Celebrating under the stars

It's been tradition here in the Den that when a family member celebrates a birthday, the post that day is numbered with their age on said day. Well, yesterday the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML celebrated another birthday, and since discretion is the better part of valor, I've chosen NOT to share the number. Yea, me!

I will tell you that in terms of being thoughtful on how this birthday was honored, which admittedly has not always been my strongest suit, yesterday was a success! I had to be in the office early so the Boy took it upon himself to get his mom breakfast in bed and then spent the better part of the day with her. It really made her day. When I got home, we opened presents. The highlight was the device that will allow the mighty fine SML plenty of face time with her grandson and will allow me to further enslave myself to a certain tech company bearing the name of a fruit. The same fruit with which Beelzebub Himself took down Eve. Ironic connection...I digress.

Anyway after taking care of that, it was on to the evening's surprise. The mighty fine SML's late father was a Big Band-era music aficionado and he loved him some Frank Sinatra. So there's some sentimental feelings for the Chairman around these parts. I'd learned about a week ago that the Hartford Symphony Orchestra was as a part of the Talcott Mountain Music festival doing a 'Sinatra Under The Stars' night at an outdoor amphitheater on SML's birthday. It didn't take much deliberation to hit "purchase" on those tickets and an evening of celebration was secretly planned.

The best Sinatra homage ever

So I told her what we were up to and we were off. We grabbed dinner on the way and with some treats in hand, we settled in at the venue for a night of music. The weather mercifully held and it made for a beautiful night. It was cool enough that the bugs were kept at bay. The music was good. The Sinatra impresario had clearly spent a lot of years on the lounge circuit and the schtick got a little old after awhile, but the music made up for it. We had a really good time. All in all, I think it made for an excellent birthday celebration. If anyone deserves it, it is the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML.

On a side note, from the time the guy took the stage, I could not shake the image of the late Phil Hartman playing Frank Sinatra on Saturday Night Live. Phil's take on the leader of the Rat Pack was brilliant, but then so was Phil. So I'll leave you with the classic "Sinatra Group" sketch:



That, my friends, is comedy gold!