So Jason came to stay with me Presidents' Week. It was nice. It gave us a little sneak peek as to what it would be like living together. Sort of at least.
Last Friday night Laura swung down and we hung out with Casey and strategized our plan of attack for everything we needed to get done that weekend. Saturday morning Julianne and Chris showed up and while we got our hair cut Chris dropped the 'rents off at the airport for their annual trip down to Florida.
We had a very productive day. Julianne ordered her bridesmaid dress and wound up finding a very cute dress at David's for her wedding that is currently in contention. We searched and searched for silver shoes for Laura for the wedding but could not find any.
Then when Jason got into town we tried a new restaurant for dinner. Julianne and Chris are still looking for a local place to have their rehearsal dinner. The Chophouse was pretty delicious, not gonna lie. We think it's a place that Chris' parents would like and as long as the dinner is timed correctly they won't have to rent out the entire place.
When we got home we popped open a few bottles of wine and got to work. Laura, tape maven, wielded the new tape gun I bought like a champ and got all of the pockets tacked down on the pocketfolds. If anyone is interested, the tape gun is Laura's new best friend. When we did her pocketfolds we literally had to hand cut and tape each one individually. Tedious is a good word for that one.
Julianne folded all of the belly bands and I spent some time gluing down the layers to the monogram piece for the belly bands. Then we got incredibly distracted and wound up watching multiple episodes of Jersey Shore. I'm not proud.
Sunday we all woke up and munched on some delicious banana bread compliments of Queen Bang herself, Julibean. Laura had to leave us because her slave-driver of a company doesn't give her off for President's Day and she has appointments with Jim back at home to look at houses. (Scary that friends are popping out babies and doing things like house hunting!) We glued down all of the belly bands and glued on all of the seals as we watched episodes of Sherlock. BTW if you for some reason get the BBC watch it! It is utterly fabulous on so many different levels. We all LOVE this show now.
Anyway...Then the real fun began.
We took a trip to Mens Wearhouse to register for tuxedos for the groomsmen and Jason. We're flipping through the book together while they're fitting a group ahead of us and Jason drops a bombshell.
He points to the following photo and says,
I was thinking something like this!
I am definitely against the white tuxedo. So is my sister, so is my mother, so is my grandma-like friend Marlene over at Priscilla of Boston who we called to find out what color (white or ivory) I ordered my dress in because I'm a very forgetful bride and can't remember.
I LOVE Halloween. It is my favorite holiday but it always seems to suck.
Remember the drama that ensued after last year's Halloween?
So this year I was excited to go into the city and actually have something to do! After our Kleinfelds appointment Casey and I hopped on a train up town and said goodbye to Julibean, Jaclyn, and the mothers.
We got to Ashley & Mel's and ate some delicious falafel, watched some hilarious television, and then got dressed into our awesome costumes.
Let me just say, my friends are awesome and creative. Even Casey who didn't have time to make or buy a costume came dressed as Harriet the Spy in a trench with a notebook ready to make observations.
So without further ado I'd like to introduce you to:
We pretty much saw every single costume we were considering ourselves. Carmen Sandiego, TMNT, although I think my favorite was a guy in a Snorlax costume. I snapped a photo with him to show Jason.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.
Last night was pretty fantastic.
I had work, whatevs it was fine and I actually enjoy working with the store manager because she's really mellow and lets me do my own thing without commanding me to do something. She knows I know what to do and just lets me get it done in my own way. I appreciate that.
Anyway, after work I met up with Julibean and some friends at one of our favorite local bars. RJ's is a really nice place to go to happy hour, especially when the outdoor bar is open. Casey and I sometimes meet her parents there after an especially brutal day of work and we've made friends with some of the bartenders. (Which is always the greatest friendship to forge.)
Since it was a Tuesday night the bar itself was pretty quiet. I met up with them around 10ish and caught up with some people I haven't seen in awhile which is always nice.
Matt (Julibean's Army friend) is home for a few weeks. He needed a break since he's going through a pretty horrific divorce/paternity crisis. It's seriously awful and I feel so bad about it because Matt is a great guy and doesn't deserve that sort of ish from anyone.
