Lots of Lounging

Monday’s after a relaxing weekend at home are a lot more tolerable than Monday’s following a weekend of travel.  I almost feel like a human being today, and that’s probably because I barely left the house all weekend.  Sadly for you all, that means I don’t have much to say today, but I think you’ll get over it.

Friday night involved a lot of lounging around on the couch and finishing up Mad Men.  I’m all caught up and ready for season 5 to start, and I was kind of surprised how season 4 ended.  I’m super excited to see what happens when it starts again!

Saturday I left the house, but only to hang out on my back porch and get some sun.  I lasted for about 2 hours before I realized just how effing hot out it was, and that I’d much rather be inside where it was nice and cool.  There was a lot more lounging, I finally finished up the book I was reading (Sing Me Home by Jodi Piccoult, I didn’t really like it) and lots of movie watching once my roommate Adrienne returned from the bridal shower she had to go to.

We watched a bizarre movie called Wedding Daze, The Graduate, and finally You Again, which we both agreed the previews did not do justice.  The movie was really cute and pretty hilarious.  I also eventually ordered a pizza for dinner… see I told you, no leaving the house.

After a Saturday spent lounging around doing nothing, I decided I couldn’t spend my whole Sunday the same way.  After breakfast and coffee, and a viewing of The Roommate, Adrienne and I decided to go on a nice walk.  Well a Sunday afternoon walk turned into an 8 mile adventure, and over 2 hours later we finally returned home.  A stop a Smoothie King around mile 6 helped to fuel us for the rest of the way home, but didn’t really do much to diminish the hunger pangs for a delicious dinner.

A quick call to our other roommate to see if she was in for dinner, and one trip to the grocery store later, we were home again with steaks and the makings for some amazing mashed potatoes.  It’s not often I crave a juicy steak, so when I do I tend to give into it and go all out.

Broiled steak, chive and sour cream mashed potatoes, and broccoli.  The steak was broiled to perfection (thanks Dani) and the mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious.  I cleaned my entire plate and washed it down with a glass of red wine.  A great Sunday dinner to wind down the weekend.  I have one steak left to cook tonight, and will probably eat some of it, and leave the rest to top my salads at lunch during the week.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well and are surviving the Moday.

Another BBQ Night

Soooo you can pretty much just read last Tuesday’s post again for today, because the Monday night’s were exactly the same.  It was 90 degrees again here yesterday, so of course the roommates and I once again broke out the grill.  The menu was exactly the same and the food just as delicious.  Steak, peppers, onions, and shrimp (which I don’t eat because the texture weirds me out).

The only difference was our friend Will came over to hang out with us while we sat around outside.  The four of us are heading up to NYC on Friday night, and we were trying to brainstorm some weekend plans.  Pretty much the only thing we came up with was eating pizza, bagels, and drinking.  I’m sure the rest will fall into place.

Will just got back to the States after spending the last few years over seas with the army, so he’s looking forward to having some fun.  And to seeing pretty ladies, seriously, I’ve never seen a guy more distracted when a decent looking woman comes on the TV.  It’s actually pretty funny.

Last night’s workout was a quick 35 minutes on the elliptical followed by some push-ups and ab work on a bosu ball.  I was in a hurry to get home to the nice weather and food, so it was a short but sweet sweat session.  I’m thinking about trying out spin tonight, if I can make it to the gym in time for the 5:30 class.  The weather here is nightmarish today though, so traffic is going to suck a big one.  We’ll see what happens.

Also my right contact lens is seriously pissing me off.  The damn thing won’t stay clear for more than 3 seconds at a time.  I suppose I should find an eye doctor down here and get a new pair, huh?  Blaaaah.  Well, happy Tuesday!

A Fantastic Anniversary Weekend

Hello and happy Monday morning.  I’m glad you all enjoyed the video I made for mine and Alex’s one year anniversary, it was a surprise to him also and he really liked it.  It’s time for a huge weekend recap post, so try to stick with me.  If you don’t, I’ll understand but we did some fun stuff and had some great food!

