Only a Kiss? Hardly. Guillermo Calderón's Kiss in Boston

We love to go into Boston for various events and when we saw that Goldstar was offering tickets to Guillermo Calderón's play, Kiss, it seemed like a great opportunity to see the Chilean playwright's socio-political drama. 

Kiss, Calderón's first play in English, is about two couples who meet for dinner in Damascus, seeking respite from the war around them. The couples plan to watch their favorite Syrian soap opera, but things change rapidly. This play-within-a play touches on cultural and linguistic misinterpretations and the implications of those misinterpretations.  

If you're in the Boston area, Kiss is running through November 19th. Tickets are available at the box office and through Goldstar, a discount ticket service operating in major metropolitan cities around the United States. 



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Ahora 19: Peeking out of the Rabbit Hole

I know that it has been a while; for me too. 

Every time I think about sitting down to write, something else take precedence, and it just never gets done.

While I have a few minutes this morning, I wanted to peek out of the rabbit hole and say hello. 

I miss you. 

Thanks for sticking around. 

Here's what is trending in my world these days. 

Learning
The in's and out's of my new job. It is like a rabbit hole; I begin one project, which detours into another and another. I LOVE my new job. I love working with my students and my co-workers, and the flexibility of location independence is a dream come true. Learning the platforms and grading assignments in a fairly self paced curriculum take time. There are times when I am inundated and other times, less so. I wouldn't change a thing. 


Drinking
Hot mulled apple cider. And Cinnamon Dolce coffee; I can thank my niece for this new obsession. 


Reading and planning to cook my way through...

Eating
Dinner With Julie's quick cassoulet. It's quick, it's easy, and it is delicious! It makes the house smell amazing too! With a glass of red, an arugula salad, and a warm baguette... bliss.

Watching
This is Us. If you haven't started this series, you can stream it free on Hulu. It's that good. 
And the soundtrack is playlist worthy. 



Exploring
Boston. We had friends in town last weekend, and we had the chance to play tour guide. 

In Baah-stin speak, the corner store. 

No matter where I go, Boston, you're my home. 

Loving
Being somewhat of a stay-at-home-dog-mom. It sounds ridiculous, I know; however, I love having the flexibility to take Gracie outside at lunch time to play. 

She seems to like it too. 

And squeak toys are the best. 

Fall colors? Yes, please. 

And Snap Chat filters for days...if you're on Snap Chat, add me... https://www.snapchat.com/add/alovelylifeind. I'm always looking for fun accounts to follow. 

Celebrating
My Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary. My brother and I planned to surprise my parents back in July. We did it, and it was wonderful. 

And Happy 4th Birthday to my lovely space in the universe. A Lovely Life, Indeed turned four on November 1st. 

Stressing

About the election...

This election gives me anxiety. The energy, the ads, the Facebook rants, the surprising jaw-dropping views of those I hold dear...I guess I do live in a bubble. A warm, happy bubble.

And this election compels me to retreat. 

But, it's critical that we get out there and vote, my American friends. 

We don't have to agree on candidate or ideology, but we do have to voice our choice. 

It's a big deal...and the world is watching. 

Still not sure? Take the quiz from I Side With and see who parallels your thinking the most. 

Also, read up on your state's ballot questions and carefully consider your options down ballot. Consider future legislation and the Supreme Court; it's not just about the executive branch. 

Okay. I am going to go and get some work done. Tell me...
What's happening now in your world? 
Let's catch up. 




Linking up with Kristin today. 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day, America! 

No one does the 4th of July like Boston! Cheers!

The Pops and "Stars and Stripes Forever"

I'm still visiting in Florida this 4th of July. What are your plans for the 4th? 

Friday 5: Creating Holiday Traditions for a Family of Two

The holidays are centered around all things children and family, but what happens when you are a family of two? 

If you have no children, by chance or by choice, there are many ways to mark the holidays and create traditions that you can look forward to every year.  Join the family for traditional celebrations, but create a few that are just for the two of you.

1. Collect ornaments. If you vacation over the summer, look for an ornament  from your special place. Or check sites like Bronner's  or Ornament Shop for just the right ornament for you and your loved one. 

2. See the sights. Attend a holiday concert or tree lighting event. Or take a stroll (or a drive) to see holiday lights in town or in the city. We did this last year, taking the commuter rail into Boston, walking around the Common and, after some hot cocoa and a pastry, taking the train back home. Dress warm and take in the sights. 

3. Volunteer together. This year, we went to a PTO fundraiser at our local Barnes and Noble and I did a read-aloud. Check out Toys for Tots, or organize a coat drive. Donate to your local food bank. Become a Secret Santa to a child in need. Do good; feel good. 

4. Embrace nothingness. Choose a day to sleep late, eat whatever you want, watch movies...whatever you want. No demands, no schedule...just be. 