Anyway one of Matt's other friends wound up being at the other end of the bar celebrating his birthday so we invited him down to our end of the bar to share some cake. Since she's in the cake portion of her pastry schooling Julibean brought along one of three cakes she had made in class so we could munch on it at the bar.
While everyone was making birthday cakes and anniversary cakes, Julibean went straight for the Drunken Tuesday cake.
Sorry for the poor quality.In college Laura and I did a lot of our grocery shopping together at Sam's Club. I vividly recall one day when we were in the frozen food section and both looked into a freezer case and immediately decided we needed to buy and devour corndogs.
I love corndogs.
I feel like a horrible person because I didn't know that there was a National Corndog Day. Luckily Winona over at DaddyLikey keeps me well informed on important holidays like this.
Apparently National Corndog Day occurs on a different day each year. It "coincides with the Saturday of the final 32 teams in NCAA basketball tournament" which for those of you like me who don't know anything about basketball is the only day you can turn on one channel and watch four consecutive basketball games.
They suggest eating your corndogs with tater tots and a delicious beer.
Allow me to just say this:
Greatest. Holiday. EVER!
So to celebrate, please enjoy these happy condiments dancing around from this retro drive-in intermission clip.
If you ask me, I'd say that hot dog was playing hard to get.
In other news, my awesome friend Morgan just started a new blog.
How Do You Like Me Now?
Somehow I've already made an appearance even though she's only had it a few weeks. I guess we're just both really cool like that.
Friday night I went into Jersey City to hang out with my friends James and Glenn. I am a horrible friend and I haven't seen them since last summer and although we keep in touch online it's definitely not the same. So since I hadn't seen them in so long and I needed James' help with my laptop I decided to trudge into the city and down to Jersey Friday night.
First off I missed my train. I literally was running up the escalator and my foot hit the platform as it was pulling out of the station. So cue to me miserable, cold and wet standing on the platform watching all the cozy dry people on their way into the city. The next train wasn't for half an hour so I went across the street and got a latte and caught up on some chit chat with Laura since we haven't spoken on the phone to each other since before I went to Vancouver.
Finally got into the city and Subwayed down to WTC and was surprised to find James waiting for me at the station. We caught up a bit on the PATH and got back to their apartment after a brisk walk past the water.
James and Glenn were roommates freshman year and they were quite possibly the funniest combo of roommates ever. Sophomore year James moved in with some other friends and Glenn moved into his frat, later Glenn became an RA and lived upstairs from me. It was pretty chill.
After graduation they found a place together in Jersey City and have since moved to a slightly nicer place. Next year they hope to actually move into NYC but we'll see how that turns out.
We often refer to James and Glenn as hetero-lifemates. They are totally like an old married couple and treat each other as such and I love the way they interact. I totally forgot how much I missed them and now that I know how to get to their new place I'll be able to visit more often. (Preferably not when the sky is falling.)
So we had a wonderful weekend hanging around, catching up, remembering old times, and eating delicious food.
Plus they helped me completely wipe my laptop and rebuild it. Saffron is no more, now I have Frank and he's fabulous and runs so well and I'm going to treat him so good and not clog up his hard drive.
Hooray for my boys!
Whilst Julibean was in Baltimore this weekend she collected our friend Morgan from Philly on her way back home. I haven't seen Morgan for an extended period of time in a few months now so it's wonderful to have her staying with us for a few days.
I certainly miss all of my the PC Kids and everyone in the a cappella community that we had at school and Morgs is no exception. We've pretty much been friends ever since she joined the group freshman year and she's just such a unique and incredibly hilarious person and I love her dearly.
Last night when I got home to Morgan and Julibean we decided (unanimously) that since it was Fat Tuesday we were going to go out to dinner and gorge ourselves on delicious food. Morgan wanted to know if there was anywhere we could get a King Cake and neither me nor my sister had any idea what she was talking about.
Apparently King Cakes are a big tradition for Fat Tuesday especially in New Orleans. Well I've only been to Nawlins once and I was a bouncing baby so obviously I have no idea what this tradition entails.
