Snippets of the weekend 10.16.2023

Friday I did school dropoff and pickup for my niece and nephew, with showering and a work trip to Swarthmore in between. I browsed my work BFF's favorite store for a magic pin and some other treasures, and she gave me my birthday gift. After school pickup we went to the Halloween store, and to Friendly's for dinner, back to my house to watch a movie, then on home to theirs. 

Saturday was lounging, laundry, lazy because it was raining. It cleared up in time for Brenna & Nick's wedding sail on the Delaware. Loved the costume party and the super cool skull thing they made themselves! I got zero photos of them aside from one on the table. It was nice to see everyone.

Mrs. Roper era in full effect.

Good times and home by 11!

Sunday I was back in Old City to pick a few things up from my office before heading home to clear surfaces in the kitchen and dining room, cut up veggies, and lounge and read.

weekending reels on Instagram - current favorite weekend look back mode.

Snippets of the weekend 11.14.2022

Friday I finished a book before work, checked out bathroom hanging progress a la MFD, hit the grocery store, took a very wet walk on the beach with the best friend dogs, and had a netflix & chill for real night with MFD & Chris. We ordered pizza, watched Killer Sally and The Office and some weird ass Check it Out show, and I made a zillion pounds of taco meat.

Saturday I hit Target, painted my nails, made mexican stuffed shells, slaw for shrimp tacos, and shrimp for shrimp tacos, and spent a few on the beach until Ben wriggled out of his harness and made an ass of himself. Ruiners! Friendsgiving commenced soon after with taco bar, White House hoagies, and laughs as always. Good friends & good times. Please teach your kids the value of forever friends that grow with you - you don't need to see each other every day or talk every day as adults, but they are always there, and they have known you through all of your formative years and all the people you have been. It's irreplaceable. 

Slide into Sunday with the Leslies and Sannellis was rudely halted when I realized the wedding we were attending started at 4 and not 5 as I thought. Hauled ass out of the shore, home to Philly to change and scrounge a card, and off to Washington Crossing for our sixth and final wedding celebration of 2022. Congratulations Billy & Kristina! Food was delicious, our table company was great, and everything was beautiful. 

We were home by 9 and I was dead asleep on the couch not moving all night by 10. 

weekending reels on Instagram 

Busy week ahead for work & personal - let's goooooooo

Happy happy birthday to my good friend Melissa today!

snippets of the weekend 11.7.2022

Friday was a stunner. I spent lunch on the porch and we walked down to the beach after work, then rode bikes to try Chelsea Pizza on Asbury. Packed up, cleaned up, and read at night while MFD watched TV.

Saturday morning I picked up the main house a bit and checked in on the bathroom - it should be done today, with our guy coming back to do final touches and re-hangs, changed the sheets, packed the car, took the best friend dogs on a beach walk, and drove back to Philly at 10:30 talking to Laura for most of the way. Back there I started laundry and painted my nails (Zoya Autumn and OPI Bring out the Big Gems).

We headed in to Philly with a pit stop at my office to pick something up before Vie for Caitlin & Thor's wedding. It was nice to spend time with the Uptown family and many people I have not seen in quite a while. Everything was happy, twinkly, and beautiful - love this picture of Caitlin before she walked down the aisle. 

We got home around midnight and I woke up at 6:30 Sunday. We were going to go back to the shore but I didn't feel like doing the back and forth. I did a few loads of laundry; went through my winter clothes, my dresser, and shoes (still have to do the closet); got DD coffee and a few groceries; visited my favorite neighborhood foliage; pulled stuff out of the freezer; made a broccoli egg bake for this week's breakfasts and spaghetti for dinner with veggie meat sauce from the freezer; read half of a book

In addition to snippets here, I've been doing weekending reels on Instagram if you are interested. 

For the love of all that is holy please vote tomorrow

snippets of the weekend 10.24.2022

Kicked off Friday with a sunrise walk and a half day of work before loading Ben & Billy up and ripping through South Philly to do an IKEA pickup before finishing out the workday in Philly. I also returned some shit from the company party last weekend, threw a pizza from Aldi in the oven, and stayed up late finishing a book. 

MFD inadvisably stayed at the shore, which stressed me out. We made it on time about  45 min away to my dear friend Beth's wedding which was in a lovely hall with excellent food, good playlist, beautiful brides, lots of smiles and authentic joy, mismatched china and vintage table cloths which is my favorite type of table scape, and immaculate wedding energy while we spent some time with the work fam. And the flowers and table books. Loved. 

