Top Ten Tuesday: Eats

Aaron and I don't often go out to eat. We much prefer to eat at home, in our own kitchen, cooking our own food, and seeing exactly who is touching it. However, occasionally we do go out for a nice dinner or breakfast. Last night (date night) we went to Bugaboo Creek Steak House and let me tell you, I wanted to lick my plate clean!

My Top Ten Favorite Places to eat:

10. Panera Bread: Everywhere- I know it's a chain but I love their bagels, iced green tea, cheddar broccoli soup and the Fuji apple chicken salad. I could eat there everyday. Thank goodness I don't!
9. The Barley House: Concord, NH- a great haunt and one of my favorite places ever.
8. Zyng: Montreal QB Canada- It's a must-go.
7. The Cliff House: Ogunquit, Maine- It's super fancy but views are amazing and the breakfast is to die for.
6. Bratskellar: Portsmouth, NH- my favorite ever pizza joint.
5. Bugaboo Creek Steak House: Everywhere (chain)- but there is something about it (I think it may be the decor) that I love. Last night we had steak and coconut shrimp, and salads and sweet potato fries and chocolate lava cake and... it was delicious and I need to get to the gym...
4. I-HOP: Everywhere (chain)- Obsessed. I love breakfast.
3. Puritan Backroom: Manchester, NH- Chicken. Do I need to say more?
2. Governor's: Various Maine Cities- It's nothing fancy but it reminds me of my years in Maine and my Pepe.
1. Richard's Bistro: Manchester, NH- It's purely coincidence that this is number one, as they are in no order. Richard's has the very best brunch ever. You start with a fruit and cheese platter, then pastry, then a main dish. I love Richards!

There is one place, one place that is my absolute favorite place to eat but, I won't list it here. It's a place only my closest friends and family know of. I like to pretend it belongs just to us, so I won't mention in here. It sells only one item, but it doesn't matter.

Eat up and enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Nicki

Happy Birthday to the one person who knows all my dirty little secrets... and loves me anyway. I don't know who/where I would be without you. You're my best friend and I love you more than words can say. Have a great day.

Top Ten Tuesday: A week in the life

Last week I had one of the best weeks I've had in a really long time and it all began on Wednesday. Here are the top ten photos, fun moments, or funny things said over the past week:

10. On Wednesday I donated blood. That always feels so good!

9. Thursday night I took 6 of my clients to see the musical Rent at the Palace Theatre. Three of the kids loved it, they clapped and screamed for the cast members-- it was absolutely adorable. The other three liked it but had a hard time understanding it (people either "get" musicals or they struggle with them.) It was a ton of work to coordinate bringing 6 boys to a musical; a lot of details went into the planning and I was stressing, big time. In the end, when they were so appreciative of the experience I provided them with, it was well worth the stress.

People often "pooh-pooh" my career and ask if I'm scared of the clients I serve (12-22 year-old addicts.) The answer is No, Never! I love and adore my clients. They are kids who are sick; addiction is a small piece of their life, it does not define them. They are sweet, helpful, and appreciative; they genuinely want me to be proud of them. I love these kids.

During the musical I watched them more than the play. For a brief moment in time I got to see their innocence restored. They left their struggles at the door and watched a musical, enjoying for 2.5 hours the childhood they left behind. How lucky am I?

8. In 7th grade I met a girl named Kristy. She and I quickly became inseparable for a few years but over the later years of high school, college, and into our adulthood we lost touch. Recently, however, we hooked up through-- you guessed it, Facebook (I guess it is good for something.) On Friday we met for lunch (for 4 hours) and we had an amazing time. Thanks, Kris! I missed you! (JPDAA.)

7. At lunch Kristy and I went over every detail of the past 15 or so years recalling every memory or laugh we shared. She told me a funny story about something I once said in Math class (which I don't remember saying --I've probably blocked it out) but even back then I was quick on my feet. This is the story she told:

Remember in Math class you hated the teacher and one day you called her a "F*cking B*tch" under your breath? Remember how she heard you and she said "What did you say?!?" and you said, "I said 5 over 6!"

I actually don't remember that but Kristy has the memory of an elephant so it must be true. LMFAO, that was a nice save- I'm pretty proud of myself for that one.

6. On Saturday Aaron and I went for the first kayak of the season. We explored a lake that is less than 5 miles from our house and we even pulled up on shore to hike around a small area that once housed a grand hotel (but it burned to the ground.) As we were getting back in our kayaks and I started to head away from land, I heard what sounded like a little girl screaming. I turned around to see my husband had overturned his kayak and was neck deep in our city's water supply (it's an enormous lake that supplies the city with water- you are not allowed to swim or wade in the water. If caught you incur unbelievable fines.)

