14 weddings down, 269 left to go

we spent last weekend in florida for the wedding of our friends, isaac wardell & megan roderick. it was an awesome weekend. but can i just say that florida is HOT! and bright. the sun was piercing my eyeballs all the way into the back of my brain. i devoted most of my time to the application and reapplication of sunscreen, and then the rest of my time scampering from one piece of shade to the next.

putting all my whining aside, we had a GREAT time with all our friends. it was a beautiful wedding and everything came together so well. i took a few pictures with my iPhone, but none of them came out very well. if your a facebook user/junkie i posted a couple of shots, all very hazy.

and there's another wedding this weekend. my boss' youngest brother is getting married, and my brother-in-law, Gabe, is one of the groomsmen. and after that, we have a little hiadus on the wedding circuit until the BIG (cue wedding march music) wedding in october, when ben's baby brother, my only brother-in-law, will be marrying the love of his life, libby warren. that's going to be a good one. i'm already predicting, it'll be in top-five weddings of all time.

date night: a walk, dinner, a movie, and, yes, some crying

no, ben didn't make me cry. the movie did. we moseyed around town last night on foot, ending up at the Bijou theatre to see the 9:55 showing of Pixar's new movie, "Up." [my parents: does this clip remind you of anyone you know?]

so i shed some tears during the animated feature film. i feel a little less foolish crying over the heartfelt sequence featuring the hero and the love of his life meeting, falling in love, getting married, growing old, etc, than the crying i did over Wall-E. (yes, i cried over a couple of robots and a cockroach. what can i say? i'm a sensitive gal.)

but first we hit the pavement and headed to Coolidge Park for some sushi at Sushi Nabe (best sushi in Chattanooga), only to discover they were closed for no apparent reason. so we walked another 10 steps and ended up at the Mud Pie for some "monkey-hips-and-rice" and a glass of wine. well, that's what i had anyway. ben had the much more manly "chicken kiev" and a beer. i had forgotten how much i love the monkey-hips. it's essentially a plate of deliciously seasoned rice & black beans, covered with smoked kielbasa sausage, melted jack cheese, salsa, green onions, sour cream and some addictive chemical that forced me eat the whole plate. the key to this dish: the kilebasa & cheese. those two things together make mama's palate happy. the smokiness of the sausage really is a delight.

we love this place. it's a funky, cool restaurant, the interior walls covered with these strange painted portraits. it has everything from booth seating to tall communal tables (built to give one the ability to overhear your neighbors conversation). wednesday is apparently "cuban day," so designated when the new cuban owners bought the restaurant a couple of years ago. (they offer a cuban special on wednesdays to make it legit.) there's also karaoke fridays, and open mic night on saturdays. the food is fun and quirky, and always delicious. example: thai pizza with chicken, pineapple, red bell pepper & peanut sauce. we almost ordered this since we're thai food fiends, but that smoked kielbasa i just couldn't pass up. they do have a regular section of the menu devoted to cuban food as well.

it also reminded ben & i that thursdays are 1/2 price wine , which we had completely forgotten about. it used to be a favorite of ours & our friends (all 1.2 of them). i think we might head back over there tonight for some vino.

oh, and i forgot to mention: Up was awesome! go see it!

a-driaaaannn!!

i was giving ben a hard time for his lack of enthusiasm when it came time to pose with the rocky statue in downtown philadelphia. of course, i was probably a little OVER enthusiastic about the whole thing, so who can blame him? i had the theme song running through my head as we trekked our way through the city this last weekend. i think i did a little shadow-boxing as well, because, well, i am that big of a nerd (i blame my parents).

the reason we were in philly: a surprise birthday party for my college friend, bethy, the whole thing orchestrated by her very sweet husband, gideon (that's them in the picture below with the philadelphia skyline in the background). it was an awesome weekend. ben & i are both huge fans of the city of brotherly love now. i saw like 14 ben franklins roaming around the city. apparently the balding mullet is back in style!

a favorite find of ours this weekend: a restaurant called Tria down in Rittenhouse Square. i am still craving the truffled egg toast with fontina cheese and arugula. aMAZing! i'll include a picture for your salivary glands to drool over. mine keep reminiscing over the moment i cut into that egg yolk and it spilled down the sides of the thick slice of brioche toast. it was a beautiful thing.

we also happened to be there on the weekend of the annual art star craft bazaar down on penn's landing. it was awesome. tons of local and regional artists brought their wares to hock to the masses, all of them beautiful hand-made goodies. it was etsy.com on parade. i stole a few ideas for crafty things that you might receive as a present from me sometime in the future.

it was a great weekend. old friends, good company, good conversation & our new favorite city.