December 13, 2024 Lunch - Vietnam 2000. Dinner - Neighborhood Christmas Party

December 13, 2024 Lunch - Vietnam 2000. Dinner - Neighborhood Christmas Party

I woke up at 3:30 and worked at my desk until 5:00 and went back to bed but not to sleep until 7:00.

At 7:00 I got dressed and helped Suzette lift the Cuisinart to the counter so she could make to cheese logs. One was cranberry, pistachio, and figs wrapped in cream cheese and feta and decorated with sugar coated cranberries. The other was green and Kalamata olives with cream cheese.

At 12:30 I drove to Vietnam 2000 and ordered a bowl of duck leg soup, which is one of my Winter favorites. It is simply a duck leg, rice noodles, a few green onion slices, two dried shiitake mushrooms, and a few green onion and yellow onion slices served in a bowl of broth with a side plate filled with mung bean sprouts, cilantro, oriental basil, a wedge of lime, and slices of jalapeño pepper.

I added the mung beans, cilantro and basil and squeezed lime juice along with some hoisin sauce into the bowl.

I then pulled the skin off the meat and de-boned the duck. Then I could pull the duck meat apart and eat bites with noodles, mung beans, and onion.

I ate about 1/2 and put the remainder in a cup and carried it home.and napped from 2:30 to 4:30 to make up for the lost sleep last night.

I finally checked the market and it was another down day due to a drop of Nvidia of over $3.00 and Meta of over $10.00.

I have this weird hope that my portfolio should go down until December 31 and then rebound in 2025 because a low value on December 31 will mean a lower RMD for 2025. In other words, I am hoping for a post-inauguration Trump bump.

At 7:00 I fetched a bottle of Embroidery California Pinot Noir and Suzette carried the cheese log with crackers and we walked to the Neighborhood Christmas party.

There were lots of neighbors in attendance and almost everyone brought excellent food preparations and wine.

We drank a glass of Anderson Valley Pinot and another Pinot and finally shared a glass of Gruet Blanc de Noir.

Crystal made a pastry Christmas tree that was lovely. The hosts who were Knute Lee’s daughter and husband and Annie, Knute’s Wife, made pots of hominy and corn, queso, and meatballs in a tomato sauce. I was sad to hear from Annie that Knute passed in May, but I was thrilled to see that Annie looked terrific, especially since she shared that she is 78, my age. She gave me a wonderful compliment, that I looked good. I told her that since my operation I have been more mobile and feeling better. I told her how sad I was to hear Knute gphad passed and she told me how much he liked me.

Knute, who was a local landman, and I worked together to lease Westland’s acreage for drilling and there was a well drilled that was called the Barbara Page No. 1, but commercial quantities of oil were not found.

There were dozens of sweets, but I resisted all except for a thick mint layered clotted chocolate.

The fun discovery was seeing Paul (Pete) Silverman who has moved to the neighborhood and is one of my oldest friends.  He and his brother, Harry, used to ride to Sunday school together in Fort Worth. He is Billy’s age and I hope Billy and I will visit with him when Billy comes for Christmas.

We walked home at around 8:30 and I was pleased that I had exceeded 4400 steps for the day.

We went to bed by 10:00.

There was 1/2 of the Pistachio, fig, goat cheese, cream cheese, and cranberry log left that we can serve to the dinner guests Sunday night, so there will be a whole one left for guests on Christmas Eve.

Bon Appetit