5. Organize a post-holiday friendsmas gathering or night out. Or get out of town yourselves. Be on the lookout for deals or take advantage of the lower gas prices and do a "tank-away" getaway. 

Need more ideas? Check out holiday date nights or winter date night ideas and get the creative juices flowing. 

If you are a family of two, or flying solo these days, what do you do to mark the holidays in way that is special for you?

Women in Travel Summit Comes to Boston: A Preview

If you are a travel blogger or someone interested in travel, WITS'15, the Women in Travel Summit, is for you. And this year, it's being held in Boston, March 27-29, 2015 at the Revere Hotel on Boston Common.  

The Women in Travel Summit was developed by Go Girl Network to connect, educate and inspire women in travel, and to link women in travel with industry professionals.  

Source

The conference offers sessions at the beginner and more advanced level for travelers, bloggers and entrepreneurs. 

Sessions may include the following topics:

• For the traveler: budget travel, working overseas, solo travel, ethical travel.
• For the blogger: SEO, HTML coding, vlogging, and maximizing social media. 
• For the entrepreneur: your brand, working with travel companies, building a following. 

Registration is now open and there is a Facebook group for participants to connect and share ideas. 

Keynote speakers include Kate McCulley of Adventurous Kate, and Dina Yuen of Asian Fusion Girl. Twenty-four other travel writers and entrepreneurs are scheduled to speak as well. 

Excursions are available, including an FAM overnight to Johnny Appleseed Country, courtesy of the tourism board of North Central Massachusetts. 

As with any conference, there is fun swag, including this Jordyn Laptop Tote Bag, courtesy of Samsonite for all WITS'15 attendees.

If you are a woman interested in travel, this is the conference for you. 

I will be there. Will you?

Top 10 New England Winter Date Night Ideas

With Thanksgiving right around the corner and Old Man Winter knocking at our door, it's the perfect time for hearty New Englanders to start thinking about romantic ways to keep warm long after the snowflakes fly. 

If you live here in the Northeast, or anywhere that "does winter" you understand that cabin fever can be overwhelming. But with a little creativity, a little activity, and a daily dose of vitamin D, winter can be bearable...and even enjoyable.

If you live in Massachusetts, this list is for you. 

But, even if you don't, use this list as a springboard for your own winter fun. 

1. Ice skating at the Boston Common Frog Pond. Lace up, hold hands and skate for the gold in the heart of Boston Common. Afterwards, cuddle up with a hot chocolate or a cognac. 

Source

2. Feeling adventurous? Try dog sledding! Based out of Central Mass, New England Outfitters will give you and your partner-in-crime the experience of a lifetime, mushing behind a team of dogs that run for the pure joy of it. Or if dog sledding sounds too intense, how about a romantic sleigh ride?  

3. Channel your inner Julia Child and Jacques Pépin. Culinary Underground, on Route 9 in Southborough, offers special Couples Classes, like American Steakhouse, Cocktail Party and Feast of the Seven Fishes, designed to help you and your honey cook up some romance in the kitchen and out. Your local Sur La Table also offers date night cooking classes. 

4. Cursed Blessed with wanderlust? Learn a new language at the Boston Language Institute, where you can pick up that high school French again and plan a romantic Parisian getaway. Or brush up on your Italian . . .Tuscany awaits. If Boston is too far of a commute, check out free online language learning options. 

5. Get close and dance the night away. The Salsa Loft offers classes in salsa, bachata, merengue and cha cha, as well as monthly socials and weekly Latin nights at some of the hottest venues in central Mass, like Bocado's Tapas Bar.

6. Run away. At least for a while. Check out New England's hottest hotels and bed and breakfasts and plan a romantic weekend getaway for two. Or see if you can score a deal on an online bidding site, like Priceline.

Thank you, Boston Park Plaza!

7. Get outside and play. If you haven't gone snow tubing, you're in for a treat. At places like Ski Nashoba, you will be pulled up a giant hill by a rope tow and fly down the slopes with a giant inner tube. This brings out the kid in us all. 

And if you're skiers, New England has plenty of resorts to ski and stay.

8. Pancakes . . .what's not to love? And if you're from New England, only the real maple syrup will do. When brunch calls, check out Parker's Maple Barn for the most amazing pancakes on the planet. There is always a pancake of the month and if you or your love is more of a meat and potatoes kind of eater, they even have maple glazed ribs. 

9. Planning a warm tropical escape? Want to swim with the fishes? Just kidding. Nothing says romance like buddy breathing. Learn to scuba dive. Do your pool work locally and then do your check-out dives in the Caribbean. Central Mass Scuba does it all . . .certification and check-out dives both locally and in the tropics. 

10. Stay in and do whatever your hearts desire. Create the perfect staycation night at your own casa de amor. Build a romantic playlist, assemble a charcuterie like this one below, make a homemade pizza, open a bottle of wine. Relax...enjoy...love.

What are some of your favorite winter date night ideas?

