Confessions VI, Birthday Edition

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Click here to read Confessions part I, II, III, IV, and V.

I drank alcohol before I turned 21.

I’m 26 years old today!

I’m excited about this age because six is my favorite number to write; even if this means I’m now officially in my “late twenties” (ugh!).

My birthday requests included a walk around Anthropologie, a trip to the grocery store to buy some of the things I pick up and moon at each week but never actually buy, and the viewing of “Friends with Benefits.”  I guess this means I like frilly things, food, and movies.

I don’t like cake.

Since I’ve always been on a school schedule (student, teacher, then student again) New Year’s Eve annoys me because the new year is in the middle of the school year.  My summer birthday seems a much better time for resolutions.  I’m still writing my list (I’m leaning toward health goals now that I’m an old lady!) but I’ll post my finished goals later today.

I plan on lying about my age when I grow up, but I’m going to tell people I’m five years older than I am so they will think “she looks at least five years younger than that!”

Any other Leos out there?

Teddy Bear Tie Dye

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My last day as a 25-year-old has been a good one; though after yoga our morning got off to an ironic and frustrating start.  I heard a rumor about a Teddy Bear Picnic so I strapped my bears into the car and headed out.

Sidenote – I hate stuffed animals (always have) but I spotted this guy on sale my sophmore year in college and just had to buy him for Adam.  The husband (who also hates stuffed animals) named him Rutherford and fell in love.  Our obsession with bears has bloomed from there.

We did not develop an obsession with Old Falls Street today though, since after 20 fruitless minutes of searching we never located our picnic.  Instead we drove back to the city to cash in a Living Social deal at Tea Leaf Cafe.

I’m so glad we were forced here instead; adorable set-up, cheap prices, and delicious food.  We’ll be back soon.

Our deal was for two drinks and two small plates.  Adam went with an avocado milk tea.

He doesn’t know the joy that is boba.

I, on the other hand, am obsessed with all things tapioca and requested extra bubbles in my taro milk tea.

It can’t quite compare to China Town in Boston where they mash real strawberries into your tea, but this was the best boba I’ve had in recent years!  The tea wasn’t too sweet and the boba were the perfect texture.

Adam and I split the two side plates equally.

Chicken and fresh mushroom pan-seared dumplings.

Vegetarian shiitake spring rolls.

Again, the best version of these foods I’ve had since moving to Buffalo.  Locals – get thee to Tea Leaf Cafe!

Rutherford was stuffed,

but Adam and I decided to round out our meal with some fruits and veggies.

Roasted mushroom, squash, and the world’s bitterist eggplant that I ate only because it was healthy,

blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, and watermelon so juicy I’d eat it even if I was stuffed.

I dropped my boys at home and then headed out to partay.  My friend Mary-Kate actually had her birthday this week too and she hosted a tie dye fest.  It was tons of fun but I wasn’t sure how the guests I didn’t know would feel about their photos on the internet so I don’t have any pictures.  I will show you my shirt when it finishes drying tomorrow.  And I will also show you the amazing rainbow cake that Emily made –

Eeek!  I was seriously impressed.  I don’t actually like the taste of cake that much though (no matter how cute it is) so I ate half of this piece plus a glass of Blueberry Lemonade Stoli and called it a day.

Adam and I took a walk down Elmwood and ran a few errands, and before I knew it dinner time had arrived.  I can’t think of a more fitting way to end my 25th year than this –

See you from 26!

Give to Get

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My two-day blog hiatus was sooo necessary.  To recap – I got in bed after 1am every day of my parents’ visit.  I gave myself Thursday to recuperate.  I discovered that I’m allergic to Hershey’s chocolate syrup and spent Thursday throwing up.  I spent Friday actually recuperating, ie watching “Charmed” in bed all day.

Needless to say, I still wasn’t quite 100% this morning.  But sometimes you have to give energy to get energy.  If I desperately need to perk myself up I know the best place to head is the gym; I figured that concept would apply to hot (90*) yoga as well.  It did!  I’m still not at my best, but I felt better leaving the class than I did walking in.

Speaking of giving and getting, Adam attended yoga with me this morning as my birthday gift (I turn 26 tomorrow).

Seriously one of the best gifts he’s ever given me!  We stopped at Starbucks on the way for water and a few jelly beans to get our glucose going.

Then we slammed through 60 minutes of yoga.  I was so proud of Adam, he did such a good job!  If I was the competitive type I’d note that he actually did better than me, but that’s sort of not the point of yoga.  In my competition against myself, I started every pose and made it to the end of class feeling great.

