Finally having a weekend of nice weather, Meg and I decided to check out Old Bethpage Restoration Village which is out on Long Island. Bethpage Village isn’t exactly a recreation of any one specific village, but rather a set of buildings that represents what a typical 1850’s (or so) village was like here in the New England area.
The location it self is really nice, big green fields with trees and all manner of plants and gardens. All of the buildings are original period buildings that were dissembled and moved from their original locations and re-assembled out on Long Island. Each building has rooms done up with period furniture and other decorations, and has a guide (also in period costume) to tell you about the houses and a little about the people who lived there. Both Meg and I found the school house and blacksmith shop the most interesting, and got to hang out for a while and watch the blacksmith work on making a pair of special tongs from a solid bar of metal. He explained to us that by the time his shop was set in, in the 1870’s, the blacksmiths were really more about repair and specialty work, and that people were getting a majority of their metal items (nails, horseshoes, ect.) from factories.
Thanks to my friend Connie who had recommended the place to us, we brought a picnic lunch with us and got to have a nice quiet lunch outside at one of the picnic tables under some nice shady trees. Apparently they also do civil war battle re-enactments from time to time which could be fun to check out some day too.
Rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. With the usual chores of shopping and laundry and what not. It was back to work for me today, though in principle it’s a short week with Friday off for the 4th of July holiday. No idea what we are doing this weekend yet, I have a few ideas I am looking at but nothing concrete as of yet.
On a totally unrelated note we found where we are going to do our wedding reception lunch and have the date reserved, Meg just has to call them tomorrow to put down the room payment. Now I can finally get the invitations made up (going to go with moo.com postcards of some form or another I think) and sent out. I just need to get some Simpsons stamps to put on them!
Saturday »« Jukebox Heroes
Last night we went down to the opening of the summer concert series at Forest Park here in Queens. We went to a few shows last year and had a good time so I kept an eye out for their summer schedule this year. They tend to have a variety of different acts and shows all summer long. I was a bit worried when I got out of work at 4 yesterday and it started to downpour, but by 7 it had cleared up and though damp turned out to be a really nice evening.
The opening concert this year was a group called The Mahoney Brothers doing a show called “Jukebox Heroes Live.” They cover songs/performers from the 50s and 60s with a little 70s thrown in. Last nights acts included songs by, and impersonations of: Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson, Elvis, The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and The Beach Boys. The show was really a lot of fun, even if Meg some how didn’t know 90% of the songs they were doing. (really…who has never herd ìSweet Carolineî before?!?) Though to her credit she did know all the Elvis stuff, so I guess shes not totally a musical lost cause. Hehe.
The band was really good and put on a great show. We had a really fun time. Next time though we should plan ahead a bit more and bring some better food. Since we wouldn’t have time for dinner before the concert I just got some snack food stuff and sodas from CVS. While they were darn tasty, I was still eying the Panera sandwiches that the family in front of us had. I plan to drag Meg out to a few more of these things this summer. They are doing some Shakespeare thing in August and a Disco night some time in July.
Old time fun »« Uh no thanks.
Yes, I know my car is beat up.
No, I do not want to hire some sketchy guy who comes up to me offering to fix it “really cheap” in the Trader Joes/Home Depot parking lot.
Seriously this happens like EVERY time we go there. Assuming I ever DID want to fix the dents in the car (which I really don’t care enough to) I think I might find someone more reputable then “parking lot guy” to do so.
Jukebox Heroes »« Date night
Wednesday night Meg and I had a nice “date night” in the city. I had gotten tickets a month or two ago to see Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer at the Housing Works bookstore. They were doing a charity show (music and reading) with all the money going to help homeless HIV/AIDS patients.
I went into Manhattan right after work and met up with Meg in Union Square. We walked though the green market and I got a bottle of pear sparking wine from a local vineyard (they were doing free tastings). We ended up doing dinner the Heartland Brewery there in the square. We were going to try some place new but by that point it had started to rain pretty good so we just ran in there.
The show it self was really good. Amanda sang a few songs and Neil read a newish short story of his and from the upcomming photo book “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” which is yet to be released. They actually auctioned off one copy at the show which ended up selling for $1300! They monew was all for charity, but still. According to the paper they ended up raising over 10,000$ total so that was cool. The only thing that sort of sucked was that she show was standing room only so after all day of walking around at work, standing on the subway and then walking around the square and at the show my legs/knees were killing me by the time I got home.
While Meg isn’t much of an Amanda Palmer fan she still liked getting to see Neil Gaiman and had a good time. I am determined to keep a better eye out for more stuff like this. It’s sad we live in NYC but never take advantage of fun stuff like this more often.
Uh no thanks. »« Condensed update
