can't believe it's November!

Having a spectacular fall! Carlow Cookery had a great soup “hands on” class. Yummy and it was so much fun to actually DO this time instead of watch – although we love to do both. We took the recipes to Shannon and Jon’s and made one of them for the family for dinner. It made a big hit.
Sandi and Hank were over for dinner. I made an interesting molasses based brisket. So yummy. Alina was over that day, and she indulged with a carvel ice cream cake shaped like a pumpkin. We took her to the zoo the next day, but although she loved the zoo itself, the class Tara had signed her up for was uninteresting and she was bored. Plus she was NOT happy that she had to go to daycare after the class since we had to go to the orchestra.
The performance was another winner. The conductor was a new one and he did a super job with the Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin piece and a magnificent job with the Musorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition/arrangement by Ravel. Fine, fine, fine!
We attended the Polish Arts Society of Trenton’s analysis of “Behind Closed Doors.” Brian and I had already seen most of the documentary, so none of it was particularly enlightening, but the discussion was interesting. Also interesting was how much more the two of us knew about what happened at this time in WW II history than many of the Poles who were there – not the immigrants – they knew. But the Polonia. Guess they were poisoned by their American education.
Went to Charlottesville and stopped to see Monroe’s house along the way. We stayed in the cutest B&B that had super food. Alice and Marshall joined us for dinner and the next day we drove up to their place near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just splendid. What a gorgeous part of the country.
On our way back from their house we stopped in a microbrewery and bought Jon some boutique beers. Some guy was pretty intrigued with us and he treated us to a taster’s selection of their beers. It kinda reminded me of the time the guys paid for our dinner in Nashville!
We went to Shannon and Jon’s and took the little girls trick or treating. The whole weekend was full of Halloween activities – they actually tired us out and we had to beg off on one party.
We attended two art museum Member’s Only tours. One was great, the other, I swear the poor woman must have had dementia. She rambled and simply made no sense. It was painful to listen to, and we left early to meet Tara, Mike and Alina at lunch.
Just got back from Chicago where we visited with Linda and Ken. What fun it was to see them again! We went to a beastly expensive restaurant for a 20 course meal with wine pairing. The meal took 3 hours and it was unbelievable. The NY Times actually rates Alinea as their #1 pick for Chicago restaurants – they are correct. It was a gustatory, auditory, olfactory feast for the senses – with a great deal of whimsy. We almost fainted when we got the bill, but it was worth it as one of those once in a lifetime treats.
We took in the Art Institute for 4 hours and went window shopping on the Miracle Mile. On the way back we met a lovely couple with similar interests and we will be getting together with them soon. He’s a journalist and she’s a banker, so she enjoyed talking with Brian and he and I really hit it off. It’s so exhilarating to talk with people who are up to date and well informed.
I once had an acquaintance say that the news was too depressing and never read it. How can you live without being aware of your surroundings -- or even have an opinion to vote if you don't read the paper??? Oh well, this guy Tom, reads 6 a day. Better informed than me.