J: (laughing hysterically) What the hell happened?
A: I slipped on the Lichen and I think I broke my finger!

For the entire 2-hour paddle back to our car I kept mimicking his scream and then yelling "I slipped on the lichen!"

Reading that back, I guess you would really have to be there, but it was so funny. I loved that he could laugh at himself.

"I slipped on the lichen"

This was about a minute after he got himself back in the boat. A day later it was almost completely purple and swollen.

5. On Saturday, after kayaking, we came home and did yard work for the rest of the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and we love to spend time together in our yard. My fair-skinned-Irish-husband got sunburned, of course (it was about 80 degrees!) Later that night this conversation ensued:

A: Will you put aloe on my back? I got sunburned. My skin hurts.
J: Did you put sunscreen on?
A: Yes, but you know I burn.
J: (Examining my neck and chest in the mirror) Huh, look, I did a little bit too!
A: (Looking at me, disgusted at my mentioning a faint redness [I never really burn]) You look like you're wearing a sunburn dickey!!! I look like cooked shellfish!

Okay, you win.

4. On the way home from church on Easter Sunday the following conversation went down in the backseat of the Molloy family vehicle (Aaron's parents were driving- we went to 7:15 AM mass together.)

A: I really enjoyed church today.
J: Yeah? (Hopeful that he'll want to start going regularly. "The family that prays together stays together" or so they say.)
A: Yeah! I didn't even look at my watch once!
J: (as the wind gushes out of my sails) Are you even wearing one?

3. We had Easter dinner at Aaron's parents house. The food was amazing! We had dinner out on the porch and the weather was gorgeous. Aaron's mother made the most amazing dessert and it's our favorite. We call it "the disgusting cake" because you want to eat so much of it that you feel disgusting afterward. His parents even got me an Easter basket. I haven't had an Easter basket in years :)

Hershey: Jim and Linda's "baby" (he received an Easter gift too!)

2. Aaron and I went to Coldstone Creamery for the first ice-cream of the season; we just talked and talked. It was great.

1. Late Sunday night, after a weekend of yard work and two days worth of finger swelling and discoloration Aaron, the trooper, said:

A: Geez, it sure is a good thing I wasn't born with lobster claws.

J: (in the bathroom brushing my teeth- I poked my head out of the door to determine if I really heard what I just heard) Huh?

A: (Holding up his hands) Or lived on the Enterprise, you know, Star-trek? My fingers are too swollen to do that thing- you know, let the force be with you?

J: "Let the force be with you" is Star Wars, babe. You mean the Vulcan Salute?

A: Yeah. Or I could have just had a lobster claw at birth.

J: (completely lost and almost certain my husband has gone delirious--must be sun poisoning) Well, you're red like a lobster.

                                       

A Shameless Plug

During our most recent trip to Tanglewood, in the Berkshires, we stopped at a home store called Pine Cone Hill in Lenox, MA. There I found the most delicious and luxurious lotion. It had a very soft smell of roses mixed with... I don't know what... but it honestly smelled like something I would eat. I lathered my hands from the "tester" tube and decided, due to the price, that I would "think about it." As Aaron, Matt, Nelson and I stopped for cocoa and pastries I pondered paying over $20 for a tube of lotion. Matt, my voice of reason, talked me out of it (Aaron has given up trying to talk me out of purchases.)

Since that fateful summer day last August I haven't stopped thinking about the lotion; how it smelled on my skin and how soft it made my hands. I thought about it so often, in fact, that I finally called store to ask the name of it. To my horror, they didn't remember nor did they carry any rose lotion. Finally, after extensive and exhaustive Google searches, ("rose lotion + silver tube", "lotion sold in Lenox", "French rose lotion from Pine Cone Hill") and a few purchases of lotion I thought was the lotion, I found it! It's mine and I don't have to think about it every day!

Next time I'm just going to buy the item instead of being so darn cheap. The amount of time I spent thinking about it, looking for it online, and purchasing imposter lotions I've learned a long and expensive lesson-- live with no retail regrets ;)

Photographic Friday: Happy Birthday Hilary

This picture was taken at Target right before Hilary and I went to see Remember Me the day it came out in theaters. We usually stock up on cheap goodies before every movie (don't even ask about the time we snuck a small cake into the theater...)

This day Hilary put on rabbit ears and hopped through the bunny-dollar-trail. I, on the other hand, dropped it like it was hot in a leprechaun hat that left green glitter in my hair for days.

It's Hilary's birthday tomorrow (April 3.) I don't normally blog on Saturday so, today, I wanted to give a shout out to one of my very best friends in the whole world. Hil, you're my 243 and I would be absolutely lost without you (and our one-million text message exchanges per day!) Have a great birthday weekend.

And a Happy Easter to all!