Tag Archives: booze

Boston, Bubbles, and Boats

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It’s been another fabulous day here in Boston!  I’m feeling much better, thank goodness.  I was nervous that my episode last night was the start of some sort of illness but it seems like I just reacted to something I ate.

Nikki had to work today so Adam and I were on our own in the morning.  We wandered around Coolidge Corner and ended up stopping in at b.good for a late breakfast. 

I’ve seen this fresh fast food spot on blogs before and I was thrilled to get to try it myself.  Adam and I split a meal because we were so close to eating lunch at that point.

We got a turkey burger west side style (avocado, cilantro, tomato, and chipotle salsa).

And steamed veggies.

The husband got an amazing tasting chocolate shake,

but I went with water to try to rehydrate.

Afterwards we met up with our friend Ian and hopped on the T.  We wandered around Kendall (?) and saw some fun buildings.

And ultimatly went to lunch at The Black Sheep in the Kendall Hotel.

They had cute sheep decor,

and we sat on the porch in the sun.

I went with the Kendall salad – “baby spinach leaves tossed in our tangy maple vinaigrette, sprinkled with candied pecans, crumbled blue cheese, and marinated green apple slaw”

Delicious!  I think the combo of strong cheese and candied nuts on salad is perfection.

Next we headed up to Harvard Yard.  It was a gorgeous day and the geese were out with their babies.

We ended up laying out in JFK Park and goofing around.

Finally we headed in to explore civilization.  Adam got an amazing looking cupcake at Sweet (highly recommended by Tina),

but that wasn’t an option for me because I’d already spotted the…..bubble tea!

I got a frozen chai tea with boba.

So cinnamony and delicious!  It was pretty sugary though and I was trying to be careful with my stomach today so I deeply enjoyed half of it and threw the rest in the trash.

We headed up to Copley to pick Nikki up from work and went to sit outside Cafeteria for drinks.  I went with Diet Coke,

but I did steal the olives out of the husband’s martini.

We went from one adult activity to the next, Duck Tour!

The Duck Tour involves a land-water bus tour of important historical sites in Boston.  It was fun, but by the time we were done at 7:30 I was more than ready for dinner.

A final trip on the T took us to Common Ground where they, gloriously, had Abita Strawberry.

Sadly I wasn’t as impressed with the food selection.  I ended up ordering a fried chicken sandwich with honey mustard and swiss cheese.

I threw the bread away but finished 90% of the meat and fries.

Finally we headed back to the apartment to watch the Celtics game.  We might head out to a bar and I’m trying to convince everyone that frozen yogurt is in order but otherwise we’ll be having fun here.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Getting All the Bad Stuff Out of the Way

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Hello from Boston!  Sorry I didn’t check in yesterday, it ended up being kind of an insane day.  I’ll keep this post short too, because there is vacation fun to be had outside!

The morning was spent packing (sort of, I kind of just throw stuff into a suitcase and hope for the best) and we piled into the car around noon.  Adam took his last final of the 1st year of medical school in the morning, everyone say “congrats, Adam!”

I ate a 2% Fage with Strawberry once we got on the road.

As well as a half serving of Guylian shells.

Adam drove the first half and by the time we stopped somewhere that had actual food it was my turn to drive.  I did the best I could with “lunch” at Starbucks.

Chocolate Banana smoothie with skim milk and whey protein.

Not good.  But I gagged my way through 2/3 of it because I was hungry.

It was so exciting to see Nikki!  We spent forever finding parking for the car and ended up at Coolidge Corner for drinks.  I got a Woodchuck Cider.

When our friend Ian arrived we headed across the street for sushi.  I was starving (all I had eaten all day was a yogurt and part of a smoothie) so I went with something that sounded big, The Volcano Roll.

Plus it sounded neat, which it was –

It was a great mix of textures and flavors (spicy!) and a lot of fun to eat.  The mushrooms were delicious.  Everyone at the table had their chopsticks in it.

It was also super filling so I only had about 2/3 of it.  If only I had known…..

We walked down to Sunset Bar next, Adam and my favorite place to visit because of their awesome beer selection.  I was thrilled to see 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon on the menu.

Perhaps you remember it from the Foodbuzz Festival?  I also got super excited about the watermelon theme and ordered a housemade watermelon soda.

Yummy, but I’m not really a sugar soda gal so I took a few sips and shared the rest.

A couple notes here – I had two drinks.  I was not drunk.  I only took a few small sips of my sweet soda.  My meal was rich but I didn’t eat that much because I shared.

