Snapshots from 'Toga 2005
As you may know from Smelmooo already, every summer we head up to Saratoga for a weekend; we usually arrive on Friday afternoon, have some dinner with whoever else is in town at a reasonable hour that night, and then set out early Saturday for the racetrack, where we spend the day eating and drinking and chatting and occasionally betting and watching the races. It's just a mellow weekend that I always enjoy, and this year was no exception.
Smelmooo and I headed out early on Friday, dropped the Tuck off at the resort, and visited Allison and her and Adam's new baby, who is super-adorable. Smelmooo and I both have been pretty swamped and exhausted from work lately, so we were just so happy to have the day to ourselves, with nothing planned but to make our way to our hotel in Albany at some point. It was a wonderful weekend, as always; here are a few highlights:
-- When we were about 40 minutes from the hotel, driving down the highway, Smelmooo said, "Hey! Isn't that El Salvador Chris?" (who is my oldest friend in the world, who got that nickname at our wedding, where there were at least 6 people named Chris; as of today, though, he's more accurately D.C. Chris, because he's moving, but anyway...). And so it was; he was on his way to a wedding in upstate New York, and was driving right beside us, so we both pulled over and chatted for a few minutes. I love that kind of thing, and I'm never observant enough to notice when someone I know is in the car next to me, so yay Smelmooo and Chris for being better about that kind of thing.
-- We ate dinner with Mike and Nicole at a restaurant called Firkin & Fox, which offered traditional pub fare and $2 "Yanklings" during the Yankee game, as opposed to the $3.50 Yuenglings we had upon our arrival. In addition to fantastic outdoor seating in perfect weather, the restaurant had the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen in a restaurant (a sign in the restroom said they're committed to having the best Firkin bathrooms around, or something like that), which delighted me, even though it was nearly impossible to get the automatic-sensor paper towel dispenser to work.
-- I bet $5 on my first race, meaning I get to cross another item (specifically, #35) off of my 101 in 1001. Doing so brought me good luck, as I won my biggest race of the day with that bet, clearing $18.75 (I was up about $10 for the whole day, which is fine by me).
-- Every year, the guys in our group drink a cup of Saratoga Spring water, which is rank and sulfuric and just BLECH, and I take their picture; the women drink champagne from plastic cups and have our pictures taken during our toast. This year, Matt's wife Chris transported the champagne (which she for some reason calls "shampoo" -- is this an Aussie thing? I have no idea) in a plastic container, because the racetrack people have gotten to be real sticklers about checking coolers for glass. It looked exactly like urine, which made me not want to drink it, but it was so cold and perfectly yummy that I had three cups of it and was kind of trashed there for a couple of races.
-- Matt's parents were good enough to host us for a post-race barbecue, which they also did last year, so the seven of us who'd been at the track stopped at the grocery store on the way back to the house. We got through with remarkable efficiency, and decided that in additon to burgers and hotdogs and such, we must have a rotisserie chicken and ice cream. We got to the ice cream aisle and were faced with about a hundred options, and I figured it'd take us 20 minutes to make a decision. Matt, however, made a beeline for this giant bucket of vanilla fudge, and we all declared it perfect, and we were out of the store in probably 10 minutes flat, all told.
-- On the way home this morning, we stopped off at the hospital to see our new niece; it was the first time the Smelmooo met her, and I so enjoyed watching them together. He held her like a pro, and she was so content lying there and stretching out her long limbs in his arms.
All in all, a fab weekend; I'm hoping to finish Harry Potter before I head back to reality and work tomorrow.
Smelmooo and I headed out early on Friday, dropped the Tuck off at the resort, and visited Allison and her and Adam's new baby, who is super-adorable. Smelmooo and I both have been pretty swamped and exhausted from work lately, so we were just so happy to have the day to ourselves, with nothing planned but to make our way to our hotel in Albany at some point. It was a wonderful weekend, as always; here are a few highlights:
-- When we were about 40 minutes from the hotel, driving down the highway, Smelmooo said, "Hey! Isn't that El Salvador Chris?" (who is my oldest friend in the world, who got that nickname at our wedding, where there were at least 6 people named Chris; as of today, though, he's more accurately D.C. Chris, because he's moving, but anyway...). And so it was; he was on his way to a wedding in upstate New York, and was driving right beside us, so we both pulled over and chatted for a few minutes. I love that kind of thing, and I'm never observant enough to notice when someone I know is in the car next to me, so yay Smelmooo and Chris for being better about that kind of thing.
-- We ate dinner with Mike and Nicole at a restaurant called Firkin & Fox, which offered traditional pub fare and $2 "Yanklings" during the Yankee game, as opposed to the $3.50 Yuenglings we had upon our arrival. In addition to fantastic outdoor seating in perfect weather, the restaurant had the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen in a restaurant (a sign in the restroom said they're committed to having the best Firkin bathrooms around, or something like that), which delighted me, even though it was nearly impossible to get the automatic-sensor paper towel dispenser to work.
-- I bet $5 on my first race, meaning I get to cross another item (specifically, #35) off of my 101 in 1001. Doing so brought me good luck, as I won my biggest race of the day with that bet, clearing $18.75 (I was up about $10 for the whole day, which is fine by me).
-- Every year, the guys in our group drink a cup of Saratoga Spring water, which is rank and sulfuric and just BLECH, and I take their picture; the women drink champagne from plastic cups and have our pictures taken during our toast. This year, Matt's wife Chris transported the champagne (which she for some reason calls "shampoo" -- is this an Aussie thing? I have no idea) in a plastic container, because the racetrack people have gotten to be real sticklers about checking coolers for glass. It looked exactly like urine, which made me not want to drink it, but it was so cold and perfectly yummy that I had three cups of it and was kind of trashed there for a couple of races.
-- Matt's parents were good enough to host us for a post-race barbecue, which they also did last year, so the seven of us who'd been at the track stopped at the grocery store on the way back to the house. We got through with remarkable efficiency, and decided that in additon to burgers and hotdogs and such, we must have a rotisserie chicken and ice cream. We got to the ice cream aisle and were faced with about a hundred options, and I figured it'd take us 20 minutes to make a decision. Matt, however, made a beeline for this giant bucket of vanilla fudge, and we all declared it perfect, and we were out of the store in probably 10 minutes flat, all told.
-- On the way home this morning, we stopped off at the hospital to see our new niece; it was the first time the Smelmooo met her, and I so enjoyed watching them together. He held her like a pro, and she was so content lying there and stretching out her long limbs in his arms.
All in all, a fab weekend; I'm hoping to finish Harry Potter before I head back to reality and work tomorrow.
1 Comments:
Chris's "Champoo" is not Aussie slang. It's Chris slang!!! :) Along with "lovey," "Moutty," and "harry arse."
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LITBMueller, at 4:25 PM
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