Its Baaacccckkkkkk!

In case you were wondering what the highlight of my week was, this picture should sum it up for you:

Yes, thats right. Yesterday I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season from Starbucks. But this was no ordinary pumpkin spice latte. Oh no. This one was frozen. 

FROZEN!

Yes my friends, they now make it as a frappuchino. And I am seriously in love. 

Now, I highly recommend you all go out and get as many as you can before they go away. You will not regret it!

Never Ever Ever

Have I waited so long for a new Taylor Swift song to come out. And here it is:

I'm actually not a huge fan. It sounds way to popish for me, which is weird because I love all of her other songs. Maybe its because I somehow relate it to "Call Me Maybe" which is clearly not the same genre. I feel guilty even writing this because I love Taylor Swift, but this song is just not working for me. It doesn't really sound like her at all. Sorry Taylor!

I can't wait to hear what the other songs on her new CD "Red" sound like though.  

Olympic Fun

I. LOVE. THE. OLYMPICS.

You can ask anyone who knows me, and they will tell you that I am pretty much glued to the TV for the entire two weeks that they are around every four years. I will watch any event that is on. For example, today I watched synchronized swimming and rythmic gymnastics just because. I love to watch the sports and then become an instant expert in that field and comment on everything I see. 

That being said, I am sad that the closing ceremonies are this Sunday. Whatever will I do with my free time now?!

Here are some of my (and I'm sure most of America's) favorite highlights from the games: 

 Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman winning individual golds for gymnastics (although I love the whole women's gymnastic team as well!)!

 Missy Franklin for swimming. I can't believe she doesn't do endorsements or anything just to stay on her high school swim team! They are very lucky!

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings for women's beach volleyball. Threpeat what!? Such an awesome end to their great team partnership!

I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of track, but did anyone see the runner from South Africa who had two amputated legs? How awesome was it to see him compete in the Olympics?!

Just chillin with Robert Irvine.

Back to my vacation recap: 

Day two at the beach was spent, well at the beach. Soaking up the sun and avoiding the pigeons. That night we went to dinner at a place called "The Chicken or the Egg." Yes, thats right. The locals call it the "Chegg." The restaurant specializes in chicken and breakfast food and all I can say is that everything we got was delish! And bonus, Pete doesn't like fried pickles (seriously, I don't get it either) so I got them all to myself. Nom nom nom. 

One of the claims to fame for the restaurant is that Adam Richmond from the Travel Channel's "Man vs Food" came in and did a food challenge there by eating a dozen of their hottest wings in 15 minutes. Pete would have also done said challenge, but he didn't want to be "sick" the next couple days of vacation. I cannot thank him enough for making this decision.

On to day 3....

Day three was a lot like day two, except I finally remembered to take pictures! We started out by going to the beach, but then we got bored and decided to check out some of the local sites such as Barnagate's lighthouse and Viking Village. The lighthouse was exactly as it sounds, a lighthouse surrounded by ocean and some walking trails. Viking village sadly did not have any vikings. Rather, it was just a cute little shopping area that ran a lot of fishing boat trips. 

Barnagate's Lighthouse

 Cute photo (although the wind was NOT in our favor this day). 

 

Viking man (and Pete) outside of Viking Village

After seeing the sites we went to mini golf and dinner and called it a night. We had to rest up for our meeting with the man, the legend, Robert Irvine, the next day. 

Yes, you read that correctly. WE. MET. ROBERT IRVINE. You may be asking yourself who he is. If you have to ask that question, do a google search, I will not waste my time explaining. 

Yes, the next day we got up bright and early to head to Atlantic City on our way home. A while ago I had gotten tickets to the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival, and the event that I purchased them for was Sunday morning. Irvine was supposed to come and talk about the different types of coffee and tea from around the world. Yea, cheezy I know, but we couldn't afford the $100/ticket dinner he hosted the night before. Anyway, it ended up being a bunch of vendors from Brooklyn trying to sell you their coffee goods. It didn't really matter anyway, since our goal was just to meet him. 

Irvine made his grand entrance after about an hour of us sitting there listening to the stupid vendors tell us why need their coffee. He just casually walked right in. Clearly I am a stalker and noticed him right away and made a beeline for the front of the line by the stage. I have to say I'm pretty proud of where I ended up and He. Was. Awesome. He came onto the stage and just went right into a Q &A session from the crowd about anything they wanted to ask (nothing coffee related mind you). Pete was soo close to getting to ask a question, but Irvine went to someone else instead and said he would come back to him and never did. Womp womp. 

In the end it doesn't matter because we got this awesome pic:

Yes. Thats right. One of our goals for the day may have been to see if his biceps were real. We got something even better. A bicep picture. Boom. I can't even think of another word to describe how awesome this was. 

Just in case you didn't think I got close enough to the stage when he was talking, this pic will prove you wrong. Soo proud of my stalkerish tendencies to get close to the stage.  

Oh yea, Ann Burrell was there too. But I don't like her and she was kinda snobby so I wont bore you with the details of her Q&A session. 

After Irvine, we hung around a bit, did some window shopping, played some slots and went home.

 It was an awesome end to an awesome long weekend!

Chowdahhhhhhh

Okay I know. No post in over a week. I suck. Yada yada yada. 

Anywhoo....

This past weekend, Pete and I went to the shore. Not just any shore. The Jersey Shore. And we fist-pumped all the way there. 

