Sunday, June 25, 2017
Broadway Saturday - Kinky Boots
Sunday afternoon, we meet again. Really, where does the time go? :) It's already super close to July now. Only one week left in June. So crazy.
Yesterday, Saturday, was a fun day. We took the train into NYC in the morning and had lunch at "The Perfect Pint" before seeing the 2pm show of "Kinky Boots". What a great show. We had been meaning to see it for a while but there are so many shows on Broadway it's hard to make the time and money to see them all. But when Brendon Urie (from Panic at the DIsco) was announced to star in it we finally decided to go see it. I am really glad that we did because it was a truly great show. Very inspiring & heartfelt as well as funny with great music and dance numbers. Would recommend it in a heartbeat.
After the show we stopped into a restaurant/bar on our way back to Grand Central. Had another snack and I had some yummy Frozen Rose. Delicious. Later we took the train back and met up with our friend John at a local place for another couple of drinks. Fun and busy day all around.
Today we slept in late which was nice. Then went for lunch to Oxford. At 121 now. Had lunch and now just hanging out and relaxing with some wine. Nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon.
We will see what next week brings at work. I am sure it's supposed to be super busy. But it will be followed by a 4 day weekend. Management decided to give us Monday, July 3rd off as well as the 4th so we will have a 4 day weekend for the holiday. Really excited about that!! Well let's get through this coming work week and then I can enjoy my four days off. :)
Letter/Mail Update: Received letters from/owe replies to: Kimber/Canada, Eunice/Malta and Caroline/Scotland.
Posted by Hanna at 03:29 PM in Food and Drink, NYC, Performances, Work Stories | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday, May 29, 2017
NYC & Memorial Day Weekend
Happy Memorial Day to everyone here in the US. :) I am off from work today and had a nice
3-day weekend. Can't complain. :) It's nice to actually have the holidays off at my new job. But being involved in an international company & industry we are still never a 100% off of course. I have people in other parts of the world who don't have Memorial Day off and where it's business as usual so there is a lot of prep work to be done and a close eye to be kept upon things. But it's still nice to have an extended weekend of course. :)
Saturday we went down to NYC and spent the day in the city. Had lunch and saw "Waitress" on Broadway. Great musical and it was fun to see Sara Bareilles in it. Afterwards we stopped and had a light dinner and some drinks before taking the train back to CT. Definitely a fun day out.
Yesterday, Sunday, we took advantage of the fact that the weather was semi decent (pretty humid but not raining at least) and went for a 2 3/4 mile walk. We had explored the same trail earlier in the season when the trees were still bare. What a difference a few weeks can make. So green and lush now. Was nice to be outside for a while.
Today it's been raining on and off pretty much all day. So we have been taking it easy. Slept in and are now at the Red Rooster pub for lunch. Going to stop at the grocery store for a few things on our way home and then catch up on some TiVo. Should be a relaxing night. We will see what tomorrow brings at work. At least it will be a 4 day work week so that's something. :)
Well, that's all the news here from my end. Hope everyone in the US had a nice Memorial Day weekend.
Letter/Mail Update: Letters went out on Friday to: Eloine, NY and Celia/MA.. Received letters from/owe replies to: Lotte/Denmark and Caroline/Scotland.
Posted by Hanna at 03:29 PM in Food and Drink, Holidays, NYC, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, February 05, 2017
Back in CT and regular day to day life
Arrived back at JFK on Wednesday night. The rest of the stay in Pittsburgh went fine. Sunday we had breakfast at a close by diner. Sharon and Susanna got their nails done and did some shopping while I spent some time at Starbucks drinking Earl Grey and reading.
Monday to Wednesday was new hire orientation which went by pretty quickly. We left the office around 2.30pm ob Wednesday to head to the airport.
Thursday and Friday went fine. It's a bit weird being back at the office again. I was assigned one own file as well but haven't had any real work on it yet. Guess that will be next week's project.
