Weekending: Red Lantern, BBQ, Grocery Shopping Fail and Festa Italiana

July 22, 2014July 21, 20146 Comments

Good morning! How are you doing today? I slept terribly on Sunday night because of a weird stomach ache, so I feel like I’m still catching up on sleep. This past weekend was perfect in so many ways. Even though the weather was not great and ended up causing us to cancel a Cape trip, we still found lots of fun things to do. I have to admit, after having been on the road for the past number of weekends, it was nice to stick around Boston for a bit!

Friday Night

After work on Friday, I ran some errands (including trip to Lens Crafters where they replaced my glasses for $25!! So happy I bought the protection plan. Best thing ever!) and then came home and sat on my back patio for a while. It was nice- I haven’t had a chance to do that enough this summer. And, my dad told me to “watch my garden” for 10 minutes a day… does watching it for a half hour count for 3 days worth of watching? It is coming along quite well!.

Later, RM and I went to Red Lantern for dinner. I had bought a Living Social deal a while back that was due to expire soon, so it was the perfect time to use it! Although the prices are rather high for both drinks and food, everything we had was delicious and I would definitely go back. Even better? They have a whole Gluten Free sushi menu which is awesome.

Saturday

After teaching a very sweaty kickboxing class, I went to get a pedicure at Queen Bee Nails- my favorite place to get them! Between my nails and new toe color, I’m going a little bright with my colors this summer. It’s a fun change!

In the afternoon, RM and I headed to my friend Amy’s apartment for a drink with a few other friends before going to a summer BBQ at Rachel and Dan’s apartment. We had lots of good food and about a million good laughs while playing Cards Against Humanity. That game gets funnier every time I play it!

The best part about Saturday afternoon parties? You still get home early… I am so old!

Sunday

I woke up and did some yoga and core work while RM made us some delicious Pumpkin Walnut Banana Protein Paleo pancakes. I’m not a big pancake person but these are amazing because they actually keep me full for a long time!

Once we were digested, we headed out for a long power walk. I think we covered about 3.5 miles before calling it quits to *attempt* grocery shopping. Have you heard about all the Market Basket drama?? We hadn’t, so you can imagine our faces when we walked in and were faced with this scene:

It was the craziest thing ever- we literally couldn’t even shop because there was NOTHING to choose from. So frustrating. I hope everything gets settled and back to normal asap!

We headed to RM’s mom’s house for a late afternoon lunch/early dinner. She is from Italy and makes the most amazing food, which yesterday included Eggplant parmesan with home grown eggplants. Wow. It was SO good and I’m so happy she gave me leftovers to eat this week!

Later in the evening, we met up with some of his friends/family at the Festa Italiana, which is an Italian Festival/Fair in Newton. There was live music, beer/wine, lots of fair food and rides. I love stuff like this so I was in my element!

In addition to some delicious Carlo Rossi (I can’t say that with a straight face…), we had some oysters and an ice cream cone. No wonder why I was up all Sunday night with a stomach ache- those are dumb things to mix in one night!

All in all, though, it was a really great weekend… the only thing missing was hanging out with my family 😦 I miss them!

Questions for you: Have you been to Red Lantern? What’s your favorite Sushi roll? Where do you get your pedicures? Have you been to any BBQ’s this summer?

Weekending: A busy, but relaxing weekend {Tia’s, visitors, beach day, Bostonia, soaking up the sun}

July 1, 2014July 1, 20144 Comments

Hi there! How are you today? Anyone have this week off? I’m hoping to take Thursday off, which would be a nice addition to the long weekend!

If you’ve been reading B2B for a while, you’ve probably noticed how busy I’ve been- both during the week and on the weekends. This past weekend, although I had a lot of plans and did a lot, was relaxing on it’s own because I didn’t have multiple back to back plans that required me to hop around a lot. Besides Friday night, the rest of my weekend was totally mine for the taking, and it was the best feeling!!

Friday Night

My friend, Tim, was in town for a conference so we were able to align our schedules for Friday night. We tried to get a few more co-workers (former co-workers for me) to join us, but it didn’t work out. My sister ended up being around, so it was fun to have her join us! We started out at Tia’s because it’s the best place for after work drinks in the summer.

I had zero intentions of going “out-out”, but between the weather, it being a Friday and being out with my sister and Tim, it ended up being a bit of an “out-out” night. Whoops! 😉 After Tia’s, we headed to Granary Tavern for a drink then to Warehouse for the last drinks. Although I woke up on Saturday feeling like I had had one too many wines, it was totally worth it!

Saturday

After kickboxing on Saturday morning, I treated myself to a much-needed pedicure.

