Happy New Year

Yeah, I'm a little late and I've been a bit lax at updating my blog.  Not that anyone's paying attention anyway.


So, here we are, January 18.  I did post my trip to Borgata in October, which I thought I already had.  So let's catch people up on what's happened since October:


October 19:  We went to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo) to see Bau Bau, the baby panda, and we did!  We did this as I was leaving to go to NYC for a business trip.


October 20:  I had an awful dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in NYC, where I waited around 20 minutes for a waiter.


October 26:  We went to Summers Farm near Frederick, MD to go pumpkin picking.  We've been going there for the past three years and although there are places closer to where we live, they have a lot of activities here that we think makes it worth the drive.


October 27:  We went to see Disney on Ice.  We let Tessandra get dressed in her Elsa costume and she had a wonderful time.


November 4:  We took Tessandra ice skating for the first time, she did quite well.  This was in preparation for the Try Hockey for Free program USA Hockey was running.  We were going to be in Atlantic City that weekend, but there's a Flyer's Skate Zone there, so I was able to get her in there.  There weren't a lot of children there, but it wasn't set up for different skill levels, so those who had little experience on skates, did not really get to "learn" hockey.  We stayed at Trump Taj Mahal, which what I thought was going to be the last time I'd stay there before it closed.  Turns out they are planning on being open at least through 2015.  My friends Catherine, Bob, and I did share a royal though, so that was fun.


November 12:  Another business trip up to NYC.


November 23:  I had another Borgata Fiore Suite booked, and made the trip alone again.  I rented a car from Alamo and they had a really great deal for a minivan.  I jokingly took a picture of it before I left, and it was fortunate that I did, as when I returned it, the person noted damage on the front which I did not do, and they tried to make me pay for it.  I sent them an e-mail with the photo I took and they "decided" that they would take care of the damage.  In the future, I'll always remember to take good notes (and possibly photos or videos) of my car rentals.  We did have a good time in AC, we used the pool, tried Noodles of the World (which we liked) and The Metropolitan (when we weren't too impressed).  We drove down to Ocean City and played some golf, although it was a bit chilly and quite windy.


November 27:  Thanksgiving at my mother's which we very nice.  Then the next night we had a family dinner at Uncle Julio's Rio Grande Café, which I hadn't been to since it was just Rio Grande.  The food was still good though, and Tessandra enjoyed watching the tortilla machine.  The next night we had brunch at Whitlow's on Wilson, which was really nice, they had crab legs!  I'll have to remember that for future brunches.


December 6:  My handbell choir performed at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage.  We've performed there many times, but this time didn't go as well.  We weren't mic-ed up too well and on one of our songs, I didn't have enough room and was clanking bells left and right.  Probably one of my worst performances ever.  But, it is always a treat to play there.  We performed two other concerts at two retirement homes and those went very well.


December 12-18:  We took Tessandra to Walt Disney World for her birthday, I'll make a separate entry for that trip.


December 23:  I was part of a small handbell ensemble that performed the National Anthem before the Wizards game.  It didn't go as well as our performance before the Nationals game, mostly because there were only around 35 people and not all of the parts were covered.  Still, it was nice to be out on the court.


December 24:  We hurried down to my brother's to make Christmas Eve church service and stayed at the Country Inn & Suites in Virgina Beach.  That's one of our favorite hotels, mostly because they have the library there where Tessandra can get books.


December 26:  We headed up to Atlantic City for our usual end of the year trip.  Unfortunately, Cath couldn't take any additional time off, so she and Tessandra headed back on Sunday afternoon while I stayed for an additional two nights.  Friday and Saturday we stayed at Resorts, and because we got there so late (8:42 PM), we got a pretty plain room.  We met friends at Borgata and ate at The Metropolitan.  We had lunch the next day at Breadsticks at Resorts, since the buffet is now closed forever.  We walked down to Caesars to meet some friends, saw the light show on Boardwalk Hall, since the fountain show at The Pier is gone.  We had a late dinner at Café Roma before heading back to Resorts.


I had a horrible gambling trip, making three really bad trips this year (Las Vegas, the August AC trip, and this one).  Not even 1 1/3 royals helped, although a dollar royal would have made the year good (a quarter royal would have broken even this trip).  Since I didn't renew my Epic card at Resorts, I blew out my comp for Sunday brunch at Capriccio.  It was good as always, and I think I'll make it a point to have brunch there when we're up there.  The servers and the General Manager are great.  They could use a few more food selections (crab legs), but what they have is really good and the service is top notch.


Cath and Tessandra head home after brunch and get caught in some bad holiday traffic.  I walk from Resorts to Trump Taj Mahal, where I booked a room there a few months ago, but never cancelled it even when they said they were closing.  We went to The Water Club at Borgata for our end of the year MPT Tournament, which our friend "Sass" won (after many years of trying, not that we all haven't).  As it was Sunday, we were hard pressed to find something to eat late at night and ended up getting an overpriced meal at Dunkin Donuts.


Monday, Bob and I walked down to Caesars and ate at Kwi, which we enjoy.  We walked through Bally's and looked at Claridge and then headed to Borgata to meet our friends again.  After Bob couldn't get a cheese steak at Tony Luke's because they were out of bread and didn't want to take the time to bake more, we had burgers from Fatburger.


We checked out of Trump Taj Mahal for the last time in 2014, stopped at The Palace Diner for lunch and Bob dropped me off at 30th Street Station so I could catch my train home.


January 1:  I ended up not going to the Winter Classic, after taking a casino beating, I just didn't have the money to use on a ticket, and a friend did post that she had one available.  *sigh*
We had mom's pre-birthday dinner at Duck Chang's, as we always do.  We were fortunate that Stephen's fiancée was able to attend as well as Joshua.  The next night I took Tessandra to the Teppanyaki Grill Buffet, which she calls, "Happy Buddha", since they have a Buddha statue by the hostess stand.


January 10:  It was the handbell retreat weekend.  We worked on music for the Riverside Festival in April, plus some numbers for the dessert concert in February, which I'm going to miss for the first time because I'm going to the Capitals-Flyers game for my birthday.  It will be strange not being there, but I felt like a treat for my birthday.


And that brings us to now!  I guess I had a fairly busy end of the year, especially with the Disney trip.  This year I'm already packed with trips.  I'll be going back to Disney for Star Wars Weekend, plus I'll be going to Las Vegas two weeks after that with my poker buddies, and then I'll be going back to Vegas again at the end of July with my forum board friends.  I think I may be tripped out for this year!