swapped bead colors with a couple of OSU fans, all for the love of the game! The guy caught a "Beat OSU" button and said "here! It will look better on you!"
The Sugar Bowl Parade had the feel of Mardi Gras! Beads and stuff flying all over the place. Both fan bases were treated to school fight songs by their bands. Our favorites were the local high school bands that added their own style to their march!
With dinner reservations for 6:00 it was time to roll. We worked our way toward Canal to make a call to Uber. Traffic stalled and I was able to hail down a taxi. Best $20 taxi ride ever!
The restaurant was Carrollton Market, at the end of the St. CHARLES Street car line. The food was out of this world! We had such a good time interacting with the waitstaff that the general manager waived the late cancellation fee on our second table. The meringue on the lemon ice box pie tasted like divinity! Everything was fresh and made from scratch. Highly recommend it.
The owners wife is from Leland, and Julie McGregor's daughter designed the signage. The owners aunt, Mary Frances Hammond has been on me for several years to try them and they did not disappoint.
We took the St. Charles Street car back to Canal
Street. Had a blast talking restaurants with the driver and making suggestions of things for a couple from Iowa to do. Several lady passengers were dressed for a "twenties" party. I almost joined them!
Our walk back thru the Quarter took us down Bourbon Street, and low and behold we run into our Grove buddy Kyle Phipps and his girlfriend. Then my cousin Barbara Ann Beckham spotted us. We swore to tell her dad that we spotted her inside St. Louis Cathedral lighting a candle and doing a confessional!
Feet began to fail us so we opted for a bicycle taxi. Lord! I thought we had done stripped his gears when he tried to crank it up!
We ended the night at Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets. Met a new friend at the next table, from Brandon, works for Atmos Energy and knows my brother Jim. Small world.
Time to recharge our batteries to tomorrow
2016 is uncertain, but 2015 has been a "Happy New Year!"
Retired in 2012. I'm trying to out run old age and boredom. So far, I'm winning the race!
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Friday, December 25, 2015
The Christmas Spirit
Once your kids have reached adulthood, the Christmas season takes on a new meaning. The boys still have that look in their eye come gift opening time, but these days their time is divided between their devotion to us parents, and the girly side of things.
The spousal unit used to take joy in decorating for the season. Hours were spent decorating the tree and setting out the 100+ Santas and Angels about the house. When the boys jumped ship, she brought in our adopted daughter for the day. Now, is just an effort to say it's done.
The attic is full of Christmas yard art, illuminated reindeer, and strings of lights. With the boys all grown and not here much, all that stuff has just stayed put.
Working at Home Depot this time of year, you get an earful of "old time Christmas songs", so much so that you resort to wearing earplugs.
When you think about all this and begin reflecting on all this, you think, "has the holiday flame flickered out?"
But, that's when you walk into to Kroger and pass the volunteer for the Salvation Army, just singing away, wishing everyone a happy holiday season as they rush by.
The other day at Home Depot, the day was coming.to an end. My buddy Sam, walked up with a customer in tow, asking "you got time to assemble another one?" The lady had that look in her eye. This high end grill was going to be a special gift for someone. Her husband had just been released from the hospital this week and was wanting to grill, but their old one had bit the dust a few months back. I said "sure, Merry Christmas". The box was delivered to me, and the "will call" sticker had a note "if completed before 9, call for customer pickup". I finished it and took it to customer service so they could call the lady for pickup. Hope her husband enjoyed firing it up!
With no young ones in our immediate future, we do have a pretty good substitute. On the spousal unit's side there are the Grandbaby niece and nephew that are just now figuring this Christmas thing out. One of the nieces has her first bundle of joy. That holiday flame has relit itself through them! I could not resist getting a baby daddy project, a mimi me toy grill that had to be at least a three hour assembly project!
