I Suck At The Burlington Mall

On Saturday, Karen, my two year old daughter (Briana), my ten month old daughter (Bridget) and I took a nice scenic trip to Burlington. What's in Burlington? I have no idea outside of the Burlington Mall. Too bad I suck at the Burlington Mall.

On the agenda: meeting up with our friend (Renee) who recently became a mother. It's a good thing the Burlington Mall is centrally located between Norwell and Lynn, where Renee lives. (It's not.)

Regardless, I would have to say I quite enjoyed the food court at the Burlington Mall. We tried the Appleseed Crepe and Bread. I have never eaten there before, but they have very delicious crepes. In fact, after having them on Saturday, I am tempted to make crepes at home.

I think the last time I made a crepe was back in high school, and that was only because we were having a fete (party) in French club. Yes, I was in the French club. I was in the Spanish and Latin clubs too, although I didn't know a lick of either language. Essentially, I signed up for each club because the sign up process usually involved some sort of food-filled party. And of course, I didn't limit myself to just the language clubs. If any club had food, I was there.

Anyway, Appleseed... delicious. They have this nutella/banana crepe... Yum! Briana devoured most of that too. Luckily, she spent most of her time at the mall running around the germ-infested play area to burn off the crepe. As a side note, there are a lot of parents who don't watch their kids in the play area. It's scary.

The only other highlight from the mall excursion was that Karen and I... and probably two other cars... got to witness a hit and run of sorts. Some woman was trying to back out of her spot. Well... she did back out of her spot. In fact, she kept backing up... so much so that she bumped into the parked car across from her. And then she drove off like nothing happened. It's like she didn't even know she hit another car. That was quickly followed by one of the other cars who also witnessed the woman immediately cutting me off to a spot (which was odd because that car not only did not have the right of way, but was right next to a vacant spot... but whatever.) Driving madness at the Burlington mall.

I Suck At Panera Bread

I suck at Panera Bread. It's not that I think the place is terrible or anything. I just don't think to go there that often. As luck would have it, that changed today when my friends (Renee, Christine, and Christine's mom) came down for a visit.

Renee, Christine, and Christine's mom graciously brought lunch from Panera. For anyone curious, I had the steak balsamico. Yum! Unfortunately, Christine has informed me that the steak balsamico will no longer be on the menu soon. Oh well. The panini was good while it lasted.

Regardless, it was good to see them. For anyone curious, Renee is pregnant and is due sometime in August. Apparently, she wants to arrange a marriage between her unborn child and my newborn daughter (Bridget). Luckily for her, the marriage would still be considered legal should Renee have a girl here in Massachusetts.

Among the other topics of discussion was Tupperware. Christine was roped into having a Tupperware party, which naturally got Karen all excited because Karen's family is a Tupperware family.

Shortly after their brief visit, the only other highlight of the day was my trip to Rite Aid. Today was the last day of the sale in which Rite Aid was providing a store coupon for a Playtex baby item. Yep, Playtex makes more than just feminine products. If anyone is curious, Playtex originally got its name from "perforated latex", which was used between the cloth of women's underwear for elasticity.

Anyway, I was able to stack a manufacturer's coupon onto the store coupon for the Playtex baby bottle, which was nice to have with a newborn. When all was said and done, the bottle ended up costing 11 cents. Yay!

I Suck At Cookouts

Today, Karen, my seventeen month old daughter (Briana) and I went to Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin. On the agenda for today: a cookout. Now, I suck at cookouts. My friends (Renee and Jeff) have an annual cookout every September. Interestingly enough, I just found out the reason for the annual cookout today. Renee and Jeff have a cookout in September every year to celebrate their dog's birthday.

I don't remember the last time I visited Renee and Jeff in Lynn. Karen thinks it may have been over two years ago. I know I missed last year's cookout because the cookout was scheduled on my son's (Braden) birthday. So two years may be correct.

In addition to seeing Renee and Jeff, the cookout was also our first meeting of my friend's (Christine) new significant other. And naturally, Christine wanted her friends there for their opinion of the guy. Personally, I have always found the act of soliciting opinions about the new significant other ridiculous. For starters, it doesn't matter what I personally think because I am not the one dating the person. And secondly, even if I did not like the person, the person soliciting my opinion does not want to hear anything negative even if they say they do. So it's a rather pointless act in my opinion to ask.

Needless to say, the cookout was good. Christine's date was interesting. Briana, for the most part, was good during the cookout. So all in all, it was a good way to end the day. And for anyone curious, Lowe's did end up delivering our new washing machine in the morning. So I can wash clothes again. Yay!

