Romeo Lunch 5-16-12

The Romeo gang met again for lunch at the Longhorn Steakhouse on 5-12-12. Go to www.longhornsteakhouse.com for more information and directions. We were seated at a booth and then moved to a long table after more Romeos showed up.  There were seven Romeos in attendance which included - Mark Ryan, Jim Terlizzi, Steve Winter, John Tweedie, Joe Pignatiello, Joe Lapiana and Ed DeSchuytner. You can see some photos at the link below…..  https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/Romeo51612?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Our waiter’s name was Brian and he took our drink orders and then brought fresh bread to the table. The drinks were mostly beers and margaritas. We then gave our food order to the waiter which consisted of various steaks, burgers, soups and salads. The salads and soups came quickly for those that ordered them as first course in a meal. However, some ordered a soup and salad combo and had to wait until the steaks were served to the others.  This was very awkward since we didn’t want to eat while others had no food.

The conversation was lively as always. We talked about baseball, politics, health insurance, drug prescriptions, online courses and upcoming trips. Jim was planning a trip to Italy with wife and grandson for two weeks. Joe P. was also taking family to Italy for three weeks. Steve was planning a trip to Europe with a large family group and will be gone the whole month of July.

We also talked about having both Medicare (over 65) and the State Insurance GIC. However, you need to have over 40 quarters paid into Social Security before the Medicare premium is deducted. Others talked about spouses having separate insurance plans or both going over to GIC.  Everyone had individual concerns. Those of us with Medicare and GIC have very low premiums and little copays. For both Jim and Mark who have family plans the premiums for Medicare are about $96 per person deducted from SS and about $105 for GIC two person plan deducted from pension.

Jim said he went to another baseball game at Fenway. They were honoring Tim Wakefield that day and he stayed the entire game. We then all commented how Joe Loduca loved baseball and always had something to say about it. He would also add a joke here and there.

 Jim then said he saw the new movie now playing with Judi Dench – “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”  (Some British retirees (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy) decide to outsource their retirement to exotic -- and less expensive -- India. Lured by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and imagining a life of leisure in lush surroundings, they arrive and find that the Marigold is actually a shell of its former self. Though their new home is not quite what they had imagined, the retirees find that life and love can begin again when they let go of their pasts.Read More)

John T. said that the movie got a poor review in the paper. Jim said that he always sticks by the online reviews he gets at Rotten Tomatoes.com who gave it a good review. Jim liked the movie.
Click the link below to see the review at Rotten Tomatoes  ........
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_best_exotic_marigold_hotel_2012/

We then discussed where to go next time. Paul Girard offered the Yacht Club, Joe P. offered the Boston Winery and then Sam’s Bistro.  We decided on Sam’s Bistro in Reading on Rte. 28 right off Rte. 128.  Jim will send an email with the particulars.

Comments Welcome …  markryan82@comcast.net

Romeo Lunch 4-18-12

The Romeos had lunch today (4-18-12) at the Café Escadrille in Burlington at 12 noon. Go to www.cafeescadrille.com for information and directions. The nine Romeos attending were Paul Girard, Mark Ryan, Ed DeSchuytner, Joe Lapiana, Joe Pignatiello, Steve Winter, Mike Zapantis, Brother Tim Paul and Jim Terlizzi.  Although John Tweedie had recommended the restaurant, he was unable to attend since he was in Florida for the week. You can see some photos of the group at the link below  …… (I think Paul purposely hid his Photogenic Puss which is missing from the group picture) .  https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/Romeo41812?authuser=0&feat=directlink

We were all seated at a long table in the upper part of the restaurant. The waitress told us about the specials and then served fresh rolls and water. We then ordered drinks which consisted of beer, soda and margaritas. The waitress then took our meal orders which were chicken and broccoli, seafood Diablo, baked shrimp, Rueben sandwich and beef stroganoff.  The food came quickly and was very good with large portions. After the main meal, we ordered two desserts with spoons to share and coffee or cappuccino.

