Thanksgiving Week 2016

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  I stuffed myself until I could barely fit through the door.  You have to have a little of everything and then you need to have at least seconds of your favorite things and then the next thing you know, you've eaten 2-3 meals worth of food in one sitting.  Anyway, here is round up of events since we were last together on the blog.

Bill and I went to see Anna Kendrick in Boston.  Yes, the actress…she wrote a book so she's out on book tour and someone in this household thinks she's the bees knees so I grabbed us some tickets.  We were a little farther back than we would have been for someone like David Mitchell so she's a little blurry.  She's the one on the left.  As you can see, she was on stage with another woman who was also around 30 years old.  OMG - did I sound like that when I was 30?  Because the evening was like being trapped in a junior high slumber party.  Both women had very young voices and there was a lot of giggling.  I felt dead old.  Bill and I were definitely not her usual demographic. But it was a fun evening even though we are geriatric.

Last weekend we had a professional photo shoot with the whole family.  I snapped a few pix when I wasn't posing.

Trudi and her grandkids.

Bret and Family

Joey and Allie

This was the pose of the day though….Brenda surrounded by husband #1 and husband #2.

After the photo shoot we all went back to our place where Bill and Malikai had another photo shoot of their own.  With wigs.

Speaking of Brenda and Keith - we all had Thanksgiving dinner at their house.  We have really become quite a modern family.  Keith spent all day cooking and they set up two tables to accommodate everyone.  The only problem with going somewhere else for Thanksgiving is that there are no leftovers for Turkey Terrifics after.  

I had some quality time with my favorite grand daughter. 

While Bill got some time in with his boys.

Friday night we went into the city to see Bill's pal Rakesh and his wife Lena.  This is the couple that got married in India a few years ago.  Now they are doing an assignment in the US for Bill's company.

After dinner we took a walk around Government Center and Quincy Market.  This shot cracks me up - what is Lena photographing - we're over here, Lena!!

Bill's brother from another mother.

Then Saturday night DiDi came over!!  We power Christmas shopped in town (for Small Business Saturday) and then hung out in front of the fire in our jammies.

In the morning we went out to breakfast at Mad Martha's - and shared a NY Times.  This is definitely a sign of our age (as if Anna Kendrick wasn't enough).  It used to be that everyone brought the newspaper to breakfast on Sunday.  We were the only ones this week.  

Cue the Christmas music - the holidays have officially begun!

Viva la Montreal!

Hello Blog Readers!  I'm trying on a new schedule for size….posting a weekly round up of our activities and shenanigans.  I have no idea how we kept a daily blog up for so long because once I gave myself a break to stop I found that it was really really hard to find time to do it.  As with my other habits, I've got to be regimented about it or it won't happen.  

We had a fairly dull week so luckily I've still got Montreal pictures to share.  

The art museum had a Mapplethorpe exhibit  that we all wanted to check out.    This sparked a conversation about pronunciation.  Is it MAPE-lethorpe or MAP-lethorpe?  I've always said MAPE but low and behold it's spelled with two P's which usually means the vowel is short. 

(For the record, I just googled it and it is MAPE. This is why I feel I must continue the blog - to share knowledge and solve the mysteries of life)

After the exhibit we just happened to walk by the cigar bar that was recommended to us.  Whitney and Aaron had never been to a cigar bar so we all went in and had a cocktail while Bill treated himself to a stogie from the walk in humidor.  Was this Whitney's birthday weekend or Bill's??

The alley next to our hotel put on a light show after dark.  Images were projected on the walls that changed every few seconds to tell the story of fallen women who would leave their babies in this alley. At least we think that was the story line. Seems like a bit of a downer for people at the hotel to see abandoned babies in the alley, doesn't it?

Sunday brunch at Yelp's top rated venue meant standing in line in the cold for about 30 minutes.  Fortunately it was worth it.  We snagged the counter seats in the front window and ordered up tea and eggs and toast.  

