Dime Me

Mom has been wanting to have Mike and Marianne and Matthew over for dinner and a friendly game of "Dime Me", so tonight we did just that. After a fine meal of chicken and noodle casserole, Waldorf salad, three bean salad and bread, we played cards. I got off to a quick start with an immediate dime me, and also got three more, but I got stuck with some very high hands and lost out to April, who won despite NO dime me's. Mom came in second, and we would have taken our guests money, but it was all Mom's dimes anyway so we threw them back into the pot. I'm ready to step up and play with Bernice and Jug and Jamie, who play dime me with dollars. Dollar Me!!

Jack's Birthday

We celebrated Jack's Birthday this evening at Mom's. We had Mom's famous hot dish, the cold veggie salad, Waldorf salad, and croissant rolls. Mom's hot dish is also called Aunt Mary's hot dish by the Murphy cousins and Jack refers to it as "the big hot dish", since he says it is always served in a very large bowl. The first time April made it at our house she made it in a flat bowl, which freaked me out, but it was still good. Here is a picture of Jack blowing out the candles of the pineapple upside down cake (which was very good).

Fleming's

This evening we were treated to a fancy meal at Fleming's, a very nice steak restaurant in downtown Austin. The occasion? We had missed the annual Thundercloud Manager's dinner and the owners like April so much that they took us out solo just to show their appreciation. We felt very special. If I ever get rich, this is where I'm taking the family out to dinner. I tried not to look, but I saw the bill. It was frightening. Good wine at a fancy steakhouse in downtown Austin is not cheap, but I am - I had iced tea. I think wine makes you taller - I look extra short in this picture...

Ginny's Birthday

You would think that we would take Ginny out for her birthday, but instead we "let" her make dinner for us tonight. We had a great dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, salad with vinaigrette dressing, broccoli and clauliflower salad, bread, and of course cake. Everything was very good, and I especially liked the cake, which Beth made and Kaya frosted. Liz joined us and we all had a great time.

I don't really have time to get into breakfast, except to say that Mom and I were joined by her neighbor Nancy, and the cable guy showed up (but he didn't eat).

Ice in Austin

I can't report on any meals today, since we are hunkering down at home because of the ice storm!

Here is a picture of April and icicles in front of our house.

"Hitting the Super" in Meals!

In horseracing, a superfecta bet is correctly picking the top four finishers of a race - in the correct order. In a 12 horse race, there are 11,880 possible combinations for "hitting the super", as the gamblers like to say. (Ginny helped me figure out that mathematical statistic). It is very difficult to successfully hit the super and most seasoned gamblers know it is a risky but lucrative bet. In 2005, the superfecta at the Kentucy Derby paid $864,253.20! This was due in large part because the top horses were all long shots. Most superfectas pay several hundred to several thousand dollars, so even with favorite horses in the top spots, hitting the super is a very special accomplishment.

This weekend I "hit the super" in meals, having four meals at Mom's in three days. This morning I completed the super, having breakfast at Mom's with April, Mom, Ginny and Jack, and Mary Ellen and Jim. We had bacon, potatoes, eggs, toast, coffee, juice, and a special treat - Mom's grapefruit sections. I almost hate to say it, but it was - you guessed it - Super!

Bean, bean, bean, bean, bean, bean, and bean

Tonight we had quite a feast. It was (close to) Ouida's birthday, and she and Marty came over and joined me and April, Ginny and Jack, Mary Ellen and Jim, Beth and Jim, and John and Mom for dinner. We had chicken - "fancy" and "plain". The fancy chicken was Bernice's recipe with mushrooms and sour cream. I disapprove of mushrooms and sour cream, especially in combination with one another, so Mary Ellen insisted that we make some plain chicken because it's "OK that you're spoiled since you're the youngest".

In addition to the chicken, we had mashed potatoes, broccoli, left-over meatloaf, and leftover salads. The three bean salad was mixed with the "bean, bean, bean and bean" salad, so in effect we had a bean, bean, bean, bean, bean, bean and bean salad. It was delicious!

We sang "Happy Birthday" and had some very good brownies with ice cream. I scooped out the ice cream, which was more difficult than it sounds because it was so hard and I had to scoop out 11 servings (Ginny abstained).

Breakfast, Gambling, and Dinner

Today was a good day. Mary Ellen and Jim and Gerry and Bernice are in town, and we started the day with breakfast at Mom's. I cooked some bacon, and Mom made some excellent potatoes that she fried in bacon grease. We had some toast, decided against eggs, and had some juice and a lot of coffee. Great start to the day.

Later in the day, Jim and Gerry and I went to the track, where I keyed the 8 and hit a lucky 8-6-12 trifecta, netting over $160 on the bets. On the way back to Mom's we stopped by the hardware store to get replacement parts for the guest bathroom toilet, which had broken probably due to the stress of Gerry being in town.

We had a lovely dinner where Gloria and Marty joined us, and enjoyed meatloaf and two of Mom's famous salads, the three-bean salad, and another salad that Mary Ellen said was the "Bean, bean, bean, and bean salad". It had some broccoli in it, and bell pepper, so it wasn't all beans, but it was very good.