Hope everyone is happily easing into 2006 at this point. I definitely had a great holiday weekend. As I mentioned in the last post, HWJF and I had tickets to the NY Philharmonic Friday night with friends. It was a nice night and my walk to Penn Station to meet HWJF yielded a couple of festive Empire State Building pictures:



The crowds were insane but I managed to make it over there in plenty of time. You see, the plan was to meet our friends for dinner and then head for the concert. Unfortunately, HWJF and I ended up being late to dinner thanks to a transit problem, but we did manage to have a quick meal at Pasha and get a quick pic:



Then it was off to the concert which was amazing! We had great seats only a few rows back. The bassoon concerto was the very first thing on the program. Cameras weren't allowed of course, but Judy LeClair wore a lovely blue gown and played quite beautifully as well. The audience really shocked us by applauding between movements (which isn't normal for a NY audience), but it was nice to know they were appreciating someone playing my favorite instrument!

We managed to get a quick pic after the concert too:

Normal people will rarely see this many bassoonists all in one place.

I also managed to get the final FO pic of 2005 that I was promised:


Doesn't he look cute in his hat, scarf and mittens?

Then it was off to Grand Central to head back to CT for the weekend. HWJF and I didn't have any big plans except perhaps a visit to an art gallery in Hartford. But by the time we actually got moving in the morning (we didn't get home until almost 2am Saturday morning), got some very necessary food shopping done and got lunch, the gallery was closed and the weather was getting bad. We decided to head home none too soon. The roads were terrible and we saw about 10 accidents, some involving multiple cars, on the way home. We also came a little too close to becoming one of them. Not fun.

When we finally made it safely back to Hamden, we made a quick stop at Blockbuster and headed home. We watched the first Harry Potter movie (more about my late uptake of HP in a later post), and then actually cooked a nice dinner that we actually ate at the kitchen table. (Those that know our usual schedules know what an event cooking a real meal and eating at a table like normal people truly is. Let's just say this isn't a daily occurrence.) Part of "Big Fish" later and I feel asleep, but managed to wake up in time to catch Dick Clark and the ball drop.

New Year's morning found us equally ambitious on the culinary front as we made pancakes for breakfast. We may have had a bit too much fun with that:

Can you see the mustache and toupe?

We decided to take it easy again and basically ate our way through the day. We had lunch at a local noodle place and then went back to Hartford to have dinner at Braza. If you live in the area and haven't checked this place out yet, definitely give it a try. I'm no rabid carnavore, but I really enjoyed this restaurant. There is a salad bar and appetizer bar full of seafood and other goodies to start, and then they start bringing out different types of meat for you to sample along with sides of things like fried plantains, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes and more. The atmosphere is quite nice and the best part is that the staff doesn't hover around you non-stop which is something I hate. I'd much rather enjoy my meal in peace.

We went for coffee afterward which ended up being an unpleasant end to a otherwise lovely day as in the 2 min. we were in the coffee shop getting our coffee to go my car got towed. Luckily, HWJF had a good friend in the area that saved our butts by picking us up and taking us to get my car, but the price tag was something neither of us needed. We still count ourselves lucky though, at least it wasn't stolen.

Today it was back to NJ as HWJF had to work. I'm off and blogging in a Panera in Princeton and loving every min. of it. It's so nice to have time to concentrate and do a little of the "playing around" I'd like to do with the blog for a change. If I have time, you'll see several sidebar updates today and a little rearranging now that 2005 is in the books.

Resolutions you say? I basically just have one. I want to learn to do colorwork in knitting. That is my main goal for the year. I'd also like to beat 2005's FO total if I can, but that isn't as pressing.

But first I have a scarf and some socks to finish... which I'll tell you about next time!