A Bevy of Boston Bloggahs

[not pictured: yours truly.. someone has to take the pic!]

Last night I met up with some fabulous Boston Bloggers at The Pour House on Boylston St. It was great to meet everyone and I'm psyched to have a few new blogs to check out! Next time we'll definitely have to find a place with some big tables for everyone to sit at. Plus there are a few more bloggers I am determined to meet at the next one! You know who you are ;)

The attendees:
Susie from Everybody Loves a Boston Girl
Chelsea from We Are Not Martha (another Susie blog as well!)
Sara from ComfortSource
Amanda from In Development
Pam from Cave Cibum
Susan from Transient Travels

Sara brought some AMAZING cupcakes from Sweet on Mass Ave. Glad I got a picture after most of them were already eaten! lol

After a couple of beers, everyone went out their separate ways.. Lauren, Gus, Henry & I took advantage of Boylston St and crashed a couple of hotel bars and what not.. obviously ended up at Deep Ellum in Allston for a nightcap. Fun times! [L-lo and I pictured at the Lenox Hotel below]

A new edition to the fam!! (LOL not what you think)

Meet Lexie! The newest edition to the family.. She's a 1 1/2 year old Bassett hound/rottweiler mix just like her new big brother Rocco. We met her this weekend at an animal shelter close by and KNEW she was our dog. She's a lot smaller than Rocco, and is a very sweet girl. She comes home on Thursday!! And I'm already planning out all the girly collars and leashes I get to finally purchase! (Rocco wasn't a fan when I tried them on him). Roc & Lex met each other this afternoon and are going to be the best of friends!
Click here for the rest of the million pics I've taken while visiting her at the Adoption center!

Am I the ultimate fighting champion?

me and UFC fighter Jorge Rivera (I love how his fist is practically the size of my head!)

WHAT a weekend! Saturday night Gus, Ali, and I went to watch Joe (one of Gus' groomsmen) in his first professional fight. The event was called 'Untamed 21' sponsored by Full Force TV and it was held in Plymouth -about an hour away. As you can see on the Fight Card, Joe kicked some butt and knocked his opponent out in 2 minutes! The Octogon girls were very impressive as well. I tried to take some good pics but the lighting in there was not made for my Canon Powershoot. Boo. I did grab a picture with a UFC fighter and coach at Gus' gym, Jorge Rivera, pictured above. He's fighting on the next pay per view fight next wknd!

Here are a couple more pix..julie and ali, Octagon girls in training!!

Cinco de Mayo!!

There are a bunch of yummy Mexican restaurants/bars near our house so Saturday we set out with some friends to go celebrate the Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla (thanks wikipedia!).

Debbie Q even made an appearance to have a mother daughter mojito!!!

Some highs and lows..

High: winning $50 on the Kentucky Derby on Big Brown
Low: tearing up over my frozen strawberry marguarita when a horse was euthanized shortly after the race. I still want to cry and watch Seabiscuit.. and get sad just typing it out.
High: Having an excuse to play with maracas at a bar
Low: Losing a bet over who sang "Achy Breaky Heart". I thought it was for sure Garth Brooks, but Gus knew it was Billy Ray Cyrus. If I had won- I would've made him go to the opening night of SATC movie, where we would get Cosmo's before and after the film! But since I lost, I got dragged to go see Iron Man.
High: Iron Man turned out being AWESOME! If you're going to get forced to see a comic book movie- this one was hilarious and action packed.. go Robert Downey Jr!
High: cooking a yummy Rice and Chicken salad before we went out so we'd have something to munch on instead of ordering pizza. Everyone came over after the bars and chowed down, I was very proud.
Low: Waking up to a sink with a broken bowl and a broken glass. And having NO CLUE how it happened!
High: no drunk dialing the Pizza Guy!!
And on a super high note..

we got MARIO KART for wii!!!!! It has little steering wheels for each player and as soon as we get enough practice in- you can go online and play against anyone you want! You may send me your stats and apply to challenge gus and julie...

Happy Birthday Rocco!

Happy 4th Birthday little buddy!! I like to celebrate this day as 4 years of being responsible for raising a charming young mutt.. I toast my water bowl to you, Rocco.

2004

2008

Its Good to have Goals

Recently the Rochester Boston Coalition embarked on an impromptu bar crawl. And by that I mean I like to call it a bar crawl even though it consisted of two places.. SoHo recently got changed to the Brighton Beer Garden, which is a great call on their part because SoHo was turning a little too club-ish for my liking.. After some yummy lunch, beers/sangria, we headed over to my favorite bar, Deep Ellum.

