Manjoyment Monday: Brother Dan

Today is my brother Dan's 30th Birthday!
In celebration of this auspicious occasion, Dan is today's Man.

"No International Incidents."

I have 3 words for you Dan:
Happy Natal Day!
Fuck yo couch!

A Very Crabby Birthday

Just a fun little note to say that today (and all night) (oh, and all weekend long too) we'll be celebrating the Beaner's birthday!



Even the crabs and seagulls will be dancing!

Happy Birthday there thither!

To Whom it May Concern

Today is my birthday.

If you loved me, you'd buy this for me.

It's beautiful, shiny, and historically significant in it's own small way. I mean, why else would the Smithsonian be selling it?

Plus it has a hint of Art Deco, which I always love.

It would look nice 'round my wrist on my wedding day, don't you think?

Love you forever!
-Me

Silly Day

May is like a tidal wave of events in my family.

Today is especially special.

Happy Birthday Jason!

This'll be the last time we have to spend our birthdays apart, how exciting is that?!

Brudder Day

Today is a special day. It is Dan's birthday. I'm not quite sure how to put into words how awesome my brother is.

But whatever words or motions or actions that would be, I'd be doing it as hard as I could...and hoped he could see it from here.


Love you! Can't wait to see you!

This Just In!

For some reason I woke up at 4am this morning. Couldn't get back to sleep either. So I was away at 4:16am when I got a txt message from my cousin.

A baby is born!

Alexandra, the golden child. 21" 6lbs 15oz.
Best part, she has a freak'n mohawk!

Jaclyn is healthy, baby is healthy. Family is HAPPY.

We went to visit at the hospital this afternoon and oh man, all I can say is this girl is going to get so much love and attention it's not even funny.

Nanny's first great grand child!


Mama holds the newest little addition.


Dave is the happiest new uncle on the block.
I personally think Alexandra has his nose.


I get in some snuggle time.

I have a photo of Jaclyn and the fresh out of the oven baby, but as most new mothers do Jack looks pretty worn out in the photo so I'm not going to post it out of kindness. However, let me be the first to say that Jaclyn looks fantastic for just having squeezed out a little bundle of joy.

I think other than the epic mohawk, that I love the fact she just kept on putting her fists up against her face like, no more close ups, please! It's snuggle time and I want to just sleep in a cocoon.

DPF: Aunties

Yesterday was my Aunt Nancy's birthday!

Her favorite animal is the otter!

Celebrate!

The Beaner does Birthdays

Today is Julibean's birthday!

It's also our cousin Dona's birthday too!

To celebrate, here is a ridiculous photo of the two of us when we were little.

I loved that damn wig, even though it smelled like the attic no matter how long it aired out.
Plus check out that sweet animal print patchwork shirt! Ahhhh the 80s!


And just so we're clear on the fact that my sister has always had quite the personality...

I like to call this one "Clownitude"

HAPPY NATAL DAY JULIBEAN!
(and Dona!)

Birthday Datenight

Casey's birthday is just shy of a week after mine. Every so often we throw joint parties (our Pirate Themed Birthday is still frequently laughed over), but we decided this year we'd just go out on a date together to celebrate quietly.

That's not to say we didn't get dolled up and she didn't pick me up like we actually going out on a date. And by dolled up, of course I mean I was wearing jeans and a tshirt and Casey was wearing gym clothes, ready to go out for a run.


We decided to try a new (to us) restaurant down in Long Beach called the Beach House. Casey had heard that their mac n cheese was incredible and we thought that sounded like a fantastic birthday meal.


And let's not forget something to drink. This trio was pretty potent and we shared it over the mac n cheese. I have to admit, the mac n cheese is pretty much the second best mac n cheese I've EVER had. Best mac n cheese was at a Bistro around the block from Glenn & James' apartment in Jersey City. Holy crap was that good.

Party in the USA

Let me first start out by saying I have awesome friends.

Then allow me to continue to explain that when I told my friends we were having a Party in the USA themed Quarter Century Birthday Extravaganza at the beach house and were requesting everyone wear the most ridiculous cacophony of red, white and blue they could muster, they all seemed pretty excited. (Or at least, willing to humor the birthday girl).

I think the best way to describe the rest of the day is through photos, so if you'll allow me...

