[title type="h5"]Saturday, December 27, 2014.
A Website Crisis. A Show For Two.[/title]
Websites are ticklish. Today, a minor adjustment to NOMenu.com takes the whole site off line. It won't be back to normal functioning until tomorrow, after a day of angst and paranoia.
Mary Ann calms me down by reminding me that all the presents under the Christmas tree--whose lights are still not functioning properly--are for me. There are six packages, all wrapped and beribboned with care. The first one is a pound of hazelnut creme coffee. I am no big fan of flavored coffees, but I like brewing a potful on a night like tonight. It makes the whole house smell not only good but festive in the tone of the season.
The other five are all jams and preserves. The Marys have long made fun of my habit of starting the day with a slice of multi-grain toast, spread with something fruity and not too sweet. Mary Ann believes that my liking of this simple pleasure is actually pathetic, especially considering the real delight I show in trying a new flavor. Here is what Santa gives me for Christmas: peach-amaretto jam, orange-cranberry marmalade, wild Maine blueberry jam, fig and ginger jam, and blueberry-cherry preserves. All of these will compete in the coming months with Rouse's blueberry preserves, which is the gold standard at the moment. Wonderful! My delight makes the girls shake their heads with wonder.
This gives us something to talk about when Mary Ann and I continue a radio experiment we began last Saturday. She wants to get back on the radio. Jude's marriage (they're still in Paris on their glorious honeymoon, by the way) and Mary Leigh's apparently solid relationship have convinced MA that she is not needed as a mommy anymore. Besides, every time she sits in for me on the show, people ask why we don't have her on more often. I think she and I can do a lifestyles program that would be just different enough from the weekday show that it would stand out. It is no surprise to me that the program immediately takes on a life of its own.[divider type=""]
[title type="h5"]Sunday, December 28, 2014.
Burger And Saints. Audio Discovery.[/title]
I show up for nine o'clock Mass at St. Jane's in Abita Sorings, making good my threat, made after Christmas Mass, to join its fine little choir. The keyboardist, who seems to be in charge, is both surprised and pleased to see me. The songs are familiar and easy. We're not doing voice parts. I don't really know the standard pieces like the Gloria, but I will pick them up soon enough. It's nice to have another new place to sing. Mary Ann even thinks it's a good idea. Someday, I will talk her into joining in.
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Great hamburger and not-so-great fries at The Chimes.[/caption]
The Boy has returned from Christmas with his parents in Baltimore. The four of us go The Chimes, where three of us watch the Saints struggle to win their last game of what I hear has been a dismal season. I am there because I have a hankering for a hamburger. The Chimes does good burgers, and I have not had any of the 1.2 hamburgers I am allotted per month. (Formula: divide 100 by the sum of your age above fifteen plus the number of pounds you are overweight. Result: your permissible hamburgers per month. I thought of this myself.) I wish I weren't there because a) it's too cold outside, but MA insists on eating on the deck anyway and 2) the fries are really awful. In its first years, The Chimes was better than I expected. But the food is decidedly on a slow decline during 2014. Fortunately, the best part of the menu--the oyster bar and grill--is stil first-class.
My annual Christmas Toast in the newsletter is too long, I decide. Too late to do anything about that now, but it gets me to thinking about how I might record it for easy play on the website. I perform a couple of experiments and, before I've given the task five minutes, I have figured it out. For once, a project is much, much easier than I had supposed. Great! This gives me just the right project to work in as I increase the usefulness of NOMenu.com beyond what my so-called competitors are doing.
