Weekend Review: Sick Sounds, Strength and Soccer

For some reason this old lady went out a lot last week. In my previous post, I told you about the Joe show I saw on Wednesday. It doesn't stop there! I went out the next evening to see A-Trak! My sister Jill turned me onto to A-Trak not too long ago. We saw him for the first time last year in Atlantic City and he knocked our socks off! Everything from his song selection, to his scratching skills and his awesome visuals make for a great show! For all of you jaded with DJ/EDM culture (although he spins more than EDM), I highly suggest you check him out! He will show you what true DJing is all about!

Here is a shot of the master at work!

They even tossed out 8-bit fatheads of him...how fun!

Barbra Streisand!

Mr. Goldbar! The mascot for his record label, Fools Gold! Did you know that you can volunteer to dress up as Mr. Goldbar at his shows? Girls can even be t-shirt tossers!

Gahhh! Being a former member of the Nat Pack I knew I could have done that, but I didn't get the memo! That was my first #FOMO moment of the evening. Wah wah. But if I did do it maybe it would have looked something like this?

 

One of the lucky people that caught one of the fatheads let me take a picture with it!

My second #FOMO moment was that I learned that he sticks around after his shows to take selfies with his fans! And again I found out too late and they wouldn't let me back in after I left. :( Despite my #FOMO moments I had the best time! As he says on his Instagram, "Go to an A-trak show!" I say, "Go to an A-trak show! You won't be disappointed!"

That wasn't the only thing I did over the weekend. On Friday my crossfit box held its first Rubicon Smackdown. The Smackdown was a friendly competition of strength between other members of the box.

I got volunteered to judge a portion of the competition. Luckily, it didn't involve counting! I judged overhead squats so you either have it or you don't! Here is Kate going for max reps!

PJ lifting a sh** ton of weight!

The Smackdown wasn't without some tasty barbecue, dessert, and brews! Check out this Rogue bottle opener!

Cheers!

Prowler pushing time!

This event also served as a farewell party for Kendra, one of our crossfit coaches. After living here for about a year, she was moving back home to Oregon! I'm really going to miss her and I'm also going to miss her taste in music! Her dubstep selections really pumped me up during my workouts!

After all those fun filled events, the rest of the weekend was low key. We checked out this sub place in NE DC called Mother Ruckers. 

And then we watched U.S. Men's Soccer Team play Portugal. #WorldCup #IBelieveThatWeWillWin (on Thursday! :).

I hope you all had a fun weekend too! Have a great rest of the week! :)



Nom Nom Nom

One thing that I have been doing a lot of this fall/winter season is eating. Yes, I know I'm paying for it since I will have to be beach body ready in a couple of months, but Lord knows I  have been enjoying the good eats!

 

Justin and I finally made it to Toki Underground the day before Thanksgiving. I can't believe as a DC local and DC area native this is my first time dining at this place. We went during the day and still had to wait (about 20 mins) for a seat. Not too bad, comparing it to the multi-hour waits on the weekend evenings. So the key is come early and come during the day if you can!

Our server (I forgot her name but she had cute purple hair!) was friendly, informative and attentive. She gave us a great description of each item. We started off with the pork dumplings which were tasty and came with a sauce that had a little heat. Note: for lunch they only do steamed, not fried dumplings. My hubby ordered the classic (which I highly recommend you order if it's your first time) with pork cheek and extra noodles and I ordered the kimchee with pork cheek because I like things spicy!

 

Sorry I didn't take too many pics. I didn't want to seem like a huge dork/fangirl...LOL...

 

When our order came out it looked as if my bowl had the extra noodles instead of my husbands. Chef Erik overheard us (we were seated at the "chef's table"--in front of the kitchen :) and gladly made my husband an extra bowl of noodles on the spot. He was super nice and chatted with us for a bit, although I was a little shy and didn't want to bother him. In hindsight I should have chatted him up about the upcoming opening of Maketto, but I digress...

Anyway, I couldn't finish the extra order of noodles I unexpectedly received, but they packed it up. Btw, they separate the noodles and the broth so when you reheat it, your noodles don't get super soggy!

Lastly, I had a little bit of room for dessert and their fresh baked cookies were delicious on a cold rainy day. They come with a red bean miso which makes for the perfect combination of salty and sweet.

Another restaurant, I dined at was Water and Wall in Arlington. It is the newest creation from the team that brought you Maple Ave. (which I love!). I went with a couple of my crossfit gals and we definitely came with our appetites! Since it was all of our first time eating at this place, we decided to try a bunch of their appetizers. One of the apps we ordered was the shrimp and grits. They were so tasty and the grits made the perfect complement to the spicy shrimp broth.

 

 

 

We also ordered the bone marrow, which goes without saying. One of my friends hadn't tried bone marrow before...boy was she in for a treat!

 

Another appetizer we ordered was the steamed mussels. They were tasty and I enjoyed the Chinese sausage in the broth. However, between the bone marrow and the mussels the three of us didn't have enough bread to enjoy all the bone marrow-y and brothy goodness. Each appetizer only came with two pieces of bread. When I asked for extra bread, the server said it would cost extra (I can't remember how much). That was kind of annoying since you figure how cheap bread is and how much we were spending. We sucked it up and ordered the extra bread.

 

Now to the entrees!

 

I got the duck confit which was divine! Perfectly crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, with the delicious layer of fat in between. Served atop Brussels sprouts it made for a filling and tasty meal (which I couldn't finish since I had stocked up on the appetizers!)

