Date #21 - Saints and Segways

Our dates and this blog have apparently been on extended summer vacation because we only went on exactly one (count 'em) date during the month of July...and we just barely managed to squeeze that one in during the waning hours on the last day of the month. That's what I get for bragging that we were right on schedule when we crossed the midpoint date!

But we weren't exactly sitting home playing cribbage during July. The first half of the month was spent on a Whale Watch on the 4th of July, visiting the Butterfly Place, spending days on the Cape and at local beaches, riding our bikes extensively, and attending a lovely wedding in Topsfield where we later spent the night in Amesbury. None of those qualified as dates, however, because it was rarely just the two of us, and those were invitation events, or things we'd done before, or fun grandparenting occasions.

The latter part of the month was spent on the west coast where most of our family and many dear friends traveled to celebrate our younger son's wedding in Malibu. It was a fabulous event, J&K really know how to throw a party! And I stayed in Santa Monica for the week that followed to hang with Grandbaby M. Thus, there wasn't much time for dating in July.

Now finally back to the one date we did manage to make time for...

We had discount Groupon vouchers for a one-hour Segway tour along the Boston Harborfront. When we called to redeem our coupons, the only remaining slots were for the last tour of the evening...the 7pm sunset tour. It would be a perfect way to spend a warm Sunday evening following a HOT summer day.

And, as an added bonus, the Boston Glider office/garage is located at the base of Hanover Street in the North End. Now, if it's a Sunday nite in the summer, you can guarantee there's a saint being carried through the streets of Boston's North End. This particular Sunday was the culmination of the Feast of Saint Joseph. The segway training area was just steps from the event stage where The Ray Cavicchio Orchestra featuring Sharon "Z" was performing. Where do they find these acts?

Here's TH (orange shirt wearing the helmet) watching the performers while waiting for our safety lesson to start.

Once we signed our life away, watched a safety film, refused to have our photo taken, and learned to ride the Segway... we were ready to roll. Our tour guide was a nice young college lad named Sam, from County Kerry, who was working here for the summer. And he was thrilled to learn that TH and I, along with the other three girls in our group, were all locals and he could skip the historical portion of the tour. Because we obviously knew far more about Boston than he did! We just wanted to ride the Segways...so we dispensed with the radio headsets and off we went.

We followed Sam along the Commercial Street waterfront, through Christopher Columbus Park, and around the back of the Mariott Long Wharf. The view was spectacular, although the journey was a bit hairy as we rode in single file on the SIDEWALK, and had to dodge hundreds of pedestrian tourists while getting used to navigating the vehicles. Who knew that Segways did not have brakes?!

Sam led us to an area he referred to as the Segway Playground, where we met up with two other tour groups, also led by Irish students. It's a wide open area on the wharf and, although there were still plenty of tourists out and about, we were able to "play"....have races, ride up and down ramps, and even bounce down stairs. Who knew?

Here's a photo of the playground. Sam is in the light blue shirt without a helmet on the right. He was a hottie rather cute and not bad to look at from the rear either. And, even though it was against company policy, he was kind enough to take this photo of the "daters".

Once playtime was over, the tour continued. We rode past the Aquarium and through the Boston Harbor Hotel, over the Northern Ave Bridge, and around the Moakley Courthouse. From there we continued on the Harbor Walk past Louis and the ICA to the Pier 4 parking lot. It was a great vantage point from which to watch the sun set over Boston Harbor. It was almost romantic... if not for the fact we were standing on precarious vehicles and with four other riders alongside.

In the parking lot we had one more race but, truthfully it's far less exciting than it sounds. The top speed of the machines is 9 miles per hour. That's right...NINE. You could walk faster and win the race. And, when you press it to the top speed, the big bar that's in front of you pushes back against your midsection to slow you right back down.

