Friday, December 30, 2011
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.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
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...
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...
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