No Internet and Apparently I'm Old

So, we lost internet at our apartment, and we won't be getting it back before we move. So, I'm at Starbucks right now checking email, cruising Facebook, and basically taking care of my social media addiction. All while drinking an iced americano and eating a multigrain bagel. I love it here.

But I have officially realized that I'm behind the times. I am actually embarrassed sitting here with my laptop, while everyone - yes EVERYONE - around me is cruising the internet on their blackberries and iPhones. My little Mac laptop looks huge. Like, I actually feel like I'm walking around with one of those bag phones while everyone else is on a cell.

This must be what it feels like to be old. This must be what my mom feels like every time I make fun of her for not being 'up' on technology. "Welcome to the 90's mom, geez!" I'd always say. Yep, now I feel like all these people around me are saying that to me.

Oh, and did I mention that my mom now has a Blackberry??? Entering the Twilight Zone....

I turned 29 and I'm officially old. I concentrate on paying bills and saving for a wedding rather than getting the best of the best in technology. LAME.

My mom turns 50-something and she ditches her job, travels the world, and gets a frickin' Blackberry.

What the hell is going on?

(Love you mom. I'm just jealous.)

Weekend Trip to Maryland

Friday night after Joe got off work, we hopped in the car for the VERY long drive to Maryland. We wanted to get there as soon as possible, since that trip is so quick anyway, but about 4 hours into the drive I think Joe was probably thinking we should have waited until Saturday morning. It's a looooong drive, and he does it all himself. And I try, I really, really do, to stay awake and keep him company, but OMG, you get me in a car no matter what time of day it is, and I'm a complete goner. I totally slept most of the way. Poor man.

My friend Laura (who I worked with at Birthday in a Box and who has graciously and amazingly offered to do my flowers for my wedding) invited us to stay with her since we had some wedding stuff to go over anyway. And we finally arrived around 1:30 a.m.

It was an iffy night, to say the least. We were already exhausted (yes, I was still exhausted even though I slept a good part of the trip) and Jackson wouldn't stop whining once we got in the bedroom and went to bed. In his defense, he was a little overwhelmed since Laura has a dog that Jackson has never met, and we didn't really let them play at all before bedtime. And Laura's dog, Bella, kept coming up to the door and Jackson could hear her, and OMG, it was awful. But eventually everyone went to sleep and all was well.

Oh, and why was Bella up so late? Because Laura was STILL UP finishing up some bouquet mockups she wanted to show me the next day. Crazy, crazy woman stayed up all night working on them. To see more about the flowers, you can read all about it on my wedding blog here

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Laura working on the flowers...

The next morning we woke up and took the dogs for a walk. Laura was still in bed (but had set the coffee pot to start brewing at 9:00 a.m., which is exactly when we got up, so we had fresh coffee - Best. Hostess. Ever!) so we hopped in the car and went to grab some bagels for breakfast.

When we got back from breakfast, Laura was up, so we all got ready for the day and told Stuart to get his ass up to Maryland.

Hanging out...

Once everyone was ready to go, we headed out to Men's Warehouse for some tux shopping! I was sooo excited about dressing the boys up, but it didn't exactly turn out the way I expected. Let's just say that grooms get the short end of the stick when it comes to picking out wedding attire. You can read more about that as well here. (I just don't want to bore everyone with all my wedding stuff if you don't care, hence the reason for the other blog!)

But here's a preview.

Another good friend of mine, Claudia (also from Birthday in a Box) met us at Men's Warehouse and then came back to Laura's with us for dinner and wine. Lots and lots of wine.

Cheers!

And we drank, and gossiped, and talked about the wedding, and discussed future plans, and drank some more, and talked about Birthday in a Box, and talked about loves and hates and fears and excitment, and it was just THE BEST! I haven't had a night like that with my girls in a long time.

And the boys played sniper games on Laura's huge-ass T.V.

