Dinner at the Roe House with Ree and Quinn, too

Josienne arranged a nice evening over at their house with Ree and Quinn, and Doreen and me.

We had delicious hamburgers and fresh corn on the grill.

Jared cooked:





The rest of us sat around and "helped" take care of the baby:


I was trying to get a photo of Tancred "smiling" but it didn't turn out too well:


Good photo of Quinn:


And another good one of Josienne:


A nice one of Doreen and Julius, both smiling:


and now for some random, but baby shots:

Our plots

Yes, some may think it a bit morbid, but since we don't have kids, we want to make the decisions about our eternal resting place.

We have always liked the Glenwood Cemetery, and started looking for plots there a year or so ago. We looked in the new section, and in the old section, and finally decided to buy these two plots:


They are off the main road, one layer back. The plot looks like this:


Of course, you always have to try something on before you buy it:

Iberian Dinner Party

As I mentioned in the story about my car, we had a dinner party last night. It was an Iberian Themed party, so we had sardines as the main course:



which I had to clean (too bad I don't have a gut-boy to help me)


and then we pack them in salt for a couple of hours. I am not sure why, but I think that it dries them out some. Anyway, it is now a tradition.


Another dinner party tradition that we have to to bake the New York Times No Knead Bread:

which is always delicious.

As it was Sunday morning, I also baked my famous "Dannidamim" bread:


Doreen selected a couple of interesting dips to go along with dinner. One was a Reg Mojo sauce. You had to rehydrate ancho peppers, and the scrape the pulp off the skins:

It was a lot of work. Interesting sauce.


No knead, done. Isn't it beautiful? And it tastes as good as it looks.


We also made a chocolate and macadamia nut tort. This is the crust.


Toasting the macadamia nuts


And of course we had asparagus. Grilled. It is that time of year.


Kiss the chef!


Scallions, waiting to be grilled. These were dipped in to the Red Mojo Sauce.


Dressing the tort. I did not do this.


Ta da!


Iberian treats. Marcona Almonds, Manchego Cheese, Serrano Ham, and olives.


We also got andouille sausage from the Greatful Bread guy at the Eastside Farmers Market. Delicous!


Grilled sardines. Hard to beat


Most of the food. That is my sis-in-law's World Famous Three Bean Salad in there.



Looks good, eh?


It was a delightful time. We had some Cava as a starter, and then some vinho verde with the meal.

And great company to enjoy it with us!

Killer Pothole

We went back out to the location of the problem. The City of Houston has now marked it:



You can see the chunk of concrete to the right (west) of the manhole cover. I am pretty sure that is what I hit.


Close up of the concrete:


There is a little dip just this side (north) of the manhole cover


I put the camera case in the dip to try and show the relief, but it you can't really see it.


So I suppose that my right wheel was in the dip, and that brought the car just low enough to catch that chunck of concrete.

So sad to be me

So Doreen and I were at the Farmers Market this morning, picking up vegetables and such for our dinner party tomorrow night (Grilled Sardines!) and while coming home, badness happened.



I was driving west on Alabama, just at Spur 527 - a route I have taken hundreds of times before - and I straddle a man hole cover. That particular man-hole cover is not particularly high.

But as I go over it, we hear WHAM!!!

And everything just goes to hell.

we limp home (about six blocks) just as it is obvious that the oil pan has a hole it in (Yes, the lights all came on about a block from where I stopped)

The good news is that GEICO has been great (so far) as has BMW assist and Advantage Midtown.

I just hope that I dd not damage the engine.

Breaks my heart! I don't even have 5,000 miles on the car.

I went back to the site, and I would have straddled that man hole cover again. All I can see is that there was a chunk of concrete that was sitting catty-whampus on the street.


The front fairing - no apparent damage


Here you see a little scratch and the damage starting below that.

I wonder if that picked up a chunk of concrete and flipped it under the car


I wasn't even going 30 MHP


Isn't that horrible?



That looks bad.




The car is at the dealer, and they don't seem too worried. The adjuster is in Dallas, helping people with hail damage.

I am glad I don't have hail damage.