New York, New York!

After some quality time at home, we left for a night in NYC.  Planning to take the 11:12 train out of Hamilton, we arrived at 10:45 to find lines at every ticket kiosk - it was totally crazy.  So out we went and drove to the city - not too bad except for the tunnel and post-tunnel traffic.  After some fancy (read CRAZY!) moves, we were able to get to the Port Authority parking garage.  We left our suitcase in the car and headed down to Cookshop, a cool restaurant I found on the Hurricane Irene trip.  We had a great meal while sitting at the bar.  afterwards, we walked about 10 blocks on the Highline - what a gorgeous day it turned out to be.  After walking another 10 blocks to the garage, we took the subway to our hotel.  We have a nice room on the 16th floor - Bob is now taking a power nap.

Yikes, it's December 27!!

So where did the time go???? 

December went by in a blur - it's become one of my least favorite months of the year....

On December 7, I made my annual trip to NYC to have dinner with Swanna - this year Sarah was there, too - only fitting.  We had a great time at Public, a restaurant I picked because it had just gotten a Michelin star.  Sarah picked the wine, and it was fabulous - she's called upon to be the expert because of all the time she's been spending in Paris with her Guillaime (sp?).  I walked around NYC the next day and got gift cards at Ben Sherman and Del Posto for Chris and Frank.  That Friday was Kevin's party, so after a meeting at Maris Grove to just firm up our expectations for Dad's care, I stopped by the rowhouse in Lansdale and caught up with a few people I don't normally see.  Saturday was Frank's concert -- THREE HOURS LONG!!  I didn't realize that groups normally just sing the first part and then end with the Hallelujah Chorus.  Not that they weren't really good...just too long. Sunday afternoon I went to another concert, this time at St. John's UCC - really enjoyed it.  Frank sang with their choir, and the Chamber Singers from the high school were there, too.  Frank and I went to Molly Maguire's afterward for liquid refreshment and dinner.  Really nice weekend.

The following week was editing week for the A Tale of Two Cities composition - this year they used computers to create some of the sentences we were working on - I'll do that next year because it went so well.  Friday was at my house for the English Department Christmas party.  It worked out really well - everyone brought something, and I made margaritas.  Low-key, chill, good.  The next night I went with Frank and a group of singers to carol in the restaurants in Skippack - it felt great to sing with such good singers.  We went to Kirsten Olsen-Schmidt's house afterward - another enjoyable evening.

The following week was probably the LONGEST week of the school year - five full days of sophomores thinking about everything BUT school!!  They motored through it, though, and things went well except for the boys in one class who decided to order pizza for our class's holiday celebration without running it by me - at the same moment I heard about that, another student opened a bag of M & M's that fell all over the floor - grrrr...  No pizza, and the kids were really quick about picking up the candy because they knew how angry I was.

Bob was home by mid-afternoon on Friday.  I stopped by the Pizza Pub for a while to celebrate the vacation with some other teachers, and then Bob got us pizza from the same place after I got home...kinda silly, but I wasn't thinking when I left the place.  Saturday we had a late lunch with Frank and Chris at the Logan Inn in New Hope - we also exchanged presents.  They gave us a gift card for bedandbreakfast.com -- I'm sure we'll find SOME PLACE to use it!!  We left for Connie and Steve's about 9:30 Christmas morning.  We stopped to see Dad on our way and arrived in Mt. Vernon at about 2:00.  We relaxed and had a great dinner of prime rib and lots of leftovers from their party the previous evening.  We left their house about 10:30 and stopped for lunch with Theresa and Chloe.  She made a veggie frittata that was delicious!  Arrived home around 5PM and watched MI-5 for most of the evening.

Thanksgiving weekend

Bob came home on Sunday; we hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Judy, Wayne, Frank, and Chris. Although we were a little late eating, the turkey was really good!  We had a nice evening.

The next day was our anniversary - we spent it catching up on BBC/PBS programs: Luther, Case Histories, and Whitechapel. We also ate lots of leftovers -yummy!

Saturday we got ready for the Arandas, finalizing the child-proofing. They arrived at 6:00.  We had pizza and margaritas and played with the kids until bedtime.

