Home Updates

I had the week off from work, so I figured I'd get some things done around the house. Yesterday I finished the floor trim, which took all day! I also fixed up the trim in the bathroom. Today I put some hardware on the cabinets and spray painted the hinges to match. I still have to put some handles on the drawers. Next on the list is painting the kitchen, putting some finishing touches on the bathroom remodel, and painting the doors.

A Very Merry Christmas

Last night we went to my parents' house and had our annual 7 fishes dinner with my grandparents and sister. My sister's BF, Dave, came this year. The food was great, as usual, and we made some people mad at church, as usual, by talking and giggling. They say the same thing every year, what are you going to miss?!

My parents got us a Dyson, which I am totally excited about. We also got some clothes, a new food processor and an electric frying pan. My sister got me a nice watch and my parents got Mr. B some Hulk boxing gloves because my dad said that that way Mr. B can hit me now...gee, thanks dad!

This morning Mr. B and I opened presents from each other. We set a $50 limit, so I really wasn't expecting anything crazy, but after I opened my presents (a book, a CD set, and some other little things) Mr. B pulled out a little box. He said, "I hope you won't be mad at me, but I went over the $50 limit." He got me a pair of black diamond studs set in white gold. I absolutely love them. They're different and they're perfect. Best.Husband.Ever.

After we opened presents we went over to Mr. B's mom's house for breakfast and presents with his step dad and his daughter, husband and twin brother. Breakfast was amazing and I ate way to much. Mr. B's mom and stepdad got me a Garmin GPS and a new Coach clutch. I'm so excited to use the GPS and I'll probably use the clutch tonight--I love it!

Tonight we're going to my Grandmom's house for dinner and MORE presents. I can't wait till I get my last present so I can order my Uggs!!! Maybe I'll do it tonight ;-)

I want Uggs

I've resisted the fad for this long, but they look so comfortable. I want the gray ones, but apparently they are hard to come by...especially in a size 10/11. I asked for a pair of Uggs for Christmas, but I don't think I'm going to like them. They're almost $100 more than the classic ones, so I would kind of feel bad if I returned them. Mr. B isn't going to by them for me because we've set a $50ish limit for presents this year. I always go overboard, so it was good to have a set amount of money to spend. I think I spent around $60, so only 20% over budget, which isn't too bad for me.

I want Uggs because I can't find a pair of comfortable slip-on shoes/boots that look good and don't crush my feet after standing in them for 5 minutes. I just bought a pair of Nine West boots that were on sale for $19.99 and they're ok, but I can tell that they're not easy to drive/walk in. I always ruin my shoes because I have a stick--always scuffing the back heel so it looks like I have crappy old shoes on. Note to self: Keep slippers in car to change into for driving.

Family Christmas I

Last night we had our first Christmas celebration. It was with my mom's side of the family at my grandmom and grandpop's house. We had some appetizers, wine, and then a light dinner and some small desserts.

I was really not looking forward to going because my stupid cousin that tried to make out with me at my wedding and then actually fell on top of me on the dance floor was going to be there. Of course, he brought another trashy girlfriend who pretended that she had been part of the family all along. She didn't even come over to say hi. Eff her. She looked like she was 18 going on 50, but then I heard that she has a 22 year old daughter with 2 kids (3 and 2 months) and they all live with her, along with my cousin. Wonderful...more white trash. I made it a point to avoid my cousin and her all night by staying on the couch and walking all the way around the kitchen instead of walking by them. Ugh...I could not wait to leave. It didn't help that the food made Mr. B and I sick last night.

I'm definitely looking forward to Christmas II though, because that involves good wine, good food and useful presents. I mean, I can appreciate good wine, even cheap wine, but what do I really need with scratched wine glasses, a set of paper Christmas napkins and a single votive candle. Really, next time don't go around your house and throw a bunch of crap into a bag. Just give me the wine and be done with it. Maybe I sound bitter and petty, but after 26 years of craptastic gifts I've run out of nice things to say about them.

Beware of the Pirate at UPS!

Funny story...I asked Mr. B to drop off some packages at UPS yesterday. I figured it would be harmless enough and it would save me some time since he gets home before me. I get home from work and the first thing out of his mouth is that he's never going to UPS ever again and that I 'Set him up.'

Now, I've been to this same UPS probably 20 times to drop off shoes to be returned and I've never had a problem. He goes in there and the guy at the desk has an eye patch on--Mr. B said that he could see the guy's eye because the patch wasn't even on right and that his eye looked fine. The guy didn't like the one box I had used because he said it was 'soft', so he charged Mr.B $8 for a new damn box. Right there I would have said, "No thanks, I'll take it to the damn post office." But Mr. B said fine, I'll pay for the new box. The guy then says, "Excuse me sir, I have to sneeze." He then proceeded to sneeze and then said, "Excuse me sir, I have to use hand santizer." He used his bottle of hand sanitizer.

At this point, I'm sure Mr. B was looking around for the hidden camera waiting for me to jump out and say, "Gotcha!", but the fun continued when he put the 'soft' box in a new box, sealed it up, asked Mr. B to take the tape off of his finger and then asked Mr. B if he knew the address that was on the box. Nope. So now they're reopening the box to get the address. Oh, God.

Box #1 is taken care of, now onto box #2. This is his dad's Christmas present. The guy looks at the name on the package and recognizes the last name from when Mr. B told him the return address.
The guy asks, "Is that your brother in Ohio?"
Mr. B says, "No, it's my father."
The guy asks, "When was the last time you saw him?"
Perplexed, Mr. B says, "A couple of months ago."
The guy then asks, "Did you see him there or he came here?"
At this point, I'm surprised Mr. B didn't just walk out, but he said, "Here." and the guy thought that was sufficient enough to the end coversation. He also made it a point to tell him that the one package was close enough that it would have been less expensive to drive it over ourselves. Gee, thanks for the advice UPS package guy!!!

When he told me this story, I was on the floor laughing so hard I was crying. Mr. B just gave me this "I hate you so much for making me do that"-look. Never again will you find Mr. B in a UPS store due to this Twilight zone occurence.

Chaddsford Winery

Last Christmas I gave Mr. B a Gift Box for a winery tour and tasting. We didn't get around to it until just recently because of the wedding, the summer and Spain. We went on Friday to Chaddsford Winery in PA.

The drive up was nice and it only took us about 45 minutes to get there. As soon as we walked in the door we were handed a nice, crisp glass of Pinot Grigio and it was delicious. Our tour guide then showed us around the grounds--where they process the grapes, where the grapes go to make wine and where the wine is bottled. The group tasting area is downstairs and she said that they were having an elderly group later that afternoon. She told us that they get them all drunked up and then make them walk upstairs, which is pretty interesting being that they're old and probably can't go up stairs sober.

After the tour we began the tasting in their tasting room. We started out with the whites, progressed to the reds and finished with the lighter, sweeter dessert wines. Mr. B and I both loved the Cabernet, Holiday Spirit and Apple Cider. The Holiday Spirit and Apple Cider were warming in a crock pot and they were just what we needed on a freezing cold day like Friday. We took home a couple of bottles of our favorites and we got a complimentary bottle of the Pinot and our tasting glasses.

Overall, the experience was pretty enjoyable. PA definitely does not make the best reds, but their whites were very good. Mr. B and I were so trashed after the tasting that we went to lunch at P.F.Chang's and drank some more wine :-P

Tom & Heather's Wedding

Saturday Mr. B and I went to our friends Tom and Heather's wedding in NE Philly. Heather looked so beautiful and Tom was so handsome! The mass was so cute...the priest kept making wise cracks about Tom being Italian.

