Girly-Bits

Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of a duck? Well, it’s hard. They don’t stand still. And they’re always sticking their bottoms in the air to go after some delicious morsel of duck food in the water. I’m at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, home of the famous ducks.

Every morning at 9:00, John Phillips Sousa rings out, the staff rolls out a red carpet and 5 fat ducks waddle off the elevator, down the red carpet, up the stairs and into the pond. At 5:00, John Phillips Sousa rings out again, the staff rolls out a red carpet, and five fat ducks waddle up the stairs out of the pond, up the red carpet, get onto the elevator, and go up to their room for a good nights sleep.

How do I get that gig?

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First, we add the base.

Then, the first piece of trim at the bottom. There will be more trim at the very bottom, at the top of the base, and at the very top of the column. Les worked super hard all Saturday. So I baked him a cake on Sunday. But I forgot to take a picture of it!!

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This was a busy weekend, but a really typical one for us. On Friday nights, I usually fly back from somewhere out of town, and our traditional evening is Chan Thai and a movie. This time it was Pad Thai, Chicken Mussaman, and Right at Your Door. Terrible movie by the way. For some reason, I’ve always been attracted to books and movies about apocalyptic events, but this one sucked.

Saturday, I was too pathetic to go anywhere thanks to whatever is wrong with my neck and arm. I had an MRI on Thursday. I was terrified, after hearing the horror stories of my friends and co-workers, but it was really a non-event. You lie on a really comfy contoured bed thingie. They give you head phones and a panic button. When they were doing my neck, I could see out of the top, and when they were doing my lower back, I could see out of the bottom, so no claustrophobia. And it’s really not that loud, just like a lawnmower being run next to your head. As I was leaving, I thanked my technician for the easy procedure and he replied that they have really state of the art equipment, and that they can do breast MRIs, so if I need one, just come on down.

Okay. Thanks, I guess.

Anyway, I’m currently taking Celebrex, Baclofen, Skelaxin, and Ultram. I should really be unconscious, but I guess your body gets used to it.

Saturday night I pulled myself together and we went to see Kendra North’s exhibit at Craighead Green, and also dropped by Photographs Do Not Bend. Then we went with David, Howard and Lisa to eat at Cliff Cafe. That is their iconic signage in the picture at the top that I took the first time we went there.

Sunday, Les took me to a favorite greasy spoon for brunch: John’s Cafe. Good eaten’.

While we were there, Ron Kirk dropped by with his wife. Mr. Kirk is former mayor of Dallas. When his wife got up to serve herself a refill of coffee, she walked around and asked if anyone else need a refill while she was up. Nice touch. I hear that Ron Kirk may be running for congress soon.

So now we are home, after going to Target and Central Market. After some light gardening and blogging, we’ll be eating homemade pizza and watching In Treatment and maybe This is England.

Night Night.

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I hope you had a lovely Valentine’s Day. I asked for flowers and candy, and I got the beautiful tulips above, and a nice box of chocolates. We also had dinner at Stephan Pyle’s. The food was great, but we were in the secondary dining room which wasn’t quite as fabulous as the main room. But the service was good and the company delightful as always. Below is Les’ Shellfish Chowder. I had the Poblano Asiago soup, which was superb. Then Les had some Banana and Fig thing that wasn’t on the website menu yesterday, while I had the Chestnut Tamal. Les insisted that it tasted like Nag Champa. But he has a supernatural sense of smell so maybe that had something to do with it; I didn’t get that at all. Les had the tenderloin and I had the sea bass as entrees, but I was too full by that time to even eat it. We finished off the meal with churros and Mexican hot chocolate and the Cherry Rice Pudding. I accompanied my meal with a Sauvignon Republic Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand. Every Sauvignon that I have from that region is just superb.

It was too dark to get many good pictures but there are a few more here. Then we went home, made a fire and opened Valentine’s Day treats. What a perfect day.

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Happy Valentine’s Day! Above is a picture from Les and my first Valentine’s Day together. I made him a gingerbread cake. This Valentine’s Day, there will be many presents to open at Chez Hall, plus a lovely dinner at Stephan Pyle’s. There is a special Valentine’s menu.

First Course
Smoky Poblano-Asiago Soup with Pico-Tortilla Relish
Shellfish Chowder with Guajillo Chile Aioli
Stephan’s Original Southwestern Caesar Salad with Jalapeno-Polenta Croutons
and Parmigiano Reggiano “Chicharron”
Micro Arugula with Roasted Red and Yellow Beets, Candied Pecans and Spanish Picon Mousse

Dessert
Global Chocolate for 2 (Tasting featuring chocolates from five countries)
Churros with Canela and Spanish Hot Chocolate
Pineapple-Banana French Toast with Cherimoya Ice Cream
Chilean Cherry Rice Pudding Tart with Candied Mandarinquat Ice Cream

You may recall the we had Stephan Pyle’s for Thanksgiving… a lovely pre-packaged meal that just had to be extruded and heated.

But tomorrow night we will enjoy the ambience of the restaurant. Pictures will be forthcoming!

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That’s a Scottish saying, and in that case my very own Scotsman got a lot of praying done today. As you can see: before…. our porch posts are a bit lacking.

During…. My talented husband is making them more substantial, and will add a larger base and trim to make them more period correct.

The after pictures might not be until next weekend, but it looks great already!

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K-I-S-S-I-N-G

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Amazing shots here at the Natural History Museum website, including fantastic back stories. The Animal Portraits area is my favorite.

“I’d been so busy taking pictures of the salmon in the Ozernaya River in southern Kamchatka, east Russia, I didn’t notice the bear until it was a metre away. It was a terrible shock. I kept calm enough to take the picture but only later did I realise how serious the situation was.’ Brown bears roam mainly in far northern parts of America and Russia. But they used to live as far south as north Africa and Mexico. Excessive killing and habitat loss has made their existence more fragile. They tend to avoid humans, but can become aggressive if defending a cub or carcass.”

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Or a little bit of the old In N Out. I couldn’t decide on a title for this post. Imagine the Google Search result visits I can get from the combination of “girly bits” and “animal style”. So….I actually hunted down the Costa Mesa In-N-Out Burger, about 6 miles from my hotel, in order to fulfill an oath that I made to Pursuit to check out a double-double and animal-style fries. I got there and parked, thinking I would eat inside, and maybe take some pictures. Only… there is no “inside”, at least for customers. There is only this:

So, I ordered at the take-away window and sat outside and waited. There was such a long line of cars that they actually had employees outside taking the orders down the line. I got my prize and went back to the hotel. The verdict… well, a little mixed. Animal style fries are McDonaldish fries with cheese, grilled onions and Thousand Island Dressing on them. Kind of weird. Plus it all all congealed into a cold and solid mass by the time I got back. The burger was good though, with a nice grilled taste. It had Thousand Island on it too though.

Mission Accomplished. I should have done something like Ann Althouse…. and at least made some money off of the deal!

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Well, not really. I’m actually staying at the very fancy Beverly Hilton tonight. Nice room… wifi…. flat screen TV…. the toilet has it’s own door separate from the rest of the bathroom. What else could a girl ask for? Also there is a nice balcony with a view, which you can see above. The rest of the the lovely hotel pictures are here. But I still need an In and Out Burger!! I haven’t seen one yet. But I seem to recall there was one on the way from Beverly Hill to Orange County. I have a mission to accomplish! A double double and animal-style fries. I’ll take pictures.

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