Everybody loves a surprise..

On Saturday night, we threw a long-planned surprise 60th party for my dad at Scoogi's restaurant back home in PA. It was a fabulous affair and we had a great turn out, not to mention tht we were able to keep the surprise firmly in tact. Here are some photos from the evening..






Dad walking into a surprise he thought was for someone else. Clearly he is a little confused in this photo.






A copy of the invitation with a school photo of my dad at about 8 years old.








My cousin Megan, me and Megan's husband Jerry.









My niece Mia, making her debut on this website, with Aunt Aimee








Benny helping his Nonni blow out the birthday candles









My parents and me









My family: Deacon, Mia, my parents, Benny, me, Whitney and Ava

Celeb sightings

This past weekend was filled with yet more unexpected plans. Just when I think I'm going to have a quiet night at home, something comes up - that's usually a good thing. First I should say that last week I went to a small event where Patti LaBelle spoke and sang. I took a photo w/my camera but it did not turn out well so I'm not posting. Boy does she have a voice and beautiful skin. This past weekend was the National Italian American Foundation (www.niaf.org)Gala here in DC. I was asked to go to the prelude event on Friday night where Neil Sedaka performed (from the 60's who sang popular songs such as Calendar Girl and Breaking Up Is Hard To Do). Again, I had a couple of pictures but taken with my phone so they did not come out well, therefore I am not posting.

On Saturday night was the big gala which I happened to read last week in Washingtonian Magazine that it is one of the top 10 events in DC. Who knew I'd end up at it a few days later! That is a very Washington thing to happen - there is always something going on and you never know where you'll be next.

What I didn't know was who would be there from the celebrity circles. Legendary director Martin Scorsese was honored as well as presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in addition to several other folks such as Ellen Pompeo from Grey's Anatomy, Connie Stevens, Susan Lucci, Yogi Bera and some others. The swag bags were great as well (lots of Italian foods and products, books and bath salts). I'll attach a few photos below. I got as close as I could.

Finally, I met the man they say is going to take Pavoratti's position as the 3rd Tenor. His name is Vittorio Grigolo. He performed a few numbers and is just fabulous. It doesn't hurt that he is incredibly handsome as well. (see pic below) Pay no attention to me - it's an awful photo.




Martin Scorsese giving remarks. To the left you can see Ellen Pompeo (Merdith Grey from Grey's Anatomy) looking on.






Connie Stevens offering remarks. Her daughters, including actress Jolie Fisher was also at the dinner.






Rudy Giuliani about to give remarks. He was introduced by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.






The expected new Tenor, Vittorio Grigolo and me.

Going Public...

I wish I could offer some stock options for this, but sadly, my little ol' blog and $3.00 will only get you a coffee at Starbucks.

So I have been tinkering with this for 2 months now and am finally getting up the courage to let more than 5 people know. Here it is -- I don't think it's that exciting, but for all of you whom I don't talk to much and see even less, I thought it would be a way to keep everyone updated with my shenanigans and photos.

I don't really know how the "comment" section works, but feel free to make them if you would like. And as I said somewhere else on this site, if you want me to add some photos or news for you, I'd be happy to. Just make it all respectable please :)

Chrissy's rehearsal dinner

I am not going to steal Chrissy's thunder by making her wedding photos public, so I'll post one from the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night. This is a photo of 4 of her bridesmaids at the Warehouse restaurant in Old Town. From left, Deanna, Alison, Chrissy, Aimee and Tracy.

The Windy City weekend

Last weekend, Ann and I spent a few days in Chicago. I had to be there for work on Friday and decided to stick around and check out the city that I've been to twice but have only really 'seen' through the window of a taxi.

We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel. The staff was fantastic but I'm not sure if I would stay there again. It was an old hotel and we switched rooms soon after I arrived because the room didn't have internet (?). They moved us into a suite, that as soon as I walked into had the theme song of "Three's Company" pop into my head. It actually looked like Jack, Chrissy and Janet's apartment. The best part was how the electricity flickered often and actually went out when I was in the shower. That was fun.

While in Chicago, we had some fantatic meals at: The Ralph Lauren restaurant http://rlrestaurant.polo.com/ , Le Lan http://www.lelanrestaurant.com/ and Topo Gigio (which doesn't seem to have an active website).

Through a connection, we were able to get tickets to Second City's "Between Barack and a Hard Place" which has been sold out every night. It pays to know people... The show was fantastic and helped me sort of prepare for my foray into Improv. I will be studying Improv at the DC Improv starting next month. I'm sure I'll be talking about that soon..

We also did some damage on Michigan Ave where I continued to feed my appetite (allbeit a new one) for Christian Dior shoes. I picked up that habit in Italy.

We spent an afternoon at Navy Pier which was a lot of fun. We rode the ferris wheel ate popcorn and took a short cruise to see the Chicago skyline. I'll add some photos below. And of course we couldn't leave Chicago without having some pizza at Giordano's. Fantastic.



Here is the good looking antipasto we had at Topo Gigio's restaurant.







Here's me looking tired and make-up free on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier.






The beautiful Chicago skyline at sunset. Sears Tower is on the left..

Wake Me Up, When September Ends

Wow, I've been awful at keeing up this blog. I think I have good reason however. I chose the Green Day song as my heading for this point because I think the title is appropriate, although the song has a much different meaning than mine.

September was filled with extreme highs and lows. It started off frantically with Labor Day in Cape May, New Jersey with some friends, followed by Chrissy's surprise bridal shower and my 33rd birthday. I've written about all of that. Then I had to have an outpatient procedure which included a biopsy that had me bent out of shape until I learned my results this week. Things are, for the most part fine. We'll just keep on top of everything every six months.

Following this, my dear grandmom Tess passed away after a long fight with her ailing lungs due to years of smoking and working in an asbestos factory when she was young. This was extremely hard to deal with even though I knew it was coming. I was lucky enough to get back to PA and be with her until the very end. The next several days were stressful and packed with family visits. I offered the eulogy at her funeral and could barely even get through the funny parts without crying. But I think she would have liked what I had to say.

After everything ended, I came back to DC and jumped back into work and caught up with some friends. I saw the last Nationals game against the Phillies which was fun. The last weekend in September I headed to Chicago for work and fun. Ann flew down from Minneapolis and we stayed a few days since I had a good rate at the Fairmont Hotel. Even though our suite looked like Jack Tripper decorated it (and may have been the last person to actually stay in it), we had a great time. I'll write a post about Chicago following this. What a great city!

Well, that is me catch everyone up on things. Maybe I'll actually share this blog with more than just the few people who know about it... We'll see..