I don't know what the men are googling here but it looks pretty intense….

Whitney and I posed for our breakfast selfie.

Our last activity was a long walk in the park.  It was such a beautiful day that we were joined by lots of other tourists, locals, families, joggers, cyclists etc.  Clearly, the park is the place to be on a beautiful day in Montreal.

It was sad when we realized we needed to turn around and head back to the hotel and then off to the airport.  One last selfie with the birthday girl!  Hard to believe we've been friends for 38 years??  Here's to 38 more!

Random U.K.

And now a few random shots from the two weeks in the UK.  We're finally running out of pictures to show of this trip but I do have more of Montreal…so we'll close this one out first.

I found a narrow boat that seemed especially made for me!!  

I spent much of the trip wearing my leopard print Uggs.  That's right - these are Uggs!  And I love them.

Seen in the Cotswolds.

For Bill's birthday we went to dinner at Boisdale - our favorite Scottish jazz club with a Cigar Roof Deck.  The saddest part about the night is that since we had to go after my work day we were too late to get up on the deck to smoke!!  A failure in the annuls of birthday gifts.   But we did enjoy a fabulous meal.

This is my Haggis sitting on Neeps and Tatties.

Even the check has a "men's club" feel to it.

I'll close out our London trip with this beauty.  That may be Jerry's supermodel pose?  Ann-Maria is raging against the machine and I'm just happy to be there.

Whitney's Birthday Surprise

Bill and I flew to Montreal on Friday Morning.  Whitney and Aaron flew in that afternoon.  Whitney thought she was going to have a romantic birthday get away with Aaron but  - Surprise! - we were waiting for her in the hotel lobby.  Romantic weekend thwarted!!

We went for a walk by the water and had a little photo shoot.  

This is our album cover - the band name:  Straight To Voicemail

The album title:  Venture

The name of this sculpture was Tai Chi Flow…so we gave it our best shot.

We did a little of everything over the next 48 hours - including a visit to Notre Dame.  It was quite an amazing church.  Every inch was covered in colorful decoration.

Let's see if these BLUE prayer candles will help us on Tuesday.  

Our first night of celebration at one of the hottest new restaurants in town - Foxy.  In fact it was written up in the Air Canada in flight magazine.  It lived up to the hype.  We spent three hours eating amazing food.

Whitney and I got a little intense listening to the dessert options.  We decided to have all three and share.

The next morning we went for a long walk to find breakfast and came across this building….The Santa in a frame first caught my eye but then I noticed the Michael Jackson  handling a baby from the window and I knew I needed a picture for the blog.

We were so happy to finally find breakfast after a very long walk. Eggs and Montreal bagels all around!  (I didn't  realized that Montreal was known for their bagels - sesame bagels that are flatter than the bagels we have here.)

The co-conspirators.  We were so happy that Whitney was surprised!

Postman Park

While we were in London (yes, I STILL have London pictures to post!!) I took myself out on a Fun Friday.  Remember those??  The tube offered a little advice along with their transportation.

I stopped to listen to a family of string players in Covent Garden.  They were amazing.  They actually brought a tear to my ear and I don't even know what they were playing.  I wish I could have captured the music for you as well.

I know it's been done to death but I could not pass up this classic London view.

A rainy walk along the Thames is also a pretty classic view as well.

This one is for you, Di Di - - I couldn't resist the shot of the pub at the end of the alley.

It's the Cockpit of course.

This was my destination - Postman Park.  I realized that while I've been to this little park near St Paul's I've actually never stopped to read the plaques.  I only came into this park to see the literary park bench a few summers ago and never ventured over to the back wall.

The wall is a memorial to people who died trying to save someone else.  I've posted a few for your reading pleasure.

Clearly fire and drowning are two surefire ways to sacrifice yourself in the early 1900's.  I was surprised to see that there was quicksand in Lincolnshire!! A touching tribute to self sacrifice.