Basically it's a simple round cake (sometimes filled with cheese or praline) and iced with granulated sugar in the Mardi Gras colors. There is usually a trinket baked into the cake (from what I've read usually a baby Jesus figurine) and whoever gets the piece with the sweet delectable baby Jesus brings the King Cake to the next party.
We never did find a King Cake yesterday but we did go to Outback and cheer polar bears over beer and deliciously calorie dense foods. Then we came home and ate some ice cream and watched the Olympics.
The King Cake looks delicious and I think it's a nice tradition. Julianne and I have decided we will offer King Cakes at our bakery when we eventually open it.
And Morgan will be the official cupcake froster. And will be required to wear flippers while doing so.
Well there are only three days of work this week, which is exciting because once I'm gone on Wednesday I don't have to be back to the office until January 4th!
But the holidays are a tender time to really spend with your friends and family. To honor that, today's man is a very special one.
I live in a very small village on Long Island. Very small.
My graduating class was less than 75 students and although for some reason we have two LIRR stops we're only really one square mile. Itty bitty.
Everyone in our town pretty much knows each other, or someone closely related. We all have something or someone in common with everyone. Occasionally it's annoying that everyone knows your business and news spreads like wildfire, but mostly I think it's wonderful.
My block is a whole separate entity. I've lived in the same house my whole life, I've literally grown up with people in four houses on my block, and we watched the kids in the other five houses grow up behind us.
On the corner is Mrs. B. She lost her son last year and just this year lost her husband. Mrs. B. is like the block grandmother...when we were kids we'd go over to her house and decorate gingerbread houses, homemade gingerbread houses. She's always making jams and knitting things and bringing them over for us to enjoy.
Across the street is Pat. Her youngest kid is probably eight or so years older than I am so although she is a grandma she is not as elderly as Mrs. B. Pat also lost her husband this year so it seems to have been rough all around.
Down the block is a family that we've been good friends with. My brother was best friends with their son growing up. Right next door to them are the grandparents to a girl I went to school with. Then there's another family across the street who although they keep to themselves, have always been part of the scenery most my life.
Next door is a family that moved in when their oldest child was still a baby. I've watched the three kids grow up and Patty is the sweetest craziest little Italian lady I know. Charlie and I wave to each other each morning as we warm up our cars to leave for work. Now their oldest daughter is about to graduate college and it just makes me feel so utterly old.
On the other side is a family with two girls who've been great for Mrs. B. this year. We don't talk to Bob & Laurie much but they're very friendly and we've always gotten along with them.
Sunday morning I woke up, had some pancakes with my dad and geared up to head outside. We had four cars to clear, a driveway to plow, two porches to shovel, walkways to unearth and at the end of the driveway where the plow had gone by we needed to take care of some serious drifts to get the cars out.
Down the block Bob had already cleared out Mrs. B's driveway and walkway and from the looks of it he and his buddy were getting ready to salt. While my dad attacked the driveway mound I hopped across the street to start clearing off Pat's car and shoveled her front stoop/walkway for her.
The neighbors that keep to themselves snow-blowed Pat's sidewalk and my dad finished off her driveway mound while I shoveled the snow out from under her tires. Up and down the block all of our neighbors were excitedly hurrying about clearing snow, shifting cars and lending a hand here and there. Claude walked over from his house a few blocks away to help his parents, I waved and asked how his daughter was. I think she's getting married this year (like so many of the girls I played volleyball with seem to be doing lately!)
I literally haven't seen half of my neighbors in years. We don't all keep the same schedules and we're in and out at different times of day but today I saw all of them and we chatted a little about how when we were younger this kind of snow would have been the stuffs dreams were made of.
Granted I did hop out into the yard when we were done shoveling and make a snow angel and dance around. Snow will always be wonderful, and our little microcosm will always take care of each other and lend a hand when necessary. It's a comforting feeling and it was nice to see everyone out and about and just helping each other without thinking about it.
Plus I love the snow!
For a few days this week my good friend Matty was in the city on business. Since I had work at the beebeedubbs Monday night we decided to do dinner last night instead.
