Il Divo

Cheryl and I went to Fairfax, VA yesterday for an Il Divo concert. If you do not know who they are, you can find them on you tube. The show was great! I would go again, but would try for different seats. We were high up and off to a side. But it was still worth the trip.

The most impressive part was that Cheryl and I stayed with in our points for weight watchers! In the past we would have just forgotten the diet for the day and pigged out. But we are both very serious about this and we stuck with it. I'm very proud of her and I don't want to be the one that gets us off the straight and narrow path!

Now back to the show. They performed most of the songs from their newest CD The Promise. I have that CD and love all the songs on it. Their version of Amazing Grace and Mama bring tears to my eyes everytime. They performed for 2 hours and 2 costume changes (Tux). The show was at the basketball facility at George Mason University. The campus and facility was pretty impressive. Click here to watch "Mama." Watch it with your mother or on Mothers Day, if you aren't in tears then you have a very hard heart!

We spent the night at a hotel and got up this morning to drive home. It was about a 4 hour ride, and being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to mow the yard just after we got back. Needless to say I am beat tonight.

This is what happens when you let your wife take a vacation on her own! The first cute face that comes along and she is snuggling up to him!

Well, I am a bachelor for the next few days. Cheryl is at Disney in Florida for the next few days :(. The dog and I didn't know what to do with ourselves all day yesterday, so I watched Band of Brothers. If you haven't seen this series it is very good. It amazes me that any of them came back alive. After watching that and finding out that there was nothing worth watching on TV, Frodo and I went to bed at 6 PM! I never go to bed that early, but I slept through to 4 AM. I must have needed the sleep.

Frodo and I did take a walk yesterday, but we didn't go very far. It was a lot colder then I expected. We only walked about a mile and a half and my hands and face were half frozen. Frodo enjoys even the small walks. He just likes to get out and smell all the scents that his nose picks up.

I'm back at work now after the three day weekend, so hopefully it will make the time go by faster until Cheryl gets home!

The Season's Ballet

Don surprised me by buying tickets to George Ballanchine's The Nutcracker. I'd never been to see it, but Don had been once before a long time ago. The Pennsylvania Ballet performs at the Academy of Music in downtown Philadelphia.

It usually takes between forty-five minutes to an hour to get to Philly from where we live. Notice I wrote "usually." We were going to stop on the way and eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Don Pablo's. It is located in the Deptford mall, and neither of us took the time of year into consideration. We were half an hour just trying to get off the expressway onto the exit ramp when just two miles out. Then because we had decided to go the GPS way instead of the way we knew, we got turned around in traffic (lots of traffic) until we decided to eat on the way back instead. There sure are a lot of Christmas shoppers in this down economy! Luckily, we finished most of our shopping in October.

We got there in plenty of time to have a snack at a grill across the street from the Academy. Parking cost $18! Somebody besides me is making a lot of money for concrete and painted lines. Thank goodness everything was really close to where we parked though because it was really cold.

A few things were new to me since I'd never been to a ballet. I loved the bells signaling everyone to be seated. The theater was beautiful with red and gold decor. We were seated by the door which made it nice. I don't think there was a bad seat in the house unless it was behind a beam, but I noticed no one bought tickets there. Also I noticed that someone might miss a lot of the performance if not returned to their seat in time. You are not allowed back into the theater if the performance is ongoing. I'm glad that didn't happen to me.

I'm sure most everyone knows the story of The Nutcracker, but here's a short synopsis from the playbill:

"...begins on Christmas Eve, as the Stahlbaum family and their guests gather in the parlor for a jubilant holiday celebration. The eccentric Herr Drosselmeyer arrives and enthralls the children with his antics. He presents Marie with a beautiful wooden Nutcracker doll, which breaks in a scuffle with her brother. After the party winds down and the house is silent, Drosselmeyer mends the doll and the magic begins. The grand tree begins to grow beyond the proscenium, the snow begins to fall, and Marie and her Nutcracker Prince are carried away to the Land of the Sweets where delectable dances are performed for the pair. The Dew Drop Fairy, Hot Chocolate, Coffee, Tea, Candy Canes the Marzipan Sheperdesses, Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles, the Waltz of the Flowers, and the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier entertain Marie and her Prince. After all the dances in the Land of the Sweets have concluded, they sail off into the sunset on a gilded boat as Tschaikovsky's memorable music reaches its rousing finish."

Don kept mentioning how he would love to take the girls (Emily and Bri) to see a performance one day. We both enjoyed ourselves. I had a lovely time. I really want to go back now and see some other performances.

Wedding Bells

I've been meaning to write about our trip to Tennessee for about a week now. Better late than never I guess. The main reason we went was to attend my brother's wedding in Nashville. Don and I kid that we're getting too old for these 16 to 18 hour trips. As Don would say, "Whose kidding?" To pass the time while driving, we thought it appropriate to listen to The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks on CD.

