Sending good vibes to you, Taxi. I hope it doesn’t owie too much.
another thing about the ceremony - afterwards, when the minister pronounced them married and everyone was congratulating and hugging, I hugged my brother and he said “it’s okay. I felt her (my SIL who passed away in December) with me. She was very much here”
So- onto the reception. It was at this little restaurant in Brookline on Harvard Street called Lineage. If you ever find yourself near Coolidge Corner, you MUST eat at Lineage. The food was out of this world excellent. D & R had arranged for “his and hers” cocktails - “his” was a smokey apple martini - marvelous drink. “hers” was (I think) Kira Royale (is that correct?) Raspberry schnapps and champagne - a little sweet but still yummy. (yes, I had one of each, lush that I am). We all milled around for about an hour or so, introducing ourselves to each other and having nice little chats all over the place. There were only about 50 people altogether, including the 3 crashers (I later said to suited crasher “at least you dressed right” - he laughed) The two families got along wonderfully - a good sign for the newlyweds - in fact R’s mom has already invited Cuz (forget calling her L, I like this better) and me up for next Passover (Mom’s not Jewish, but Dad is - R had a bit of both in her upbringing just like D did)
We were at a table with J & M, R’s crazy uncle (he intorduced himself as that - so I introduced myself as the silly aunt) his wife and their daughter (who is attending the same college from which I graduated) and another couple, very close friends of R’s family. We laughed all night. Dinner started with a lovely salad of fresh greens, lightly dressed, with slivered peanuts on top. The dinner rolls were flavored with caraway and fresh from the oven, not just heated up to appear fresh. There was a choice of entrees - I don’t remember what the other two were exactly (a fish dish and a vegetarian pasta dish) but most of us at the table had the lamb tenderloin. It was heavenly - served over polenta with roasted baby veggies. OH MY GAWD was that good!!! There wasn’t any dancing, because this was in the “private party” room of this small restaurant (and I do mean small - the main room had only 10 tables and the bar (I noticed patrons eating full dinners at the bar - I like when a place does that.)
A side comment, not to digress to much. When I needed to um, er, recycle what I’d ingested so far, there was a nit of a line; the two facilities were single occupancy. And the W room was locked, had been for a while, apparently by the time I turned the corner, so R’s sis went into the M room when it became available. She finished and exited and the W room was still locked, so I went into the M room. Well, let me tell you, it was the nicest restaurant restroom experience I’d ever had. It wasn’t only clean, it was decorated! and it smelled nice! And it had lovely art on the wall! Abso-freakin-lutely A-freakin-mazing!! I was already in love with the restaurant for the food, this just raised my opinion even higher.
Now came the toasts. Best man, maid of honor, sister (who was not the moh) dad, and J (D’s brother) was about to stand up when one of the crashers, who’d clearly had more than his share, his friend’s share, and the room’s share to drink, got about and rambled on for 5 minutes about D & R’s love being the law to live by. The whole room was making :dubious: faces. Then D stood up to toast R, and R returned the favor. Then we all ate cake. And what a cake! baked on premised by the head chef’s wife, it was a hazelnut cake with buttercream frosting - but the frosting was so light, I could have sworn it was whipped cream. M and I had seconds (others may have also, but we’re the only that I know of) Everything wound down by 9:30 and Cuz and I headed back to Bro’s house for a cuppa caffeine before heading back to the hotel. We’d planned to all (the 7 of us plus my grandnephew, who was not at the wedding) get together for brunch the next morning before Cuz and I headed home. So we set the alarm for 9:30 figuring that would give us enough time to pack up the car before eveyone got there. But that’s the next chapter
Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. If I’m not passed out on the couch on Thursday, I’ll try to stop in to let everyone know how it went.
It’s KeithT’s recipe so I’ll have to see if I can find it. But it’s really really good.
Rebo, color me naive, but what did Rasputin have to do with the Rennaissance?
VunderBob lives in Mayberry. I live in Hooterville. They’re not even in the same state.
Went to Trader Joe’s yesterday. Got lotsa of snacky stuff, but none of the tiramisu cakes we fell in love with last year (it’s a seasonal product.) And it seems that we won’t be getting any this year - apparently the coompany that makes them isn’t this year. So it was a bright and sunny drive to TJs in anticipation of getting the cakes, and a dark and stormy ride home.
While out gathering lots and lots of leaves from the neighbor’s trees (that landed in our yard), we bnoticed that we have to replace three windows - they all have rotting sills and frames. And we need to get those in before we have the siding replaced. Along with getting a new roof.
