Up to Beantown: Part Two

More Boston love! Stephanie took me to one of her favorite places for brunch on Saturday morning, Zaftigs

We got there early but apparently not early enough since everyone else and their mom had the idea to go there that morning. Even though there were a some people waiting outside, we got a table right away complete with a waitress who lacked personality. I got the San Francisco Joe’s Special-turkey hash with spinach, mushrooms, onions with a side of home fries, toast and watermelon. It was way too much food and way better than any kind of eggs I can ever make.

However,  once I saw Stephanie’s french toast, I came down with a little case of food envy.

Gah, I die.

The best part of the meal was listening to the table next to us. It was one skeevy guy in his mid twenties and two college aged girls. He reminded me of a third rate, unattractive Jason Siegel with two or three unbuttons undone on his button up shirt. Homeboy wouldn’t shut up. He started to talk about how Harry Potter, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are all one in the same and that is when Stephanie and I shut up and just listened. Then he decided to be generous and pick up the entire tab (perhaps because he wouldn’t shut his pie hole the entire meal?) then when the girls were all “Noooooo, you can’t do that!” he said “If I can’t take my girls out for a meal, what good am I?” or something about that effect. Blah. Sometimes I don’t mind tables closetogetherlikethis in a restaurant, other times when I have to listen to random, weird conversations, not so much.

We went walking around later and the dilemma of what to wear came up. I hate pants in the summer time but can deal with capris. I was feeling more like wearing a casual dress around but that meant I would wear flip flops. There was nothing more I wanted to do than wear sneakers since we would be walking around a great deal but that was out of the question. I wish I could make sneakers work with a dress but there is no way to make it look good

(source)

Go on with your bad self Sarah!

We started off around Quincy Markey and near the Government Center

Somehow we ended up in the middle of an African festival.

Then we ran into some street performers who were just about to get started so we found a place somewhat in the shade and watched them.

Then started dancing, breakdancing and doing flips then they started grabbing people from the crowd to take part in a special exhibition. Of course, they grabbed yours truly. At first they lined me and threes others up one in front of the other and explained that they were going to flip over us. Oh joy. The last thing I need is a man flipping over me, especially when I am without health insurance. Then they had us bend over. Um, I was in a dress so the last thing I wanted to do was bend over in front of a bunch of people since as one of the performers said I was “juicy” to another performer. Gross, I still take offense to that comment. They had the decency to cover the girls up though so we didn’t look like a 2 Live Crew video. So we were just waiting there and I guess the guy flipped over us. We were just bending over waiting, my knee was killing me and I just wanted to get up into normal pose again. Stephanie was awesome and took some pictures of it though so you can see what I’m talking about

And I walk away unharmed-score!

We went into the madness that is Quincy Market afterwards. This is a total tourist spot complete with shops, carts, performers and restaurants but it was fun to see since I am a tourist and all.

We perused the carts and shops

Amen

Made our way over to Boston Common and that’s just about the time my camera died so please enjoy a few last pictures before we got there

Walked through the gardens and saw the swan boats.

Made our way over to Newbury

Saw all the shops there  including pretentious ones like Chanel, Gucci and others that I will never ever be able to afford. There were some cute, independent ones as well.

Too bad we didn’t have time to stop in these coffee shop, I adore the name.

Stopped at Stephanie’s on Newbury, it was that weird of time where you don’t want a meal but you need a little something in you to keep going. And our feet hurt. And we were sweaty and were in desperate need of a cold one.

Then heaven was placed right in front of us-Warm Vermont Goat Cheese appetizer.

This picture does this no justice whatsoever. When they brought it to us, the cheese and oil were bubbling right in front of our very eyes. I just kept staring at it since I’ve never seen goat cheese bubble like that before. We tried to tear the bread but it was piping hot and burnt our fingers when we tried to. But we powered on and tore away anyways since we didn’t want to miss the wonderfulness that is warm goat cheese.

So please check out Stephanie’s photo. Stephanie-Cookie Battle, not Stephanie of Stephanie’s on Newbury. Hmm, that was a tad confusing.

Reason #62 why I want a DSLR

After the walking fest we rested our feet and then  went to Margaritas for dinner for some much needed Mexican food. Ok, much needed margaritas with a side of Mexican food.

