2007, so far

Happy New Year, a little late. January in Dallas has brought us some reminders of what it was like to live in Michigan during winter. We've had several days of freezing rain and general cold weather--exactly the kind of weather I DON'T miss. Sometimes I yearn to see a new, fresh snow (at least knee-deep, not the dustings we've had on occasion in Texas) but I can survive without ice and dangerous driving conditions.

We enjoyed a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner at Ferre, the same restaurant we visited on our wedding day. I had crab cakes, Kobe beef steak, and a lemon tart for dessert. Mihir ate the same crab cake appetizer, lamb chops, and a wonderful custard/fruit concoction for dessert. It was a very memorable meal. There's a picture taken at the restaurant at the bottom of his entry, but I have to say that my belly is not that big. Honest. I guess I need to work on my posture, because the way I was sitting made my profile appear less than flattering.

Last weekend (January 13) we attended a performance of Mary, Queen of Scots by the Dallas Opera. I was very exited to see this particular opera, since I'm fond of Elizabethan history. Unfortunately, the writers took great liberties with the history of Mary and Elizabeth I. A good portion of the second scene was a dramatic meeting between Elizabeth I and Mary, during which Mary angered the Queen, her half sister, so much that it was only then that Elizabeth was persuaded to sign the death warrant. Essentially, they were fighting over a man, Earl of Leister. The reality is, the two women probably never met, especially not as adults. And the wrangling over a man? Nobody knows for sure how Elizabeth felt about Leister, but I would to think that Queen Elizabeth had a better reason than that for ordering her sister's beheading. Several pages of the program were dedicated to explain what really happened, which parts of the opera were false. The way I see it, the true story is replete with drama and would have made a fantastic opera. Oh well. At least the singing was good.