dancing on the merry go round, some things will come up
this weekend I celebrated my birthday in high style. on Thursday evening my mother, brother, and I headed up to Northampton to see Solas perform at the Iron Horse. one reason I adore having my birthday in March, and four days before St Patrick's Day, is that the surrounding weeks have more celtic music concerts than you can shake a stick at. XD I always enjoy myself at Solas concerts - the musicians have a camaraderie and verve that sparks between them and brings the music dancing out, a living entity. in 2007 Solas got a new lead singer, Mairéad Phelan, and when I saw them last spring my impression was that she had a gorgeous smokey voice but that she needed to project her voice more, cleaner diction, more self-confidence. and this time, it was all there and it was ace. they sang a bunch of the songs from the most recent album (For Love and Laughter), including their rendition of 'Seven Curses' (which rocks!), as well as 'Spencer the Rover' (from John Martin), 'the Ohio River Boat Song', and 'Seven Curses' (from Bob Dylan, watch here). and they played 'the Coconut Dog' and 'Vital Mental Medecine', among my favorites of their tunes, making for an excellent night.
Friday brought my birthday, and I got to work to find that my friend and coworker A had brought in a big plate of brownies. ^_^ they were delicious. that evening mbgf Ashley arrived for a visit, and we had a birthday dinner at The Outback (where I had sangria, which I had not had before and liked exceedingly). oh, and my estimation of Facebook's usefulness went up as wuite a few people used it to send birthday wishes. sweet!
on Saturday morning I drove in to the Hartford bus station with Fritz and Ashley to pick up Fiona (timeripple, come to visit for the weekend. this turned out to be a more arduous task than we expected, because, whadaya know?, it was St Patrick's Day parade day. my sense of direction is problematic, so after coming to the road block, wandering about and being thwarted by road blocks, I wound up asking help twice from policemen, who were pleasant and most helpful! my tax dollars at work, that's what. *g* at length, we achieved bus station and Fiona-dom, and made our merry way over to Glastonbury. our plan was to visit the Whole Foods, but first we went to the new Thai restaurant right next door, Bangkok Spice. (it was very excellent, and very spicy.) Whole Foods was celebrating the anniversary of it's first (and evidently successful) year in Glastonbury, so they had lots of stations with samples throughout the store, including slices of birthday cake! having come straight from a sumptuous lunch, Fiona and I were able to resist buying all the tempting treats that called to us - a good strategy for future visits!
later that evening Fiona and I decided to drive over to Manchester, as I had heard that the friend of a friend was playing at a local bar (The Hungry Tiger) for St Patrick's Day, and I'd heard about this bar from matociquala and was interested. we went and listened and nibbled, and then the sunny evening called for exploration. after encountering an over-friendly man on the front porch, we decided to drive and ramble. this was neat, as the only part of Manchester that I've been familiar with is the Buckland Hills area (they seem to be two distinct entities). then I thought, well hey Bear has just moved into the area, and thus we found ourselves dropping by Bear and Alisa's new townhouse. Bear had company over, celebrating the arrival of her doggie Ace (a Briard). we got to sit around and visit, and Ace was much more relaxed and comfortable with visitors than he was when I met him in the fall. it is wonderful that Bear's new dwelling enables her to have him with her. ^_^
upon returning home, we fell into watching The Empire Strikes Back, and when F and A returned we made the startling discovery that Ashley had never seen Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, or The Return of the Jedi before. !!! sadly she had already seen the last third of TESB, but matters will be taken in hand. *nods* this morning I woke up right sharp and got breakfast in hand, and then Fiona, F, A and I set out for the West Hartford Criterion cinema to see an 11am showing of Watchmen. I was glad to have the three of them to go with, as I'm not much for going to the movies by myself but had been wanting to see this. I was also startled to be carded at the ticket counter - I can't remember the last time I went to see a film that was actually rated 'R'! (as indeed it was!) after the film we walked to the Au Bon Pain across the street for lunch, for it was gone three o'clock. (indeed I haven't spent much time in Blue Back Square since it arrived 18 months ago; all sorts of things have cropped up). and then, alas, Fiona had to get back to the bus station for her trip back to Boston. but it was such a treat having her! I love having friends come to visit; it's such a pleasure sitting down with them and my books - Fiona's currently taking a course on illustrated childrens' books so I showed her a stack of the picture books I've collected. (she also exclaimed over how many more books there were since her visit a year ago, *pleased smirk*). so, all in all, a wonderful birthday weekend. I am now watching pbs's reairing of the 1999 David Copperfield. fun!