Six of us, still in detox from vacation earlier this month, came up with the brilliant idea of making a Deep Ellum Draft. What's that you ask? Welp, Deep Ellum in Allston has the most delicious cocktails ever, so we decided to hold a draft (much like the NFL one I'm sure most of your boys were glued to to the tv this weekend watching) where we each pick a cocktail on the menu (24 total= 6 of us = 4 drinks each = factor in most of the girls settling for 2).

The "Neva have I Eva drank every drink on The Deep Ellum menu"* event will probably be taking place in the near future. That also gives us a little time to work out some sponsorships, like free pretzel and beer cheese appetizers from their menu?!

Its good to have goals!

And sorry, I don't have an iPhone so my camera phone pics look like they came straight from 2002!

*Name subject to change.

Viva la Mexico!!

Oh Mexico.. it seems like yesterday I was lying by the pool drinking a Miami Vice (half pina colada/half strawberry daiquiri).. but now i'm in this cold new england early spring consisting of 60 degrees and windy. The trip was amazing, it was so much fun going with a bunch of friends, because as much as a vacation getaway with the hubs is fabulous- its nice to have other people around. The boys can run off and go jet skiing, while the girls can sit by the pool and work on their tans. We stayed at the Reef Club in Cozumel, and somehow got upgraded to their 5star Aura resort, which made us feel like a bunch of A-listers (that sometimes do lifetime movies and make random commercial in Tokyo..)Most of the days consisted of lying next to the pool, eating yummy food, drinking lots of drinks, playing rounds of ping pong, making up pool drinking games, and usually passing out by 9pm.. We rented a Jeep Wrangler to take a trip around the island, and found a lot of beautiful deserted beaches and small tiki shacks filled with Coronas, Tequila and Dos Equis.. The waves were huge and we got to play like little kids at the beach, breaking out the boogie boards and getting devoured by the waves (i think i still have sand in my eyes).how funny is this picture [below]?! I feel like if there were an OC esque show based in Boston, this would be the cover of the DVD!
One day we even went snorkeling! This is huge for me, considering the last time was 16 years ago and I went in Disney's Typhoon Lagoon "swim with the fishies" pool and made a huge scene because I screamed my brains out through the snorkel (apparently I don't like seeing fish when I'm underwater). When the boat dropped all the people off in the water this time, it was hilarious b/c it totally reminded me of Titanic. All the girls were screaming looking for someone they knew. I still spazzed out a little when I saw the fish swimming underwater, but then one of them came RIGHT UP TO ME and looked me in the eye so at that point, I screamed, swam over to Gus and jumped on his shoulders and he had to swim with me clasping to him the rest of the time! We got a hilarious pic of us underwater from the boat crew, but I gotta scan that in (and justify paying $12 for my thighs looking huge underwater!)
Got a lot of cool pics, heres a taste of the trip. OH BTW, if you ever go on a group vacation with friends, be prepared to get asked if you are swingers by about 90% of your bartenders!!!! Like I would share the hubs with anyone.. they would get a knuckle sandwich and leg sweep from me. Although there WAS a clothing optional rooftop bar we checked out later on in the week (while we kept our clothes on, the only nudes we saw were this old couple that hogged the hot tub) Don't worry no one wanted to go in after they got out!

gus doing pilates on the beach. unfortunately I passed on this and drank cervezas insteadthe entire time I had planned on getting a group shot of us holding an issue of The Improper Bostonian (so they'd put us in their next issue), but of course that never happened so I figured I'd take one at the airport, which i obviously can't submit now, so i should get some sort of use out of it!

Lauren is 25 and Neal is 128!

With a couple birthdays to celebrate last night, the RBC took in a dueling piano show at Jake Ivory's in Boston (right next to Fenway Park). Awesome time! But I'm surprised I had my voice this morning, because our table was the loudest one there. The pianists sang a lot of fun songs, and even got some Rap ones in there (Flo-rida!!). I blame lots of Champagne and raspberry stolis for waking me up at 6am and not letting me fall back asleep this morning. Oh well, SO worth it. The title of this post is what the teleprompter at the bar said in honor of the two birthdays, not sure how they got the 1 before the 28, but nonetheless our table cracked up every time it popped up. Neal, you don't look a day over 95! UPDATE: picture is posted!Neal with his great granddaughter Jenny!The Birthday Girl!Not sure why my eyes look batshit crazy in this picture! But I love it..

