Friday night started with dinner with Marnen, Brook, and Natalie. Brook is someone Marnen's played a few gigs with and they're looking at working together for weddings and other sorts of gigs. Natalie is Brook's friend and ex, and signs jazz (also in the group for the wedding gigs and such). Food was good, the rosemary roasted pecans that Marnen made were great, the wine was excellent, and I had a lot of fun.

I also ended up talking with Natalie a bit about being poly- she asked a lot of questions, like "When do you know it's enough?" I don't even remember my answer now, because 11th_letter had a much better one when I mentioned this conversation later in the weekend.

Speaking of, after dinner Marnen dropped me off at the Stronghold on his way to Mt. Kisco and weekend gigs. I spent the weekend relaxing and hanging out, even watching over Celia and Jack as the rest of the adults and children were elsewhere. But we were watching a movie (Muppet Treasure Island) while I was playing Puzzle Pirates (a game that fascinated Jack to no end), and they behaved.

I walked on the treadmill, and 11th_letter has gotten me mildly hooked on the new Battlestar Galatica (I watched part of the mini-series/begining of the series).

On Sunday morning, ioldanach took me to the train station so I could go to Ridgewood and meet up with Marnen (who was playing at the Gilbert & Sullivan show).

So Friday night marnen and I went to look at a possible wedding/reception site. I'll post more about that in sunmoon_wed.

Then I went to a club to see The Flying Buttresses and Zen Debris. This is a link to pictures that were taken by the "official" photographer. I had fun, even though the crowd was a bit... sparse to say the least.

Saturday morning Marnen and I did some registry related stuff. Mainly deciding on going to Filene's (soon to be Macy's) for china and that sort of stuff, and Target for other stuff (and decided on a bedding set). Again, I'll post more about that in sunmoon_wed.

Marnen left to go to Aikido, and I did some shopping. I ended up getting two tops (a side effect of shrinking and longer fitting into my clothing) and a pair of stockings. I then headed over to the Stronghold-As-It-Is-Currently-Located-In-Warwick. Jeff, Katie, and Matt had to run and look at another possible house, so I got to spend a while talking with Kae. It was a good thing. And for once I had dinner there that didn't involve steak (but involved mashed potatoes again, which is a *good* thing too). Then I did get time to hang out with Jeff & Katie (Matt had to go to bed). Marnen had a gig, so I stayed overnight and had pancakes and helped Martha the house for an Open House. I was there when the bid went in and as things developed, which was a neat thing to see. I also got a lot of time in seeing Charlie.

Sunday afternoon I headed over to Rich & Debbie Simons' house in Beacon. They are a couple that Marnen's known for over 10 years now. They're both good musicians and Rich is a conductor 2 ways- a conductor for the Metro North and an orchestra conductor. Each year they host an orchestral/chamber music jam. I met Marnen over there and played a bit. Even got to play my piccolo, which doesn't happen much. But good gods, the William Tell has a B that's TWO OCTAVES ABOVE the staff, in the PICCOLO part. That's above Stars & Stripes range. I got it out, once, after asking Marnen on how to finger the blasted thing.

Saturday I had a headache when I got to the Stronghold. I took some stuff for it. Sunday, it came back with a vengeance. Especially after playing the William Tell.

I made it home. I stopped for Mt. Dew and meds on the way. I was even a little nauseous (which rarely happens with my migraines, fortunately). I slowly drove home, and when I got there it took a while to fall asleep.

Today is work. Part of me didn't want to go, but I don't have time to play with for days off. Tonight I have to stop off and do some work on the bylaws for my Rebekah's lodge, then run over to the CIA for dinner with Marnen and Bernie for Bernie's birthday.

I want to curl up and sleep.

Tuesday night marnen and I had dinner with his mom and her husband in Croton. Good seafood resturant called the Ocean House. Tiny place, may have been a car diner before. Great food.

Wednesday night we went to 1st Seder in Cornwall. Galen (from Game Gnight, the game merchant) was the host and his parents are cool. I made the lemon cheese & fruit parfait from the CIA class and it went over very well.

Last night we went to 2nd Seder in Elmsford. This is where we've been doing 2nd Seder for a couple of years now. Good food. Good people (a few people from the country dance scene). Good wine. Losing 55ish pounds and not drinking much kills tolerance. I got a little happy/tipsy... which means I got sleepy. Didn't get home until quarter of 2am.

Tonight I go up to Albany (by train) to hook up with tetsujinnooni and chickipu_no_oni to go to just outside of Rochester for Easter with Terhsa's parents.

Heh... all these religious meals and my own holiday was last month...

Note to self: check Jon & Terhsa's thoughts on horseraddish and introduce them to Koreich (aka Hillel sandwiches- matzah, maror (chrain aka horseradish), and charoset (Apple, nuts, and spices ground together and mixed with wine)]. I think it's the best part of a Seder.

( My states... )

( The World... )

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Well, there are a couple of ongoing holidays (like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa)... so enjoy them while they continue.

I wish I knew when I was getting my "thank you for not getting another job bonus" so I can get the other gifts I'm planning to get for my friends.

Tuesday night marnen and I went to the Southbury, CT area for a Winter Solstice celebration that is the one thing that the remnants of the Hat City Morris team do. We left right after I got out of work, and were going to meet the group in a small park near the hosts' house for the Horn Dance. Well, the road we were supposed to go down was blocked off, so we hiked around to find that the group had been there and gone... So we hiked back to the car and got to the house in time for the fire/candle dance and the mummer's play. It's a highly modified St. George and the Turkish Knight tale. Marnen's dad usually plays Father Christmas (but he had an exam to give- he's a bio-chem professor at Westchester Community College), and Marnen plays St. George... yeah, the two most obvious Jewish guys play the most Christian characters in the play. There was a lot of food, some good sake, and a decent wine called "Druid Juice" I think.

Friday night we went down to Staten Island to have dinner with the Amesee's (they're a couple in the country dance scene) to have an early Christmas eve dinner. Tom is an incredible cook with an Italian background. There were 5 courses of fish dishes (one course had 2 seafood dishes, so it was 6 fish dishes total). HMMMMMMMMMM it was yummy.

Saturday we went up to Albany and briefly say tetsujinnooni, chickipu_no_oni, and tetsujinnooni's family (whom Marnen finally met for the first time, including Cara). We then had dinner at the Plum Blossom with my Mom, my Aunt Glady, and my brother hopelrailmantic.

Sunday we went to Warwick and spent some time with nounsandverbs, 11th_letter, ioldanach, purpura, Katie's parents and the kids. It was rather fun and there were a couple of pictures taken of me holding Charlie.

I'm looking forward to the next week, which should be fairly quiet. I'm at work now. I'm also looking forward to the Warwick New Year's weekend.

I'm going to a Rebekahs meeting with Mom on Saturday, and hanging out with Jon & Tersha and whatever of the Halfway house crew is around and able to hang out.

and I registered for Philcon while it is still cheaper.