The reception was held at The Fountain Room, which us up by the Franklin Mills Mall. The cocktail hour was really good and the drinks were fabulous. The reception room was gorgeous. They had a red, silver and white theme. The food was excellent and the DJ was really good. They had a surprise toward the end of the night--they had actual Mummers come and sing us a few songs. Mr. B and I had a great time...especially slow dancing to "Pour Some Sugar on Me". The entire dance floor cleared out and it was just us with our glasses on. I was crying I was laughing so hard.

Best wishes to the new couple!

My MIL, Mr. B, me and SFIL

The happy couple.

Delicious cake!

Tom's sister, Tom, and his two best men.

The DJ gave us these glasses when we requested a song. We wore them most of the night.

The Fralinger's Mummer group!

Rainy Thursday

I had to literally drag myself out of bed this morning. I woke up 20 minutes late and was so tempted to just stay in bed and call out sick once I heard that it was still raining. On the bright side, I'm back to being a blondish-brunette. I got a little trim and color last night. I've been going to the same hair dresser for almost 15 years...crazy! Her one dog was running around the house humping the other one and drooling all over her. The poor thing was so tired of being chased around all night that she just stood there willingly.

Mr. B is working from home today...lucky duck. Too bad the office has been overtaken by laundry and Christmas presents. He only has a little path to walk to the desk and back. I hope that I can get to wrap some more presents this weekend, but it probably won't happen until Sunday. We're going to Chaddsford Winery tomorrow for a wine tasting and then Saturday we have a wedding.

I'm pretty excited for the wine tasting, plus we get a winery tour and a free bottle of wine. I hope that it snows, but doesn't stick to the roads. That would make for some pretty pictures in the vineyards. (that would probably also make for an interesting winter TTD session) I miss the wine in Spain. Even the house wines were good and they were inexpensive too. Our fave restaurant just got a new bottle on their wine list from Spain. It's a Rioja and I'm dying to try it. Me encanta rioja!

I finally got the Xmas cards out last night. I'm still missing a few addresses though. I wish our picture would have turned out better. I didn't realize that I didn't fix the red eye in the picture before I approved it to be printed. Oh well, I guess it makes me look like a newborn vampire in a way...kinda pale too.

Twilight

I finally finished the fourth and final book. It's kind of sad that I don't have any more books from the series to read, but I think Mr. B is glad that I won't be ignoring him for Edward anymore. It was kind of disappointing the way Breaking Dawn ended, but it also left the series with closure.

Now that the director from the Twilight movie has been fired, I'm excited to see how they improve the second movie. I just hope that they don't change the plot or major scenes like they did in Twilight. I also hope that Kristen Stewart finds her acting skills.

I've started reading Midnight Sun and I'm hooked. I love Edward and being able to 'see' into his mind is amazing. It just kind of confirms what I thought he was thinking all along...no surprises yet. I hope SM does finish this book and I hope she does it soon! I need my fix!

Weekend Happenings

Mr. B and I finally put up the Christmas tree on Saturday after we went to dinner. Ironically, it was snowing, which was kind of nice since we didn't have to go far. We just have a few more Christmas decorations to put up. We already got a compliment from our neighbor on our outside decorations :)

Last night I went to see Legally Blonde, the musical, with two friends and I had a blast! The show was so fun and upbeat...the half naked men prancing around didn't hurt either. Yes, they're probably gay, but that doesn't make them any less eye-candy for me ;-) As soon as I got up this morning I was singing "Omigod, omigod you guys..." I have a feeling it'll be in my head for awhile.

Christmas Cards

So I finally bit the bullet and made a Christmas list in Word. It took me forever, but I think I got just about everyone. It made me realize that I definitely ordered way to many Christmas cards. Oh, well...too late.




I wanted to use a picture of us from Spain with actual Spain stuff in the background, but alas, we don't have that many pictures with the two of us in them because we didn't want some little bambino to run away with our camera. The picture we're using is ok though, and it's from Spain, so that's all that matters. Here is my masterpiece via Snapfish:

I was able to use a code I found online at Retailmenot.com for 20% off...it's SNAPPYSGIFT if anyone is interested. I would have used a wedding picture too, but since I don't have the rights to my damn pictures I couldn't do that. I told Mr. B that the rights to my pictures would make an excellent Christmas present, but our $50 limit this year for presents doesn't cut it.

Best of Spain

Jerez de la Frontera is known for its sherry wine. We only stayed here one night on the way to Cadiz, but the town seemed pretty nice. We stayed at Hotel Casa Grande, which was right on the main square in the historic part of the town. The woman at the front desk was very friendly and spoke very good English. We stayed in room #1 which was very large and opened up onto the rooftop terrace.

That night, we walked down to La Cruz Blanca for dinner. The food was excellent and the price was decent. Mr. B had an ox filet and I had some garlic shrimp (gambas al ajillo). All of the streets are lined with orange trees and it makes the air smell so good! The next day, we ate breakfast at the hotel before we left for Cadiz. The train station was about 3 blocks away and it was easy to find.

Cadiz is supposedly the oldest city in Europe and it's right on the southwest tip of Spain. The city was beautiful and it had amazing shopping. There were mazes of streets that had all kinds of little shops in them. The seafood here was so fresh; I'll never eat frozen fish again!

We stayed at Hotel Senator Cadiz, which is right of the main road into the city. The front desk service was bad, really bad. They were rude and not very helpful at all. The room was ok. Very small--just big enough for the bed, which was uncomfortable. Our only window faced into an alley so we got to see everyone's laundry hanging outside. We had a connecting room and we could hear every noise the guy next door made. He definitely had emphysema or something because his coughing was horrendous!

We did one day of sightseeing while we were there. We saw the Cathedral and walked up La Girlada, which was one of the towers that overlooks the city. The view from up there was amazing! We also went to see the fort that was used to quaranteen people with some kind of disease 100's of years ago. It's such a pretty city to walk around. We ended up walking to the train station because the front desk people were ignoring us when we asked for them to call a cab. The train ride to Seville was actually really nice.

Seville was my favorite city by far. The food, the people, the sites; everything was amazing! We stayed at Hotel Alminar, which is in the old Jewish district. We could see the Cathedral from our hotel room. The room was very nice and actually quite modern. It was small, but not cramped and the beds were amazingly comfortable.

Our first day there we went and saw the Cathedral. We were both just in awe of the architecture and the massive size of the church. I used up my memory stick before I even got outside. That night we asked for tapas bar recommendations from the front desk and we ended up going to Coloniales. The food there was probably the best food we had all trip. We got a bottle of rioja (red) and about 6 plates of tapas. We got there around 8pm and by 9pm the place was packed and there were people waiting outside drinking in the street. Our favorite tapa was the Patatas Bravas--sliced, fried potatoes with a hot sauce and an aoili sauce. We had that in just about every tapas place after that.

The next day we went to see the Reales Alcazares, which are a bunch of Moorish palaces all connected together with a massive garden. The tilework in the rooms was amazing. We also went and saw the Torre de Oro, Plaza de Espana, and the bull ring. That night we went to Estrella, which was also very good and packed by the time we left.

