The Philadelphia Story - Completed 2/18 About This Page:

[chezp]

Great addition Marie - and I love your new signature pic!

[luvnwdwgal]

Hurry with more please!!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great updates ladies Love the pictures too More please

[loobyoxlip]

Thanks for your update, Marie!

[BostonTeaParty]

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Come on, Nancy! They need a picture of Mr. Whiskie!

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I was thinking the same thing, Lynn. No one got a picture of him, but I searched around online and found one of him!! Who's cuter than this??? Mr. Whiskie!!!!

[DopeyGirl]

Great updates . . . you all sound like so much fun to hang out with!!!

Enjoying every hilarious word and photo (and Mr. Whiskie is too cute!!! )

More please!!!

[BostonTeaParty]

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That's a lovely picture!! Which I richly deserve after putting you through that night with me!

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Uhhh - Lynn - is there something I should know about being Tara's roomie??????

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Just tell her to "BACK AWAY FROM THE CORONAS!"

[BostonTeaParty]

Cindy and Tina, I'd love to hear about your visits to Amish country and, in your case Tina, their visits to your neck of the woods.

Hi Marie and Janine, glad to see you have both recovered from Passporteritis. What scares me is the four of you got a nasty dose of something. How did I manage to dodge that bullet?

Crystal and Chez, thanks so much for your generous compliments. (Did I mention what good taste you all have?)

[BostonTeaParty]

We returned to our rooms at the hotel to freshen up for dinner. This didn't require much, as much to my delight, dinner was a casual affair. I am always happiest when dressing up is not required. I can do it when I have to, and it's fun for about an hour, but after that I get a little antsy to get back into my jeans. We had reservations for 7:30 at Ralph's, a nearby Italian place. We decided to cab it, but since the cabs would only fit four people, we made the decision to split into groups of three and two. Tara and Janine grabbed the first one, Marie, Lynn and I followed in the second. It was a short ride and then we were at Ralph's. I felt comfortable instantly. (Thanks Lynn, for choosing and making the reservations at such a great place. ) Ralph's is a small brick rowhouse building and lays claim to being the country's oldest family-owned Italian restaurant. It's been serving meals to Philly for over 100 years! It's even been featured on The Food Network! The joint was hopping when we entered, and as we had about a five minute wait, we walked up to the bar on the second floor for beverages. When faced with this question I almost always go into crisis mode. "What should I have? What should I have??" I always feel like I need to try something new and delicious. I let everyone else order first so I could use the extra time to think....margarita? nah...cosmo? nah...wine? possibly...well, I ended up spazzing out and just ordering my usual Corona with a wedge of lime. We barely had our drinks in hand, when we were being called to our table on the third floor. I liked it there very much. The atmosphere was perfect, not as loud or as crowded as downstairs and very attentive service. We had a couple of young waiters who were just adorable. The first one, Sam, tried to give me a pronounciation lesson when I ordered the "gnocci." "It's enyawki" he said. The more I tried to pronounce it correctly, the less success I had. My tongue didn't want to cooperate. But that was okay, he got my order correct and that was what mattered. Tara and Janine also had coronas, and I believe Lynn and Marie both ordered wine. Then, one of the waiters tried to show me some neat trick where you put the lime wedge in the bottle, stick your thumb in, and then turn it upside down. I don't know what's suppose to happen, but I gave it a try anyway. I am such a goober. I did something incorrectly and managed to give everyone a laugh at my expense. That was okay too, the beer was great! Anyway....

