Some Kind of Wonderful

All last week the forecasters kept saying the weekend would be lovely. I believe they even used the word 'warm', and I guess when viewed through the lens of the snowiest winter on record, they were sort of right. While temps did hit 50 degrees in the city on Saturday, I still needed a coat, scarf, and gloves, which is not my definition of warm. Warmer, yes but spring has not quite sprung here folks.

Saturday hubs and I had tickets to see the musical Beautiful. When I mentioned that here on Friday a few people thought I was going to see Carole King herself, but no. Beautiful is the Broadway show about her life and music, and it really was 'some kind of wonderful'. 

She wrote that song for those of you reading here scratching your heads. 

Carole King was in fact, a prolific song writer, and she wrote a lot of songs for other performers too, that you may not have realized were hers. She stopped touring and writing a few years ago, but wrote her first number one song, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, when she was only 17 years old. So much talent!  

The actress playing Carole King in the show right now (Jessie Mueller) is completely convincing in the role, and is an amazing talent in her own right. The whole cast was phenomenal, and we absolutely loved the show from start to finish. 

Hubs and I saw a matinee which let out around 4:30, and then had an early-ish dinner reservation in Greenwich Village. Early for New York that is, 6 PM. The restaurant was about 30 blocks from the theatre, and while we had every intention of grabbing a cab (30 blocks is about a mile and a half), we started walking and just kept going. It was a nice evening for a walk.  

We dined at Gradisca, which came highly recommended by one of hub's co-workers. I'm sure we didn't need to walk that far to find great Italian food, because I'm not even kidding when I say there are over 10,000 Italian restaurants in the city (Trip Advisor lists over 11,000 on their site). We're all about a great recommendation though, so we walked. This particular work associate is married to an honest to goodness Italian, so we figure they know what they're talking about. 

And they do! Fantastico!  

Gradisca's is known for the owner's mama's pasta recipes, and when she's in town she can sometimes be seen set up at a table, making the pasta herself. I'd read some reviews online too, and everyone  raved about the tiramisu. We had to try it, didn't we? Delizioso!

Our backyard may still look like this...

...but Saturday turned out to be 'one fine day'. 

It's Not Too Late Baby Now for Friday Fragments

I don't know if I have enough for a post today, so it's possible my Friday Fragments will actually be fragments.

Does anybody even read blogs after 3 PM on a Friday?
We'll see.

I've gotten serious this week about recording what I'm eating and it's been enlightening. The biggest surprise is how often I mindlessly start to eat something that doesn't seem like much of anything...a small bite of this or that, mostly when I'm cooking, but when you put it all down on paper (or enter it into the iPad app) those meaningless bites of nothing special add up to honest to goodness calories. Calories I'd rather have used elsewhere.

I've been inspired to try some new recipes, because hubs (the man with the metabolism of a teenager) can only eat so much grilled chicken and steamed broccoli. I made this baked crispy hoisin chicken not long ago, and we both loved it. Very spicy, so if you don't like very spicy you'll want to reduce the amount of red pepper in yours. We like very spicy here.

It seems like one or both of my girls are traveling every.single.weekend. and I think I'm getting used to it.

Sort of.

And they've
resigned themselves accepted the mom drill, which is-text me when you're at the airport, text me when you board, text me when you land, and then do it all again on the day of your return flight.

I bet there are times when even Generation Y hates technology.

In other news, the weather forecasters say temps in NYC will reach 50 degrees on Saturday. I do hope this isn't one of those times when they're wrong.

Hubs and I have tickets to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, this weekend. I am a huge fan of her music and am really excited to see the show.  Almost as excited as I am about the 50 degree forecast. I mentioned to someone today that we were going to the show, and she hadn't heard of it. When I said it's the Carole King Story, she said, 'Who?'

People!! Come on!! Do 'youngsters' only 15 years younger than me really not know Carole King?

And on that note I'll leave you with one of my all time favorites, and wishes for a happy weekend wherever you are.