Elizabeth & Brendan

So when we last left, I was drinking under $100 red wine and catching up with Erica. We talked so long we got hungry and ordered food at 2am. One of the things I miss about New York – any food at any hour.  (I ended up with a burger and a milkshake and couldn’t have been happier.  Nick’s – good milkshake.)

Because of the talking and eating into the wee hours of the night, Erica and I were running late the next morning. We (not surprisingly) had not even bought a gift for the shower because we had plenty of time. Well we had about an hour and a half to get to the stores and get back. And we had to go to the bookstore to get a book for Baby Chase’s library. We probably spent about an hour in the bookstore, reading books, looking at books, discussing books. So this left us little time to get the real gift (which knowing Emily and us – seems just about right). So we ran but while paying got called by Debbie (BFD to those in the know). Sheepishly we called her back to say we are running late. However, in the end, she got there while we finished getting ready and we got out of there pretty much on time.

The drive to New Jersey was fine and contained a lot of laughter for things most of you wouldn’t get and some that should not be printed. But the lesson learned is that you cannot fill out cards while in the car because your handwriting will be jumpy.

At the pink-inspired shower (Baby Chase is presumed to be of the female persuasion), we learned what is soft and hard and that baby girl clothes are just the cutest.  Emily pregnant is also the cutest.  I had a good time imagining her at a Central Park event with the walkie talkie and baby bump.  Sometimes I find humor in weird places – it gets me through the day. 

We unfortunately had to leave Emily, Lowell and their families and head back to the city for some music.  Debbie, Erica, Lauren and myself headed to City Winery for the Rhett Miller show (show great, wine great, hummus not so great).  And then we decided to keep the party going and went to, I think, The Other Room or The Room or some type of room.  I don’t know – it was dark.  All in all, it was great to see Emily, Erica, Debbie, Lauren, and everyone else – my stomach hurt from laughing so hard.

This past weekend had us traveling…again. Poor Eli spent another weekend being boarded (don’t fret as he has gotten plenty of attention since we got back and will get spoiled this weekend if the weather is nice. who is joining us at the dog park?)

Brendan left for his annual day of italian meats and NCAA basketball (not kidding) on Thursday and I cuddled with Eli (see related post here).  Then on Friday I drove down to the city to stay with Erica since we were going to New Jersey on Saturday for Little Rhody’s baby shower.  (Convenient for the shower to be on the same weekend Brendan was down since it saved him from having to get up at 6:00 am for a ride back to Boston.  And judging from how he was on Sunday, it wouldn’t have been pretty.)  I left work around 5:30 and hit some traffic getting on to the Pike and stopped at Charleton.  But other than that it was smooth sailing and I got to the Upper West Side around 9:30/10:00.  I was weary about the parking because I have had nightmare situations.  Erica told me of a dead-end street that usually has spots so I tried there.  No luck.  So back to West End Ave. and a few blocks  was pulling out of a spot.  Score!  My parallel parking skills have been improving now that I have been driving more so it was not embarrassing for me to park.  But then I had to figure out how to get to Erica’s apartment from where I was.  I look up and realize I am across the street .  Double score!

I go in and sit down with a glass of water and we begin chatting.  Erica being a gracious host offers me a bottle of wine.  I select a red.  The only problem with her red wines are that an ex-boyfriend bought some and she knows one is worth about $100 and she is saving it for a special occasion which I am, apparently, not worthy of.  Whatever.  So she pulls at two bottles of wine (identical year and type) and we Google it.  $100 each.  Okay so we found the expensive wine but let’s just check the next bottle of red since it is from the same vineyard.  $115.  Next bottle: $125 and the final bottle: $165.  About $600 of red wine.  And none we can drink.  After totaling it all up Erica replied, “Now I know why Brandon wanted me to ship the wine back to him.”  We ended up drinking a really nice bottle of wine and I told Erica “Don’t worry.  When you come to my place, no wine is more than $20 so we can drink it all.”

More on the shower and the rest of my girls weekend to come…

I don’t know when these were taken but this is how exciting it gets at our house.

