the hits keep coming

The Labor Day weekend flew by- on Sunday night we met John & Stephanie at Osteria Langhe -

a few photos from there (not all of what we ate- because we were deep in conversation most of the time LOL)

my two favorite dishes there are the octopus and the rabbit- which we had with two good wines but the white was the star of the evening -

This morning I baked cookies to take to the concert tonight-

Tonight we headed to Oak Park for a house concert of Brother Sun (who we had heard in the spring at a Sarasota house concert) - made up of Joe Jencks and Greg Greenway and Pat Wictor - these guys really put on a great concert- with songs from each of them and both individual and trio performances over the course of the evening....

Pat Wictor on "slide" guitar...

Joe Jencks on two of his guitars

Greg Greenway on keyboards and ukulele and guitar

 

Afterward we stopped off at Burrito House for a late night snack - since the early light dinner of leftovers that we had at home before driving out to Oak Park didn't sate us....LOL

Tomorrow a Mondiale event from the Chaine and then Wednesday a Flickinger wine dinner at the Bristol...we are actually really busy until the end of the month - with visits form Larry, and then a trip to Portland to see Steve & Suzanne, and then a visit from Laure and her family, then three more event dinners - a collaboration, a fund raiser, and a Chicago Gourmets dinner.  All before we leave for the Republic of Georgia.... so stay tuned!

friends visit

So last weekend we had friends visit from out of town.  They arrived on Friday mid afternoon and we hung out until dinner which we had at El Maya - again terrific food but now they are no longer BYO even with a corkage so we won't be going there with any regularity from now on...

Saturday we relaxed on the deck and had pizza for lunch and dinner at Bistro Campagne.  Afterward port and discussion of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness...

Then on Sunday we went for a mediocre lunch

and then to a house concert of Joe Jencks (we BOTH like this performer and our friends liked him too)-

we by chance ran into Ron & Mary at the house concert and ended up having all six of us at dinner at Mythos Sunday night.  (below- Ron and Joe)

Our friends left at the crack of dawn this morning. We are preparing for a busy week ahead with Phil heading to NY for the Clearwater Festival with Jeremy and I too will be on the road.... then next week we have a Chaine event and then we are off to Ireland...

so good times with good friends and more coming up... #lifeisgood

arts & eats part 3

So this post is not only a little out of order it takes in several performances and yet another meal (it is arts & eats after all...LOL)

Last Saturday night we traveled up to Largo to the Cultural Center to see Al Stewart in concert with Dave Nachmanoff and Mike Lindauer.  We were treated to several numbers by Dave to start off the concert - including two that I really favored "That Guy" and "Midnight Sea" and one Phil loved "Thing of Beauty". Mike Lindauer - on bass - joined Dave for part of the intro set.

Then the lead act Al Stewart (of Year of the Cat and Time Passages albums which were huge sellers) started off an extended set that included favorites of mine "Broadway Hotel" and "On the Border" as well as "Palace of Versailles"... after intermission several additional favorites including an audience shout out for "Doesn't Come Naturally" and the big finale of "YOTC" - still after hundreds of listenings I am still grabbed by the mystery and lyricism evoked by this song and it's fabulous guitar riffs.

🎵🎵🎵 "She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running like a watercolor in the rain...."🎵🎵🎵

Dave and Mike start the evening-

then Al joins them -

a fun evening made more fun by the fact that because Phil & Mike are friends we got to visit with the performers backstage before the concert (which is where I took this photo LOL)

and just because we are doing our arts & eats posts about last week I will also mention again that we went to a house concert that featured Brother Sun - which got kind of short shrift in the post about our friends visiting from Denmark because it was a week ago and we have bee extremely busy - but these guys were terrific- it is three artists who are solo but work together under the name Brother Sun- so another shout out to them! Many many good songs sung that evening but my favorite was the one entitled "So Far to Come" but the whole new CD called Weights & Wings is worth a listen to...

so to finish off the last week - we also had two more good meals - LOL- of course - and this is an "arts & eats" post so I will include them-

Louie's Modern with Mike before he left town and then Kasa Sushi just the two of us to have a quiet dinner and get home early...LOL -  including a couple of good wines

