Friday, August 31, 2012

how to spend a friday off of work.

1. eat delicious homemade vietnamese food....

2. ....with wonderful people like them


3. and spend a few hours with cuties like him

4. and make 200+ cranberry shortbread cookies for saturday's wedding.


5.  relax the rest of the day :)


disclaimer : you must spend the entire day in your pj's!!


OK?? ...k.

cheers to the weekend!


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

fish and champagne




 














saturday's fun-filled adventures included FIRST a rockin workout at JC Taekwondo , then a debut trip to 2nd st bakery for sammiches and homemade mozzarella, then to the new neighborhood grocery store, key foods , for our 3rd pound of $2.99/lb stuffed grape leaves in 1 week (say whaaat?  ...so good, trust me) before walking our sweaty behinds to the beacon where we gorged ourselves at our friends' annual "fish and champagne" event!  lots of fish, lots of champagne, wine, sangria, cupcakes, cornbread, bbq'ed chicken, potato salad, steamed salmon, biscuits, buffalo wings, and mac-n-cheese (and you can bet i had at LEAST a bite of each of those... i cringe at the thought of how much we ate that day!! but it was all so good we couldn't help ourselves!!)   i joked-but-not-joked that day that i didn't eat a single vegetable all day, haha.  

we met the owner of tri(1/3)bal  ("one third tribal")  while we were there too!  such a sweet girl, and we're definitely going to stop by her eclectic, worldly home furnishings and jewelry shop soon on bergen ave in jersey city, and for those of you NOT in jersey city, visit her online shop:  http://www.onethirdtribalmercantile.com/ 

when's the next beacon social!?
we're up for being pseudo beacon residents for such FUN events like this! 
mucho thanks, erskine and erika :)

cheers!

Monday, August 27, 2012

sunday funday.











- brunch a few blocks from home at marco and pepe

- ginger ice cream cone from torico
(a nice chat with our friend the owner while she was making homemade waffle cones resulted in a still-warm, hot off the press waffle cone... the kind that's still a bit chewy because it's still piping hot kind. heavenly.)

- and a bike ride around liberty state park
(wait, bikes? yes, bikes. we got bikes! more on that later)

- and a bbq courtesy of our friends at NYC-JC Guest Suites  at one of their hotel/rental locations at 70 greene street  in paulus hook. you should check them out! they have great offers for apartment style hotels close to the PATH trains!
(no pictures of the actual scene to share, only 1 from the quick afterparty... blogger fail)

how was your weekend?
the weather here was PERFECT .
if only it was that way all summer...

cheers!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

sammiches and sailboats

i know what you're probably thinking... "he got her a fancy new camera for their anniversary, but she didn't get him ANYthing??"

well, you are wrong, my friends!  i got him a panini press!  not just any panini press, though.  THE panini press.  the best one you can find at williams sonoma.  when i asked about it in the store the ladies go "OH! we have them over HERE!" (not in the direction i saw THE one i wanted) "oh, sorry, i don't want that one that's on sale, i need the BETTER one"

i always tell mr p that some things we just don't need the best of the best right now, especially if we don't know how much we will use it or if we know exactly what we want.  some things have little quirks about them that just get annoying (even super expensive things!) .  a panini press is different though.  we have a panini press WEIGHT from my mom that you would use with a skillet or a grill pan, but this summer has just been BRUTAL and turning on the stove is just a disaster in this tiny apartment, and the grill pan just radiates heat for EVER after you are finished with it.  so...i splurged, and i got him the breville smart grill and griddle !



....and we've made 43728943729 sammiches already!



(first is just a rotisserie chicken sammich, second is a grilled chicken sammich with cream cheese, buffalo sauce, and alfalfa sprouts!!)

our original anniversary celebration plans were to use up a gilt city coupon for a sail in new york harbor with manhattan by sail on the shearwater , but the weather was not in our favor that friday night, so we rescheduled for last night!

see more after the jump!

Friday, August 24, 2012

work late = longer commute = angry me!

i've been working more hours than usual...
which puts a rut into my nightly routine (kickboxing, shower, eat, blog)
i leave late, which doubles my commute in rush hour traffic, i get home late, i miss the kickboxing class, and i can't blog.

so... wednesday night i decided i've had it! i'm not NOT working out just because i miss kickboxing class.

so... i... just... RAN (yes, just like forrest gump tells that sweet old lady in the movie)

i ran all the way to 11th street in hoboken.  round trip is just over FIVE MILES!
craziness, right? well, i guess i didn't run it all in 1 shot. when i got to the hoboken train station, i decided to take a peak inside the newly renovated space.  i was speachless!



it's gorgeous in there.  it's like a mini grand central station. AND it handles 3 different train systems, AND it's a bus stop, AND it's a ferry terminal. (i love that we have so many modes of public transportation!!)

so, running all the way to hoboken was totally worth having sore quads and calves 2 days after the run...

cheers to the weekend!
we're having our favorite "local" visitor visit this weekend!
and going to 2 bbq's
and going on a sailboat ride tonight!
i LOVE summers in the city :)

what are your plans this weekend!??