Look at the concentration on Joe's face. He needed this. He doesn't get to do 'boy stuff' enough.

And then Laura made guacamole and we drank some more, and the boys joined us.

That giant glass had a never-ending bottom, I think.

Jackson chilled with a toy of Bella's that he fell in love with.

And then I decided we needed to play Guitar Hero. (That game is awesome. I'm so pissed they stopped making it for the Wii.) And when we saw the guitars Laura had, we all totally felt like rock stars, because, that's right, Laura's boyfriend is an ACTUAL ROCK STAR who is all famous among the 'death metal' crowd and yes, his band name is awful and horrible, but I don't care because we actually know a famous person!

And Ava didn't care either. She rocked the Dying Fetus guitar like the little rock princess she is!

"What are you waiting for? Let's rock this place!"

Okay, maybe we aren't TOTAL rock stars, because we all pretty much passed out at midnight, which is pretty much when the real rock stars get going, but oh well. I was just impressed I actually stayed awake past Joe.

Do you see Jackson laying next to Joe's leg? All three of them were totally spent. It was priceless.

It was really a fabulous weekend with fabulous friends and even though it was a quick trip, it was well worth it.

It was a long drive home (again, Joe at the wheel), even longer due to some serious traffic jams, but I actually did stay awake for this one (okay, I stayed awake until maybe the last 30 minutes, which is definitely a win) and now we're home safe and sound.

Laura let us take a couple of the flower mock-ups home with us, and Jackson used one as a pillow at times.

Too cute!

Hope everyone had a fablous weekend as well!

29 Will Be a Tough One to Beat

Well, now that I'm sort of recovered from my birthday in New York City, I can tell all of you about it! I still can't believe that I was able to spend my birthday in THE most amazing city in the world. I just love that city and I love the fact that I currently live within a two hour train ride from there.

Which is exactly how we got there on Sunday. We took the 6:55 a.m. train and those of you who know me know that it must have been important to me if I was up and out the door at 6:00 a.m.

I think we look surprisingly awake for how early it was.

After downing a Rock Star on the trip, we arrived at Grand Central at 8:45 a.m., perfect time for breakfast. We took a cab to my favorite cafe in all of NYC - Cafe Lalo.

The have the best coffee.... mmm.

And they have some kick-ass champagne drinks. :)

We stayed there drinking coffee for a while, kicked back, just enjoying being there. I was seriously so happy. I was born to live in NYC, I think. Too bad I couldn't even afford to live in a closet there.

After breakfast we headed down to Riverside Park to visit the place where we got engaged. It was all in bloom and so beautiful! There was someone there picking weeds and we both think it's so cool that it's maintained by the community. Everyone pitches in to keep it so amazing. (By the way, I usually hate boring shots of flowers and such, but this is a special place for us, so bear with me.)

We plan to revisit this park each time we come into the city!

Next we headed toward Times Square, walking through Central Park to get there. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures in Central Park! The Aids Walk was taking place and there were TONS of people and lots of energy. We took a break on a bench at Strawberry Fields where we watched everyone fawn over John Lennon's memorial and listened to some awesome Beatles music performed by a guy with a guitar. (Said guitarist ended up sitting next to us, yelling and screaming about some tourists who had pissed him off. "I'm f**ing here for f**ing John, man, and they want to mess with ME?? I'm f**ing going to f*** them up and give them a REAL New York welcome!" I wanted to say, "Yeah, man, you're just like John, peace and love all the way." haha)

Of course we had to stop at Starbucks about a billion times.

And then we got to Times Square, where we were meeting Stuart at his very swanky, expensive hotel (he made his trip work related so his company would set him up. Nice!).

Joe in the swanky hotel.

This is how Stuart celebrates my birthday.

We had dinner reservations at this fabulous restaurant called Josie's West on the Upper West Side. It was vegetarian and vegan friendly, but also had sustainable meat options for Joe. It was a great find and we will definitely be going back. (Thank you Stuart for buying us dinner!)

