Golden Globes For The Win

Every year, we bet nickels with S, R, and whomever else might join in to watch the Golden Globes. I always lose. Eddie studies the categories and then loses. This year, Eddie didn't study, and I still lost. But Eddie won. So after a fun night in a new place with yummy food (Southpaw Sweets salted caramel cookies and buttercrunch matzah--seriously yummy food) and great friends, S capped off the night with this surprise:

It's a trophy, y'all.

Eddie asked if he could put his name on it. We decided, yes, that's a fun idea. The next day, S texted me that he can write Eddie 2016 and then next year we'll write the next winner. So I was like, you mean he needs to leave room for other winners.

We began the next morning with Eddie parading around the house with his winning ballot. For someone who does not watch much TV or many movies, he sure loves the Golden Globes. Now.

Whodunit? Don't Ask Me

No sign is complete without Eddie's raccoon stick (look to the left)

The year is 1922.  At the height of prohibition in Chicago, a mob war was brewing between the South Side Gangsters and the Northern Mob Outfit.  The two factions are planning to meet up at The Grand Gatsby Speakeasy to discuss the future of underground casinos...but not everyone may make it out alive. So don't be a pikah.  Stay outta the clink, get all dolled up, and come out for a night that's sure to be the cat's meow.

And so began the great murder mystery dinner party that S had gifted to me at least five years ago.  After years in the making, my house transformed into a speakeasy owned by Hal Sapone aka Eddie, called The Grand Gatsby (no, not The Great Gatsby.  That's Fitzgerald's speakeasy).

What speakeasy is complete without a little decoration?

The premise of the night was that everyone would be assigned a character, everyone would received a name tag, some notepaper for crime solving, and instructions and hints for the night to interact with each other.  Each course of food (cocktails and apps, main course, and dessert) came with not only these clues but also games.  These games were to be graded, and so I found myself grading.  Even at parties, I'm grading.

Everything everyone needs to solve a mystery. 

Main course

Dessert

Grading

"Fruit"

More grading

Gatsby and casino

Quizzing

The house filled with chatter and laughing and shrieks (and smoke -- we aired that out quick) and then the lights flickered and someone wound up dead.  Then we all figured out which way was north and had to diagram the murder scene.  Actually, this did not happen.  At first, I didn't even know why everyone kept asking which way was north because I was so busy grading and fanning out the smoke, that I was behind in my game play, which is also why whenever anyone said any clues to me, I responded with an "Okay!" and then went back to them ten minutes later with the actual response I was supposed to give.  The papers for the accusations had a spot to diagram the crime scene, but no one really did that.  Everyone did guess, though, and then we had to reveal whatever our final round clues stated.

Turns out, I knew nothing.  There were some fun twists.  I found out the next day that there was some more murdering that was supposed to happen but someone doesn't read instructions (meaning Eddie) so the final murdery stuff didn't happen.  That was fine.  We'd had enough mystery for one night. Who won?  S and S! Who lost? Everyone else. 

Revelations from a right-hand man

Clearly innocent faces

Crime boss and some other guy's dame

The singer and the baseball player/jazz musician who are also great cooks

Our grandmother is so proud.

Mess with them

Again, makin our family proud

Some final findings

The next day, my house looked like a horde of strippers had rolled around in it.  Glitter, spangles, fringe, and sequins  were everywhere.  I kept up the signs until I'd scooped up the last of the sparkly stuff and then returned to modern-day everyday living.  Except for the sign outside on the house.  That stayed up for at least a week.  I'd cut out the letters freehand and was dang proud; plus, a speakeasy ain't such a bad idea.

AMNH

That's one big dino

The thing about the American Museum of Natural History is that it doesn't really change.  I mean, it's history, it's nature, and those two things are in the past, so they stay the same.  However, as people change, our perspective of history and nature change, and as I walked the same halls seeing the same things I saw when I was younger, they seemed more amazing.  That giant slab of a tree.  That huge whale that still scares me a little bit.  The rocks and the gems--the room still smells the same.  And its entrance is pretty grand.

On a bench nearby, we ate some peanuts and left the shells.  <3 LVP

Especially helpful are the walls of the subway stop, letting you know that the museum is near:

Hyenas: because why not be a horrible animal?

In addition to the regular exhibits, however, their special exhibits intrigue with new ideas. Recently, they had an exhibit on spiders.  I did not need to see that, and neither did S.  We decided on the The Power Of Poison, which was fantastic, especially the portion that dealt with poisons in literature.  She's a fan of Agatha Christie and I like the three witches.  We both liked the apple.