Sunday we had Ray, Lisa, Ashley, and Alec for breakfast.  We had a really nice visit. The Arandas left at noon, and we spent the afternoon getting Bob ready to leave.  The break was way too short...

A cultural weekend

I had dinner with NMac at Parc Bistro and then saw Pride and Prejudice at the high school - good production with many students.

Saturday was quiet in the AM. NMac and I met Frank, Chris, Miku, and her friend at Monk's -- we stood around for 45 minutes before everyone got there and we could be seated.  After dinner we headed to the Kimmel Center for the Leningrad Symphony by Shostakovich.  It was excellent, and so was the after-dinner talk by conductor Vladimir Jurowski.  Bed at 11:30!

Sunday Bob came home, and we went to Total Wine and then visited Dad.  Alicia's concert was at 4, so we came back up to Harleysville for that.   We tried to go to Parkside Grille, but it was closed (and the wine tasting grouo was there), so we ended up at the Pizza Pub with Fran and Perry - a very nice afternoon and evening.

A quiet weekend

Went out for a beer with the youngsters on Friday afternoon - Kevin, Amy, Brian, and Lauren are such nice people for being totally young enough to be my children!

NMac stopped by for dinner, bringing a cheese steak and the pictures from her trip.  The cheese steak was so yummy, and the pictures were really good - took me back to our big trip to the UK as well as other trips to Paris and Munich.

I slept well on Friday night - yay!!  Saturday morning involved drinking good coffee and eating a cranberry orange scone, reading the paper, and marking some essays.  After lunch, I went to see Dad - we had coffee and pop ems together.  He's having trouble swallowing certain things, so he's on a special diet...part of the disease. :(

After visiting Dad, I did some looking at Marshall's, Dress Barn, and Chico's - got some coffee and good bread from Fresh Market and then went home to watch Made in Dagenham, a British movie that Netflix recommended.  It was pretty good although not the best movie I've ever seen.

Today I went to New Hope to pick up my key to Fred's, the super secret breakfast place that Nicole had taken me to in early September.  I took Frank and Chris with me, and we had a good breakfast and and great time!   Then I used my 50% coupon to buy a really pretty cardigan sweater, matching jeans, and tank top at Chico's -- of course, I had to go to TWO Chico's to get the best deal.  Then I stopped at Wegman's and got some stuff for the week - now I'm home and getting ready to check out the newest Netflix offerings while eating a late lunch. 

Sisters weekend - the conclusion!

Wow, I just now got a few minutes in which to finish the journey! 

Saturday morning we had a decent breakfast at the hotel and then took a driving tour of campus.  Judy had a serious wound on her leg from a fall the week before, so we didn't walk too much.  It was a beautiful day, and Kelsey was an enthusiastic tour guide.  After purchasing some JMU stuff, we took a driving tour of the town of Harrisonburg and had a delicious late lunch at Union Station Restaurant. 

Once we got back to the hotel, we relaxed for a while and took lots of silly pictures.  We started playing Kelsey's favorite card game, Cootie, a little after 8PM.  We laughed a lot and teased Kelsey because at one point she could have easily won the game, but because she wanted to play longer, she "surveyed the situation" rather than playing at her usual breakneck speed.  She eventually won, but we ended up playing four more hands!!

We got an extra hour of sleep, yay!!  We went for breakfast at around 8AM and left Harrisonburg at around 9 -- and of course I forgot my pillow --- again!!!  Must be the university setting because I did the same thing when we visited Nicole the year before.

We got back to Judy's house at around one, and I got home after 2 because I stopped at Whole Foods on my way home.

Sisters weekend in Harrisonburg, VA! Day 1 -- the drive

Got to Judy's house at 2:30 - Fran arrived at about 2:50.  We were on the road by three.  We thought we would escape traffic by taking 695 north of Baltimore...au contraire!
Judy drove to Maryland House , and then I drove from there almost to I 81 - ugly traffic for more than half the way.
Fran took over for the last 75 miles or so.  The trip took 5 hours.
When we arrived, K, C, and N were waiting for us.  We had dinner at a Meixcan restaurant -- really big margaritas and decent food.
When we got back, we were talking and got a noise complaint!
Bed at 12:30.