Friday brought my birthday, and I got to work to find that my friend and coworker A had brought in a big plate of brownies. ^_^ they were delicious. that evening mbgf Ashley arrived for a visit, and we had a birthday dinner at The Outback (where I had sangria, which I had not had before and liked exceedingly). oh, and my estimation of Facebook's usefulness went up as wuite a few people used it to send birthday wishes. sweet!
on Saturday morning I drove in to the Hartford bus station with Fritz and Ashley to pick up Fiona (timeripple, come to visit for the weekend. this turned out to be a more arduous task than we expected, because, whadaya know?, it was St Patrick's Day parade day. my sense of direction is problematic, so after coming to the road block, wandering about and being thwarted by road blocks, I wound up asking help twice from policemen, who were pleasant and most helpful! my tax dollars at work, that's what. *g* at length, we achieved bus station and Fiona-dom, and made our merry way over to Glastonbury. our plan was to visit the Whole Foods, but first we went to the new Thai restaurant right next door, Bangkok Spice. (it was very excellent, and very spicy.) Whole Foods was celebrating the anniversary of it's first (and evidently successful) year in Glastonbury, so they had lots of stations with samples throughout the store, including slices of birthday cake! having come straight from a sumptuous lunch, Fiona and I were able to resist buying all the tempting treats that called to us - a good strategy for future visits!
later that evening Fiona and I decided to drive over to Manchester, as I had heard that the friend of a friend was playing at a local bar (The Hungry Tiger) for St Patrick's Day, and I'd heard about this bar from matociquala and was interested. we went and listened and nibbled, and then the sunny evening called for exploration. after encountering an over-friendly man on the front porch, we decided to drive and ramble. this was neat, as the only part of Manchester that I've been familiar with is the Buckland Hills area (they seem to be two distinct entities). then I thought, well hey Bear has just moved into the area, and thus we found ourselves dropping by Bear and Alisa's new townhouse. Bear had company over, celebrating the arrival of her doggie Ace (a Briard). we got to sit around and visit, and Ace was much more relaxed and comfortable with visitors than he was when I met him in the fall. it is wonderful that Bear's new dwelling enables her to have him with her. ^_^
upon returning home, we fell into watching The Empire Strikes Back, and when F and A returned we made the startling discovery that Ashley had never seen Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, or The Return of the Jedi before. !!! sadly she had already seen the last third of TESB, but matters will be taken in hand. *nods* this morning I woke up right sharp and got breakfast in hand, and then Fiona, F, A and I set out for the West Hartford Criterion cinema to see an 11am showing of Watchmen. I was glad to have the three of them to go with, as I'm not much for going to the movies by myself but had been wanting to see this. I was also startled to be carded at the ticket counter - I can't remember the last time I went to see a film that was actually rated 'R'! (as indeed it was!) after the film we walked to the Au Bon Pain across the street for lunch, for it was gone three o'clock. (indeed I haven't spent much time in Blue Back Square since it arrived 18 months ago; all sorts of things have cropped up). and then, alas, Fiona had to get back to the bus station for her trip back to Boston. but it was such a treat having her! I love having friends come to visit; it's such a pleasure sitting down with them and my books - Fiona's currently taking a course on illustrated childrens' books so I showed her a stack of the picture books I've collected. (she also exclaimed over how many more books there were since her visit a year ago, *pleased smirk*). so, all in all, a wonderful birthday weekend. I am now watching pbs's reairing of the 1999 David Copperfield. fun!