We have some fun on the agenda today, including a birthday party for one of my friends.  My t-shirt is actually a hint, any guesses???

Share Our Strength

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Join me in support of Yahoo!’s $20,000 commitment to Share our Strength! This is a quick (30-second) way to commend Yahoo! for its partnership with an organization working to end hunger in the America.
To show its appreciation, Yahoo! has committed to donate $20,000 to Share Our Strength on behalf of US, the Foodbuzz community of publishers and readers.

In turn, you have the opportunity to show your support of this partnership by setting Yahoo! as your homepage by clicking on this link. Like what they’re doing? Let them know by changing your homepage!

Here are two things you can do raise awareness about this important cause:

1. Make Yahoo! your homepage now.
2. Share the campaign with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Thanks for your support!

 Full Disclosure – I will be blogging about this program during July as a Brand Ambassador from FoodBuzz.  In return for my participation, Foodbuzz will make a donation to Share Our Strength in my name.

The Great Fundraising Act

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The Great Fundraising Act!

(read “Who is Susan?” HERE!!!!)

This fundraiser has two parts.

1: Blogger Live Auction & Bake Sale:

On Monday, July 25th, we will be having a live auction and bake sale from 8:00 AM (EST) to 11:00 PM (EST).

There will be over ONE HUNDRED items to bid on!  Several companies have generously offered amazing gift baskets and packages up for bid.  Some of these blogger-favorite companies are:

  • Annie’s
  • Attune Foods
  • Aurorae Yoga
  • Bob’s Red Mill
  • Bondi Band
  • Chobani
  • Dave’s Killer Bread
  • Great Harvest
  • Handful Bra
  • Larabar
  • LeSportsac
  • Love Grown Foods
  • Marx Foods
  • Nasoya
  • Nourish Tea
  • NuNaturals
  • Peanut Butter & Co
  • Physique57
  • ReNew Life Probiotics
  • Stonyfield Organic
  • The Simply Bar

In addition to the generous donations from these companies, there will be also be several donations from fellow bloggers.

Items will include delicious baked goods, a professional blog makeover, a lifetime recipe hosting service, autographed books & cookbooks from published bloggers, kitchen gadgets & dishes, clothing, accessories and much more.

It’s kind of ridiculous how much amazing stuff there will be for you to bid on!

All bids will start at $10.  All proceeds from the auction will go directly to Susan.

This is an event not to be missed!  Please join us in The Great Fundraising Act live auction on Monday, July 25th!!

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2: Direct Monetary Donations:

The second part of The Great Fundraising Act is for those who would like to make a monetary donation.  Many of you have expressed interest, so we have set up a direct donation account.

You can use PayPal, a bank account or any major credit card to donate to The Great Fundraising Act.  If you would like to do this, simply click here.

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PS – Bid on my Cookie Balls, you won’t be disappointed!

PPS – Thank you Allison for the format of this post.

Vacation At Home

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Some people find that having visitors is stressful, but I think it gives you a great opportunity to be a tourist in your own city.  It does help that my visitors are my (funny, easy-going) parents and they pay for everything!  When you have guests it’s like you get to take a vacation at home because they force you to view your city with fresh eyes.

Let me tell you though, vacationing at home can be exhausting! We’ve been falling into bed after 1 am every night and this post is two days in one because I just couldn’t make myself sit down at the computer before bed last night.  Even with double content I’ve got to keep this quick because otherwise it’ll be another post-1 am bedtime and my parents leave early tomorrow.

Tuesday morning started with a very unvacation-like trip to the orthodontist.  But then I took my parents to breakfast at Sweetness 7 Cafe.

S7C is a totally adorable coffee and crepes place; I plan on bringing a good book and camping out for the day eating crepes very soon.

I ordered an iced black tea,

and my parents and I split 2 crepes 3 ways.

Kiss Me I’m Irish – plain crepes with syrup and a cracked fried egg in the center.

Irish Blessing – caramelized fresh apples with melted brie.

Apparently we went Irish for breakfast, and the choice served us well.  I don’t have much experience for comparison but these are the best crepes I’ve ever had; so eggy!

After breakfast we walked a third of the loop around Delaware Park so my parents could see the Buffalos.

I continued to get my sweat on by taking advantage of their hotel gym while they got ready for the day.  30 minutes on the elliptical at random level 6.  It was amazing to have access to a tv at the gym, especially because I was the only one in there and I could control the remote.

Our next activity was a trip to the Albright Knox Gallery.

