a "family" dinner

Last night we hosted a little dinner party for three friends to whom we are closely tied here at the beach. The guests included Carsten, one of the two original designers/builders/owners of our house; Jack, in whose casa grande across the street we stayed several times during our first 10 years of visiting this little village; and Marie, who is my daily domino partner and all-around great sandbox pal. The occasion for the get-together was Marie's departure back to states on Saturday. I am going to go into domino withdrawal and I don't think it's going to be any fun at all. I wonder if there's domino rehab anywhere close by? Carsten, Jack and Marie have all known one another for more than 35 years, from back when this place was really a sleepy little Mexican backwater, when there was no gringo colonia or much of a gringo presence at all.

The weather here has been cool and windy, especially in the evenings, so we had to move the big dining table, usually out on the terrazo, into the living room. Jim made a delicious lasagna with sausage and chard, I braised some carrots, and for dessert we swooned over Key Lime Sorbet. A couple of good California wines and we were off and chatting for several hours. The dollies kept an eye on us from their perch on the book shelf.


I festooned them with little lights for the occasion.

Saturday's opera: Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore with Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez as the unlikely lovers. It should be a hit. As for reading, finished Under the Banner of Heaven and then moved on to something not quite so strange: another Gabriel Allon spy thriller by Daniel Silva. I should finish it today. I'm gradually working my way through all 8 titles of his series. Next will be A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Eagn, unless something else strikes my fancy.

Dominoes this afternoon with Charlotte if she's up to it. If not, the penultimate game with Marie.