From there we made our way across the Children's Museum Wharf, over the Congress Street Bridge, behind the Intercontinental Hotel, and back to Atlantic Avenue. Darkness was setting in quickly on the return trip which made navigating the pedestrian obstacle course a completely new extreme sport. However, we arrived unscathed, without incident and it was actually a relief to dismount from the machines. I was glad we'd only taken the one hour tour. It is quite numbing to have your legs stationary on a vibrating vehicle for all that time.

The St. Joseph's feast was still in full swing when we returned. And while this part of the evening didn't officially qualify as part of our date because we attend the feasts every summer, that didn't stop us from wandering around inhaling the delicious scents while enjoying the music, the crowds, and (as always) the gelato.

Buona Notte!



Date #20 - They're still having fun...and they're still the one

For our 20th date, we crashed an anniversary celebration. Sorta.

We received a last minute, out-of-the-blue, invitation and it was so much fun it became our second group date.

Our friends J and D were celebrating their 43rd anniversary. When J posted this news on her FB page, my first thought was Holy Shit Wow!....is it possible we actually have friends old enough to be celebrating 43 years of marriage? In fairness to them, they were babies when they married - still in high school - and they are both younger than TH. But they've "been together since a way back when" (and now I can't get that Orleans song out of my head).

We've known J&D for about 17 years now...our sons played hockey together in high school and against each other in the minor leagues...but our sons are still good friends and so are we. The only problem is that they live way down Plymouth County, which is only about 45 minutes away. However, they own several businesses, and their work schedules differ from ours, so we are lucky to get together even once per summer. Sometimes years go by without seeing each other. But the great thing about our friendship is that we can pick up right where we left off as if we'd just seen each other the week before. Those are the best kind of friends!

So imagine my surprise when J sent me a message that afternoon, that they were celebrating in Boston and inviting us to join them for dinner in the North End. Nothing is better than receiving an unexpected spur-of the moment offer which we are actually available to accept. And those always turn out to be the best of times! As soon as TH arrived from work and changed into play clothes, we were on our way to join them at a restaurant we'd never tried before on Hanover Street.

When we arrived, J&D were already seated down in the bowels wine cellar of the restaurant. They had earlier been to the Omni theater at the Aquarium, and then stopped at several bars on their way to the North End attempting to get a frozen drink for D on this hot summer evening, but without any luck. And this restaurant was no exception (strike one). Nor did they have any champagne by the glass (strike two).

Our entertainment was provided by the waiter; this tiny old man in his eighties (maybe nineties) who had no sense of humor and mumbled everything with an Italian accent so that it was impossible to understand anything he said (strike three). However J&D had been there before and raved about the food, and that certainly didn't disappoint...we cleaned our plates (home run)!

And truthfully, we had such a great time laughing and catching up, that the incredibly slow service didn't matter one bit. There was no place else we'd rather be. It was shocking, however, to come out of the restaurant and discover that it was still daylight....we had been sitting in the dark for what seemed forever. So we decided to skip dessert and find a bar with outdoor seating where D might finally get a frozen drink.

Hanover Street was packed and there were lines outside most of the establishments and, to make matters worse, when we reached J&D's car it sported a brand new accessory, compliments of the City of Boston...a $40 parking ticket. Rather than risk having the vehicle towed, we suggested leaving the North End and heading over to the vibrant new South Boston Seaport district. (Who's stupid idea was that?)

When we arrived, the waterfront and all the outdoor cafes were alive and hopping. That was the good news. The bad news was that it was Thirsty Thursday and we couldn't get near any establishment...they all had waiting times of several HOURS, and the bars were jammed twelve deep with every young kid in the city. We strolled the new Liberty Wharf weighing our options (none) and trying to figure out how to get one of those drinks. It was like being 15 again and waiting outside a packy store for someone to make a run.

Here's a picture of J and Me outside Jerry Remy's.

D took the photo, when we clearly weren't ready.

J is pointing and getting ready to say something, and I'm digging in my bag.

So, as darkness descended we continued our search for a drink. We tried several more restaurants further down the waterfront, but with the same results. Finally, D and TH decided they could wait no more, so they walked right into the very next restaurant and bulldozed their way to the bar.