Once I got home, I packed up and headed to meet my sister and her friends at a beach in Southie. I was expecting a bit of a sh*t-show beach scene with lots of loud, drunken people, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quiet and calm it was!

After a brief nap, I agreed to a Bud Light Lime- I’m not a big beer drinker, and definitely not a Bud Light person, but there’s something about BLL’s that I just love so much! Perfect beach drink if you ask me 😉

Saturday night was date night for RM and me. He had a gift card to Bostonia Public House, so we figured it was a perfect night to try it out. He parks at the Intercontinental Hotel and when we realized how nice it was outside, we decided to swing by their outdoor bar for a cocktail before dinner.

We joked that it felt like we were back in Miami- I had been at the beach all day and he had been golfing and we were catching up over cocktails at a hotel bar. It was a fun “staycation” night!

Dinner at Bostonia was amazing!! We, of course, shared a few different things: Organic Baby Spinach Salad, Berber Spiced Pork Ribs, French Fries (I was craving them!) and the Scallops. They’ve got a whole Gluten Free menu which was a nice surprise!

Everything was absolutely delicious! We both found ourselves continuously raving about the food with each bite! I don’t usually eat to being really full, but that night I left there with a very full, and very happy belly!

Such a fun date-night! I loved being able to be out and about in the city!

Sunday

I ended up sleeping until 9, which is unheard of for me! It felt amazing 🙂 Once up, I did some yoga and core work before having a protein pancake breakfast with RM (gluten and dairy free).

After breakfast, we went for a nice, 45 minute walk throughout Eastie. It’s a nice little thing we’ve been doing- we don’t need to be sitting on the couch all the time- a little extra is always a good thing 🙂

Later in the day we went to his brother and sister in law’s new condo to use the community pool and then had a delicious BBQ at his mom’s house. It was a perfect Sunday… and weekend, for that matter!

Questions for you: What did you do this weekend? Where’s your favorite summer bar in Boston? Have you been to Bostonia Public House?

Ps! My gym friend/in real life friend/blog friend, Athena got engaged over the weekend and I couldn’t be more happy for her and Tim! They are such a great couple:) congrats again, lady!!!

Birthday Weekend Celebrations

April 18, 2014April 17, 20144 Comments

Another year of birthday celebrations have come and gone. It’s always a little depressing when something you’ve been looking forward to is over, right? I had total post-party blues on Sunday. Womp, womp.

I started out my birthday weekend with a pancake breakfast- something I never do. My date made up a delicious batch of paleo pumpkin pancakes which were delicious! He also made me a smoothie- I could get used to that!

I worked a bit and then headed to Brighton to get a much-needed manicure and pedicure. It was SO relaxing. I go to Queen Bee nails and absolutely love it. I got a shellac manicure (which includes a paraffin wax) for $25! They also gave me a bottle of lotion for my birthday- so sweet of them.

Saturday morning my sister and I went to a class at Recycle Studio. We were supposed to go to Lindsay’s class, but I was an idiot and we missed it. Luckily there was a class right after it that Lindsay was taking, so they let us just take that class instead.

That afternoon, my parents came down for lunch at Santarpio’s. Although a pizza lunch was probably not the best lunch to have before getting into a tight dress, I enjoyed every bite of it 😉

We came back to my apartment to have bunny cake and open presents. My mom makes me this cake every year- isn’t it the cutest?

I was so happy that my parents made the trip down here. We hadn’t seen them in a long time and I always like when they visit!

Saturday night was my birthday celebration at the Liberty Hotel. So many of my friends came- I couldn’t believe it! I had home friends, college friends, gym friends and other Boston friends I’ve made over the years. It was so good to see everyone!

Thank you so much to everyone for coming out!!

I spent Sunday lunching with my Shapleigh girls, grocery shopping, and checking out all my presents from the weekend. My gym friends Steph, Alice and Jen brought me the nicest present- wine, wine glasses, napkins and a mani/pedi gift cert! I can’t wait to go back and use it. My upstairs neighbor, Lauren, gave me a nice bottle of wine and my other upstairs neighbor, Lisa, gave me the most gorgeous plant! You girls are all the best!

I ended my day with a nice, long walk throughout the parks in Eastie and along the water. It was nice to have some quiet time just for me to reflect on the past year.

Lastly, Monday night, my date took me out to celebrate with me on my actual birthday. We started with cocktails at Trade. I went with a Cosmo and I was very happy with that decision!

We had dinner reservations at Row 34, which I’ve been dying to try. It was a good thing he tried making reservations a week and a half in advance because they were already booked solid (on a Monday!). I called and pulled some birthday strings, though, and got us in. Everything from the atmosphere to the service to the food was outstanding and we thoroughly enjoyed every piece of the experience. I even tried oysters- and liked them! I had the Bucatini and it was SO good. I think he had the bluefish, but I can’t remember… I blame it on the Cosmo’s 😉

We both agreed that we can’t wait to go back!

