baseball

beer

fireworks

(twice!)

mcd's

cookout

jello shots

(twice!)

all on a tuesday and wednesday?

 festive empire state building, mr p and christina have a quick heart-to-heart, and mr p orders THREE mcgangbangs (well, one for me, two for him)

3 most adorable pups ever... also courtesy of my awesome upstairs neighbor

(of course, not cuter than my boy stewie , but he's 600 miles away)

happy birthday america!!

now it's back to work... while all the people with more than 2 weeks vacation turned their weekend into a 5-day weekend.

someday, jenn... someday.

how did you spend your holiday!? hopefully seeing at least SOME fireworks!!

cheers!

as much as i love to watch shows like sex and the city and think how cool it would be to live a posh life in NYC like them, whenever i go to a "posh" swanky place like they always go to, i realize it's TOTALLY not me.

so, when my friend jo wanted us to go to the chandelier room at the W hotel in hoboken, i was really not up for it (but trying to be social, i agreed). 

first, though, i made a pit stop at the historic downtown special improvement district (HDSID) farmers' market on grove street (it's AT the PATH station, so i couldn't avoid it!!) and snagged some whoopie pies from the sassy sweet treats table before heading to hoboken.

well... i was certainly PLEASANTLY SURPRISED at how fun i had at the chandelier room!!  well, we were there for happy hour, so it might have been a different scene than the typical saturday night crowd, but it was still cool, with all the fancy brightly colored, velvety furniture, crazy huge modern artwork hanging from the ceiling, and amazing views of NYC just across the hudson river.

i was also expecting crazy expensive drinks (to reflect the crazy expensive hotel room prices!!), but they had a happy hour special where most drinks and all appetizers are just $3!! can't beat it!  so thanks, jo, for making me go to your fancy shmancy posh lounge :D

but, eating apps is not enough for dinner, so we decided to head over to the new location for biggie's clam bar!  we tickled our tastebuds with thai chili calamari, mussels in white sauce, clam po' boys, oysters, and burgers (total fatties last night).  we even snagged a guinness glass to boot! (not stolen, they GAVE it to us since we told them i broke 2 of mr p's glasses at home... p.s. THEN they told us they get them for FREE from the vendors! so, don't feel bad about "borrowing" beer glasses anymore!! haha)

we couldn't even eat half of our meals after eating so much before the real food came out!!  (fatties for 2 days i guess since we're eating so many leftovers!)

so, besides the mega MONSOON i experienced on the walk to the W (in my new favorite super flat sandals, mind you) last night was a blast :D  ...and i totally recommend BOTH the chandelier room AND biggie's clam bar if you are ever in hoboken (and they are relatively close to the PATH train if you are coming from NYC!)

cheers.
have a happy (and safe!) memorial day weekend :D

what do we do when we finally have some free time on a weekend where we DON'T travel to see friends and family?

...apparently celebrate by indulging in drinking. 

and eating.

and drinking and eating some more.

that's all we've done for the past 5 days.

it felt like i was in college again.

but... in our defense, we haven't been able to see our friends that we actually DON'T have to travel to see in a LONG time... so, naturally, we celebrated.

wednesday, as i mentioned here , we attended a happy hour that benefited avon walk for breast cancer.

thursday we went to mama's food shop (featured on diners, drive-ins, and dives!! ) to celebrate the 30th birthday of mr p's friends from home (one is an actor, and one is part of the fashion design duo of NAHM ).  the food was classic southern comfort food (fried chicken, collard greens, meatloaf, etc) and it was all SO good.   guy fieri was right ... the fried chicken can't get any better.
friday we met up with many friends in hoboken at wicked wolf, celebrating christina graduating with her masters in engineering!!  ...and also celebrating just seeing our long lost friends.

saturday, mr p guilt-tripped me into going to kickboxing (so much jumping with a pounding headache was NOT fun, but i made it through, and felt good about working out on a SATURDAY)  later we ventured into the upper west side, and eventually harlem with new friends from wednesday night. (wait... you went to HARLEM ?? yes, friends. and it was SO nice!  we definitely want to go back and explore sometime)







sunday, we, yet again, went to kickboxing.  with only 10 people in the sunday morning class, we got our butts kicked.  so much i thought mr p was going to pass out.  sweat dripping from his face like a leaky faucet, weak punches, eyes closed... like a scene from a rocky movie or something (except nobody was punching him in the face)

i (somehow) mustered up the energy to go to a (free!) brunch in the city at donatella, the restaurant of food network's iron chef judge donatella arpaia. unfortunately, it wasn't as good as i had hoped.  my friend and i shared 2 plates, ricotta pancakes with rhubarb compote and eggs benedict.  the pancakes were good, and the rhubarb compote was good, not too sweet, and still a bit tangy.  however, the eggs benedict tasted like they had been sitting out for a while, with the egg yolks almost completely cooked. there was no yellow runny gooey goodness spilling out of them when you cut into them.  eggs benny fail.




eggs benny.  they LOOK perfect (probably because the eggs are HARD, instead of having runny goodness inside)


after walking around the flatiron neighborhood of manhattan for another few hours, we decided we had enough for the day, and came home.  i relaxed outside for a while..

and mr p cooked up a storm, putting together these bad boys for dinner:



pulled chicken sammiches with homemade roasted garlic aioli, tomatoes, and cilantro.

he's the best.

now back to reality, but at least we have a 3-day weekend ahead!!

have a fantastic week!

toodles.

it doesn't matter where you are, or where you are from, sometimes it's just FUN to play tourist for the day.

what better time to play tourist than when you have visitors!?!?

as i mentioned here, my mom came to visit last weekend!  and we played tourist all weekend... but a FUN kind of tourist.  we did the cheesy kind of tourist LAST time she was here (statue of liberty, times square, radio city, etc... cheesy but necessary for newcomers!!)

THURSDAY:

mr p picks up mom from laguardia

eat vietnamese food in jersey city

FRIDAY :

explore historic downtown, waterfront, and van vorst park areas of jersey city 

eat AMAZING food at made with love bakery

eat homemade tortellini for dinner when mr p comes home

SATURDAY :

explore brooklyn by going to the brooklyn flea, brooklyn botanic garden, and the transit museum

catch an early dinner at nook in hell's kitchen

SUNDAY :

weather decides to monsoon, so mom and i (naturally) go shopping

(target had all beach essentials on sale, so i couldn't pass up getting two beach chairs and a floppy beach hat!! saturday beach days, here we come!!)

mr p makes homemade sammich bread and herbed chicken and we eat delicious herbed chicken sammiches

i make ice cream, and we layer in homemade granola to the ice cream (ahhh so good!! kudos to mr p for the wonderful idea!)

MONDAY :

i decide i NEED a swimsuit from old navy (tried on earlier) for the summer, and for a atlantic city trip a few weekends from now, so mom and i drive hours through crazy traffic to find a mis-tagged suit in union city for $20 (paid only $16 after a 20% off coupon!! yaya! originally priced for $45)

mom helps me start a small mint and tomato potted garden for my fire escape

eat at bareburger in manhattan before dropping mom off at laguardia.

we walked A LOT , ate A LOT , shopped A LOT , and got to spend LOTS of quality mom and daughter time!!

a rather successful weekend if i do say so myself :D

can't wait for the next time she comes to visit!!

toodles.