Of course (you know where this story is going) they did not have any frozen drinks or champagne. And they only had two bartenders for the six thousand people trying to buy a drink. But finally, at long last, we had adult beverages in hand and went searching for a place to stand and drink them. However, the noise level was so loud we wouldn't have been able to hear if the fire alarms went off, let alone attempt to carry on a conversation. Is this really how kids go clubbing these days? There was no room to dance, not that you could even hear the music. Everyone was just screaming to be heard.

We sought out the only semi-quiet place in the joint. The hallway to the rest rooms. This also happened to be where the line formed for the stairway to the roof deck...so we joined the queue. Apparently there was a limit, and they only allowed a few patrons up the stairs at a time. By the time we reached the front of the line our drinks were just about empty, but they made us pour them into plastic cups and then let us climb the stairs.

At the top of the stairs we encountered darkness and bedlam. We were trying to figure out how to navigate a path through the gazillion people to reach the outdoor space when the cutest little waitress came right over and yelled in my ear, "Do you want a table outside?" Hell yeah....but where on earth was she going to find one?

Amazingly, she led us right outside and sat us down at the only empty table in the place, right at the railing overlooking the harbor. And no sooner were we seated than the most amazing fireworks display went off directly in front of us!! We were shocked and had no idea why there were fireworks on the 30th of June, but TH and I told J&D that we had ordered them special just for their anniversary. LOL.

 J took these great pictures.

And (can this story get any better)...this little angel brought us drinks almost immediately. We might as well have died and gone to heaven. We all just kept shaking our heads...not quite sure what we did to receive this special treatment as hoardes of bodies stood all around us straining to get a glimpse of the spectacular.

The fabulous fireworks display went on for a good 30 minutes (we later learned they were sponsored by the Fallon Company to kick off The Extreme Sailing Series). But D and TH barely noticed them. They were so smitten by our cute young waitress, they were swooning and making google-eyes like two pathetic puppies. J and I had a good laugh just watching them. It was too dark to get a picture, but they looked something like this image I borrowed from disneyclips.com:

The waitress could not have been sweeter. I wish I thought to get her name because I'm adding her to the list of Angels Among Us elsewhere on this blog, not just for the great table and service, but also for putting up with our two little boys (she earned the great tip J left for her). And to top it all off, they were wearing these silly Mariachi hats that were on our table. The quality of the photo is not good, but you get the picture....

A good time was had by all.

Our date didn't actually end that nite. Two nites later we drove down to the South Shore and went out to play with J&D again. Even though this particular restaurant was packed and the service slow (and the dance floor was now a parking lot LOL), the food was excellent and we finally found a place that served frozen drinks and splits of champagne!

In my last post, I mentioned my astonishment at the two outlaws who spent 16 years alone together while on the lam. But I have to say that J&D's marriage is so strong after 43 years, I truly believe they could survive far more than 16 years on a deserted island with just each other and not kill each other still be madly in love. We are blessed to count them among our friends!



Date #19 - Water and Wine (and Whitey)

Our 19th date was on Father's Day. But since neither of our sons were in the state to celebrate with their Dad, we decided to leave the state as well....and drove to Newport, R.I.

Newport is a beautiful city and always a favorite destination of ours. We try to get down there not often enough at least once every summer. Through the years we've biked the historic 10-mile drive, visited all the mansions, walked the length of the cliff walk, gambled at the Jai Ali fronton, and even watched our son compete in track meets at St. George's.

For our date, we decided to do something completely different that we'd never done before...we took a cruise of the beautiful harbor and Narraganset Bay on the Majestic, operated by the Newport Cruise Company.