When we reached the beach house and we realized we were a few drinks behind everyone else, we realized we had to catch up. I spied a fishbowl-like glass in the kitchen, rinsed it out, and poured some wine in it. For the rest of the weekend, we all enjoyed drinking out of the fishbowl and it may or may not have been the very best idea, but it was pretty awesome at the time.

It was about half a fishbowl in that we realized the house next door looked like it was smiling at us.
Chris showed us the importance of packing properly when going on a hike. Craig accepted to being his human backpack.

About a third of the way through the fishbowl, Amanda has a tremendous idea! Chris is obviously missing white from his ensemble and she decides to help him out by lending him her apron. ...Oh the things our men let us do to them...

We all sat around on various blankets in the backyard while some of our awesome friends cooked and BBQed.

I could have sworn I had a photo of the three of them sitting there like old men talking and eating, but this one will just have to do.

Jamie showed off her best Statue of Liberty impression.

And then Craig showed us how he gets all the ladies:

All in all I have to say it was a top night. A stellar birthday! Definitely one to remember, and it was so great that Chris and Julibean hosted us all at the beach house. We had a very random crowd of friends around and they all got along so well it was fantastic.

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!

Quarter Century Extravaganza!

We turn 25 this year. Quarter Century Extravaganza anyone?

My sister and Chris offered to throw us a party for our birthday at the beach house. Originally it was supposed to be a surprise, but I got really antsy and it turned into a huge celebration and bringing together of random friends.

James, Laura and I drove down together which resulted in us getting extremely giddy towards the end of the trip. Added into that the fact that my GPS brought us clear into the middle of nowhere before recomputing and we were treading down the back roads of Delaware.

Along the way it was getting darker and darker and people were lighting "candles" in their windows. We had a length philosophical discussion about this in which Laura likened the lights to Jesus and from then on as James so very well put it: "Laura has decided that candles in windows of MD country homes represent JESUS and is shouting such. Drinking hasn't even started yet."

Yes, we are quite excited when it comes to Jesus.

Finally made it to the beach house and everyone was already there and having a crazy good time. The wine was flowing, the friends were chatting, and Julibean had made us birthday cupcakes :)

As you can see <-- they were delicious. Julibean makes a mean cupcake. The boys devoured them. More debauchery continued into the wee hours of the morning.

Jim Scott took up residence in the garage, despite more elegant offers like the HP Palace under the stairs.

And we all lulled into a nice deep sleep until James woke up impatiently the next morning and wanted to get breakfast and hit the beach!

We grabbed breakfast at Big Peckers. Surprisingly although our group was easily a dozen people they only made one mistake. They totally forgot James' blueberry pancakes and then brought him some johnny-come-lately sympathy pancakes when the rest of us were halfway through our meal. Suffice to say, James' high culinary expectations were unmet. (Perhaps a bit of karma for waking us all up?)

James, Craig, Julibean, Jason, Morgan, Me & Jim

From there we made our way over the beach. It was nasty weather unfortunately, but we made the most of it. Skipping in the surf (James and Jason nearly throwing Morgan and I IN), Laura and Chris backing away every time the waves bubbled towards them, Becky and Andy building sand castles. It was a good time.

Some of the ladies: Becky, Morgan, Laura, Me & Julibean

May I just point out the awesome shirt Laura has on in this photo? Check it out! When she told me about it she basically said, "I have a t-shirt with my face on it." I had no idea what she was talking about but, by golly, that is TOTALLY her face on a shirt right there!

Soon we were joined by Schwendy and then Amanda and Chris showed up. Somehow we split off, the boys played around in the sand, tossing a frisbee, and the girls sat down to chatter. Amanda unloaded about 8 bridal magazines on me that her mother had been collecting. I swear, my FMIL is awesome.

We meandered over to play some Viking Mini-Golf. There are dozens of mini-golf places on the strip in OC but we love the Viking one. Not sure why.

Chris got friendly with a horse.

I visited my creepy mushroom faced friends.

And what mini-golf trip wouldn't be complete without a light saber battle?

After mini-golf we all went home to shower and change and get ready for a Party in the USA!

Quarter Century

I don't feel any older. I suppose I'm a little wiser.

Today's my 25th birthday. 1/4 Century strong!

I certainly don't think I've changed much since I was 4 years old. But then again, that's just my opinion.

And that's all I have to say, about that.

Silly Bday!

