Peaches Prattlings











{September 4, 2016}   Recall… fire… what?

Yup,  Samsung is recalling my new phone! Not to worry, I’m getting another!

I was at a store getting an extra charging cable and the guy said,  isn’t there a huge recall on that phone? Huh?

Apparently, the day before there was an article out that Samsung was recalling the Note 7 because there was a battery issue… phones were catching on fire!! I know cells phones can get hot but, wow! 

There were 35 documented cases globally, thats proof enough for me! They also issued a statement that they would replace the phone or give a full refund. 

A little while later, I got an email grimm tmobile saying the samr thing, so I sign up to have them let me know when a phone would be available and I’ll be good to go. 

Sucks for Samsung,  but good reflexes to get ahead of this! 



{September 2, 2016}   Mile High Club… how?

 No! Dirty minds! I just want to know how!

Ok,  so first,  I’m writing to you from 30,000 feet, how cool is that?!

Second…I went into the lavatory and it was teeny.. so,  I want to know… how do people join the Mile High Club in there? Unless you’re  a teeny tiny person and the other person is teeny tiny. Ok, to be honest, this particular one was barely big enough for one. 

 No,  I dont have plans to join, just curious. What else does one think about on a plane, well, a lot, but i thought this was a good one!



We went to see Kinky Boots… what were you thinking!?

I was out with LJ last week and saw the marque for one of the theaters here in Chicago,  Kinky Boots! I don’t know if you remember how much GES and I loved it when we went to see it in NYC last year! I looked it up and it was only going to be here for a week… who wants to go!

LJ and DLP both said yes, tickets were purchased and here we are! Then coordination is next.  LJ is no longer on the project with us and DLP had been in Springfield and got back today. We all synchronized our watches and off we went!

We met at Vapaianos for dinner, it’s across from my hotel,  drop our bags there, eat, it was DLP’s first time there,  yum! Then Uber to the theater, didn’t want to take a chance of being late! Up, up, up…in the balcony, almost in the last row,  huff, puff, lots of stairs!

Curtsins up and…sigh! I miss the theater! I feel that every time I go. Sometimes I regret not pursing it,  but then it is kind of what I do every time I’m in front of a class teaching. 

The show was great! And I did my best not to quote everything! I’m sorry girls… it was hard not to! I love the movie!!

The cast was great,  Lola was amazing and we had a great time! Walk back to the hotel, said goodnight. I opened the window for the first time,  nostalgic for sleeping with the window open as a kid. I guess it’s a NYC evening all the way around.

“Ladies… and gentlemem… and those who have yet to make up their minds”

“We are no longer making a range of shoes for men… are are making shoes for a range of men”

Go see it!



{August 28, 2016}   A nice memory was triggered

Tonight I played gin. 

I know, you’re wondering how I played a drink, ha ha. No,  silly, I played a card game, some of you might know it as gin -rummy. 

Rummy is a, card game played with seven cards, gin -rumy or just gin, is played with ten. http://rummy.com/ginrummy.html. It’s a great game, it takes skill, planning and a lot of luck, you don’t know what hand you’re going to be dealt to begin with and you have to build off of that,  then you don’t  know what cards are coming next in the deck or what your opposition is going to play.

Last night I had the pleasure of playing again after a long time. My opponent was an 11 year old, PN. She was good,  her mom DTN, taught her recently. She was the champ the games to my two wins. 

The nice memory for me was being taught by my grandma M, my mom’s mom, and we would play for hours. There were weekends I stayed with her,  we would play until 2am! 

She was amazing, she knew cards played, what I had put down, She would look at me and say “are you sure you want to play that?” She amazed me!!

I’ve played over the years with different people and I’ve enjoyed it and last night it brought back good memories of my grandma. Sigh…



{August 22, 2016}   Oh my…delicious!!

A really simple and fabulous meal in Chicago!

After work LJ and I needed some pampering, so mani for her and pedi for me. Let’s just say, I like blue,  it’s not my favorite color, but apparently it was today! Fingers…aqua, ring..blue, sunglasses…aqua, sneakers…blue and now…toes,  sounds good to me.  