Thanks to Groupon, we only paid half price for the one-hour voyage, but we would have gladly shelled out full price for the trip. It was terrific. The tour took us through the harbor and around Goat Island into the Bay. Our narrator/guide was an older woman who was quite versed in everything you'd ever want to know about Newport and, best of all, she had the strongest Rhode Island accent...the letter R never passed her lips. LOL

We sailed past Fort Adams and some of the grandest mansions in Newport - Hammersmith Farm, Castle Hill, and Ocean Cliff - and they were even more impressive and beautiful when viewed from the sea. The most amazing mansion was Clingstone, which was literally built on a rock in Narraganset Bay. It's accessible only by boat, and can be rented for the bargain rate of $7500 per week. Here's a picture I stole borrowed from http://www.rhodeislandbaycruises.com/

And if exotic and remote vacation destinations are your thing....we discovered another within spitting distance. The Rose Island Lighthouse is a working lighthouse and museum that you can visit by ferry. However, you can also spend a night in the museum or (I love this) you can actually be a full time keeper for the week. But before you get any romantic notions, keep in mind that it's a working vacation where your duties include raising/lowering the flag, managing the electrical and water system, cleaning the lighthouse, greeting the museum visitors, hosting the overnight guests, and collecting fees. And, get this, not only do you volunteer your services, you get to pay $1000-2300/week for the pleasure. Click here if you have lost your mind and would actually consider this a fun thing to do!

Our cruise ended right where it began, at Bowen's Wharf.

From there we strolled next door to The Landing Restaurant, where we snagged a table on the upper deck and enjoyed the great weather and some fabulous food and adult beverages while enjoying the view of all the yachts in the marina. It was mind-boggling to consider the $$$ that were floating before our eyes. Just how many gazillionaires are there in this tiny neck of the woods?

After our leisurely lunch, we meandered through the shops and boutiques that are ubiquitous in every coastal town. And I'm a sucker for every one of them....although on this particular day we were simply looky-loo's because we didn't buy anything. I lie...we did splurge on some yummy gelato. Then we made our way back to the car and drove to the last stop on our date.

Once again we had half-price vouchers (from Eversave.com) for a tour of the vineyards and wine-tasting at Newport Vineyards. But unlike the harbor cruise, we both agreed that this experience wasn't even worth the discounted price of admission. Maybe we were spoiled from the only other vineyard tour we'd ever taken...the Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa...but this didn't even come close.

Our wine tasting took place in the gift shop, where we were handed a menu of all the wines available and told to select five. Then they proceeded to pour one mouthful two-fingers of each wine we'd selected. That was it. There was no explanation of the differences, no lesson in tasting wine, no recommendations, nothing. Just a basket of crackers and a carafe of water to rinse your glass between tastings. There was one person pouring for about six couples, and the only interaction was when she'd ask, "Are you ready for your next one?"

I don't believe we had the equivalent of a full glass of wine by the time we finished. And the worst part, their sparkling wine was not included in the wine tasting. But they were more than willing to sell me a bottle of Brut for $34.95. Really?! When all was said and done, there wasn't one wine we tasted that was worth purchasing (and TH drinks wine almost exclusively, but he didn't care of any of them).

After the wine tasting, it was time for the tour. And if we thought the wine tasting was a waste of time, the tour was worse not much better. A young college-age girl conducted the tour, and I couldn't stop focusing on the fact that every third word out of her mouth was either "like" or "um". And it didn't help that we had some obnoxious hillbilly in our group that kept asking her stupid questions like "what's the difference between champagne and sparkling wine?" At least she answered that one correctly.

We toured the unimpressive vineyards out back (their main/larger vineyards are not at this location), and the barrel rooms. And after about 15 minutes, the tour was over...that quick. Then our tourguide led us into an outdoor tent where there were counters with the same baskets of crackers and carafes of water. She passed out the menus and told us to select five wines, while she went to get glasses. We stared incredulously at some of the other couples who had already tasted wine with us earlier...but it didn't appear that anyone was going to tell her. TH and I just looked at each other and headed for the nearest exit.

But we did get to take home our wine glasses as souvenirs!