 Phil's lobster risotto-

my burrata salad-

 
the last 1985 Lynch Bages-

Mike's short ribs-

then on to Kasa Sushi - our new favorite place for sushi- we tried the excellent soft shell crab appetizer and then went to sashimi - I love that they will make the uni and the ikura with no rice and use cucmber bowls to hold those items-

the rainbow roll in front and "fire in the house" in back (previous fave) and in the middle a special for the night - with king crab and spicy shrimp and avocado--- all yummy!

the eel - again served on cucumber rather than rice (by request)  - then a spicy tuna roll and black dragon roll...

so it was a busy two weeks for us- exactly 14 days ago we headed to Chicago and had a busy long weekend there- we came back south and saw Neil on Monday and had the house concert Tuesday (which is also my class day) and then Poul & Lene arrived Wednesday along with my cousin Cathy... she left Thursday and Poul & Lene stayed until Saturday morning then Saturday night Al Stewart, Sunday the ballet and Bern's and then Monday Louie's back to my Tuesday class and then a relaxing evening at Kasa Sushi... this is all in addition to the other stuff- LOL - I had meetings and physical therapy (SI joint problems being rehabbed) and Phil had his appointments with his trainer twice a week and then there were the business side things to handle- LOL so even though we aren't getting paid to work we still are somehow working ...LOL - retirement rocks! Stay tuned... tonight off to the theater....

I promise

I will be back to blogging about the Romania part of our trip ASAP... meanwhile since my last post about ten days ago - we have moved south for the winter (twenty hours of drive time) and then got the Florida condo opened and cleaned up (pest guy, pressure washing guy, cleaning lady...etc.)

We also managed to hit a couple of our favorite places for meals- Blue Marlin and Waterfront... and then by Friday had plans for a couple of nights for concerts- one near and one far...

so off we go on the catch up post and I PROMISE - I will get back to Romania next week...

on Sunday morning the cats wouldn't let us sleep at all so we left the hotel around 5AM (having checked in around 12:30- LOL- a VERY short night) so we found ourselves needing lunch really only about two hours north of "home"- we stopped at this BBQ in a gas station and thought it would be good- we were totally wrong... it was the worst BBQ brisket I have ever had- so don't go here- despite the authentic look- it was awful!

we got here so early we needed dinner close and easy the first night so we headed over to AMOB for some grouper- and the world's best lobster bisque!

the cats settled in right away- you can see "watch-cat" Penny keeping an eye on things from her top of the couch perch...

the next night we headed over to Blue Marlin for some fabulous fresh fish (right off the dock - this night- Black Grouper) and our bottle of white was terrific even though it was an older vintage-

the following night we ate at home - and Phil ran over to the dock/fish market at Star Fish Company for stone crabs- which we devoured as if famine victims (which we were since we hadn't had any since the spring!) and then some tuna as Hawaiian Ahi Poke salad---the fish company has a huge trading program where they send their fresh caught grouper and stone crab claws to other places around the nation and exchange for their fresh local catch- that way we get Alaskan and pacific NW Salmon and Tuna and other things really fresh on direct exchange flights...

by Friday night we were well into our winter schedule and headed to Fogartyville for a SOLD OUT! concert of The Slambovian Circus of Dreams which was completely funky and fun... since we were last there they have gotten AC (which was needed this week!) and a new art installation-

these folks play folk festivals up along the Hudson (Falcon Ridge and Clearwater both) and yet are really more of a fantasy rock band... they played things reminiscent of Floyd, Allman Brothers, Donovan, the Beatles and yet everything had their own twist - and mythology from the Slambovian history... a rousing evening- we would definitely go see them again. And I think John and Barb enjoyed the show as well (although they can weigh in on their own...LOL)

I even got a small clip from their Flapjacks in the Sky...

then the following night- last night- Saturday night- the four of us (John, Barb, Phil and I) headed north an hour to a house concert in Seminole- Ben Bedford was the featured artist.  A wonderful writer of words and melodies, he doesn't have the strongest voice or a particularly good range but he makes up for it with extreme charm and good nature. A very nice evening of shared food, drink and music at hosts Alexa & Craig Huegel's home...

 
so that brings me back to current and this upcoming week is filled with more "chores" but should give me some free time to continue on the Romania trip blog posting...so come on back....