So two weeks ago we went to Naples, Florida for Brendan’s college friend’s wedding. We took a 6:30 flight out of Logan and arrived at the airport at 5:45 (because we checked in online). What we didn’t expect was to see the longest security line known to man and the local news filming people online. I guess they were beginning to use the body scanners and it wasn’t going well. Needless to say we made through security at 6:28. Some girl tried to cut us but I put a stop to that. We are all on the 6:30 flight toots. I hadn’t had my coffee yet.

We made it to Newark and transferred to another plane. We had a bit of a delay as some passengers didn’t get the gate change memo and were late to arrive. The last hour of the flight to Florida was the worst turbulance I have ever experienced. The plane shook, it dropped, people screamed. At one point, one passenger kept yelling “Jesus take the wheel! Jesus take the wheel!” I wanted to say “Dear Jesus, I know you are omnipotent and stuff but can you just have a licensed pilot take the wheel? You can clear up the weather. Thank you. Amen. xoxo Liz” Obviously we landed safely and applause broke out.

Wedding was a blast and all that jazz and then we had the flight home. We were delayed in Florida because of the nor’easter blasting Boston. Eventually we took off and were flying fine. Then we were told we were in a holding pattern for Logan. Apparently the cross winds were too strong and the runway used in these situations just had its lights go out. Awesome. Then the captain told us we had hit “bingo” level on the gas and needed to land so we were being diverted to Hartford. And this when people got a tad bit upset. I was getting apranoid since Eli had been dropped off at 1:00 and it was 7:30. Oh and the crew was reaching the time where they couldn’t work anymore so that was an issue. Basically after waiting an hour, we rented a car and drove to Boston. Erica joined us. Who is Erica you ask? Some random girl who tried but couldn’t rent a car due to her age (24). We could tell the rental car guy wasn’t going to budge and she was going to lose it so I asked her if she wanted to just ride with us. I think for the first 30 minutes she thought we might kill her and that is why she was furiously texting. In the meantime, Laura saved the day by letting Eli out and giving him food. He was biting Elefanten when she left so we knew he was fine. We made it back in 2 hours and returned the car the next day and got our luggage. No pictures since our camera battery is dead.

I am done with Florida.

We were away last weekend (more about the associated travel later) and Eli was boarded from Thursday to Sunday. As a result, he was super-clingy this week. This weekend B and I will be headed to NY for various committments and Eli will once again be boarded.

B headed down to NY last night so I was alone with dog and feeling guilty about leaving him yet again. So I decided to sleep in the spare room as he is allowed on this bed. So he got a treat he has only had a few times before, sleeping on the bed with me/us. And to be honest, I had a great night’s sleep and it absolved some of my guilt.

Today the pupster had to get all of his vaccines at the vet. I decided I couldn’t handle the anticipation of him getting injected (plus I am crazy busy at work) so Brendan took Eli. Apparently, Eli took it like a champ and barely reacted. Or at least that is what Brendan told me. Because of the timing of the appointment, Eli couldn’t go to playgroup; however, he had a long walk to the vet and back and then Brendan played chase with him in the backyard. Hopefully he is tuckered out a bit and will be fine until 5:00. This happens on the weekends sometimes so I think he will be fine but of course we will what awaits me when I get home.

I am just glad the shots are over and he was okay with them.

So I didn’t have to travel on the ninth and was treated to a morning celebration. Brendan got up with the dog, made the coffee and got breakfast while I slept on a little (not too much since I was headed to work). I was allowed to open one present and it was…Bananagrams! It is a variation on Scrabble and is awesome. Then we went out to dinner and headed home to a few more presents (books) and a night of watching our shows.

Now I need to figure out what to get him in April.

Brendan and I have begun to look at some houses in the area. It is an interesting market to say the least. We went to one house that is a BIG Victorian. It was waaay too much house for us and I think that either there was a triple homicide in there or some human trafficking.

It was weirdly configured. The house was three stories and each floor had its own kitchen (or did at one point). However, you couldn’t make it into a multi-family house because of the way the entry way and stairwell is set up. We opted not to go down to the basement because we were scared.

There were several rooms being used as bedrooms and there was just a mattress on the floor and old computers/monitors/computer parts strewn on the floor. Lots of books including multiple copies of many titles. If the unibomber lived in Somerville, he might have lived here. We felt badly for the real estate agent because that is going to be difficult to unload.