So three days after this date, Whitey Bulger was captured... which brought its share of excitement to our family with both our sons having front row seats. But when I heard how Whitey and Catherine spent their 16 years on the lam, all I could think was Holy Crap! While I was happy to hear she was still alive (contrary to popular local opinions), I was flabbergasted to even imagine what those years must have been like. While I love TH, I could not contemplate spending 16 days completely alone with him, let alone years. I would surely have killed him by now. 

With no girlfriends for her to hang out with, to shop with, to get drunk and vent with; no buddies for him to watch a game with or have a beer with; no children or grandchildren to enjoy and play with; no family to share holidays and special occasions; no co-workers to interact with; WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TOGETHER FOR 16 YEARS?! She doesn't deserve jail time, she's already served 16 years in almost solitary confinement!

Date #18 - What am I bid?

Well we've passed the half-way mark of our 35 Dates Project, and we are right on target six months in. It is getting harder to find original things to do, however. But for Date #18 we did manage to do something we'd never done together before...

We went to an auction!

Not too long ago I read an article in the Boston Globe about an auction house down in Holbrook that held weekly auctions every Wednesday at 6pm. On this particular afternoon the weather was lousy, and we had nothing to do before the Bruins game started at 8pm, so we made our way through the South Shore rush hour traffic. On the way we listened to dire storm forecasts and tornado warnings but, seriously, when's the last time a tornado touched down in Massachusetts? Maybe never!

The auction is housed in a small cramped warehouse space in the rear of a lighting showroom. They hold a preview from 4-6 pm, but with the traffic and the weather, we arrived with little time to spare. We circled the building twice before we found a barely legal parking space to squeeze into. And once inside, there wasn't a seat to be found.

In this picture there appears to be a lot of empty chairs, or so we thought. But as we made our way down the rows we realized that every single chair had a sticky post-it with someone's name reserving the seat while they perused the merchandise. LOL. Apparently this wasn't their first time here!

We took a walk around and examined the goods, but there wasn't one thing that I would have bid a dime on. We have an attic and two basements filled to the brim with much of the same crap stuff. So we didn't bother to register or get a bidding number. Instead, we made our way to the back of the house and took a seat on a lovely white victorian couch and watched the bidding begin.

Well can I tell you, I almost fell off the sofa when we saw what some items sold for. A teeny ceramic hurricane lamp went for $700. This guy in the black shirt spent several thousand on all sorts of civil war stuff, including a $900 sword. There were two women who consistently bid against each other for anything sterling and drove the prices pretty high. Another guy next to us bid on (and won) every iron door stopper, and there were plenty to choose from.

Who were these bidders? By the look of their clothing (and the cars in the parking lot), these did not appear to be people who had money to throw around. Were they serious collectors? Ebay vendors? Agents? I just didn't get it.

There were some antique furniture pieces that sold for prices in the four-figures. The woman in this picture is one of the auction house owners, Ms. Kelley, and she had a cell phone to her ear most of the night placing bids for an anonymous bidder who purchased most of the estate antiques.

And yet, some furniture pieces (mostly bureaus and dressers) sold for $20 each...a great steal for anyone furnishing a first apartment or a vacation home. The only thing in the entire place I might have considered bidding on was an old fashioned cradle, that I thought was an antique, in great condition. However, it sold for a mere $10 and I kicked myself that I didn't have a bidding number. But in retrospect, I would have no use (or space) for it.

The only thing TH was interested in purchasing was...food. There was a table set up at the back of the room, under a poster-board sign for the Gavel Cafe, where they sold homemade food out of crockpots and aluminum tins at reasonable prices: meatballs, salads, chicken-broccoli-ziti, Boston cream pie, and carrot cake. I told TH not to even think about it...that was NOT where we were eating dinner that evening.

After about an hour, Ms. Kelley came over to kick us off the sofa so that it could be auctioned off. And although it came with a receipt proving it was recently reupholstered for $2000... it only sold for a few hundred. Such a bargain. It also turns out that TH and Ms. Kelley knew each other. They finally figured out they had both worked at Dana Farber at one time. Small world.