The next day we went to some museums and basically did all of the little things that we didn't get to do the other days. That night we met up with some friends and went to a Vinoteca for some amazing food. We were so sad to leave on our last day in Seville. We took the AVE (high speed train) to Madrid.

Madrid was the last leg of our trip. We only stayed here one night before we left Spain. We stayed at the Roommate Alicia hotel and we got an amazing suite on the top floor. Our room wasn't ready when we got there so we had some tapas in the plaza across from our hotel. I don't think we had one bad thing to eat when we were in Spain. We went and saw the Reina Sophia museum and one of the botanical gardens in the city.

Our hotel room was absolutely amazing! Panoramic view of the plaza, soaking tub, huge, comfy bed. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and the food was very, very good. We ended up having two plates of the Patatas Bravas to get our fix. We reserved a taxi at the front desk and he was on time the next day to take us to the airport. The ride cost about 30 Euro, but it was worth it because we probably would have gotten lost trying to find the train.

Mr. B and I are so ready to go back to Spain. We'd definitely spend some more time in Seville and maybe hit up some of the towns that are close...Jaen, Cordoba, etc.

Spain Pics

Here are a few pics from Spain of Mr. B and me:

This was taken in one of the main plazas in Cadiz.

Taken in front of one of the Cathedral doors in Cadiz.

Take at the top of one of the towers in the Cathedral. The view was amazing!

Down by the water in Cadiz.

This is from our last night in Cadiz at a restaurant with the rest of the group.

In the garden of a Moorish Palace in Seville.

Food Overload

I ate so much this weekend...I feel like such a slob. At least I have a couple weeks of repreive before Christmas. All of my crazy, running around shopping should help me stave off a lb or two.

I think I'm about 60% done my holiday shopping. It feels like it snuck up so fast this year! Where did 2008 go?! I feel like it was just NYE yesterday. By the way...I don't like this adult-having to buy presents for everyone thing...it's annoying and time consuming. I'd be fine with just doing a Secret Santa and being done with it. There are like 20+ people I have to buy presents for and my bank account doesn't like it very much. I told Mr. B that we're just going to do something nice, just the two of us, as our Christmas presents and that we could get each other small presents that are under $20. It'll be tough, but it will force us to be creative.

I have no motivation to do work, but I really should. I'd rather be back in bed sleeping--which I didn't get to do much of last night. I should have called in sick. Boss man isn't in so it really wouldn't have made a difference. Oh well...maybe later in the week.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow!!

I am so happy about Thanksgiving(s) this year. I think it's becoming one of my favorite holidays. All the food without having to worry about all the presents. Speaking of presents...must start Christmas shopping soon. Spain kind of derailed my usual promptness with shopping. I'm usually more than half way done by now.

Yay for a half day today and then 4 days off that will be filled with eating and sleeping :)

Back into the Swing of Things

Mr. B and I are back from Espana...how I miss thee!!! Seville was my favorite city on our whirlwind tour of Spain. The food, the wine, the sites...AMAZING! I'll post a few of our favorite pics later on this week when I get some time to catch up.

Today is Mr. B's birthday!! Yay! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I gave him his present yesterday and he was pretty excited. More gym equipment; just what our 1,000 square foot condo needs :P I think we're going out to dinner at Prospector's tonight to celebrate. Tomorrow I have class (b00), but at least it's the second to last one! So excited for that! Wednesday I'm hoping we'll get out early and then at night we have Mr. B's 10th high school reunion.

Back to the grind is more like it...

GObama

It's final...Barack Obama is our president. Hopefully he can do something to turn our craphole country around. I found out last night that my vote and Mr. B's vote canceled each other out. NJ was still a blue state though. I was surprised by his vote, but that's his choice.

I was kind of disappointed in the turn out even though they said that voters came out in record numbers. There were only about 500,000 voters in Delaware and other states were even lower. The radio this morning said that only 60-some% of NJ voters voted today as opposed to the JFK-Nixon election where 91% of NJ voters voted.

I voted

I thought I'd be the only one lining up to vote this morning at 6am...boy was I wrong! There was a freakin line around the corner of the damn EMT building. Thank god I was able to get out of the parking lot alive. I went back a little later in the morning and it was pretty darn empty. Yay for doing my civic duty!

Anxiety

I think I'm having an axiety attack...wonderful. I should not have come into work today. I have 2 stupid meetings that are going to take up the majority of my day and I have so much to get done before we leave for Spain on Sunday. I've only practiced my presentation once or twice and I feel like I'm going to bomb when they ask me questions.

Friday Mr. B and I went to the Phils Parade. We were on Broad St. at around 8am and basically stood in the same spot for 5 hours. It was well worth it though...we had a blast and it was nice to get to spend some one on one time together. After the parade we tried to get back on the train, but it was so crowded. There was a line out into the street, so we walked down to La Scala's in Jeweler's Row. After lunch we caught the train at 8th and Market and only had to wait about 20 minutes for an open train car.

Saturday we went to dinner with Mr. B's dad and my parents for my birthday. We went to Mirabella Cafe in Cherry Hill and the food was really good. I have leftovers for lunch today :) Mr. B said that I was tanked from the wine and wouldn't stop talking. Then I got into bed and was out like a light.

Yesterday my parents and my sister came over for lasagna and cake. I was happy that I got to open some presents. I got a set of golf clubs, golf balls, golf towels, a gift certificate to get my nails done, a new work shirt and a dressy wrap that I'll probably wear to a wedding this weekend. I'm looking forward to the wedding on Saturday so Mr. B and I can finally relax. We have been so insanely busy the past couple of months that I feel like I'm running on fumes. I don't even care if we just eat and drink all day in Spain...as long as I don't have to be anywhere at a certain time or do anything.

I'm just so fried--I didn't even know how old I was when the waiter asked me on Saturday and I hadn't even had a drink yet. I always take off of work for my birthday and I didn't today and now I have to try to be interested in meetings. Today sux. Getting old sux. I'm in a horrible mood.

World Series Champs!

Holy crap! I'm still in shock that the Phils are World Series Champs! Mr. B and I went to the Chickie and Pete's on Roosevelt last night with a few of his friends. The place was so packed, but we were lucky and got a booth right by the big screen. The food was amazing and fast--I was pretty surprised considering how crowded it was. There were some little kids there too, which was really cute. They started yelling at the TV; little fans after my own heart!

The game was so close through the entire 3.5 innings; almost like a sprint. It seemed to go by so fast. All of the guys did an amazing job and I'm so happy for them. I thought it was pretty hilarious that there was a mini Penn statue on the top of the Comcast building. That way nothing in the city was taller than him :-) I guess it worked.

I think Mr. B and I are going to make the trek into the city tomorrow. It's pretty convenient too because we both have off. It's going to be a mad house, but it will be so worth it. This is history in the making! Maybe I should bring some silly string to spray down the baseball commissioner. On the way to the bar last night we were listening to the radio and the announcer was talking about a sign he saw that said:
WS Tickets: $1400
Popcorn: $4
Baseball Commissioner: Useless (with Priceless crossed out)

How funny is that?! Only in Philly...

GO PHILS!!!!

I'm an idiot

I had class last night and didn't get home until around 8pm. I was pretty exhausted, but Mr. B and I stayed up to watch True Blood from Sunday on OnDemand. I love that show! I don't know what I'm going to do when the season is over. I'll need my vamp fix, so hopefully I'll have my Twilight books by then.