It's Manjoyment Monday! It's Jason's Birthday!
Coincidence? I think NOT!

Happy Natal Day to my favorite Silly <3


Also, here's a little something I enjoyed from a seller over on Etsy.


It reminded me of how I feel about Jason sometimes. You'd be surprised how annoying facial hair can get but I still prefer Jason with it as opposed to the way he looks 15 when he is clean shaven.

Even if I prefer him that way...it is quite scratchy.

Erfday / Brfday

First off. It's Earth Day. However much I love the Earth I dislike Earth Day. Similarly however much I love Love, I dislike Valentine's Day.

I'm not a big fan of one day out of the year to say I Love You or to Recycle. I think those are things we should be doing every day of the year.

On a completely different topic, I've been watching Season 1 of Dollhouse on Netflix and just yesterday there was a moment in the episode Briar Rose where Alan Tudyk has a ridiculously appropriate line rant.

Earth gets one day, alright, the other 364 we're-we're-we're cranking the AC in our Hummer and then one day a year, ooh we separate the plastic. You know what I think? I think that once we die out, a couple hundred years, Earth is gonna have a people day, you know, to remember us. One day a year she is gonna laugh and laugh and shake our bones.

Basically, that's how I feel. Thank you ever so much Joss Weadon (or whoever wrote the script for that show) for putting it so well.

Anyway. Be a Planeteer and Save the Planet...but do it legit-like and make it a full time thing all year round.


So it has come to my attention that my sister is throwing me a birthday party the weekend we're at the beach house. This is exciting and I wasn't really expecting it. I figured a bunch of us would get together (who? I'm not sure) and we'd go to the beach house, Jason would drive up to meet us, we'd have cake, have some beer, go to the beach, maybe hit up the General's or Big Pecker's and that would be it.

Since she can't keep a secret very well Julibean let slip that "shh, some of your friends are coming" ... ... ... huh?

All of my friends are very busy and important people. We don't all have time to travel willy nilly around the east coast so this was a shock. I have NO idea who will be coming, but I'm excited none the less to see who loves me enough to make the trip.

Then the Beaner asked me if we wanted a theme for our birthday party. I know Jason doesn't care so I racked my brain and shot out a few ideas here and there. Finally I came up with a ridiculous interpretation to celebrate Memorial Day (which is the following weekend) and also stupidity and frivolity.

Our birthday will be a Party in the USA!

Yeah, that's right. Everyone will wear the most outrageous combination of red, white and blue clothing they can pull from their closet and we will have a party and dance around the kitchen to Miley Cyrus until we're exhausted.

Here's my list of demands for birthday presents:

1. Five hundred thousand dollars all in fifties.
2. A Shetland pony died pony blue to match my eyes.
3. Powder Blue Eyes.
   

Alright, alright. I'm kidding. I don't expect any presents, I'm just happy people want to travel to celebrate Jason and my Quarter Century...but I wouldn't mind a Nike+ sportsband, an Esther Williams bathing suit, or a gift card to Old Navy.

A-One SoCo, One Mojito, and One Beer

Yesterday was Shawn's birthday.

Shawn is a friend of Jason's from the Shire who I'm pretty sure is one of his oldest friends. They grew up together and I believe lived down the road from each other.

He's a super sweet guy and I'm glad I've gotten to know him over the years because if I know one thing it's good to befriend mother's and best buds if you want to make any relationship long-lasting and easy.

Shawn is what I like to call Jason's homeless friend. Not in the sense that he lacks a place to live, more in the sense that he travels a lot for work and his parents have moved away from NH so he has no "home" to go back to on the holidays.

There are many times when he winds up staying with Jason's family when he's in town visiting friends (even if Jason or Amanda aren't home) because that's just the way things work in the Shire. So when I found out that Shawn was going to be in town (away from home and friends and family) for his birthday I took it upon myself to make sure he didn't spend it alone.

Jason's only request for this mission of mine was to A) remind him which day was Shawn's birthday and B) make sure Casey came along so Shawn could "experience" her.

After a fun-filled day of being blind (Casey drove me to and from my eye doctor who decided to dilate my pupils, I hate that), and sitting at work with my shades closed and my computer screens' brightness turned all the way down...we picked up Shawn and brought him over to G-Town.

