John's NotExactly40th

Whew! What a busy few days! I'm glad I took Friday off from work to prep for John's party and very glad I was able to nap for about 30 minutes before the party (thanks to William's advice to do so!). There was quite a bit of running around Friday morning to pick up the cake, do some last-minute grocery shopping, pick up pork and chicken skewers, and cook a few dishes.

John came home and prepped the crock pots with cocktail meatballs and some queso dip. Thankfully, he went out and picked up the pizza while I finished off this dish:


Grilled Eggplant Salad -- a recipe from Giada's Everyday Italian. It was fairly simple and tasty. I probably shouldn't serve something new and untested at a party, but luckily, it turned out okay.

Anyway... a few pics from the festivities. Here's John orchestrating the singing:

John got quite a few funny cards. We joked about giving away the pool table to the person who gave him the funniest one.

His gift helper forgot to hand him two cards we found the following day. Many thanks to BHL and family and to Kevin & Rosa for their cards (and scratch-off lottery tickets). John's keeping me in suspense as to whether we're millionnaires or not (he hasn't scratched them yet).

John had a captivated audience as he was relaying his experience in Thailand to Ann:

And here's little Baby Lorenzo. Soooo cute! Look at those tiny little Air Jordan socks!


This morning, I looked at the Evite and realized some of John's friends I added after I got more e-mail addresses never went through. I don't know what happened! I hope they don't hear about the party and wonder why they weren't invited! And there I was... wondering why they never replied! I had a couple problems with the Evite, so I should have checked the list better. Very sad.

John and Mike are down in Breton Bay today for the annual "work day" to spiff up the pier and pool house and such. It looks really beautiful outside, but I think I'm going to finish cleaning up from the party and maybe attempt to plant some flowers and herbs in a small container garden. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Quick Post

It was a whirlwind weekend of activity. I feel like we were only home to shower and sleep! Friday night was fairly laid back though. John was on call, so we stayed in and ate out of the pantry (chili, cheese quesadillas).

Saturday morning, I had an eye doc appointment. My first time getting my eyes dilated. Not fun when it's the first super sunny, warm day of the year. Especially when we were riding in the Corvette with the top down. A really glorious day, but I wish I had a baseball cap on or something to shield my eyes a little more. They finally got back to normal around 4:00 PM.

We ran back and forth from Laurel to Silver Spring about 3 times that day. First was to order pork skewers for John's birthday party and to stop by my parents' house to get the model number on their water filter. Then we had to head home as John had a guy coming over to pick up his old speakers. We then headed to Home Depot to get the filter and back to my parents' to install it. Back home again and Freddy called. We picked up some food and headed over to his house. Just chillin' on his deck, enjoying the afternoon. William brought his fire pit over and we cozied up to a little fire -- just chit chatting and listening to 94.7 The Globe.

Sunday, we headed over to Mom B's house to get the 1933 Dodge and drop off the Corvette. We looked for a b-day gift for Diane (whose b-day was yesterday -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!). The Dodge was having some issues (not having been driven in about 3 years). It was a little scary. I didn't want to be stuck in Columbia. Luckily, a full tank of gas did the trick. It's still not running exactly right, but better.

We ordered a cake for John's b-day party from the place where we got our Blessing Ceremony cake on Rt 1 (JP's Kake Korner), stopped off at home to add some power steering fluid in the Dodge and headed to a party at Edgar Pedgar's in celebration of Javier's birthday. Lots of yummy eats, as always and another very warm, but glorious day. "Sweet" seemed to be the concensus regarding the hot rod.

It's been a long weekend. John got lots of sun. It was the first day I wore shorts in public since Thailand. My legs need some serious help! Oh! And I got to finally meet little baby Lorenzo! I should have taken a picture, but there will be more opportunities, I'm sure.

It's gonna be a busy week with prepping for John's b-day party and all. Hope everyone enjoys the coming weather (I hear it's gonna rain on the day of the party... merrrrrr). Peace out.

A Birthday and a Crash

This weekend, John and I headed down to Breton Bay so John and his bro, Mike, could work on a couple house projects. We went down Friday night and had dinner with Mike and Jossy at Cerro Grande, a new Mexican restaurant that took over the former Nooks & Monks dinner theater at the town square. The food was very tasty!

Saturday, while I went to Target and the yarn store, the guys fixed the screen door on the porch facing the water. They replaced the screen and put up a metal doggie screen on the bottom half of the door. Mike's stepfather-in-law came by with his tractor and helped level out some trench digging that had been done about two years ago. It certainly took no time at all, compared to using a shovel!