Mr. B was home sick and he said he turned on the heater, but cold air was coming out all day. I checked the pilot and BINGO! no flame. I've never lit a heater pilot before, but it was pretty easy. I reaked when it finally came on, but we probably haven't used it for 8 months.

I finally got to bed around 9:30, which is actually really really early compared to when I've been going to bed because of the damn Phillies games being so late. I woke up this morning in a panic because my alarm clock read 10:30, which meant that I should have been in work 5 hours ago. I raced into the shower and I started to fall alseep. Then I started to think about what time it was and there was no way that I slept that long. I finally realized that it was really 10:30pm not 10:30am. What.an.idiot. So I got out of the shower and went back to sleep with wet hair.

I'm still exhausted this morning, but I'm determined to go to the gym because I didn't go the past 2 days. The weather change has been so extreme that it's sapped all of my energy...that and the stress from worrying about Spain. My presentation is almost done, so now I just have to worry about practicing and getting there.

Disappointed

Stupid weather had to go and ruin a perfectly good game! They better not play again tonight while I'm in class...I just might have to feign sickness. Mr. B is home sick today. He looked like death. I hope I didn't give him what I had. I did get the flu shot last night and my arm hurt like a mother effer. I woke up this morning with shooting pains on my left side because I had slept on it. Another morning of sleeping in versus going to the gym...and the guilt is starting to set in. Especially because we ordered stromboli's the size of my head for dinner last night. Just bulking up for the winter...ha ha ha.

Exhausting Weekend

Friday drug myself into work and then went home sick. I spent the rest of the day in bed watching TV, drinking green tea, and overdosing on Cold-Eeze. I went to the gym later on in the day and sat in the sauna. That definitely made me feel better. Mr. B had class all night, so I basically just hungout and did laundry.

Saturday I went on a cleaning spree. We've been so busy that the cleaning had been pretty neglected. Lucky Mr. B...he had class till 4pm so I was the maid for the day. Sunday I had a bridal shower for a wedding we have in December. I also put away all of my summer clothes and put out my fall/winter clothes. I'm so glad to have my sweaters! I got home from the shower and went to the gym and sat in the sauna some more. I think all the Cold-Eeze and sauna-ing has really cut the length of my cold.

We stayed up until about the 7th inning last night, when it was pretty obvious the Phils were going to win. One more and we get a parade! I will definitely have to take off for that :) If it's a close game tonight, we'll probably stay up for the entire thing. I'm planning on getting a flu shot tonight, so hopefully I won't feel really crappy like I've heard happens sometimes. I'm making Mr. B come with me to hold my hand. I'm almost 26 and I still hate needles.

This coming weekend is going to be hectic. We're not doing anything for Halloween because Mr. B has a huge paper due for class and his dad is coming in from Ohio. It's also my birthday weekend! Yay! We also need to start getting everything ready for Spain, which is less than 2 weeks away!!!! Craziness, but honestly I just can't wait till all of the rushing around and chaos is over. It's just way too stressful when you're not feeling well and you have a million things to do and a million places to go.

Oh no, oh no...

The Phils crapped the bed last night. I had a feeling that it was going to be bad when they hadn't scored in the 5th. Mr. B and I promptly went to bed.

I came home yesterday and my downstairs neighbor was at her car. I had told her a couple weeks ago that I'd let her come up and see the renovations, but I haven't run in to her since then. Well I was unpacking my car and she kind of mentioned it so I took her up. She said how nice everything looked. I've seen her place and it's definitely not on par with ours. Of course my bathroom was a bomb site. I had trash on the floor and clothes everywhere. Not to mention a pair of dirty undies by the door...nice, huh? Wonder if she saw them. ha ha ha.... I def have to clean it this weekend, but cleaning it makes me want to take out the entire disgusting, fiberglass mess that is my shower, and replace it with some nice floor to ceiling tile. I know I could do it, but I really don't have the time.

A little over two weeks until we leave for Spain...I'm so stressed right now. I really need to work on my presentation ASAP...I think I might even take it home and work on it so I can concentrate. I'm so glad it's the weekend...

Yay Phils!

Woo-hoo! So excited for tonight's game!!

They have to start hitting though! They left runners stranded on base over 10 times last night. I was literally yelling at the TV like Burrell and Howard could hear me. Freaking Feliz even got a few hits!! At least Hamels had things under control.

The (Devil) Rays' stadium is horrible. All that mumbo jumbo about catwalk hit rules is complete BS. Well if the ball hits catwalk A, B, C, or Z then it's a ground rule double and if it hits catwalk Y and the crowd is wearing mostly blue and there are 10 hot women in the first row of section 400...BS!!!! The bullpen was ON THE FIELD. How much more dangerous could that get? A foul ball to left field and Lidge could get a bop on the head. And who in their right mind has a dome in a warm state? Stupid, stupid, stupid field with their stupid new just 'Rays' name.

Speaking of stupid...those damn announcers on Fox. H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E. Their commentary was ridiculous. One of them made some comment like, "So and so has been with the Rays since they were the Devil Rays" and earilier in the broadcast they had mentioned that they just dropped the 'Devil' part this season. WTF?! That means nothing!!! I hate FOX for baseball...the angles are bad, the commentary is bad, and everything else is bad... We should be able to listen to the local announcers. At least they say stuff that is pertinent to the damn game. Who the eff cares about which catwalk is catwalk A? I can't wait for Saturday when the Rays get to see a real baseball park.

Does this mean I'm getting old?

I was in the supermarket with Mr. B on Sunday and I picked up a Family Circle magazine. I was so excited that it had a bunch of chicken recipes in there. That's old lady excitement, right?? Well, we tried one of the recipes and it was pretty amazing. Try it out:

Spicy Chicken & Mushrooms (4 servings)

Ingredients:
1tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1tbsp minced ginger (we used ground instead)
2c. sliced mushrooms ( you could substitute any veggie)
4 sliced scallions (we used a shallot instead)
1/2tsp red pepper flakes
1/2tsp each of salt and black pepper
1lb. boneless, skinless chicken cut into 1/2" pieces
1.5tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1tbsp rice vinegar (we omitted this)
1/2c. chopped cilantro (we used oregano)
3c. cooked rice (optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger to pan; cook 1 minute. Stir in mushrooms, scallions, red pepper flakes, and 1/4tsp each of salt and pepper. Cook 3 minutes, stirring often.
2. Reduce heat and add chicken to pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4tsp of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring for 4 minutes or until cooked through.
3. Stir in soy sauce, ,vinegar and cilantro; cook 2 minutes. Serve with rice, if desired.

Per serving: 176cal; 5g fat; 28g protein; 4g carbs; 1g fiber; 516mg sodium; 66mg cholesterol

I'm getting sick

nft.

Pittsburgh, well not quite

This weekend Mr. B and I went to a wedding up in Pittsburgh. Originally, we were supposed to drive up with Mr. B's friends, but one thing led to another and we ended up flying to Pittsburgh instead of braving the 5+ hour drive there and back. Our flight was on Southwest and it was great. Probably one of the easiest flights I've taken in a long, long time.

We got to the hotel at about 4pm and quickly realized that our hotel was not really in the city. It was in the Boro of Green Tree, which looks pretty damn ghetto if you ask me. I was not impressed. We were hoping we could walk somewhere, but with all of the damn hills and all of the businesses we couldn't go anywhere. It was also about 20 degrees colder than Philly, which we were not prepared for. The hotel room was ok...definitely not the best hotel I've stayed in and it needed a good scrubbing if you ask me.