Chuck's Fansite linky love

Tricia from zachary-levi.com sent me a nice email today saying she's linking my story about Jenny's bachelorette party story to her site. Cool shit! And welcome Chuck fans, to my humbled abode. Too bad I can't take any better pics when I am drunk.. and hanging out with celebs. I guess there are worse things in life mwhahahahaa

Apples to Apples!

The good news is, after yesterday's rough rough morning, things seemed to brighten up after a nice little nap and numerous doses of advil. We ended up picking out a kick ass xmas tree! Will definitely be posting pics later (when ALL the decorating is done!). Then we headed over to Neal & Jenny's 2nd Annual Xmas Soiree. While I got a little queezy just looking at the delicious wine and alcohol they served, I stuck with the excellent lemon/lime water punch. The best party game ever is Apples to Apples. I'd never heard of it before, but I really can't see how this is a childrens game. Its so much better playing with crazy grownups (even though I still don't consider myself a grownup). Click here for the wikipedia recap of how to play!

SaturDvday

My brother Matt posin' with the grub

Finally back at the ole apartment after camping out at the inlaws and then going straight to work on Friday. Not really sure why I had to work because it was completely dead! I think it was me, the rest of the new people that started around the same time as moi, accounts payable, and the CEO. (everyone else got to use their floating holidays- blarg). Uploaded some T-Day pics, the maple spice cake came out really good again, except this time, as soon as I completed it, Cecilia my mother-in-law said
"Alright I'll go pop it in the fridge downstairs"
and I'm like "What?"
and she's all, "Yeah, with the cream cheese filling that should probably go in the fridge"
"Hmmmm, interesting"
Didn't think about that AT ALL last week when I first made it! (newbie baker up in here). It must have sat out for a lot longer then Martha would have wanted it to..

Gus' sister Steph passing out the Champagne

Thanksgiving was fun, there were about 15 people in attendance at my in-laws so we opted for the Buffet style serving. You'd think b/c we weren't sitting at a table together we wouldn't have to go around the room and say what we're thankful for. I was the 2nd one to go, and I just said "Rocco and the rest of my family" Note* I'm a big dork when it comes to talking on cue.

Then Friday was work as you all know. Thank you for commenting, it brightened up the day to see my gmail inbox popping up with Black Friday gossip. Sounds like only a few are you made it to the mall, but apparently there was like 20 billion in shopping yesterday. I'm thinking of going the online route this year..

Finally relaxing the rest of the weekend. Catching up on Curb, The Wire & Weeds, and anything Hollywood Video has in stock (plus sneaking in a trip to the gym after eating a piece of the maple cake). Plus Gus picked up Super Mario Galaxy for Wii on friday (and pretty much played it the whole time I was at work). He claims its better then Super Mario 3. We will just have to see about that! I think its a long shot.

A few more pics..Santa's Reindeer made a special appearance. So did Matt Q.Impromptu Photo Shoot with the cousins.I'm submitting this one to ANTM for next season. Tyra will love the smile with my eyes I think.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Making the Maple Spice cake again today! Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Diet starts tomorrow.............

My Maple Cake Brings all the Boys to the Yard..

Reading the directions about 30 times, introducing myself to a mixer, and a quick run to the store by Gus, because I thought I could substitute butter with Country Crock = my Chocolate Glazed Maple Spice Cake was successfully created.
Rocco was a very helpful Sous Chef. Except he got a little excited when it called for Confection Sugar!Dine & Dish posted the recipe. And might I suggest some Champagne/Riesling Punch to go with! Here's how you make it, thank you mom!Debbie Q's Cham-pag-nan-yay Punch
-6 oranges, sliced thin
-1 cup finely granulated sugar
-two bottles Riesling
-1 large block of ice
-3 bottles champagne

1. sliced oranges in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar
2. pour one bottle of Riesling over fruit and let sit for 1 hour
3. pour mixture over block of ice in punch bowl
4. add remaining Riesling and champagne

Thanksgiving RBC Style was very fun. RBC stands for the Rochester Boston Coalition. And we even have sweaters made that say that. So you know its legit..Must get Lauren's approval before I post any kareoke videos that I shot throughout the evening!

Ooohhhh, Ahhhhhhh.

Is apparently the big thing to do at baby showers..Went to Tahiti Restaurant in Dedham for my cousin-in-law Cindy's first baby shower. It was a very nice afternoon, and I can't believe how many frickin' gifts one gets at a baby shower!! Every time she opened a gift, it seemed like one side of the room said Ooohhhh and the other side finished with the Ahhhhh. Cindy is due in January, and family holidays will be a lot more rowdier when their little guy starts making his appearance..
Cindy sat us near some of her friends who all had children, and I'm not going to lie, I felt like Carrie Bradshaw sitting there, because ALL they talked about was their pregnancies and their babies. I just tried to block it out and order a Pinot Grigio. Haha I'm sure I'll be like that someday though..

