by Stanley Anderson » November 30th, 2005, 4:11 pm
Since November 29 is, in addition to Lewis' birthday, also the anniversary of the day Angelee and I met (introduced by a mutual friend who knew of our common interest in Lewis, but none of us knowing when Lewis' birthday was at the time), along with the birthday of our godson, we always celebrate the day.
Last night Angelee fixed a special dinner of Steak Diane with fillet mignon (a rare treat at our house), orange/almond salad (supposedly the recipe from The Magic Pan restaurant, one of our favourites when it was still around) and baked potatoe (spelling tribute to Dan Quayle:-) with all the horribly unhealthy trimmings, and a very nice cab wine from one of our favourite out-of-the-way wineries in Paso Robles called "Dark Star". Then some very dark chocolate with more of the wine out in the garden (the evening weather, though a bit cool for "perfect" comfort, gave a sense of briskness and excitement -- the wine helped there, I'm sure -- and was perfectly complimented afterwards by a cozy sit by the glowing fireplace.
Angelee spent the rest of the evening reading the section on friendship from Lewis' The Four Loves aloud to us. Gawain would have heard it years ago when she read the book to him, but it was long enough ago that he wouldn't have remembered much. She selected that, both because that sort of friendship was the basis of our initial relationship, which can only be of benefit in a marriage, and also because Gawain has of late had his eye on a girl at church and at 14 we want to especially emphasize the "friendship" aspect:-)
Anyway, it was a delightful evening -- wish you all could have been there to join in!
--Stanley
…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
