The Rest of Our Weekend

On Saturday night, we dragged ourselves away from Ted Kennedy activities on tv and went to Newton to see Matt and Amy. They took us out for a wonderful dinner at a warm, cozy Italian restaurant in Waltham called Campania. The food was amazing and the desserts were to die for - especially the warm chocolate one! (Thanks again!!) Before we left for the restaurant, Matt showed Neal how they are going to regrade the front yard so any water that gathers will flow toward the street instead of toward the house.

Sunday morning, the sun finally came back out and Neal vacummed the pool. It was full of leaves and sticks from the storm of the weekend. While we didn't get the full brunt of  "Danny" we did have heavy rain and wind that made a mess of the pool.

Early in the afternoon, we went on a bike ride. We biked over to see Theresa and Ernie and to give them a picture from the wedding of Grampa and Theresa. We had a nice visit and agreed that we'd all go out to dinner sometime soon!

Around 3:00 pm, Sally left for the airport. She has meetings in Covington this week and will be away for a few days. What ever will Neal do without her???  : - )

Hope you all enjoyed the weekend and have a good last week of the summer. : (

A Weekend to Remember Teddy

We spend most of this weekend watching the services and events honoring Ted Kennedy. Whether or not you agreed with his politics, he lived an amazing, impactful life. Neal left his office on Thursday to stand on Congress Street as the motorcade passed enroute to the Kennedy Library. He said it was a moving experience. We learned more about Ted Kennedy 'the person' during the past 48 hours than we did over his lifetime. Watching some of the retrospectives of his life, we saw him grow from a rich, spoiled Kennedy-kid who couldn't articulate why he thought he should be President to a giving Senator with a passion and commitment to those who couldn't represent themselves. Some of the stories about him - personally calling each family from Massachusetts who lost a loved one on 911, sending hand-written notes and calls to families who lost children in the Afganinistan war, reading to children in Washington schools onTuesday afternoons - gave transparency into a Teddy that, frankly, we never knew. All too often when Ted Kennedy's name came up, Chappequidick came to mind.

We started watching on Friday night. While we had planned to have our typical "French Night", as we watched the service at the Kennedy Library we were amazed as we listened to the stories and rememberances. We decided to spend the evening at the kitchen counter and had our snacks, dinner and dessert without ever moving from our seats. We watched what turned out to be an amazing life unfold before us on tv.

On Saturday, we got up and spent all day watching the funeral. We were late getting to Matt and Amy's because we were watching the services. The outpouring from people here in Massachusetts - standing in the rain for hours, stopping & parking cars right on Rt. 128 in Lexington, lining bridges and overpasses - to wave and salute to the hearst and motorcade - was amazing. On our way to Matt and Amy's on Saturday night, the overhead signs on the highway - the ones that usually remind you to buckle up - read "Thanks Ted". You couldn't help but be moved by it all.

It's unclear, of course, what will happen to his seat in the Senate. Could it really be Senator Dukakis??? Or, maybe his son Teddy, Jr. will get into politics. He delivered an amazing piece at the funeral. He surely has the passion that his father had.

So long Teddy!  Massachusetts and the nation will miss you!

Crown Royale

Well, it was an exciting week at our house.  After months of Sally having a really painful toothache and millions of ibuprofen, she 'bit the bullet' (literally, sort of) and went back to the dentist. You guessed it - a root canal was in the cards. So, on Tuesday she went into Boston and had the procedure and now is waiting for the big ol' crown to top it off. We're happy to report, no more pain. Neal is much happier, too. As you all know, Sally isn't a particularly good patient and doesn't suffer in silence...But, all's good at our house now.

We're learning - August 23, 2009

Greetings and welcome to our blog! We're just learning so please be patient. Sally's driving this blog.....We had a good weekend. On Friday night, we met up with Don Montemorra a long time friend of Neal's. We met Don at Petrillo's for dinner. Petrillo's a is wonderful little Italian restaurant in downtown Peabody. The food was great and it was nice to see Don. On Saturday, we did a few things around the house then headed into Boston for the evening. We went to the movies at Lowes at Boston Common and saw Julie and Julia. It was a wonderful, light story about Julia Child and Julie Powell, a woman who cooked her way through Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It was a really happy movie!

After the movie, we went to dinner at Brasserie JO, a French brasserie in the Collonnade Hotel in the Back Bay. Dinner was fantastic! And the desserts were magnifique!

On Sunday, Neal started to work painting the back of the house. He had to 'prep' all of the shingles which means scrapping the paint, priming it, then washing it all down so that he then can apply the real paint - and it will stick!

After a wonderful weekend, Neal made some homemade pasta with fresh homemade tomato sauce for dinner. We sat and watched the Red Sox play the Yankees - go Sox!