Thank you, again, to all my friends and family for making my birthday weekend so amazing!! Here’s to 29!

Weekending: South End, Southie, Barry’s Bootcamp, Super Bowl

February 4, 2014February 3, 20149 Comments

Phew! This past weekend was super busy, but super fun! I know some of you may not like the play by play of the weekend, and sometimes I’m not even sure if I like it, but since I went to some good restaurants and tried a new workout, I figured it was worth sharing!

Friday

I helped my friend Jess with an event at Little Lovage Club, located under Coco Baby in the South End on Friday afternoon. She had a baby animal petting event and I jumped at the chance to help her! Look how stinkin cute these little babes are!

After the event, we headed over to The Gallows for dinner, which was amazingggg. I love small plates and sharing, so this was a perfect place to go. We got the Braised Beef tacos, Brown Butter Cauliflower and a delicious butternut squash dish. So many interesting flavors that made for a happy little party in my mouth!

Saturday

After kickboxing, I treated myself to a pedicure. I had no real reason to do this other than the fact I needed to do something for myself that would make me sit and relax… this was certainly something that forced me to do this!

Side note: don’t wear skinny jeans when getting a pedicure… I never learn.

Saturday night, I headed to the city for dinner. I curled my hair with my straightener on my own for the very first time and I have to say, I was pretty impressed! It was almost faster than just straightening it, so I know once I get better at it, it will definitely be faster. What do you think??

Apparently everyone else had the idea to go into the city on Saturday night… our night started a little rocky since we couldn’t get in anywhere!

-We tried to go to this new restaurant on Congress Street in the Seaport, but the wait was over 2 hours for a table!!! I was bummed since it looked like an amazing restaurant and I loved the décor, but hopefully we’ll make it back there.

-We then tried to go to Drink to have a drink while we figured out where to do dinner, but there was a line out the door there, too. Mind you, it was like, 7pm, so it wasn’t even late!

-Finally, we landed at Lucky’s, which was actually really fun! I bumped into my friend, Liz, so it was nice to chat with her.

-Dinner at Lucky’s wasn’t really what we were looking for, so after our drink at Lucky’s, we decided to head to Lincoln for dinner since there was an Open Table reservation available. I’ve wanted to go there for ages, so I was excited! We shared the Ahi Tuna tacos (I’m on a serious taco kick. Literally can’t get enough of them), a salad and a steak meal… random, but everything was delicious!

Sunday

I woke up on Sunday morning thankful that we opted out of having a drink after dinner. I had plans to take a class at Barry’s Bootcamp and really didn’t want to be hungover for it (when a class is $28/class, you want to be in tip top shape!). I was super nervous for the class as I’ve heard it’s insanely hard, but I am happy to say I survived and I loved it!!! I went with my friend Lindsay and some of her other friends from Recycle Studio and had a blast. Ok, maybe not a blast, because crazy hard workouts aren’t really THAT fun, but I did love it.

We started with 12 minutes on the treadmill. You may be thinking “meh, not bad”, but try starting that out with a run at 15% incline… yeah, that hurt! Luckily, though, we started at the top of the hill and worked our way down, but as we decreased the incline, we upped the speed, so it never got any easier. My sprints were at 10mph which was crazy fast for me!

After the treadmill, we did some floor strength stuff: walking lunges, push-ups, bicep curls, deadlifts, core, and then we jumped BACK on the treadmills for 12 more minutes. It was at that time when I was like “oh hell no. this sucks,” but I pushed through it and ended strong… we ran backwards which scared the crap out of me, but I am happy to say I didn’t trip and/or fall off! #winning

We finished the class with 1 more floor set and by the end, I was beat, in the best way. I really loved how Emily pushed us to run fast and up the incline because I certainly wouldn’t do that on my own. The strength sets weren’t anything crazy hard or fancy, but I did learn some new moves that I am going to copy and new formatting, so I’m happy about that.

I can’t wait for the next time because I know I can push myself harder!

I went to my friend Jessi’s boyfriends house for the Super Bowl on Sunday night. He had a little get together with a LOT of food. I certainly did not follow all of my tips, but I did drink water between beers, kept it to 2 beers and had it easy since the food was kept in the kitchen rather than on the coffee table. That helped a lot!

Ummm these are mini meatloafs- how freaking cute are they?! Jessi made these and I’m obsessed and can’t wait to make them myself!

And! I won $20 (it was $10 to play), which was just icing on the cake. I left after the halftime show since I was exhausted, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the halftime show. I could’ve done without the Red Hot Chili Pepper part because I thought that was a little weird, but I thought Bruno Mars absolutely killed it!! Anyone else?

