The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. RSVPed to the baby shower for The Niece. Nice chat catching up with her mother.

2. Asked to help teach a Reiki 1 class next Sunday. Looking forward to seeing my Reiki Master of Masters and my "Cousin" another Reiki Master that assists with the class.

3. Breakfast at the Little Coffee Bean with the Eldest and running errands at the mall

4. Royal Blue fingerless gloves arrived. Just in time for the cold snap predicted on Sunday

5. Weekly play date with Teague. It was such a warm day ice cream at the DQ

How was your week?

Glastonbury Chalice Well and Gardens

 

In honor of Midsummer, a moment of meditation at the Chalice Well and Gardens in Glastonbury, England.

T Stands for Date Day

The day began with dropping Himself's car off at

9 Old County Road in Sudbury. Himself knows Son from the karate studio. Butch and Son Automotive great mechanics, honest, fair prices. A little off the beaten path, but worth it.

The car needed new tires, an alignment, oil change. So it would be awhile before we could pick it up.

We decided to head down the road to Russell's Garden Center. We browsed through the gardens looking at plants, lawn gewgaws, and their extensive gift shop. I was too busy looking at things that I didn't take any pictures. Not even of the koi pond with the wooden bridge.

Photo by FOX from Pexels

After wandering around the garden center, it was close to lunch so we went to Five Guys.  Since the day was warm, I had a Coke with Lime as my celebrating Summer drink.

We nibbled peanuts while waiting for our order.

I always think the servers put the Number One sticker on my sandwich because they recognize the Little Princess instead of that fact that I give my order first.

My favorite. A Little Bacon Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, mustard and ketchup.

A meal at Five Guys isn't complete without french fries (chips). We usually eat them last because the fries come out of the deep fryer and are molten hot.

While eating lunch we talked about what we would do for the rest of the afternoon.  

We decided we would go to the movies. 

This theater has very comfy seats

We saw

in 3D. Overall, in my opinion. Meh. Typical Marvel movie only this one had nearly all the heros of the Marvel pantheon. I thought it was overly long at 2 hours and 40 minutes and a cliffhanger ending. Felt more like Marvel cashing in on its Super Hero line, but Himself assured me the movie was following the comics. 

The car was ready, but we had decided to head to the karate studio for QiGong with Bob from Simply QiGong. Himself works out with Bob weekly. QiGong is mindful breathing with movement.

After QiGong, Master Beef was having his Tuesday night Reiki Healing and Angel Circle a form of meditation with Reiki.

After the energy work, we headed to pick up Himself's car and go home. It was a long day, but a good day.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Friday Five Good Things

Rabbit, Rabbit

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Tagged along to the dojo while Himself worked out. After, we went to lunch at The 99 and had lobster rolls.

2. After unraveling cutting the Gordian knot, I was able to get back to crocheting the baby blanket.

3. Attended the wellness group meeting at the dojo.

4. Went out to dinner. Love not having to cook and awesome lunch the day after.

5. I think I spotted a new bunny in the yard.

How was your week?

T Stands For Qi (Chi)

Himself has been having problems with his back. Besides going to physical therapy, he's also been doing some energy work on Fridays at the dojo. Last Friday, he invited me to tag along, but first we stopped to have breakfast at Friendly's in Framingham.

We ordered out drinks. Coke for Himself and a cup of tea for me. I was really looking forward to breakfast.

I ordered Cinnamon Bun pancakes with bacon. Himself had ordered the Big Two Do. Two scrambled eggs, two Brioche French toast, two sausage, and he also got an order of home fries. The waiter brought his breakfast, but my breakfast was no where to be found. Color me disappointed. Several minutes after his breakfast was brought out. The waiter came back and told me they ran out of the frosting that is drizzled on top of the pancakes. What? If you're going to offer menu items, the least you can do is have everything as listed. Otherwise make it known that a certain item is not offered when someone is placing the order.. And to be honest, it's not that difficult to make a frosting. 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, a couple of teaspoons of milk. Ta-DA! I decided to have the Cinnamon Bun pancakes without the frosting.

A few minutes later, the waiter brought my breakfast, but with sausage instead of bacon. I told him I ordered bacon, and he went back and brought me a plate of 3 strips of bacon. We were the only people in the restaurant at this time, but the waiter clearly wasn't happy, didnt want to be there.

The restaurant has a table kiosk to pay your bill, but the kiosk wasn't working. The waiter took another kiosk off another table for us. I was only able to eat half of my pancakes. They were delicious, but huge.Three of them at least 6 inches in diameter. The waiter asked if I wanted a take home box. Sure! He went back to the kitchen and we never saw him again...We waited for the box. Himself decided to use the men's room. Still no box. We left. We've had great service at the Worcester and Auburn locations. We'll skip the Framingham location from now on..

We were early when we got to the dojo. Master Beef was running his Master in The Morning Class. He works one on one with students. D, a second degree brown belt was working on a scythe form that he would perform at the annual regional tournament in November.

Karate Scythe

I helpfully told D, he could use the scythes to make shishkebab.

Master Beef gives pointers and direction.

Setting up in the CJ Kennedy Gallery

Himself works with Bob, not to be confused with Bob. Bob is owner, of SimplyQiGong. His practice focuses on Meditation, soft stylized movements, and breath work to promote deep relaxation, stress relief, pain relief and more.  Bob's program has been developed through practices and training in Guided Meditation, Reiki, QiGong, Tui Na, G-Jo, Myotherapy, Acupoint Tapping, Trigger Point Therapy, and continued research and practice.