NYC continued...

Arrived in Jackson Heights at 3PM - had to buy rubber boots b/c mine were soaking wet along with my socks and feet.
Had a great visit with the Arandas: we sang, danced, played with many toys, read books, and had delicious Indian food for dinner.
Got back rather easily - the sleet is now mostly rain. I'm having a drink at the bar in my hotel.

NYC in a Nor'easter...

Arrived about 45 minutes ago in my snow boots -
feet now slightly wet b/c snowboots are made of fabric.
7 train isn't running so have to go from bryant park.
A bridal party sits next to me in Mexican Restaurant at Grand Central Station

Mount Vernon - Day #3

We were ready to go by 8:15 - off to breakfast at Pain Quotidien in Old Town - NMac and I love this place, and now B and G do, too!   After the best latte and brioche ever, we headed south to Mount Vernon, about a 15-minute ride.  We learned at this moment that it is nearly impossible to make a left turn anywhere in Old Town...so frustrating!!!  We finally got onto the Parkway, looking all the while for fall foliage.  There wasn't too much to be found - everything was kind of dull - the only disappointment of our trip.

After getting tickets for the house tour, we watched a video and then walked around the grounds for about an hour and a half.  It was a beautiful day, and some guy took amazing pictures of the four of us standing in front of the house.  The house tour took about 1/2 hour, and then we had a quick lunch.  The next destination was the museum on the grounds, which I had never seen.  It was interesting and not overwhelming, thank goodness, since I was a bit tired by then. After checking out the gift shop (where I bought a replica Bastille key - Washington actually had one in the house given to him by the Marquis de Lafayette), we drove down to the grist mill and watched demonstrations of the making of cornmeal and the distilling of whiskey.  NMac, B, and G bought some cornmeal to take home, and then we rushed back to the hotel to freshen up for our cupcake and dinner expedition.  We took the subway to Rosslyn and then walked over the Key Bridge into Georgetown for some cupcakes.  By the time we got to the cupcake place, it was 6PM, and the line was pretty long.  We waited for about 20 minutes and then decided that we'd have to give it up if we wanted to get to the restaurant in time for our reservation (we had about a mile walk to get to the Founding Farmers restaurant).

Even though we were ON TIME for our reservation, we didn't get seated for 1/2 hour.  All of us were a bit perturbed, but the manager offered us free deviled eggs, fried green tomatoes, and homemade cornbread as a gesture of apology.  We ate every free morsel!!!!  Dinner was again incredibly good - and the carrot cake for dessert more than made up for missing a Georgetown cupcake.

We caught the metro at Foggy Bottom and got back to King Street at about 10:30.  NMac discovered that the layers of government bureaucracy extended to trying to consolidate two Metro cards into one - she would have had to go to the Pentagon station to do that - how ridiculous. 

Bed at 11PM - exhausted and SOOOO full.....

Annapolis - Day 2

We ate breakfast at 8am while watching hunters returning from wherever they were hunting. Apparently it's deer season - we wondered why there were so many pick up trucks in the parking lot!

Annapolis was only about 45 minutes away. We snagged a prime parking spot and walked into the first shop, a general store. 35 minutes later, we left said store - too many funny cards and a whole wall of fabulous flip flops!

We spent another hour+ checking out all the shops and then headed for lunch at Hell's Point Restaurant, a spot right on the water.

After a delicious lunch, we walked to the US Naval Academy. They were getting ready for the start of Homecoming -lots for us to see. We went to Memorial Hall, a beautiful building, and took some pictures.  The time was almost up on our meter, so we had to leave beautiful Annapolis.

The drive to Alexandria  was LONG because of an accident on the Beltway - we drove through the heart of DC and then past Reagan Airport on our way to the hotel.  We finally arrived at about 4:45.

After settling in at the hotel and catching our collective breaths, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Old Town Alexandria.  The outside was so NOT Old Town - more like Restaurant Row in NYC - white lights and plants.  The place was tiny - the wine was homemade.  The others had been looking forward to some chianti, but this chianti was kind of...vinegar-like.  :(   The dinner was actually very good, and other than the two fruit flies in my pinot grigio, it was a fine meal.  Wine was not their forte, I would have to say.

