October 24

Yesterday I practiced doing nothing for 8 hours in preparation for the first leg of our journey to NZ. Well, not exactly nothing...I was supervising the refreshment table at our local Halloween Window Painting Contest for 4th-8th graders. I was set up outdoors in a little park with a 6' table, hot water urn, hot chocolate packets, assorted cookies and donut holes, temporary tattoos and coupons for free ice cream cones for all the participants (thanks to our local Friendly's). The temperature hovered around 60 degrees and it was mostly sunny. We had a fair turnout of kids, but this is the first time we've done this event in close to 30 years. I think next year we'll have to turn kids away. I had some assistance at my table from two of my Shoreline Community Women members and my mentee came and helped out for the morning. The storefront windows turned out fabulous. I don't envy the judges who have to come up with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners from each grade. I solicited prizes from area merchants for the winners which will be given out after the windows are returned to their original pristine condition after Halloween. By 4:00 I was really tired and hungry. For the past two hours I had been dreaming of luxuriating in a bubble bath with a good book and a slice of pizza. Instead, John and I headed for Tolli's to eat a pizza minus the bubble bath. When we got there we discovered that La Pergola had finally opened next door so we decided to forego the pizza (I ordered one to take home) and had a fantastic dinner all by ourselves. The food was fantastic and since we were the only diners the staff was falling all over themselves to cater to us. We met the maitre d', Luigi, the owner, Anthony and even had a visit from our favorite waitress from Tolli's, Josephine. When we told Anthony that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary we were treated to a glass of Luigi's homemade limoncello. It will not be the last time we eat there.
Here's what we had: John had a glass of cabernet sauvignon and I had a pinot grigio. We shared a bowl of lobster bisque and a plate of spidini (mozzarella in a crust served over a light tomato sauce). John's entre was mushroom risotto which was served in a "bowl" made of grana padana cheese. I had hanger steak in a peppercorn cognac sauce served with mashed potatos and steamed vegetables. The steak and sauce were scrumptious. We saved room for dessert, a shared portion of creme brule and coffee for John and a cappuccino for me (mine was served with a tiny biscotti. We took a look at their menus for Thanksgiving and Sunday brunch. I think we will definitely have to take my mother here when she comes up for Thanksgiving.

I'll post pictures of the storefronts at http://www.nerisews.smugmug.com/.

New Zealand, get ready!

Woo Hoo! My mother and I will be heading "down under" to visit my brother in New Zealand on Christmas Day. We won't arrive until late morning, December 27th (I'm being very optimistic that the planes depart and arrive on schedule). I just booked our tickets this past Monday and mom and I are both getting very excited about our journey. I'm not at all concerned about the length of the journey...I'm really good at entertaining myself for long periods of time and Air New Zealand should be quite comfortable in Business Class with lay-flat beds. Mom's going to get me to play cribbage with her...it's been decades since I've played and she says she's a champ. I've already contacted my friendly limo driver and reserved a ride down to JFK on Christmas so all I need to do is pack. And, sick as it sounds, I'm already starting that. As I change over my closet from summer to winter I'm putting the lighter weight items that I want to take with me into my suitcase. James has a shopping list of things he can't get in NZ so I will be tucking boxes of Diamond Kosher Salt and Gillette razor blades (not the Chinese knockoffs that I brought him the last time) among other things in my bags.

My brother is just as excited as we are. I'm sure he never expected us (or at least our mother) to visit him. We can't wait to see his new home and meet all his new friends.

So, that's the exciting news. The mundane things that are keeping me busy are the town Halloween Storefront Painting Contest that I'm working on (my club will be handling the prizes and refreshments); a visit by the mobile mammography van that my club district is sponsoring; fall conference and my wedding anniversary are this Friday; Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and then it will be a whirlwind of Christmas parties and Christmas in Clinton in December. There won't be any time to just sit and relax until I get in that limo. I just made 16 Hanukah cards for a card swap (also this Friday) and I'm working on my Wisconsin album pages, knitting a scarf and have a project that I want to make for a Christmas gift.

I missed work today because John asked me to drive to New Jersey with him to pick up a "bucket" for work. He promised it would be a quick trip, only 2 1/2 hours each way and I could be at work by lunchtime. We left home at 5:30 in the morning and hit every conceivable sort of traffic problem along the way. The highway was stopped dead before we hit Bridgeport. Nothing was moving southbound. Finally cars started driving backwards on the grass at an exit to get off the highway. Just try to change your route with a gps. We wound up making a big circle and getting back on the highway in exactly the same place (drove across the grass again). Suffice it to say the 2 1/2 hour trip took us 5 1/2 hours. We finally reached our destination at 11:00 about as frazzled as we could be and not looking forward to the prospect of repeating the aggravation on the way home. When John told the guy who loaded the bucket into his (brand new) truck about our harrowing trip he told us a "short cut" that completely avoided I-95. I was skeptical, but we actually had a very pleasant ride home through beautiful farmland and our toll was only $1.00. The trip home took 3 hours and we traveled the speed limit the entire time. I still think it would have been worth it to pay the seller to deliver the bucket to us but it weighs 1000 pounds...