All of this will be funded this afternoon. We are closing on the loan for the house. Now everything will be in my and the GF’s names, instead of her ex and her names. And we’ll have a chuck of cash to get this home improvements done. At only 5.825% interest a year for the next fifteen years.
Can’t wait for more, rosie.
I finally had breakfast, after booking the trip from hell. Or is that to hell? One of my manager’s saves up her travel for the end of the year, so she will be flying around the world for the next 6 weeks. In economy class. Good thing she’s short! 
I’m not used to booking for managers. With the partners, you can choose comfort over value, for example, a direct flight instead of a cheaper layover, the managers, not so much. Consultants get a seat out on the wing. 
It’s a nice fall morning and the garbage trucks weren’t here until after the sun was up. I need to buy Halloween candy tonight. We’re expecting over 100 kids tomorrow afternoon for our office trick or treating and Halloween party.
It was a dark and stormy night, when…
Vandals destroyed at least three of the Halloween displays on Clinton Place in Hackensack this weekend. That street had always had great Halloween displays and over the years and I’d had been lucky enough to see real hearses, a real dental chair complete with drill, the body of a crushed Cessna, and more mannequins than Macys used in 5 years of window displays and more sheer gadgetry than 20 ‘Party Cities’.
Each house would have their owners in front of them collecting money for various charities: DARE, the HS Drama club, Band Boosters, etc. It was always a great spot to bring your kids right before Halloween and the police always blocked the street to accommodate the crowds. It stood for 11 years untouched and unmolested.
This year, however, vandals waited until the police watch left and then destroyed and stole the displays. Many owners told me straight out to enjoy it now, because, “We’re not going to do this next year.”
Happy Halloween. 
Are you serious, Count? That’s a real shame. I had a friend whose grandpa lived on Clinton, and we used to have a blast walking up and down during Halloween. That’s really too bad. It’s always been an amazing display.
Taxi, prayers and good thoughts headed your way from south Jawja. Lay in a supply of ice cream. You need ice cream to get over surgery of any type. It’s true. Matter of fact, I proclaim it to be a MMP Cool Kid law that ice cream shall be eaten during recovery from any surgery, ailment, bad hair day, or for whatever reason any cool kid shall state the need for of ice cream.
Sean the way I figure it, Bobbio will have enough influence on the VFD’s from Mayberry and Hooterville that they’ll all be runnin’ around threatening to extract pounds of butt.
Count that’s sad. I say if the vandals ever get caught, the be sentenced to ten years of eating only the real bad Hallowe’en candy nobody ever wants to eat. That’ll show 'em! and :mad:
**Count ** - that makes me angry and sad. How badly have these kids (I’m assuming the vandals were late teens early 20s?) been brought up to have so little respect for their neighbors? I blame violent video games where the only objective is to destroy as much property as possible
Gah! Have you ever wanted to reach through the phone and slap somebody? I’m on a training conference call with what must be the biggest bunch of idiots ever. They can’t be arsed to put their phones on mute or even read the meeting invitation where all the information is, like how to log in to the meeting. Grrrr! Ooh, now the production server is down. Up. Down. Up. Down. Back to PowerPoint. 30 minutes later, we’ve finally started our 30 minute training. Good thing I don’ t have anything else to do.
taxi, good luck on the surgery.
Count, why don’t vandals ever ruin their own stuff? :mad:
Oooh, I forgot to send good vibes to Taxi. Consider them sent.
Rebo, I finally got to look at your pics. I’m a little confused…this was RenFaire right? It really looked more like World of Warcraft Faire. Nava will understand that.
Count, that really is sad.
rosie, I’m not trying to pick on you here, but frankly this whole “blame it on violent video games” is really beginning to stick in my craw. I don’t want to sound all preachy and crap either. I like and respect you and don’t want to this to read like I’m attacking you; I’m not. **It should be blame the PARENTS who can’t be bothered to teach their kids the difference between real life and fantasy. ** My son plays “shoot-em up” games, along with several types of other PC and console games. He has been taught the difference between what is acceptable and what is not. He was made to understand very early on that these were GAMES and real life did not work that way at all.
My son has grown up to be a compassionate, helpful person. He does not act out violently, does not destroy other peoples’ property, does not lie, steal, or cheat. Point of fact, he has a deep feelings of loathing and disgust for people who do act that way.
Ugh, off my soapbox now. Sorry about that.
Taters - I do not feel attacked - we have a minor difference of opinion - I did also say
Whew! I’m glad! I did see the bit about how the kids were raised. I just sort of got “tunnel vision” when I read the video game bit. Sorry about that.