The conversation was lively as it traveled around the table. Brother Tim talked about his flying adventures. He flew to Portland and had lunch with his mother and brother.  He also talked about a History of Flying course that he organized. It runs for one week, 9AM to 5PM and the class of about ten, travel around the area visiting airports, towers and hangers. It is a real grassroots learning experience. He also told us that the average salary for beginning pilots is low, about $30,000 for the commercial pilot. It only jumps to six figures when you fly the jumbo jets.

Jim and Paul talked about the closing of the Salem Harbor Coal Fired Electric Plant. The Salem News said it would completely close by 2014. There are several plans on what to do with the property such as make it into a Gas Fired Electric Plant or a Shipping Port for large cruise ships. I then saw a cartoon in the Herald that seemed related and funny. You can see more info on Google about Salem. See the cartoon at left …….

Paul also bought a new iPhone this year and is having fun using it. While we were at lunch he was looking up all kinds of baseball information on Google as well as the number of degree programs at Salem State. I then showed Paul and the others how I can look up my Photo Albums at the Picasa Web Site right from my iPod with a Wi-Fi connection. Later Joe L. called me at home and talked about the new Picasa photo album software.

Ed talked with Brother Tim about the online courses that Ed teaches at Northern Essex. They also talked about the honesty of students taking online tests. Ed said there are a lot of ways to check on the student honesty.

I talked with Joe P. about the warm weather and how cute he looked in shorts. He said he has been wearing them during the warm days and attended the Boston Marathon by riding his bike from his house through Harvard Square and then over to the Copley Square.  He rides the bike a lot and a few years ago rode down to the Cape with a bunch of friends.

Jim said he attend a recent Red Sox game. A friend gave him some tickets and he really enjoyed it. I think he likes taking the train into Boston. Later he went to dinner with his wife at the Adriatic Restaurant in Salem which serves Mid Eastern food and was pleasantly pleased.

Of course I try to listen to all the conversations going on around me and remember most of what each person said. Please excuse me if I got some of the conversations wrong. The other problem is that I have been losing my hearing over the past few years and end up reading lips most of the time. Last year I got hearing aid to help with the hearing loss. My type of hearing loss involves not being able to hear high frequency sounds. In addition I have a hard time distinguishing consonants like the letters N, P, S, T or V.  So I have to be careful interpreting the words you said like “SIT, PIT, NIT, or SH…..T. So the next time that you talk with me, make sure you face me and speak loud and clear.

We then decided to meet for lunch next month on May 16th at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Reading. Jim will send you the info.

Comments always welcome…..  markryan82@comcast.net

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

Romeo Lunch 2-21-12

The Romeos had lunch at 12 noon on Tuesday 2-21-12 at Bertini’s of Salem Restaurant.  You can see the website at  www.bertinisofsalem.com . 

I wasn’t able to attend so I gathered some info from Jim and Ed.
Those in attendance were Ed DeSchuytner, Joe Pignatiello, Jack Tweedie, Steve Winter, Paul Girard, Mike Zapantis, Jim Terlizzi and Joe Lapiana.

Ed said that the conversation was lively as always and centered on the following topics…..
-Bertini's family owned for many years, a lot of photographs of family & friends all over walls.
-Was a favorite restaurant of Joe Balsama
-Paul Girard use to eat there as a kid with his family
-The upcoming Red Sox season, new manager's role, Manny Ramirez return to baseball for $500,000
-Mike Z. is going to FL next month and has tickets to a Red Sox game at the new Jet Blue Park which resembles Fenway park in small scale.
-Talked about tunnel carpal surgery
-Joe P. only skied a few days this year but going up to Jay Peak shortly, Jim T. is going out west to ski
-Jack T. had a vacation in the Dominican Republic and said is was great.