I wanted to snap a picture of practically everything, but I controlled myself and stuck to a few favorites.

The first day with a new set of retainers is always super painful so I went with a liquid lunch.

A Vega Vanilla-Almonde Shake and Go Smoothie packet that I grabbed from the co-op on a whim.  The flavor was good but not great, and this didn’t do an awesome job of sating my hunger, but I was definitely pleased with this –

And it’s just as well that I was left a bit hungry, because my best meal of the year was coming for dinner.  Don’t let the pictures fool you (why are restaurants always so darn dark?!), Scotch and Sirloin is basically a must-go!  I never would have ventured there if it hadn’t been for Groupon, but I am so glad that I crossed my fingers and bought the deal.

Adam and I split a bowl of crab bisque to start.

I also got a plate from the salad bar.

Romaine with mushrooms, artichokes, cucumber and French dressing.  Plus a slice of the best bread I’ve had since Great Harvest, super duper doughy.

For dinner my dad and I split the two best things on the menu: Fried shrimp,

and the double lobster tail with drawn butter.

Like butter dipped in butter!  We were so impressed with this meal, I can’t even tell you.  I ended up eating three fried shrimp,

most of one lobster tail,

and all of the veggies.

For dessert we ended up at a candy shop on Elmwood with an ice cream counter.

I went with Ciao Bella Gelato, a half scoop each of key lime pie and malted milk ball flavors.

Fashion note – How cute is the back of this shirt?!

I actually bought this years ago in college but it has a strange, unflattering band around the waist so I’d worn it maybe once or twice.  I can’t believe it took me so long to think of pairing it with a high-waisted skirt.

We sat outside of The Spot to eat our ice cream and I also drank a small, non-fat, iced Chai.

– – – Insert time (not enough!) to sleep. – – –

I picked my parents up bright and early this morning for breakfast at Panos.  I got the 2-2-2; french toast, sunny side up eggs, and hash browns.

I ended up eating one egg, 1 piece (1 half slice) of french toast, and all of my potatoes.  The amount of leftover food was a little annoying considering I ate exactly the portion of the 1-1-1 – from the kids’ menu – that they wouldn’t let me order.  However, after taking a bite of my dad’s blueberry pancakes I decided that Pano’s can do no wrong and a little wasted food isn’t a big deal.

Coffee #1 of the day was a tall iced coffee with skim milk from Starbucks.

Did I mention that I’m exhausted?

My parents are sleeping at our apartment tonight so I took advantage of their gym one last time before they checked out.  10 minutes of walking on the treadmill and 30 minutes on the elliptical.  I also carried both of my parents’ suitcases up our three flights of stairs and I’d like to count that as strength training!

Our big activity for the last vacation day was a long walk down Elmwood.  We stopped in to basically every store and I definitely discovered a few hidden gems.

Mid-afternoon we grabbed lunch from the Globe Market.

1/4 lb each peanut noodles and Thai vegetable salad.

Meh.  It wasn’t terrible but I’m honestly not a big fan of Globe.

Whether due to hunger or exhaustion or increased physical activity, hunger hit me hard this afternoon. We ran a bunch of random errands and during that time Adam and I split some new flavors of candy,

and I drank a chocolate milk.

Dinner at Chester’s Cajun Grill was a meal Adam and I had been looking forward to ever since we tried the Smoked Bourbon Chicken Sandwich at the Taste of Buffalo.  Of course we had to get the sandwich.

It wasn’t good!!  I can’t even tell you how said this made us.  It wasn’t terrible, but we could only rate it a 5/10 and the sandwich we tried at the festival was a 9.5/10.  I ate most of my meal but only because I was hungry; even the fries were pretty tasteless.

Thank goodness we had good company.  We ended our evening with a final trip to the Spot to sit and talk; we are going to miss my parents so much when they fly home tomorrow!  Coffee #2 – a grande, iced Americano with skim milk and two sugars – was actually consumed at 11 pm so I could make it through this post.

And I’m done; phew!

Horribly Hilarious

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Just as needed, today was much more low-key than the first two days of my parents’ visit.  Adam was at school all day so my mom and dad and I did some shopping, ate take-out at home, and saw a movie.  It was just what the doctor my sore feet and back ordered.

For breakfast I ate the newest Clif Bar, Coconut Chocolate Chip.

I doesn’t taste like a samosa like the chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar, but it was still pretty darn tasty.  Just enough sweet to be fun but not sickening.

