Meet You in Hell!

Jennie and I visited the Renoir exhibit at the Frick Museum.  I got scolded by a nasty security lady for brushing my hand against one of the antique fainting chair.  And then as if to emphasize the scolding she snorted as she passed me.

But I should not have started the Frick review on such a negative path.  It was wonderful.  The building is an architectural wonder.  The paintings (and sculptures, but I could give two shits about the sculptures) all fit together.  Frick liked paintings that told a story, that had personal emotion.  You see more happy scenes than other museums who have room after room of John the Baptist getting his head cut off (Jen loves these, of course).

But the best part of the Frick story is the feud with the Carnegie family.  The tour talks about Frick the collector.  It emphasizes his personal touch in creating a beautiful museum.  Then it casually hints that he and the Carnegie's had a falling out over their steel empires.

But when you go to the gift shop the first book you see is about the feud, title "Meet You in Hell".  Seriously, "Meet You in Hell"?  I love that and am jealous that I've never had that much emotional distain for someone to recite these words.  It's on my bucket list.

Even after my "Sir!  Don't touch the furniture!" lecture, we broke the rules again by taking a photo in the Frick.  We're like the couple in Natural Born Killers, totally rebellious.

But then again, not so rebellious that we don't appreciate a French macaron.

We were walking down Park Avenue after the Frick and saw a long line of people in what looked to be a cookie shop.  We got in line.  We had no idea what they were selling but we had time to kill.

Turns out this shop, Laduree, is famous for it's macarons.  We bought four.  It may have been the best thing we ate all weekend (and we ate well).

Speaking of eating well, we found Lupa in Greenwich Village.  One of our better meals this weekend.

No Rickman today, but another great day in the city.

Snape Sighting!

Bill and I went to see Seminar last night starring Alan Rickman, Jerry O'Connell (the fat kid in Stand By Me who is now thin and married to Rebecca Romjin) and three other people with no bloggable fame.  (I'm assuming everyone reading our blog knows who Alan Rickman.  If not, please google and start renting movies immediately.)

I've been to plenty of Broadway shows and somehow never noticed that people line up afterwards at the stage door to see the actors come out.  Of course I've seen pictures of this happening in magazines but I never actually saw it in real life.  When we exited the theater, there was a small group waiting behind metal barriers so I grabbed Bill and went behind the line to be groupies.  After a nobody came out to tell us that Mr Rickman will only sign material from Seminar (which made me start to wonder what people generally ask him to sign rather than the show playbill), we were rewarded in short order with many photos and an autograph.  

Jennie was so excited after our Rickman rendezvous that she told a random couple on the elevator that she and Rickman had a one on one connection.  "He's still thinking about me, " she told them as they fled the elevator.

Which reminds me of our encounter with the Middle Eastern man who works at the little convenience store around the corner.  He said to me as he was looking at Jen "She ees very pretty".  My comment back was "She is beautiful ...... but she's dumb as a stump."  I'm not sure he understood the phrase.

Here is us gallery hopping.  Jennie is inspired by the giant tiger photos behind her.  We discovered a new artist, Eric Fischl (he's new to us, been around forever, apparently).

We took a walk on the Highline.  We can't say enough about this park.  It's everything you'd want in a government project.  We love it, love it.

The city that never sleeps - except us. It's 11:53 and we're ready for bed

Jennie and I are in NYC.  We stumbled upon a Scottish restaurant called Highland NY.  Everything was very Scot, down to the haggis and the Bellhaven beer.  It's so good to be on a little holiday.  

It's a beautiful night, unseasonably warm.  The issue will be in the morning when, because our window is open, we'll hear the trash men crank it up at 4:00am.  It must take years to get use to the noises in NYC.

One of Benny's babes

During Mother Entwistle's summer vacations from the bank she would spend time with the great Benny Hill.  She was captivated with his stunning looks and magnetism.  Benny was Clooney before Clooney was Clooney.

Movie Night

On Sunday night Laura and I went to our little local theater to see A Dangerous Method.  If it weren't for my favorite popcorn I would have said the whole night was a bust!  We were still feeling those residual pangs of disappointment two days later so we decided to rent 50/50...LOVED it.  And I bought everyone's favorite triple creme cheese (Delice de Bourgogne:  aka Cow's Milk Crack!!)  Pot luck, triple creme, laughter, tears, cancer and foul language - a perfect night.

Looking to get retroactive credit for this

When Jennie and I first got together I painted this picture of her.  I hid it from her by keeping it in my car with the paint materials.  I'd go to a remote part of Hanscom Airforce Base and paint at lunch while I watched planes take off and land.

I often look up quotes to add to my blog posts.  I like these but they really have nothing to do with my little story.

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

                                                                                                                                                                        -    Steven Wright

The odds against there being a bomb on a plane are a million to one, and against two bombs a million times a million to one. Next time you fly, cut the odds and take a bomb.

— Benny Hil

Teaching my Grandkids bigotry and economic bias

 Mom and I went to lunch and the toy store with a lion and with Spiderman.  Wyatte and Malikai are too cute.  The fellow shoppers at Toys R Us found the boys to be very adorable.  I always feel good when I spend a little time with the lower middle class.  They are such nice folk.

I assume the five readers we have know I'm full of shit about the lower-middle-class comment.

(I felt I had to add that just in case a future prospective employer Google me and finds that statement)

Billifer

They say that husbands and wives who spend years together begin to look like each other.

I don't get it.....

She's Always Right

This is Jennie's proven method to get rid of her hiccups.  The upside down drinking of water.  It's worked 100% of the time since I've known her.  

(Jen chose the blog title, by the way.  I had a smart ass comment after the upside down drinking water story and she punished me by making me post this propaganda-ish title)

Snow Management

Our first Snow Management in 2012!!  After several bad back episodes, I now seem to have a pass on shoveling duty.  Bill has been very chivalrous....of course, this also gives him the opportunity to smoke a cigar.   Smoke up, Billy, it's still comin' down!!!