So how has your week been? Our’s has been busy.

Our week started off with a big neighborhood party! It was a fun time, but for a sad reason, that being that our good friends and Pennlyn Place neighbors Karen and Bob Byrne are selling their house! The party was originally supposed to be a “driveway shindig” at another neighbor’s, where the instructions were to “bring a dish to share, a seat to sit on, and whatever you want to drink.” Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas, and unloaded a fierce NorEaster on us for Friday and Saturday, pretty much precluding any kind of an outdoor party! Lucky for us, our neighbor Doc was able to secure the back room at Sal’s Italian Restaurant in Somers Point. It was still raining hard, there was some street flooding, but we all made it over the 9th Street Bridge, and a fun time was had by all! Karen and Bob say they are not disappearing, but we will still miss knowing they are down the street! We’ve shared a lot of fun times with them over the years we’ve owned our place!

After our wet and wild weekend, the weather has not been very conducive to September being a “Local’s Summer”, with lots of wind, cold temperatures, and rain going from sprinkles to showers! A lot of inside time for us Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, but we are passing our time by now watching a show that was very popular on HBO, but that we’ve never watched…The Sopranos! About 5 episodes into season one and enjoying it a lot!

Wednesday was a bit of a respite from the crummy weather. The sun came out and the rain left, but the temps were still in the 60s! I know that in April we’d think summer was here with the 60s, but not so much in September! That’s alright, because our plans for the next couple of days were a brief 2 night stay at Harrahs Atlantic City. We checked a couple of weeks ago, and Susie was able to get free nights (just pay the resort fee and local taxes), and since on Friday, Susie and I will have been married 44 years, we decided to go and have a fun couple of days (hopefully) and a pre-anniversary celebration!

After checking in and getting settled, our first stop was to see our favorite AC bartender, Ralph at the Eden Lounge bar. Ralph has worked at Harrahs for 41 years, and we figure we’ve known him for at least 35 or 36 of those years! He’s a great guy, who knows everybody, and 90% of the customers know him. He’d threatened to retire this fall, but now says he’s put that off till next summer!

While we were at the bar playing video poker we had some success. Shortly after we sat down, there was an awards ceremony taking place at the other end of the Eden Lounge for the AC 200 Club. These are a group of business folks who support the AC Police, Fire, and EMT services, and this was their annual awards presentation to members of the services that had done outstanding work during the year. Turns out one of the awarded firemen was the husband of a young lady we know from Charlie’s in Somers Point, Tess, a waitress. Last time we saw her she was 8+ months pregnant, and although she looked familiar, it took us a few minutes to realize this pretty, all dressed up young lady was Tess, now the Mom of 3 little ones under 4, drinking a chocolate martini!

Dinner was a couple of burgers at Bobby’s Burger Bar, and then it was back to Ralph at the bar for a couple of post dinner cocktails and some more video poker at a now empty bar! We didn’t win big, but luckily had a $372 win from a machine after dinner that kept us in the game for the rest of the night! We headed up to our free Atrium Suite kind of early, and ended our evening.

Thursday morning, after a lazy start, we dressed and got the car out of the garage and headed across the bridge to Brigantine and the Pirates Den, a little local place that Susie’s sister Barbara told us about.

We both had a nice breakfast and hit the TD Bank (didn’t win big last night) before heading back to Harrahs and a lazy afternoon. We did play a couple of machines back at Harrahs, and Susie took $20 and grew it to $50 and then to $100 before Harrahs eventually got it back! Oh, well they didn’t build these hotels because they hand out money to all! Up to the room, we did some IPadding, some reading, a little snoozing, played a little 5000 (a card game), took showers…a generally relaxing time before the evening festivities. BTW…Susie wants to take the shower home with her! There may be some upgrades coming to 854!

Our plan for the rest of Thursday was going to be our regular Thursday weekly visit to Angelos Fairmount Tavern in Atlantic City to celebrate our 44th a day early, but with a twist. Rather than drive from OC, we were going to leave the car in the garage and hop a cab from Harrahs. That meant no fear about 6 police jurisdictions we normally drive through on the way home, which translates into being able to have more than one pre- dinner Martini, some Wine with dinner, and perhaps an After Dinner Drink back at the bar, before catching a cab back to Harrahs! I say it was, because scrolling through Facebook we saw this post:

The Mancusos and the Angelo’s staff have become like family to us, and we hope whatever the issue is the scope of it isn’t too severe. Somebody, not related to the restaurant, says on Facebook kitchen fire, but who knows. Hope we can be back in our usual spot next Thursday and celebrate a week late with all our Angelo’s friends! Thinking of you all!

So we jogged left, and got a reservation downstairs at McCormick and Schmick’s in Harrahs! Slight change of plans, as we drank with our buddy Ralph first, rather than Mikey and/or Julie at Angelo’s bar! The silver lining was that Mother Nature decided that after a cloudy damp day, she was going to empty the heavens on Atlantic City Thursday night, so no cab ride, saved on the round trip cab ride cost, no need for our rain slickers, and no wet feet or pants, as drinks and dinner were just an elevator ride away!

A cup of Lobster Bisque for Susie and New England Clam Chowder for me, followed by an order of Shrimp Kisses and then a couple of Steaks, with Mashed Potatoes and grilled Asparagus, and for dessert one of our favs, an anniversary Creme Brûlée from our waiter Jimmy. Not Angelo’s, but a fine substitution!

Then back to Ralph for a delicious Chocolate Martini and a little more Video Poker, before we said good-bye and made our way to our room for the night!

This morning we got up to another day of gray skies and the threat of rain. After taking showers (we love the new showers they put in these renovated Atrium Suites), we packed and dressed, headed to get the CRV out of the garage and headed home! As we drove home, we passed Angelo’s and it was obvious work was going on in there. Susie saw a post on Facebook saying that they’d be open tonight, so we commented that we’d see them all next week for our usual Thursday visit! Coming into Ocean City, we decided to stop at one of our favorite places, Ready’s Coffee Shop for a 44th Anniversary Breakfast. As always, it was yummy!

A lazy afternoon ahead for us, and then an Anniversary dinner at Tokyo Mandarin for Susie’s favorite Hot and Sour Soup (Wonton for me), a couple of Bento Box appetizers and, several delicious Sushi rolls.

So that’s been our busy week…hope yours was great.