Memorial Day Weekend 2012

Memorial Day weekend was a lazy one for me, but Abe and I managed to get out of town for part of Saturday and Sunday.  Our friends and their new baby were visiting family in Connecticut and were kind enough to invite us to join in the fun.  It was a good taste of reality to hang with a 5 month old baby for a couple days, both Abe and I left realizing having a baby is going to be a lot of work...I thought they slept a little more.  But after talking with Adriana (the new mom) I realized I'm prepared as much as I can be and the rest we'll just figure out come November.

Our friend's dog Chloe is Lily's BFF and both of them were in Dog Heaven USA with all the land, woods and giant lake with bull frogs. The humans spent most of our time watching the dogs wrestle and swim.  The best part was knowing we'd all leave with an exhausted dog. The rest of our time we played with baby Ben, ate amazing home-cooked Brazilian food, talked babies, drank non-alcoholic beer (well, I did at least) and swam in the pool.

Preeya and Davis Visit Beacon

Last week we were fortunate to have our friend Wisconsin friends Preeya and Davis stay with us for a few days.  They're in New York for a month to work and to escape the Wisconsin winter. Davis came up by himself earlier in the week (while Preeya was working) and we introduced him to the miracle that is The Bachelor.  Then, over the weekend, he and Preeya both came back to Beacon and, lucky for Dave, he was able to catch Bachelor's hometown dates episode! 

We also took them to The Walkway Over the Hudson, which was fun, but soooo cold and windy. 

Me, Preeya and Colleen,established in 1999What else did we do beside make them watch awesome reality tv?  We feasted.

We also squeezed in a quick sleepover with Meredith and Ari while they were upstate checking out wedding venues.  Ari was dying to go bowling so we took in a little Cosmic Bowl.  He must have been feeling the black lights because Ari creamed all of us with the highest scores in every game.

Friday Night Spelling Bee

Last week was a long one filled with lots of work and a stomach virus that lasted a little too long.  So Abe and I were pumped when Friday rolled around and Colleen and Kenny invited us to dinner at Isamu.  After dinner we came back to our house for a few drinks and my Dorm Rock play list on Pandora. 

We also pulled out this old 1940's parties and games booklet that belonged to my grandparents.  Abe found it in a side table I inherited and it's full of weird games like "Cracker Eating Content" and "Gay Nineties Party" (and they mean 1890's - suggestions include taffy pulling and polka-dot ties).

The four of us attempt board games often and it usually ends in argument.  However, Spelling Bee sounded like it could be fun so we whipped out the ol' dictionary and gave it a whirl.  We stil argued.

Phish at MSG

The summer of 1997 was a big one for me -  I turned eighteen and graduated from high school (on the same day, none the less).  It was also the summer when I drove to Limestone, ME for Phish's The Great Went, which formed a special, patchwork-panel bond between me and my friends.

I have so many happy memories from the Phish shows I attended in my college years, and even though I eventually lost interest in following the band, every once in a while it's fun to revisit the scene that is a Phish show.

So, when Dennis asked me if I wanted to go to Phish at MSG for their New Year's tour, I said LET'S DO IT! We got the cheapest seats, which were way up in the nose bleeds, and danced and sang out hearts out all night long. 

Congratulations Meredith and Ari!

On Thursday afternoon I got a text message from my best friend, Meredith.  The text was a photo of her wearing an engagement ring!  I was at work in Manhattan and immediately took off running to catch the express train home so Abe and I could meet Mere and Ari in Rhinebeck for celebratory drinks. We crashed their dinner at Terrapin and then the four of us went to Liberty Tavern for champagne and wedding talk!

In less than a week my two best friends got engaged!  I'm so excited for 2012 and 2013 - we are going to have some major fun.