Tag: Tia’s

#BosFIT Review/Recap & Other Weekending Things

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As I mentioned yesterday, the #BosFIT event I attended over the weekend was amazing!!! I kind of knew it would be, because anytime you combine fitness, friends and free stuff, I’m a pretty happy girl, but I have to say that it exceeded my expectations.

Since I knew I had to be up and out relatively early for a Saturday, my Friday night was spent much like this:

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Saturday morning, my sister and I headed to The Club by George Foreman III for the #BosFIT event.

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My gym friend (and most loyal class-goer everrr) Dana won my tickets since Julie ended up buying her own. Another BSC member, Caroline, also bought tickets, so it was fun to workout WITH some members rather than teaching them. My YMCA gym-friend, Steph, was also at the event, so it was a blast!

The event offered 4 classes to everyone and you could pick from Bags and Beats, Boxing Bootcamp, BollyX, Suspension Training, Core Fusion Barre, Barry’s Bootcamp, and Turnstyle Cycle. I think the hardest part of the day was deciding what class to take at what point in the day… ok, that’s a lie. Barry’s for the last session was the hardest part of my day!

My first class was Bags and Beats. George introduced himself and gave us a high level overview of the punches. What I liked about this class was that you were punching to the beat of the music, very similar to how I teach, except it wasn’t cardio like I do. Anyway- we had our hands wrapped and wore boxing gloves and got to it for a bunch of songs. The combos were easy to pick up and I liked that we altered our tempo and added in squats, lunges, push-ups and planks throughout.

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Steph and I tried to do Barry’s next, but it was already full. From there, we tried to do a suspension class, but that was also full (I think if they do it again they should have people sign up for classes before the event rather than on a “first come first serve” basis). We ended up taking a BollyX class, which is similar to Zumba in that it’s a dancing workout, but different in that you’re supposed to “strike a pose” at the end of each song. It was a little weird, but my heart rate was up the whole time and it was fun to dance.

There was a break after this where you could “ask the experts” questions on nutrition and training and things like that. Caroline did a fantastic job moderating the panel- proud of you, girl!

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My sister and I headed to a Turnstyle Cycle class after the speaking session and it.was.awesome!! We were both drenched by the time we left. I really need to get there for a class.

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Steph signed us up for Barry’s as our last workout of the day. Holy moly. I don’t know how I survived! Running at a 12% incline and running backwards and sprinting after 3 other classes was rough, BUT we did it and felt amazing after!!

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Check out this calorie burn for the day- solid start to my Saturday 😉

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All in all, it was such a fantastic event! I loved working out with so many friends and getting to see Caroline in her element.

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Thanks to some pretty sweet swag bags, I get to go BACK to many of the studios who participated in the event.

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Post #BosFIT, I headed to Charlestown to have a late lunch and drinks with Jessi and Amy at Pier 6. Man, it was HOT, but the view was worth it!

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Jessi and I continued to drink throughout the afternoon and evening (her place, Tia’s and then dinner and a glass of wine at Sterling’s) and between that, the sun and being dehydrated from the morning’s workout, I woke up with a wee bit of a headache on Sunday. Whoops! Such a fun night, though.

Sunday was spent cleaning, running errands, grabbing a quick lunch with my sister and then heading to Jessi’s for our first book club meeting.

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Check out that spread! I made 2 Stromboli’s and they came out SO GOOD! Seriously, look at these beauties:

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Anything with ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness cannot be bad in my book! The next book we are reading is Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn- anyone want to participate? If you do, leave a note in the comments. We are meeting on November 2nd and after that date I can put together the questions and discussion topics we went over if you’re interested? Let me know 🙂

I hope you all had a great weekend, too! I hope this one goes by slower than last weekend- I feel like I blinked and it was over.

Questions for you: For those of you who went to #BosFIT, what did you think?? What was your favorite part? Has anyone else been to The Club for a boxing class? What was the best part of your weekend? Did you do fall or summer things? Have you been in a book club before?

 

 

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

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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.

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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!

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Saturday

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

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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!

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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 😉

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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).

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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!!!

Girls Night & Other Weekend Happenings

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What a fun weekend I had! I am loving having some extra free time on the weekends to go out and have fun in Boston, as well as get my apartment more and more settled!

Friday evening, the Shapleigh girls came over for a girls night. I did my best to play “hostess” and set out snacks and drinks.

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Our original plan was to go to Rino’s or Prima e Dopo, but we decided we were having too much fun drinking wine and munching on snacks at my place and didn’t want to leave! So, we ordered pizza which did the trick!