Because going to the city means you can't do just one thing, I found this place:

Apologies to the man on the phone with his mouth open

To top it all off, R met up with S and me to play some Friends trivia at one of three bars that were the basis for the bar in HIMYM.  We lost.  A lot. Which I'd expected because R and I were of very little help to S, who knew most of the answers we got right, though I think I got at least one right.  Something about Monica and mocholate.  I'll call that my shining moment.  Aside from me and the witches.  That was pretty cool.

The Room

So I can't say much about what Escape The Room is because if I say anything I'd spoil it for anyone who wants to go. So I'll say this: It was R's birthday and S decided a fun way to celebrate would be to get locked in a room for an hour and figure out how to get out and then go to Fatburger. And we did just that.

Because I don't want to ruin anything, I didn't take any pictures except for this one:

This was what we saw when we came out of the elevator. We followed it even though it was unmarked. Because we are smart people.

Escape The Room is apparently an app and an online game and we knew none of that until the guy at the place asked if we had played any of those and when we said no he was like, So you just decided to let a stranger lock you in a room? And we all said, Yes. Because we are smart people.

Basically, you have an hour to figure out how to find a key that's been hidden in a room to unlock the door to get out. Everything can be a clue though the guy told us not to stick anything metal into an electrical outlet and any furniture bigger than me should not be moved. These were rules based on previous experience with people who tried to do such things.

We came close. Like very very close. We are very smart people and we came very very close to figuring it all out. But we didn't. And we lost. And we got to take a picture of it.

Then we went to Fatburger to drown our shame in good food. That lead to another mystery called Where's M's Food because they gave her a number that wasn't hers, failed to give her a cup for a drink, and then took forever to bring her the food she'd ordered. By the time we were done with the food, the shame of losing was pretty much gone. Or maybe it was just hiding under the shame of having eaten at a place called Fatburger. At least it's a place with no pretenses.

Super Boulevard NYC

Speaking of the sports, Super Bowl was about a month ago, which means about a month ago, this happened.....

Eddie and I went to Super Bowl Boulevard because for over a year he'd been talking about going because it was a once in a lifetime event.  We walked up and down, meaning we crammed our way through hoards of people.  Everyone was on a line for something.  Instead of standing on lines, we watched people stand on lines and then kick footballs and touch trophies.  There was even a line to stand in front of the giant Roman numerals; I suppose people didn't realize that since they were so giant, you could get a picture of them from anywhere. We met S and R, and S, who works nearby and had seen the ongoing events unfold, gave us a mini tour as in...you can take a picture with letters here and a picture with numbers there and the slide is there and then tobaggan tickets are at Bryant Park.   We took pictures but did not go on the slide or the tobaggan (after all, I was nursing an injured back thanks to Speedy Baddriverson).

There was a live band playing, so S and I found an empty spot off to the side and danced for a song and a half.  I don't know where the video is, but I know someone has it on video....As we walked by the last of the tents, I lamented that there were no free handouts.  I like free things and you'd think they'd have free things, but nothing was free.

We went over to the park to find the Verizon PowerHouse that really had nothing to do with football per se, but it was a way for Verizon to advertise by incorporating technology into football stuff.  So we went in and got our pictures taken and then we could go to any activity in the building and use our thumbprint to have the video or pictures of the activities emailed to us and for our faces to appear on personal timelines we could create. 

We floated across the screen together!  Football Verizon Advertising Love!

I look a little murdery here.  I don't think they'd let me into the game looking like this even with a ticket.

S caught a virtual football while wearing a virtual football uniform on a screen.  Eddie created a timeline of all football events.  R watched and did no activities because he didn't give them his thumbprint....and that seems to be the smartest decision any of us made. 

And I?  Couldn't do anything because I have no thumbprint.  I tried to do a timeline and it wouldn't work.  We wiped off the thumb slot and tried again and it didn't work. Then one of the Verizon people came up to me and was like, swipe your thumb across this gel and then do it.  I did it, and it didn't work.  I guess I can rob a bank using only my thumbs and never get caught because I have no print.

That didn't get me down, though, because on our way out of the powerhouse, we all got a free pair of gloves!  Sure they're bright red, too thin, and say Verizon on them, but they are free!  They are also the kind of gloves you can wear while texting.  They kind of work, too.  Free! I love free.

FREE!

 

We ended the night on that high.  The Empire State Building was rooting for the Broncos that evening, but the next, it would be lit up in Seahawk colors, a sign of things to come.