Okay just kidding. We didn't fist pump, but we did go to Jersey. Long Beach Island to be exact. 

And it. Was. Awesome. 

I had never been there before, so everything was new to me. Pete used to go as a child, so we used his childhood memories to steer us toward what places to go to during our stay. We left on Thursday after work, so by the time we got there, it was too late to beach, but not to late to eat, and we went to the most random restaurant ever called "Buckalews" (on a side note, this was not something from Pete's childhood, we were just hungry) The name should have been enough to deter us, but oh no. Not us. We went right in and sat down. 

The atmosphere was your normal irish pub setup in the front, but then in the back, behind the service kitchen was a side room set up as a sushi bar. Yes, sushi. At an "irish pub." Weird. There were also three menus. There was the "pub" menu, which was all bar food, the "tavern" menu, which looked exactly like the "pub" menu, and the sushi menu, which was bigger than both of them, because you know, thats what they serve in a pub. Yes, I am serious. 

Not being deterred by this already strange situation, I decided to get the crabcake sandwich and new england clam "chowdah." Little did I realize that the big "thing" in LBI was "chowdahhh." It was everywhere, and every restaurant claimed they had the "award winning' recipe, even though they all tasted the same to me. 

Needless to say, the food was "okay" and we didn't go back. And I forgot to get a picture of the randomness. And I continued to eat chowdah everywhere we went for food. At some point, Pete starting saying chowdah in a JFK Boston accent, and everywhere we went he continued to order it in that voice. 

I know your all thinking WTF is she getting at here, but this is just the beginning. Next up I will tell you about what happened the rest of the weekend, and it only gets more interesting from here...

Is it Fall yet?

I dont know if it's the heat, or my love for the season in general, but I can't wait for fall. 

There. I said it. 

I promised myself that I wouldn't say it until after we got back from the beach next week, but I can't help myself! There is just something about the season that just gets me. Maybe its because its the season when I got married. Or because fall means pumpkin spice latte time from Starbucks, or maybe it's just my obsession with boots, but I. Can't. Wait. 

 Here are some of my Pinterest finds for fall fashion: 

I really do have an obsession with boots. In particular, brown boots paired with tan or off white shirts. Gah! I can't wait!

In other news, our friend Mike sent Pete an ant farm in the mail. Yes, you heard that correctly. An ant farm. That glows neon blue when plugged in and Pete won't stop staring directly at it. If I don't post again it's because the damn ants got loose and ate me in my sleep. Seriously, I am already getting skeeved out.

Weekend Recap: Canoeing, Shower, Wine and Brunch

This weekend was eventful. Probably because for me it started on Thursday. Yea, thats right.  Four day weekend. Boom. 

Actually, I spent Thursday doing laundry and having lunch with my mom and met some coworkers for din din. Friday is where it started to get interesting....

Since we both had off, Pete and I decided to go canoeing. We live near a river, and one of the local bars offers canoe and kayak rentals during the day. In retrospect, we should have each gotten a kayak. I should have known that within five minutes of being alone in the water, someone would think it was funny to start rocking the canoe back and forth to see if we fell in the water. That got old. REAL FAST. 

Not only did the canoe-rocking begin, but once we got out far enough, the water was actually really shallow (I'm talking less than two feet shallow) and our canoe got stuck. In the middle of the Schuylkill River. With no one else in sight. Obviously I made Pete get out and free the canoe from the shallow waters but even that was drama since his paddle started floating away and we almost got separated trying to grab it (me in the canoe and him in the river). After that, we got lost. As in, we missed the turn listed on the map (read: we couldn't FIND the turn listed on the map). 3.5 hours into what was supposed to be a 2 hour trip, we returned, had a beer, and went home. I don't think I ever want to go canoeing again. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't bring my camera due to my fear of my camera getting wet. Rightfully so. 

Saturday, afternoon I went to a baby shower for my co-worker. She is having a baby boy in September and I can't wait to meet him!  Here are some pictures:

Me, Sandra, and the gift I got her. Its in a Noah's ark gift bag because his name will be Noah!

Me and the lovely ladies I work with: Erica, Tracy, Sandra and me. (PS I don't know why my bangs are doing the "curtain" in these pictures. Time for a haircut I guess...)

Saturday night I went to a wine tasting in town. I impulsively bought a Groupon for it a while back, and almost forgot about it! Good thing I didn't because it was amazeballs. Seriously soo yummy and delish. I brought my friend Katie, and not only did we drink wine, we also snacked on food prepared by the winery to go with each wine. Again, delish delish delish. Of course, it wouldn't be a weekend night without drama. I got home and tripped coming up our stairs. Needless to say one of my wine bottles broke and there was wine everywhere. Red wine. The hubby was kind enough to clean it up for me though, and I just went to bed. I guess I owe him one. 

Me with my delish white Sangria!

 Katie with her wine purchases at the end of the night. They gave us a 20% off discount because we bought more than 6 bottles. Yea, were kinda a big deal.

Sunday morning I had brunch with my college pal Catherine who just moved back to the area. I didn't take any pictures, but since she is back now, I will be hanging out with her more and more, and eventually will get pics to prove it. As for the brunch, it was great to catch up, and the food was soo good. I got tomato and avocado eggs benedict. Nom. Nom. Nom. 

Did anyone else have as interesting a weekend as I did?! I'd love to hear about it!