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I’ve lived with all of these ladies at one time or another and we all grew up together (Amy’s sister, Sara, is the last piece of the Shapleigh girls puzzle; she lives in NH so when we go home we make it a point to always get together!) so when we get together, it’s basically like hanging out with 3 sisters. We do stupid stuff like have random dance parties and jump contests. Friday was no different as we had a stretching competition to make fun of Danielle for being so un-flexible!

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Clearly the wine had set in at that point so we called a cab and got ready to head into the city.

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Amy had some friends going to Tia’s so we headed there first. From Tia’s, the plan was to go to The Brahmin, but per usual, the line was crazy long so we hopped over to Red Lantern to have a drink while waiting for the line to go down. I’ve never eaten there, but it’s been on my list of places to go for a while now!

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I think this is where things started to go from casual fun to drunken fun, haha I blame it on Amy’s college friend, Andrew, as he could be a professional partier 😉

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I hadn’t planned on going out and/or drinking wine like it was water, but the nights where you don’t plan on going out and end up going out tend to be the best, right?! Saturday night was no different! Any night with dancing is a good night in my eyes 😉

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Needless to say, I did not feel up to my normal self on Saturday, but I made the best of it! I got new glasses, went to the beach, made pizza, watched half of The Great Gatsby (couldn’t stay awake for the whole thing!) and was in bed by 9:30- regular ol’ crazy Saturday night 😉

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What do you think of my new glasses?? I am totally loving them and it’s fun having something so different than my other 2 pairs! They make me feel smarter, haha.

Sunday I got up and felt so much better so I went for a nice walk to enjoy the weather. I met up with my college friend, Pat, and his wife, Colleen for breakfast at Angelas Café, which is equidistant from both of our apartments. I’m SO excited to have some friends within very close walking distance- it’s going to be so fun 🙂 They also took me for a tour of Eastie and introduced me to another amazing park and ‘must try’ restaurants.

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Beautiful, right?! I’m excited to run there and use the gym that they have in the park- it’s a little area with all sorts of fun things to use as workout tools.

After the tour was complete, I headed back to my apartment to do laundry and hang up pictures and other random new apartment organizing things before my sister came over for a Target and Market Basket run.

I finallllyyy got a normal sized tv! It’s awesome!
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I also got new pillows for my couch! I’m going for a yellow/gray/white color scheme and I found these at Home Goods and couldn’t resist!

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I made Shepherd’s Pie for dinner, which I’ll post for you later this week 🙂

Questions for you: Have you seen the Great Gatsby? What was the best part of your weekend? Do you know of any “must try” restaurants in Eastie that I should add to my list?

Happy Birthday Papa Bear! {and 5 things I’m looking forward to this weekend}

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Hey there! Happy, happy Friday! And a very special Happy Birthday to my dad, aka: Papa Bear! Thank you so much for all your recent help with moving me into my new apartment and always being there when I have a stupid little question to ask your or need someone to keep me company while I walk home.  Also, since my dad is a twin, it’s only fair for me to wish a happy birthday to his twin, Uncle Joe! I hope you have a wonderful day with your family 🙂

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….

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been waiting for this weekend to come ever since Monday morning rolled around. I feel like I have so many unfinished things on my to-do list that I’m really looking forward to having time to at least cross some things off! On top of that, while I was in the shower, I realized there are lots of things I’m looking forward to, so I thought I would share 5 of them with you 🙂

  1. Cristina’s birthday get together at Tia’s on Saturday night. I always like having events like that on my calendar for the weekend because it’s a great excuse to get together with my girlfriends!

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2. Working from home today. There’s something so great about knowing on Thursday night that I don’t have to pack up my lunch and other bags and make the trek into the office the next day. Today is also my much-deserved rest day so it’s nice to not have to schedule in a workout.

3. Starting my Saturday with a workout that doesn’t include teaching (not that I don’t love it, but when I don’t teach I can get up and get my workout done nice and early! Or, not nice and early and do it later in the day… it’s nice to be on my own schedule) and then tackling my “to-do” and “to-get” list. Don’t worry, my Saturday won’t be filled with only errands; it’s supposed to be nice out, so I’m going to take a few hours to relax and sit by the Somerville pool since I’ll be in the area!

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4. Spending Sunday with my sister! We haven’t hung out since last weekend and I miss her (okay, and I need her styling advice with various apartment decisions I need to make).