Once we lost our seats, we decided to leave. But it was raining so hard that it took a while before we worked up the courage to run to our car. Once in the car, however, the visibility was so poor that we pulled into the closest restaurant to wait out the storm. Ironically, it was the Halfway Cafe where we chose to stop.

While we waited for our food to arrive and for the Bruins game to begin, every TV set in the place was tuned to breaking news about the weather. Apparently, tornados had touched down in the western part of the state and caused extensive damage, and storm warnings were still in effect throughout the region. It was pretty surreal. By the time the first period ended, however, the rain had stopped and we headed home.

The drive home was quite eerie and more than a little scary as we witnessed the most amazing non-stop display of lightning. There were also very few vehicles on the southeast expressway, as apparently most motorists had heeded the weather warnings, which made the ride even creepier. Luckily we arrived unscathed and there was no damage to our property. Many others were not so lucky.

The Bruins lost game one of the Stanley Cup finals that night, but we all know now how that fairy tale ended.

What will be most memorable to us is WHERE we watched many of the playoff games. TH and I were in California for the first six games of the Montreal series...where the games aired at 4pm on the west coast. We watched game 6 in a bar packed with Boston fans at Sonny McLean's where TH was over-served just before we took a red-eye home. I am still amazed we were ever allowed to board our flight because TH was so inebriated that he started twirling and jumping and pretending to be a ballerina while in the body scanner.

I was back in Santa Monica for games 4 and 5 of the finals and in the air during game 6 on a Jet Blue flight where we were able to watch the first period on Direct TV. It was so cool to be surrounded by Boston fans on a cheering plane as the four goals were scored in succession.

And after all the years our sons spent playing hockey and watching the Bruins play in the old Garden, we still can't believe that both of them were out of state when the Bruins finally brought the Stanley Cup back to Boston!

Date #17 - Strummin my six-string, on the front porch swing...

With all due props to Jimmy Buffet for the title of this post;
and no, we didn't go to Margaritaville for date 17...

...nope, we hung out on the porch.

Not our front porch, mind you, we aren't fortunate enough to have one of those, or even a back one.

We went to the porches of Somerville for their Porchfest, presented by the Somerville Arts Council.

This was an all day affair on a gorgeous hot spring Saturday, where musicians entertained from the porches and balconies of the city. It took place in three different parts of Somerville, at varying times, all for free.
You can read more about it here.

We chose the neighborhood directly behind Porter Square in Cambridge that, until that day, I had no idea it was part of Somerville. Can I tell you it was a great way to while away a Saturday afternoon.

We watched them perform from front porches....

and back porches.....

In side alleyways.....

and even under pergolas.....

This guy performed solo in the front yard...right NEXT to the front porch....

but he still drew a crowd....

There was even an eclectic assortment of roving troubadors on the sidewalks....

and some musicians were so good their audience completely clogged the streets....

We just had the best time on this date. We did a lot of walking, heard some really great music, mingled with great people, and the weather could not have been nicer (note all the folks pictured in shirtsleeves and shorts).

My only thumbs down would be that most of the streets where the musicians performed had resident permit parking only, so they might have attracted even bigger crowds had they held it on Sunday when parking restrictions are not in effect. Although, to be honest, I didn't see any parking enforcement. But still, it might have kept people away.

We cheated by parking in the Porter Square Shopping Center (well kinda, because before we returned to our car we did pick up some groceries at the supermarket). But I really wish we had ridden our bikes over instead. We then might have continued on to the next neighborhood for another two hours of great outdoor music.

Our date ended instead at Castle Island with a walk around the lagoon and an early dinner at Sullivan's. But truthfully, we can't even count that as part of our 35 dates because that's something we do several times a week!!

As beautiful and warm as that Saturday was....the weather did dip the next day, but only slightly. Yet lo and behold, when I came downstairs on the TWENTY-SECOND OF MAY (remember that date), there was TH all showered and dressed... wearing Blue Velour. I couldn't believe my eyes and I honestly burst out laughing, I couldn't help myself. He looked puzzled, but I didn't explain. It's just a lost cause.

