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Long-ish day...
Aug. 4th, 2017 09:10 pmI cannot claim any world records with regard to how much I accomplished today, but a few things got done. A new job came in that, alone, will amount to about 80% of my billings for the entire month of July. I just need to make sure it gets done on Monday (although I did negotiate a deadline of next Thursday, just in case).
Among other things, I broke out the Maury catalog to find out more about a cover that arrived recently, originaly sent during le siège de Paris , which lasted from mid-September of 1870 to the end of January 1871. The subsequent capture of the city by Prussian forces led to the ultimate defeat of the French in the Franco–Prussian War.
The word "siege" has, for me, all sorts of medieval connotations. Indeed, the siege of 1870-71 was not the first siege of Paris; two others occurred in the ninth century and a third took place at the end of the sixteenth century. On the other hand, sieges are nowhere near obsolete, mostly because the nature of warfare has not changed all that much over the centuries. Among recent examples, for example, Ho Chi Minh's forces successfully besieged the French at Dien Bien Phu, and of course, you cannot work with Russians the way I have for four decades and not have been exposed to stories of the 900-day German siege of Leningrad during what we call "World War II" and what Russian-speaking people call "The Great Patriotic War." (The Wikipedia article on sieges, by the way, has a head-spinning list of major sieges throughout history.)
A little over a week ago, while Galina and Alla were enjoying a "ladies' night out," an acquaintance and I took a run over to Kemah and stopped for a bite at a place called "Tookie's Seafood Restaurant." It was the first place I've ever been to that demanded my phone number, as they intended to inform me via text message when our table would be ready. Given the ambient noise level near the reservation podium, the effect of this system was to have me stand around with my eyes glued to my phone, as the chances of hearing any kind of notification stood between "teensy" and none.
By the time we were seated, my appetite had, frankly, faded away, so we decided to split a couple of orders from the appetizer menu, and while the portions were ample, the presence of jalapeño in both dishes sort of defeated the purpose of ordering food (instead of, say, textured vegetable protein). The spicy did an excellent job of overpowering whatever nuances may have existed in the seafood.
Never mind me—I am turning into a cantankerous old so-and-so. Still, I don't think I'll be going back there any time soon.
I think I shall listen to a little more Liszt and then hit the rack.
Cheers...
Among other things, I broke out the Maury catalog to find out more about a cover that arrived recently, originaly sent during le siège de Paris , which lasted from mid-September of 1870 to the end of January 1871. The subsequent capture of the city by Prussian forces led to the ultimate defeat of the French in the Franco–Prussian War.
The word "siege" has, for me, all sorts of medieval connotations. Indeed, the siege of 1870-71 was not the first siege of Paris; two others occurred in the ninth century and a third took place at the end of the sixteenth century. On the other hand, sieges are nowhere near obsolete, mostly because the nature of warfare has not changed all that much over the centuries. Among recent examples, for example, Ho Chi Minh's forces successfully besieged the French at Dien Bien Phu, and of course, you cannot work with Russians the way I have for four decades and not have been exposed to stories of the 900-day German siege of Leningrad during what we call "World War II" and what Russian-speaking people call "The Great Patriotic War." (The Wikipedia article on sieges, by the way, has a head-spinning list of major sieges throughout history.)
A little over a week ago, while Galina and Alla were enjoying a "ladies' night out," an acquaintance and I took a run over to Kemah and stopped for a bite at a place called "Tookie's Seafood Restaurant." It was the first place I've ever been to that demanded my phone number, as they intended to inform me via text message when our table would be ready. Given the ambient noise level near the reservation podium, the effect of this system was to have me stand around with my eyes glued to my phone, as the chances of hearing any kind of notification stood between "teensy" and none.
By the time we were seated, my appetite had, frankly, faded away, so we decided to split a couple of orders from the appetizer menu, and while the portions were ample, the presence of jalapeño in both dishes sort of defeated the purpose of ordering food (instead of, say, textured vegetable protein). The spicy did an excellent job of overpowering whatever nuances may have existed in the seafood.
Never mind me—I am turning into a cantankerous old so-and-so. Still, I don't think I'll be going back there any time soon.
I think I shall listen to a little more Liszt and then hit the rack.
Cheers...
