Ryan's Birthday Weekend

Last weekend, Ryan and I celebrated his birthday by going out to a nice dinner in Cambridge and then going to Cape Cod until Sunday evening. We had so much fun, and it was so nice to get away from everything for an entire weekend. We discovered that we need to spend more quality time together like that.

Friday night, Ryan and I went to a restaurant called Craigie on Main in downtown Cambridge. The food there was unlike anything I've ever tasted before! It was a little on the expensive side, but we were celebrating, and Ryan has wanted to go there for a very long time since it had perfect reviews. I seriously HAVE to share what we ate... it was all amazing and so unique!

My amuse bouche was pickled cucumbers on a radish puree. My first course was grilled octopus... which was by the way the best thing I've ever eaten in my life, hands down. I even let Ryan have more than I usually would share since it was his birthday! My second course was sea bass that came with a few mussels and clams... oh my gosh SO amazing. I also ordered grilled wild mushrooms that were hand picked in New Hampshire by the restaurant's foragers. For dessert, I had sorbet... 3 scoops (cherry, strawberry and mango) of sorbet that they make right there from fresh in-season fruit. Yummy!

Ryan's amuse bouche was duck.. even though it was small, he said it was the best thing he's eaten! His first course was blood sausage and pasta. I was really grossed out to hear they made sausage made of blood, but eh, he said it tasted really good. Ryan's second course was grilled swordfish wrapped in pork, with a side of... wait for it... bone marrow. The waitress said it was unique and something he had to try, and so he did. Since she said it was brought out with toast to spread it on, we thought it'd be presented in a dish or something. But nope... they brought out the whole bone, the size of my forearm, sliced in half with the bone marrow seasoned. It wasn't cooked, just warmed and sprinkled with herbs. Ryan said it tasted like beef flavored butter, and he was glad he got it, but wouldn't get it again. I was thoroughly grossed out.

His dessert was some kind of frozen pie thing. All I remember is that there was bacon in the crust so I couldn't get it. He said it was the single best dessert he has ever had. And this guy has had his share of desserts! For anyone in the area, we would HIGHLY recommend Craigie on Main!

Saturday morning, we headed off to Cape Cod. We went to West Dennis Beach, which was absolutely beautiful and quiet (compared to the Rhode Island beaches we are used to going to). After the day at the beach, we checked into our hotel, showered and got ready, and then went to dinner. We went to a little place on Main Street in Hyannis. It's your typical Cape Cod shopping street... little seashell themed shops, ice cream parlors, salt water taffy stores, and cigar shops. Oh, and before this weekend, Ryan thought Cape Cod was an actual town. Kind of like how he thought Disney World was one park. It's really cute how he thinks :)

Saturday night, we went up the Cape to Rock Harbor in Orleans, MA. It's right above where the Cape bends upwards, and is one of the few places on the East Coast that you can see the sunset over the ocean (since the sun sets in the West... Rob and Jen in L.A. must see the sun set a lot!). This was rated one of the top sunset locations in New England, so we HAD to check it out! It was beautiful... we took so many pictures, and the pictures can't even capture the beautiful colors of the sky. It's right on the Harbor, so boats were coming in while the sun was setting. In the pictures you can kinda see some of the trees in the water that were planted as guides for the boats to come into the harbor.

Sunday was a beach day too, but it was so hot that we decided to leave early. Okay, this is how hot it was. Ryan had burnt one of his shoulders on Saturday, so he wore his shirt for a little while before we left on Sunday. The tag on his shirt he was wearing was the kind that was printed on the fabric. The tag from his shirt MELTED onto his skin!

It was such a great weekend! We live SO close to the Cape that we plan to go a lot from now on. In the fall, the rates go down a ton, so we want to go a lot then. The Cape is beautiful when the leaves are changing colors and the weather isn't really hot... I love where I live :)

Working for the weekend

It's Ryan's birthday this Saturday, and I have a fabulous weekend planned! He knows about it, so I can say all this :)

Friday night we are going into Cambridge for dinner at Craigie on Main, a restaurant that Ryan has wanted to go to for a long time.

Then, Saturday morning we are heading over to Cape Cod since we live so close! We will spend the day at the beach and then stay overnight and come home Sunday evening after another beach day!

We are definitely looking forward to getting away together, even if it's just for a night. We have been so crazy busy lately with wedding stuff and family stuff that we haven't had a weekend to ourselves in such a long time! AND Ryan's never been to Cape Cod before... GASP! I went every year growing up and it's a place I am very excited to show Ryan. I will be sure to post pictures and give details when we get back!

