We celebrated Christmas by going out for a Christmas buffet at the Remington (in the Embassy Suites) with some square dance friends. Linda and Terry eat there often, as does Jean. They invited us to join them, and later Dick and Mary Ann decided to join the group too. That made seven, a nice size table where everyone could talk together and enjoy each other's company as well as the delicious food.
I talked to Beth--she's been quite ill with one thing and another since Thanksgiving. Now she has a sinus infection, an ear infection, and a cold. She said she was planning to stay isolated and resting until she really feels well this time.
Julie had just had Jesse throw up all over her when I called. She had brought just enough clothing for the visit, so she was sitting in her pj's. Ed and Cate and Chris and John and Nancy were playing Ingenious. Sam hasn't opened his gifts yet, because they decided not to take the Wii game to Longview.
Terri and the girls all wished me a merry Christmas. I didn't get through to either Iris or Helene, so I just left messages for them. I'll try them and Kathy tomorrow.
It was rather odd to drive past all the empty parking lots on the way to the restaurant. Only Foy's was open, and we passed it up. We'll pick up some Silk tomorrow on the way home from breakfast.
I've been trying to learn how to organize music in I-Tunes and create playlists. We used to have a 50 disk CD changer, with our CDs grouped by genre. We could just start it and let it play. Since we've been on the road, we haven't listed to our music as much, since it was awkward to put one CD in at a time. Now I'm playing through some inexpensive speakers plugged in to the laptop, so the quality isn't quite as good, but it's nice being able to play all our Christmas music, for example.
I gave Ken a digital copy of Man of La Mancha for Christmas, which he downloaded from Amazon. It's a good thing we have a relatively fast, unlimited connection right now, because it is 2.43 GB and took over an hour to download. We watched it this evening. We used to have a VHS copy, but we haven't had a VCR for a while, so it's been some time since we saw the movie. Both of us are suckers for the Impossible Dream theme...
We split on two Ingenious rounds. The two-player game feels very tight with so few spaces available.
The Remington menu included a variety of salads, including seafood, and fresh fruits and a chocolate dipping station, rolls, cheese blintzes, mixed veggies, rice, oven baked potatoes, sea bass, chicken piccata, turkey mignon, dressing, cranberry sauce, sliced ham, roast beef, madeira sauce, cakes and pies, including pumpkin, pecan, apple--Ken had a cake that reminded me of Italian cream cake. The sea bass was especially good.
Everything was very tasty but also very rich. The chocolate dipping was a bit disappointing--I thought the chocolate had too much wax. It hardened quickly and stuck to the plate like glue. The presentation was very appealing. The food was beautiful and also hot. The room was very attractive. It's an atrium with a glass roof, and all the hotel rooms overlook it. There were seven of us, and an 18% gratuity was added (that seemed a bit high for a buffet, since the server only supplied us with drinks). Overall a pricey meal ($77 with the senior discount)--but with quality to match.
Linda and Terry both had vitamin containers on the table, and Linda had a large lemonade bottle of water. They evidently follow alternative medical advice on diet and supplements. Linda actually read quite a bit of the blog when she followed the link from our Christmas letter, so we talked some about organic food. They recommended the HEB on Trenton Rd. as having a larger selection of organics.
Jean entertained us with a dramatic account of her recent move. She had moved in to a place she rented last year at Twin Lakes, but it had gotten run down since then. When she started to see cockroaches, she moved out--immediately. By 5:00 a.m. she had all her things in her car, and she called the landlords after she left. She's very enterprising and found a new place in Pharr South right away. Of course she also forfeited the $500 deposit she'd put on the place at Twin Lakes.
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