Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Bell Festival Then Annoying Stuff

I was at a handbell festival again - lots of fun, but achy muscles when I got back.  I've been going to these for many years and they're always good.  This year, I took 2 classes in Middle Eastern drumming using a djembe.  That was a lot of fun. 

The first rhythm we learned was IN the jungle there ARE NO kitty kittys.  Then there was a B section, then fillls and a "visual" where you put your elbow on the drum.  Then strung the whole thing together where some people played the fills, some rested, all kinds of mix-ups but it was fun and I want to learn more.

When I got home, I learned from my husband that a collection company was calling me about 4 cellphone numbers I supposedly had and hadn't paid for to the tune of $1400.  AACK

Monday night we heard from our insurance company that they weren't going to pay for my husband's surgery and followup.  They had paid then when they learned he also had Medicare, they got the money back from the doctors.  $14,000.  AAACK

Tuesday I was paying bills online and came across a whole slew of charges I didn't make.  Got the card closed and on Fraud Alert.  This one was only about $1200.

Enough!

I hate to see what tomorrow brings.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

What a Great Time in NYC!


Our son bought us all tickets to The Lion King in New York for this last weekend!

My husband and I dropped our puppy off at her sisters (I'm sure she'll write more about that in her blog!) and we took the train to New York.  Amazingly, the train was on time and we got to New York about 5:30PM.  Our son met us at Penn Station after a bit of confusion about where we were.  He left the building and came in where we said we were.  It turned out to be the next gate over from where he was waiting!

We took a cab to the Hemsley Hotel and had just about time to get ready for the show.  While my husband was showering, my son and I went out to Pax Wholesome Foods for some sandwiches and drinks which we ate very quickly while dressing.

We went outside and, of course, it was raining!  Cabs were zooming by and we never got one so we took the Times Square Shuttle from Grand Central Station and walked the couple blocks to the Minskoff Theater.

The show was just wonderful!  The costumes were fantastic and the whole thing was so well-done.  Of course, we got a copy of the CD to relive the experience over and over.  I can't thank our son enough for getting these tickets!



After the show, we were hungry so we went into Juniors for dinner.  One of the pictures is from there.  Unfortunately, we were all too stuffed for dessert, even though they're famous for their cheesecakes.

Took a cab back to the hotel and a few more pictures - some of us were sleeping and some on important phonecalls!  LOL

Saturday morning we got up earlier than I would have and checked out of the hotel.  We left our bags with the bellman and set out to the American Museum of Natural History  It's right on subway line so we went into Grand Central Station, down the escalator and ran into - another Juniors!  So we had a bit of breakfast.

The first subway car we were on had an issue with doors not closing - or opening - just banging back and forth.  So we transferred to another car and got to the Museum.  The entrance was literally right in the subway station.  So we went in and were going to see an IMAX movie of the "Wild Ocean".  It was very hard to locate the theater but we found it just in time.  There's a little clip from the movie here.

After that, we kept going around in circles in the museum, always ending up in the gift store so we decided to leave and get something to eat.  Our train was in about 3 hours.

We went to the Cafe Frida and had wonderful Mexican food. 

Taxi to hotel, pick up luggage, taxi to Penn Station.  Of course, this train was late, but only a little bit so we got back to DC just about 7:30 and picked up the puppy at 8:30.

Needless to say, after my morning church handbellringing, I slept most of the rest of the day!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from MaryO's Stuff