I came home and got so sick!  Like insane, projectile, whimpering sick.  It was a bit ridiculous.  I’ve had bad reactions to random foods before and this felt like a similar experience so I can only assume that there was something in the sushi my body didn’t like.  I felt a lot better when I was done throwing up but the whole experience was so frustrating!

But I’m feeling better now, so it’s time to get out a conquer the world! (and get some coffee)

Have you ever gotten sick on a vacation?  I have terrible luck with vacation sickness, I’ve thrown up in more airport terminals than I can count!

No Breakfast, Recap Only

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This actually isn’t a recap AND breakfast post; in order to have eaten breakfast one would have had to gotten up before 11:30.  If it’s not obvious already, I had a bit too much to drink last night. 

We had a great time though; we went out with a couple the husband is friends with from school.  I’m going to keep this short and simple as my pictures are terrible due to the lighting (and I’d like to go eat breakfast!).  Note – I’m not using name because I don’t know them well enough to know if blog exposure is cool with them.

They suggested going to Allen Street Hardware Cafe which ended up being a fabulous idea.  I loved it there and can’t wait to go back.  The beer selection was huge.  Thinking back to a rave post about it from Kath, I ended up ordering a Tusker.

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!  Other than Abita Strawberry and Hell or High Watermelon I never really like beer.  I don’t mind it, but it’s usually not my favorite.  Tusker is now added to my top 3 favorites though, it was delicious!  I usually finish my drinks way after everyone else (actually I usually don’t finish because I take so long they get warm) but last night I was ordering a second round before the rest of the group had made a dent in their drinks!

My meal was pretty fantasmic as well.  I went with the Chef Salad which was Mixed greens, roasted beets, red onion, carmelized pecans, goat cheese, and a roasted shallot champagne vinegarette.

Fabulous!  I forgot to ask for dressing on the side but it didn’t even matter because it was so lightly dressed to begin with.  The combination of goat cheese with beets was perfect.

After dinner we moseyed down the street to another bar.  I ordered a diet coke with Cherry Three Olives Vodka.

This was the point where I maybe should have just gone with diet coke.  Actually, everyone was a bit tipsy at this point because our attempt at couples darts took for-ev-er because we all were aiming so poorly!

A good time was had by all though.

The only downfall of the evening is that in my stupor I decided I was starving and I talked Adam into letting me eat a boatload of chips.

Ugh.  Probably the reason my hunger didn’t wake me up earlier this morning.

I should get off the computer and get back to the world though, 12:30 is probably a good time to start the day 😀

Are you a beer drinker?  What are your favorites?

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming

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Most of my laziness comes from my perfectionism.  Does that not make sense to you?  I get so obsessed with everything being “just so” that I have a hard time tackling projects if things are not perfect.  Which makes no sense at all!  Think people who are waiting until Monday to start their diet.  They’d be better off eating a bit more healthfully on not-the-start-of-a-new-week-Thursday than waiting until Monday’s magical fresh startiness and bingeing in the meantime.

It’s sort of like what happened to my studies this year.  I’d tell myself I’d be cracking down on the 20th of the month, and I’d have a glorious time fooling around until then.  Then the 20th would come and I’d oversleep, or fight with the husband, or waste too much time online and things wouldn’t be “perfect” anymore.  So I’d tell myself I’d be cracking down on the 25th (I have a thing with 0/5#s) and the cycle would begin again.

I’ve always known this was a terrible personality trait.  But recently I’ve really, really worked at changing, and it feels great!  For example, I probably could have gotten a 100% on my Anthro final, easily.  But I screwed around all week (and took care of some pressing but secret to-dos!) and didn’t study.  Last night I was so disgusted with myself I told the husband I just wanted to forget about it and watch Buffy all evening.  Instead, he offered to study a bit with me and we reviewed my old tests.

And you know what?  I’m pretty sure I got an A on my final today!  It’s not the 100% I could have earned, but an A is pretty darn good, and it’s a lot better than what I would have gotten had I not tried at all.

A similar thing happened with my workout.  Through a series of stupidity, I didn’t eat breakfast, couldn’t purchase food on campus, and was stuck in the library without food waiting for the gym to open.  By the time I got to the pool I was starving and I kind of wanted to just throw in the towel.  But I knew it was my last chance to get a swim workout so I tried to make the best of it.

In the end I did 40 lengths in 35minutes – a fabulous workout!  I pushed myself really hard and it felt amazing.