Friday night I took the train down to NYC and met up with my friend Jana. Went to see "The Great Comet of 1812". I had already seen it back in October when it was in previews but it was a lot of fun to go back and see it again with my friend.
Oh and in other good news I passed the test we had to take during our training with a 97, 1% higher than the previous highest score in our office. So that's pretty cool.
Well, we will see how next week goes, assuming I end up having actual files of my own to work on. I will update when I know more.
Letter/Mail Update: Letters went out last week to: Celia/MA and Carmen/Malta. Will be mailing a letter tomorrow to: Eloise/NY. Received a letter/owe a reply to: Bianca/Germany and Tiffany/OK.
Posted by Hanna at 04:24 PM in Performances, Work Stories | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Movie Weekend
And the four day weekend is already coming to an end again How do 4 days fly by that fast? But I can't complain. It's been a nice, relaxing weekend.
Thursday was Thanksgiving. And we went to the movies to see "The Edge of Seventeen" followed by a delicious dinner at the Hopkins Inn. Super yummy food and a nice time with Mike and our friend Robin. Nice relaxed night.
Friday we went to the movies again, this time to see "Arrival" which was also a good movie. Neat story. Sort of like "Contact" but with more alien interaction if that makes any sense at all. Pretty meta. Definitely enjoyed it Afterwards we had lunch in Oxford at 121 and later caught up on more recorded TV shows.
Saturday we slept in after staying up past 1am watching TV. Checked out the new Mexican restaurant Puerto Vallarta that opened in Danbury recently. And later in the afternoon I started on my Christmas cards and finished the international batch (35 or so) I still have the US/Canada ones to do and that's another 40 to 50. Busy, busy. I have ordered most of my international gifts as well. Decided to go with the online shopping route this year as it's easier and less chance of stuff getting lost. Last year almost all my international gifts disappeared in the mail. So annoying.
Today we went to the movies one more time to round out the weekend and saw "Rules Don't Apply" which had an indie movie feel to it. Now we are at a local restaurant called The Marketplace where one of our friends is playing an acoustic set from 1 to 4pm for brunch. Very fun and a relaxing way to end the weekend.
Letter/Mail Update: All caught up with my mail at the moment :)
Posted by Hanna at 03:28 PM in Film, Food and Drink, Holidays, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Concert Week :)
Hello from Boston. :) Just here for a quick stay on the weekend. Came up here yesterday afternoon, checked into our hotel (the Indigo in Newton) and then took the T into Boston to the area around Fenway. Had a late lunch at Boston Beer Works and hung out there for a bit. Afterwards we were going to have another drink at the Yardhouse but it being Saturday night the place was absolutely packed, line out the door wait for tables and the whole bar full. So instead we went into another place we saw walking by called Bar Louie that was pretty neat. Afterwards we took the T over to the venue (only 4 or so stops) - the Paradise Rock Club. Oh, I didn't even mention what we were doing yet. Ha ha .. sorry .. little all over the place this morning. Anyway, we went to see Letters to Cleo. First new music/EP in 17 years. Mike used to be a big fan of them when he was younger so it was cool to see them live after all this time. They put on an amazing and long show. But I have determined I am definitely too old for the standing room only sticky club scene. lol. I can feel every muscle in my body today from standing up for 3+ hrs straight. Definitely not my scene anymore. But regardless, we did have a great time of course. Took an Uber back to the hotel after which wasn't too bad cost-wise.