My parents and I were at the mall for-ev-er, and I ended up making a lunch snack out of samples from the kitchen supply store.

Normally I’d be upset about not getting a more substantial lunch (or breakfast!), but I knew I had the filling meal coming for dinner.

Can you beat Moe’s rice bowls?  I submit that you cannot.  Rice, blacks beans, sautéed mushrooms and green peppers, corn salsa, lettuce, cheese, and cilantro.

Also amazing were the (serving’s worth of) chips I grabbed from the communal bag.

I loved getting to introduce my dad to Moe’s, you just can’t help but love it.

You can totally help but love this Eat More candy bar I bought in Canada this weekend.

I’m not even going to say what that looks like.

I took two (icky) bites and passed it off to the rest of the family to try.  Just as well, I was much more excited about my movie candy.

Gummi cola bottles!  To be accurate, gummi cola bottles, cherry gummi cola bottles, and sour gummi cola bottles; multiple varieties for the win!

The movie was also a good idea, we saw “Horrible Bosses” and all four of us loved it!  John Francis Dailey (Dr. Sweets of “Bones”) is a great actor but he can co-write one hell of a screenplay too.  The movie was dirty and guffaw-inducing, just my style.

Have you ever had a horrible boss? You didn’t kill them did you?!

Treat Upon Treat

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Is it okay if I start every post this week with “phew?”  Having visitors is the best kind of exhausting fun.  Especially exhausting if those visitors are my parents and we aren’t just counting the hours until they leave!  My mom, dad, Adam and I always have the best time exploring.  Adam and I aren’t technically on vacation, but we sure ate like we were.

My eyes shut way past 1 am last night and picking my parents up this morning felt like a total feat.  Iced coffee (Wegman’s version of Jamaican Me Crazy, with skim milk) was necessary.

I also split a poppy seed bagel with cream cheese with my dad.

Wegman’s bakery never fails to impress; the bagels were the freshest of fresh and this was so chewy and good.

I made dinner at our apartment tonight and I took my parents on the tour de Wegmans while we picked up the necessary provisions.  When you live on St. Thomas, stateside grocery stores are seriously exciting.

I ate an apple en route to our main activity for the day,

the outlet mall!  Niagara has the best outlet mall ever, with deals from Coach and Juicy Couture to Banana Republic and J. Crew.  We stuck more with the 2nd two, since Adam and I were on a mission to get (affordable) professional clothing for this year.  We both will be working in the hospitals and we both need to step up our wardrobes from last year.  I’ll have to take pictures of my outfits on internship days this semester, apparently I’m making this the year of grey pants!

We stopped by the Lindt outlet and we all picked a piece of candy to try.

I went with this guy, who was stuffed with hazelnut cream and marzipan.

Around lunch-time I took a few bites of my parents’ Teriyaki chicken from the food court.

But I had my eye on another prize.

A Ben and Jerry’s location?!  With several “scoop shop only” flavors?!  Gah!  I got a kid’s cup with Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz and Coconut 7-Layer Bar.

Ah-mazing.  Our freezer makes everything that isn’t single-serve icy and crappy and it was so exciting to get ice-cream that was “fresh.”  I gleefully told Adam (several times) that it was like Ben and Jerry’s fresh off the vine!  Sidenote – when I say things like that sometimes I can see Adam grimace in physical pain over how fat and dorky I am.

Our next stop was to Hertel Ave to check out the Italian Festival.

So fun.  And a lot bigger than I was expecting; it felt like we just kept walking.  We saw several fun treats,

but headed home for food since dinner was already in the crock-pot.  I made my parents pulled chicken with my 1000 Island BBQ Sauce,

corn on the cob,

and tossed salad with romaine, walnuts, baby carrots, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Such a yummy summer meal.

These pulled chicken sandwiches (with homemade bbq sauce natch!) are my favorite thing we make.

I topped my side salad with Newman’s Own Lite Caesar dressing and wheat germ.

I grew up eating wheat germ on salad and I think I need to get back in the habit, it makes the best topper.

We were all stuffed after dinner so we took a walk before dessert.  I drank a Moroccan Mint iced tea from The Spot but I forgot my camera and my glass was sucked dry before we got home.  However, if you are at The Spot this summer definitely get the Moroccan Mint, just brewed and served over ice it actually tastes sweet.

Not as sweet as goodies from the Italian Festival though.

I ate the butt end of a delicious eclair.

What a way to end the day!

Adam has school tomorrow so my parents and I might have a more low-key day.  We’ll still have fun on our own of course, but maybe I can give my feet a rest.