Last week we had a retirement party for our admin, Delia, who has worked in our office for 10 years. She will be moving to Mexico City after her retirement, so I thought Acapulcos in Framingham would be a fitting location for her big goodbye. I obsessed about getting her there without spoiling the surprise. I told her that Ben and I wanted to take her out for dinner with the kids, and when I invited her for the 14th (after making all of the plans and getting my coworkers on board), she said she had plans! Yikes! I felt bad but I asked her if she could change her plans and I figured she’d think I was a selfish schmuck but would get over it when she found out it was a party for her, not a dinner at my convenience.

When we arrived at the restaurant the parking lot was FULL of Dodge Magnums and Jeep Laredos, our company cars. I just kept walking and hoped she wasn’t paying attention (Hey! There goes Elvis!). We got inside and everyone was too busy eating, drinking, and talking to notice us until I yelled SURPRISE!!! and she realized that she was there for a fiesta. Acapulcos has a mariachi band on Tuesday nights and Delia wowed us with her dancing. The rest of us played Share the Sombrero (somebody order a case of Lice-Away). We gave Delia a New England book that we signed on random pages, and a diamond necklace. After we gorged ourselves on cake we called it a night and rolled home. Good luck Delia!!!

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We sadly said goodbye to camp for the winter and had our last breakfast at Cracker Barrel until Memorial Day. Brady will be closing the place any day now that it’s getting colder (Thanks Brady!). We had planned to spend Columbus Day weekend there but ended up with too much to do at home. We’re going to really try to get there next year at this time because it’s so beautiful and nice and quiet without much boat traffic. We had great times there this summer and we’ll miss it and look forward to going back in the spring.
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Last week we took Jenny out for her birthday, along with some of the teachers from the Pearlman Family’s day care (it was Teacher Stacey’s birthday too). I have to say, I haven’t worked that hard to have fun in a long time but by the end of the night a good time was had by all. We packed into the Toyota Hot-essy to go to the Mad Raven in Waltham for some snacks. It wasn’t mad or ravin’ so we continued down route 20 to Asiana Fusion on the hunt for karaoke. The Red Sox game was on and even Pam’s calls to friends in high places couldn’t get us a microphone, so we headed to Joy Asia in Marlboro, singing along to the Samba Faves at top volume. We arrived at Joy Asia and that’s when the evening got a little “frightening” (as Jenny repeatedly commented). Honestly, even after living in Vermont for 20 years, I have never seen as many mullets and bandanas in one place. Nevertheless, we embraced the locals and ended up having a ball despite the drama, girlfights, and vomiting. Happy birthday ladies!!

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Part of the posse signed up for a few cooking classes at Keefe Tech this fall…the first one was ok but the second was even better. Our teacher for Class 2 was the famous Rosa Menard, aka The Mango Muse. Rosa has a cooking show on local TV called The Melting Pot Cooks. She did a great job of keeping us in control, going so far as to ban the consumption of wine during class. Luckily, Locker 19 held a jug of the magic elixir…Licor 43, pineapple juice, and club soda. I’m too much of a rule-follower to go against Rosa’s mandate and visit Locker 19, but I polished off the leftover elixir when I got home. Yummy!

http://mangomuse.com/

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What would we do with our anger if we didn’t have karaoke??

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