Around 3:30 I did finally get some food!  Since we studied yesterday, today we celebrated Seis de Mayo!

I know, why is he with me?  Getting dressed straight from the pool leaves me a bit ragged around the edges.  What better spot for a Mexican celebration than Cozumel?  Cheers!

I got a sweet margarita.

Chips!

I hadn’t eaten all day and I was a bit drunk so there was some concern that I would dive headfirst into the basket.  Instead, after a couple of bites I portioned out a serving onto a separate plate.

I took the same strategy with the chips I stole from Adam.

And for my meal I ordered the California Quesadilla.

WW tortilla with roasted red pepper, grilled eggplant, and goat cheese?  Yes please!

I ended up eating half of my meal and sharing the rest with the husband, the margarita was pretty filling.

I had a great time with the husband and it felt wonderful to celebrate the end of my time at UB.  Now I have one month before I start summer classes at BSC.  Although now I have a more current goal – eat some fruit today!

Do you ever find yourself putting things off until the timing feels “perfect?” 

Booze and Board Games

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It’s been a very enjoyable evening, but it’s also a late evening (after midnight) and I’ve got an early morning tomorrow (open house at Buffalo State) so I’ll keep it quick.

I ended up only eating half of my sandwich and giving the rest to Adam.  If you’re concerned I’m not feeling myself, not to worry, I completely killed my diet dr. pepper and jalapeno poppers 🙂

I did make myself a tasty snack a couple of hours later though.

A cup of Eggnog’n Tea (it was 40* out today!),

and 3spoons of lemon curd with a serving of Biscoff cookies.

Yumtastic!  The combo of flavors there was truly toe-curling.

Some friends came over to hang out and eventually we headed to dinner.  We had to go back to Cozumel’s so that they could experience it 😉

I tried to keep my hands off the chips this time,

but only because I knew that we had a plate of fried cactus coming.

A few of us split this appetizer (I had about 1/3) and were all pretty impressed.

Drinks were flowing so I ordered the Tequilla Popper Up.

Tequilla, 7-Up, and grenadine.  So-so, I ended up sharing it with the husband.

And for dinner I ordered the Donnie Brasco Quesadilla fresh shrimp, homemade basil pesto, roasted red pepper & smoked gouda stuffed in a flour tortilla.

It was very, very tasty.  However, I only ate about half of my meal, choosing instead to decimate Adam’s fries; my booze wasn’t the best influence.

After dinner we all headed over to another friend’s house to play some board games.  We did some serious We Didn’t Playtest This At All and Pictionary.  I had a half sweet/half regular coffee,

but the caffeine didn’t keep me from losing at everything!

Hope everyone else had a fabulous evening!

How to Train Your Dragon

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It’s been an amazing day!  However, it’s also been a day when I realize I need to do something about my weekend eating habits, whoops.

Today was the day we switched out our summer and winter wardrobes, and made a huge pile of almost-never-worn stuff to donate.  We were so busy all morning I was actually too distracted to eat.  When we headed to Goodwill (around 2) I did stop in at Dunkin Donuts to buy a medium, nonfat, coconut ice latte.

I had been wanting to try one of these ever since I saw one on another blog weeks ago.  ‘Twas good!

While we were out, Adam and I headed to the movies to make a date of it.  A serving of TJ’s Gummy Tummy snacks made the perfect movie snack.

Plus they are adorable 😉

We saw “How to Train Your Dragon” (not in 3-D), which was shockingly good.  This is now both Adam’s and my new favorite movie!  I love modern children’s movies that don’t sacrifice themselves for adult humor.  This was funny for all ages, had a great message, and was totally adorable.  I’m a definite sucker for movies with any sort of fairy tale element – dragons, trolls, faeries…..bring it on!

Whilst at the mall I stopped in at Old Navy to buy a cheap, sporty-ish, one piece bathing suit.  I’m seriously going crazy not going to the gym and hopefully swimming will be able to fill the void.  I told Adam today that I’m worried my soul will be broken by the time I’m allowed to run again.  The South Campus gym has a pool, so this week I’m going to try going for a swim.

We couldn’t let the afternoon end, so when we got home from the mall we took a walk around our neighborhood, and came upon this –

La Tee Da has been on my ‘to eat’ list ever since I read about it on Yelp months ago, I had no idea it was right next door.  The menu looked amazing and the restaurant was filled with all sorts of adorable touches.