I was very excited to have my margarita (thanks Steph for the pic)

It was absolutely gorgeous out and right on the Charles River. I wish I would have got a picture of the patio because it was spacious and quite busy for a Saturday night. I wondered if there was going to be anything cheesy like a mariachi band that comes around to each table but she said there was nothing alike that there. Phew. I could have gone for tacos, nachos or fajitas but my body was in desperate need of veggies since there was a lack of greens and other fresh stuff that day and day prior. I got the Chicken Baja Salad which was adorned with a heaping portion of veggies and I swear my body felt better once the veggies were consumed.

And to go off on a short tangent……

Look who Matilda got to meet while in Boston?

Matilda and Cecil got along very well. They reminisced about the days of Eisenhower and when you could get a quality cup of coffee for $.10.

Sunday was another long, fun day around Boston. And visiting a city means one thing–blogger meetup!

The Other Side was very  *ahem* interesting. By interesting, I mean hipster. Our server had jorts on while another man sported a fedora and other people just had a sense of irony about them as hipsters do. The whole seating arrangement still vonfuses me since the host said there couldn’t be more than 49 people in the building at once so he could have sat us partially before everyone arrived but then if more people arrived after that and our guests hadn’t, they would have to wait for someone to leave. We told him how many people were in our party and he couldn’t grasp the fact that we had five people in our party, not five. I guess he wasn’t a genius at math like in Good Will Hunting, maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part that I would run into some closet prodigy.  Leave it to me to order a meaty dish at the mostly vegetarian/vegan restaurant.  I don’t care, the Ham Solo was worth every single bite!

 

Ashleigh, Stephanie, Caitie

Me and Erin

Matilda even made a guest appearance!

Group Shot!

Ashleigh, Erin, Caitie, me, Stephanie

 Another successful blogger meetup! It was wonderful to meet these ladies and put faces/names to the blogs, take part in some good conversation, enjoy good food and drink and escape the heat for the day. I love how real the Boston girls are and they were just all around fun!

 

Happy hour, hot babes and humidity

While hanging out here in Florida, I feel like I’ve been quite productive. Yes, the days have consisted of napping, hanging by the pool and beach and spending time with these pups

but I feel like I’ve gotten a lot done besides that.

I found the local YMCA branch in Boca Raton and dropped in the other day to see if I could work out there. I asked my local branch if they knew the rules when visiting Y’s in other cities and they said it’s at the discretion of the specific branch. So when I went to the branch here, I was pleasantly surprised when they told me I could visit 14 times in one month! woot woot! The place may smell like old people and they don’t have the latest machines like my Y in Charlotte but it is definitely useable. I went the past two days and had some decent workouts.

And holy hot babes at the Boca YMCA batman! I don’t know what these men do for a living but they are gorgeous—kind of like a toned down version of Jersey Shore-current and in 30 years. These men are out of control hot so it’s awesome to have some eye candy while working out.

The dbag wearing a wool hat to the YMCA when it’s 90 degrees outside? Dude, stop trying to be Colin Ferrell.

My mom really doesn’t cook that much anymore and my parents are always going out to eat. I am usually fine with dining on someone else’s dime however I do not want to be going out to eat every single meal since that just spells trouble. I told them instead of going out for every meal, let’s do one meal of lunch or dinner at home then go out to eat for the other. This has been working well except for the fact that my parents keep trying to get me drunk.

Don’t worry, they aren’t trying to take advantage of me anything. Or maybe they are trying to get me drunk so they can steal my car and my dog. Add the fact that I am unemployed to that and I’m a country song!

Ok, maybe not so much but Florida has happy hour specials whereas North Carolina doesn’t. So that means that here they do BOGO drinks from 4 to 7pm or whatever hours they do happy hour.  My parents keep pushing me to get a drink when I go out in a very ABC afterschool special kind of way. They don’t tell me that all the cool kids are having drinks but they are a step away from it. So, with that, more Blue Moons that normal have been consumed.

We went to The Quarterdeck on Tuesday night since we had a coupon for a free half rack of ribs

Yep, frugality runs in the family

We went in and sat in the bar area however once I sat down and saw the sketchers sitting at the bar, I asked the parentals if we could sit outside. I’m all for people watching however these guys were giving me the heebie jeebies! One of them had an eye patch on. I’ve never met a normal person with an eye patch so there has to be a story there, one guy was taking up three seats at the bar and looked like he brought his own pillow to sleep there and the others looked like they just got their sweet freedom from the Broward County Pen.