So Matty, the Beaner and I hopped into the newly (and finally) fixed Lulu and grabbed some dinner. 
But *gasp* Matty had never seen the Swan Princess! So after our early bird dinner (yeah, we're old ladies now) we went back to our house and sat him down and put in the most fabulous movie ever.
I'm serious people, long before he was ever transformed into a frog in Shrek, John Cleese was a French frog in the Swan Princess named Jean-Bob. And he is hilarious! Plus I'm thinking Jean-Bob might be an excellent name for a dog, but I digress.
As the plot unraveled Matt had a few choice comments. When the evil Lord Rothbart appears Matty exclaimed, "There's nothing scarier than a handle bar moustache!"
Later, when Derek and Odette are finally reunited under the pale moonlight and have their first kiss in a long time: "That's kissing with partially open lips...are we sure the children should be watching this?"
I love you Matty, especially since you sit through 2-D animations I love without even a second thought!
If you don't go out and rent the Swan Princess and watch it, "I'll have you whipped, flogged, put on the rack and have your back legs fried in butter!!"
In case I hadn't mentioned it, my sister Julianne and her boyfriend Chris got engaged! Currently Chris is living outside of Baltimore while Julibean finishes out her first year of law school. She's looking to transfer to another DC/MD area school next year.
This past weekend was their engagement party down in the MD. Julibean and I packed into the newly fixed but still not perfect Lulu, and drove down. It was painful. I'm sorry New Jersey, but learn how to drive!
Our favorite tracks include the opening number: This is My Idea and Far Longer than Forever performed in all it's 90s glory by Jeffrey Osbourn and Regina Belle. I'm always the man in that duet. If you haven't heard this magical song, the best I can do for you is this video of the credits.
Anyway, when we finally got to Chris' apartment we enjoyed some good pizza, some good beer, and some good company as our friends began to pour in. It was a good night of frivolity, as you can see by the happy faces of Rich and Morgan as we played Uno Explode or whatever the Uno game is called where it spits cards at you.
The engagement party was also a great time. A bunch more of Julibean's friends showed up who happen to live in the Baltimore area or who were visiting family there that weekend. And since we had about 8 former PC Kids we even sang a few songs a cappella for Chris' grandparents.
The whole gang (minus Cynthia *sadface*)
After a weekend without her. I finally heard back from the body shop on Monday. Lulu was all fixed and painted and they just needed to put her back together again. She would be ready for pick up on Tuesday.
Huzzah!
I quickly made plans to leave early from work Tuesday afternoon, jump on a train from my office into Penn and grab an Amtrak to Albany. Once there, Laura would pick me up, we'd retrieve Lulu, have dinner at Smokey Bones and I'd drive back home.
The best laid plans...
Since the body shop closes at 6pm on weekdays I asked the kind gentlemen to bring my paper work and keys up to the cashier on the sales floor because my train would be getting in at 5:45 and I didn't want to cut it too close. I seriously must have called the body shop six different times in a two hour period during the day to fax things over and make sure Chrissy's insurance company paid and all that jazz and at least two out of those six times I confirmed that my keys and paper work would be waiting for me on the sales floor.
Guess what wasn't there when I got to Mr. G's dealership at 6:10?
So we're explaining to the receptionist/cashier that I have to go back home to LI so I can get to work in the morning and that I was told everything would be set for me by the guys in the body shop. She makes a few calls and finds that even though it's only 10 minutes after quitting time the entire body shop is empty.
Well shit.
Finally she calls her manager and asks if there's anything he can do and to please come out and speak with me. Out strolls Mister G himself, the owner of all the dealerships along the strip. We explain the situation, he whips out his iPhone and starts calling the body shop manager and a few other guys to see if any of them can come back to the shop and get my poor little Lulu.
Eventually, after failing to reach anyone, Mr. G rolls up his monogrammed cuffs and breaks into his own body shop to retrieve my paper work and keys. Laura and I sit down and I help myself to some coffee, assuming it's going to be a really really long night.
In walks Mr. G carrying what looks to be my paper work! He shuffles through the pages and tells me that the insurance company hasn't paid yet. Well fuck. What in the hell am I supposed to do? He tells me to put the almost $3k on my credit card and he will hold onto the paper work personally and credit my account once they get the insurance check.