I Suck At Subway

For the past two days, Karen and I have been eating takeout from the same place. Up until the birth of our daughter (Briana), Karen and I (when it was just the two of us) very rarely ate takeout. Instead, we preferred dining within the restaurant. That seemingly has changed of late, due in part to our feelings that we have very little time now with the fickleness of our baby daughter and her feeding schedule.

So yesterday (and the day before), Karen and I ordered sandwiches from Subway. Now, I suck at Subway. In my apparent quest to look like Jared Fogle, I have begun to eat there daily. Granted, it has only been two straight days of eating takeout from Subway.

If Jared can lose weight from only eating at Subway, then perhaps I should eat there more often because I do need to lose some weight. I have packed on the pounds since Briana was born. Who am I kidding? I was packing on the pounds while Karen was pregnant.

I am just kidding about doing the Subway diet, as evident from my eating a foot and a half long sandwich yesterday. It just happened to be luck and chance (and maybe a bit of laziness) that Karen and I ate at Subway for two straight days. And of course, I would be remiss if I did not thank our friends (Renee and Jeff) for it was Renee and Jeff who gave us a little gift card to Subway in the first place. So we probably would not have even thought about going to Subway were it not for them. Thank you again Renee and Jeff!

I Suck At Hanging Out With My Friends

Yesterday, a few of my friends came over. Unfortunately, I suck at hanging out with my friends.

My friends (Renee and Jeff) visited during the day. Renee and Jeff live up on the North Shore of Lynn... the city of sin. As both of them have such hectic schedules, yesterday during the day was the only opportunity they had to come down for a visit to see our newborn daughter (Briana). Consequently, they decided to bring lunch for both Karen and I.

Needless to say, lunch was good. It was nice to see Renee and Jeff especially since I could not hang out that long. After all, I was working yesterday. (For anyone curious, I work from home most days of the week.) My employer is gracious enough to provide me with the opportunity to work from home because they know that I am extremely disciplined. Granted, I probably end up working more hours during the week from home than I do if I were in the office. So while I had a little work emergency to tend to for the rest of the day, Renee and Jeff hung out with Karen and Briana.

Later that night, my friend (Scott) also stopped by. Scott lives in New York. He happened to be back in Massachusetts for a couple of days for work. Consequently, he also wanted to stop by to see Briana. It was definitely great to catch up with Scott again. Scott and his wife (Ofelia) are one of the nicest couples I know. It turns out that in addition to raising their own child (Xavier), they will now also be raising two of Xavier's cousins from the Dominican Republic who would not have had the educational opportunities otherwise. It's great that Scott and Ofelia can do that. Anyway, it was definitely great seeing Scott. I don't get the chance to see him that often. So it was nice to hang out for a while.

And as a way to end the night, Karen and I put our new movie package from Verizon FIOS to good use. Well, I put the package to good use. I don't think Karen was as thrilled. While waiting for Briana's next feeding at night, we decided to watch the movie "Sex Drive".

(Below is a trailer for "Sex Drive".)


The movie is the average teeny bopper virginity movie. The plot is simple: virgin boy gets propositioned by a girl he meets online. He then takes a road trip to meet the girl to lose his virginity. A couple of friends join him on the journey, one of them obviously being his BFF/real love interest. Hilarity ensues.

Essentially, the movie is like all the other generic movies about teenagers losing their virginity. I think "Eurotrip" did it the best thus far. And since I like silly teeny bopper movies, I of course had to watch "Sex Drive". Plus, the movie had Seth Green (of Buffy and Robot Chicken fame) as a wise-cracking Amish character. So I had to watch it for that.

All in all, the movie was enjoyable. Predictable, but enjoyable. It was a good way to kill time before Briana's next feeding.

I Suck At Painting

On Sunday, my friends (Marc, Kelley) and my BFF (Kerry) came back to our house to finish painting our first floor bathroom. The day before, Kelley and Kerry were only able to prime the room and paint the ceiling. Thus, all that was left to paint in our first floor bathroom were the walls.

Apparently, when it comes to home improvement projects, both Kelley and Kerry like to finish what they started. I guess you can say it is similar to how I like to complete things... like reading the god awful Twilight series. It just has to be done.

It also turns out that Kelley is quite particular about painting. Luckily for me, I suck at painting. I have never liked painting. I'll do it, but I don't like it. Kerry and Kelley could have painted the entire white ceiling the same color as the walls and I probably would not have cared. (And actually, they did get some paint on the ceiling while painting the walls, but it's okay.) I was just thankful that they even wanted to paint the bathroom for Karen and I in the first place. Plus, it's always a memorable moment to see Kerry and Kelley's faces speckled with paint.

