Year: 2017

How Was Your Saturday?

Decades Old Fantasy Fulfilled

Gillian AndersonBACKGROUND:
In the early Aughts when the X-Files was on TV every Sunday night I developed a little crush on Gillian Anderson. Somewhere in there I started a minor little gallery of photos that I culled from the internet. Everything from her early modeling days to then current magazines to show screen captures. If any of you were around then, and I can’t fathom that any of the tens of people of might see this now were, at one time I thought it might be fun to add one of her pictures to each of my posts. There was no correlation to whatever I was writing about to whatever picture, but anyway, it was fun for a while.

I would point you to that era if I could, but in a move from one blogging platform to another or one server to another I opted not to put the pictures back in place. The picture collection is long gone too, probably dumped in the bit bucket on a PC move or due to hard drive space requirements. I don’t have the compunction to blog stalk her with photos anymore, but somewhere deep inside my addled brain is the thought that if I wasn’t married to Donna and she wasn’t married to whoever, I’d have a chance.

THE EVENT:
I got to sleep with Gillian Anderson. Not in the same bed. Well, I don’t know, it might have been in the same bed, but it definitely wasn’t the same time. It was the same house though, well, it might have been the same house. It was on the same property, well, maybe it was the same property, but I definitely slept in the same B & B that had an autographed picture of her on their brag wall downstairs.

Using the same logic, I also got to sleep with Shirley MacLaine & Hugh Jackman. It is kind of hard to tell, but that is Shirley in the pink jacket in the photo above and to the left of Gillian and Hugh is the photo above and to the right.

Big Easy

One of the parties planned for Adele’s 90th birthday celebration was to be a champagne & chocolate fete thrown by her eldest daughter Susie. So I thought I had it made with the Hammond B&B being practically next door to the birthday girl’s house and all. This way if I had a flute or two too many, I could walk home afterwards not risking a DUI. I was also hoping not to have to drive into New Orleans and thought maybe I wouldn’t have to, as Donna was not to pleased after our last trip in 2012 to the town where she last lived before joining Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club.

Sunday afternoon, not long after arriving in Hammond both hopes are dashed summarily when I was informed the Champagne & Chocolate party was going to take place in the Big Easy’s Garden District. Susie and her husband John were renting a house in New Orleans so they had a place for them and their two adult daughters that was a little more cosmopolitan and more to their liking than Hammond. And when I say house, its not just any old house, it is owned by a native New Orleanian artist and decorated in a style that would probably be too funky in any other town in America. It is kind of over the top, but so far over it worked. VRBO Listing

The party was slated to run from 1-4 PM, so we decided on a 2 o’clock arrival. We left Hammond about ten o’clock and instead of taking I-55 due south, we opted to take the somewhat scenic route of LA-22 west around Lake Maurepas before catching I-10 east into the city. We had three goals in the French Quarter to take care of before making our way over to the party. First up was lunch real Louisiana gumbo for Donna and red beans and rice for me. Then we needed to make our way to Aunt Sally’s for pralines, one for dessert and a box to bring home as souvenirs. Last up were some beignets from Cafe du Monde. This one didn’t work out so well. Because it was mid-day the place was jammed with tourists1 and the line was real long for a table. We then though maybe we’d just get an order to go, but that line was even longer…maybe next time. We did get a chance to stroll along river on the Moon Walk for a bit and I took the obligatory photo of the St Louis Cathedral and one of the Mighty Mississippi.

Awwww Mom!

Even though this morning’s temperature was borderline freezing, Donna and I still bike rode over to our usual Sunday breakfast spot, Ridgecrest Coffee Bar for a panini. We were the only folks in the place until we were just about finished and a family of five came through the front door.

It was a man and woman probably around 30-years old, two boy kids maybe 5 & 6 and a infant in one of those car seats with a basket handle. The parents had on puffy vests, car seat infant was under a blanket, but the kids were just in flannel shirts. As the group approached the counter, the younger of the two kids, noticing the sliding window behind it, said, with as much exasperation as a person that age can muster, “They have a drive-thru!”