All gone and SO happy!

Our flies are all gone :) Just thought I'd share!

We found out they were living in our garbage disposal, and no matter how much we bleached and cleaned it, they kept coming out! So we kept the disposal covered and eventually they went away!

Here's some pictures I took before that I forgot to upload, since I know you're all just soooo looking forward to seeing pictures of fruit flies haha

Ask.com told me to put out a glass of sweet wine so they would fly into it and drown. It didn't work... don't try it. You can actually see a fly on the paper towels behind the wine haha

I also read online to put out a bowl of soapy water. This DID work!!!
This is disgusting... They were attracted to our pitcher for some reason, so I moved it into the sink. I even ran it through the dishwasher and they liked it after that too! This was only a small portion of the number of fruit flies we had... sign. I'm so glad they're gone!

Unwanted guests

We have an infestation of fruit flies in/around our kitchen sink and kitchen window. They have also moved into our bathroom (we have never had fruit in there...).

It says online that fruit flies come from rotting fruit on the counter, wet sponges, and flowers. We had all of those at the same time a week ago, around when these flies "moved in". We had strawberry tops in the garbage disposal that may not have gotten chopped up all the way, yes my sponge gets wet sometimes, and I had a vase of lilies (my fav flower) by the sink!

I have tried it all over the past week... cups of vinegar and wine with hole-poked saran wrap on the cups, glasses of white wine, bowls of soapy water, etc. I have seriously become like a jungle woman, where I see a fruit fly and I can catch it in my fist!

I'm really a clean person! Since our new roommates have arrived, I have bleached everything in my kitchen, including my garbage disposal. The average life span of a fruit fly is ten days, but these things are multiplying like crazy! I will go to bed having smashed all of them, and then when I wake up there are 10+ more fruit flies in the sink.

We went to the management of our apartment, but they just sent up this foreign man who didn't know English, and we killed the flies together with fly swatters for 45 minutes and bonded over non-verbal violence.

... Any advice? :(

Biggest Fear

During the car ride home from Connecticut today...

Ryan: What's your biggest fear about the future?
Me: (Thinking)... Financially?
Ryan: No, just anything.
Me: (Thinking some more)... Having someone close to me die.
Ryan: Can I be honest?
Me: Ya..
Ryan: That's going to happen.
Me: Ya, it sucks having a biggest fear that's inevitable.

Welcome to our home!

Here are just a few pictures of where we now are living...

Views from our apartment:

Our bedroom:

Our guest bedroom:

oh. my. gosh.

So it's been a really long time since I've gotten on here and blogged. Here is what has happened since the last time you heard from me:

1. Long story short, the creepy old Mexican man who lived above us was harassing us and threatened to kill us. Needless to say, we left that night in a hurry and didn't return to our apartment without a police officer. Why they only questioned the guy, I do not know. But good news, he is being evicted along with his chain smoker girlfriend.

2. We had nowhere to live for about 2 weeks so we spent a few days in Connecticut and then the rest we stayed with Bev and the Herb family (Bev's fiance, his mom, and his brothers). Bev let us sleep in her bed, while she shared a bed with her future mother-in-law, bless her heart.

3. We moved into a new apartment. Goodbye beautiful wooden 1 bedroom apartment with psycho man upstairs, hello lovely ocean-front 2 bedroom apartment with no psycho man upstairs!

4. Track ended :( But Lauren, the other assistant coach, and I are besties, so it's all good.

5. Maddie and I threw Bev's shower and it was a success! It got everyone, especially Bev, wicked pumped for the wedding! (It's on July 16th, BTW).

6.Our apartment is FINALLY all moved in! Right now it's a mess so I will take pictures soon and post them!

7. Oh, and I got an iPhone, so it's become a hassle to physically turn on my computer and do anything I can't do on my phone. It's really bad, actually.

8. Justin and Bailey came up this weekend to visit! Justin took us all out to do some really fun things.. Friday night we went to the Sox game, and Saturday we went on a whale watch! Here's pictures! I hope you can figure out for yourselves which is a picture of which:

Okay, so I didn't get any pictures of whales because I was sick. But that's Boston as we were leaving the harbor! I love my new home :)

9. I had no idea I left my blog with an ugly blue background. Ugh.. I'm going to quickly try to make this blog look nice!