Mr. B's friend came and picked us up at about 6pm and we went over to see his house. It's a 2-story, 4 bed 2.5 bath with a 2 car garage and a basement. He got it a year ago for what I paid for my condo in 2006. Not fair. I just can't believe how different the market is, but having been up there for 3 days I can't imagine wanting to live there. Everything just looks so old and it seems kind of hard to get around.

We went to dinner with Brian and his wife (they got married in Hawaii in Sept) and then they took us back to the hotel. We slept in until about 9, which was amazing, and then we went out to breakfast with Mr. B's friend's that were also coming up. We went to this pancake house in the middle of nowhere. I had some very delicious pumpkin pancakes. I could go for some more right now. We got back to the hotel and decided to get a quick workout in and then go in the hot tub and pool. We got ready for the dinner and got shuttled over to the restaurant.

It was your typical Italian restaurant stuck in the 90's with all of that flowery mauve and grey styled decor. The food was ok, but our waiter was amazing. Everytime my glass was empty he was bringing me a new one. Dangerous. I have no clue how much I drank, but at the end of the night I was sucking down waters like you wouldn't believe. There was an awesome selection of music and Mr. B and I were dancing to almost every song. At one point the DJ put on some Bon Jovi and all of the 'Jersey' people were rocking out. I think we sang the entire song louder than the actual music. We were def obnoxious, but we had an amazing time so whatever!

We got back to the hotel and jus about passed out. Probably about 30 minutes after we got to our room we heard Mr. B's friends outside banging on doors. They were trashed and beligerent, but went away eventually. We got up the next morning around 9am and left for Jersey. We rode back with one of Mr. B's friends and we made it in like 5 hours...which is crazy considering we were stuck in some traffic and we stopped for 20 minutes at a rest stop. I still feel like crap, but we had a great weekend :)

Woo-hoo!

The Phils are going to the World Series! How freakin fantastic is that?! I was so tired last night and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I turned it off at the beginning of the 9th, but couldn't sleep a wink. We met my parents at the Pic and had some unbelievably awful wings. I still feel sick just thinking about them. Gross. I still have heart burn and a head ache from how nasty they were.

I feel like crap today. Sore throat and exhausted. Hopefully I can sleep during the car ride up to Pittsburg tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to 6 hours in the car with people that would draw phallic symbols on your face in a heartbeat. I will have to employ my ninja defenses whilst I sleep. Mr. B's friend said he wants to spend Saturday by the indoor pool at the hotel. Right now I look bad, really bad in a bathing suit--it's not summer anymore. Who knew I'd have to wear a bikini in the fall?! Oh well...like they care anyway.

I need to get serious work done today. I brought in some Bruce to keep me on track. Hopefully he can inspire me to finish my damn presentation!

Remodel Pics

Pictures as promised! We still have to do some minor work with the trim, but it's 95% done :)

Before:




After:

Here are some during pics. I had a little casualty involving a sharp metal object.

Those were real tears. If only you could hear the cursing.

Midterm

So I took my midterm last night and I have absolutely no clue how I did. My prof said that it would probably take the full 2 hours...I was done, like completely done, in an hour. I looked around to see if anyone else looked done and they were all furiously scribbling down answers. Crap. I sat there for another 10 minutes and made sure that I had answered all of the questions. I looked around again and no one was done. I spent another 10 minutes looking over my answers and I found one small mistake, but I couldn't find anything else. I scanned the room and still no one looked even near done. Crapx2.

I spent the next 15 minutes trying to look like I was doing something with the test. I couldn't take it anymore so I handed it in. I could feel everyone's eyes on me since I was the first to hand in the test. I handed it to my prof and he started to look it over. Please, please don't do that! I don't need to see the look of disgust on your face when you see how crapily I did. I felt guilty all the way home for turning it in 35 minutes early, but I was done. I ran every damn problem through my head over and over again and I don't think that I would have redone any of them differently. It's not like it's 20% of my grade or anything...

I think I'm actually kind of good at taking tests. I usually don't freak out and I can usually get some form of an answer. I guess that's good. I thought the test was kind of easy, but I guess I'll see next week if he hands them back. Two of the problems were straight from the notes or book...duh...if you didn't get them you're pretty stupid. I definitely didn't study as much as I should, but I knew where everything was and I knew when I saw a problem I had seen before.

Here's to hoping!

Go Phils!

nft.

Thank you Columbus!

I so enjoyed my day off yesterday even though I had to study for my midterm, which is going to blow. This weekend went by way to fast considering I had a full 4 days off. I spent most of Friday running errands and then we went to Mr. B's friend's wedding that night. Mr. B had class and his teacher wouldn't let him leave early to come to the wedding. He didn't get there until almost 10pm. Thank God my mom crashed and came with me because I probably would have been miserable by myself. I gorged myself with the mushroom raviolis and fried shrimp and I must have had at least 6 Captain and Diets. The stupid teenage bartender carded me. Hello, we're at a wedding here...and I'm going to be 26 in less than a month!! Whatever...I guess it's good that I'm still getting carded.

Saturday Mr. B had class bright and early so I ate some wedding cake and cleaned up the house from the remodel. Somehow I dragged myself to the gym and actually had a good workout. Saturday night I went out with some girl friends into the city. We had some beers and crab fries at Chickie and Pete's and watched the Flyers. After that we went out in Old City and I found a new love...Energy Martini's. We found our way to another bar and then went to an after hours place in another part of the city. I got home soo late...I can't remember the last time I got home at 4am if ever.

Sunday I pretty much did nothing by lie on the couch. We ran some errands and I watched the SEx and the City movie. It was good...perhaps a little overrated, or maybe I was just tired and hung over and couldn't really focus. Yesterday we finally got our new fridge delivered and it's huge. Massive. I'm so glad that we have a fridge that doesn't leak anymore!!! We went to the gym and then I studied the rest of the day. I still have more studying to do but I also have a shitton of work to do. Real work. Ugh...I've been feeling so stressed lately and it's affecting my sleep. Boo!

Yay for the weekend!

I am so so so excited about tomorrow night! We're going to Mr. B's work friend's wedding. It's being held at the same place we had our wedding so I'll get to eat everything that I didn't get to eat at our wedding. Mr. B actually has class until 9pm tomorrow night so I think my mom is going to 'crash' and come with me just for the cocktail hour. That way I don't have to be alone and we don't have to have two cars there. I plan on imbibing and having a wonderful time. I'm going to take tons of pictures too because I really appreciated the pictures she took from our wedding.

This will be the second actual wedding we've been to, but the first reception since our wedding. I might just cry...especially because I know and talk to the bride. I so want to get a new pair of shoes to wear tomorrow night, but I'm afraid they'll make my feet hurt and I'll just end up taking them off. We'll see. I'm off tomorrow so maybe at some point before going to the church I'll find my way to the mall and sniff out some deals.

Mr. B also has class Saturday all day and I'm going out Saturday night, so I probably won't really see him until Sunday morning. I'm sure I'll have a wicked hang over from 2 straight days of drinking--won't I be a prize?! Sunday and Monday I actually have to do homework. I have a midterm on Tuesday so I have to study. Who gives a test the day after a holiday weekend? Doesn't this guy know what people our age do on long weekends? Meh...whatever. The professor says I'll do alright, so I guess I should believe him. I should also learn how to work my fancy-smancy calculator so I can check my answers.

