Romeo Lunch 3-14-12

The Romeos had lunch today at Donatello’s Restaurant in Saugus, MA. Go to www.donatello-restaurant.com for more information.   We all met at 12 noon and were seated in a separate dining room at two round tables. The nine Romeos in attendance were Joe Pignatiello, Steve Winter, Jim Terlizzi, Paul Girard, John Tweedie, Bob Simmons, Mark Ryan, Ed DeSchuytner and Joe Lapiana.  You can see some photos of the event online at my Picasa Web Albums at the link below …………….
https://picasaweb.google.com/108806068200291783388/RomeoLunch31412?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLfNjKvuyJTIlgE&feat=directlink

 The waitress’s name was Danielle and she quickly took orders for drinks which were a mix of wines, margaritas, water and soda. After serving the drinks she then described the day’s specials which added a few more items to the brief lunch menu. Afterwards, John T. suggested that it would have been easier to just print out the specials on separate sheet for all to see rather than have the waitress repeat some of the special choices.  I guess it sounds more appetizing when the waitress describes each item in exotic terms. We then raised our glasses and toasted a good life, long and healthy.

To start, we ordered some appetizers of calamari and mussels which were very good. They were served with a red sauce that was very tasty. A basket of bread was also placed on the table as we gave our lunch orders to the waitress.  All the choices came with a soup or salad.  The meals were served quickly and were quite good. However there was too much pasta on some of the meals and not enough of the main course.

The conversation was lively as usual as we devoured the salads, bread, appetizers and main meal.  In the other room a group sang Happy Birthday to one of their group. Paul G. said we should also sing and make up a birthday. Joe L. said it was Mark’s BD recently and we all sang the BD song quite loud and gave a toast.

Joe L. and Jim T. had attended the MSELA dinner meeting last week although poor weather was predicted. Jim said that the roads were fine and they only got about 2 inches of snow in Marlborough that night. Ed said that the storm was worse further north and he got 11 inches in Windham, NH.

There were a variety of other topics discussed across the table and in small groups which included the following….

* Ed and Mark – types of coffee, The K cups, Columbian  and oil prices, and roof repair, ice dams,  energy savings,  new insulation.

* John and Joe L talked about JP events and Joe said he won’t go for just $150 and charges at least $400. When Churches get $2500 for wedding. It’s been slow for Joe but John had 3 wedding events.

* Joe L mentioned that in the 1980s, sales reps would take groups of teachers for dinner during conventions when the bill added up to $3000. Now publishers have cut their expense accounts way back.  Recently, the NSSSA sent out an email which stated that only paid members were welcome at the end of year dinner sponsored by publishers.   Jim T. said that dues only cost $5 for retirees and was cheap enough to attend the dinner.

* Joe L. is taking a River Trip on a ship in the Mediterranean.  Mike Z and went to Florida for month.

* Jim had the WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) program at Salem State which he said was well attended by middle school girls and their teachers. – Danielle Niels from NECN was the guest speaker and always does a fine job.  He also said he likes to watch NECN for the morning news.  I said that they took Matt Noyes off the morning show and put him on at 5PM.  He is very animated and a great weather man too.

* Jim said he upgraded his PC with a new version of Windows and Security System. He said it runs much faster now.  I said my PC was very slow too. Paul said that the solution was to switch to Apple products (MAC) which are much better in his opinion. Ed said his PC was slow also until his son told him to get rid of all the Favorites in the tool bar. I tried it when I got home and my PC is running much faster now.

* John asked Jim about health insurance and Jim said that he had GIC like most retirees. The premiums are only about $115 a month for him and wife and the prescription co-pays were cheap.  I said the statement you get from MTRB for pension now lists the health insurance deduction as Medical D and Medical 1 instead of Group Insurance as it did before. I was confused and thought the term Medical D and 1 was referring to Medicare D which only comes out of your SS statement if you get that also.

It got to be about 2:30 PM and we were waiting for the bill. Ed checked it out and told us our share. We then decided to meet next month on April 18 at the Escadrille in Burlington.  Jim will send an email with the info.

Comments always welcome. Send email … markryan82@comcast.net