This past weekend was glorious! SO wonderful and relaxing and glorious! It was sunny for the first time in….months? I even garnered a smidge of a sunburn on my forehead and nose (which I am not proud of because it means I wasn’t wearing sunscreen like I – and everyone else – should, but it also means that there was sun!).
On Thursday I was able to work from home, writing a few pages for The Odd Couple Discovery Guide I am working on. Work from home days are the best because they’re generally distraction-free, so I get a lot more writing done than I would be able to at work, and I get to have a mid-afternoon Cold Stone milkshake date with Ted. See? The best.
Thursday evening my friend Becca and I went to see a production of Spamalot at a local high school that was wonderfully choreographed by a friend of ours. It’s a silly, fun, satirical musical, so we enjoyed that, and they totally handed out free box dinners that we got to eat…in our seats! Theatre sacrilege! But it was kind of awesome. Following the show, we went to Becca’s house – where we were joined by our friend Shawnda – to help Becca eat a whole plate full of insanely delicious fancy cheeses and drink wine that needed finishing. We are nothing if not good, helpful friends. Needless to say, this was a winner of a Thursday night.
After work on Friday Ted and I met our friends Chelsea and Andrew for dinner at Aladdin’s – a Mediterranean eatery in town (my red pepper linguine with pistachios and broccoli in goat cheese sauce was divine), and then we all joined my friends Becca, Sarah, and a few other Geva friends at a performance of our world premiere production of Informed Consent. It was amazing! We all loved the show and enjoyed the emotional roller coaster ride with plenty of tears and laughter. This was the show we recorded our origin stories and a few songs for on the day of the blizzard last month, so it was really cool picking out my own voice in the show! After the performance, Chelsea, Andrew, Sarah, Ted and I dropped by a local pub for a few hours of fun, conversation, blueberry beer, and greasy pub pizza (um, Ted). Truly, a great night out with great friends and great entertainment!
{These are not Ted’s glasses; he and Andrew traded specs for a bit to see what they looked like in each other’s frames. The conclusion? Not bad!}
Saturday morning we mosied our way over to the public market for the world’s most incredible breakfast sandwiches and a walk through the stalls to see what produce and treats the farmers had in stock this week. We also hit up a few hardware stores on our hunt for necessary items for some DIY household projects we’re getting started on. Saturday was supposed to be the Opening Day for the Rochester Red Wings minor league baseball game against the Buffalo Bison – to which we had tickets – but they postponed until Sunday afternoon due to “inclement weather” (it was, in fact, beautiful out. A little cold and pretty windy, but still sunny and beautiful). So instead of a baseball game, we picked up two free sour dill pickles in a pouch (basically, if you haven’t downloaded the 7-Eleven app for your phone, you’re missing out on some awesome weekly freebies…like my classic childhood favorite – pickle in a pouch!), bundled up in our windbreakers, and headed down to the Durand Eastman Beach at Lake Ontario for a nippy walk along the beach, through the marshlands, and up a secluded hill with a pretty stone wall and fantastic view. We saw hardly another sole on our walk and it was like having the whole world to ourselves. After enjoying an afternoon in the great outdoors, we went to a nearby wine store to check out some chocolate wines we’ve been eyeing up (I found cat wine!!), stopped by church for Saturday evening mass, picked up some frozen jalapeno poppers in an attempt to tame my wicked cravings for some beloved Texas eats like fresh jalapeno poppers, red-hot Cheetos, sour pickle salt, Blue Bell ice cream, and Sweet Leaf tea (all of which is nowhere to be found in upstate New York, by the way), and then we headed home for the night so Ted could watch the Wisconsin Badgers play in their championship basketball game (sadly, they lost), and so I could spend an hour and a half soaking in a hot bubble bath while drinking an amazing chocolate strawberry wine Ted found last week. Another excellent, relaxing day for the books!
{This wine? You gotta try it! It’s divine!}
On Sunday morning we luxuriously slept in sans alarms of any kind, deep-cleaned Cider’s tank (a gross two-person job, I assure you), then went for a leisurely brunch at the historic Donuts Delites, where we feasted on amazing donuts (Bavarian cream for me and sour cream glazed for Ted), an order of tater tots, and a breakfast plate of eggs, sausage, hash browns, and toast. It was totally great – wonderful old-fashioned, nostalgic 1950s atmosphere, friendly folks, and awesome food! We had a lovely window view, and it was just so relaxing and wonderful eating a slow breakfast while watching neighborhood dogs and their owners, passing by the window on their first nice walk since November…their coats shining in the sun and the pups eagerly yanking their owners along, excited to explore the next new thing along the sidewalk. The weather on Sunday was simply stunning! It was in the high 50s with a light breeze and oh-so-sunny! A perfect day for a postponed opening day baseball game! Geva has Red Wings season tickets for the staff to use, and they’re great seats, right up front! The game ended up being 13 innings long and the Red Wings lost, but I had the most amazing time just sitting in the warm sun (which has been absent since last November, if you’re wondering why I’m so obsessed with the sun lately) beside my hubby, enjoying the game, chowing on a basket of fully loaded nachos the size of my face, and collecting discarded extras of the opening day cowbells they handed out – for which I have crafty plans! Really, it was a fantastic afternoon! Before the game we had parked downtown by the stadium and had some time to kill so we walked across the bridge in front of High Falls to check out the waterfall. We looked down and saw a family of 4 deer basking in the sun and a funny pheasant pacing back and forth along the fence like a jail-bird – perhaps forgetting he could simply fly out of the enclosure? Growing up in Texas, deer in our yard were the norm, but it feels so strange to see deer in the middle of downtown Rochester. Regardless, they were gorgeous and seemed to be enjoying the day – same as us. On the way home Ted grabbed a sub sandwich for dinner and I grabbed a soothing bowl of FroYo and some clementines to snack on if I got hungry since I’d already so gluttonously stuffed myself with nachos and was still pretty full. We settled in on the couch for a few episodes of Parenthood and went to bed early.
{I cannot even believe a trough of nachos this enormous was only $6.75, at a ballpark!}
Add in the news of a dear friend’s engagement and two more friends baby announcements and you can totally see what I mean by best weekend ever, right? It’s pretty rainy and busy this week, but I’m already looking forward to some more sunshine and fun in the weekend ahead!
Here’s hoping your weekend was just as grand!