Count - Some kids need a good whoopin’. I have to admit that in my formative youth (pre-teens) I was a bastard. Not a serious bastard, but I broke a few windows and got in trouble with the law several times. I fell in with the wrong crowd and it showed. I grew up though, and got something resembling a life.
Rosie - I don’t know if that was a whoosh or not, but like Taters I’m far more inclined to blame the parents. Games are just games however depraved some of them may seem. Video games are just the “devil music” of the 90s and beyond. If a kid is going to act out what they see in those games then either A) The kid is mentally imbalanced to begin with and would have probably been set off by one trigger or another anyway – that it was a video game is just happenstance – or B) The kid has crappy parents who haven’t properly taught them how to coexist with other human beings, nor monitored the sort of morons the kid hangs out with. After all, things are not accountable. People are.
Magic is here! And he is a beautiful-rather-strange-looking cat who, when I went in the house where he used to live, came right up to me and flopped over for belly rubs. I have been in the bedroom where he’s going to stay for several hours bonding with him and napping. 
He’s a lover. I’m going to take pictures soon.
What is this - early Monday afternoon and already on page two? Busy MMPer’s!
Taxi, hope things go well for you with the surgery, and you were right to take the rest of the week off. I’ve had general on several occasions for wrist surgery and I always want to sleep a lot for a few days. The cats and I are sending good vibes your way, and I’ll be thinking about you on Wednesday.
Swampy, did you read the tail end of last weeks MMP? I got to go to Chef Lee’s for dinner Sunday night!
I hate vandals. When we were doing the “Help the Hooch” river cleanup a weekend or so ago we found lots of boards from the Riverwalk benches - the kids will rip them off and throw them into the river. Or the skateboarders will use the (wood) benches as skateboard stunt toys, and bust all the slats. And skateboarders wonder why no one wants them around?
I’m going to go take some pictures, and then get ready for the Coach’s Show tonight.
Hmm… as far as ice cream goes, there’s only a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in the house. :eek: I guess I’d better get more. There is 2/3 of a Harry and David’s black and white cheesecake though. Can I eat that?
Anyway, thanks again for all the support.
I’m very :: yawn :: this afternoon. The cats felt the need to stop all over us in the middle of the night. Every half hour. Until I locked them out of the bedroom. Why guys? Why??
Presenting Black Magic.
It was a dark but clear morning…well, I assume it was clear; I couldn’t really tell because I had to get up at 0-dark-30 with Papa Tigs and drive him to work this morning, and then go to a bunch of meetings myself with some folks from this charity I’m involved in to see how we can get involved at the local military hospital. And driving to DC from Annapolis at 5:30 in the morning? I was doing 90 (that’s mph, not kph) in the HOV lane and nearly being run off the road by the speed demons behind me. Oy!
The reason I had to drive Papa Tigs is because Saturday he tripped over his own feet and landed on his left hand, and it’s all torn up (preliminary x-rays didn’t show anything broken, but that’s always subject to change). And he’s left-handed, of course. And would he go to the emergency room Saturday, like I begged him to? Yeah, right, sure. Instead, he woke me up at 7:00 Sunday morning to show me his swollen, purple hand and tell me he thought maybe he needed to go to the ER. :smack:
So anyway, it’s been a busy couple of days. Sunday we picked up the young man, Corey, who I’ve been sewing some breakway pants for – we met him through my charity friends – and took him in his wheelchair and his mom and his grandma down to the Mall in downtown DC, where we met up with my charity friends and took Corey on a tour of the Air & Space Museum. It was his first day out of the hospital since his injuries, so what was the highlight of the whole day? Eating at the McDonald’s at the Air & Space food court! But hey, it was the biggest, if not best, meal he’s eaten recently, so it was all good. And then he asked me to sew some breakaway pants for his roommate, so it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Best part of the day, though? We then went up to Silver Spring (dragging everyone on the Metro, which freaked them all out – they’re all from small-town Michigan) and joined another friend for dinner at Red Lobster. There were eight of us, so you’d figure the bill was probably pretty sizeable, right? Except that when it came to pay the bill, our waitress informed us that presumably because Corey was obviously a recently wounded soldier, a complete stranger had picked up our whole tab! I tell you, it’s enough to restore my increasingly jaded faith in humanity!
So anyway, things should now settle back to normal and I hope to be able to do more than drive by the MMP this week. And on that note, I’m now going to go die for the rest of the day. For some reason, I’m tired. Other than the fact that I had to get up about four hours before I usually do, I don’t know why…