Today we slept in and are now hanging out at Starbucks for a bit before heading to Legal Seafoods for lunch. I love Legal Seafoods and am truly upset they closed all the ones relatively close to us. I think the only one we have now is on Long Island somewhere but that's a bitch of a ride and not really very close. So whenever we come up to the Boston area we try to make sure to eat at a Legal Seafoods since there are plenty in this area. Yummm. Can't wait. :) After lunch we are going to make our way back to CT. And then tomorrow it's already Monday again. But at least it's a short work week next week with Thanksgiving. I have never been off for Thur/Fr/Sat for Thanksgiving without having to jump through fifteen hurdles/tons of prep work/scheduling other people to cover so this is a really nice surprise/change having a 4 day weekend. Yay. :)
So let's rewind to earlier in the week. We had another concert this week on Wednesday. Went down to NYC to see Ingrid Michaelson at the Beacon Theater. Really neat venue (such a cool theater) even though being up in the balcony gave me vertigo. The views were really great though. And a fun show. Before the concert we had dinner at Amsterdam Ale House, which was a neat find. Also found a parking garage close to there that was nice and easy to get in and out of. Definitely a win-win. The show was great. Ended up getting to bed around 1am which made Thursday morning not all that fun. But I guess no pain, no gain. Ha ha.
Well that's all the news from this past week. Bailey, our new cat, is settling in well. She seems happy, cuddly and purry most of the time. The other cats aren't too thrilled though. Sadie and Mindy have somewhat abandoned me and are spending a lot of time with Mike's sister, Kristina, instead. Oh well. I guess things will settle eventually and they will hopefully end up getting along. For now there is a lot of hissing/growling and plain avoiding each other. We will see how it continues.
Letter/Mail Update: Letters went out on Tuesday and Wednesday to: Jessica/DE, Eloine/NY and Bianca/Germany.
Posted by Hanna at 11:53 AM in Food and Drink, NYC, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Birthday Update
Here we go, here's my birthday update post. :) Really can't complain. Had an absolutely fun and wonderful extended birthday celebration.
Sunday we started off the day by having breakfast. I had yummy French Toast and bacon, one of my favorites. Then took the train down to NYC and headed over to the theater district from Grand Central. We hung out The Perfect Pint for a bit. Pretty neat bar for midtown where it's usually hard to find anything that's not a stereotypical touristy Irish pub.
From there we headed over to the Imperial Theater which is only a block from there. Was really excited to see "The Great Comet of 1812". We splurged and got stage tickets. The seating and layout was super unique and the whole experience was just amazing. I have seen my share of Broadway musicals, plays and productions but I honestly have never seen one where minutes after it ended I said "I wanna see it again. Now!!" It was just so cool. The stage tickets were amazing. The ensemble and cast was all around us at all times, people everywhere, singing, dancing, playing instruments. It was so immersive. Denee Benton absolutely blew me away. Josh Groban has more of an understated role but does very well with it and gets to show off his impressive singing skills quite a few times. I could go on for ages but I won't. But truly .. if you get a chance to see it .. go see it. Splurge on stage tickets if you can. But even orchestra or mezzanine would be ok. The ensemble and cast is all over the theater at all times so even if you're farther away from the stage you still get to be close to performers. I really do want to see it again. I don't think I can justify paying for stage tickets a second time but I'll be happy to see it from a different viewpoint as well. I honestly think you could watch it ten times and still see something new as there is so much going on all around you at all times.
After the show we went for dinner at Osteria al Doge which was delicious as always. After a yummy dinner we headed back towards Grand Central but stopped at a wine bar about a block from there (Madison & Vine) and had some wine to wind down. Ended up hanging out there for a while, not paying attention to the time and train schedule. Didn't realize that Sunday and Saturday schedules are different and that there is an hour and a half gap between trains. So we missed the train and didn't get home till about 2.30am. But not the end of the world since we didn't have any early morning plans on Monday.
Monday I filled out my employment paperwork. Oh wait .. I don't think I even updated about that properly on here. On Friday I received a call from the company extending a job offer. They sent the papers via FedEx so I received them Saturday. Filled out everything Monday and sent them back via FedEx (their headquarter is in Pittsburgh) My start date is November 7th.
Anyway, after we did that Monday morning we headed to the Hopkins Vineyard for some wine and cheese. Nice autumn day with great views at Lake Waramaug. Had a great time relaxing, drinking wine and eating cheese. Perfect birthday afternoon. :) In the evening we went to Rizzuto's for dinner and met up with some friends which was also fun.
