Dinner and a Concert

Chris on her way to work. It was just a light rain, but a very comfortable 60 degrees plus!

We were nearly finished being served at the Belarussian restaurant. Things were going very well. The food was coming out a couple of plates at a time, slow but it was steady. Everybody seemed to enjoy their meals. We had a private room adorned with murals depicting 14th century Belarus. We could shut the door and keep the cigar smoke to a minimum. Since this was my recommendation, I was feeling quite easy. Then, as we were finishing up, I noticed that Sister Ireland had no food. She had a nibble from Sam's chicken plate, but that was it. I got up immediately and trotted off to the kitchen to see what had happened. They said it would be at least another 5 minutes. We were feeling the crunch of time, as the concert was to begin in just about 15 minutes. Five minutes came and went and still no dinner for Sister Ireland. Finally, she said we should pack it in and leave...with no dinner. I am sure that this was doubly frustrating for her because most everyone was talking about how much they were enjoying their meal.

The Seniors at dinner. Jonathan Snow is taking the picture. Funny thing...Jonathan commented that I haven't been in too many pictures, so he offered to take the picture. Chris is always telling me that I should get someone else to take the pictures so that my kids can see me. Funny thing...none of my kids have ever commented on my absence!!! Hello out there. Is anybody listening!!!

So we paid the bill and left. When we got to the concert hall (just across the street), as I was walking up the stairs, I thought, Chris has a Snickers bar in her purse. I turned around to see where Chris was, but the only persons I saw coming up the stairs were the Irelands. To my surprise, there was Narene walking up the stairs munching on a Snickers!!! Chris had beat me to the punch!!

The concert was a bust. We thought we were going to hear Rachmaninov, but what we found was a soloist on a clarinet, I think, with a back up pianist playing what I discerned to be closely akin to modern jazz. Not my favorite. It seems that we misinterpreted the poster. It was a free concert, but not to hear Rachmaninov, but to be in the Rachmaninov Hall. Chalk it up to another senior moment, or the need to study our Russian a little bit more!!

The Rachmaninov Hall

The Seniors at the concert. Gee, can anyone guess who is absent from this picture?!!

As we waited for the concert to begin, I looked over at Sam and saw he was taking a bite out of Narene's Snicker bar. I chided him for eating this pathetic little substitute for Narene's dinner. He responded, "I gave her a piece of my chicken!!"

Since this wasn't really our cup of tea, Chris and I ducked out the back, before the first piece of music was completed, and headed for home. I headed for the office to see what kind of support I could provide the Area Presidency for their video conference call with SL. I got back to the office at 8:02 p.m. and conference call was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m., so I had time to spare. I had previously asked Sergey one of our technical support engineers if he would fill in for me so that I could go to the concert. So when we got to our home metro stop, I called him to tell him he didn't need to come. However, he was just around the corner from me, so he was going to look for me on the street and give me a ride to the office, which is about 1/2 mile from the metro. Well, he got stuck behind an accident and I beat him to the office by about 5 minutes, on foot!! Chris wanted me to hop on her bus and take it to the first stop, which is near the office, but I knew I could out walk the bus too, and I did!!

Hope you all are doing fine. As you can see we are having the time of our life!