Surprise! Its your baby shower!

Below is one of my favorite pictures EVER, because my mother-in-law Cecilia is the paparazzi at these events. She's so sweet and always wants to capture all the family events for relatives who couldn't make it. Sorry I tried to be a professional and overuse the Gray scale tool in photo shop. So dramatic!OMG its always good to eat cookies before the holidays. But these were way too tasty not to pass up. Very fun time! Babies are cute.

Leaf Peeping in Upstate NY

Above: Thanks Lisa W for sending this pretty shot of the ceremony!!

the princess in the tower!

What a fun weekend! Jenny and Neal are officially wife and hubs, enroute to Aruba for a week as we type.

The Recap:

Gus, Lauren, Henry and I woke up early early Saturday morning to travel to upstate NY. The Belhurst Castle in Geneva to be exact. The weather was a little on and off on Saturday during the rehearsal, but cleared up, warmed up, and stayed perfect for the rest of the wedding activities. The rehearsal dinner was held in Watkin's Glen on a Cruiser that sails along Seneca Lake (where all the great upstate NY wineries are) with about 80 guests. Above: Jenny & Neal the happy couple!Above: Jaclyn, Meg, moi, & Lauren
Doesn't Gus remind you of Andy from the office in this pic??
Saturday night turned into quite the party, staying up pritty pritty late and maybe even dancing in an empty jacuzzi singing kanye west with the bride-to-be and little sister Rachel *still debating on whether or not to ever watch that video I somehow took during this karaoke fest*
Above: a mini sephoraSunday, the wedding day, was absolutely beautiful. We all got our updo's at Unique Touch in Geneva. Complete with Momoses that Jenny's mom arranged :) The rest of the morning/early afternoon was makeup time with the Bride! Jenny had visited Sephora quite a few times before the wedding, and had lots of fun new items to play with. We even rocked the fake eyelashes, which I probably will never wear again due to it irritating my eyes and bugging me all night (but at least it paid off in all our pictures). I didn't get a picture, but Jenny also wore a Red Sox Garter belt (which is why I think the Red Sox are in the World Series- thank you J!)Above: my hubs, dingo, vig, wad, dmitriy, turnerAbove: The Sweethearts Table!Above: turner, moi & dingo
Above: the bride!!! and Matt WAbove: The Newlyweds!!!!Above: Matt (sarah's hubs), me, vig (who is doing an awesome Blue Steel), & sarahabove: lisa g (of blonde thoughts & conserving made chic), lauren, moi, and jaclyn (of conserving made chic!)
This was my first time being a bridesmaid. Although all us girls were nervous, Lauren or someone kept reminding us "Don't worry, they don't care about you, everyone is going to only stare at the bride anyways!" Ha, that actually helped :) The bouquets were so pretty, and Jenny called the bridesmaids her gorgeous chocolate truffles (b/c of our cute ballerina-like dresses). The ceremony was beautiful. The sun was shining, our best buds were saying their vows, our Origins Ginger Glimmer body cream was shimmering in the sun on our shoulders, and I sniffled for most of the ceremony. (I was afraid that if I cried my fake eyelash would fall off and land on my nose without my noticing!!!! It didn't)
Above: me and my favorite girl from NYC, Lisa W
Reception consisted of a lot of dancing, two extremely glowing and happy newlyweds, a lot of open bar, a lot of catching up with RIT alumni that we hadn't seen in a few years, a lot of changing into flip flops, a lot of taking pics, and a lot of fun.I even made myself a guest bartender, going behind the bar to pose with the awesome bartenders. Love how I spilled wine over my dress, just to make this pic more dramatic!!
-----------------------------------------------

A couple ridiculous quotes overheard throughout the weekend.lauren and henry, featured in most of these quotes.

Gus: Julie why are you driving so slow?
Henry: Maybe she's a Leaf Peeper.
Julie: Gus, this is a country road, and Henry, what the hell is a Leaf Peeper?
Henry: Its when old people drive around slow and look at leafs and trees.

BTW wikipedia states "Leaf peeping is an autumn activity in areas where foliage changes colors. Leaf peepers' are those who participate in photographing and viewing the fall foliage."

And it could just be my new favorite phrase.

~

On the shuttle bus ride to the Cruise.
A girl talking to an older couple on the bus. We'll keep her anonymous.

Girl: "Did you see the leaves?"
Couple: "Yes, they look beautiful!"