I have no choice but to charge it.
Eons later, I pull Lulu around next to Laura's pretty little Black Bitch (yeah that's right, we named her Sunfire the Black Bitch because she's oh so saucy), and we inspect the repairs in the dim-lit parking lot.
Other than the fact Lulu wreaks of nail polish, everything appears to be fine. We drive off in search of sustenance and after dinner I get back on the road to get home.
Around the Tappan Zee Bridge, I go to clean my windshield. No fluid comes out. Those fuckers, I think, they didn't refill my wiper fluid after they replaced the tank! Oh but no dear readers, NO! Those fuckers did indeed refill my tank, but what they didn't do was check the connections.
Yes, yes my friends...that's right. As I pushed the button to spray my windshield, the wipers did a happy little dry dance, and the fluid came out the back reservoir. Baffled I turned the knob to wash the back windshield and away the wipers went but the fluid sprayed on my front windshield.
WHO DOES THAT?!?!?!
Honestly.
Honestly, who else would this happen to but me? I seriously wish this were the end of the story...
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...
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 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.
No it isn't cannibalism for Jim to eat a Jim's Steak.
Morgan and Andrew chow'n down.
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.
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.If you haven't noticed by now, I give names to everything. Inanimate objects are my favorite things to name. The most popular things to name on my list are computers and cars...mostly because there are so many of both in my household.
My first car, The Tank was an '85 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon, complete with faux wood paneling. You're jealous, don't lie. The Tank is still around, it has literally become the garage meaning we drove it in and started piling things inside The Tank inside the garage. I have lofty plans of restoring The Tank come next year when it's technically a classic, but for now he waits, a sleeping giant.
This year I bought a new car. A shiny black Subaru Outback Sport, when we first met I got inside, started the ignition and drove her off the lot. She said, "Hi, I'm Lulu!" To which I replied, "Hi Lulu, we're going to be good friends."
Lulu has been wonderful. She loves the snow and rain, has just enough trunk space for a long weekend getaway for two, and most importantly she's mine...all mine. I am very protective of Lulu, she is a lady after all and needs some taking care of. The Tank and Hunter were big gruff men and needed no tending to.
That being said, Lulu got her face knocked in, and I couldn't even be mad about it.
Let's jump back here a second. When I go up to Albany to visit my friends who are still living in the area after college, I typically spend most of my time with Laura and my now good friend Chrissy. Usually we park our cars at Chrissy's house and one of us volunteers to drive around town for the day. So I parked Lulu across the street from Chrissy's house in a little cut out near the dead end. This is where I always park when I'm at Chrissy's.
We have a fantastic evening and returned to Chrissy's house Sunday morning to go out together for breakfast. This is when a ridiculous series of events occurred within seconds of each other:
After about a million phone calls (the least of which I wanted to make was the one to my father telling him my friend had hit my car in broad daylight accidentally), and with the help of Chrissy's Dad, we got Lulu's fender popped back out and zip-tied in place so I could drive the car over to the dealership and leave it to get taken care of. And then we had breakfast....well...lunch at this point.I got up to Albany early Saturday morning and met Chrissy at her house where she surprised me with cinnamon rolls for breakfast, yum! We grabbed some coffee and ran over to pick up Laura where she had dropped her car off for some servicing. Then we wandered off to watch Chrissy's boyfriend's Kyle's flag football game. Chrissy used to be on the team but hurt her ACL and hasn't played since...which makes her sad.
After the game we met both teams at the bar that gives the winning team 4 free pitchers of beer, and the losing team 2. Either way, you win, right? Had some lunch and made some friends with Kyle/Chrissy's teammates and played sketchtastic photo hunt on the electronic gaming thing at the end of the bar. Good times.
Then on our way out, we leafed Kyle's friend's car...and man, did we leaf him good.
Laura as a good fairy, and Chrissy as a bad one.
And although you don't get the amazingness of my costume in this shot...
This really only makes me love McGee even more. Seriously, he's so adorable he's sexy.
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!