Chocolate and Wine? Yes, please

I first heard of Chocolate Therapy on Chronicle, a Boston based news magazine television series. 

Then, I saw the shop's owners, Dave and Pam Griffin, featured on the Phantom Gourmet, a New England food review program. 

So when Jen at Blog and Tweet Boston, organized an event, #BloggerChocolateTherapy, giving Boston based bloggers the chance to sample Chocolate Therapy's artisanal chocolate paired with wines specially chosen to heighten the essence of the chocolate's flavors,  I said, "Yes, please." 

Chocolate Therapy owners, Dave and Pam Griffin, welcomed us with a glass of wine, a tour, and some information about how their business came to be. We met at the company's Framingham location, conveniently located on Route 9 East, in the Legal Seafoods plaza. 



Chocolate Therapy specializes in Belgian chocolate truffles. They add therapeutic ingredients to some of their truffles, such as cayenne, cinnamon, ginseng, and ginger. 




According to Dave, they tried to imitate the European flavor profile. Nothing, he says, is overly sweet. And this fusion of herbs and spices makes these sweet remedies fairly guilt free...a prescription for joy and happiness.

Our hosts and Chocolate Therapy owners, Pam and Dave Griffin

In the mood for coffee? Think mocha. 

Or ice cream? They have that too. 

Our tasting began with Dave, who walked us through the journey of chocolate, from pod to palate. 

Cocoa butter disks cocoa nibs, tasting disks of white, 

milk, and dark chocolate and our tasting truffles. 

Chocolate, reportedly, is about 6,000 years old, but the first records of its use surfaced about 2,000 years ago in Latin America, for food, drink, and currency.

After the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in the 16th century, chocolate was brought back to Europe. 

A cacao pod. The average cacao tree has about 25 pods 

and it takes about two trees worth of pods to make one pound of chocolate.

Today, 70% of the world's chocolate comes from Western Africa; in fact, cacao makes up about 30% of the Gross National Product of Ghana, and 85% of the world's chocolate comes from small family farms. And all chocolate is grown within an eleven mile band of the Equator. 

The cacao pod, seen above, is cracked open to release the seeds. The seeds are pressed for butter or roasted and ground for nibs or liquor  

When it comes to chocolate types, it's not about where the chocolate is made, but how it's made. The percentage of cocoa butter to cocoa liquor is the determining factor. Swiss chocolate has more coco butter, so it's creamier, where as Belgian chocolate has less. 

And white chocolate? Not chocolate at all...just cocoa butter with added milk, cream, and sugar. 

Dave, holding a bar of Belgian chocolate, which will later become truffles.

Following the "informative portion of the program," Pam began the wine and chocolate pairings...four decadent truffles and their accompanying wine suggestions.

We began with a dark chocolate ganache lemon lavender truffle, topped with crystallized lemon peel, that was paired with a California Alfresco sauvignon blanc. 

Next, we cleansed our palate with some bread and moved on to a milk chocolate  ganache truffle in a gold-dusted cocoa butter shell, paired with a peppery California Vintager Petite Syrah. 

Then, we cleansed again and tasted a dark chocolate strawberry balsamic truffle, filled with a strawberry and balsamic puree, paired with a California 90+ Cellars Lot III Pinot Noir. 

Finally, we sampled a true crowd-pleaser...a sea salt caramel...a buttery caramel flavored with Tahitian vanilla and sea salt, topped with Himalayan sea salt, paired with Quarles Harris Port, a 10-year Tawny port.

Once our sweet tooth was sufficiently sated, to end the evening, Pam and Dave let us in on an exciting new project. 

Meet "Boots"

Partnering with Beekman 1802, Chocolate Therapy provided The Fabulous Beekman Boys with Boots, a 120 pound chocolate goat, in order to launch their goat milk fudge sauce line. 

And if that wasn't exciting enough, there's a new reality show in the works. According to Chocolate Therapy promotional materials, the new series is about the making of gourmet chocolate, and maintaining the sanity between the Beekmans, the chocolatiers, and Pam and David Griffin, themselves. 

In this pilot episode, the team creates what will become the world's largest chocolate goat for the Fabulous Beekman Boys (Beekman 1802) and a chocolate surprise for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It was such a fun night. 

Chocolate, wine, and a surprise meeting with fellow Boston bloggers, Kerry, from Till Then Smile Often, Kate, from Another Clean Slate, and Kerry, from Urban Foodie Finds.

Time for a selfie with Kerry. 

And the best news is, you can have this much fun too. 

Whether you're looking for a birthday party locale, a book club meeting spot (reading Chocolat?), a girls' night out, or even a date night for two, Chocolate Therapy has the night for you. 

You can choose from a wine and chocolate pairing, like we had, or you can try a chocolate making class.

And then you can take some goodies to go. 

Chocolate Therapy has two locations, in Dedham and in Framingham, Massachusetts. 

You can find out more by visiting their website here.