I'm sorry but I still tear up laughing when I was telling that story in the car ride. Think about that sentence. Did you see the leaves? (aka pretty fall foliage) What was the couple supposed to say:
"No, are those the flappy things on the trees?"
"Oh- I thought those were giant broccolli stalks in the ground"
"Listen- I'm old, not stupid"

~

Lauren: Henry you're probably lying.. like remember the time you told me that there's no wind if it gets too cold?
Gus: [breaks out in laughter]
Julie: What?
Lauren: Yeah, I was asking him all these questions about skiing on our way up to Sugarloaf, and he told me not to worry b/c if the temp hits a certain number, the wind stops.. i'm too gullible.

Click here for the rest of the wedding pics. (until I actually get the ceremony pics- its hard/impossible to take them when you're in the wedding party). Jenny & Neal- Congrats, it was an amazing time!!

2nd Annual RBC Octoberfest

This weekend we headed up to Jeffersonville, VT for the 2nd annual Rochester Boston Club (RBC) Octoberfest. My mom has been having this party for the past 6 yrs or so- and we FINALLY get to attend now that we're living back in MA. Jeffersonville is the small town where Smuggler's Notch Ski Resort is located. And Smuggler's Notch is on the other side of Stowe (Mt. Mansfield). Here's a recap of last year's trip. Unfortunately Lauren and Henry could not make the trip (they were too busy on vacation in Aruba!) so it was me, hubs, Rocco, Jenny, Neal and their Boston Terrier Mikey.

Friday night we stopped by the Smuggler's Notch Tavern to watch the Red Sox win the series (sorry Angels fans). Saturday was Sneakers for Breakfast and when the forecast called for rain all day, we called for playin' card games in the cabin all day. Sunday was the actual party and Monday was driving back to MA on the highway with the rest of New England.

You can't go to VT without grabbin' breakfast at Sneakers in Winooski (near UVM). Sorry the pics were a lil blurry. Hangovers and Picture-Phone-taking don't mix too well.Crabcakes Egg Benedict
Eggs & Homefries. I'm boring. I know.

Yummy.

I was a bad blogger for not taking too many pics of the actual event. I'll update this when my mom sends me over her pictures. The food was amazing and Champagne Punch could be the best concoction ever!

Gotta love Wild Turkey.
More pics and youtubes to come soon!

Harpoon Octoberfest

Note: That's Jenny to the left of me. Not to be confused with the Blonde Chick on the right!!! HA

Neal scored us free tix to Harpoon Brewery's Octoberfest, so we made it a nice little Friday night with 'soon to be wed' Jenny & Neal. While we scored free admission, Harpoon made up for it with the $5 drink tickets, but hey, at least the Harpoon IPA was very very tasty! Side note: how do I have a cold with its 85 degrees out?!?!?! Riddle me that.

We hung out by the Keg Tossing Bowling lane for the most part, because it was the most entertaining thing EVER. I myself never saw someone get a strike (or whatever the heck you call it) but the boys claimed they saw it whenever us ladies walked what seemed like 10 miles to the bathroom line. Love how the only video I got was of a guy not hitting any of the pins! Sorry bout that! After the festival, we took the T back to Allston to Deep Ellum so the boys could watch the rest of the Yankees game to see if the BoSox would take the AL East Championship. They did. Which meant Jenny & I calling every New York friend from college and singing the Soccer 'Ole! Song'. Not really sure why we chose that song to leave on everyone's voicemail. I'm really only a trendy Red Sox fan that shows up whenever playoffs come around. Gus on the other hand is a diehard fan. That and the Patriots of course.

Had to take a picture and commend this kid on the T on how awesome his pillowcase was. He was with his buddies from UMass going to what seems to be a slumber party. Look at the mint condition that TMNT pillowcase is in! That's gotta be circa 1990..

Block Island Wedding Weekend

This past weekend we ventured off to Block Island for Dana & Sinead's wedding. This was our first time to the island, and I'm already in love. Usually referred to as "Flip Flop Nation", the weather was perfect at about 75 degrees although the humidity was acting up a bit. Example, on Saturday I curled my hair for about an hour, using a half bottle of Hair Spray. By the time I walked to the Church, my hair was straight with like one wave..

Friday night we hit up Captain Nick's Bar with the rest of the out of towner guests. It was a big High School reunion for Gus seeing a bunch of people for the first time in about 7 yrs! The Bride and Groom were a gorgeous couple and everything turned out beautiful and perfect on their wedding day. They are flying to Tahiti for a 2 week honeymoon. Jealous much? Cos I am! Some pictures from the weekend..