Dinty Childs Album Release Show

You want to hear a great story about inspiration, life long dreams, and self-actualization?  Let me tell you about Dinty Childs.  Dinty is a beloved local musician (who has never put out a solo album) and member of Session Americana.  Dinty is also a member of Sub Rosa, a collective of local singers and song writers who perform together from time to time.  I first heard Dinty sing with Sub Rosa during their annual "Songs from the Island" show at Club Passim.  He seemed like a really fun person who loved good campfire sing alongs.  You could tell the other musicians loved him.

I then saw Dinty when I went to see Lula Wiles open for Session Americana.  He was great in that band and again you could tell his fellow bandmates really loved him.

Then, I saw Dinty play a solo show at Passim where he was accompanied onstage by Isa Burke, one third of Lula Wiles, and Sean Trishka, drummer extraordinaire.  Isa and Sean are both in their mid-twenties and Isa's mom actually used to sing with Dinty back in the day.  At that show, Dinty commented that working with these younger musicians had really inspired him and he was going to put out a solo album.

Well, guess what?  He did and he threw an unbelievably awesome album release event at the Oberon.  He assembled all of his friends to be in his "band" including, Isa, Sean, Zachariah Hickman, Sean Stapleton, Dietrich Strausse, the string trio that Zachariah always seems to get to join him for his crazy shows, Rose from Sub Rosa, and Rose Cousins.  So basically he had all of the Passim super stars up on stage with him (and in the audience because Mark Erelli was there cheering on his friend.) 

The music was incredible and Dinty definitely enjoyed putting on a killer show!  It was really a magical night of music and I can't recommend his album enough.  It's such a great story of never being too old to chase your dreams and the power of the collaborative process to inspire you to achieve new heights!

Parlor Run Club

Monday night was 35 degrees, which normally would make for a downright balmy winter run but after the spring weekend weather, it seemed extra chilly.  I almost skipped this month's Parlor Run Club run but I reminded myself that 35 was actually somewhat warm.  I'm so glad I didn't skip it. I ended up having a great run and enjoyed the company!

Spring Weekend

I'm not a fan of winter.  I mean, I love a good snow day, but I hate the cold, snow, slush, and occasional Polar Vortex that winter brings with it.  So when the weather people started forecasting crazy 70 degree weather for last weekend I was beyond excited.  I even scaled back my weekend school work so that we could enjoy every last minute of sunshine and warm weather.

On Saturday we decided to go for a run/open house tour through Somerville and Cambridge.  I think we ended up running five miles.  It was almost too warm for a run but I certainly wasn't complaining.  We had a great time exploring some new neighborhoods of Somerville during our run. 

 Of course, our run took us to Bow Market where we enjoyed some Hotbox Pizza and beers on the patio at Remnant Brewery.  It was so amazing to not be wearing a jacket outside in January!  Everything is better when you're getting a lot of sunshine and warm weather.

Later that night we walked into the city for dinner at Marliave!  Marliave is one of our favorite, if not our favorite, spots in the city.  It seemed like the perfect day to enjoy oysters at their bar.  It was so nice to walk around the city without shivering and rushing.  (As I told JO, this could be our life if we moved to California!)

Sunday morning was a little rainy but by the afternoon the clouds cleared and the 70 degree weather returned and of course, we returned to Remnant.  (It really is a great place to relax and be lazy.)  One of the things I love about Remnant is all the puppies!  I love puppy watching!  We were smart to get there early.  The patio was totally packed by the time we left and everyone was happy!

The whole weekend made me feel so relaxed and ready for the week ahead.  In true New England fashion, it flurried all morning on Monday and was in the low 30s.  (Hurry back spring!  I already miss you!)

A Second Chance for Sumiao

There are so many amazing restaurants and bars in Cambridge and Boston, that a place has to be really great to stay in our rotation. 

A few years ago we tried out the new "it" place in Kendall Square, Sumaio Hunan Kitchen.  This place had gotten rave reviews and was consistently crowded.  I was horribly underwhelmed by the food and drinks and I wasn't willing to give it a second chance because squeezing in all the places we want to go to is hard enough, without taking risks on a second chance.  (I know, big problems right 😉)

JO and I found ourselves in Kendall, after enjoying a lovely Greek meal at one of our favorite's, Desfina's!  Seriously, the food there is absolutely delicious and it's like your family is cooking for you. 

Since the weather was so balmy, we decided to walk around after dinner and found ourselves walking by Sumaio and spotted a few open seats at the bar.  We decided to give the place a second chance.  I'm glad we did.  Since we had already eaten dinner we didn't order any food but we certainly watched a lot of delicious looking dishes get delivered to the other people sitting around us which made us decide that a dinner visit will be worth it.  We enjoyed our matching drinks (you know what they say, if your drinks match you're a great match 💌) while we did some research for our upcoming desert adventure. 

Ringing in 2020

2019 was the best of years (we went on so many adventures, got a new bathroom, and family members got healthy) and the worst of years (no really, pretty much anything and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.)  I would have been perfectly fine with hanging at home this year.  2019 has been so crazy that I didn't even realize it was the end of a decade until about a month ago.  When I did realize that, I decided the staying at home plan wasn't going to cut it.  The end of a decade seems like something you should go out and celebrate.  Plus it would help us celebrate 2019 because even though it felt like we were in a constant state of crisis, there was a lot to celebrate and remember about the year.

We started looking at NYE events around the city.  A lot of the parties were expensive and would require us to get somewhat dressed up and that really wasn't appealing to me.  That's when I came across the NYE party at Aeronaut Brewery.  It was decently priced with no real wardrobe expectations!  The theme of the night was Glamour and Gold" but they were pretty upfront about saying wear whatever you want! Winning! 

We headed over to Aeronaut with some good friends.  We were smart and got there pretty much when doors opened, which allowed us to claim seats at one of the picnic tables.  Aeronaut had said some snacks would be provided, and they weren't joking.  There was so much to snack on.  We had already had a pretty big dinner at Ole but if we come back again next year I'm going to keep in mind the crazy amount of food that was set up all over the tap room.  There were sandwiches, cheese, salami, veggie trays, pasta salads galore, etc. 

They also had two different musical acts.  The first half of the evening featured a guitarist and singer singing covers of 80s, 90s, and 2000s songs.  They were really good. The second half of the evening was a hip hop DJ.  We spent the evening playing card games and just chatting with our friends.  It was the most low key night ever and just perfect in my opinion.  When you looked around, almost everyone was sensibly dressed, the sign of a good crowd in my books 😉 They also kept the amount of people in the tap room at a level that made it feel festive without feeling claustrophobic.  We never really had to wait in line for anything and they even had a photo booth which is always fun!

When midnight rolled around, they dropped tons of balloons from the ceiling and we all toasted with their glitter brut beer.  Yes, the beer was gold and full of edible glitter and absolutely beautiful!  It really was a fun way to ring in 2020, even if it wasn't real bubbles!

I'm hoping 2020 brings us happiness, health, and a lot more adventures and I'm hoping the same for you!

And these aren't even all of the adventures we had. I'll keep reminding myself about this whenever I think of this year!