Tara suggested we try the...was it grilled peppers?...for a starter. It was so tasty! I don't remember everyone's entrees, but Lynn, who was seated next to me, ordered a chicken in mozzerella and white wine and butter sauce that was to die for! After we had been eating for a while she made the mistake of offering everyone some of her plate (the servings were a good size). I tried one bite of her chicken, and I couldn't stop eating it! It was that good! Backing up a bit, before we were served our meals, the other young waiter saw us getting ready to take a group picture and offered to take one for us. You can see the results in Tara's signature photo. He did a great job! Before coffee and dessert Tara and I each had one more corona. Then young waiter number two came by with the dessert menu and we each ordered something different so we could all have a taste of different, yummy desserts. I know I had a cannoli, Janine had an incredible chocolate cake, Lynn had an oreo pie, and I'm drawing a blank on Marie and Tara's dessert. Anyway, we had our coffee and dessert and then went outside to wait for our cabs to bring us back to the hotel. I remember chatting at length with Marie while waiting for our cab. We discovered that in some ways our lives are quite similar. It's funny, because long before we ever met, I use to read Marie's posts, especially her TRs, and I would think "I bet we'd get along great if we ever met." I was absolutely right too!

So back to the hotel we went, and the decision was unanimous that we would stop in the hotel pub for a couple more before calling it a night. When we got inside, it was sort of quiet, which was perfect for us to sit and chat. We were told to sit wherever we felt like, and we ended up at a table by the ceiling to floor plate glass windows that gave us a view of downtown Philly at night. Now, I was still drinking coronas, as was Janine. I'm pretty sure T had switched to Sam Adams. The joke now was, the lime wedges served here were too fat to squeeze into my bottle. Janine was having none of that and managed to force squish her lime wedge into her bottle. For some reason (probably the three beers I'd already had) I found this quite hilarious. I think at this point they asked us to move down one table, as much to Tara's delight, they were getting ready to set up for karaoke. Ugh! This is one thing, IMO, the Japanese got so wrong! I am not a fan of karaoke. Well for some reason, it took them forever to set up, and so we managed to have a great, long chat. I do remember discussing singers we do and do not like. I remember Lynn and I agreeing on a big thumbs down for Celine Dion. I remember mentioning that the nasal whining of Shania Twain makes me homocidal. (She is very popular, very pretty and her life story is very inspirational - so if I've offended anyone, let me know when to duck please.) Tara had some comical "old boyfriend" stories that she shared with us too. I know I'm missing lots of other interesting bits here, so once again I'm counting on the other ladies to fill in the gaps. A couple of limeless coronas later, I knew I needed to call it a night. Lynn was ready to crash also, so we bid the others goodnight and headed upstairs to get our beauty sleep. This bar was on the smokey side too, which had a terrible effect on just about all of us. I couldn't get away from that fast enough. When I reached my room I called home to check in and update Paul on all the fun I was having, and to make sure the house was still standing. For three guys on their own, they did alright! Chris even got on the phone and asked me how to put fabric softener in the rinse cycle - he did laundry!! I should go away more often. I am calling on the others to fill you in on what happened at the pub after Lynn and I left. Lynn and Tara will have to provide the details of the rest of their evening, as they shared a room. All I can tell you is, after perhaps a bit too much ale, Tara got "the flu". The next morning, when I got out of the shower, the other girls told me that Lynn had not gotten much sleep that night.

At this point, I already felt, and I'm sure the others did too, like we'd had about five Passporter meets rolled into one day. It was awesome - and we hadn't even done the official meet in Allentown yet!

Coming up: THE ALLENTOWN PASSPORTER MEET!!!

[chezp]

Wow - what a great night you guys had! I can't wait to read about the "official" meet, but I agree - it sounds like you've already been through a heap of meets so far!

[crystalloubear]

Next time I am definately not going to miss the premeet!! Great so far!! So Tara had too much ale...gee, I had NO idea!!

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update Nancy! Sounds like quite the evening you ladies had

Hurry back wtih more

[luvnwdwgal]

Awwwww Tara, I'm so disappointed.....you can't hold your beer! You'll just have to practice more!
Looking forward to more!!!

[whoSEZ]

Oh my gosh, what a weekend!! Great updates, everyone -- and love the pictures. Mr. Whiskie is so darn cute!!

[loobyoxlip]

What a fun night you all had. Uh, Tara, where's your update to this evening?????