Date #16 - Drinkin' and Drawin'

Date #16 is ranking up there among our favorites.

We started the date at a Thai restaurant in Newton and then, after a quick change into play clothes (we were coming from a wake), we walked next door to:

The logo above is from their website

 below is my blurry photo of their front entrance.

This is hands-down one of the best ideas I've heard for a date. It was so much fun!

And inexpensive too:
Price list:  $35-class/supplies; $5-beer/wine; $1-snacks/water

You really can't get much cheaper than that...but we actually did.
Thanks to Groupon vouchers, we paid only $17 each for the class.

The basic concept is that you sit in a storefront/studio with a blank canvas, five brushes, and a cardboard palette of acrylics, and you paint along to very simple instructions from artist Jackie (a talented young girl in her 20s who plays very cool music) while her Mom, Jill, tends bar. And after a few drinks, a lot of laughs, and some minor spills...you actually create a work of art that you can take home.

Normally, the entire class paints the same picture. However, we signed up for a 'Couples Nite' where two different paintings were available: Boston Skyline by Day, and Boston Skyline by Nite.
This was the only class of its kind on their calendar, but I guarantee they'll be adding more because it was a packed house. And you probably can't tell from the photo below but, other than the bartender and TH and me, there wasn't another person in the room who was born before we were married LOL.

Since it was a crowded room with not much space to maneuver, Jackie did warn us in advance to be very careful not to confuse our wine cups with the plastic water cups provided for rinsing our brushes. We all laughed, but despite the warning I came quite close several times!

Commercial interruption: I almost forgot to mention that the bar served not only beer and wine, but Prosecco. Yes! It was a little more expensive ($9) but I was psyched because NEVER EVER do I find my drug of choice when only beer/wine are being served, and I'd already resigned myself to drinking only water all nite. (Serendipitous change of plans).

Now back to our date: We started by painting our sky and then our water. I was working on a daytime scene and TH was painting the night. Here we are just underway......

Jackie was a great instructor, taught us how to use each brush, and had us moving along at a great pace. I'm not sure if it was the great music, or the adult beverages, but the place quieted down considerably as the evening went on. Jackie attributed it to the presence of men in the room. Apparently, this is a popular venue for Girls' Nite Out....and she commented that there is a lot more laughing and chattering when the girlfriends are together. I will definitely be back with some female friends! But with the guys on board, everyone buckled down and was engrossed in completing their projects. Even TH was so involved in his work that he didn't share his usual collection of stupid jokes or puns. Who knew?

and here are our finished  products.....

as you can see by our workspace...we weren't the neatest painters. Good thing we wore our play clothes! They do provide smocks, but they don't cover a whole lot.

Below are close-ups of our paintings...and what they were SUPPOSED to look like.

                                         here's my final product

and this is theirs

                                      here's TH's masterpiece

and what he was trying to replicate!



All in all....I don't think we did a bad job. We haven't found an appropriate place to hang them in our home yet (they are currently propped on our kitchen counter) but most likely the attic or basement will be their final resting place and our sons can throw them in the trash fight over them when we're gone.

Jackie and Jill took pictures of the class to post on their facebook site, but we chose not to be included cause we are old and just don't "get" social networking or trust letting others post our photos in cyberspace. But if you want to see our younger classmates, You can check them out here. This really was a fun date and we highly recommend it, no matter how old you are.

The morning after this date I attended a funeral for the mother/grandmother of dear friends of ours. It was a lovely send-off, but I've concluded there is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing an old man cry in mourning. (Who can ever forget Prince Ranier at Grace's funeral?) S and his bride R had been married more than 63 years and, as we left the grave-site, he sadly told me they had really hoped for and were trying to reach their 65th anniversary. (Oh man...pass the kleenex.)

I can't even imagine 63 years together, let alone hope for 65!

35 years has seemed like an eternity (Yes we're already combing grey hair together) and while it's scary to contemplate that we might still have another 30 years together, it's even scarier to think that we might not! 