Needless to say, Kelley meticulously went over the ceiling to touch up all of the errant paint marks. It was a little comical because she kept incessantly checking the paint while it was drying.

While that was happening, my friends (Renee and Christine) stopped on by for a quick visit. Both Renee and Christine were saddened that they could not have helped the day before when a whole slew of friends were helping out with projects. And truthfully, I'm not sure I would have had any more projects for them. As it was, I was stretching to come up with projects to subject my friends to. There are just some things I would never ask my friends to do. It would be like asking my friend (Hot Amy) to sweat... because she doesn't like to sweat.

Needless to say, Renee and Christine had decided to come down on Sunday instead. (For anyone curious, like Kerry, Renee lives on the north shore.) Both of them ended up helping Karen run a little errand at the grocery store. So it was great that they helped out.

It was good to see everyone on Sunday. And for anyone curious, Kelley and Kerry did finish painting the walls of the bathroom on our first floor. They did an amazing job. Thanks again Kelley and Kerry!

I Suck At Renee's Cookout

Like the fifth Friday the 13th film, Sunday was a new beginning. In honor of the new beginning, I figured that I would change things up a little and actually start capitalizing in my posts. I'm sure my friend (Marc) will be happy to know that fact.

Anyway, Sunday is not really much of a new beginning. Sunday simply marks the beginning of my booze-stinance. (Think abstinance, except with booze.) Truth be told, I have been thinking about giving up alcohol for some time.

Knock on wood... I don't have any liver problems. In fact, I generally pride myself on my liver... having only had one hangover ever in my life due to imbibing an entire bottle of wine. Usually, I can drink whatever... in whatever quantities... and not feel the ill side effects the following day. Heck, I seldom experience the "alcohol flush reaction" when drinking.

For anyone curious, according my friend wikipedia:

"Alcohol flush reaction (colloquially referred to as Asian Flush, Asian Glow, Red Cheeks, Oriental Flush, Big Blush, Russian Glow) is a condition in which the body cannot break down ingested alcohol completely, due to a missense polymorphism that encodes the enzyme, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2), normally responsible for breaking down acetaldehyde, a product of the metabolism of alcohol. Flushing, or blushing, is associated with the erythema (reddening caused by dilation of capillaries) of the face, neck, shoulder, and in some cases, the entire body after consumption of alcohol."

My friend (Aimee) immediately turns red with one sip of alcohol. It's amazing. Regardless, despite the miracle known as my liver, I have had thoughts before about giving up the fire water.

My mother was recently diagnosed with liver problems. More recently, Aimee's mother had problems with her liver. Unfortunately, Aimee's mother has since passed away. So when my friend (Kelley) considered temporarily giving up alcohol herself to help her own digestive issues, I figured that it may be time to at least put some action behind the thought.

Thus, it was a no-brainer... a win-win situation: I can show my support for Kelley. I can show my support for Aimee's mother. I can show my support for my mom. And my liver can thank me later. Granted, I don't even know if I can even accomplish the task. But in my mind, I'm really no different when I am drinking than when I am not drinking. (Sure, I may be a little more "huggy" when inebriated, but that's about it.) And really, the task is only for a couple of months... possibly longer depending on how things go.

Plus, there is the possible bonus of my actually having to face reality and not drown my sorrows in booze. Since my son (Braden) passed away, I feel that I have imbibed more... whether true or not. From a convenience point of view, it was just easier to drink than socialize or whatever. Anyway, hopefully my friends won't care too much that I have given up alcohol for the time being.

I guess another benefit of giving up alcohol is that it is a challenge... and everyone knows, particularly my friend (Hot Amy), that I love a challenge. I really haven't had a challenge in some time. Perhaps I'm like an adrenaline junkie... except that instead of adrenaline, I need a challenge. I'd challenge Hot Amy more often if she ever won a challenge. Just kidding.

Anyway, drinking aside, Karen and I were invited to Karen's friend's (Renee) cookout in Lynn. Now, I suck at Renee's cookout. Apparently, Renee's family were meeting her husband's (Jeffrey) family for the first time. Sure, Renee and Jeffrey have been married for over three years... but I guess the two families never had the opportunity to meet one another... until now.

Thus, Karen, Karen's friend (Christine), and I were invited to the cookout to provide a buffering zone. Karen and I actually ended up grilling the hot dogs and burgers for the cookout, which was good because it allowed Renee and Jeffrey to mingle between their respective families... and probably let them de-stress.

It was an interesting time. It has been quite a while since I have seen Renee, Jeffrey, and Christine. The last time I saw them was probably Braden's funeral service in September. And for anyone curious, Christine enjoyed the "Twilight" series of books. (I still don't get the allure of "Twilight".)

Anyway, I had a good time.