I had a lot more to photograph but my camera died.  Dinner out wasn’t in our original plans so we were kind to our wallets and decided to split a drink and some appetizers.  We got some amazing (free) bread and evoo.

Belinis are my favorite.

And we ordered the fried artichokes and the eggplant buffalo ‘wings’ –

Yummmmm.  Every single bite was delish.  The concept of eggplant wings seems to be a totally Buffalo concept and it is amazing.

For dinner dinner I made myself a spicy grilled cheese with two slices of Buffalo Wing Sharp Cheddar.

To be eaten while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer via Netflix.  I would say Adam and I have fully milked his Spring Break, wouldn’t you?  😀

Do you enjoy “kid’s” movies?  What’s your favorite cinematic genre?  I love children’s cartoons and raunchy comedy.

Nibble While You Work, da da da da da da da

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It was another fabulous Spring day!  Sorry for another late post, but it was a busy day too.  I had 8am lab this morning so I packed up breakfast last night.

Cottage cheese and berries in a pre-fab to-go cup.  Last night I topped the last ~1.5serving of cottage cheese with some frozen berries and left it to defrost in the fridge.

This morning I just had to grab and go.

We did a qualitative analysis – a series of tests on an unknown sample to determine what its chemical components are – in lab today and it was actually a lot of fun.  The real fun came when the husband picked me up; we spent a fabulous afternoon exploring.

We dropped the car off for breaks/oil/tires and slowly wandered downtown on the walk home.  We saw several pretty things,

discovered an exciting candy store,

and we got a few fun things to go, like this candy bar I won’t be tasting –

and the husband bought a candy Tiffany’s box.  For $1.50 it was made of white and milk chocolate and stuffed with hazelnuts.

My bite –

(If you are wondering why MY Tiffany’s wedding ring isn’t on my damn finger in the picture it’s because I don’t wear jewelry to labs in which we use strong acids and strong bases)

Later we stopped in at Pearl Street for lunch.  Pearl Street makes microbrews in-house and is a ton of fun.  I love their glass options –

I went with a Split (10 oz) of the seasonal raspberry brew.

And for lunch I ordered the Fresh Apple and Pear Salad.

Apples and pears sautéed in rum and brown sugar served over mixed greens and topped with toasted pecans and fresh goat cheese.

I had brown sugar rum vinaigrette on the side.  However, the salad was so packed and tasty that I went with the fork dip method of adding dressing, rather than dumping it on.  So yummy!  I snagged a few of Adam’s fries and they were pretty tasty as well.

Not gonna lie though, the big diet coke we picked up on the walk home was my favorite part of lunch 😀

All total we walked ~2miles in beautiful weather and it was an absolutely perfect afternoon.

Once we got home, I spent a couple hours working on Anthropology.  I was having a major snack attack; sometimes nibbling on something helps me to keep my focus, but I’m not sure you can call these snacks brain food.  Pb M&Ms (these are gone now, thank God),

and a vegan blondie I brought home from ‘Snice.

We had gym plans but our “long” walk left my leg feeling like today was not the day to brave the gym stairs, and I’m in a bit of a funky mood so making dinner didn’t sound fun.  So now we have plans to shower, eat popcorn, and cuddle up in front of Buffy.  Sounds like the perfect evening to follow a perfect day.

Do you snack while you work?  Does it improve your focus or serve as a distraction?

New York, New York

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My apologies that this post is delayed, but I knew it was going to be a loooooong one.  On Monday, after a weekend in PA with my in-laws, Adam and I traveled “home” for a day in New York City.  I grew up in St. Thomas, went to college in Miami, and currently live in Buffalo, but the 2 years and I spent teaching in East New York and living in Park Slope are the ones I am always homesick for.

It rained, hard, all day but nothing was able to dim our spirits.  We ended up not being able to do the trip we had originally planned – on the agenda was a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge – but it was a fabulous day nonetheless.  We skipped all of the tourist stuff, and instead did all most of our favorite things to do when we lived in the city. 

Physically it probably wasn’t the healthiest day: we walked too much on my hurt leg and ate way too much sugar.  But mentally it was just what I needed.  I Love New York.  All of the reasons people complain about the city – the crowds, the noise, people walk too fast, you can’t drive – are all of things I love best about it.  I adore the crowds of people, and it helps that I’m naturally a fast walker and a walk lover.  I think New Yorkers are friendlier than the rest America and the ‘concrete jungle’ is my definition of beauty.  I was obviously raised to love the beach, and I can see the magical quality of the dessert and the allure of the fairy-like sense of the forest, but the city is where I feel most with serene.  I love the buildings, the gardens, the graffiti.

