Happy Memorial Anniversary Birthday!

Happy Memorial Day! We hope you've all been enjoying your first weekend of summer!

But this year, for us, Memorial Day is so much more.

This is the first picture ever taken of M & I together. M hates this picture. It was the summer of 2007, and we were newly together. This year, our 3rd anniversary falls exactly on Memorial Day. Happy Anniversary, M! I Love you!

This photo was also taken by our good friend Amanda, and this year her birthday happens to fall exactly on Memorial Day. Happy Birthday, Amanda!

this week...

...watched m dig a hole in the ground.

...our good friends Jeff & Jen got engaged! congrats guys!

...more confused than ever by Lost

...took a nice long pre-dinner walk

...wasted half my morning at the DMV

...watched millions of pollen puffs float through the air like snowflakes

...realized that I am so completely clueless when interacting with babies that I just might end up becoming one of those cheek pinching aunts...

...watched lightening in the distance while chatting by a campfire

...my google reader has been busted ALL week , so I haven't been able to catch up on all your blogs :(

-- Post From My iPhone

memorial day weekend

 Happy official start to the summer! What are you doing with your weekend?

1. pocketmemories polaroid print

2. divorced 8x8 metallic print

3. cheyenne 8x10 print

4. circus sign ttv print

5. carousel dreams

6. summer at the market prints

letters

Dear Amanda's Tomato Plant,

I'm trying my hardest to keep you healthy and happy until your real caretaker returns. Please don't die on me.

Dear Stonyfield Banilla Yogurt,

I couldn't make it through the week without you. I look forward to enjoying you every morning. You make eating healthy fun!

Dear Insanity Workout,

Thank you! It isn't happening over night, and it isn't totally dramatic yet, but I can see the effect you're having on me, and I like it.

Dear Lost,
Really?

the one where m took the photos

*photos by m*

summer is officially here when...

my favorite part of the summer is going to the ice cream stand and getting a big waffle cone full of delicious soft serve frozen yogurt!

what's your favorite part of summer?

blue ribbon diner

I know the past few diner reviews have been pretty harsh, but we've been finding in our journeys that not all diners are created equal. I'd heard many good things about the Blue Ribbon Diner, but I'm gonna be honest here, the Blue Ribbon Diner is a lot like another Blue Ribbon: Pabst. On the outside it has a classic look to it, but inside it's cheap and a little trashy. 

 We went for breakfast on a Sunday morning and the service was friendly and quick, but the food we were presented with was less than visually stunning. Two eggs over easy served with some half burnt homefries and rye toast that could barely be classified as toasted. And the yolk of one of my eggs was broken when they served it to be, a big pet peeve of mine. I want to break the yolk myself so I can eat it before it gets that weird skin on it from being exposed to the air for too long. The french toast was seasoned and cooked well, but was made from slices of white bread as opposed to the thicker breads other local diners use. The coffee was fresh and had a good flavor to it. 

The food wasn't bad, but better presentation and higher quality ingredients would go a long way.

this week...

...dreaming of a house with a porch that overlooks a lake and spending warm summer nights looking at the water sipping cocktails with m, a bulldog, and some citronella . lottery, please pick our numbers!

...jasmine & levi got engaged! congratulations!

...got kinda depressed over budgets & numbers holding us back

...found out our coffee maker is being recalled due to being a fire hazzard! returned it and agonized over choosing a new one

...company bbq by the river

...trying really hard to stay motivated and not give in to my sweet tooth!

...photographed a beautiful rose garden wedding

-- Post From My iPhone

suggestions

this post is brought to you by the new favorites suggestion feature on etsy. here are some things etsy has picked out for me:

1. cat and dog love 5x7 print

2. shy boy and shy girl limited edition wood print

3. two birds talking print

4. a beautiful place screenprinted poster

5. best friend mooks

6. modern tree rings

letters

dear upstate ny,

it's mid may. do you think we could get a little warmth over here? i was definitely over scraping ice of my windshield about 3 months ago. thanks.

dear etsy,

i kind of love the new treasury east, but i am totally digging the new recommendations feature! you just keep getting more and more awesome.

dear green mountain island coconut coffee,

you sounded delicious at the time. but i didn't realize the commitment i was making when i purchased a 24 pack of k-cups of you. i'm sorry, but i'm REALLY glad our relationship has come to an end. you are just too intense for my day to day life. i wish you the best.

dear self,

let's get motivated! you do want to wear that new bathing suit you bought THIS summer, right?!

pool shark

a little while back m and i went out to a pool hall for a couple of beers and a quick game

we put some songs on the digital juke box (...we kind of look like avatars here...) then headed over to a table to play.

m can play, he know what he's doing.

me....not so much...

m cleared the table on me and totally kicked my ass.

poor milo

this is my beautiful boy milo. he went to live with my parents when i went back to school, and had such a great time there that i couldn't bear to take him away once school was over. look at his long, beautiful flowing silky coat. gorgeous!

that is, until my mom decided he needed a haircut. she told the groomer she didn't want him shaved. which she thought would translate as "don't use your clippers on him." but apparently the groomer didn't get the message, because she butchered my poor little boy.

he looks ridiculous! i'm so sad.

