Heather, Lisa and I headed out to Detroit on Saturday for a brief but fun-filled weekend vacation.

What better place to start than Buddy's Pizza?



We took our very full bellies home and hung out on the swing by the lake (Lauren even stopped by for a brief visit!). Lisa said that being at our house was like camping. There was a party going on across the lake with live music. Water carries sound. Therefore, when a drunk dude decided to take over the mic and belt out "Fly Me to the Moon" he didn't just have his friends to be embarassed around the next day, he had shamed himself in front of the entire lake. Awesome.

The next day, we could hardly contain our excitement as we prepared to go to the game.



After a brief visit to the Porta John's at Hart Plaza...



...and a polish sausage or two...





...it was off to pay our respects to Detroit's landmarks. We figured this would bring us good luck for the game. Our first stop was Joe Louis' Iron Fist, which we decided to kiss for good luck:





I actually licked the statue, so I guess it belongs to me now.



Our next stop was the Spirit of Detroit.



Then we went to Greektown hoping to find a fish market where we could buy octopuses to throw on the ice, but no such luck. It was time to head over to The Joe for the game...



Being at the game was unbelievably awesome - especially since our seats were in the 8TH ROW! So so cool.





We were all decked out. I even wore red underwear - and it's a good thing, too, cause my ass was hanging out of my pants!



After the players warmed up...



...there was an awesome pre-game pump up show. Those red lights in the photo on the left are these guys wearing construction helmets with working goal lights on them. Awesome.



The game itself was very exciting, though the outcome was less than thrilling. If you didn't see the game, you should know that the Red Wings played an entirely better game. The stupid Ducks got freaking lucky.

I will post some other time on the greatness of hockey, but for now, here's one reason:



Neither players nor fans are pansies when it comes to hockey, unlike some other sports (ahem, baseball...). We also would NEVER boo our own players (ahem, Yankees) - we CHEER when our players get penalties, cause it means they were socking it to the other team and defending our team's honor.



We DO, however, boo the other team's players. AHEM, Pronger. After his head shot to Holmstrom last week, every time he had posession of the puck, the whole crowd booed. It was fantastic.

Unfortunately, our good luck kisses to Joe Louis' giant fist didn't work. But we still had a great time.



AND went in search of autographs. Even, Steve Yzerman wouldn't sign Heather and Lisa's boobs...



But Lisa did manage to grab a couple on her jersey...



I believe this was Hasek (the goalie) driving away...



You can't possibly fathom the HOT HOT HOT-ness that is hockey players all cleaned up in person. I seriously almost had a heart attack when Lilja drove by, and, whew!, Lidstrom in his Bentley? HOT!!! My heart was racing. RACING! Even Chelios was super good looking up close.

I couldn't help myself, I HAD to buy a Wing Nut hat, it was just too awesome. You can sure as hell bet I'm going to be wearing it at the bar from now on.



The Wing Nut hat was a real hit at the Downtown Hoedown. Yes, folks, Detroit apparently has a free country music festival (since 1983!). I definitely had no idea of that growing up, but it was pretty fun that it happened to be going on this weekend.



...AND a country music festival means two things:

1) SoCo Slushies!



2) Mechanical bull riding!!!







I have obviously always wanted to do that. Done and done.

After a red eye in this morning it was straight to work - which is why I must go to bed immediately so as not to pass out face first on my laptop.

Thank you - Goodnight!

Between the Tigers and the Red Wings this was not Detroit's day.

On a happier note, though, Heather, Lisa and I will be at Game 5 Sunday in Detroit (8th Row!). Let's hope that's the last game necessary in this series...

Whew. 'Twas a marathon day yesterday.

I started with an early run & then got to preparing for our 1987 Summer School party (as in the movie with Mark Harmon). I decided to go with a nostalgic school lunch theme for snacks and bought a whole lot of Hostess, Little Debbie and Drake's baked goods.

Life was just a bowl of Twinkies.





AND what would a party be without streamers?



Then it was off to my sister's for a BBQ in honor of Keil's Birthday. They had a keg. It was Lisa's first experience with a keg (hey, we went to Columbia, what do you expect?).



My sister made her own pulled pork.



It was so delicious we couldn't keep our hands off it.



There were also burgers, mac & cheese, cole slaw, gauc (made by me), and other tasty goodness.



Linus kept trying to steal our food and beer, but Katie gave her a talking to.



Then we took the keg on over to my place (a sober man drove it over) and changed into our 1987 gear.



We broke out the old school Nintendo for the occasion. Kung Fu is kind of a dumb game. I say this because I suck at it.



I bought me, Heather and Lisa neon capri tights with lace bottoms at Strawberry and now I'm pretty much in love with them. Sure, they look ridiculous, but they are really comfy. Now I know why all those hipsters rock the capris under skirts/dresses look...



Lisa also represented with an LA GEAR jean jacket. It had shoulder pads. Awesome.



Lisa called these country club boys "The Chips."



No offense to the real Chip...



...who, as usual, had us stocked with champagne.



Yes, Kmart still sells jellies.



Rad.

Are you a wing nut?



You should be.

