Stuff we did and stuff we ate

Is it really the last day of July?? Man, is time going by fast!

Man, I can never think of good things to write on this thing! (And yes, I did just begin two consecutive sentences with "Man.") I feel like whatever I say is incredibly selfish and ignorant. I guess the content does definitely qualify as selfish -- but hopefully not ignorant. Guess I'll start with the fact that we were 100 percent ready to go to John and Janelle's BeerBQ (I was even putting the final touches on my veggies 'n' dip platter) when Jay's dad and his pal David stopped by. They had bicycled from somewhere in Connecticut to here (hey, that's cool, you can link to google maps directions...). So that was a nice surprise. But alas we got caught up in having some dinner and drinks and doing some chatting and going for a little swim, and by the time we said, "Hey, we should get going," it was like 8:00, and hey, we're old, so we decided it was too late. ::le sigh::

So we went to John Stone's last night with Jay's dad and his pal David, and the beer and the food was excellent. Jay and I had gone there for brunch last weekend, and I have to admit I wasn't all too impressed with their breakfast-lunch hybrid menu. But last night's food was great - Jay's dad and I both had the beef tenderloin salad, which had roasted veggies and... well, beef tenderloin. Mmmmm, delicious. Jay and the boys indulged in the famous farmer's cheese platter, which is a sampling of three cheeses with three different breads and three different fruit-spread thingies. I wish I liked cheese more, because that's just fun!

In other dining news, we tried out a place in Hudson called the Horseshoe Pub, which has an amazing number of beers on tap. You can join the "Beer Safari," where when you sample 25 beers you get a pint glass, when you sample 50 beers you get a t-shirt, when you sample 75 beers you get a free lunch or dinner, and when you sample 100 beers you get a free appetizer party for 20 or more people. The food's darn good, too. But if you take leftovers home with you, remember to take them out of your car.

What do they put in Coca Cola to make it so damn good? Coke??? I'm having my second can and it's not even 7:00 a.m. for God's sake!! Help me!!!

So I think I'll just pick a random photo from my hoards of digital images and include it with my posts, just for the heck of it.

Random Photo No. 1: Jay at Ashland State Park.
for a second I thought it was our backyard, and I was like, wow, our backyard looks huge! it's so nice! but it's not our backyard.

Violent Femmes

So I guess the Violent Femmes are playing at a place called McFadden's in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday, August 20th. Tickets are $15. Anyone want to go? I love them Femmes, they're very fun in concert. I guess it's outdoors, too.

I had salmon cakes today. My first time. Wasn't too bad.

Revive the Alley!

I just checked Alley Party , and it looks as though the Alley is dying in more ways than one. Sadly, two of the original members already have moved (that's me and Jay), and now two more originals are on the move (that's Jodi and Felix), and apparently, Matt just got notification that the alleyparty.com URL is up for termination (or whatever you want to call it) if not renewed.

I mentioned in a comment on the Alley Party site that there should be an Alley get-together every Friday or Saturday up until Jodi and Felix move. Nothing too crazy, like we don't need shot-glass Army vests or barrel fires or stuffed-animal baseball or power hour (okay, maybe we do need power hour...), but I for one am kind of saddened by the impending death of the Alley! At least one last she-bang, like perhaps the second annual (and possibly final) Alley Formal? Last year's was October 4th, I believe - if we can arrange another maybe in August, I would LOVE that. What do you think??

Oh, friends from the Alley

First of all, is it selfish to go back to your own blog to see if people commented? If so, declare me guilty. I was happily surprised to see that Kevin from the Alley (yes, remember the Alley??) had commented on my last blog post! I always liked that Kevin, and I was so excited that he took the time to comment - thanks, Kevin! I like your blog - I commented a few times, even if they're completely irrelevant...

In other news, Jay and I tried to paint candles last night. It didn't work too well.



Apparently, acrylic paint doesn't stick to waxy candles. I can't imagine why, since acrylic paint is water-based and candles are oily... (that's facetious; water and oil don't mix). Oh, why were we painting candles, you ask? We were trying to paint candles as centerpieces for the wedding. Umm, I realize that I'm not very crafty. If I were, then MAN would I like A.C. Moore a whole hell of a lot more!
p.s. that middle picture includes sour Starburst as decorations. Sticky in humid weather, let me tell you!

Bottlin' beer

Well, I just finished bottling a batch of homebrew. Bottling beer is tough work, let me tell you. You have to sanitize every bottle in bleach water and then rinse and then drain, you have to lug the 5-gallon bucket full of beer up to a height where you can easily siphon it into the bottling bucket, you have to then lug the bottling bucket up to a height where you can easily attach the bottle filler, you have to sanitize all the tubing, you have to sanitize all the bottle caps, you have to fill each beer bottle (I'm talking about 45-50 here), then cap each bottle. Hard on the back. But I hope to have two more batches ready by the time the wedding rolls around, but we'll see where my motivation leads. I've been known to say I'm going to do something and then not do it. Sounds crazy, I know, but it's true.

Gross

As Pat and Kate have noticed, it's freakin' muggy. I came home to find mold growing in the plastic magnetic part of the inside of the freezer door that seals the door shut, which I am almost positive wasn't there before, and I only say that because if you just GLANCE over near there, it was pretty obvious that nasty mold was growing. Icky sticky!

