The Romeos met again for lunch today, Tuesday, 11-16-10, at the Beacon Grille in Woburn, MA. You can see the web site at … www.thebeacongrille.comThe nine members present were Ed DeShuytner, Joe Loduca, Paul Girard, Steve Winter, Joe Pignatiello, Jack Tweedie, Jim Terlizzi, Joe Lapiana and Mark Ryan.
I arrived early and sat at the bar waiting for the others. They soon arrived and the waitress brought us to a special meeting room called the Baldwin Room. It had a round table with seating for ten and sliding doors, for private business meetings. The room was very pleasant and didn’t have that background (white) noise you usually get from a crowded restaurant.
The waitress took our drink orders and gave us lunch menus to look at. As soon as everyone had arrived, she took our meal orders which consisted of burgers, steak, fish and salads with bowls of smoky tasting chowder.
In a short time, the meals were served promptly and were quite good. The chowder was meaty and tasty. After dinner, we had some coffee, cappuccino and desserts with spoons for sharing.
As always the conversation touched a variety of topics from TV, to the latest movies, to politics, to the church pedophile scandal. We all new some priests who were caught up in the fiasco, some innocent and others questionable. We also talked about Bishop O’Malley’s latest trip to Ireland.
Joe Lapiana said that Ireland had already paid out a billion dollars in law suits. Joe Loduca said that the money comes from the collection boxes in all the Catholic churches around the world. Each church is assessed an amount to send to Rome and pay its bills. Only a small amount goes to the upkeep of the local church. Most priests are hired as private contractors and must deal with their own retirement funds and health insurance. When they retire, they can go back to the monastery to live.
Jack asked about flat screen TV advice and what size TV the Romeos had. Depending on the room size, the sizes were from 32 inches to 52 inches. Joe Loduca then told one of many jokes which kept us all laughing. He then said that he asked a sales clerk “How big his was and could he lift it and put it on the table”.
Joe Lapiana then talked about watching the TV show “Two and a Half Men” and all the off color jokes they get away with. He said that they never swear on the show but make sex jokes by innuendo.
Mark then continue to demo his new Ipod Touch hand-held electronic device. It seems to be a miracle machine and could do a million things. It can act as a phone with Skype and a wifi connection. He demoed it by calling Ed’s cell phone. It can store thousands of songs and photos,
Mark showed the photo album from the last Romeo meeting. It has thousands of Apps that can do any number of tasks like keep a calendar and date book, or list of phones and addresses, or watch the latest News programs on TV. It can download the news from the Boston Globe or NY Times. It can play news clips from Brian Williams and NBC. It can get the weather.
It has a GPS App and can find directions to any address. It has Google Earth where you can get a map of any place on earth and through satellite photos zoom right down to street level. I showed a satellite view of my house in Wilmington and zoom down to my garden.
The IPOD Touch cost about $200 and there are no other fees. You only need a Wi-Fi connection of which there is more and more each day in restaurants, libraries, airports, malls, homes and coffee shops. All the places you would be anyway. Of course you could also by a Smart Phone (Like the I-Phone) and you need to pay the $60 per month service fee. However, the IPOD Touch does not have any service fee.
You can down load Apps easy. There are now over ten thousand. Most are free from the ITunes Store. I also downloaded several books which I can read at off times while waiting for an appointment at the dentist or doctor office. The text is small but it reads just like the other electronic readers like the Kindle from Amazon.
The time went by quickly as we all laughed at each others comments and jokes and it was now approaching 3 PM. Before leaving we decided on the next Romeo date and place and then said our good-byes until next. Jim will send out an email to let everyone know about the next date and place.
You can see photos of the Romeos today at the link below…..
http://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/Romeo111610#
Comments welcome…. markryan82@comcast.net