Last night, we made the road trip to Inverness to see my parents, sister, and others. My mom has gotten a bit "chatty" in her 80+ years. We got to here the stories of her giving chase to my Dad, how they got married, and survived on less than $200 per month. Nobody can tell stories like these but Granny! My Dad will be "retiring" from his current job in the next few days. I didn't realize that the word "retirement" was in his vocabulary!
Some traditions will always be. Cooking is what I enjoy the most. I have a few "lady friends" that like my Christmas sugar cookies that are always calling. This year I made 40 boxes of cheese straws for customers. Made my first fixing of "trash" for son #1. Last night was my first attempt at prime rib and it did not disappoint.
Tonight we will all share in the preparation of the evening holiday meal. Everyone has their assigned task, and are looking forward to "our time" together.
Yep, that holiday flame that I thought had died out was just down to a slow flicker. Soon, girly friends will become "for real" family members and the circle will be complete. Their lives will just be getting started and me and the spousal unit will get to relive it through their eyes.
The holiday spirit is alive and well. Merry Christmas from our house to yours!
The spousal unit used to take joy in decorating for the season. Hours were spent decorating the tree and setting out the 100+ Santas and Angels about the house. When the boys jumped ship, she brought in our adopted daughter for the day. Now, is just an effort to say it's done.
The attic is full of Christmas yard art, illuminated reindeer, and strings of lights. With the boys all grown and not here much, all that stuff has just stayed put.
Working at Home Depot this time of year, you get an earful of "old time Christmas songs", so much so that you resort to wearing earplugs.
When you think about all this and begin reflecting on all this, you think, "has the holiday flame flickered out?"
But, that's when you walk into to Kroger and pass the volunteer for the Salvation Army, just singing away, wishing everyone a happy holiday season as they rush by.
The other day at Home Depot, the day was coming.to an end. My buddy Sam, walked up with a customer in tow, asking "you got time to assemble another one?" The lady had that look in her eye. This high end grill was going to be a special gift for someone. Her husband had just been released from the hospital this week and was wanting to grill, but their old one had bit the dust a few months back. I said "sure, Merry Christmas". The box was delivered to me, and the "will call" sticker had a note "if completed before 9, call for customer pickup". I finished it and took it to customer service so they could call the lady for pickup. Hope her husband enjoyed firing it up!
With no young ones in our immediate future, we do have a pretty good substitute. On the spousal unit's side there are the Grandbaby niece and nephew that are just now figuring this Christmas thing out. One of the nieces has her first bundle of joy. That holiday flame has relit itself through them! I could not resist getting a baby daddy project, a mimi me toy grill that had to be at least a three hour assembly project!
Last night, we made the road trip to Inverness to see my parents, sister, and others. My mom has gotten a bit "chatty" in her 80+ years. We got to here the stories of her giving chase to my Dad, how they got married, and survived on less than $200 per month. Nobody can tell stories like these but Granny! My Dad will be "retiring" from his current job in the next few days. I didn't realize that the word "retirement" was in his vocabulary!
Some traditions will always be. Cooking is what I enjoy the most. I have a few "lady friends" that like my Christmas sugar cookies that are always calling. This year I made 40 boxes of cheese straws for customers. Made my first fixing of "trash" for son #1. Last night was my first attempt at prime rib and it did not disappoint.
Tonight we will all share in the preparation of the evening holiday meal. Everyone has their assigned task, and are looking forward to "our time" together.
Yep, that holiday flame that I thought had died out was just down to a slow flicker. Soon, girly friends will become "for real" family members and the circle will be complete. Their lives will just be getting started and me and the spousal unit will get to relive it through their eyes.
The holiday spirit is alive and well. Merry Christmas from our house to yours!
Friday, December 4, 2015
Oh Christmas Tree
It's that time of year again. Some start early November with the decorating. For others, the first days after Thanksgivivng. Others, like is, sometime in December.