 They started with some good mornings.

Bob sounded like he was coming down with coughing up a lung. His wife had been ill with bronchitis which morphed into pneumonia, and Bob was worried he had caught it, too. He asked Himself if he would do a Tui Na exercise to get his chi moving in his lungs. This included a move that looked like slapping the back. Similar to burping an infant, but with a little more force.

Hugging the tree

Holding Buddha's belly

The Drum (tapping kidneys)

They did some floor exercises for back and sciatica. After all the stretching and ramping up of chi, it was time to go home for some horizontal meditation.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Dinner and a Meeting

I belong to a Wellness Group. On the fifth Tuesday of the month, the group meets at the Villari's Natick Martial Arts Studio. This is the dojo where Himself (a 4th degree black belt) teaches and takes classes. Since I had the meeting, I thought he'd like to come along. We could go out to dinner before the meeting, and he could work out while the meeting was going on.

There are lots of chain restaurants in the Natick/Framingham area to choose from, but I had a gift card to The Outback. I love the Outback especially the Coconut Shrimp. Perusing the menu online, I saw the restaurant was offering a Surf and Turf Special. Steak with Coconut Shrimp. My mouth watered.

Something didn't look quite right when we pulled into the parking lot. There were no cars. Not one. And then we saw the notice on the door. This location had closed. So no Coconut Shrimp for The Little Princess.

Steps from Outback is Legal Seafood, but Himself didn't feel like eating at Legal. We were also near Pizzeria Uno's and Bertucci's, an Italian restaurant. I didn't feel like Uno's, and Himself and The Wizards (other professors from the college) usually go to Bertucci's a couple of times a semester. We decided to head across the highway to the Natick Mall and

The Cheesecake Factory. It was chilly so no diners on the patio.

The menu is extensive. It takes nearly 20 minutes to decide what to eat. I debated skipping dinner and just ordering a slab of too die for cheesecake.

I liked the mermaid skylights.

We ordered stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer. They were good, but Ma made them better. A Coke for Himself and an Arnold Palmer (half lemonade, half iced tea) for me.

We each had a house salad. Mine with balsamic vinegarette and Himself had Ranch dressing, I think. We also had bread, but I was too busy eating and didn't take a picture.

I had hoped The Cheesecake Factory had Coconut Shrimp on the menu, but nope. Himself ordered a surf and turf special, Steak Diane with Salmon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

I ordered Crispy Pineapple Chicken and Shrimp with veggies and rice in a sweet and spicy sauce. Yup, those are Himself's asparagus spears as he doesn't like asparagus. He doesn't know what he's missing. I also got a taste of his salmon, and he had a taste of my shrimp.

Portions were bigly, yuge so we got a doggie bag, and I asked for a to go cup so I could take the rest of my beverage to the meeting.

This is Bob. Bob is the same rank I was 14 years ago when I went on sabbatical. Green Belt with stripe (four ranks away from 1st degree black belt. There are 10 levels of black belt.)

The Wellness meeting is held in the waiting area between the large and small studios. Some members of the group recently participated in The American Cancer Society Relay for Life, offering Reiki treatments to cancer patients/survivors (free) and a nominal fee for others. All money collected was donated to the American Cancer Society. I think this was the 5th year the group has participated. I had to miss as I was teaching a workshop at the Worcester Public Libary. We also discussed people coming to Reiki to reduce stress (that's how I began the journey).  Because Master Beef, Reiki Master/Master of Masters has a martial arts background, he also brings and shares with us Chi Gong (breathing and moving) and Wu Chi ( the art of stillness) exercises. Discussion also invovled other energy work, and philosophical discussions.

While we were having our meeting, Himself was working out in the small studio, or as I like to call it the CJ Kennedy Gallery. I was commissioned to paint the five Shaolin animals. Dragon, Tiger (I named him Fluffy), and Leopard (affectionately named Burly) hang in the studio. Snake and Crane will be painted later this year.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Red and I went to work out with Master Beef at Master In The Morning.  We worked on Chi Gong exercises which is aligning mind, body, and spirit through gentle movement and breathing.

2. Then had lobster rolls at Panera.

3. Had gorgeous weather for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Manned the Natick Wellness Group booth with Master Beef and other members. We offered Reiki  to cancer patients, survivors, care givers, and Relay participants. Had a steady stream of takers all afternoon. All proceeds were donated to the American Cancer Society.

4. Had lunch with the Young One after her CAD class.

5. Was supposed to have an art date with A at Tower Hill Botanic Gardens. Weather was cool and cloudy so we postponed until next week. Had our regular art date over Skype, or tried to. Skype kept dropping me. Ended up calling A on the phone. Old technology, but it is reliable.

How was your week?

The Friday Five

To help with stress, I've been exploring Reiki combined with meditation, Wu Chi and Chi
Gong. I know sounds weird, like voodoo. On Sunday, I completed a level one class. Five affirmations of Reiki. Try them yourself. Just for today:

1. Do not get angry.

2. Do not worry.

3. Show appreciation.

4. Work hard (on yourself)

5. Be kind to others.

Nope, no voodoo there.