So Jay's taking a programming class, which he is at on Monday and Wednesday nights. I've been busy with more wedding stuff (was going to say "wedding crap," but I'm trying to be positive here). I am not good at this wedding stuff, and it's frustrating to no end that I can't seem to accomplish any task without a fair amount of confusion and messing up. But things do work out, I suppose, and we are getting stuff done, I suppose; I suppose I'm just cranky 'cuz it's so nasty out. And because I'm bad at wedding stuff.

Here's a really cute pic of Jay and his niece, Cadence (ignore the serving tray behind his head):

Man Robbed at Gunpoint at Ashland State Park

Here's the story! Isn't that crazy?? We were down there just this past weekend. Jay asked me how I would have reacted if I saw that happen at the boat launch, and I said that I'd probably think it was a joke and start laughing, which would probably result in me getting shot. With a shotgun. 'Cuz that's what the guy had, a shotgun.

Anyway, we ran out of propane for the grill last night! Mikko, Dennis, and Erik stopped on by, and I was all ready to grill up some dogs and burgers and veggies, and Erik noticed that even though the burners were all on 'high,' the temperature was only at 200 degrees and dropping. It was very sad... Maybe we'll heed Erik's advice and get ourselves a backup tank for when that happens again. We ended up cooking the food on the stove, and it was okay. Then later on we had a fire, and it was fun. Not a fire like Pat and Kate saw; this was contained.

Weekend extravaganza

Jay and I had a pretty busy weekend. I had my bachelorette party on Friday night, where I got home at 3:00 a.m. and then had my shower the next day at noon... but I did good! That was a very very rainy night. My future sister-in-law Kerry got me a candy-necklace bra and had made some chocolate confections shaped like... well, I'll let you imagine what they were shaped like... My sister rented us a limo and we went to Ye Olde Tavern in my hometown of West Brookfield, where some guy named John bought me two kamikazee shots and we all did a butterball shot together (including my mom). Then it was off to beautiful Worcester to Jillian's, which we didn't really plan out, we just decided to go there because we couldn't think of anything better to do. The place was pretty dead, which was actually nice (I don't like crowds), but when I requested some Tom Jones and Neil Diamond, nobody would dance with me. We had some food, we had some drinks, some guy bought me a shot which I spilled on myself, and then it was off back to home. It was a late night, it was an expensive night, but it was fun.






Then the next day was my shower - the day I had been dreading because no matter what you may believe, I don't really like being the center of attention. I'm always afraid I'm going to commit a huge faux pas or something. Like possibly spelling "faux pas" wrong... but it was actually fun. I hope I didn't make an ass out of myself. Laura's mom put on the shower and she did a great job! Mrs. Bailey got us a brand new digital camera, which is fan-tastic!

Then yesterday we tried to take it easy and we went kayaking with Abe. Very fun stuff. He did well in the kayak on the way out to the island we like to hang out at. But then when we tried to float away on our floatie mattresses, he was all alone on the island and started freaking out. So we tried putting him on a floatie mattress, but wasn't having it. Then Jay put the dog on his (Jay's) belly as he floated around, and Abe just kept walking out to Jay's feet.


Then he fell in the water from a small cliff on the shore as he was trying to get as close to the water as possible. Then as we were kayaking back, he just jumped right off the kayak into the water (he HATES swimming!) and started swimming to a dock that was just barely under water! What a weirdo! I think he's traumatized. We'll make him a swimmming dog yet!

So now today is Jay's first day of his new programming class that he decided to take. It's in Lowell, which is ironic since we just moved away from there. And I'm still trying to get in touch with the free DJ that I won... it ain't workin'. We'll see. We also have the design for the invitations all set, thanks to Dennis's hard work - thanks, D! They look awesome.

Bucka-WHA?!

Not much stuff going on, except the fact that wedding planning is no fun at all, and I don't know how people actually make that their career. Weirdos. I can't keep anything straight! Ah, well. This weekend is the wedding shower, and it'll be good to see everyone. It's a garden party, and I don't have my favorite red sun hat. (See previous post.) I'll have to make do without.

I'm hungry.

Crazy dayz

So we've been having fun times these past few days - weeee! Last night we went to the Mendon Drive-In and saw War of the Worlds. It was really good, actually. A great movie to see at the drive-in.

Then today we had some breakfast, and decided to go kayaking and swimming. But first we had to get floatie mattresses 'cuz we're lazy. So we went to Target for swimmy shoes and Wal-Mart for cheap floatie mattresses.

We bought 3- and 5-lb. excercise balls at Wal-Mart. It was a stupid purchase, but how could we resist when Jay was having so much fun juggling them? (This picture wasn't Photoshopped.)

Then we got home, packed up lots of tasty foods, and kayaked out onto the reservoir at Ashland State Park and had ourselves a feast.

We created lots of different combinations of treats, and I think this one was called the "Barnacle Bob" or something. We also created others such as Guantanamo Bay, Dead Fishies, the Frog, and the Erin Special. Guantanamo Bay was my favorite.

Also, I was VERY upset, because I flipped over on the floatie mattress and lost my new sunglasses I had bought that day, and I also lost my beautiful red hat to a gust of wind! It fell in the water, and I thought it would float, but it got waterlogged and sank slowly as Jay tried with all his might to paddle back towards it. I loved that hat... my collapsable hat... R.I.P.

Tonight we just might go see fireworks (ooooooo ilovefireworks........) We'll just have to see. But we've been having lots and lots of fun, and I think everyone should float around the warm water on floatie mattresses!

That's crazy

Minn. Government Shuts Down; 9,000 Jobless