Birthday Things

I turned 24 last Tuesday.  Please save all age-related comments and jokes for someone else as I think I’ve already heard them all.  Someone told me I looked like I was in high school (yeah, yeah I know), someone told me “soon you’ll be able to drive and start thinking about boys” and someone else congratulated me on finally turning 21.  I know a bunch of comedians, you guys!

Anyways, all jokes aside, I had a fabulous birthday and I feel so spoiled by my amazing family and friends.  Thank you all for making me feel loved!  I’ll try not to make this post too wordy (too late?) but I wanted to share some pictures of all the fun celebrating that went on.

IMG_4034

Joey got me some fun glass straws to fuel my iced coffee addiction.  I have a glass every morning and had been going through plastic straws like nobody’s business.  He also got me an awesome pair of Sam Edelman flats…that I already own.  It’s the thought that counts 🙂

IMG_4037

My dear sweet mother could not handle the idea of not seeing me on my actual birthday (we went out with my family this past weekend to celebrate) and I’m convinced she made a whole red velvet cake just as excuse to deliver it — with my dad in tow — to my office and see me.  No complaints here!  This baby was GONE 24 hours later.  At least everyone at work had the common sense to leave me the last piece.

IMG_4046

I asked my closest friends to join me for a little birthday get together that night.  As I was perusing Yelp! for a good place to go, I came across Machete Tequila + Tacos and that’s all I needed to hear.  I was sold.

IMG_4048

Their margaritas were serious!  Okay, I’m a total light-weight, but I found them to be really strong.  Delicious, but strong.  Joey ordered the “Hot Mess” and it was spicy.  We placed an order of 12 tacos — 2 each — and every single one of us cleared our plates.  I’d say that’s a success.

IMG_4049

IMG_4047

Joey ordered a beef tongue taco.  BEEF TONGUE.  I must have had too much tequila at this point because I actually tasted it.  You know when you accidentally bite your own tongue?  Yeah that’s how it felt to eat that taco.  Never again.  How cool is the squid ink tortilla though?  I played it safe with a grilled shrimp and pulled pork taco.  Tacos are my life.

IMG_4044

Our waitress brought out a complimentary birthday shot and I forced all the girls to also get one.  No one wants to take a shot by themselves!

IMG_4077

Birthday celebrations continued through the weekend, with dinner on Friday and Sunday night.  Lori treated us to burgers and beer at Park Burger on Friday evening.  Afterwards, we ooh’ed and ahh’ed over beautifully historic Denver homes that cost over a million dollars (seriously, we went home and looked) before heading home.

Sunday involved dinner at the Med.  I’m pretty sure I’ve said all there is to say about my love for this place so I’ll just say that we ordered 6 plates of tapas, entrees and two desserts and now I’m never eating again.

I think we can finally put my birthday to rest.  Till next year anyways.

Weekend Things

Ahoy!

Oh, sorry.  Confession: every Sunday at 9 AM I sit down and watch Sandwich King on Food Network.  I watched Jeff Mauro win Next Food Network Star and I find him to be so much fun.  Plus his 4-year-old son Lorenzo (seriously, that’s his name)?  Adorable!  Anyways, I’m watching as I [start to] write this post and it’s all about seafood sandwiches (crab cake sliders, yes please!), hence the “ahoy.”

IMG_3895

Other highlights of the weekend included my second trip to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.  This time with my mom and my sister.  We planned on picnic-ing in the grass before the play started, but it started raining right as we parked, so a car picnic it was!  We all picked out our own dinners at the Boulder Whole Foods beforehand — oh hey, sister’s employee discount — and it was CA-RAZY in there!  I can’t believe how many people go grocery shopping on a Friday night.  Or maybe that’s just health-food-loving Boulderites.

IMG_3879

IMG_3896

My mom forced me to get this soda and it was horrible!  It seriously tasted like carbonated cough medicine.

As luck would have it, the rain stopped right as we finished our picnic.  Sidenote: it rains every.single.time. I go to the Shakespeare Festival.  It’s usually just a sprinkle, but still, what are the odds of that?  We saw Macbeth and I was pretty excited as I’ve only ever seen comedies in the past.  I was ready to see how the CSF handled something darker.

IMG_3894

Look at the Koi and the cute little turtle swimming at University Pond.

My two cents: I really did not enjoy the new direction the CSF took this year by modernizing the plays.  All the lines stayed the same but Macbeth, for instance, was set in a more-modern-day Afghanistan.  I think they were trying to make the plays more relevant.  Well call me old-fashioned but I liked going to the CSF in the past so I could be transported back to Shakespeare’s time.

IMG_3889

About three-quarters of the way through the play, the wind really picked up and there was some crazy lightening.  I thought it was really adding to the play, but the CSF crew seemed to think it was a little unsafe so they sent us inside.  About 15 minutes later, they called it and we headed home 😦

IMG_3898

IMG_3903

We had almost nothing planned on Saturday and I can honestly tell you, I couldn’t have been happier about it.  Instead, I got to lounge around and watch TV, enjoy a relaxing facial, go shopping and cook up a delicious homemade pizza.  We also happened upon a tiny (and pretty disappointing) Farmers’ Market right by our place.  I was hoping to find some good cherries, but instead I had to go to Whole Foods and spend much more than was probably necessary to get some Rainier cherries.  In my humble opinion, they are the best.

IMG_3912

Saturday ended with S’mores!  We had graham crackers, Hershey’s chocolate and marshmallows, we just didn’t have a campfire.  But you know, sometimes you just have to make do, so we may or may not have taken apart our grill to be able to toast the marshmallows.  Can we all agree that the charred marshmallow is the best part and the overwhelmingly chocolatey Hershey’s square is the worst?  I have a feeling any chocoholic readers out there are now questioning my sanity.

IMG_3919

This picture pretty much sums up Sunday — aside from me watching Sandwich King, of course.  When you purchase the warning track suite, they automatically give you 8 tickets for another game in one of the suites, so this was our view for the game.  Not too shabby, eh?  Unfortunately we lost — although our catcher didn’t seem to notice, as Joey just read a tweet he wrote about winning the game — but it was still a nice place to spend the day.  

One last thing: Happy July!  Can you believe it’s here already?

*****************************

What did you do this weekend?

What’s your favorite part of a S’more?

Do you have any 4th of July plans?