Sorry about the super long weekend recap, but I really wanted to tell you about the restaurants I visited and about Barry’s Bootcamp, so if you made it here, thank you for sticking with me!

Questions for you: Have you eaten at any of the restaurants I went to over the weekend? When’s the last time you pampered yourself? Have you been to Barry’s Bootcamp?

Pedicure, Hair Appt & Christy’s Bachelorette Party in NH

June 25, 2013June 23, 20135 Comments

As I mentioned yesterday, I had a busy weekend! I was literally in bed before 10pm on Friday night since I was so beat from the week and wanted to be rested for my busy Saturday. I slept like a freaking rock and woke up at 8 ready for the day! I headed to Brighton to teach my 3rd week in a row of Kickboxing. The members in that class are SO nice. One lady said that I must teach a good class if she’s made it to a Saturday class 3 weeks in a row- what a nice compliment! Ashley was also there, which was a nice treat:) Hope your dress fitting went well!!

After teaching, I showered quickly and headed to one of my old stand-by mani/pedi salon in Oak Square. Since moving to Somerville, I haven’t been able to find one that I like so I was happy to have time between teaching and my hair apt to get a pedi!

I didn’t have time for a full mani, but they said they could quickly paint my nails. Talk about being pampered!

From there, I headed into the city to get my hair cut at Mitchell John Salon. I love Janet, who cuts my hair, but didn’t love that she had gone up in price AGAIN. I’m going to have to start going back to Maine to get my hair done… it’s about a third of the price!

#selfie 😉

Sheila and I carpooled to NH for Christy’s Bachelorette party. Christy’s fiancé has a beautiful, huge home in Hampton, NH so we all met up there to have apps and cocktails before dinner.

I tried to stick to the veggies, but Kia brought her healthy spinach dip again so of course I chowed face on that too. Kia, you need to send me the recipe… or maybe guest blog!? Everyone would love it!

After we snacked a bit, we had Christy open all of the lingerie gifts we brought her. This was a really fun idea and it was nice that some people bought practical items and some bought silly ones 😉

Before the driver came, we took a few pictures. Christy and AJ aren’t technically “SMC girls”, but they’ve been around with us for so long that we have adopted them.

(Sheila, AJ, Christy, me and Kia)

(Christy and her Maid of Honor, Kerri)

(My girls! Kia Amy, Christy, me, Sheila, AJ. Sheila thought a prom pose was appropriate.)

The bridal party organized a lovely menu and dinner at Roberts in Kittery. I have driven by there a million times, but had never eaten there.

I was happy that they set up a fixed prix menu for us… made the decision so much easier!

I went with the Haddock and it was delicious and felt really light and healthy. Perfect meal for a night when you’re going out!

The girls all got fun cocktails, Amy got a fun beer flight, but I was boring and stuck to Chardonnay! We had Margs and Sangria before we left the house, so that was my fill of fun drinks 😉

After dinner, we headed into Portsmouth to start the festivities. No bachelorette party is complete without fun gear! Look how stinking cute Christy was!

We started at an outdoor bar that was on a deck on the water. I didn’t know that Portsmouth had a whole line up of places on the water!

From there, we decided to go to the back patio at Gas Light. My family has gone to the Gas Light so many times, but I had never been outside at night- it was a happening place!

After that drink, we headed up to the 3rd floor which is basically a club. We went there after Rachel’s wedding and it was so fun… last night was no different!

Whoops! 😉 No idea how that happened. It may look like we all got crazy, but I think everyone actually stayed in control! Sheil and I drank waters for the rest of the night- best.idea.ever. We couldn’t bring drinks on the dance floor anyway, and that’s where I wanted to be! So fun.

Bars close at 1 so we had our driver get us around 12:45 and immediately snacked on all the apps leftover from before dinner. I hate drunk eating, but when you’re with all your girls and rehashing the night, it makes it worth it 🙂

Thanks for such a fun night ladies! Christy, cannot wait for your big day… it’s going to be a blast!

Questions for you: Do you have a lot of bachelorette parties this summer? What is your drink of choice when you’re at a bar? Favorite restaurant in Portsmouth?

Burpees to Bubbly

Because good workouts deserve bubbly rewards!

Tag: Pedicure

Weekending: Red Lantern, BBQ, Grocery Shopping Fail and Festa Italiana

Weekending: A busy, but relaxing weekend {Tia’s, visitors, beach day, Bostonia, soaking up the sun}

Birthday Weekend Celebrations

Weekending: South End, Southie, Barry’s Bootcamp, Super Bowl

Pedicure, Hair Appt & Christy’s Bachelorette Party in NH

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