I think you can tell I'm getting tired at this point.

We really wanted to take the 9:00 p.m. train back home, but dinner didn't even get over until 9:00, and then we decided to walk all the way back to Grand Central. I didn't want to leave, but I knew it was already going to be a tough day at work on Monday. We took the 10:22 p.m. train back, and after driving home from the station and taking Jackson out for a walk, we collapsed into bed at 2:00 a.m.

We were both so tired on Monday we couldn't even see straight, but it was worth it because it was...

the. best. birthday. ever!

Pre-Birthday Festivities

I tend to spread my birthday festivities over a few days, because let's be honest, one day is just not enough time to celebrate turning a whole year older. And this year especially! This is my last year in my 20's. (Dum-dum-duuuum)

So since we are spending the entire day in New York City tomorrow, we started the celebration today, making cupcakes and opening presents! (Actually, I started a week ago when my mom sent me the kick-assest Wii game ever (called Just Dance) and I 'accidentally' opened it and have been playing it all week! It's SO much fun and a great workout. Thanks Mom!!)

I found this awesome recipe for champagne cupcakes from Betty Crocker. Yes, champagne was one of the main ingredients in both the cake and the frosting. Seriously, you can't go wrong with that!





And they turned out so pretty! We let them cool while we moved on to presents!


I opened my gift from Joe's sister and her family. A new Starbucks tumbler, chocolates, and a gift certificate to Starbucks! Do they know me or what??

I opened cards from family far and near and felt so very loved. (My parents also both sent me cash for my trip into the city. Whoo-hoo!)


Next I opened my gift from Joe's parents - a super cute personalized frame for the doggies' pictures, a gift certificate to Target (love Target!), and this adorable outfit for Ava!

Yes, Ava is officially a Red Sox fan!!

Next was the gift from my cousin (and beautiful bridesmaid) Christi.

omgomgomg! My own Dooney & Bourke purse!!!

(Seriously, I needed this, not only because it is SUPER awesome and I've never owned a real designer bag before, but the strap on the purse I was using just broke the other day. Perfect!)

I saved the gift from my favorite person for last. And I was not disappointed. When we went to pick out Joe's wedding ring a few months ago, I was browsing the necklaces and kept coming back to these super cool key necklaces. He obviously paid attention to that, because I opened this beauty:

Isn't it beautiful? I absolutely adore it. Did I find a good man, or what?

After presents, I dragged Joe to a chick flick (The Back-Up Plan) that didn't end up being that good, and then we came home for cupcakes. And the cupcakes turned out really good!

Now we're just hanging out waiting for Chinese take-out to arrive. We are going to eat high-calorie Chinese take-out while we watch the 'makeover' episode of The Biggest Loser. I love birthdays!


We're headed to bed early tonight because we have a train to catch at 6:55 a.m. tomorrow. There isn't much that gets me up that early, but New York City on my birthday is definitely one of them!

I Can Haz a Win?*

As you can see from my blogroll, I'm a fan of the website "I Has a Hotdog". It's one of those sites that can ALWAYS make me laugh, even on my worst day. When I'm feeling down, Joe has actually said to me, "You need to go look at funny dog pictures...." Here are some recent ones that made me smile:

I really hope all of you have seen this site before, and if not, please go check it out.

Anyway, my fellow dog lover and blogger over at A.G. Out Loud hosted a giveaway last week, and she was giving away the new I Has A Hotdog book! Of course I entered, and..... I won!

Love, love, love it!

* I usually HATE writing like this, being the grammar snob I am, but in these photos, it's hilarious and totally works. So, I had to title it as so.

My Boys

My boys, just hanging out, watching T.V.

Happy Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish my and Joe's moms a very special Mother's Day. It really makes us sad that we can't be with you on your special day, but know we are thinking about you and love you very much!

My mom with her 'granddogs'.

Joe's mom.