All was well until the night before the wedding. Then came the inevitable family squabbling. A certain part of my family is now not talking to another part of my family and did not attend the wedding because of mean-spirited words. (And they were very mean words that serve no purpose in repeating). It's hard being in the middle trying to make it so everyone gets along. I do have to say though that I chose a side right away. It's not on the side of those mean words either. None of it had to do with the bride and groom. So all went according to plan, thank goodness.

Enough with family quibbling. The night before the wedding, we had dinner with John, Laura and close friends and relatives at the Caney Fork Fish Camp. It was a country restaurant with a live bluegrass band. Yes, they have a red truck in the wall. Afterward, we took a ghost tour of downtown Nashville. It was a dark and stormy night.....well actually, it kind of was. It was raining, and we took the tour around 10 PM. Don and I think we'll go back to some of the places by ourselves sometime instead of a group.

The wedding took place the next day in a cute little chapel sort of on the side of the interstate. Laura's (the bride) dress was beautiful. And the groom, John, looked quite handsome (even though he's my brother). After the wedding and outside the chapel, we heard the chapel's bells. Beautiful. We also heard honking from the cars on the interstate. Cute. After John and Laura drove off to honeymoon bliss (airport and then a carribean cruise), Don and I, my family and friends went to a Mexican restaurant. Our favorite is Mexican. We said our goodbyes there, and had to retire to the motel for an early wakeup call.

The trip back was just as long as the trip there! Funny how that happens. Only this time we listened to Marley and Me. It's the only time I've ever been able to get Don to listen, read, or watch a dog story. We both knew it was going to be sad, but we didn't know just how sad. It was a two tissuer! I think we both loved on Frodo a lot more after that.

It's Party Time!

Don and I went to the Tech Center's gala on Thursday. It celebrated fifty years of hard work and honored the past while looking forward to the future. The Trump Marina ballroom was a good venue. Personally, I enjoyed seeing all the different gowns women wore. There were many different and unique dresses in attendance. We decided not to buy anything new for the event, but Don looked especially handsome in his suit and tie.

Congressman Frank LoBiondo along with a few past tech center directors attended (the present one too). I chose to eat salmon and Don ate chicken. All the food was very good. The band played well, but I'm not sure where they got the singer. They could have made a better chose there. Nevertheless, they were able to keep the dance floor busy. We had a lot of fun.

Don and Frodo went for a four mile walk today before I ever got out of bed. I have to make a better committment towards walking with them. Don heard gunfire while they were on the trail. Apparently, it's deer season. It freaked me out a little, but Don said they were safe as long as they stayed on the trail they were on. He said there were signs posted along the way not to shoot toward the direction of the houses. Yikes! I told him to make sure he didn't venture off the trail. Actually, maybe during hunting season, we should stick to the parks instead of trails in the woods!

We went to Ft. Dix/McGuire AFB yesterday. We usually go only about once per year. Don bought some new clothes and luggage. And I got a new overnight case. It takes about an hour to drive there. We took a different route this time with the help of Garmin. It was better than our usual ride, I think. It was more scenic anyway.

After Don's and Frodo's walk, Don and I went to breakfast together at a favorite Irish cafe. I think it's going to be a lazy Saturday.

Big Yellow School Bus

I'll see if I can write this with an ear on the presidential debate. Not too easy with the first sentence even!

Don and I went to Smithville over the weekend. For those who aren't as familiar, Smithville is a small historic town inside Galloway Township. Octoberfest or Oktoberfest, depending on where you are from, is a festival held once a year. The town of Smithville has these wonderful little shops and cafes within a small village. All are within walking distance of each other. But there were so many people this year, we had to park at the shopping center located outside the village and walk through condominium complexes to get there. We encountered geese while walking through one of these complexes. They were from the village and were probably pushed out of their home for the day by people and events at the festival. There were many more geese than what you see in this picture. These particular ones were warming their bellies on the asphalt. When we got there, we could hear live music and smell all kinds of food - homemade potato chips, funnel cakes, crab cakes, shrimp, bbq, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.

There's a bridge connecting one part of the village to another. We walked over it, but it took a few minutes because there were so many people. They have small boats fiercely peddled by event goers that can sometimes be seen floating slowly under the bridge. Don and I decided not to exert ourselves with the boats since we had to walk back to the car. Actually, any excuse would have sufficed.

We enjoyed ourselves so much we went back the next day. We didn't want to walk, so we took the shuttle which turned out to be a big yellow school bus. Don had never ridden on a school bus before. He grew up in California and was well within walking distance to all his schools.

So this was a special treat for him! It was enlightening for me too though. Buses sure have changed since I used to ride them to school. I'm showing my age now, but we didn't have seat belts, the backs of the seats were much lower and there were no radios in any of the buses I rode in as a child.

I've made it through the presidential debate and listened too. Wow. I'm good.

Cheryl