Zinfandel, the 2nd best thing about California

I'm talking about the red stuff, none of that lame white zin crap. The 1st best (ha) thing about Cali is of course Libby! :) Anyway...

Christian and I went to a zinfandel tasting at The Ivy in downtown xing after work last night and it was delectable. For $20 each we received a full glass of 4 different zins and a round of delicious appetizers for each wine. To top it off they drew my biz card and we won a bottle of wine of our choice.

We (I) chose Green & Red Vineyards Zinfandel as it was my favorite glass from the tasting.  It was the darkest and spiciest of the lot (figures) but it had a really even taste from start to after taste which I really liked. 

Guess what appetizer they served with this wine? My other 3 favorite things in life. Small strip of fillet Mignon on top a giant potato chip, drizzled with a Gorgonzola sauce. WOW. Almost chased the kind man with the tray back into the kitchen!

All in all... the best $20 I've ever spent one wine and food. Clearly we stumbled home after 4 glasses of Zin!  So good. The next tasting they have is for regional Italian wines and is on Nov 17th. I highly recommend it!

Also recommend the Ivy for dinner, cocktails, happy hour and even lunch. Reasonable prices for absolutely delicious food (try the brushcetta!) and 55 bottles of wine under $26! Great for a wino like myself :)

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i will never be able to run for president

Daddy I'm so sorry I'm so so so sorry yeah. We just like party like to pa pa pa party yeah.

Well yet again another sh*tstorm of a week has gone by. Excuse my french but I'm so worn out and it's now Monday again. :) Lady G is getting me through my morning commute at the mo. Where is the T already....

Worth speaking about my weekend which started last Thursday in many ways. Thursday was Brookline family game night. After a small sojourn of get togethers the boys of LP invited us to the palace for pasta dinner and a classic drunken game of Apples to Apples. This is a small run down of events:

1. Yumm yumm food and a couple bottles of red
   
2. Rules of the game explained
   
3. Girls quickly learn that boys scew the spectrum of judging when MAdler deems Womens Soccer more tragic than The Challenger
   
4. Jess gets very mad and all crumbled cards may now be associated with her
   
5. Suddenly a 2 gallon (vat) of red wine is also gone
   
6. 11:30 pm Jess decides we ought to play flip cup and I decide it's time to leave
7. Kayte passes out and wakes up at 6am on the couch and has to be at work by 9

Hilarious.

Friday was company day for me at work which celebrates the past financial year and the year ahead. This looks like everyone massively hungover in suits at the Sheraton listening to presentations all morning through mid afternoon. Enter bowling shirts. Commence bowling and open bar. This equates to a 104 score, 3 unanswered bruises, inebriation by 7pm and dancing on benches at GameOn to Lady G at 11pm.

That paragraph is missing massive details but I'm beginning to worry about the trend of my blogposts and that my family will have me committed.

On a more serious note, I've scheduled my wisdom teeth extraction. Should be a blast, I can't wait.  It also severely interferes with my half marathon training.  So might have to look to do a different half marathon a little later.

Another more serious thing, I actually went to Mass on Easter (yesterday).  I went in honor of my mom-mom who would probably be rolling in her grave to know that I'm the least religious person ever these days.  I wanted to light a candle for her, anyway.  St. Mary of the Assumption is on the corner of my street and so I really had no excuse not to go.  The church is GORGEOUS inside!!

Well, better get to work.  I am promising myself right now that I will restrain from excessive alcohol in take for the next week - need to cleanse and hit the road more.  Last week was an awful week in terms of running, and I'm not happy about it.  Here's to many miles and limited partying this week!

Papapapapapoker face papapapapapoker face

I reckon that only Sarah Root can hear me singing the title of this blogpost - hehe.  The line is from the song (that is surprisingly called) Poker Face by Lady Gaga. She's a good mood elevator especially cranked loud at 6 in the morning :) My roommates are out of town so why not!

What is cooler, though, is that I am going to The Lady Gaga concert on Monday at House of Blues with Gail. I meannnn it's a pretty big deal. Aside from getting married, it'll be the highlight of 2009. HAHA :) 

These next few days are what your early 20s are meant for. 24 is still early 20's right? haha. So let's drum roll my schedule for the next five days... drrrrrrrr (thanks for the spelling of a drumroll Christian):

Thurs Mar 26 (tonight): Dinner at Bacco in N. End for Kayte's bday where the pasta and red wine will pour like waterfalls. Cherry cherry boom boom.

Fri Mar 27: Running Castle Island 2x with the prettiest house music lover I know - Sarah Root. Then making dinner with a bottle (or two) of wine for Steph and anyone else who cares to join. Let's have some fun this beat is sick.

Sat Mar 28: Oral Surgeon consultation appointment at 9:45 then driving to Long Island to go to Pickle's gala that she organized for the Health & Literacy Foundation. Just dance.

