Is Hamilton Really That Good?

Hey there!  Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday.  This is an open forum where you can link your blog post about anything that is on your mind.

Today I'm thinking out loud about the date night Eric and I had on Tuesday.  The musical Hamilton was playing at the Fox Theater and we were in the audience!

I have to be honest, I was a little worried that I would be the one person that didn't really like it.  We have friends who have traveled to Chicago and New York for this 11 time Tony award-winning show.  Not a single person I know that has seen Hamilton has had a negative reaction.  I feared that it would be one of those things after hearing everyone rave about, my expectations would be too high and I would be let down.  Has that happened to you before?

Hamilton has been in St. Louis since April 3 and we had resisted the urge to buy tickets.  I had faithfully entered the lottery through the Hamilton app every single day to win a chance to buy $10 tickets.  Each day the message "Try Again!  Sorry you did not win." appeared on my phone.  But think how exciting it would be to win!  So worth entering every day.

On Monday I couldn't resist any longer.  There were a few seats remaining for the Tuesday night performance and I just had to see what the hype was all about.  Guys - I was not one bit disappointed.  This musical was fabulous and deserves every good comment we have heard about it!

This production was witty and fun.  Here is the synopsis from Playbill: From bastard orphan to Washington's right hand man, rebel to war hero, loving husband caught in the country's first sex scandal to Treasury head who made an untrusting world believe in the American economy, Hamilton is an exploration of a political mastermind. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Eliza Hamilton, and lifelong Hamilton friend and foe, Aaron Burr, all attend this revolutionary tale of America’s fiery past told through the sounds of the ever-changing nation we've become.

Have you seen it?  Is it coming to a city near you?  If you need someone to see it with you, let me know.  I would definitely see it again!

Now it's your turn -- what are you thinking out loud about?  Link up and share - I'd love to hear form you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five on Friday - February 26, 2016

Hey guys -- Happy Friday!!  I would be lying if I said I wasn't deliriously happy that the weekend is here.  I was out of town on business Monday through Thursday and I'm so excited to be facing a few days at home.  You know what else I'm deliriously happy about today - I'm the featured blogger over at H54F!  H54F is short for High Five For Friday - clever don't you think.  When I got the email yesterday saying they were featuring me I did a little happy dance.  Hope you have a minute to check it out.

Here's my five for this Friday ~

1.  New Buttons on Facebook
Ever want to express a feeling other than "Like" on Facebook?  Well, now you can!  Five new buttons were added this week that allow you to say Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry in just one little click of a button.  So, are people going to start getting angry now if you just "like" something instead of "loving" it?  Oh the pressure!

2.  Eddie the Eagle

I've been waiting for this one - it just looks so sweet.  Movie Insider sums it up like this:  "Inspired by true events, Eddie the Eagle is a feel-good story about Michael "Eddie" Edwards (Taron Egerton), an unlikely but courageous British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself - even as an entire nation was counting him out. With the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach (played by Hugh Jackman), Eddie takes on the establishment and wins the hearts of sports fans around the world by making an improbable and historic showing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics."  Is it on your list to see?

3.  Oscars - Sunday Night

Roll out the red carpet because Sunday night the Oscars will be handed out.  If you're looking for a free, printable ballot, click HERE.  I've seen six of the eight best picture nominations and I'm hoping to see one more on Saturday.  How about you?  Will you be watching Sunday night?  And why do they have this on Sunday night instead of Saturday?  Don't these people have to go to work on Monday morning like the rest of us?!?

4.  Beautiful The Carole King Musical
My daughter-in-law, Kayla, invited me to see Beautiful The Carole King Musical with her last night and it was spectacular!  If it's coming to a city near you, I highly recommend you see it.  It has definitely moved into my #1 most loved musical spot.  "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" Carole sang.  Heck yes I'll love you tomorrow.  And the day after that!  Yes, it's that good!  

5.  Hope you have a good laugh this weekend....

Besides girls night out tonight, I honestly don't know what's going to be on my agenda this weekend.  Do you have big plans?  Hope you stop back by on Monday to see what I was up to.  Have a great one!