Hump Day

Thank God I only have two more days of work including today. I cannot wait for this four day weekend! I'm definitely going shopping at lunch today...a nice long shopping trip.

My coworker said yesterday that I had a negative energy surrounding me. I thought that was pretty crazy that she picked up on that because that's definitely how I felt. I'm just so frustrated because I have a million things to do and I'm sitting in an enclosed room with no windows with at least two people who are infecting everyone with their sick germs. They're coughing and sniffling and they look like death. To make matters worse on of them does crossword puzzles on his computer all day long while I'm slaving away at my desk doing things he could be doing. He also sleeps most of the day. I can hear him when he wakes up. So.Freakin.Annoying. I wish I could have my own area or at least be surrounded by productive, positive people.

At least I have work to do...much better than the old job! I would love to be able to start our own business. Like open our own gym or something. That would be amazing. Mr. B and I both have a pretty deep interest in fitness. We both like to challenge ourselves and we push each other to challenge ourselves more. I think we'd do a good job with our own business. If only we had the money! Oh well, a girl can dream...and buy lots and lots of lottery tickets.

God I'm Moody...

I can't seem to shake this funk I've been in for the past week or so. I don't know if it was all of the stress of remodeling this weekend or all of the stress I've been feeling at work. I'm just so run down and tired. I feel like I haven't had a spare second to myself to just sit and relax. It's almost like since the wedding I've been running and running around like a mad woman. I just hope that this weekend I can get some R&R.

Friday I'm taking some comp time, instead of working for 3 hours, so I guess I"ll get to sleep in a bit. We have a wedding that night, but during the day I want to go find a pair of jeans and maybe a top for Saturday night. Saturday night I'm going out with some of my friends to C&P's in the city to watch the Flyers game and then maybe out to a bar or two. Sunday I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet. The Eagles are on, but they suck. What's new... Thank God we have Monday off! And then it's a 3 day week and that Friday we're heading up to Pittsburg for Mr. B's friend's reception. They got married in Hawaii in September and we're going up to celebrate. I'm pretty excited. It's almost like a mini-vacation.

So my goal for the rest of the week is to try to relax. I need to prioritize everything that needs to get accomplished before we go to Spain. We haven't done anything recently and I think that Mr. B and I really need to get a move on.

It's Monday Already?!

This weekend flew by! Mr. B and I both had off on Thursday and Friday so we decided to redo our bathroom. My dad suggested that we also rip up the old wood floors and put down new ones. This was a little more involved than we expected it to be and both projects took the entire weekend and they're still not 100% done.

Thursday we started by taking most of the stuff out of the main bathroom, prepping it for paint and painting. Friday morning we ripped up the old linoleum, took up the old wood floor and took most of it to the dumpster. When my dad got there we laid the backer board on the floor and I started tiling. My dad and Mr. B started laying out the underlayment for the wood floors. Saturday we started laying the wood floors and this proved to be alot harder than we anticipated. The walls weren't square, so we needed to cut alot of angles and weird pieces to make it look right. Saturday afternoon into night I grouted the tile. We almost ran out of the grout since it was left over from the other bathroom and Home Depot and Lowes didn't carry the brand anymore. I have about 2 tiles worth left that I'm hoping to use when we eventually rip up some cracked tile in the master bath.

Yesterday we finished the floor, cut some trim and started piecing the bathroom back together. We don't have a working sink yet and we still have to put up the towel bars and finish the trim work. It looks really great now and I'm so glad we did it. My parents were both such a great help and without them it would have been much more expensive and taken so much longer!

I think Mr. B has had his share of DIY projects for at least a year. He was going nuts with all of the dust and the clutter and I think he's relieved to have his house and his bathroom back. We'll finish up some little stuff tonight and then it's back to normal...finally!

Yoga is Not Easy

So after a really busy day at work yesterday I didn't feel like dragging myself to the gym. Mr. B and I did a yoga DVD that I've had for eons, but never used. It's called beginner's yoga so I figured they'd go easy on us...I was so wrong. I was sore before the workout even ended! The lady running the class was uber annoying too. She had this fake, I'm-trying-to lull-you-to-sleep voice and these stupid comments. I like the lady on On-Demand yoga much better.

Maybe it was so hard because I've really only been doing weight lifting and some cardio. I definitely need to increase my flexibility because I couldn't even get my heels to the floor in downward dog position. The other girls on the video were insanely flexible--I was jealous. I'm surprised that I'm not that sore today. Just in the legs a little bit.

Today's my sister's 21st birthday! I feel so old! I'm supposed to meet up with my parents and her at The Landmark by her school for some drinks. I have class tonight, so I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow. I just hope we get out a little early...

Another busy one...

So Friday Mr. B and I did our Trash the Dress session with Rob Medina of Medina Photography and we had such a great time! Rob was great to work with and the pictures look amazing! We met Rob over at the Navy Yard at about 10am and he had already found a good place to shoot some pictures. I was so paranoid the entire time that we were going to get arrested or in trouble for shooting by the ships...LOL. The session lasted about an hour and a half and I was exhausted by the end. Rob even said that I kind of looked like Whitney, the ANTM winner from Cycle 10.

That night I went out with the girls for Mexican food and bowling. We ended up only bowling one game, but it was still a blast. I came in second to last...woo-hoo! That night Mr. B was out with some friends in Manyunk for a friend's semi-bachelor party. I think he got sick and now I feel like I'm coming down with something :(

Saturday, we both pretty much hung around the house until noon or so and then we went for pizza and out to Home Depot for some more supplies for the bathroom remodel. The tab was a little higher than I expected, but we got just about everything we'll need for this weekend. I'm probably taking off Thursday to start ripping the bathroom apart and getting the walls ready for paint. We picked a tan-green color that I think will look nice with the tile and the espresso vanity.

Saturday afternoon we went to a baby shower and then we headed over to my parents for my sister's family birthday party. It was fun...we had some good chinese and watched the Phils clinch the NL East Division. We didn't get home until way late :(

Sunday we cleaned and then we went to the Phils last game of the season with my family, some of my sister's friends and one of my friends. It was fun, but I was disappointed that it was the second string playing. I was kind of hoping that they wouldn't win Saturday so the decision making game would be on Sunday...at least they won!

Here are a few more TTD pics:

So Exhausted

Ugh...going to class at night is really draining me. Especially after working a 10 hour day. Our professor expected us to sit and work on a homework problem for 15 minutes at the end of class last night. My brain was mush and I felt so bad because he made us work in partners and I was of absolutely no help. I didn't get home until almost 8:30. Thank God Mr. B is so supportive--he made my lunch for today for me and he had the house all cleaned up.

I only have a half day tomorrow, so I'm going to go get a pair of rain boots for our trash the dress shoot just in case we do it in the rain. I guess I should pick up a golf umbrella too. I hope it's just spotty showers. I also hope that it doesn't rain on Sunday. We're going to the Phillies game--last one of the season! We went last year and it was so much fun...too bad it's not right on my sister's birthday like last year.

So this weekend, like every other weekend is packed with things to do. Friday is the TTD session and then I have a Dr's appointment. Friday night Mr. B is going to a semi-bachelor party and I'm going to Mexican with the girls and then out bowling. Saturday we have a party to go to for one of my preggers friends--it's a non-baby shower, LOL. Sunday is the game and then I guess cake and presents afterwards. I think BUNCO is Monday too. I'm definitely considering taking of Thursday so we can have a long weekend and focus on getting the bathroom completely done.