Friday night I arrived around 6:00 and hoofed it through the subway system in 4 inch wedges with a giant duffle bag.  That totally counts as a workout right?  I actually ended up at Alex’s apartment before he got home from work, so I hung out with his one roommate Brandon while I waited for him.  He had seen my chicken teryaki noodle stir-fry pics on the blog, and had really been wanting to try it so we made that for dinner on Friday night.  I hate cooking in other peoples kitchens, especially boys because they never have the random things that you need.  It still turned out great, and Alex loved it.  After dinner we went out to the boys favorite local dive bar, The Edge for a little birthday celebration for Brando.  We played some darts, and drank lots of beers.

boys

meee

The theme of the party was “white” obviously.  I ended up drinking a tad bit more than I meant too and woke up Saturday morning with a headache the size of New York, so uh no run happened.  Thankfully, Alex loves me a lot and went out and got some bagels for us, and I was able to pull myself together enough to venture outside to do some shopping.  First stop was lululemon in Union Square where I tried on a bunch of pants, I think I’ve decided on a pair of cropped ones but still making a final decision.  Then it was off to H&M where I absolutely cleaned up on some new fall essentials.  Haha, for what the one pair of pants in lululemon would have cost me I got a pair of underwear, two button down shirts, two tank tops, and a sweater.  I’m really loving all my purchases, H&M just might be my new favorite store.  I’m so lucky to have a boyfriend that likes shopping with me 🙂 and who is also great at picking out stuff for me.

After shopping, we walked back to Stuyvesant Town to rest up a little before our big Anniversary dinner, oh and to exchange presents :).  Alex did reallllly good and got me three new workout shirts, a new sports bra, and the Tiffany I love you ring that I had been hinting about wanting for oooh at least 6 months.

I plan on wearing it on my right hand, looks a little too much like a wedding band for me, but my fingers are a little swollen right now and my left ring finger is smaller.  From me, a few weeks ago Alex got the iPod Touch that came free with my MacBook and I supplemented it with a gift card for him to put towards a new computer which is all he said he wanted.  We had some pre-dinner cocktails at the apartment and then headed over to Chelsea for our 8 pm dinner reservations at The Park.  Dinner was amazing, delicious, and the restaurant was a romantic place to celebrate our anniversary.

my fancy new BCBG dress

1 year later

I started off our celebratory dinner with a glass of champagne and Alex had a sparkling Mint Julep which sounds like a girly drink, but it was not.

bubbly

bourbon

They brought us some bread and olive oil to enjoy while we perused the menu.

For an appetizer, we decided on the crab cakes, which were sooo good.

crab cakes

Check out the view from our table, it was gorgeous.

And then for my main course, I was not adventurous at all and went with the turkey burger with American cheese, haha.  It was seriously one of the best turkey burgers ever, and Alex ordered a steak.  Can I just say that I love that both of our dinners came with french fries, haha.

turkey burger

steak

After our meals (we both cleaned our plates) we were pretty full, but the cheesecake on the desert menu just sounded way to delicious to pass up so we decided to share it.

cheesecake with raspberry sauce

It was a wonderful anniversary meal, and I would love to go back to The Park again and sit in one of the many other rooms of the restaurant.  The Skyline Park literally started right across the street from the restaurant so we ventured up to it to walk around after dinner.  I had never seen it before, and it’s really cool.  After walking around the Meatpacking district for a while, we ended up at the Ganesvoort Hotel rooftop bar where we both had one drink, because they were a million dollars, and did some serious people watching.

stud

After our drinks, we returned to the East Village and Alex’s apartment where we drank some more for free, watched some TV, and just spent some qt together.  It was a great night.

Yesterday was a gray and rainy day in NYC, and what better way to spend a rainy Sunday than just being lazy, which is exactly what we did.  We left the apartment to find food, and that’s it.  We agreed on an early dinner of the most delicious pizza ever.  Artichoke is located on 14th st between 1st and 2nd Ave and the line out the door is typically at least 10 people long.  They accept cash only and offer four different types of pizza, crab, Sicilian, margarita, and of course artichoke.  I’ve had the margarita and the artichoke before, and both are incredible.  Yesterday I decided to go with the pizza the place is named for.

artichoke pizza

so cheezey and creamy

Alex loves it too

Now, in no way is there anything remotely healthy about this slice of pizza, but it’s all about balance right?  So good and rich, I ate almost all of it before handing the last bit off to Alex to finish.

I was sad to leave and come home, but I’m headed back up to NYC on Thursday night because Alex and I fly out bright and early Friday morning for his brothers wedding in Iowa.  These next few weeks are absolutely crazy for me!  I hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend, I feel like I’m going to recover from this one just in time for the next one to start!