I’m not sure whether his annoyance was because he had to get out of the car and walk 15 feet to the door (in the cold) or because this was the first time in his life he had ever been in a restaurant that had a drive-thru and and they hadn’t used it.

Shouting At The TV

Growing up I remember my mom watching the network evening news and getting so upset at whatever was happening in the country and world that she would literally shout out her disgust at Chet Huntley or David Brinkley or both. I remember thinking what good does that do?

Donna likes to watch the network evening news, so if I’m in the room, by proxy I do too. We watch ABC because she liked to watch Diane Sawyer when she was the anchor, but we are still watching ABC long after she is gone. Diane used to always start the program by saying, “BREAKING NEWS!” even though it was only breaking if you didn’t have access to a 24hr news channel or the internet. I think the breaking news qualifier for them could be added if it happened since their broadcast ended the night before.

When David Muir took over I was hoping that he would drop the charade, but no, he’s even amped it up a notch. Plus he has continued the ridiculous “the Index” feature, 4 or 5 stories hyped at every chance during the first 20 minutes of the broadcast. They are the television version of clickbait, eight to ten word headlines that make you want to find out what they are about. They are saved until near the end and you get one 10 second Index item followed by a minute and half of commercials for prescription drugs your insurance won’t cover the cost of. Then another tidbit and another 2 minutes of commercials, rinse and repeat until it is time to see what the daily lottery numbers are.

It used to be just watch the show and listen with 1/4 of our concentration letting the news wash over us, but since what’s his name took over the news cycle over a year ago, that has been impossible. We don’t shout at the TV, but Donna has taken to sighing a lot and I cussing non-verbally in my mind. Now that the hirsute yellow-fin tuna has taken office Donna’s sighing is becoming words of disbelief and I’ve started muttering incoherently. It is only a matter of time until one of us turns into my mother and starts shouting at the TV.

I’m here to tell you, it won’t be me. From now on if I join her on the couch anytime between 6:30 and 7:00 PM I will have my headphones on listening to Radio Paradise and staring at my Kindle.

Michabelle Inn

Normally when we take a vacation and are driving, we are typically spending each night in a different hotel, but this time we were spending the bulk of away time in the same spot, a B & B called the Michabelle Inn in Hammond, Louisiana.

Hammond was our destination because Donna’s 2nd mom was going to be celebrating her 90th birthday and that is where she is living after being exiled there by the Wicked Witch of the Gulf, Katrina. We would also get to spend some time with Adele’s daughter Sally who has been friends with Donna since they were like 9-years old. Also we’d get to see these “little” tykes who at one-time used to be sort of our god children, Claire & Stuart, Sally’s offspring.

The Inn, as well as being a really nice place to stay and costing slightly less than the Holiday Inn Express, it is within easy walking distance (less than 1/4 mile) to Adele’s house, AKA Party Central. Because we weren’t going to be up at Oh Dark-Thirty for a dawn departure as usual we would actually be able to take advantage of the breakfast part of the B & B, normally by the 8:00 AM breakfast start time we are 50 miles away from whatever table it would be served on. All four mornings we were there we woke at 7:00 AM (or our normal work start time), made coffee and tea in the Keurig machine in the hall and sat on the 2nd floor balcony until it was time to eat.

The only real negative about staying in this place for me was the crappy WiFi. I couldn’t get a decent signal in the room, on the balcony, in the hall or downstairs in the parlor, which is why I wasn’t writing about this while there. I’d give it 4-1/2 stars out of 5 and if we are ever near there again at a logical overnight stop we’ll probably stay there again.

Mr. Trump Makes A Point

Because it is Friday and no one will probably notice, I figure I’ll be safe with my new Over Reaction figure in this particular pose, but come Monday his right hand will be down by his side and in his left will be up high holding up a quote/tweet of his that I find particularly interesting. This way it will appear as he is in a debate with my other political action figure, the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who is already there holding one of his quotes/tweets.