A few years ago Casey found this great little Greek Restaurant called Greek Town in Rockville Centre. They are delicious. And inexpensive. And can I tell you their tzatziki sauce is drool worthy. This soon became "our place" and whenever Casey and I just needed to get out of the house we'd go over to G-Town and sit and relax and rant and ramble over Greek Salads and Pitas.

So since Shawn hadn't ventured there yet, we took him for dinner last night to our favorite little place. It was hopping last night, usually there's no wait but I guess it was prime G-Town time when we walked in. The food is always totally fresh and prepared to order, the place is always really clean and the wait-staff is extremely friendly and attentive enough. Sometimes over-attentive waitresses irk me, but the ladies at Greek Town are friendly and get the job done without a lot of frou-frou-ness.

After dinner (which was predominately a story about Casey getting tasered), we headed over to RJ's.

RJ Daniel's is what we lovingly call "our bar". And by "our bar" I mean Casey's parents go to happy hour there and hang out with their friends so often that the bar tenders know us by sight and can have Casey's shot of SoCo and Blue Moon up on the bar by the time she's done saying hi to everyone.

By the time we got there last night it was a few hours past happy hour. One or two of Momz's crew were still sitting around so we said hi and had a few drinks.

Cue more stories from Casey, including a baby pool in the living room and a door kicked in in Bronxville.

All in all, a good night. Shawn was happy to get out and it was good food, good company and good drinks.

Hoping we'll catch him again before he's done with work in town and leaves.

Atlantic City or Bust

Months and months ago (sometime in May methinks) while we were at Chris' beach house we somehow came up with a large colossal idea. Our friend Jim is probably one of our best and closest friends from college (and when I say our I mean collectively my sister and I). He's an audiophile, brilliant, has a good job with a renown company, has a fantastic voice, an insane memory for roads and transportation systems, a sharp sense of humor and can imitate an irritated old lady perfectly. (If any of these qualities appeal to you, please inquire about dating Jim, he'd make an excellent boyfriend if you like nerdy guys.)

Playing mini golf on the strip...
this was when we decided AC would be a nice change from the OC

Problem is, now that we've all graduated we live so far apart and only get to see everyone together once in a blue moon. So we thought it would be a good idea to plan ahead and decide what we'd do for Jim's birthday in November. Somehow in our celebratory drunken wisdom we decided renting a suite in Atlantic City and dressing up and acting like high rollers would be the perfect way to go.

We put out some feelers to see who of our friends could join...this was back in June...and sometime in October we realized we're poor and can't afford a suite. So our plans switched gears and we wound up crashing at Jim's place in Philly and driving the hour to AC for the day.

Friday night found us in a pub a few blocks from Jim's apartment and we had a delectable dinner with a sprinkling of local beer. Might I interject here with a raving review for PBC's Joe, it is fantastic and if you are a fan of dark beers and/or coffee...TRY IT. We headed back after dinner, more friends arrived and then we took a nice stroll to a bar approximately 2 miles away from Jim's apartment. Hey, it was his birthday, I was going wherever he damn well wanted to go and SEPTA was on strike...again...so like responsible motorists we walked instead of flipping a coin to see who would DD.

Enjoyed another nice stroll approximately 2 miles back to Jim's apartment at around 3am. To which in the morning we all admitted "We're getting to old for this shit."

Saturday was the day! We decided to start off the day like true champs and have some Jim's. If you've never been to Philly, or have never had the pleasure of consuming a true Philly Cheesesteak in all it's glory, Jim's is truly the place to go. Don't be afraid if the line is down the block...it's worth the wait!

No it isn't cannibalism for Jim to eat a Jim's Steak.
But he likes his with extra wizz and onions if you're wondering ladies.

Morgan and Andrew chow'n down.

Then it was off to Atlantic City! I've actually never been there before, in fact it's on my 101 in 1001 list so I was super excited. We started over at the Trump Plaza and I was determined to lose no more than $40 for my first casino experience. Which limited me to the slot machines, err electronic gaming machines, the penny slots specifically.

I sat down at a fun looking machine and put in my first $20 and wailed away on the button! Too quickly for my friend Andrew to stop me since I had played the max bet on like 20 lines. *sadness* I had lost $5 on my first spin! Frustrated I printed out my ticket and moved on. How dare they not explain the rules of the game clearly before I play?!

