HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-1-1 HAPPY NEW YEAR and Happy 9th anniversary John.
Spent the night with the Kolendas. Mary Ann served limoncello, shrimp cocktail and cheese with crackers. We swapped gifts. She knows me so well, everything was so fun.
MaryAnn rented a limo for 6 of us to share. Steve and Yvette Woosley joined. Limo was $500+ tip that we split. The driver, Adrian McVey was a WWII vet. He said he was in the Navy right when the war ended and that his older brother survived the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis. John had learned a lot about that from the History channel so it was interesting to talk to someone that had more 1st hand knowledge. It would have been even more interesting if we were sober maybe--maybe not. He was a bit slow talking and long winded, but funny and charming. I kept calling him Clarence, because he reminded me of the guardian angel from “It’s a wonderful life”.

The limo was a bit tight for the six of us and the smell of smoke on Steve and Yvette’s perfume, I thought I was going to cough up a lung. Once I started imbibing , the smells were more tolerable. We drove around a little before dinner and Adrian humored us by stopping a couple of times and asking people on the street, “pardon me, but you would you happen to have a little grey poupon?“ mimicking the old commercial.

We ate dinner at Toscana which is a new restaurant attached to the Holiday in. It wasn’t Mary Ann’s 1st choice, because she forgot to call earlier for reservations, but it was good. I’ve had better, but I was satisfied. I just find my self more and more disappointed with restaurant food. If I’m going to spend the cash, I feel like it needs to WOW me. If I can make the same thing at home, it seems pointless to go out. It’s nice to have someone else clean up though. It was pretty reasonably priced, since we were drinking our own alcohol in the limo.

Adrian asked how long we’d be there, so I asked, “why, do you have another fare to pick up?” He responded with, “OHHH..” and shoved me a little. I just love old people that are with it. They’re so funny. We decided he had to be about 81 yrs old.

Next we headed to a bar called the Vault in Lafayette, just off of campus. We started a bit early so it seemed dead in there. We started playing pool though, and so I didn’t notice if it got more crowded. I enjoyed that--I haven’t played pool for so long. My shoulder and arm bothers me so much I could barely hold the stick well enough, but actually made some shots. Wouldn’t have been able to at all because of the pain had it not been for the Vodka--thank GOD! When I went to the bathroom, I walked passed Adrian trying to pick up some woman--funny.

Once it was close to midnight, we drove to the house that MaryAnn’s mom was playing bridge. We rang in the New Year, with all her cronies. John told me that he shook the champagne bottle so that he could get the cork to go flying across the room, but apparently the champagne went flying all over the room. I don’t know how I missed all that…must have been in the bathroom. There was still champagne to be shared and I just sipped at that point. Was trying to not have a hangover. The next day. One lady was passing out rum balls from Austria, so I mentioned that my dad was in Germany. She was so excited when I mentioned Bamberg and told me how beautiful it is there, she then insisted that I take all the rum balls. I guess when we feel some sort of a connection with someone, in any way, it draws us closer.

All in all it was a great night. We spent a little under $250. I’ve gone out a spent a lot more on New Year’s eve. I had pretty much decided that I’ve done the big things already. We used to go to the bars all the time, so that didn‘t seem appealing originally. I much prefer to just stay in and have a house party. Since it had been so long since we had done anything like all that we did last night, it was much more fun than I had expected. I’m pretty much happy to do whatever , as long as I have the people I love with me. I’m sure it was much nicer for Mary Ann to not go to so much trouble. She just always throws the best parties.

When we arrived back at the Kolenda’s we broke out John’s Frittata. He wanted us to save it for the morning, but I think it helped prevent the hangover. He made plenty, so we had more 1st thing in the a.m.
It was rich and fattening and DELISH!!! Sausage, bacon, cheese, cream, eggs, mushrooms, spinach. Mary Ann has a theory that the longest lasting marriages are when the husband cooks. I’m pretty happy mine does.

I stayed in Jammies all day, while we played scrabble and watched movies. I edited and organized photos. For dinner the Kolendas made Prime Rib and Yorkshire pudding. Everything was so tasty.
We always have so much fun with Mike and Mary Ann. I laughed so hard I cried at the pics I took of everyone jumping up in the air. I feel so rich having them as friends.