Saturday evening, we all headed out to Arizona Pizza to celebrate Mike's 44th. I opted for the Mushroom and Tomato White Pizza. YUM!

Sunday morning, the boys put in a new (actually, used, but new to the house) dishwasher. We ate leftovers for lunch and then headed home.

John and I stopped by my parents' to help set up an EZ-Pass account for them. We walked in to find they were all banged up from a head-on collision Thursday evening. They were about two minutes from home when a guy failed to stay on his side of the road and slammed right into them. Apparently, while my parents were trying to grasp what had happened (crash, airbags, etc...), the driver of the other car got out and started running away. Thankfully, some folks in the neighborhood heard the crash and called for ambulances, where my folks were taken up the road to Holy Cross. They found out later the driver was DRUNK. I'm so grateful my parents are okay, despite their typical car crash aches and bruises. My mom had some injuries on her knees, but overall, they're doing as well as can be expected. Only time will tell if the back pains and such will be long lasting.

Did anyone get any sleep Sunday night with all the wind? We don't have any big trees near our house, but it sure sounded like the branches were smashing against our roof all night long! I didn't get much sleep. I'm hoping tonight won't be a repeat, as windy as it is!

Well, I'm off to eat some dinner, maybe work some more on my sweater (which is going to be too small (NUTS!)) and then get some shut-eye. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Weekly Grind

Sad News for Dallas Ave
I received a note from my dear childhood friend, Kecia, that her oldest brother, Max, had passed away last week in an auto accident. When I was still living in DE (very shortly before I moved back to MD), Max was living outside Reading and we met up for dinner one night to catch up on "life" and such. It was really good to catch up on what had been going on in his life, as well as everything with his 5 brothers and sisters.

Max was like a big brother to all the kids on Dallas Ave and he was always at our soccer games snapping pictures. One of my favorite pictures of myself is this one of me at 15, taken by Max:

Look at all that hair! It was the early 80's and I didn't know anything about eyebrow plucking or the beauty of a good lip rip. This photo lived on my fridge in DE and currently resides on my fridge here at Casa Laurel. It reminds me of a simpler time and of Max.

Grindhouse
Last night, I went on a date with the B Brothers (my husband and BIL Mike) to see Grindhouse (Tarantino/Rodriguez). Mike is a big Tarantino fan as well as a fan of all the "living dead" flicks. Let's just say I really enjoyed the double feature and all the "prevues". I can't even really describe the action, blood, gore, etc... but it was FUN. And Rose McGowan was great!

Parents Finally Coming Home
My folks are returning today after being away for 3 months, just in time for the final day of the Masters. I can't wait to get back to the weekly Friday Night Dinners at their house!

Easter
Happy Easter to those who celebrate it. John and I will be dining tonight at Mom B's house and I'm making my famous macaroni and cheese. We missed Fanesca with William, Freddy and their family at Mariana's this year. We were wondering if Baby Lorenzo made an appearance. We should have stopped by to meet him, but we were running errands and such.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Belated Good News and Randomness

BHL and Baby
Congrats to my favorite Big Head, Shaun, Alyssa, Little Talli and their (extremely extended) family on the arrival of new baby boy, Lorenzo Dean. Go check out the pics here.

Author on the Loose
I also want to congratulate Laurie on finishing her book, which she has been writing for a few years now. It’s fiction based on some real-life events. I can’t wait to read it!

It's Friday... (in Chris Tucker's voice)
And a belated congrats to Nate on his new job! Working from home -- what’s not to like???

Weekend
This past weekend was fairly busy with lots of errand running and birthday celebrations. Saturday, we celebrated MIL's b-day with dinner at Ram's Head Tavern. Afterwards, John and I headed over to Freddy's for Dinner B where Kevin had cooked a pasta feast. We watched Georgetown crumble and the first half of the other game. Obviously, it wasn't a very thrilling game... I don't even remember who played.

Sunday, we ran some more errands and prepared for Griff's belated birthday celebration with Tacofest. Here he is blowing out his candle (we didn't have 13 of them, so we opted for one):


I've been obsessively working on my sweater as time permits. I can't wait to finish this thing, but having a job and stuff gets in the way of working on it. A week ago, I had only completed the first diamond. Look at it now!

I also purchased a new accessory for my iPod. It's like the iDog, but a PENGUIN! Isn't it the cutest thing ever???

Last random thing... we saw this guy on the deck last night after dinner:

Is this a robin? 'Cuz he sure looks too FAT to be a normal bird. Weird, huh?