Linking up with:

Rebecca at XOXO Rebecca

Jennie at The Diary of a Real Housewife

Hill Collection

Amy at The Farmer's Wife

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

Simply Sweet Home

High Five for Friday
5 on Friday 
The Jenny Evolution
The Evolution of Mom
Why Girls Are Weird
Ins and Outs

This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

Weekending - Last One in January

How can it be Monday already?!?  I'm just not sure how in the world Saturday and Sunday can go by so fast!  Our weather was fantastic in the St. Louis area this weekend.  I had forgotten how great it is to leave the house without being bundled up in the winter gear.  I know we have some winter still ahead, but weekends like this make it a tad bit more bearable.

Last Friday was my friend Janet's last day at work.  After over 20 years at our company, she's joining the retirement community. It was fun doing a little working countdown last week.

There have been three of us having lunch together for two decades.  Friday Tammy and I took Janet for her last lunch with us as a working gal.  We headed to one of our favorite spots - Crown Candy Kitchen.

We celebrated again Friday after work with a happy hour at a local pub.  Janet, you are loved by many and will be missed!  Can't wait to hear about your adventures in retirement.

Eric was off work Saturday and I was grateful we got to spend the day together.  We headed to one of our favorite BBQ joints for lunch - Pappy's Smokehouse.  Owner Mike Emerson sure knows how to smoke meat!  Pappy's is one of those places that sells out fast and Saturday was no exception.  I was really hoping for the burnt ends, but we didn't get there early enough and I had to go with my second choice of pulled pork.  It didn't disappoint!

Pappy's is located not far from our new Ikea so after lunch we swung in there to look for ideas for our son Ian's old bedroom.  I'm hosting girls weekend at my house in April and I'm hoping to give that bedroom more of a guest room feel.  The new bedding is on its' way and I just need to pick out a few more items to finish the look.  Reveal coming as soon as there's something to reveal.

Saturday night we headed to the Peabody Opera House to see Million Dollar Quartet.  Great show!  The setting for this musical was Sun Studios in Memphis.  Eric and I just toured Sun Studios last summer so that made watching the play a bit more fun.

 

The weather on Sunday continued to be wonderful and I could feel my mood brighten as soon as I stepped out of the house.  It was a day for many of my favorite things -- first I was up early enough to do a facial mask before getting ready for church.  After a great service, I met five of my friends for book club (which I'm not sure "book club" is the appreciate name for this group since I don't believe we've talked about a book in a few months).  Then it was home to make dinner and dessert. 

Dinner was a new brown butter scallops with Parmesan risotto recipe I found over at Pinch of Yum.  And yum it was!  This recipe is devine.  Definitely adding it to my "recipes for a special occasion" list.

I'll be sharing the recipe for this scrumptious chocolate turtle poke cake on Tuesday.  You won't want to miss it!

What were you up to this weekend?  Are you ready to kick off the first week in February?  I guess we'll know our fate for winter on Groundhog's Day Tuesday.  Remember, if the groundhog sees his shadow we are supposed to have six more weeks of winter.  But if he doesn't, Spring will come early.  Here's hoping for a cloudy day on Tuesday!

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

Champagne and Suburbs

B Loved Boston

More Pieces of Me

Bella and the City
The Quinntessential Mommy
How To Get Organized At Home
Over the Moon
This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

Weekending - November 6, 2015

Hello and welcome to Monday!  This was such a fun weekend, but I did something really silly -- I started the weekend without a list of things to get done.  I thought I could wing it, but that proved to be pretty unproductive for me.  At least through the end of the year, I need a list of things to do before heading into the weekend.

With that said, we did have a lot of fun this weekend.  Thursday night we celebrated  my mother-in-law's birthday.  Ian was able to join us for dinner and it was a lot of fun to sit down and get caught up.  Happy birthday, Sue!

Friday was our big Italian feast at Carol's house to celebrate Sherri's birthday.  She did a magnificent job making us feel like we were relaxing in an Italian restaurant.  Her husband, Dave, helped out by playing the role of head waiter.  It was wonderful from the moment we were greeted at the door.

As soon as we arrived, aperitivi (happy hour Italian style) was served.  The tray was beautifully laid out and tasted amazing.

Before dinner was served, Sherri opened her birthday presents.  Giving gifts to friends is the best.  We were all excited to share with Sherri what we picked out for her.

Carol took a cooking class while recently visiting Italy.  She must have been a perfect student because her homemade pasta was so wonderful!  We devoured her salad, tortellini and ravioli.  Dessert was gelato and cookies.  We ended the evening with very full bellies and very warm hearts.

