I’ve watched this I think about 5 or 6 times now. Their dancing skills are amazing, incredible flexibility! Watch I’m sure you’ll be amazed.

This guy’s voice range is amazing!

Our local Stop & Shop has now become part of the ScanIt program. What this means is that you can enter the store, get a special cart and a scan tool. You should bring your own bags, and there’s hooks on the side of the cart to keep them open, and then you go around the store and scan your items in.

It’s definitely hoping for an honor system of the user, which they make you sign a waiver to allow an audit of your grocery cart at any time. I’m fine with that, stealing groceries is not how I’m going to jail, if that day were to ever come.

Using the system kind of reminded me of walking around Macy’s scanning items for our wedding registry way back when.

There are several pluses to doing it this way. You get a running tally of your cost. You are alerted of specials through the store. You can remove items if it seems too expensive. Your already bagged and ready to go when you get to the counter.

When your all done you go up to a register, scan a bar code above the register and pay. Your done and ready to go. I liked it and could see us using it in conjunction with scheduled Peapod deliveries.

I haven’t been the first person to get excited about working in the kitchen. In the past I have not been very adventurous. A client of mine though has made two delicious meals from scratch and my mother in law makes these incredible meals all after a day of work. They’ve inspired me.

The other night I made meatballs from scratch. We had ground turkey, we did not have bread crumbs, so I used the magic bullet we have to crumble oyster crackers. They came out delicious. Tonight I decided to do something different with our kielbasa. I bought red and green peppers, a sweet onion and some French bread. I sauted everything in a large frying pan. It too came out really good and pretty healthy. I’m hoping to do more cooking and start thinking outside the box
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We just got the 2009 Season brochure from the Tanglewood Music Center. Last year we never made it up, but the year prior we spent quite a bit of time up there. If you live in the area, I highly recommend getting tickets and spending the day or weekend up there.

Tangelwood is the summer home for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and some main stream artists as well.

This year this is what we’re looking forward to:

July 4th – Diana Krall
July 21st – Tony Bennett
August 7th – Chris Botti and the Boston Pops Orchestra
August 28th – James Taylor with Sheryl Crow and Yo-Yo Ma

The grounds at Tanglewood are incredibly relaxing and allow for strolls while hearing music playing all around you. I’ve never seen a more well behaved crowd of people.

Found Melody hidden under the bedcovers the other day. I’m not sure if she realized she was fully hidden since I could see her paw and tail. I came around to the other side to see her peeking out from underneath. She’s something special.

A slightly delayed post.

Most years I end up forgetting about Valentine’s Day until about 2 days before and then scramble. It’s not that I don’t know it’s coming, I just keep thinking I have more time and keep putting it off. Also I’m usually fielding the requests of what to do for my birthday the day before.

This year, I actually had some time to think, what a novel concept. While down in New York City the week before for a client meeting, I walked by Radio City Music Hall. The board said, “Anita Baker – Feb 13 & 14″. I decided it would be crazy trying to get into the city on Friday the 13th and Craig had to work that day. So when I got back home I bought tickets for Valentine’s Day.

Craig has been a big Anita Baker fan for quite a while. Unbeknownst to me a lot longer than I had thought. I didn’t drop any hints, and just waited for Valentine’s Day. Ok, well that’s partially true, on the 13th, I asked Craig if we had any plans for Valentine’s Day, while we were at dinner celebrating my birthday. He said, “no didn’t have anything planned”. I said, “well I have plans for us, and your present is in New York City”. Now before everyone says, “damn you can’t keep a secret”, Craig is dealing with cervical dystonia for almost 2 years. It makes driving, walking, sitting difficult. So I wanted to make sure he was the most comfortable getting down there.

He started taking guesses. Going to see a live taping of a show? no… Going to see Janet Jackson? no sadly enough… and on he went, I kept smiling because he wasn’t close. Then he asked a question that got him much closer and then he blurted out, “Anita Baker?”. I couldn’t stop giggling and smiled. His facial expression was worth every bit, he was in shock! And very, very excited! Turns out Anita Baker’s Rapture album was the first CD he bought and he played it over and over.

We drove down to the city. It was a nice uneventful ride in, drove right down Broadway and to Radio City Music Hall. The interior of the hall is beautiful! We were pretty high up but dead center. Comedy Central’s James Smith came on first and kept the crowd laughing solid for 20 minutes. Then Anita Baker came on, she was wonderful, funny, humble and incredibly strong voice. Special guests were Tyrese Gibson who she knew from when he used to sing before acting. Then the big surprise for the evening was Mary J. Blige in the front row, who came up at the end to duet with her the song Angel.

It was a good night all around. We took our time getting out of the city and rolled in around 3am, some how still quite awake. It will be one of the best Valentine’s I can remember. Craig was incredibly happy.