B and G had recently returned from a trip to Italy, so I checked Google map for a gelato place in Old Town.  Of course, there was one a few blocks from the restaurant, so we had our dessert there - delish!!

Bed before 10PM for me...!

Road Trip Day #1

After signing out of school early and meeting up with B, G, and NMac at 1:30, we headed down the blue  route and 95 to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, specifically Chestertown.  With a teeny detour, we arrived at our hotel at 3:45.  There was a bug (not a bedbug) incident, so B and G changed rooms.  Then it was off to the Narrows Restaurant.   Great crabcakes and pumpkin brownie!!
Bedtime now - Annapolis and Mount Vernon tomorrow!

Sunday, Sunday - so good to me!

Both nights this weekend included a couple of hours awake at 3AM or so - quite annoying!

This morning, however, I'm enjoying some French Roast coffee while reading the paper and doing the Merl Reagle crossword puzzle -staving off Alzheimer's...

We just got back from seeing Moneyball with Brad Pitt, a movie produced by Sam's boss.  It was really good, and of course I cried during part of it because I could imagine how excited Sam would have been to have been a part of this particular movie.

Frank, Bob, and I saw the movie and then had dinner at an Irish pub across the street - we saw it in the same theater where Stop-Loss premiered - so appropriate.

Bob leaves at 4AM tomorrow morning; I have 4 days this week before my 3-day weekend on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and old town Alexandria, Virginia, with my RETIRED teacher friends.

A beautiful Saturday morning

Another busy week gone by.  There's sadness in Philly - our beloved Phils are out of the play-offs -- Frank was at the game, poor guy.

I had my first 3 meetings with parents - all went well.  I also gave my first test of the year.  I have to say that the assessment course I took at Wilkes has been invaluable in creating new tests.

Dinner yesterday was at The Farmer's Daughter in Normandy Farms, Blue Bell.
It was quite good except for the beer orders - a weizen beer is NOT a stout -- and NMac had just returned from Munich - a true expert!!

Tomorrow we're headed to Chestnut Hill for their annual craft fair - it's supposed to be a beautiful day.

A mid-week trip to NYC!

The last time I was here, I left early due to Hurricane Irene.   Got a refund for the canceled show, and now I'm back to see it thanks to a Jewish holiday!  Caught an express train out of Hamilton and am now checked in and enjoying a Pain Quotidien latte - yum!  I'm having dinner at Aureole's Bar Room and seeing Follies - finally.  Walked through Bryant Park - loads of people sittng around. Chatting - serious bocce ball was being played as well.

Week 3 is history!

Another fine week at school - Back to School Night went really well, and some of the English teachers went out afterwards - a fun time! 
My friend NMac was back, and we had dinner on Friday evening and saw The Debt on Saturday - the movie was okay but not the best thing I've ever seen.  I also saw my dad today - he was pretty coherent today, and we sort of chatted. 

First full week of school AND Phillies!!

This was the first 5-day week for students, and we sailed through with flying colors!  I guess I'm really fond of tired cliches... and ellipses.  Whatever. 

Anyway, the kids are still dutifully working hard, so I can't complain.  Our gifted team has nailed down the new responsibilities for the year, and it's good to be so organized after many years of randomness.

And Bob, Frank, and I saw the Phillies clinch the NL East - so exciting!  Bob and I left before the end of the game because we really needed to beat the traffic since he was off to Virginia early this morning.

So today is a quiet one - reading the paper, grading a few papers, and getting ready for the week ahead.

First kid week finished!

This week was a good one - the students are new to the school, so they're still making their way.  The new people on the gifted team are really nice as well.  I'm so lucky.

 When to start - that was the question...September 1 or the first Sunday of the month?  How anal is that?   Since I didn't get it together on September first, Sunday it is...
Currently re-reading Life of Pi for the start of school.  After using the Wii for exercise rather than for Netflix, I had two chicken legs and a little potato salad, followed by a margarita and carrot cake -- not quite cold turkey on the first day of a diet.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this -- for right now, I'm just keeping a diary of sorts.  Eventually, maybe this will be the travelog for our trips.