Growing up, my memories are bittersweet. For some reason, we would make the drive from Belzoni to Yazoo City to pick up a tree that an uncle had picked out for us. It would be standing in a bucket on the side of the house, in the shade. Then, when we moved to Inverness, as teenagers with a driver's license, my mom told us to drive over to Indianola to pick out a tree and bring it home to decorate. What??? We get to pick it out? How big? What kind? We were full of questions about an event that we were about to experience for the first time!
We ended up with the same scotch pine tree that our uncle always picked out. It didn't matter, because it was our tree! We didn't know to check out the trunk for straightness. I don't think any scotch pine ever had a straight trunk. I think this one fell over a couple of times before we secured it to the wall. Again, it didn't matter, because it was ours!
When our kids were small, we made tree buying a family event. Our favorite was the Frasier Fur. Needles didn't stick, good shape, and easy to decorate. We did this every year, til the time we got it home, and the boys announced "we're done. Off to something else!" That tree sat in the stand, outside for quite some time, before it was brought inside, again waiting for someone to decorate it. Eventually, it got done, but the family experience time was changed forever.
Next up was our first purchase of a prelit artificial tree. Big one, from Callaways, during the big after Christmas sale. We justified the cost by figuring that it would last at least ten years, and no issues with watering or needle dropping.
We had the same issues with decorating the tree, two boys with no interest. The spousal unit had a stroke of genius, borrow our little friend Jessica for a day and "get r done"! That worked great for a few years, but now, Jessica is all grown up and off to college.
Well, that tree served us well. The strings of lights eventually failed. OMG! The time I spent pulling off the old and adding the new! This past year, we finally went the full circle of life. The boys and a girly friend did the decorating! It seemed to be the appropriate send off for that tree! Off it went to garbage dump land!
Now, a year has past, and no tree. It's almost like my teenage years again. Been so long, live or artificial? Prelit or not? Big and tall, or scaled back? Wonder who will be decorating it this go round? Yep! We've come full circle around the.Ole Christmas Tree!
Growing up, my memories are bittersweet. For some reason, we would make the drive from Belzoni to Yazoo City to pick up a tree that an uncle had picked out for us. It would be standing in a bucket on the side of the house, in the shade. Then, when we moved to Inverness, as teenagers with a driver's license, my mom told us to drive over to Indianola to pick out a tree and bring it home to decorate. What??? We get to pick it out? How big? What kind? We were full of questions about an event that we were about to experience for the first time!
We ended up with the same scotch pine tree that our uncle always picked out. It didn't matter, because it was our tree! We didn't know to check out the trunk for straightness. I don't think any scotch pine ever had a straight trunk. I think this one fell over a couple of times before we secured it to the wall. Again, it didn't matter, because it was ours!
When our kids were small, we made tree buying a family event. Our favorite was the Frasier Fur. Needles didn't stick, good shape, and easy to decorate. We did this every year, til the time we got it home, and the boys announced "we're done. Off to something else!" That tree sat in the stand, outside for quite some time, before it was brought inside, again waiting for someone to decorate it. Eventually, it got done, but the family experience time was changed forever.
Next up was our first purchase of a prelit artificial tree. Big one, from Callaways, during the big after Christmas sale. We justified the cost by figuring that it would last at least ten years, and no issues with watering or needle dropping.
We had the same issues with decorating the tree, two boys with no interest. The spousal unit had a stroke of genius, borrow our little friend Jessica for a day and "get r done"! That worked great for a few years, but now, Jessica is all grown up and off to college.
Well, that tree served us well. The strings of lights eventually failed. OMG! The time I spent pulling off the old and adding the new! This past year, we finally went the full circle of life. The boys and a girly friend did the decorating! It seemed to be the appropriate send off for that tree! Off it went to garbage dump land!
Now, a year has past, and no tree. It's almost like my teenage years again. Been so long, live or artificial? Prelit or not? Big and tall, or scaled back? Wonder who will be decorating it this go round? Yep! We've come full circle around the.Ole Christmas Tree!
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