Wandered on and watched Andrew play craps for a good half hour. The nice high school math teacher next to him at the table explained the rules to me and what the bets meant. As Andrew put it later he got me a $140 education. He wasn't so lucky.

Afterward I cashed out my $11.95 and we met up with everyone else who had gone over to Caesar's. Julibean and Chris (and one of Jim's friend whose name I cannot recall) were over by the penny slots and having a grand old time playing the fishy themed one.

I decided to try my luck at put $5 into the random machine next to my sister's. Now I was down to $2.45 on this ticket. We were about to give up, I was rather content with my ~$9 loss for my first experience...hey, it could be worse, I could have lost $140 at the craps table...and we soldiered on to find everyone else.

Except once we got to the aisle Julibean sat down at another machine, determined to either win big or just lose all her $40 she came to play with. Bored, I sat down at a cute little Hindu Goddess themed machine and decided to just throw my $2.45 ticket in and piss away the last of that $5.

This machine actually made sense and the pictures were really pretty and after two spins I found myself in a bonus round giving me 10 free spins. Woohoo! Exciting! I sat there watching the game literally play itself...woohoo! Another 5 free spins! The game continued and continued and I just sat and watched...$30.95....$49.45...$60.75!!!

At this point I had gotten my sister and Chris' attention and they came to see what all the fuss was about and were in awe as the game continued to play all by itself and rack up more and more money for me. By the end I was looking at $79.75 and immediately hit the cash out button and skipped over to the ATM/cash out contraption to grab my prize!

Seriously...it was awesome. I was the only one who walked away from AC with extra money, Jim broke even, and everyone else lost anywhere from $10-140. We drove back to Philly and had some dinner at Nodding Head which again had some excellent house beer (and one of the largest collections of bobble heads I've ever seen). I especially liked the Grog, delightfully dark, and the dessert we got Jim by surprise was one of the most delicious things he had never eaten.

Meandered after dinner to another pub with some live music (couldn't tell if the two front men were twins or just looked really really similar), and then eventually scampered back to Jim's apt.

These are the weekends dreams are made of...literally, it was that amazing a time.

Happy Birthday -> Halloween Style

Since we like to keep it in the family, my best friend Casey's brother Chris is one of my brother's best friends. Chris is like another big brother to me and I can always count on him for a good laugh or for some free copies at FedEx-Kinkos.

Chris' birthday is on Halloween...how effing awesome is that?!

This year all his friends decided to throw him a surprise party on the 30th and he was actually completely surprised...which is a first for him. Typically when his friends try to surprise him he knows within a week that they're up to something.

Anyway, they bought him this awesome drawing desk because he's really into comics and actually works part time coloring and shading graphic novels. And somewhere along the line someone drew a cartoon of him and his two favorite characters. They wound up putting it on his cake, and it came out ridiculously awesome. Seriously, we have some awesome friends and Chris seemed to really enjoy his birthday.


I had to leave early since I was leaving for Albany early the next morning, but it was a great time! Happy Birthday Chris!

We're Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo...

I love the Zoo.

There's just something about it that is fantastic. I love learning about different animals and seeing creatures I'd never see otherwise.

Julibean really wanted to go to the Zoo on Saturday when everybody was in town for her birthday extravaganza. However, since [here I am rock me like a] Hurricane Dan was in town, Saturday was a rainy mess.

Instead we wound up at Dave & Busters and partied hard Saturday and then ventured to the Zoo on Sunday. Mostly everyone else except for le boyfriend Chris and fiercer than fierce Cynthia. Seriously-> She's super ultra fierce.

With my parents in tow (you know because my dad finally had a reason to use his snazzy new toy) we braved the humid August weather and enjoyed a day hiking around the Bronx Zoo.

I'm sad that we didn't get a chance to do the Children's Zoo but it was the weekend and there were a massive amount of children running around so it was probably better that we didn't. We did catch the awesome sea lion feeding and then ventured over to see the penguin feeding. I have to admit that after watching the sea lions do tricks during feedings the penguin feeding where they literally just drop the fish in their mouth as they swim around their feet was slightly anticlimatic.

"Do you think they'll do a kickline?!" was Cynthia's hopes for the penguins, but alas, no, they just honked and swam and that was that.

My favorite part of the Zoo (other than the Children's Zoo) is the Bengali Express. Seriously, I love that stupid tram ride. We saw the new baby rino and elephants and always right at the end is one of the red pandas.