 

My friend got the beef cheek which looked really good! We shared a bit of entrees with one another, and her dish was good too!

 

My other friend went with the meatless option, the sweet potato risotto which was good, but I preferred the meat dishes!

 

Although we had ordered a ton of appetizers and entrees we still made room for dessert. We ordered the mochi (which is a standard at Maple Ave).

 

And what I think were apple fritters with vanilla ice cream. I can't remember. Either way, both desserts were wonderful and the perfect was to end a meal.

Wow, I'm getting hungry just thinking about all these delicious dishes! Do you do a lot of eating when it started to get cold? For some reason, I find it comforting to eat good food and stuff my face the minute the temperature drops ;)

Did you miss me?

Do you miss me? Now that I'm gone! LOL, for some reason my blog title made me think of this song.

Anyone remember it? I loved me some Jocelyn Enriquez back in the day and even owned the CD! #freestyle

Wow, it's been a minute since I last posted. Since I had some time in the midst of the crazy holiday season, I figured I would update you on some of the awesome things I've been up to since my last post (in October, eek!)

Well...

• Justin and I hosted out very first Friendsgiving! And had an awesome Thanksgiving with my family, too!
• I ate at a bunch of delicious places...
• We did some stuff around the house! Got our floors upstairs refinished and got an energy audit of our house, too!

These next couple weeks I'll be updating you on some things that happened in the past, some unfinished posts, and other miscellany. We'll just call them the "lost files." For some reason or another, these are topics I just never got around to writing or posting until now.

Yes, it's old news, but it's new news to you, right? Stay tuned!

#Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving

While at the bars one night (isn't that where the best decisions are made), Natasha and I thought it would be fun to have a Thanksgiving for friends (aka: Friendsgiving). So with a little planning and a Facebook invite sent, we had a good sized shindig at Casa de Brioni!

 

Since I have no culinary skills whatsoever, Natasha graciously offered to cook the turkey I had bought! ;) She did a superb job--brining it and everything!

 

 

Homemade pumpkin pies!

 

What a spread! Not bad for a group of 20-somethings...and a couple of 30-somethings ;)

 

Ian carving up the turkey! #likeaboss

 

Judy cutting up the porcetta!

 

 

We had over twenty people over at our lil' place so we had to spread out. Some of us were in the living room...

 

Grabbing a seat wherever!

 

And then another group of us were in the dining room. Times like this I wish we had an open concept home or more space!

 

In any case I love having my friends together!

 

Here I am!

 

Real Thanksgiving was good too! This year it was at my family's (Justin and I alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas between Maryland and Kentucky).

 

Dad carving up the turkey

 

The family spread with a mix of both American and Filipino food!

 

So that's what I did back in November...many moons ago. What about you guys? Do you have a Friendsgivng? If not, do you do any other fun holiday celebration with friends such a cookie exchange or white elephant?

Weekend Review: Food and Football

Hello everyone! Long time no see! I know it's been about a month since I last posted, so my activity level on this blog has been looking a little something like this:

Unfortunately my work blocked blogger (the blog writing website I use) which prevents me from writing and reviewing my posts in a timely manner. How annoying! Don't you hate it when work gets in the way of things? LOL, I kid, but I'll try to post at least once a week despite this setback. 

This past weekend was one of the few weekends we were in town so we opted to make the best of our time at home since we would be traveling again in a couple of weeks. This weekend also happened to be the first time I wasn't able to score tickets to Virgin Mobile Freefest which was kind of a bummer. But on the bright side, I already saw two of the acts Vampire Weekend and Kaskade earlier this year. Oh, well maybe next time.

Anyway, I started off my weekend bright and early at 8am (!!) on Saturday morning with a strength class at my box. I usually don't do crossfit on the weekends since my box is kind of far from my house (It is right next door to my job which is why I go after work). I made an exception this time because it was a strength focused class (i.e.: bench press, skull crushers, etc.), unlike a typical WOD. I definitely want to go again...if I can get my butt up early enough! ;)

After working out Justin and I went to the Tyson's Bagel Market for some breakfast sandwiches. I got my favorite, lox and cream cheese with all the fixings and Justin got a sausage, egg and cheese. They were both on everything bagels of course!

After our filling breakfast, we had to head home to get ready to go to the Maryland-West Virginia Football game. After swinging by my parents' place to grab the tickets and dropping off the boys we were on our way to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. 

The hyped up student section on the far right. Oh, to be young again...

The first pic we took together before the torrential downpour. As you can see by my perfectly fluffed bangs it hadn't started to rain hard yet...

My Terps about ready to score...

Touchdown!

During halftime, Justin was mesmerized by the male baton twirler, but in all honesty he was really good!

Another shot of us, now completely drenched in a nearly empty stadium after everyone was seeking cover.

After a rousing 37-0 shutout victory, Justin and I headed back to pick up the Frenchies from my parents' place, but not before grabbing some grub to celebrate the win. We hadn't been to Wing Stop in a while so we figured we should check it out while we were in the area. 

The french fries (lightly dusted with cinnamon sugar) and parmesan wings.

The lemon pepper wings (our favorite!)

And the mild buffalo wings (I compromised for Justin 'cause I usually like it hot! :)

Whew! After a meal like that you know I gotta get back on plan on Monday! I hope you all had a good weekend, too!