We timed the day to a T, motoring out so MFD could pick up a Jersey at my brother's and get to his evening festivities with the Sixers at 6 in a packed ass South Philly with that and the Phillies game. I did a run through HomeGoods and settled on the couch to watch Season 3 of the Derry Girls in its entirety. It will never be enough. Phillies game check-ins.

I woke up Sunday and set about reorganizing and sorting things in the dining room and batch cooking, all of which came to a screeching halt mid-mess as sinus-related vertigo reared and I literally could  not stand due to dizziness and nausea. I swear Mae is an empath, she was not well either. Careful movement and couch for the rest of the day, which is where we watched the Phillies clinch the NLCS. A fair amount of years and a far cry from our bar-tour throughout the 2008 post-season LOL. 

In addition to snippets here, I've been doing weekending reels on Instagram if you are interested. 

I'm not a super fan of any team or sport, but I do love some red October baseball and athletes who do well in Philly because they understand what Philly is about. Those professionals are immediately recognizable even to us non super fan fans. I enjoy most anything that brings a lot of collective joy. I do not love when "real fans" feel the need to pee on the bushes to mark their territory as true fans versus those showing an interest now. My dudes, there is sincerely not an individual reward system for who is the biggest/longest/most die hard fan and it's a drain on the thumping energy the City/area is enveloped in and the players feed off of in a time like this. Just have a good time and enjoy it.

But I digress. Happy Monday!

Snippets of the long weekend 9.7.2022

MFD turned 45 Thursday! We went out on a boat (his choice obvi) and I did not vomit in the bay. I did ask to get dropped off early though. 

I also got a manicure and pedicure and did some time-sensitive work organization there, picked a wine for a work event (Two Vintners), looked up drone info for a project (click here), and researched funding for start ups for a friend. We hit our beach for a little over an hour, then showered and went to dinner at the Tuckahoe Inn, a favorite of ours. 

Wedding Day for my brother Sean and Nicole on Friday, so we made a work errand for me pit stop in Margate then drove up to Philly. My vertigo was activated from the Thursday boat ride but thankfully I got it under control. We picked up Aub and headed to Malvern. We had a great time! Table 17! Hit the hotel for a bit after then back to Philly.

We were meant to leave for the shore at 8:30 but pharmacy hours were against us, then MFD mowed the lawn, and we hit ridiculous traffic. Finally got to the shore near 1 and did a late beach day - love lingering in that late light - and Aubrey ran the Boardwalk Blind Pizza Taste Test at night. Jared and Stephen were the pizza runners. This year's winner: NY Pizza at the OC Promenade. Roma was second and Manco third.

Sunday a long hot beach day and driveway party with the annual charcoal Great American Smokeout and games a la our activities director Carol - marshmallow gun not included. We had a great time as usual, and it was great to have Amanda, Eva, and Frank come back from the beach for the driveway party too.

More beach Monday including a boat beached by the Music Pier and a drive by beeping and boating by the Commodore (MFD). Stephen, Aub, Jared, and the kids took off Monday, and we did Boyars and porch. There was a shitload of rain Tuesday, when I was also off. We thank it for waiting out the weekend. Dad and Carol and I went to Kessel's for lunch and had a good laugh over being submerged. I had some HVAC quotes and service come through then drove back to Philly.

In addition to snippets here, I've been doing weekending reels on Instagram if you are interested. 

I read a terrible book most of the weekend and my Kindle was back in Philly so no reads. I started one this morning that was infinitely better. 

TWTW - the one with the wedding

Friday It was just me and Mae at the shore, and good thing as she is an in and out bathroom dog and it was frigid Friday. I returned books to the library and hit the beach during lunch to find a sea of dead horseshoe crabs up at the tideline. Insides frozen as you can see. I painted my nails all one color for once - OPI Turn Bright After Sunset - made dinner (salmon, baby potatoes, and brussels), purged and organized my bathroom lotions and potions, and finished a book.