The menu had great food at good prices including  Soups: Onion or Chicken noodle, most had the onion soup (small portions but great taste).  Entrees: Seafood casserole (fish, shrimp, scallops), Turkey sandwiches, shrimp scampi, roast beef sandwiches.  Dessert: Shared seven layer chocolate cake for the group
Bill:very reasonable $19.00 each

Comments Always Welcome ……..  markryan82@comcast.net

Romeo Lunch 1-11-12

The Romeos had lunch today Wednesday, 1-11-12 at the Alia Ristorante in Winthrop at 12 noon.
It is located at 495 Shirley St. which is the next street parallel to Winthrop Shore Drive and the Ocean.

The Romeos have now eaten at three restaurants in Winthrop all located near each other and the beach road. These restaurants are Rossetti, DePalma and now Alia all recommended by the Phantom Gourmet, our own Joe P.

However, Joe P. was not able to join us today since he had volunteered to help out at a ski clinic for War Veterans at Mt. Sunapee. What a guy! Joe is a busy man and one of the good guys. Since he was away skiing for the week I volunteered to pickup Steve W. in Belmont. Steve doesn’t drive now since he has developed vision problems but loves to join the group each month.

On my way to Steve’s house, I decided to test out two GPS devices and had both of them giving me voice directions on my way from my house in Wilmington to Steve’s house in Belmont. Of course there are several ways to get there, so there was a battle between my intuitive route and the two competing GPS units. I decided to intuitively take route 128 to Belmont and the GPS units soon redirected themselves so that we were all going in the same directions.

I recently bought a new Tom-Tom GPS for $55.00 at Amazon.Com and I am quite pleased with its accuracy. It is up to date and has life time maps. It also gives turn by turn directions down to hundreds of feet as you approach turns. It also announces the street names for those you are on and the upcoming turns.

I arrived at Steve’s earlier than planned but after a few minutes we were on our way from Belmont to Winthrop. I set the two GPS units and of course they wanted to go a different way than my intuition. I wanted to go Route 60 through Arlington, Medford and the Revere Beach Parkway near Suffolk Down and then along the beach road to Winthrop. However, being in Belmont and west of Boston, the GPS units want to go the Mass Pike to the Ted Williams Tunnel by Logan Airport, East Boston and then Winthrop.

After fighting with my intuition, Steve’s knowledge of the back roads of Belmont and the two GPS units we ended up on Broadway Somerville then through Medford and to the Revere Beach Parkway. The GPS units soon caught up with my way and were quite accurate afterwards. We arrived early at the restaurant and parked the car in a 2 hour lot next door. We decided to sit inside the restaurant but the door was locked and it was dark inside as I peaked through the window. Steve and I wondered whether the restaurant was closed or we had the wrong day.

In a short time others arrived and the restaurant door was open. We were the first customers and after talking with the owner we learned that there were very few afternoon patrons but quite busy at night. The owner/waiter was Moroccan (Muslim) and married to an Italian (Catholic) and had two young children. The youngest was having an upcoming Christening. The world is getting to be more of a melting pot each day. Those Romeos in attendance were Joe Lapiana, Steve Winter, Paul Girard, Ed DeSchuytner, Mike Zapantis, Mark Ryan and Jim Terlizzi.

Since the restaurant did not serve alcohol we all brought our own (BYOB). The owner/waiter soon opened them and set wine glasses all around. We poured the wine and toasted a good life. The waiter then brought hot bread and olive oil dipping sauce. We ordered two Italian Pupu Platters Appetizers for the table which consisted of calamari, eggplant and shrimp. The appetizers were quite tasty and the calamari done just right. We then each ordered a main entrée which was about $12.95 and consisted of either, ziti-broccoli and chicken, veal piccata, shrimp scampi and spaghetti. The meal came quickly and was very good.