I just hope with all of this running around that we don't get sick! So many people at work are sneezing and coughing and calling out. That might be my excuse to come in late on Monday ;-)

Remodeling

Mr. B and I pretty much just hung around all weekend. Friday night we decided to go over to the driving rang and hit a few balls. I had no clue what I was doing, but about 20 balls into my bucket I was actually able to hit the ball and get some distance--I was pretty proud of myself.

Afterward we picked up two movies at Blockbuster, The Cube and The Bank Job. I've seen Cube before and thought it was alright. It's a pretty messed up movie overall. The Bank Job was really really good! I love me some Jason Statham!!

Saturday we went and looked at some granite for the kitchen. We picked out a lighter color with darker streaks of color in it. It's fairly cheap too and they're coming out for an estimate on Thursday. Mr. B and I pretty much decided that we're going to wait a little bit to do the countertops though. We'd like to get the other bathroom done first. Yesterday we ended up buying a fridge at Lowes and then heading over to Home Depot to buy a vanity, tile, and a faucet. Next weekend we're going to pick out the paint color and get a mirror and light fixture. In two weeks we asked my dad to come over and help us install the tile. I'll make sure to post some before and after pictures on here.

We're so excited for a fridge that actually works and doesn't suck up electricity like crazy! Our fridge now has been leaking water out of the drip thingy underneath the freezer and generally not working well. It's so annoying! I feel like things go bad so fast. We're coming in about $300 under our budget for a fridge and $1100 under budget for our windows. We'll use part of that $1100 for the guest, Mr. B's, bathroom. We picked a pretty cheap ceramic tile, but I think it will look much nicer than the ugly, stained linoleum tile that's down now.

I'm so excited to do some renovations!

Girls' Night

So I have a group of friends that I met on the internet. I really don't even consider them 'internet friends' at all because we have so much fun together and have gotten to know each other pretty well. We met up at one of the girls' houses last night for pizza, beer and wine, and to just hang out. It was so much fun. I ended up staying much later and drinking more than I should have.

They're just all such a great bunch of girls. No one is catty or snarky and we all get along so well. I feel like we've all known each other for years. It's nice to finally have some 'girl' friends that I know aren't going to stab me in the back or use me. I feel like I've always had a problem having girlfriends and I really don't know what it is. It just seems like at some point in our friendship the tables turn and things change. I guess that's just part of growing up and becoming who you are...people grow apart.

It's just nice because we're such a diverse group of girls as far as ages and stages in our lives. Some of us are in our twenties and some are in their thirties. Some already have kids and some are pregnant now. Some of us are married, some of us are engaged and some are single.

My Little Baker

I love Mr. B....he is so cute! Today, some of the girls at his work are hosting a bridal shower for one of the girls he works with. Mr. B offered to make a cake for the shower. Yes, that's right, my husband offered to bake something. He made his speciality last night, French Toast Cake. It's about the third or fourth time he's made it and I think he's getting the hang of baking.

I helped him out a little with the ingredients and the directions. Not having baked before, he takes everything so literally. To him, when the directions ask for a cup of something, he wants to get exactly a cup of something. To me, a cup is a cup--more or less. Baking isn't that exact, at least to me it isn't!

The girls at his work must be so jealous that Mr. B is such a renaissance husband. He cooks, cleans, and now he bakes. I am so lucky :) I'm going to the shower today too, so I'll have to rub it in how good Mr. B is. He always says that the women at work get all P.O'd when he talks about everything he does around the house.

Weekend Festivities & Activities

Such a busy weekend! I feel like I didn't sleep a wink! Friday I quick ran to the association to get our window color approved. I'm on the association board, so the manager knows me. She didn't say it, but she was like why the hell did you even bother coming down here? If it matches it matches...LOL. Oh well. After that I sped to the grocery store to stock up on goodies for my dad's birthday dinner and my mom's pre-surgery dinner. Then I ran home, unpacked, got dressed for the gym and hauled my fat arse over to LA Fatness. I did a quick workout, came home, showered, got dressed and waited for my parents to pick me and Mr. B up.

We went into Philly to go to a family friend's art show at the Philadelphia Cosmopolitain Club. Of course, it was pouring--I feel like we just bring the rain with us wherever we go nowadays. The show was nice. His stuff was really good, actually. I was surprised. I was also surprised by the pricetag. The cheapest piece was $400 and it was the size of a stamp. Ok, not literally a stamp, but maybe the size of a piece of paper. That's a little much for me!

Afterwards we went to Bellini Grill, which was right around the corner. The food there is absolutely amazing. I could eat there for eons. My mom had the crab ravioli, which was delicious. My dad had some kind of chicken in a blush sauce and Mr. B had some kind of beef stuffed with more meat. I had the pasta special--homemade spinach fetuccini in a blush sauce with rock lobster, clams, calamari, and scallops. It was so tasty! Everyone but my dad had cannolis for dessert. They are so good there!

Saturday, Mr. B and I cleaned the entire house because my parents and sister were coming over for dinner. So I had to cook, clean and I made it to the gym. I was so exhausted that night. We had chicken stuffed with ricotta and spinach, roasted red potatoes, balsamic marinated asparagus, dinner rolls and a salad. For dessert, my mom made her famous pound cake and it was probably the best I've ever tasted :)

Sunday we ran errands like crazy. Food shopping, Target, BB&B, Wegman's, BJ's and then back to Wegman's. We've been watching this new HBO show called True Blood--it's about vampires. It's pretty good and I think I'm getting hooked.

Monday I took off work because my mom was having surgery. She was scared, but I think she was glad that I was there. I just hope that her recovery goes smoothly!

Wedding Album

Mr. B and I picked up our wedding album from our photographer last night. It looks absolutely amazing! Jordan had it all sealed up in this cute little pine suitcase-looking box. It must weight at least 15lbs. The colors are beautiful and the flow of the book really tells the entire story of the day. Thank god he threw in something for all of the business we gave him and all of the money we spent on him--he printed up a nice portrait of me free of charge.

I'm so glad that we went with him, but I just wish we could get our damn pictures on a DVD so we could print what we want to print. I guess that's what happens when you don't read the fine print and don't know to ask. Oh well, what's done is done and now we have a gorgeous album and soon we'll have a DVD slideshow of our pictures--so excited for that! We picked out a few songs to put on there--they're not your typical lovey-dovey, wind-beneath-my-wings songs either, so we're interested to see how they turn out.

Seeing the album makes me so glad that I don't have to go through all of that stress again, but I'm also kind of sad because I want to enjoy the party again. Now I can live vicariously through the next couple weddings we go to and the wedding I'm in next June.

Westy's is the Best-y's

So Mr. B calls me sounding quite frantic on Tuesday. He wants me to take off of work so we can go down to the shore and hang out with his friends. He's leaving right after work, but of course, I have a meeting the next day and I have class on Tuesday nights until 8pm. After the phone call, I ran around to get the meeting pushed up :) Success! I asked my boss if it was ok and he said yes. Another sucess! Class got out 20 minutes early so I sped down 295, picked up some Wawa for dinner, shoved it in my mouth, packed a bag and flew down to the shore. I made record time even though there was construction!

