Lunch with Maria (in spite of the recent weather)

 

The above is certainly not a lunch for a summer's day.  But it does illustrate how full I felt after finishing off a chicken sandwich and a bowl of clam chowder at lunch.

But first....

Over the past few days, we had several inches of rain which caused major problems in the area.  Tuesday was the worst of it, with 6+ inches falling in my region, causing some small bridges to be washed out, some roads to get flooded, and some hillsides to fall onto local roads making them impassable.  On Wednesday, we still had a little rain, but all of the roads I needed to take to New Jersey and back were clear.  Today (Thursday), I had to deal with a sporadic light mist of rain on the way to Cold Spring to have lunch with Maria.  However, Maria had a much harder time to reach me, as the main road from her place to the restaurant we were to meet was closed.

 

In my area, there are 2 main roads on the East side of the Hudson River to reach Albany (our state capital): Route 9 (which is mostly a local road that connects communities along the river), and the Taconic State Parkway (a limited access, divided highway that parallels the river, but is more inland).  I live near Route 9, and use it to travel upstate (or, at least until I cross the Hudson to connect with the New York State Thruway (another limited access road, part of the US Interstate roadway network).  I had to leave Route 9 before the washout in order to reach the restaurant, while Maria had to take a detour.  So, she was a little bit late.

When Maria arrived, we were seated outside, under a large umbrella.  This would keep us dry in case of a light rain, and get drenched in case of a heavy rain.   It was a little of a crap shoot, but we chose outdoors seating and were lucky.  I told Maria of my issue with the foreign birth registry (among other things), and she told me of things going on with her family (her daughter is moving out of state), and more importantly - she is starting to date someone nice.  Yay!  We had the longest lunch we have had in a while, and I'm hoping that she and her boyfriend (?) can meet both RQS and I for dinner soon.

All too soon, we each had to go home. And when I got home, I had no energy to do much of anything.  But it was a good day.....

 

 

 

A second visit to Chazz Palmentieri's restaurant (a short post)

 

Last week, I went to Chazz Palmenteri's restaurant in White Plains, NY and said that I wanted to go back there again with RQS.  Today, I had the chance to do so.

The day started with us getting up slowly.  This was going to be a day spent as Marian, so I made the appropriate plans which allowed me the time to shave, shower, get fully made up, and dressed for a lunch at a nice restaurant.  Neither of us wanted to go out in a drizzling rain, but we had 1 pm reservations made late the previous evening.  So, out the door we went, and we arrived at the nearby parking lot around 1:05.

Walking from the public parking lot to the restaurant in a drizzle was annoying at best, especially when part of the sidewalk was closed for construction.  But being at the restaurant made the getting there all worthwhile.  We sat down, and the waiter mentioned that it was nice to see us again.  (Did he remember me, or was this a way to give a polite warm welcome?)  I ordered my drink, then we ordered our meals - Calamari, Chicken Parmigiana, and Cheesecake for me; Salad, Chicken Francese, and Ice Cream for her.  Both of us loved our meals.  We will be there again soon for sure.

We walked back to the car and went home for the day.  It wasn't the kind of day that either of us wanted to go out again.  And we didn't....