Saturday Aug 31, 2002 - 4:47pm
Happy Birthday to the newly named Mafia Princess, aka Mary Anne, yup it's her birthday today, but I won't put down her age in case she decides to whack me.
So last night Diane and Doug came up from the city to spend the weekend with us all which is nice. Diane is an old friend of Professors that has been frequenting "Automatic Slims" for years, often visiting Professor with different dates. Then she met Doug and clearly it was love at first site as they now have been dating for years and clearly Professor really likes him. Actually Mafia Princess hadn't met them up until last night and me and Morpheus had only met them once before.
Anyway they're really good fun and can drink like true Brits which is brilliant. Actually Doug's father was Chief of Police for New York City in the 70's, Johnston I think his name is. Anyway he was telling us some fascinating stories that his father had passed on , really wild life he led. I remember one where his dad had turned up at the scene of a crime where some nut job had people hostage and was asking for money and transport etc. He was also very hostile and randomnly kept shooting at the surrounding police. So when Chief Johnston got there, he completely ignored the other officers advice to keep down and stood right in front of the building that the nut job was in. So he turns on the loud speaker and starts shouting orders at the guy, while of course there's bullets flying past his head. As soon as he put the loud speaker down he walked over to his detective and told him to give the order to take the shot. Within seconds this was done, the man was shot and killed, then Chief Johnston walked casually over to his car, got in and drove home, in time for have dinner with his wife and kids.
Now it's not like this is a fantastically amazing story, but just that it is real and not from tv, where you might imagine Clint Eastwood doing a scene like that. No this is real life and real people and this guy sounded really cool. I'm not entirely sure if Doug got on with his dad but the respect was definitely there.
For dinner last night Professor made red snapper with a sticky coconut rice with peas caribbean style and marinated shrimp. It was delicious and everyone was on great form.
So today we walked into town had breakfast then strolled around the antique stores which as usual had nothing in them but we did it mainly for Diane and Doug who hadn't spent anytime in Cold Spring before. I, with Diane got another banana milkshake from the East Kitchen which was delicious and clearly very bad for you but I don't care.
So now we're back home, myself and Mafia Princess are watching the US Open where a very cool game between Blake and Hewitt has just finished, Hewitt winning.
Morpheus is playing with his laptop in the kitchen and Professor along with Diane and Doug are out back in the porch smoking cigars and chewing the cud. It's pretty much a perfect day of relaxation and hanging out with good friends.
Also Kiwi Boy is on his way up here, I'll go and pick him up from the station just after 6. He's had it a bit tough these last few days and I didn't want him staying in Brooklyn by himself so I suggested that he come up here, which is fine with Mafia Princess and Professor, they don't mind and he can relax and enjoy himself and hopefully try and forget all his problems, well at least for a couple of days.
So tonight we have reservations at La Bouchon for 8:30 which should be fun. As usual we'll completely take over the whole restaurant and be the noisiest table but that's what it's all about having a blast. Professor has organised a cake to be made by the owner/chef so little miss Mafia Princess will be all embarrassed but I'm sure pleased.
Right then I'll be off then, back tomorrow with more Cold Spring news.