Saturday Up, showered, and masking face and eyes by 9. I was back in Philly by 1 and putting makeup on by 3...I actually had to buy a palette to use since the only thing I have left is mascara and lipstick. I threw everything else out throughout the pandemic. I don't even have an eyeshadow brush left I had to wing it LOL

We picked up Stephen & Aubrey then headed to the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve to celebrate Dana and Alex's wedding. What a lovely place, I had no idea it was even there. There was a gorgeous sunset as we were walking in, and it's always nice to have a banger sunset on your wedding day, right? A good omen for sure. The food was delicious and on the dessert side, lord the funnel cake fries...and I am not even a funnel cake person. Everything was beautiful, especially the bride, and we had a lot of fun with the fam. We got facetime with some people in the fall at the shower, but it was especially nice to see Carol's parents and those we didn't see at the shower because we haven't seen them in a pandemic while. MFD was burning up his dancing shoes at the after party. We got home around 12. 

Sunday I hit Aldi around noon and we had pizza and salad for lunch. After doing some laundry I was back to the shore and arrived in time to meet up with a handyman to get a quote on some  nuisance items I want done hopefully before June. I took all the dogs to the beach after, had Wawa for dinner, and watched The Great British Baking Show at night. I also finished the day reading a different book than the one I started with, which was a do not finish for me. 

Out two weekends in a row in January feels like flying close to the sun.

Have a good week!

We're going all out for 11

When it comes to weddings and marriages, I'm not a traditionalist so I'm not surprised I love our wedding eve photos more than our wedding photos, which is a lot because I love those too. But wedding eve photos from our photographer Lil and a few from Jenn are what you see here today. I feel like I got to enjoy the 9/24/2010 wedding eve more than the 9/25/2010 wedding day. Today, 11 years ago, we headed to Ocean City to take photos just me and MFD in literally all the boardwalk spots we frequent now that we semi-live here. I loved that. 

We took pics with our people on Strathmere beaches before doing a quick rehearsal at the Deauville.

My in-laws hosted a big spaghetti dinner at my request at their rental, which had a big ass yard that was perfect. MFD and some others went out, but I went back to our rental, let the dogs out on the beach and we stood out there for a bit, and went to bed. 

I loved that day, so much. Our wedding day was great too, but it was really the whole weekend for me and wedding eve was a huge part of it. It's the unsung hero that gets no love.

As you have surmised from this, tomorrow is our 11th anniversary. I don't mean to brag, but I'm going to. Since tomorrow is our 11th wedding anniversary, this month we are together for 20 fucking years, and we've known each other for 31 years...we went all out this year. 

I got MFD a root canal and possible extraction thanks to my health savings account. With a little help from nails too close to the sidewall, he got me two new tires on my new to me car that we have only had for two fucking months. And as a joint gift, we splurged on an emergency vet visit for Mae and are going to follow up with some sure to be pricey as fuck dental work for her trash mouth. We might top it off with some ramen for dinner tomorrow, and I don't mean fancy photographable pho, I mean Maruchen. The traditional 11th anniversary gift is steel but unfortunately since I am not a traditionalist as stated above, I did not steel myself for these. 

I definitely struck obey from the wedding vows, but we did keep for richer or poorer. And we know where this particular anniversary lands. 

In all seriousness, we are fortunate enough to be able to cover undesirable unexpected expenses even when they pile on each other in a quite rude fashion and we've weathered another year of good, bad, and everything in between together with our people by our side minus an important few no longer with us. And we really cannot ask for anything else in this life. 

Here's this year's collage of photos of us from every month of the last year - see this anniversary collage in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. 2020. 

L-R: 

1) September 25 - last year's anniversary we ate at a restaurant for the first time since March, Ike's outside on the boardwalk. 

2) October - my cousin Kristine's wedding

3) November - A warm day on the beach with just Gus

4) December - New Year's Even warm walk on the beach, the first time we've spent New Year's at the shore

5) January - Our usual photo is New Year's Day, always...except when there is no parade due to a global pandemic

6) February - Snow on the beach

7) March - the joy of working from home together for a year at this point

8) April - Warm day on the south end

9) May - We are voters, and when we can we vote together

10) June - This day was windy AF so we retreated and had lunch instead

11) July - Spent the Fourth weekend at the lake with Lori & Jack

12) August - Skyline Drive in Vermont

13) September - Double headbands, a rare occurrence, and in a who wore it better contest of headbands, I lose every time

Happy 11th Anniversary Eve, MFD. Thanks for the expensive gifts. 

And happy birthday to Amanda tomorrow!

And happy weekend to the rest of you!

2020.