Saturday Eric and I decided to take in a matinee and see Spectre.  I had a project I needed to finish for work this weekend, and worked on it until the last minute.  We rushed to the show and luckily was able to get fairly decent seats.  Then we waited. And waited.  After a half hour after the show was supposed to start, a manager came in to say the projector was broken.  We could either get a refund, get a ticket for a later show or see the show starting in another half hour.  We opted for the next show.  Loved the movie!  Very well worth all the time we spent trying to actual see the film.  Did you see it?  What did you think?

Saturday night we went to dinner with Ian and Kayla to celebrate Eric's birthday.  We enjoyed dining at Kemoll's on the 40th floor overlooking the Arch in downtown St. Louis.  Kemoll's is an excellent Italian restaurant in St. Louis with a magnificent view.  I've been lucky to have had some work functions there, but Eric and I had never dined there together.  Sorry -- no pictures of our outstanding food, but believe me, it was beautifully presented and tasted fabulous!  Here's a pic we snapped in the lobby after dinner.

Sunday was one of my book club meetings.  It was another birthday celebration -- this one for my friend Dee and myself.  Even though we call this group a book club, many times at our gatherings we don't actually get around to talking about books.  We eat and laugh and talk about a cornucopia of topics.  Great way to spend a couple hours on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday evening we took in Mamma Mia at the Fox theater.  Love all the Abba songs!!  This is one of my favorite plays.  I've actually never seen the movie.  Should probably add that to my to do list.

It was a great weekend filled with glorious food and wonderful friends and family.  Now it's time to start thinking about all the things I didn't write down that I need to remember to do.  Yes, my intention is for this to be one productive week.  Wish me luck!  

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

Champagne and Suburbs

B Loved Boston

Life of Meg

More Pieces of Me
Bella and the City
A Cute Angle
The Quinntessential Mommy
How To Get Organized At Home
Tuesday Talk
This post contained affiliate links.  I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase.  Thanks!

Weekending - December 12, 2014

Boy -- the weekends remaining in 2014 are getting pretty slim.  And so are the weekends before Christmas!  I pretty much dedicated this weekend to getting ready for the holiday, with a little fun thrown in.

On Friday night, Ian and Kayla came over for dinner.  Like many of you with grown children, you know how happy it makes you when the kids come home!  Dinner was fun and it was great sitting down to chat and catch up.  Ian finished finals last week and now he's officially half finished with law school.  We are so proud of both of them!

Saturday morning we got an early start -- lots of shopping to complete.  If you read my Five on Friday blog, you know I was getting a pickle to hide in my tree.  We had to check a couple stores, but Eric eye spied a winner pickle ornament at Target.  We're ready for someone to come over and find it hiding in the branches of our tree.  Speaking of tree, on Tuesday I'll be joining some other bloggers for the Christmas Holiday Link Up party.  Come back to see what the trees in my house look like.

I really "need" a new work bag to carry my computer and files to and from work.  For all my life I've carried a conservative black briefcase-style bag.  I'm thinking about changing it up a bit and adding this Fossil bag to my wish list.  What do you think?

After a hard day of shopping, we settled down to pizza and watching Frozen.  We hadn't seen it yet (I know, you're doing that "You haven't seen Frozen" thing).  No, we hadn't seen it -- but now we have.  Very cute movie!

There was a message during our church service on Sunday that I think is worth sharing here -- it came when the advent candle was lit.  This candle represented joy.  It was a reminder to be a vessel filled with joy!  But how often do we let our preparations - or our memories - push joy to the side?  Joy is like an underground spring that wells up within us; but joy is also a choice, an attitude.  Like a muscle, it needs to be exercised.  Be joyful guys!!  It's just the right thing to do. :)

I needed to finish up some Christmas orders so I could get them in the mail on Monday.  If you placed an order -- it's officially in the mail.  You should see it shortly.  Here's what the cute snowman candy bars look like that took up a chunk of time on Sunday to finish.

Sunday we grabbed Kayla and Ian and headed to see Pippin at the Peabody.  If you don't care for musicals, this play still has something to offer you -- all the circus-style acting.  People were flying in the air and swinging from trapezes.  Lots of stimulation.  Fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

And just like that the weekend is over.  Oh, what I would give for a couple more days off work!  Tomorrow marks my 6-month blogiversary.  Stop back by -- I'm doing my very first blog hop. Hey, one more thing -- don't forget to spread some JOY!

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

Join the Gossip

Champagne and Suburbs

B Loved Boston

I Should Be Mopping the Floor

Life of Meg

More Pieces of Me
Bella and the City