Christmas dinner with salsa dancing friends

_MAL5242.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Christmas Day, I caught a ride back to Stockholm with Lena and Lotta, caught a few hours of sleep, and then went to a dinner with friends. I was invited by fellow salsa dancer Evert, and the dinner was held at the home of another dancer, Robban.

I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of familiar faces there, including Helena, Jose, Leo, and my charming dance instructor Marina.

Robban prepared a delightful meal, afterward we all caught the subway down to Medborgarplatsen for the second annual Christmas salsa party at Debaser Medis. It was a lot of fun, but I had to leave after just a couple of hours because I was too tired. At the time, I was still recovering from the cold I’d caught a few days before.

Here are the best 38 photos from the evening.

Dinner with Sasha

_MAL0017.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

No, not my cat Sasha. Another one.

This Sasha is an old friend from my days at UT. We haven't really kept in touch, but a couple of week ago I managed to track her down. Monday night we met up at El Chile restaurant on Manor Road for a nice dinner. On Sasha’s advice I tried the spicy orange margarita. It's quite tasty. I also enjoyed the enchiladas with red mole sauce. It's fun to get reacquainted with old friends!

Uncle Billy’s Brew & Cue

Tonight I had dinner with Warren and Janice at Uncle Billy’s Brew & Cue down on Barton Springs Road. That was some darn good food! We had brisket, jalapeño & cheese sausage, baby back ribs, macaroni & cheese, and green beans. The brisket was great — almost as good as the County Line’s. The sausage was quite good too. The best part of the meal though had to be the green beans. They were crispy and spicy, just like homemade. I tried a couple of beers there, including Uncle Billy’s own Hefeweizen and a pint of Live Oak Octoberfest.

Afterward we went to Amy’s Ice Creams on 6th Street, where Warren treated us to some delicious desert. I had the Jamaican coffee ice cream — a creamy coffee-flavored ice cream spiked with Jamaican rum. Yum!

Tomorrow I'm heading up to Dallas for a few days with family. We will celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday and Thanksgiving together.

Dinner with Paula in Amsterdam

Last night I met Paula for dinner. By coincidence, she's also in Amsterdam this week, preparing for her new job in Prague. We had a beer in the hotel bar and then took the tram downtown for some traditional Dutch food. We had been advised to visit D' Vijff Vlieghen restaurant, but they were fully booked. So we walked to the nearby Haesje Claes restaurant instead. There we had hotche potche, which as the name suggests is a mix of several different things. Mine was mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, beef stew and sausage. Nothing pretentious -- just Dutch husmanskost as we would say in Sweden. The food was hearty, filling, and perfect for a cool and rainy night in Amsterdam. After dinner we shared a couple of beers at the adjoining Koningshut bar and then called it a night. Paula will be in Prague for a year at least, so it was nice to get a chance to visit with her. Here are four photos from the evening.

Dinner with Lotta

_MAL3240.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Saturday evening I took the cats to Lotta's place and joined her for a bit of dinner. Alex and Sahsa will stay with “mommie” for a while, because I'll be going to the U.S. for a friend's wedding next month.