After our pampering…food! It was 8pm by now and lunch felt like yesterday! I know I’m exaggerating, just felt like it! So we headed to my hotel, dropped my bags off and went across the street to a place I’ve wanted to try,  just haven’t hey,  so we went, Viapano.

This was a great place! It’s nice and open, high ceilings, wooden just about everything, slightly rustic, but definitely modern, if that makes sense. 

It’s a counter service, so, first, you get a card that you put on a tablet in the counter when you order, the chef puts in a code and you pay at the end from the card. There was pizza, pasta, soup, antipasto, insalata, lots of choices. 

You order at the counter and wait, then you load your food on a silver tray to take it to your table. Everything was self service, like a fast food chain or actually, I felt like I was back in school!

This is definitely not fast food as everything is cooked fresh to order. One line for appetizers and salad, another line for pasta, and so on. In got a small salad and bruchetta from one line, then on to the pasta. The pasta is in individual bags behind the chefs, you select what you want and they cook it right there in front of you, it tasted like fresh made pasta, yum! They cooked mine al dente, nice.

While the pasta cooks, they have the giant wok like pans to cook whatever you ordered with the pasta and the chefs check what you want, how spicy you want it. It’s ready in about 7-8 minutes,  however long it takes to cook the pasta.

I ordered spaghetti with aglio e olio, garlic and olive oil, which I love and added fresh spinach. I liked the he threw a little salt in with it,  cuts the bitterness and I don’t have to add it, very rare! The garlic, oil and salt were the perfect combination. 

The presentation is very appealing and the taste…molto delizioso!

http://us.vapiano.com/en/magazine/



{August 18, 2016}   Fails and wins this week

This week was interesting. 

No problems with my flight Monday morning,  I would put that in the wins column. Tuesday night dinner…ended up with a bitter salad because the manager or waiter, not sure and I apologize for that, I said vegan,  he mentioned what they usually do and I said I can’t,  so I came up with a solution,  apparently he didn’t like that and kept walking away when I started to ask a question,  after the fourth time,  I said just give me the salad. Fail. But…still had a nice time at dinner, it was the company. 

Wednesday morning, I worked out, 40 minutes on the elliptical, win. I got back to the room, took a shower and when I was finished, guess what was missing…towels.  huh? I had 4 hand towels, 3 wash cloths and a bath mat, seriously? Epic fail! 

I called down and barely an apology, big fail. I talked to the concierge on my way out, she did something about it, win. I went to the place I like to get breakfast from, almost every day, and ordered the same thing, egg and avocado sandwich. I get to the office,  eat a little,  start to feel weird…cheese on the sandwich…epic fail.  I called the restaurant and told the person who answered what happened and today,  she bought my breakfast,  win. I got back to the hotel last night,  two sets of towels, win win!

I left for the airport at 245pm, got to the airport just as I get notification, delayed…really? Apparently the weather in the south had almost every flight in Chicago was grounded. Flight should have left at 455pm, then 6pm, then 625pm, I think we finally took off about 7 something. Fail. Flight out of Detroit, first class, win. Ten hours to get home…fail. 

Now,  I’m at home,  in my jammies,  snuggling with my furry babies. Big win. 

Goodnight!



What?

For those of you not in the know,  you’re thinking this girl is crazy and does not know her history,  maybe she was absent that day. 

For those of you who knew instantly,  rock on! Tonight, I went to a movie theater to see Animal House on the big screen! It was awesome!

I went with my friend from work, DLP. I asked her Monday if she wanted to go with me and she did! We left the office, went to have some dinner then movie! No previews,  which was bad because we got there at 704pm, the restaurant was next door, and I needed the potty! I came in just as it was starting,  there was a little intro from like you see on TCM, some background about the movie and the actors,  then they were off!

I have to apologize to DLP, I quoted lines as it went, I’m usually pretty good about it, but I couldn’t help it tonight! 

It was so much fun to see it on the big screen! I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this movie,  but never on the big screen! It was awesome! 

My one regret…not seeing it with my dad!

What’s next?