The conversation was lively and bounced around the table. It was mostly politics as we discussed the Republican debates and the results of caucus voting in Iowa and New Hampshire. We all agreed that the dirt slinging amongst the republican candidates kept it away from Obama and the democrats. Jim T. reminded us all that it was Bush who started the Bank Bailouts and later was continued by Obama and sanctioned by world economists. Jim also said of all the billions borrowed, most has been paid back.

Mike then said he had given an iPod to his son for Christmas and was surprised at how it can also be used as a phone over Wi-Fi. We also talked about a bunch of other APPS with Joe Lapiana. Paul Girard recently bought an iPhone which has the same APPS as the iPod and he is having fun with this new gadget.

Mike was also curious about reading and sending PDF documents. Joe Lapiana then said you needed to use Adobe Acrobat Creator to create them which costs several hundred dollars. However, Adobe Reader is a free download and can be used to open and read PDFs sent by email.

I still use Word 2003 which has no PDF options but Word 2007 and 2010 do allow you to convert Word to PDF but not PDF to Word. To do this you need to buy Adobe Acrobat. However, there is a free open source program that you can download called OpenOffice.Org which easily makes the conversions. You can see info about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org . You can also see a discussion of other conversions at the link http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/converting .

The discussion then changed to trips where Jim is planning a trip to Santa Barbara, CA and some skiing in Tahoe. Joe Lapiana is also planning another river cruise in Europe. We will hear more about this later. The discussion then went to past book reps from Holt and Pearson with various names thrown around. We also talked about the old Addison Wesley building off rte 128 and rte 28 in Stoneham which has been demolished for redevelopment.

Ed D. then told us that he bought several Hillary Clinton Nutcrackers on eBay cheap and resold them for more money. He then went out to his car and brought in a sample. We all laughed at the Nutcracker and the hilarious sayings that went with the package regarding Bill Clinton.

I then went back to my car and brought in some hand painted decorative signs that I had made and advertised on eBay and my website MarksCrafts.Com. Ed saw the website and his wife bought a few signs which I gave him at the lunch. I also passed around a booklet showing some photos of my signs.

Joe Lapiana then talked about his JP role and said the demand for private weddings was down. However, he is now an Ordained Minister and is able to perform marriages out of state and is registered at the World Christianship Ministries http://www.wcm.org/?gclid=CJKpx_3cy60CFaIRNAodJTlhgg .

We then ordered coffee and some Tiramisu and talked with the owner about cappuccino. He said he didn't offer cappaccino since a real cappaccino machine would cost him about $4000 and was not worth the investment for him. We then talked about the next lunch and decided on Feb.21, 2012 at a restaurant in Beverly. Jim T. will email us all with details.

You can see some photos of the lunch at ……….. https://picasaweb.google.com/108806068200291783388/Romeo11112?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Comments always welcome … markryan82@comcast.net

Romeo Lunch 12-14-11

The Romeos met for lunch today at the Continental Restaurant in Saugus, MA on Rte 1. You can see the website at the link … http://www.continentalrestaurant.biz/
Ten Romeos were present and were Joe Lapiana, Mark Ryan, Ed DeSchuytner, Jim Terlizzi, Jack Tweetie, Joe Pignatiello, Steve Winter, Jim Sicuso, Paul Girard and Mike Zapantis. You can see some photos at the web site link ….
https://picasaweb.google.com/108806068200291783388/Romeo121411?authuser=0&feat=directlink

We were seated at a large round table at the back where other tables began filling up with groups. Most of the other patrons were of the older set. You could see the elderly lovelies eyeing us older gents and vintaged stallions as we pranced over to our assigned stable (sorry table).

Jim Sicuso, who still works in Revere joined us and started off the table laughter with a joke. I’m terrible with remembering jokes, but here goes. “An elderly lady was asked about her longevity and life with here husband who had recently passed away. She said that it was due to their romantic activities during the day. They lived next to a church and would make love at the sound of the church bell which went ding and dong. They would take turns with their romantic moves. He would start with a ding and she would respond with a dong. The rhythmic ding and then dong was slow a steady and suited their age. Everything was fine until the dam Ice Cream truck parked outside of their house. The husband died from too much ding.”