Today I am just catching up on some things at home, drinking tea and relaxing. We decided to book a 3-night stay in Montreal for the weekend (Sat-Tue) to have one more vacation before I start my new job. Once I start I won't be able to take any significant time off for a while so it will be nice to go away one more time beforehand.
Letter/Mail Update: Received letters/owe replies to: Carmen/Malta, Celia/MA, Nina/WA and Eloine/NY.
Posted by Hanna at 02:42 PM in Food and Drink, NYC, Performances, Wine | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday, October 17, 2016
Weekend Update
And it's already Monday again. I am still waiting to hear from that company about the job. They said they would be in touch by the end of today so we will see. I have been distracting myself with cleaning, catching up on a few episodes of shows online and browsing all the other job ads I get emailed each day. Saved a few things to go back to and look at after. At the moment my mind is just all over the place. Hopefully something will happen sooner than later so I can figure out what to do next.
The weekend was fun and did pass by pretty quickly. We went to see the movie "The Accountant" which was a lot of fun. On Saturday we took the train down to the city as we had tickets to see the band Chvrches at Radio City Musical Hall. Before the show we went to a neat bar called Draught 55. Really good food and a huge selection of drinks. Hung out there for a while before heading to Radio City for the show. Chvrches was really great and we both really enjoyed the concert. Took the train home after and ended up being home around 1.30am. If you're interested to hear a clip from the show you can check it out here.
Sunday morning we headed to Wurtsburo airport for Mike's glider ride (Christmas present from last year) The weather cooperated and everything went well. Afterwards we stopped in Newburgh and had lunch at the Hurricane Grill there. I think that was the first time we went back to that location since we stopped working in Newburgh. Had a nice lunch and later on met up with our friend John for a bit before heading home and catching up on a bunch of shows on TiVo.
The weather has turned from fall weather back to summer weather for a few days. Tomorrow we are going to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a fall foliage drive around CT. Should be nice. Might as well take advantage of the fact that the weather's nice mid week and we aren't stuck inside an office, right? :)
Well, hopefully I will have more job news during my next post. I am really crossing my fingers for this job. But I suppose what will be will be and if this isn't meant to be then something else will come along. But fingers crossed for now.
Letter/Mail Update: All caught up with my mail at the moment. :)
Posted by Hanna at 02:46 PM in Food and Drink, NYC, Outdoors, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Broadway NYC Weekend
Ugh it is still hot. A little less humid today than yesterday but still in the 90ies F (35C). I know it's summer but ugh.
Had a nice weekend nonetheless. Yesterday, Saturday, we had tickets to see "An Act of God" on Broadway. Took the train into NYC and walked from Grand Central to Times Square. Had a drink at a pub before heading to the theater. The show was really good and a lot of fun. Sean Hayes did really well.
After the show we went to dinner at Osteria al Dodge. We've been going there for 16 years and it's always great to be back. Super yummy food and just a great place considering it's right in midtown and tourist central. Had lasagna which is my go to dish there (honestly BEST lasagna EVER!!!) and Mike got the spinach ravioli with a butter sage sauce, his favorite there. Yum.
After dinner we walked back to Grand Central and took the train back and met up with a few friends locally at Two Steps in Danbury.
Today we went to the movies to see "The Secret Life of Pets" which was pretty funny and adorable. They did well with the personalities of the various animals.
Letter/Mail Update: No outstanding mail at the moment :)
Posted by Hanna at 03:19 PM in Food and Drink, NYC, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, July 22, 2016
Sadie & ugh this heat
Been meaning to make a quick update but the days are just getting away from me. Not even sure why exactly. :)
Tuesday we had a vet appointment with our cat Sadie. She was doing fine for the most part, eating, playing, acting as she normally does but she was having this weird cough on and off. I wasn't sure what was causing it so after about a week and a half of her doing that I decided that we should take her to the vet to get things checked out.
