Science! Psuedo-science! Nature! Art! Nonsense!
March 3, 2026
food, travel birthday dinner, gem, japanese waitress, kimono, lisa, madou, noelie, restaurant, romey, yamazato Leave a comment
Dinner at Yamazato is exceptional, even 15 years on from the first visit. Absolutely world class. And Japanese service to boot.
The question is, can you make a proper Kimono wearing Japanese waitress belly laugh? Well, yes…if you are us. We had so much fun.
I mean, maybe the martinis we started with at 23 had something to do with it?
Or maybe it was mr big nose? No one knows.
But wow.
Who us? Goof off?
Happy Birthday gem-san.
March 2, 2026
concert, travel cosmic love, florence, florence and the machine, lisa, never let me go, noel, romey, sympathy magic, the dog days are over, ziggo dome 2 Comments
The Ziggo Dome is an excellent place to see a show. And Florence puts on quite the excellent show. We surprised Romey and Lisa with tickets day of (something planned for months and somehow kept secret). The show was superb.
Surly audience though..
We shall do this all again.
March 2, 2026
travel amsterdam, cafe, crocus, lisa, noel, noelie 1 Comment
Lisa and Noelie arrived just in time for the surprise.
August 1, 2025
cooking, dogs, ocean, travel, wedding anne, april, gøran, lisa, noelie, rhine, the stick, wedding 1 Comment
After all of the planning, and then the actual event itself, we were ready to put our feet up. So we did.
The Stick with Göran, Anne, Noelie, Lisa, Rhine and April—hosted by the newly married McGraws! Late May is perfection at the beach. No people.
Oh yeah, the dogs came too. We rented a huge vehicle in Pittsburgh to cart everyone and all their stuff down.
Now back to those feet…
About the only complication was figuring out the state of the improperly-installed dishwasher. We built our own sign to signify state. It was good in theory. LOL.
As always, cooking was an important part of our beach time. Romey and Lisa made a delicious meal indeed.
The dogs felt left out.
The view from the porch leads to inner peace.
We did make a few cocktails.
Tranquility…unless you are a ball.
Just add more olives.
Starts like this…
Ends up like this. Thanks John and Joan!
February 6, 2023
music, travel ao arena, concert, england, florence, florence and the machine, free, heaven is here, lisa, live music, manchester, morning elvis, my love, never let me go, noel, romey, shake it out, ship to wreck, uk, you've got the love 2 Comments
There is a back story of sorts. Way back in the summer of 2022 in Virginia, we decided it would be fun to see Roxy Music and also Florence and the Machine when we could. Happily, we managed to do both, but only with some doing.
The plan for the Florence show was to get to the UK on business in November, skip American “dead turkey day,” meet up with our best British friends, and catch the show in Manchester. But somehow Florence broke her foot in London (while we were there) the day before the Manchester show.
We vowed to return.
Here are some bits from the show, an emotional powerhouse led by a charismatic master of the stage. What a show.
The AO arena is a great place to see a show, mostly because the crowd is fantastic. But the best reason to see a show there is because Noelie and Lisa are excellent hosts and are really fun to hang out with.
The crowd gathers.
We don’t even remember who the opener was.
Then, it was showtime!
Heaven is Here was the first song of the night. Florence had shoes on.
Ship to Wreck
Free
Dog Days Are Over. This is my favorite Florence song, and I was psyched it made the setlist. The fucking phone diatribe was captured in bits. Here it is in all its glory.
Of course the real Florence fan (and the reason we were all here) is Romey. She knew all the words to all the songs and had a huge smile on her face.
Romey dances.
Morning Elvis
My Love
You’ve Got the Love is Romey’s favorite Florence song. She was super psyched that it made the setlist.
The encore song Never Let Me Go had 20,000 people singing along.
Never Let Me Go, performed for the first time in a decade.
Shake it Out