Sun Mar 29: More LI fun with Dee Dee Pickles and Seb too! Driving back to Boston at some point. Groove, slam, work it back, filter that, baby bump that track.

Mon Mar 30: dheofh&#^$*@!:\jdhd LADY GAGA CONCERT!!!! I love this record baby but I can't see straight anymore. 

Tues Mar 31: Year end celebrations with all my coworkers at Kitty O'Shea's. We just like to party, like papaparty year bang bang we're beautiful and dirty rich.

Okay well I'll let you know on Wednesday whether or not I've survived! Oh and I think I have to run some miles within there as well.  Definitely will be a feat in itself! And baby when it's love if it's not rough it isn't fun.

This post is creative.  Too bad only Gail and Sarah will "get it".  :)  

Wooooooooooooot!

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back stateside

I wrote some of this as I was flying home and some on the T to work this morning.  :)

I'm am really sad to have left Christian. You'd think that after seven years of saying goodbye I'd be used to it, but unfortunately it's a hard thing to get used to.

The great things about my trip in no particular order:

• Not getting out of bed before 10 am on any given day
  
• Drinking red wine every night
  
• Home cooked meals prepared by chr's mom, chr's dad anddd chr's grandma
  
• Waking up next to Christian every morning
  
• Running outside in the forest, around the lake and around the castle
  
• Tubs of Ben & Jerry's
  
• Did I mention yummy food?

No, as you can see I had a really relaxing time spent enjoying time with Christian & his family. Hoping our runs every other day prevented me from gaining 20 pounds, haha. Hmmm. This week will be fun - missing Christian and starving myself! ;)

Let me also quickly explain to you how much I abhor the Icelandic language. The author of the book I'm reading right now, Eric Weiner, described the sound of Icelandic perfectly, "like seals barking." OMG! It didn't help that the seal flight attendants were miserable individuals, either. Though with their country collapsing more and more each day who can really blame them.

I know everyone is really anxious to hear a wedding update. I cannot give you an official date but can tell you that we're aiming for the 2nd weekend in September. It may be earlier, it may be later but I won't know until April timeframe. So vague, I know. I hope you all appreciate my (slightly Type A) personality and know that this is highly frustrating to me. So as soon as I know, you'll know.

In terms of what it will look like - well I have three loving aunts that have offered their yards. Once we have a date we'll go from there. If the date has to be later than the 2nd weekend in Sept (I will jump) it will probably have to be inside and we'll have to work it out.

Once again, I TRULY appreciate all your support and patience throughout this process. We are trying our best to find a plan that gives us what we want but what we need, as well. Bear with Mr & Mrs Type B and Type A (respectively). :)

Until then I am burying myself in work, training for the half and trying my best to keep optimistic. Also trying not to die along the way (mostly per my second point above). As always, I will keep you posted.

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i miss megan focaccia

Well it has been an interesting couple days at work. This post is dedicated to Megan Focaccia (haha). Sooo Megan no longer works with me at Experian QAS and I think I may have took it harsher than she did.  We had a date last night at Sonsie and like 3 espresso martini's (best I've ever found in Boston) and 4 glasses of red later - I'm at work without her and she's sleeping off the dehydration. ;)

Megan and I have, however, registered officially for our first half marathon. Boston's Run to Remember on Sunday, May 24th. Unfortunately you are not invited to watch us (me) sweat and die. Instead, you are permitted to arrange an after party that involves things like margaritas, nachos, cheeseburgers, pizza and funfetti cupcakes. HAHA I solely run to be able to eat whatever it is I want afterwards!!! ;) JK

I leave for Denmark tomorrow woop woop. The weather doesn't look particularly enticing or conducive for outdoor running which I'm a little nervous about but hopefully my loving, supportive fiance will lock me out of the house until I run my miles :)

So I LOVE that I got more than two votes (forced both my coworkers to vote in front of me - RIP Megan) on wedding options!! I somehow wish I could figure out who voted what, haha. It's a pretty even split if I do say so myself... hmmm will let you know what we come up with.

I would like to tell you that I now refer to the wedding as "our hippy wedding" and have decided flipflops will be worn!!! The more and more I think about it the more and more excited I get because this new wedding revamp is SO much more my style. Did I love the idea of a castle wedding? Of course. But is it truly me? Not really.

This is about me and Christian and this wedding is for me and Christian, nobody else. Obviously we want to share our joy and love with everyone but it by no means has to run us flat broke in the end.

Ohhh yay planning our little hippy wedding is so much fun in my head all day. Can hardly wipe the smile off my face to concentrate on real work!!! :) :) :)

...it would also appear in rereading this post I didn't take tylenol this morning but happy pills by mistake? haha