Sadie is a sweetheart but to say that she's neurotic on a good day is an understatement so you can only imagine that the trip to the vet was not any fun. I lucked out getting her into the carrier as she was sleepy so I was able to grab her relatively easy. Once she realized that she was trapped she was NOT happy though. She normally doesn't talk/meow very much or very loudly but oh my god the volume she developed was ear piercing. She was bouncing around in the carrier like a tasmanian devil trying to get out. I felt really bad.
Well to make a long story short, we got her to the vet, they checked her out, took x-rays and determined that she had a bit of a respiratory infection so they gave her a shot of antibiotics. She also has mild asthma so they gave her a steroid shot that's long-lasting so she should be ok for some time. If she starts coughing again then we will take her back to the vet and she will get another shot but hopefully that won't be needed for at least a few months.
In other news ... ugh it's so freaking hot. The weather was pretty decent and actually really nice on Tuesday and Wednesday. But yesterday it started getting really hot again. Today it's hot and humid and tomorrow is supposed to be even worse.
We have tickets to see "An Act of God" on Broadway tomorrow. Looking forward to it but not looking forward to being in the city when it's that hot and disgusting out. At least we won't be outside very much, just walking in between Grand Central, the theater and the restaurant for dinner afterwards. So all in all it should be fun of course. :)
Letter/Mail Update: No outstanding mail at the moment :)
Posted by Hanna at 02:42 PM in Cats, NYC, Performances, Weather | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Fuzz Fest - Scranton, PA
A little behind on my updating but it's been a busy weekend so finally getting around to it. :)
Had a busy-ish week at work, nothing too out of the ordinary I suppose. On Wednesday we were able to take a longer lunch to watch the Austria - Iceland soccer game. Unfortunately Austria lost but honestly I didn't expect a different outcome. They actually did play very well in that game and stepped it up quite a bit, just wasn't enough. So Austria didn't make it through the elimination but it's nice that they were actually in it for a change which is already more than usually happens. :)
Saturday we worked and after work went for a leisurely late lunch at 121 in Oxford. And Sunday we headed to Scranton, PA for Fuzz Fest. The radio station in that area is called 92.1 The Fuzz. lol. So that's where the name comes from. We stayed at the same hotel where we stayed last time two years ago when we saw Paramore at the same venue. The Radisson at Lackawanna Station is a pretty neat hotel at an old remodeled/renovated train station, pretty cool. Were able to check in when we got there around noon and then headed downtown for lunch at a place called Ale Mary's. Had a great lunch, really fun spot. Afterwards stopped at the hotel bar for a glass of wine before heading up the venue. The show was at the Pavillon at Montage Mountain, a big area on top of a mountain (ski resorts in the winter, water park in the summer, a minor league baseball stadium and whatnot) It's an amphitheater and really a pretty neat venue.
The show was epic and lasted about 6 hours with 4 acts. Andrew MacMahon, AWOL Nation, Panic at the Disco & Weezer. Pretty cool line-up. Andrew MacMahon had so much energy, running and dancing through the crowd. I wasn't into AWOL Nation all that much but I have to say they won me over by the end of their set. Panic at the Disco was absolutely amazing and Weezer was great as well. The whole thing started around 6pm and we didn't get back to the hotel till after midnight. Definitely an epic night.
Slept in a little bit Monday morning and then made our way to work to our office in Newburgh, NY which is luckily on the way from Scranton (only about 1 hr 15 min)
Here are the links to the videos I recorded if anyone's interested by the way:
Andrew MacMahon in the Wilderness - Cecilia and the Satellite
AWOL Nation - Sail
Panic at the Disco - Victorious
Panic at the Disco - This is gospel
Panic at the Disco - I write sins not tragedies
Panic at the Disco - Bohemian Rhapsody
Panic at the Disco - Bohemian Rhapsody
Panic at the Disco - Hallejujah
Panic at the Disco - Don't threaten me with a good time
Weezer - Bevery Hills
Weezer - I want you to
Mail Update. Wrote a letter to Eunice/Malta. Just need to get in the mail. Hopefully today, if not tomorrow. :)
Posted by Hanna at 07:29 AM in Food and Drink, Music, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0)