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5. Exploring my new neighborhood a little more. I found a lot of things during my run on Tuesday, but I know there’s lots more to see! I need to get in touch with some of my friends who live in the area, too… it’s going to be great having people around!

Your turn!! What are you looking forward to this weekend? Any fun plans? Do you have any twins in your family?

Gym Friends, Russell Tavern, Poolside, Tia’s

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I feel like the month of July has been so incredibly busy for me between work, travel, teaching, babysitting, etc. that this past weekend felt almost weird because of my lack of plans and the fact that I had, gasp!, free time! What a concept, right? On Saturday, I even felt, dare I say, bored. I know, I know. I should relish in the times where I don’t have much going on, but when I go from being SO busy to being SO NOT busy, it’s hard to know how to flip the switch and be ok with having free time.

Let’s back up, though, shall we? My gym friends, Athena and Ashley and I have been trying to get together for months and this past Friday we were finally able to align our schedules and make plans. I love hanging out with these girls because they “get” me and my love of the gym and teaching and blog blogging so we always have loads to talk about and I always leave feeling like I have more clarity about whatever little issue I might have.

We decided to go to Russell House Tavern in Harvard Square. I’ve eaten there before, but this time was more fun because it turns out I know the manager! He is my old boss, Mr. Shaw’s (I talk about summers at Shaw’s Ridge Farm with Meredith and the rest of the crew) nephew and he used to manage Red Line, which was another favorite of mine in Harvard Square.  Anyway! The 3 of us girls grabbed drinks at the bar while we waited for our table to be ready. We all got cocktails instead of wine, what a shocker!

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Delish! Friday had been a stressful day at work so this was juuuust what I needed to relax! Tyler came to grab us shortly after we finished our cocktails and brought us to our table. He walked us through the menu and said that sharing small plates was the best option. Um, sharing plates? Duh, that’s my favorite thing to do! Lucky for us, he sent out 3 absolutely delicious appetizers for us to try before we placed any of our own orders.

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We tried the Smoked Pigs Tail Pierogi, Crispy Poached Farm Eggs and Fiore Di Nonno Burrata. Holy.Yum. The pierogi was my favorite, but the fried poached egg was a close second. Many thanks to Tyler for sending these out to us!!

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Food blogger in action! Loved that I wasn’t the only weird  one taking pictures of my food 😉

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After we finished those, we decided to order a couple more things: Braised Beef Tongue Meatballs and the crab cakes. Again, both of these were outstanding! I never thought I would eat a beef tongue meatball and enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

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I could have finished there, but since we still had wine and more conversation topics to cover, we placed an order for a flatbread pizza. I forget what we ordered, but it was awesome!

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All in all, it was a really great night! Good drinks, great food and even better company! Can we get the next girls night on the calendar soon, please?!

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On Saturday, I got up early (like 6:45am early, which is really early for a Saturday!) and headed to Brockton for the Color Me Rad run. I’ll do a full recap on that later- it was a blast!

Shortly after I got back, though, I found myself feeling bored! I had showered and cleaned and it was only 11am. I decided to go to the Somerville Pool, and while it’s not necessarily the nicest place to be, it beat packing up and heading to the beach.

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Laying by the pool for the afternoon helped to not only pass some time, but helped to force me to relax! But, just as I was starting to get antsy, I texted my friend, Jessi, she said she was around and would love to get drinks. Perfect! While I waited for Jessi and her friend, Kathleen, to pick me up, I poured myself a glass of wine that my friend, JP had sent me! Last week, he sent me the sweetest “Moe Care Package”, equipped with some of my favorite things!

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J.Lohr is one of my favorite Chardonnays so I couldn’t wait to open it!

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Shortly after I poured this glass, the girls arrived. We headed to Jessi’s apartment in Charlestown and had another glass of wine while we figured out where we should go. She got these adorable Kate Spade wine glasses for her birthday and all I have to say, is I am very glad I didn’t break it!

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We decided to go to Tia’s since they have the best outdoor bar area. The food isn’t great and I think it’s overpriced, but if you’re looking to just get drinks outside on a nice evening, it’s definitely the place to be! I ended up running into an old friend, so I caught up with him for a while- I love how Boston is small enough where you can run into people you know in random places! All in all, it was a really great “spur of the moment” night out!

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Questions for you: Have you ever been to Russell House Tavern or Tia’s? What’s your favorite outdoor bar in Boston? Do you tend to order drinks/cocktails or wine/beer when you go out?