Adam and I got into the city around 10am.  As soon as we hit the Verrazano Bridge we both started to smile.

We actually parked the car in ‘our spot’ in our old neighborhood for the day.  We didn’t have a car until we moved to Buffalo so when we lived in Park Slope we did a lot of walking.  Most days when I got home after school I would walk the 8+ blocks from my subway, then the 8+ blocks the other direction to Adam’s subway, and then back home, in addition to the walk in the morning and making at least one trip out at night.  7th Ave feels more like home to me than our apartment did!  So our first item one the itinerary was a long walk down 7th Avenue.

We stopped at Pinos pretty much the second we got out of the car.

Pinos used to be our spot for pizza, we had it at least once a week for two years.  In fact, it was such an institution that I mentioned watching Scrubs and eating pizza in my wedding vows!  I split a plain slice with the husband.

And he saved me his crusts to dip in my diet coke.

Delicious!

I think Park Slope is one of the most beautiful spots in the city.  There are so many interesting and beautiful things to look at.

Just to give you an idea of how much we walked, we covered 2.5miles before we even left our neighborhood!  All that walking made us thirsty, so we headed to ‘Snice, our favorite vegan spot.

We split a vegan malted milk-less shake before we headed to the B Train.

Then we headed uptown for a walk in Central Park.

We were statues for a little bit,

before we headed inside Whole Foods for a break from the weather.

I managed to resist the pull of the salad bar but we did a little sampling.  I had about 4 shot glasses worth of food, but was told I couldn’t use my camera in the store?!

Next we headed to Delancy.  We cut the ambling a bit here because we had a mission – Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine!  SSS is our favorite spot in the city.  They have cupcakes – delicious, crumbling, innovative, wonderful cupcakes, for a $1.50, unheard of in the land of Magnolia Bakery.  We always used to bring our visitors here.

Honestly I could not decide on my flavor, I ended up getting two!  It took a lot of willpower, but I cut them in half and shared with Adam, ultimately eating only one full cupcake.

Strawberry with cream cheese frosting.

This was a seasonal flavor that I’d never tried before and I am so glad I decided not to skip it.  Cream cheese frosting is always a favorite, but what made this was the actual chunks of strawberry in the cake.

Pistachio.

This.  This cupcake is my favorite thing on earth.  I don’t even really like cake, usually I lick the icing off of cupcakes and am done with it, but the cake part of this is even better than the icing.  It is pistachio perfection.

In an absolute sugar/love cloud we hopped on the F Train and headed down to Cobble Hill, an artsy little area of Brooklyn.

As we walked around we spotted a bar with an Abita sign (my favorite) so we stopped in for a beer.

I drank most of my Christmas Ale, then switched with Adam and polished off his Turbo Dog.

Our real destination in the The Hill was Trader Joe’s.  My parents requested 10gagillion #s of unsulphered dried fruit and we picked up a few staples for ourselves as well.

Carrying multiple jars of TJ’s Sun Butter = so worth it!  I also bought a honey Greek yogurt to get a little protein into my day.

And we stopped in at Starbucks for some calorie-free rehydrating.

Our final stop was back to Park Slope for dinner with Lana, one of my oldest friends.  We hit up Beet.  If you read my old blog and saw all the Thai food we ate at Mango, Beet is its brother restaurant.  I love how funky all of the restaurants are in the city.

And Beet was totally artistic; my diet coke had a straw wrapper rose in it and Adam’s scallop fried rice came in the shape of a star.

I ordered the Pad See Eiw with veggies and tofu.

Buffalo has been totally unable to satisfy my Thai cravings, but this hit the spot!  The Pad See Eiw I’ve had since we moved can’t even compare to how good this is!

We were sad to say our goodbyes to Lana, but it was 9pm and we had a 7+ hour drive ahead of us.  You know how that turned out already, but I will add in the fact that Adam drove the entire way home and basically deserves ‘Best Husband of the Year.’

All in all, it was a fabulous day in the city.  The husband and I both gave it a 100%.  The rain might have been frustrating, but the temperature was perfect and we were comfortable all day.  It sucked that my leg hurts, but I managed to walk a TON.  We did exactly what we wanted to do and came home feeling invigorated.

Have you ever been to NYC?  Love it or is it not for you?