I ordered the fish and chips with a side of two Blue Moons.

When the fish and chips came out, I was stoked. Nothing like some fish and chips, especially when you’re near the beach but to put it nicely…..it sucked. I don’t know if the cod was past it’s hey day or what but it didn’t taste fresh and squeezing a few lemons and dousing it in tartar sauce didn’t even help. If I ever go back, I will stick to their conch fritters as I have in the past.

I met up with some of my sorority sisters on Wednesday for lunch at Rocco’s Tacos. Even though I went to college in WV, a few of them moved to FL after college and have been here ever since. I love getting to visit family and friends while I drop by.

Seeing friends and eating Mexican food? Count me in! My parents told me their guacamole was out of this world and they make it tableside for you. When we sat down, I was secretly hoping that we would order it and my friends told me we had to get an order. Success!

I could have ordered a bowl of the guacamole and been happy. Seeing that it was $12, it could have been a meal itself! Instead, I went with the blackened mahi taco platter with rice and salad.

The mahi was fresh and flavorful so I was happy with the 180 degree change of fish from the other night. However, instead of little pieces of mahi, they give you one huge chunk so it’s not as messy as potentially could be. A good time had by all though, it’s crazy to think that I’ve known these girls for over 10 years.

Other random things?

*I am totally down for being a Cicada bug. I think I could sleep for 13 years!

*I have a new love and it goes by the name of Temptations by Jello Strawberry Cheesecake

Yes, it may be gone after only three bites but it’s absolutely delish!

*I’m started to develop an unhealthy habit for Dunkin Donuts.

I went to three different DD’s within a 24 hour time span.This can’t be a good thing for anyone.

*I had Cool Whip for breakfast the other day. But then the adult in me spoke out and told me not to have Cool Whip…..put some fruit under it to get my produce in!

*Ross sells Philosophy for only eight bones!

*I thought Charlotte had bad humidity. I was wrong. I forgot how bad it is here and am finally just starting to dry off after being inside for 20 minutes. Gross.

*And how is Charlotte out of eggplants when Florida is selling them for $.99? Why is the Sunshine State hogging all the eggplants?

*The Coconut Mocha frappuccino is a gift from the gods. I really didn’t need to know that something so delicious existed but oh well, at least I got it half priced.

What’s your favorite frappuccino?

Do your high school or college friends live in your hometown? A lot of my high school friends still live there but since I went to college 18 hours away, not too many of my college friends?

Bears Beers Beat

Hello all! Hope everyone had a fabulous Sunday. Not gonna lie, when I woke up this morning and saw it was 16 degrees out, I really didn’t want to get out of bed. I took two Advil PM tablets last night and was feeling mellow. The last thing I wanted to do was bundle up and take Lincoln out. But since I love the little pup, I did and we had a nice walk even though it was desolate outside.

I took Lincoln back in and whipped up breakfast. The original plan was to make french toast but that seemed a little more labor intensive that I was looking for so I settled on eggs in a hole. I tried to make it using one egg for two pieces of bread but that didn’t fly so I walked over to the fridge to get another egg singing Cypress Hill’s “Ain’t Goin Out Like That” because I refused to fail on the first meal of the day.

Whatever happened to Cypress Hill by the way?

When I got to the fridge, I quickly grabbed an egg which slipped out of my hands so I attempted to clean it up since Lincoln was right by my side. Seriously, this dog smells food or has a premonition that I am making food and he is right there, very sneaky sneaky. So if anything drops, I have to make sure I clean it up or grab it before he gets to it.

The eggs in a hole turned out fantastic! And of course when I say “Eggs in a hole” I sing it to the tune of Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole” I love music if you can’t tell and wish I had soundtrack music to my life. I think it would be so fun to have “Tiffany’s Theme” when I started to walk…..it would be “Stayin’ Alive” of course.

However, back to eggs in a hole.

I did some cleaning and feng shui in my kitchen this morning. I have a cramped kitchen as is but wanted to be able to open up the blinds to the back of my house so I could get some natural light in.

Much better, it’s no longer a bat cave! And why does Lincoln look like he’s plotting my demise?

Soon enough, it was time to go watch some football. Would it be the last Bears game of the season or not was the question on my mind

 I had a Living Social deal for Growlers Pourhouse in NoDa.

