An ebullient evening

The happy couple

Cynthia and I celebrated our anniversary over dinner and drinks at Sambuca Jazz Cafe in the heart of downtown.

I have had a few opportunities to visit Sambuca and have always been very pleased.

On this night we enjoyed our respective adult beverages of choice, gin and tonics for her and vodka martinis for me. They were mmmmmmmm tasty!

Our meals were indulgent and decadent. I enjoyed a lovely dinner of rare lamb chops with garlic mashed potatos and asparagus while Cynthia savored some lovely veal served with mixed vegetables.

We had mentioned to our abundantly attentive and wonderful waiter that we were celebrating our 13th anniversary and when desert arrived it had a personalized message written in chocolate…

Lucky 13

It was a lovely evening of delicious food combined with delightfully intoxicated reminiscences punctuated with laughter and a real sense of joy that is the result of spending so much of ones life with such a suitable and compatible partner.

Year 14 of a life sentence

Cynthia

Today Cynthia and I celebrate our 14th anniversary.

She is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
And I am not just saying that because she reads this blog on her lunch break.

There are literally no words adequate enough to describe how happy and how lucky I feel for getting to share my life with such a glorious woman.

Thanks to the all night flower stands over on flower row near downtown I was able to have this waiting for Cynthia when she woke up this morning:

Roses

One dozen red roses with one yellow rose to accentuate the 14th year of this relationship.

I love you Cynthia! Happy anniversary!

Insert “snakes on a plane” joke here

Cynthia and the Indigo snake

As I have mentioned before, I have quite the fascination with snakes. I have owned them and I consider myself quite knowledgeable on the subject and even considered pursuing a career in herpetology once upon a time.

Cynthia, on the other hand, has an understandable fear of snakes. She will watch in horror as that Australian nut job “The Crocodile Hunter” pulls the tail of of a Mamba or some other poisonous snake in one of his cable shows.

I recently learned of the Houston Zoo’s Walk on the Wild Side Tour – Texas Snakes event from my friend Wyndi and commented on how cool that might be to attend. Wyndi asked if I would be joining her and her sister as she had made reservations. I kind of dismissed the notion and said I would mention it to Cynthia but I did not expect that she would want to put herself in a position to be around snakes in any capacity.

Imagine my surprise when Cynthia expressed an interest in attending the event.

I went online and made the reservations. The event was this past Saturday and Cynthia had a blast. The transformation from fear to fascination was remarkable. She even held a snake for the first time in her life and didn’t freak out one bit.

I doubt we’re any closer to being able to keep a snake in the house, but Cynthia has come a long way and does not exhibit the same repulsion she did previously and that’s pretty remarkable in my book.

Deadliest catch

We all have our guilty pleasures. Mine is coming home on a Wednesday night after the radio show and watching the DVR capture of Lost. Well, it was until the season ended. I bide my time now with Commander in Chief until my precious is returned to me, after the summer comes to a close. Yessssssssssssssss….

Cynthia is not much of a TV watcher and does not share my interest in these shows. That being said, she has her own serial vice in the form of The Deadliest Catch.

The Deadliest Catch is a television series / documentary that chronicles the events on-board six fishing ships in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and Opilio crab fishing seasons.

The show’s name is not derived from some type of fierce man-eating crabs as one might imagine (or hope), rather it is in reference to the very real possibility of meeting an untimely and frozen death while crewing one of these god-forsaken vessels. Death that may come in the form of a rogue wave or an errant piece of ice-laden gear crashing down on your head.

Personally, I find the program difficult to watch. It’s quite stark and doesn’t pull any punches. You will be watching and *snap* that guy’s leg is broken or *splash* he’s overboard and has seconds to live….oh, he didn’t make it. Really rather gruesome and yet, Cynthia loves it.

She cannot seem to get enough of the show and I asked her why she liked it so much. She told me, quite plainly, that when she watches those guys go through what they do to make a living it makes her job seem a little bit easier to deal with.

Can’t argue with logic like that. It’s all about perspective.

Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt

As many of you know, Cynthia is a fan of the art of quilting. We have several handmade quilts she has lovingly stitched together and she is, even now, mapping out her next project.

A few weeks back I got an invitation to the media preview for the Gee´s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt exhibit. This invitation came in via my contact e-mail for the Houston Chronicle.

From the web site:

Gee´s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt examines the resurgence of interest in quilting in the Gee´s Bend community and documents the development of key traditional quilt patterns””housetop, courthouse steps, flying geese, and strip quilting through the presentation of outstanding examples created from the 1930s into the twenty-first century.

We had just watched the PBS special on these quilts a few weeks back so I knew EXACTLY what this was.

Sensing an opportunity to take Cynthia to something quite special I replied to the invitation. I was very frank about the fact that I would not be able to promote the show in my capacity as the Helpline columnist for the Houston Chronicle but did indicate my desire to attend. The event organizer replied that they would be happy for us to be there and confirmed our RSVP.

It was a wonderful event and Cynthia and I both got some great pictures and an opportunity to chat with many of the women who created these fabulous quilts.


Louisiana P. and Mary Lee Bendolph – Artists


Mary Lee shares a wonderful quilting anecdote with Cynthia.

The show runs June 4 – September 4, 2006 at the Audrey Jones Beck Building of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Spread the word!

More pics from today’s media opening available here

The mind is a terrible thing to taste

The following conversation between Cynthia and myself as we prepared to go to sleep last night is just one the billion reasons I love this woman:

Setup: We are in the early planning stages of our next European vacation

J: I found a way to fund our trip!
C: Does it involve the sale of organs or blood?
J: How did you know?!?
C: I know you, Jay….
J: I figure we each have a kidney to spare
C: I seem to recall you giving away a perfectly good gall bladder
J: Perfectly good?!? It was full of gall stones as you might recall
C: Well? caveat emptor I say
J: For sale, one slightly used gall bladder, may contain some gallstones
J: [feigning the voice of a third party] Hey! This gall bladder’s no good!
J: No refunds

[much laughter]

C: We’re not selling our organs, Jay
J: I know

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