{August 16, 2016}   Happy anniversary dad and LaLa 

I missed telling you about a special anniversary this weekend! Shame on me!

Dad and LaLa just celebrated eleven years together! 

They met through mutual friends and hit it off. He had been going out and meeting people but no one clicked until LaLa.

I remember when he first told me about her and then when they started dating and then it was on, museums, theater, opera, trips, you name it,  they’ve probably done it. 

They’re similar in some ways and very different in others. Dad likes to plan a trip by getting the plane tickets, hotels and going. LaLa likes to plan in more detail, which works for him,  it’s all taken care of!

They are similar in being fabulous grandparents. There are four on Lana’s side and two on dad’s side and they are grandparents to all six. LaLa was around before EJS and MGS were born and dad was around before Lana’s two grandsons were born. I think I told you that EJS couldn’t say Lana’s name,  so it became LaLa and stuck. The cool thing about that…LaLa means grandmother in Chinese. 

They love coming to Boston to see EJS and MGS, play games, spoil the grandkids, that’s their job, after all. And when they travel, everyone gets postcards from wherever they are, we all love it. 

They don’t live together, but spend just about every weekend together and it seems to work, they have their lives together and individually,  which is nice. 

LaLa met us and became part of the family almost immediately, we took our first trip together, BK, before kids, to Las Vegas eleven years ago and we’ve been doing a family vacation every year since that and is been nice to all get away together. 

You never know what is going to happen when your parents start dating again, will they met someone nice, someone who accepts you and wants to fit in with your family, not try to take over or monopolize your parents time and that’s what is been like with them, they have adjusted and blended and become part of each other’s families.

Happy eleven years Dad and LaLa, here’s to the next eleven. We love you. 



{August 11, 2016}   Wardrobe malfunction 

Not quite Janet Jackson at the superbowl wardrobe malfunction, but enough. 

Ok, I think I’m exaggerating. 

So…the shirt or nice tank top I was wearing yesterday was a little low cut. It seemed ok when I bought it and tested it out with my cardigan, but it was not to be yesterday, I was very conscious of it and slightly self conscious.

So, after work I made the executive decision to buy a new shirt. I new some new short sleeve shirts for work. I bought a few cute ones,  I’m happy, I’ve been wearing the same ones over the last few weeks.

I decided to wear the emerald green shirt, I think they called it a cocoon shirt. It’s nice, only thing is, it’s got a deep V, but the “flaps/collar” overlap. 

Everything seemed fine until I got to the office and things started to show. One thing I haven’t told you is that I’m, well, let’s just say, well endowed and leave it at that. 

I got to the office and realized there’s no way the neck is going to stay closed on its own,  so I go in search of a safety pin.  Now,  i have a lot of them…at home. All the races I’ve done in the past I have safety pins from the bibs and kept them. I used to keep some in my bag. Not today…go figure. 

It’s also interesting that is the one thing hard to find in an office! When DLP got in, I thought, perfect! I bet she has one! Unfortunately, she was meeting with someone and had had a bad morning…ummm…

I apologized profusely for interrupting, met the person she was meeting with and asked if she had a safety pin.  Her response “Are you flashing people in the office?” Umm…trying not to! 

Lo and behold we found one in her desk, I thanked her profusely, headed to the restroom to fix the issue and the rest of my day…smooth, ahhh..



I got to sleep in a minute, it was nice. 

I got a little work done and headed to GES’. We went to a car museum which happened to have a car show happening today. 

The museum is on the Larz Anderson Estate, http://larzanderson.org/. Very interesting history, it’s the home of America’s Oldest Car Collection. There were Electrmobiles, Porsches, BMWs.

Outside there were Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferrari, a McLaren and so many more. It was a lot of fun,  especially watching the folks at the exit waiting for cars to leave and gun the engine and take off down the street. 

After the car show we went into Brookline for one of ACS’ favorite pizza joints from when he lived there. 

Then back to the house to hang out for a bit until we headed across the street for dinner, all sorts of goodies on the grill. Good food, good conversation and lots of laughter. 

Now,  home, packed, talking to you and ready to head to the airport in a few hours. For another great week!



et cetera