The waitress then took our drink orders and gave us menus to look at. The drinks were beer and soda and martinis and manhattans and were served quickly. Joe Lapiana then asked all to toast the two Romeos that recently passed (Joe Loduca and Peter Gabriel). Joe also read a prayer that was composed by Brother Tim Paul and we all said Amen.

Several attended the wakes and funerals for both Peter and Joe Loduca. Joe Lapiana said that there were 800 visitors at Joe Loduca’s wake. Jim said that he attended the funeral for Peter and the Meal after. There was a long line of cars for the travel to the cemetery and Jim got separated with other cars but eventually made his way back to the restaurant. It was a sit down dinner and well attended.

The waitress then took our food order which consisted of various dishes of fish, steak and chicken. The special of the day was a fish trio of scallops, shrimp and haddock which many selected. The meal came quickly and was delicious.

The conversation was lively as always as it bounced around the table but mostly between three or four since it was hard hearing across the table. Mike was interested in teaching online courses and asked Ed about them. Ed said it was good for the college since they could add sections at will and were not constrained by classroom space. They also charged the same amount of money for online or at school courses. Ed also was worried about student honesty in taking exams online since there was no way to check who actually took the test.

Mike was also interested in teacher supervision jobs and asked Jack who is presently supervising 4 teachers. Joe Lapiana had mixed feelings about the pay since the supervisor was paid about $800 a semester and had to make six visits for each student, travel to and from the city school, write evaluations and communicate by email with the student and others. Too much work?

Mike was interested in the iPhone and iPod and I showed him some of the APPS that were available. Paul recently got an iPhone and is having a great time with the functionality of a smart phone. We talked about the Occupy Boston movement and the cost to repair the area as well as how well Mayor Menino handled the affair without much confrontation.

Before long it was 2 PM and we ordered one large ice cream dessert and 10 spoons. We also ordered coffee and cappuccino. However, the cappuccino machine was broken and we got coffee instead. We then talked about next time and several restaurants were suggested and we decided on one in Winthrop on January 7th. Jim T. will send an email to give particulars.

Romeo Lunch 11-16-11

In Memorium (Joseph Loduca – (Passed Away 11-18-11)
Although the Romeos had lunch this week on Wednesday 11-16-11, I have not had time to write the Blog until this Sunday morning. Unfortunately, during that time we were all informed that our friend Joe Loduca had passed away on Friday. It was truly a sad day when we got the news. Joe was a great friend and always fun to be with. He always had a good story to tell or an unlimited assortment of jokes. Our bellies would ache from all the funny stories. We will all remember him in our prayers and our truly thankful for the impressions that he made on our lives. We also give our heart felt condolences to his family whom he loved so dearly. Funeral arrangements will be at the Anderson Funeral Home in Townsend where Joe lived. See the web site for details…….. http://www.andersonfuneral.com/

Lunch Update
The Romeos met for lunch on Wednesday 11-16-11 at Not You Average Joe’s Restaurant in Watertown.
The Romeos present were Steve Winter, Ed DeSchuytner, Jim Terlizzi, John Tweedie, Mike Zapantis, Paul Girard, Mark Ryan, Joe Lapiana, and Joe Pignatiello. You can see photos at the link …..
https://picasaweb.google.com/108806068200291783388/RomeoLunch111911#

The conversation was lively about politics, skiing, JP duties, NSSSA, Bank foreclosures and fees, and individual chit chat. I will expand more in next month’s blog. We all ate off the lunch menu and the food was a little spicy. Although we did have a few beers, the bill was more reasonable this month than previous.

We agreed to meet next time at Spinelli’s Restaurant (Old Towne Line House) in Lynnfield on 12-14-11. Jim T. will send out more info.

Comments Always Welcome …. Markryan82@comcast.net