Red pandas are by far superior to any other animal when it comes to cute factor. Honestly, I mean it. They are just so cute and fuzzy and cuddly looking, though I know they could probably tear my face off there's just something about them!

Look at 'im! Just LOOK AT HIM!

Adorableness at it's best! <3

If I could have any exotic animal as a pet, a red panda would be at the top of the list. And then I would buy Jason penguins, two...so they wouldn't get lonely.

Identity Crisis OVER

Today my friends, is a long awaited day.

You see dear readers, our story starts three years ago when my baby sister Julibean started college. Lo and behold she wanted to go bar hopping with a friend and who was I to judge? Truly this was no worse than anythign I had personally done freshman year. But alas, my sister and I look nothing alike so I could not merely lend her my ID.

Enter my best friend (who shall remain nameless) who just happen to have just gotten her motorcycle license and had an extra ID lying around. Wow, you two look kind of alike! *ding ding ding*

Fast forward to last year when my sister wound up at a local brewery to grab some lunch and a mid-day beer but who is out on the deck drinking with her MBA buddies? Yeah, that'd be my awesome best friend...

"I can't be you when you're being you!" The Beaner shouted.

But my friend couldn't be bothered because she was at that point four in.

This went on for a few months - Julibean about to order a drink would spy my biffles across the bar and hope to baby Jesus the same bartender didn't check both their IDs - my friend was everywhere!

Hilarity ensued.

But now, on this glorious day, the Identity Crisis is OVER. No longer do I have a best friend and a sister pretending to be a best friend. Now I have a best friend AND a sister of legal age.

Happy 21st Birthday Julibean!!!

A birthday Surprise!

Last weekend while I was up in PA with my family, I shot Laura a little txt about how we were going to the outlets and I missed our ridiculous shopping runs that we did occasionally while in school. To which she replied, "I'm on a boat!"

Her friend Chrissy, whom I have come to love and adore has a boat and they were out enjoying the delightful weather. I was surprised to get a message a few minutes later from Chrissy saying that the following weekend they were going to a German festival at Hunter Mountain for Laura's birthday and I should come and surprise her.

Before that moment my plans were to finish out the weekend in PA, drive back home to work Monday-Wednesday, drive back up either Wednesday night or Thursday early morning, help my parents/grandma pack up and leave Friday morning for Monticello where my other grandma has a cabin. Then I'd spend the weekend there cooped up with my family in the tiny cabin.

But then Julibean and I realized, why the hell couldn't we go up to Hunter Mountain and surprise Laura? I always miss her birthday because it is always the weekend of our reunion with my Mom's family but this year it was totally do-able with the switch to a Friday-Friday week.

A few hours later, Chrissy, Julibean and Laura's sister Ursula and I were all conspiring about how Julianne, Chris and I would drive up Saturday to meet them and surprise the crap out of Laura and then drive back up to Albany for the night and hang on Sunday with them.

Well let's just say Laura had NO idea what was going on. I was very proud of Chrissy and Urs for keeping the secret, they usually are horrible and tend to blurt things out without thinking about it. Laura thought she was being mugged when I jumped out in front of her to surprise her...the day was fantastic. The weather was beautiful, not too sunny, not too humid, not too cold, but perfect beer-drinking, bratwurst-eating, chicken-dancing weather.

Urs bought her much pined after dirndl, which might I add looked smok'n on her!

Laura & Urs are half German, half Cuban. My sister and I are a quarter German, and Chrissy is Dutch which for us was close enough! We had a great time meeting other people, buying fantastic hats, and really getting down with our German pride!

I have no idea who that guy in the back is, just jumped in on our picture I guess.

We even took a ride up and down the skilift to enjoy the view. It was beautiful and definitely something Laura won't forget since she was scared the entire time. On the way down though Urs (who was in the chair in front of us) got everyone to say/sing/toast Laura's birthday as they passed us...that was wildly entertaining, and Chrissy, Kyle and I even serenaded her to a broken version of Happy Birthday in German.

It wasn't too far into the day when we decided that we should totally make the German Alps Festival at Hunter Mountain an annual birthday extravaganza for Laura. We all had the best time and it was relaxing and fantastically enjoyable to boot!

Speaking of das boot. I didn't buy a boot, because none of the designs appealed to me, but I did almost buy this glorious stein...

We match...no?