We may have lost at soccer Friday night but the Red Wings won yesterday- AND will win the series tomorrow night.

I watched at Wade's with Heather and Keil as usual, but Shmu and Lisa were our special guests for the afternoon. With $2.50 drafts, it was a happy Cinco de Mayo. I made it to the park for approximately 30 minutes, and then it was off to Moonshine for the rest of the evening.

Today started with a run and then shooting some hoops with Andy. I'm just so excited that "spring" is finally here.

We also went to check out Michael Hearst play his new Songs for Ice Cream Trucks, which I think is just a great concept. I also got a free ice cream out of it, so that was very exciting.

Sorry for the lack of images - I need to start taking pictures again...

A thrilling weekend. So thrilling, in fact, that I spent most of today sleeping and/or watching TV...until about 6:30 when I forced myself to get my butt in gear, go for a run and then cook a tasty dinner so I wouldn't feel like I had wasted an entire day.

Last night was Julia's (& Wynn's) Birthday festivities. And as is usually the case with Birthday occasions, everyone was pleasantly pissed last night. Here are some pictures taken before we got to the point of trying to do pull-ups on the scaffolding outside Rockwood Music Hall...





I was also dogsitting for my dear niece Linus this weekend - which was lovely, mostly. I desperately want a dog, so it's fun when I get to pretend I have one for a weekend. HOWEVER, I wanted to throttle her yesterday when she spazzed out halfway to my sister's apartment and decided that she didn't want to walk any further. She kept sitting down in the middle of the sidewalk and refusing to move. At first coaxing her with baby carrots I luckily had in my bag worked to get her down a block, but after a while she just wasn't getting convinced for anything. It took me approximately three hours to make a 20 minute walk. I would be really mad, but how can you stay mad at this face?

The great thing about going on regular runs for the past week is I feel like I earn this for dinner:



Fried chicken from Chickory Brooklyn. YUM!

Chickory is really the only place I ever order in food from. They have such very tasty food, it's actually mainly pretty healthy (in terms of involving real vegetables and non-processed ingredients), and the prices ain't bad either.

Earlier in the week, Steph and I went to see Fountains of Wayne (a total sausage fest!). Before the concert we went to this Japanese place on St. Marks that I've passed a million times but never have gone in. The food was okay. BUT beer was $1.50 and you got to make your own cotton candy on your way out!!! I'm convinced every restaurant should have a cotton candy machine. Brilliant.

Such a happy camper.



So content with the weather this weekend. Yesterday was spent in Prospect Park and today was all about Sheep's Meadow. My body is definitely happy too because the nice weather means I'm actually going running and not just eating fried food all day. I went for a run tonight at 7:30 PM and it was perfection. The sun was going down over the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and there was a nice breeze...mmmm. One of the few times it's actually pleasurable to go for a run.

I'd be doing a little better if this Red Wings game wasn't in overtime right now...

Finally back in the swing of a normal really busy Sam week...

Last night I went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela at Webster Hall. I'm not normally into solely instrumental concerts, but I tell 'ya, they were phenomenal.

Tonight I went to the Yankees game...not exactly the best weather for it, but we had fun anyway. I think my bum is still frozen.

Diet starts tomorrow...



Yet another weekend of really unhealthy eating/drinking kicked off Thursday night when I went out with my new coworkers. After a disturbing trip to TGIFridays we ended up and Rudy's and enjoyed some free hotdogs.

Friday night was a "fun" cocktail party for Columbia young alumni that we had to go to cause Katie helped plan it. I am dumb and forgot my camera battery in the charger so I don't have pictures, but, take my word for it, we looked hot. It WAS fun getting dressed up...



Yesterday Lynn co-sponsored a charity bar crawl in the ole hood, so of course I partook in that.



I've never been on a bar crawl before, but it was a good time. As you can see in the above picture, we ate a whole lot of healthy treats like fried clam strips and chili cheese fries. As if those weren't enough, Stacy and I stopped in Rite Aid to pick up some more snacks and got called out by the man behind the counter...

Man: "Are you from Califronia?"

Stacy: "Uh. No."

Man: "Have you been drinking?"

Us: "Ummm, yes?"

Man: "Just so you know, I can smell it."

I mean, I don't think we thought we were hiding it seeing as though we were giggling and buying a bunch of junk food, but whatever.

By the time we got to our sixth bar I was definitely ready for bed. I tried to eat Chinese food and watch Stranger Than Fiction with Andy and Erica, but I fell asleep after approximately nine minutes and drooled all over the couch. Hot.

Today was totally lazy due to the "Noreaster" pouring down outside. Christie, Mer, Chip and I went to brunch on the rooftop of Alma - and felt like we had been transported to Florida during hurricane season. THEN we went back to Meredith's, made chocolate chip cookies, watched John Tucker Must Die and Drop Dead Gorgeous, and THEN went out for pizza.

Yeah, like I said, diet starts tomorrow.

Happy Easter...YUM.





My sister made an awesome Easter dinner: Lamb, Pizza Rustica, Spinach, Beet/Avocado salad, regular salad, potato, rice, and lots of cheese from Stinky...Needless to say, after all that tasty food and many glasses of wine, I am ready for bed.