I met Mr. B and his friends at Westy's bar in N. Wildwood. Being that it's the middle of the week and summer is over the place had all of 6 people in it including the bartender and 3 of Mr. B's friends. They were playing shuffleboard, so I grabbed a beer and joined in. Mr. B and I went 4 for 4 and beat all of the challengers in the bar.

We met some pretty interesting people Tuesday night. And there was some very interesting activities going on right before I walked into the bar. Things that shouldn't be done in public....ahem. The one guy we met is the owner of a bar in Wildwood called Goodnight Irene's. Since we helped him out with a problem (ie--falling down drunk 'friend') he said that we could go to his bar the next day and the tab was on him.

We ended up staying until about 2am. When we got outside the local cops were just sitting there in their cars waiting for us to grab our keys and drive home. We decided walking a few blocks was better than a possibly getting pulled over. After a quick stop at Wawa and a glass of water I slept like the dead...being up for 22 hours will do that to you.

We went to the Vegas Diner the next morning -- lots of coffees and greasy food to be had by all. Afterwards we went to Mr. B's friends' condo and watched some good old Maury Povich and Jerry Springer...while drinking of course. We went swimming in the condo pool and just as we got out the sun decided to show up. We went to Goodnight Irene's to take the guy up on his offer and it was a bust. The place was nice...good food too, but the guy's brother wasn't there and he didn't call us back. Oh well.

I wish we could have stayed the entire rest of the week, but Mr. and Mrs. B both had to get back to work. If only we could have gotten some nice beach time. Being a grown up sucks sometimes.

Busy, busy B's

I can't believe how busy Mr. B and I are. We are booked solid until December. Really. I'm so glad that we decided to put house hunting on hold for now. That would just be one more stressful thing to juggle.

Between now and the end of the year we have 5 weddings; only 4 of which we're attending and one is in Pittsburg. I'm taking a graduate class at night and Mr. B is taking 3 (one online and two in person, I think). We're going to Spain in November and the week after we come back is Mr. B's birthday, his class reunion and Thanksgiving. I think we have one free weekend in there somewhere.

I just hope I can save up some time and take a long Christmas break. I'll need some time to relax after a whirlwind year like the one we've had.

NYC Trip

This weekend was pretty busy. Friday we had a window estimator come out and look at our craptacular windows. The quote was about $800 cheaper than the last one we got and he made us realize that the first window company forgot to tell us some things. We're awaiting a window vinyl swatch so we can get it approved by our association.

Saturday we braved the elements and went to see Young Frankenstein at the Hilton Theater in NYC. The play was really funny and our seats were great. We were in the Dress Circle (1st balcony) second row from the front. Dr. Frankenstein was played by the guy who was the pharmacist on Desperate Housewives, but Igor definitely stole the show.The weather held off until we got out of the theater. It was raining cats and dogs and the streets became rivers. I can't believe how wet we got.

We had dinner at an authentic Spanish restaurant called Sangria 46. The food was delicious and the sangria was amazing. I had a strawberry and peach sangria and Mr. B had a traditional red sangria. As appetizers we got shrimp wrapped in bacon and a grilled portobella mushroom with smoked salmon topped with a yummy cheese. The portobella was as big as the plate! Soo good! For our meals, Mr. B got a seafood mixture in a garlic sauce and I got a seafood paella. Both were pretty tasty, but I wish mine had a little more flavor. The dessert menu was so-so and we ended up getting Fast Breaks at the news stand at the train station.

I highly recommend taking the express train from NYC into NJ. The trip seemed so much faster going home and the train was newer and nicer. We were so glad to get home Saturday night and so exhausted. We both took nice hot showers to try to shake the cold, wet clothes we had to sit in for a couple of hours. It was worth it though. I just hope that next time we go we can avoid all hurricanes and tropical storms!

Trash The Dress

I'm so excited that we're doing a Trash the Dress session! I wanted to do one, but couldn't justify the expense. Luckily a local photog is trying to beef up his portfolio and he offered to do them for free! For those that don't know what TTD is, www.phillyttd.com

We're using Rob Medina of Medina Photography. It's going to be so much fun! We had our engagement pictures taken at the Philadelphia Naval Yard and we're planning on taking some of the TTD pictures there too. We both love that industrial feel/look and it's right on the water. After the Navy Yard, I think we might head over to FDR park and maybe Penns Landing.

I'm picking up my dress from my mom tonight and I'm crossing my fingers that it still fits. It's been about 3 months since the wedding and I've definitely gone up a bit. I think Mr. B is just going to wear something pretty casual, but still dressy. Now I'm on the hunt for the perfect accessories.

Grad School

I forgot how boring going to class was. I had my first grad class last night after work. It's a three hour class, which means that I'm basically at work for 13 hours every Tuesday night. The professor went over 30 minutes, which kind of ticked me off because I didn't get home until 9pm. That meant that I didn't get dinner because I didn't want to eat and then go right to bed. I didn't want to eat and stay up either because I had to wake up at 4:30am today. I know, I'm whining, but I like my sleep and my food!

Good news is that I'm getting three of the four courses that I took at Stevens transferred to PSU. Now my degree should only take me 2.5 more years instead of 3.5. That's good in a way, though because we've already decided that we both want to get our Masters before we even start to think about having kids. 2.5 years should give us plenty of time to save up, find a house, save up some more $$ and then maybe try for some kiddos. That's a LOOONGGG way off...

Goodbye Summer...Hello Spain!

I'm so upset that it's almost the end of summer. I hope it stays nice enough so we can still enjoy the beach, tourist free. This summer flew by! I feel like we were busy just about every weekend. I'm kind of looking forward to winding down in the fall, but our schedules are filling up quickly.

We're both taking classes this semester for our master's. We have 4 weddings in the next 4 months and we're going to Spain in November for a work conference. The conference is in Cadiz, which is right on the very end of Spain. It's supposed to be Europe's oldest city. We were looking at hotels last night and we're trying to stay in smaller hotels in the heart of the cities. We'll be in Jerez de la Frontera for a day. Our flight comes in there, so we'll stay a night and check out the local sherry vineyards and some flamenco. Then, we'll be in Cadiz for 4 days for the conference. On the last day of the conference, we're heading to Sevilla, which is supposed to be amazing. I'm so excited to taste the tapas and see the sites! We'll be in Sevilla for 3 days and then we're finishing up our tour de Spain in Madrid. We'll take the 2.5 hour train ride through the country side from Sevilla and spend a day/night in Madrid. Our flight is the very next day, so we'll take a whirlwind tour of Madrid.

The best part of it all is that work will be paying for the majority of my stay plus airfare. Yay second honeymoon! We'll be sure to take tons of pictures to post.

...and We're Married

The wedding is finally over and I want to do it all over again. I miss the planning and the researching that occupied my life for so long. Mr. B is glad to have me back to normal and out of planning/bridezilla mode. Yes, he was afraid that I would be permanently stuck in bride brain mode.

About two months after we got married, I got this itch to buy a house. I also convinced Mr. B that it was his itch to scratch also. We went to one Sunday's worth of open houses and decided that we didn't have enough money to even start looking because the houses in our price range were a mess. Now we're just going to do some work to our current place and hope that brings the sale value up a bit.

Our plans are to replace the windows, which are 20 years old and aluminum--meaning that they're as good as nothing. We also want to redo the guest bathroom, which entails a new vanity, flooring, paint, mirror and light fixture. On our 'Like to do' list are the kitchen countertops and flooring for the rest of the house.


I'm so glad we're married and can get on with living our lives together!