Which brings me to another couple that was in the news this past week for ending a 25 year marriage. I am not even going to mention his name because it disgusts me that another powerful man could not keep it in his pants. If Maria had some shortcomings that caused this man to stray, he could have terminated walked away from the marriage instead of humiliating his wife and children and then deceiving them for almost 15 years. Instead, this woman who gave up her high profile position to support his political career will forever more (no matter how much good she continues to do in the world) be known as the woman who's husband fathered a child with their housekeeper in the same week their own son was born. I guarantee, just like Elizabeth Edwards, it will be the lead paragraph in her obituary. How sad! 

Date #15 - Slow Dancin'...Swaying to the Music

We can't dance.
Not together anyway.

There I said it.

Pretty embarassing, but our dancing together consists of maybe getting up once or twice during a slow song at a wedding, after many adult beverages, and moving together in a circle, round and round and round. The white man rotation dance.

I do love to fast dance, and I will do so with my female friends all wedding long, and while I'm not quite as bad as Elaine Benis (Watch her here), I will admit that my husband married the only girl with Latin blood who cannot shake her booty.

While I have no desire to replicate the moves on Dancing with the Stars... I never even watch the show... it would be nice to get on the dance floor with TH and actually move around without completely embarassing ourselves.

So date #15 was a private couple's ballroom dance class. Such a deal, only $25 with a Buy With Me voucher. So off we went to Ballroom in Boston, which happens to be neither. It is a mirrored dance studio in a non-descript brick building that also houses a gym, karate studio, and bakery....and it's in Newton.

It was just a 45 minute class, where we learned the Rumba. The owner/instructor was a young girl who really did a great job....given that she didn't have much to work with. It didn't take long for us to master the basic Rumba box steps,  however I can't imagine we'll ever do it in real life without counting out loud LOL!

Because we were so advanced and at the head of the class, our instructor threw in a Rotation, and a Sway. Whee....watch us now! We were without a doubt, the best couple in the room. Okay, we were the only couple in the room...it was a private lesson, remember?

All too quickly our class was over and, of course like most of our dates, it ended in the souvenir shop. Not really, but the instructor did produce our exit card with prices for future lessons. You know, in case we need a refresher course. Our class was a bargain at only $25 and well worth the investment. But I think I can safely guarantee that we won't be shelling out $85 for the next private lesson.

Of course we still haven't done any of our homework, which was to practice for 5 minutes a day. But TH has been showing off his dance skills to anyone who will watch.

So now, for the next 35 years, catch TH and me on the dance floor as we dance in a box (no longer in a circle going round and round), with the occasional rotation and sway. We'll be the couple counting out loud 1,2,3,4,5,6!

Because our voucher was set to expire and I had already cancelled once before, our class was scheduled for 5:15pm. But as early as it was, date #15 unceremoniously concluded at 6:00 because I had another date waiting. (I always wanted to say that)!

My BFF (MC) and I had tickets to the Wilbur Theater later that evening to see Frankie Valle in concert. Now there's a white man who can dance. Well maybe not so much anymore. The concert was two days after his 77th birthday, and old Frankie did not move too well on stage looked great. He stayed in place and swayed, often holding his back, while his new and improved quartet of young studs replicated all the old Four Seasons' signature moves including the finger snapping and popping on their toes.

The concert was lots of fun singing all those old songs and walking down memory lane. And, even though Frankie still has his amazingly high falsetto singing voice, I don't think he can yell out the loud notes anymore. The audience may not have noticed, but everytime a song needed a loud shout-out, he would hold the microphone towards us and let the audience sing out phrases such as I Love You Baby, or Walk Like a Man, or Rag Doll.

And though the younger generation may possibly only remember Frankie from his character on the Soprano's, the Wilbur Theater audience (with an average age of 70) knew every word to every song in his repertoire. And  more power to Frankie for riding the coat-tails of the Jersey Boy success into concert sellouts in his 60th year in the business.

Here's a photo from his official website.