the circle diner

continuing on our breakfast tour of the area, m and i decided to try the circle diner because of how cool it looks on the outside. the inside is pretty impressive too. you step in the front doors and you instantly feel like you are in an authentic vintage 50s diner, not just some diner that's trying to capture that feeling. it's as beautiful inside as it is outside, we had really high hopes because the menu looked decent too. infact, they had several creative omelet choices, and i decided to go with the taco omelet.

the taco omelet was pretty tasty. it had a chili-like taco meat filling along with that tasted like cheddar. the little cups of salsa and sour cream served with it were a nice touch. but this is definitely a menu item that you ge half way through and start to wonder "what was i thinking?!" it's super heavy and probably super bad for you.

 m ordered his old stand by, which he was pretty pleased with. except for one thing: the short stack of french toast he ordered came out looking suspiciously like pancakes....and it gets better. 

they charged us $5.50 for that  short stack. $5.50 for TWO PANCAKES. Absurd. and they were icky pancakes. they were undercooked and squishy on the inside. 

m was happy with the bacon, he said it was "real bacon" as opposed to the papery crap some places around here try to pass off as bacon.

the homefries were really bland. i thought the coffee was weak and so did m. m likes weak coffee...so if he thought it was weak, then you know it was pretty much just hot water in a cup.

this breakfast was definitely a open and shut case of 'looks can be deceiving.'

this week...

...I was shocked to wake up to a 30 degree morning in mid may.

...ate the most perfectly ripe fresh raspberries. delicious!

...tried to prentend it was warm out by taking a trip to the ice cream stand...m and I were so cold we had to eat our frozen yogurt cones in the car...

...sorry upstate ny, but I refuse to SCRAPE ICE off my windshield in mid may!

...sat at work on a rainy day wishing it could be the kind of day you stay in your pajamas and drink hot beverages and not leave the house at all.

...another Friday night of comedy open mic with amigos.

-- Post From My iPhone

m's birthday surprise, pt. 5

the next day, before we left town, i took m across the river to cambridge. i wanted to walk around harvard sq and get lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. i spotted this shepard fairey in harvard sq!

we finally made our way to the border cafe, where m had to try a bowl of their gumbo. he was impressed, and i have to say the bite i had was pretty tasty!

i had to order my favorite summer drink: a frozen sangria. yum!

we split fajitas for two with blackened chicken. seasoned perfectly. i could eat this meal every day of my life and never get tired of it.

after we left cambride, we hopped on i-90 and headed back home to upstate ny, but first we made a stop in northampton ma, where i spotted this:

so true.

m's birthday surprise, pt. 4

after the awesome concert, we went back to our hotel and played a game of chess on the gigantic chess board in the lobby!

...this is check mate. i won!

m's birthday surprise, pt. 3

may i present to you the reason m and i took this lovely trip to boston: yeasayer!

my birthday present to him was tickets to see them play at this tiny club called the paradise. it was one of the best shows i've ever seen, and m agrees. we got there just in time too! we walked in, grabbed a drink at the bar, and the band started playing.

here's a video m shot at the show (it starts off a little shaky, but gets good!)

m's birthday surprise, pt. 2

m is italian, so i thought the perfect place for us to go out for dinner in boston would be the famous italian neighborhood known as the north end. we walked down the main strip of hannover st and everything smelled so good we couldn't decide. so i whipped out my iphone to look up the top rated place on yelp. it was Giacomo's, and we decided it looked good. it's a tiny, homestyle type place where you feel as if you are literally sitting in your italian aunt's kitchen...because you can see them cooking your meal from any table in the place. we waited in line outside for about 15 minutes before being seated, then when we were finally seated, they sat us at a table for 4...with 2 young (annoying) college girls...so, that was kind of awkward and less than the romantic dinner i had in mind. but my disappointment was soon to vanish the minute our food arrived.

we started off with calamari for an appetizer. it was delicious, and they also included pieces of deep fried red peppers and tomatoes. we cleared the entire plate!

m ordered the lobster ravioli which we raved about. i had a bite, and i have to say it was pretty damn delicious.

i ordered the eggplant parm. this also came with a bowl of pasta on the side, which i didn't even touch because I couldn't even finish half of what was in this picture. it was really really good. the mozzarella on the top was fresh and perfectly melted.

we also had a bottle of amazing sauv blanc. but the best part about this place other than how amazing the food was....how CHEAP it was to eat there. Our bill was slightly over $50. Not bad.

m wasn't too keen on riding the subway, but we had to in order to make it to our next stop on time. so we got on the train and sat down. after sitting for a minute, i noticed there was something written on his seat. he moved his leg and the words "the end is nigh" appeared. off all the seats in all the trains in all of boston, THIS is the seat he picks to sit on. it was perfect!

m's birthday surprise, pt. 1

last week it was finally time to take m's birthay surprise trip to.....BOSTON! first stop was lunch at The Otherside Cafe

after a delicious lunch on the patio, we walked arounf Newbury St and stopped in at a couple of shops. we also saw some cool street art.

after that, we checked in to our hotel in Cleveland Circle and took the T in to Kenmore Sq, where I showed m Fenway Park.

we walked from Fenway over to the Esplanade and then stopped to take a picture by the river, but it was too windy...so this is the best we got.

we walked the Esplanade all the way down to the hatchshell, then walked down beacon st to the bar that Cheers was based on. we went in a saw the replica, then walked over through the public garden and the commons to my alma matter, Emerson College.