I’ve never been to this place but $30 worth of food and drink? I am willing to check it out! Don’t worry, I went with a friend because I definitely don’t need to be eating and drinking $30 worth (not to say I couldn’t, I just shouldn’t)

And for those of you who saw how much crap I carry in my purse earlier this wk, you would be proud to see how little I took with me!

Only four things–my wallet, phone, makeup bag and camera. Look at me cutting back!

We got to Growlers right before the game started and it was pretty dead except for a few randoms at the bar and a big party smack dab in the middle of the place. Exposed brick wall with a small bar area and four to five booths, for some reason I thought it was going to be larger than it was (that’s what she said) but it was a pleasant atmosphere. We were automatically greeted by our server who asked if we’ve ever been there then continued to tell us about their beer, food, etc. I thought it was really interesting that they make their own sausage there–you don’t see that too often and I am intrigued by the process.

I started with a pint of the Victory Prima Pilsner, which was quite tasty. I wonder if one of these days I will ever acquire a taste for IPAs or stouts?

We got the dip platter to start out with. I could exist on a diet of dips alone since I love it all-queso, salsa, onion, bean dip. You name it, I’ll dip into it! They have a dip platter for $13 and you get to pick three dips off of their menu. Our selection

Pimento Cheese dip. It tasted good but it wasn’t the traditional creamy pimento cheese dip that I’m used to. Plus the tortilla chips didn’t hold too well when you scooped it up.

Real French Onion Dip. I am still wondering what makes it “real”, this was my favorite dip. I love the minced onions in it and the chips served with it were perfect.

Roasted Vegetable Salsa. This was second runner-up and packed a lot of different flavors. We asked the server what it included because we couldn’t tell what the distinct flavor was and she said it was probably the variety of peppers used in it (poblano, jalapeno, bell) and coriander. My mouth wasn’t on fire but I sure did enjoy the flavor.

The end of the first half was not looking good

 Supposedly Cutler hurt his knee (although he seemed to walking around just fine on the sidelines, he seemed to be sulking more about losing than being hurt) But screw him because I’m a sucker for a man with a bald head.

(source)

Brian, when you need another baby mama, call me. Let’s make this happen.

After that, our bellys were full. I almost undid the button on my jeans  since all the dip and beer was bloating my up but I resisted and remained a lady.

You would think we would stop there right? Oh no, we had $30 to spend and my friend wasn’t drinking and while I do love a nice day drinking session, I never day drink on Sundays (one would think I was a bible thumper by that statement but not so much)

We had one more thing coming to us—Turkey Apple sausage to split

Alright, let’s talk sausage (that’s what she said-ZING-again!). So it’s homemade and it tasted that wise consistency wise. It had more water or whatever juice is in the sausage casing  (please don’t tell me what it is if you do know what said juice is) than I cared for. Plus when you took a bite into it, you couldn’t separate it with a simple bite, you had to gnaw at it and shake your head a bit. Very Neanderthal like. Thank god I wasn’t with a gentleman caller b/c it was not a pretty sight. Regardless, it was tasty just a little difficult to break up.

Purple Slaw (which of course, I was singing “Purple Slaw” to the tune of “Purple Rain”)

Mac N Cheese

If a restaurant offers a side of mac n cheese, I must try it. Check out this ooey gooey action shot.

We left around the end of the 3rd quarter since it wasn’t looking hopeful and decided to stop for some caffeine since was that weird time on Sunday afternoons. Too late to take a nap yet too early to retire for the evening. We stopped at Smelly Cat Coffee House, which is right neat Growlers. I love going there for the name alone!

I need this for my house!

Gah, I love independent coffee shops so much. They always have the cutest decor that never matches and that just makes me smile. Plus Smellycat has little pods that you can sit in, relax and enjoy some free Wi Fi! I just got a small coffee but next time I want to get the Sledge Hammer–espresso and Ghiardelli chocolate-bring it.

So that was my Sunday. Whoever said that Sundays were a day of relaxation can go suck it. And my Bears lost so I am a little bummed but oh well, time to root for the Steelers!

I am now questioning if Lincoln knows that a pillow is supposed to go under his head or body?

Are you watching football tonight or will you be happy when football is over?

WordPress users-do any of you know how to make a header with multiple pictures and not just one? If so, let a sister know!