Views of the Monkeynut

by   Peter R. Lloyd-Davies

Peter

Louise

Madeleine

Antonia

New from the Monkeynut - Christmas, 2018. Another small family Christmas. Madeleine flew down from New York (Phil stayed to celebrate with his own family.) Mary was with her family in Florida. On Christmas Eve, we went out to dine at the Russian House, did vodka shots and ate interesting food. On Christmas Day, I smoked a chicken (but I didn't inhale), Louise made her famous vegetable casserole, Madeleine and Antonia ... I made a hazelnut torte, although it seemed that the recipe called for way too much sugar. Lots of pressies - hammock for me, which Antonia and Madeleine put together for me. New from the Monkeynut - Thanksgiving, 2018. In the past few years, we have mostly spent Thanksgiving at the Christmas tree farm in Elgin with Louise's Texas relatives. This year we spent it at home with Antonia, Mary and Mary's brother John. The three of them brought the food and cooked it for us in our kitchen, leaving Louise and me nothing to do but watch the show. They cooked delicious squash soup, two ducks, vegetables and various accessories. Our contribution was to cook a carrot cake - which Louise did, although I did ice it. We stuffed ourselves as per the requirements of the day and then lounged around rhapsodizing about how wonderful everything was. They had to leave early in order to prepare to fly to Mexico City the next day to celebrate John's birthday. Unknown to him, a bunch of his friends were also flying out to assist him in said celebration. And a good time was had by all. New from the Monkeynut - Halloween, 2018. Antonia after being bitten by a zombie Me, exhausted by all the jollity New from space: an amazing image of the surface of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe. The video below was made by Twitter user landru79 and was stitched together from images taken over a period of 25 minutes. The elongated flashes of light are believed to be traces of cosmic rays and the small white dots all falling towards the ground at the same speed are stars, their motion reflecting the rotation of the comet. If I were a younger man, I'd be packing up my climbing gear to scale that enormous cliff face, but now I am content to watch it on my computer monitor. Play/Pause Big Normal New from the Monkeynut, A terrible few weeks. Ealier this summer, Louise's brother Paul had a small stroke - scary, but not disabling. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Then, later in September, we heard that he had a much more serious stroke and was helicoptered to a hospital in St. Louis. The doctors were not at all reassuring, and his sons Mike and Dan (with Lana) flew in to be at his bedside. Louise also flew up and spent a week at the hospital, spending time with Paul and helping Roberta. Contrary to expectations, though, Paul recovered remarkably well during that week, with no apparent lasting effects. At the end of the week, the doctors were still planning to hold him longer so he could spend more time in physical therapy, but Paul decided that he'd rather go home. Accordingly, Roberta and Louise piled him into the car and they all drove back to Mount Vernon. Paul's only complaint now is that people are spending way too much time fussing over him. So a real scare, but ending OK. But too soon afterward, in early October we got a call that our Austin friend Becky Webb had had a stroke during the night and had died almost immediately. It came as a total shock to everyone. She was Louise's age, physically active, and one of the sweetest people we have known in Austin. It's going to take us all a long to get over her death. New from the Monkeynut, Mount Vernon, August 2018. Not content with two weddings, Dan and Lana came to Mt Vernon for, well, not really a third wedding, but a chance to celebrate yet again with Dan's family and friends. Louise and I flew up to St. Louis on Thursday and then drove up to Hannibal, the town where Mark Twain grew up. At Louise's urging, we went to the Mark Twain Cave, which plays a role, I am told, in the canon. Despite my claustrophobia, I decided to give it a shot and actually had a fun time. The next day, we drove back down to Mt Vernon for the Opila reunion that Paul and Roberta were hosting. The event took place at a lovely park on the shores of a lake and weather was perfect. Here is the whole gang: And then on Saturday, Dan and Lana showed up, along with a bunch of Paul and Roberta's friends. Food and drink magically appeared once again and a good time was had by all. New from the Monkeynut, Destination Mexico, June 2018. Our second vacation in the Carribean this year! Louise's nephew Dan has been dating a beautiful Russian emigre named Svetlana. They both live in New York City and decided to get married in Tulum, in the Yucatan. Louise and I decided to make a week of it, so we rented an apartment in Tulum with enough space for Madeleine and Antonia as well. We toured the local Mayan ruins, had encounters with genuine Mayans, ate local food and bought trinkets to commemorate the occasion. The weather did not co-operate, but the wedding festivities were delightful, we hung out with family and we all had fun. A couple of weeks later, Dan and Lana had a second wedding, in New York, for friends and family who weren't able to come to Tulum. More details on both their weddings (as well as our adventures in Tulum) here. New from the Monkeynut, Eeyore's birthday party, April 2018. Eeyore's birthday, I am told, is a great Austin tradition, which has been celebrated every year since 1963. This year, it came on a particularly fine sunny day and so Louise and I decided to give it a try. There didn't seem to be much of a point to it - you could purchase food and drink and even get little temporary tattoos. There were also various not-for-profit organizations trying to pursuade you to sponsor them. But mostly, it was like the Easter parade in old movies - a bunch of people, some of whom were dressed up in costumes, walking around. Eeyore himself was hardly to be seen, although there was a large stuffed version you could photograph yourself in front of. However, once we did that, representatives of some organization that owned Stuffed Eeyore jumped out of the woodwork and asked us to give them money, which we declined to do. There were drum circles, which were just a bunch of guys banging away on drums - mostly tom-toms and bongos. There were people in costume, which was fun. But mostly it was just a lot of people enjoying the sunshine on a fine day. Which is fine by me. Stuffed Eeyore Inflatable Eeyore Peter's tattoo New from the Monkeynut, One Big Holiday in the Dominican Republic, March 2018. At the urging of our Seattle friends Andreas and Connie, we signed up for One Big Holiday in the Dominican Republic. What's that? I hear you ask. Well, OBH got started some years ago as a way for fans of My Morning Jacket to spend some time in a nice part of the world while listening to MMJ (and other fine bands.) In past years, OBH has happened in the Yucatan; this year it has relocated to the Dominican Republic, at the Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana. This is a huge resort on a lovely beach on the furthest east point of the DR. The celebration takes place over four days, although we added an extra two days in order to settle in first. There's tons to do at the resort during the day, including lounging at one of nine pools or on the beach, eating at one of a dozen restaurants, playing golf or risking it all in the casino. There are also some activities you can sign up for such as snorkeling and petting the dolphins. Then, in the late afternoon, the music starts and continues until 2 a.m. in the morning. I have to say that we enjoyed this enormously. The weather was delightful, the other guests very friendly, the staff unbelievably friendly, the accomodations spacious and comfortable. We enjoyed many of the bands, including an Austin band, Spoon. And a good time was had by all. The resort Louise on the beach The stage

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