Is it Summer Yet?

Hello all!! This weekend was packed full of fun stuff that started with a quick one night trip to the beach. It reached the 70s on Friday, so I decided to pretend it was summer and break out flip flops.While Kevin took care of his business/work stuff (the reason for our trip), Oscar and I took a walk around the 1 mile loop in the development where my family's place is located.There were beautiful bayside views,
Blooming flowers,

And the sun created fun shadows of Oscar and I.
Afterwards, I met Kevin at Mother's Cantina in 28th Street Plaza and we started off with one of my favorites: Warm, fresh tortilla chips w/ fresh salsa and guacamole. Isn't it cool how they serve the guac in the avocado shell?
The guacamole had great flavor with a spicy kick. I ordered two tacos for dinner - 1 grilled fish and 1 chicken. Both were served in grilled flour tortillas with fresh ingredients. I added some leftover guac and then proceeded to devour them. Kevin ordered the taco platter. 2 beef hard shell tacos and 1 chicken soft taco w/ black beans and rice. He cleaned his plate as well. I tried a bite of his rice and beans and enjoyed them both. We were hungry and everything tasted delicious!

We hung out at Mother's for the rest of the night and had a great time.

Saturday morning, we woke up early - like 7am early. I just cant sleep in anymore now that I have been on this silly work schedule for many years. :( We took another walk around the 1 mile loop with Oscar. There were a "few" beers consumed on Friday night, so running was not going to happen.

Afterwards, we went to breakfast at General's Kitchen, which is known for it's creamed chip beef and normally has lines out the door during the summer months. I am not a fan of creamed chip beef and Kevin wasn't in the mood, so we stuck with lots of coffee, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and wheat toast. It was a great, filling breakfast.

I would have cleaned my plate had I known that would be the last time I ate until 3pm. I was late to my friend's makeup party due to DC traffic from the Cherry Blossom festival and didn't bring any snacks for the car. I drank water, chewed gum, and got irritable.

Attempting to avoid bumper-to-bumper traffic allowed me to have a close-up view of the capitol.

My attempt didn't work and it took me over an hour to go 6 miles. I was happy to find lots of delicious snacks at my friend's place when I showed up.

Fresh fruit

Taco dip served with tortilla chips

Red pepper dip served with assorted crackers

Cheese, pepperoni, and these bacon pinwheel thingees

The makeup party was a lot of fun, but I am sorry to say that I don't have pictures to share. A few hours later, with iced coffee in hand...
...we headed over to welcome a baby GIRL into the world. Congrats to my friends, Mike and Chrissi, who had a beautiful baby girl - Olivia Grace!!! :)

I got home pretty late Saturday night without having dinner, since I don't count hospital vending machine animal crackers as dinner. I made a quick TJ's Masala Veggie Burger with a piece of toasted TJs whole wheat naan bread.
Sunday morning, Kevin and I did a (much needed) hour long trail run in Loch Raven Reservoir before heading over to Trader Joes for grocery shopping. Later on, we continued to enjoy the good weather with our co-ed football game, which we won. I even scored a touchdown thrown to me by Kevin! :)
Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends and I hope to be catching up on your blogs soon!

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2009: Off to a Great Start

Happy New Year!

Kevin and I just got back from a great couple of days down at the beach with friends. We had a blast and ended up staying an extra night. I cant even imagine going back to work on Monday.

New Years Eve we had a fabulous dinner at The Hobbit which has been called the nicest restaurant in Ocean City. I couldn't find a website, but did find a review with photos HERE.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures, but of course I remember exactly what I ate. Kevin and I split shrimp bisque, all four of us shared this warm, garlicky, pistachio cheese spread with crackers and apples, and then I ordered the prime filet and crab cake that came with asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and roasted potatoes. Everything was incredible and I savored every bite.

After dinner, I ordered an espresso martini to ensure I made it to midnight and beyond. Since I had downed two glasses of red wine during dinner, I felt brave enough to snap a photo of the martini. :)We moved on to our friends' restaurant/bar - Mother's Cantina - to see the ball drop and celebrate for the rest of the night. I thought it might be tasty to dip tortilla chips in a vodka/cranberry drink. Speaking from experience - stick with salsa. Kevin helped pass out the champagne before the ball dropped. We had a ton of fun.
Since my parents were down with friends also, they invited us over for New Years Day brunch. We managed to make it there by 11am despite having just gone to bed at 4am. oopsie.

Fruit salad, mexican egg casserole, fresh waffles, and mimosas. I topped my waffle with some smart balance and syrup. My mom also had made lump crab dip the night before that we helped polish off.The rest of the first day in 2009 looked like this. Ugh.

Kevin and I did manage to get up the next day (Friday) and head straight to the gym. I did 30 mins on the elliptical and then 45 mins of lifting.

That night, our friends had us over to their place for a fancy beach dinner.

I started off with red wine and then moved on to a Circus Boy. The chef of the night - Pat - works for Magic Hat, so we had a good supply of this stuff. Pat cooked the entire meal for 10 of us. We started off with a simple salad of mixed greens, croutons, and italian dressing.Also had some fresh baguette dipped in an olive oil/ground black pepper mixture.It is great to be surrounded by men who love to cook. Kevin helped plate the dishes while Pat took a quick wine break.My plate of seared venison medallions in a red wine demi-glace served atop mashed red potatoes with a mixture of sauteed vegetables. Oh and two stuffed shrimp, full of a lump crab imperial mixture. YUM.I had never had venison like this before and was skeptical, but it tasted just like beef and while i am not a huge red meat eater, I really enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we headed back down to Mother's Cantina for a night that involved a lot of this.Guitar Hero. The guys were really serious.

I hope that everyone had a delicious and fun new years. Looking forward to catching up on the hundreds of posts sitting in my google reader!

On the way home from the beach today, we stopped to pick up a pound of fresh scallops. Dinner was incredible but since this is already pretty long, I will save the recap for tomorrow.

Good night all!

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