Also, we want to wish a happy Mother's Day to all the other moms we know, including Bonnie, Annette, Marcia, June, Shirley, Barb, Kari, Cindy, Erin, Wendy, Kaylie, Susie, Joni, Christina, Janet, Nicole, Carol, Pam, Jessica, and Lacey. You are all amazing! Enjoy your day!

Cuddle Bugs

Ava Update

Jackson and Ava went to the vet on Thursday for their yearly check-ups. I was hoping for good news - something along the lines of: Ava has lost a pound! Her ears are healing! She's getting better!

Yeah, wishful thinking. Not my little girl.

She now has the doggie equivalent of corns on her paws. She has not lost any weight. She has a slight yeast infection in her ear that will require me to clean her ears and apply ointment twice a day for ten days, AND she has a bed sore on one of her elbows.

As far as that last one goes, I know you want to tell me to get her out of bed and moving around, but I swear to you, I am! She is exercising and up and moving more now that ever. The vet said that Prednisone causes a thinning of the skin and since her skin is so thin already, bed sores are not too surprising.

Unfortunately, because she is not healing well due to her auto-immune disorder, there isn't much hope that sore will go away. We are going to work on getting something to cover it and keeping her on soft bedding to give it the best chance of healing, but just like the sores on her ears, it may never heal. *sigh* My poor baby.

The only silver lining is that none of this really seems to be bothering her that much. She isn't limping, she isn't crying, she isn't visibly in any pain. She just goes with the flow and so we will have to as well. We treat what we can and just be happy that the rest isn't causing her discomfort.

My girl - our little 'complex case'.

Jackson, of course, came out squeaky clean. Happy and healthy, that's our boy. Gotta love mutts, huh?

Dinner

Joe and I invited a friend of ours over for dinner last night. Joe made a fabulous dinner of stuffed pasta shells, salad, and garlic bread. It was so good, I had to share it with you! (Sorry about the bad quality of pictures - I couldn't figure out how to set the camera so the pictures wouldn't be blurry.)

It was soooo good, seriously. My husband to be is quite the cook!

After dinner we all went for a walk. Our friend brought her dog, Emcee, so Jackson got some good playtime! (Of course, he also tried to hump Emcee, but we try not to focus on that.)

Maine!

Joe and I just got home from our trip to Maine, and even though it was a quick trip, we had a great time and got to see a lot.

Road trips are always fun with the whole family. Once the dogs realized we were going on another long ride, they settled right in.

Ava was so happy it was a sunny day.

Our babies.

Of course, the first thing Joe did when we decided we were going to Maine was look to see if there were any Chick-Fil-A's on the way. And yes, there was!

He looks nervous. Don't worry, I'm not taking it away from you!

We hit the Maine border!

Once we got to Maine, we drove straight to our hotel. It wasn't the fanciest of places (to say the least) but it was pet-friendly and had a clean bed. Jackson found his sleeping spot right away:

He seriously slept here all night.

Once we got settled in, we headed to downtown Portland. Okay, so yes, it's the biggest city in Maine, but it's not really a *big* city. But it's really cute and we had SO much fun walking along the waterfront and window shopping!

We walked around until it got dark and we got tired, and then headed back to the hotel. We stopped at Chili's on the way and picked up dinner to go, and then spent the night watching College Softball. We are such the party animals!!

The next morning we went back into Portland for breakfast and walked around some more. We found a boutique pet supply place and Joe found Jackson a Red Sox leash. We had to have it!

Then we found out there were a couple state parks in the neighboring town of Cape Elizabeth. So, we headed out to explore.

We got a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Great views!

We wouldn't mind living here...

It was a HOT day and once we felt sufficiently sea-soaked, we headed toward home. We stopped for a late lunch at the 99 Restaurant. Apparently, they are the "official family restaurant of the Boston Red Sox." What luck!

We are all back home now and everyone is pretty wiped. But it was a great trip. I think I like Maine!