62. January 9th, 2011 Picture.

Sunday morning, after our crazy Saturday night out, I was up bright and early to head down to Bridgewater for my sorority sister Kelly's daughter Sophia's christening with Ratty.  Phew that was a mouthful!  I am sure that most readers remember lil Soph and my record baby holding day last summer, so you can imagine how excited I was to get to see her again!

I had wracked my brain, trying to come up with a Christening gift, as you're all aware I love finding the perfect gift for people!  I thought jewelry, a baby blanket, savings bonds [though I am pretty sure they are a dying trend if not dead already].  I finally decided on a snow globe, with a  little girl praying, with the 'Now I lay me down to sleep' poem etched along the bottom.  I am not overly religious, but thought that this was sweet without screaming Catholic in people's faces - I definitely didn't want to do that.  I had the front plate engraved with her name, Sophia Jean, along with a crescent moon, which is Gamma Phi Beta's symbol.  Bringing it full circle here!  

Note: I went shopping for it with Ratty and agonized for at least 20 minutes about how the engraving should be, should it be centered, should the crescent moon go above her name, below her name, to the side of her name?  Ratty thought 'engraving' was all just one option, he had no idea there were so many details that went along with it.  When I told him I was putting the crescent moon with a bundle of stars on the plate in honor of Gamma Phi, he looked at me dumbfounded and was like, if given an unlimited time to think, I would have never, ever in a million years come up with that idea.  I gave myself a little pat on the back for thinking of that one!

The Christening was at the same church in Bridgewater where Kelly and Tom were married.  It was a full mass, followed by a reception at a nearby golf course.  It was most definitely the largest christening I've ever been too, but it was really great that Kelly and Tom invited their families and friends to spend the day together.  Obviously, since I was wrestling with so many people, I barely got any time with Miss Sophie!  

I mean just LOOK at those cheeks!  That girl is just so adorable and we matched!  It was totally unplanned but oh so cute regardless!  No wonder I had such a hard time grabbing some quality time with her, how can anyone part with that face?!

62. January 8th, 2010 Picture.

January 8th was a day that was on my calendar for weeks, nay months!  Shelby [a perpetual commenter on my blog] was coming into town with her cousins, so we made plans with a few other friends, Erin, Lana and Jill, to all go out.


We started off by having a few beers at my apartment, where everyone was staying, and by 'few beers' I mean we did a power hour.  Hey, sometimes you just can't shake the sorority girl mentality.  We played all our favorite songs from our undergrad days and prepped before heading to The Grand Canal.  You may remember this bar from the ridiculousness that was my 27th birthday party.  Initially we were going to try Johnny's on the Side, but there was a ridiculous line and a $10 cover.  10 BUCKS!  That's insane.  Why am I going to pay $10 just to get inside a place, and then have you charge me $6 for a Bud Light bottle.  No way Jose.  


I personally really like The Grand Canal, mainly because we don't go very often and my friends have yet to get sick of it.  The music is always good, there is a dancefloor and cheap beers - a recipe for an awesome time.  Which is exactly what we had!

{Erin, Jill and Lana.}

{Jill, Shelby's cousins Jess & Catherine, and Lana.}

{I have no idea why I'm trying to strangle Erin in this picture.  I just LOVE HER SO MUCH!}

{Cousins.  I'm pretty sure we were all having a great time at this point!}

{I put my hands up in the air sometimes...}

{Aw, cuteness!}

{No idea what is going on here, but it pretty much sums up the night perfectly.  Jess is getting down, Shelby is taking pictures of herself and Erin is doing her 'I think I look great but I'm probably drunk' face.}

These are obviously the photos that could make it on the blog.  There were lots that just need to be deleted from the face of the earth and will never ever see the light of day.  I think it has something to do with the fact that it was mid-January and I was so pale. well am so pale, that I created a white aura around us, ruining all our pictures.  I promise I get a tan and can handle flash photography, I just need a good beach day!

We left before last call, mostly because we'd had our fill of dancing and headed back to my apartment to hang out a bit more.  Everyone was sleeping over so we pretty much brought the party back to my place, where we could sit on the couch in our warm PJs and slippers.  There is something seriously awesome about that.  It was a great night out, one that doesn't happen all that often anymore since we all live so far away, and not to mention the fact that Shelby has 2 little girls.  It's tough for her to get a night out, but it is always fun when she does!

62. January 7th, 2011 Picture.

Since I am constantly over Ratty's apartment in the North End, and constantly driving to his apartment in the North End, that means, via the transitive property, or something or other, I am always looking for parking spots in the most congested neighborhood in Boston.  There are rumors, which have scarily become 'facts' to some out there, that there are only 5 visitor spots in the North End. This is FALSE, I know of at least 30.


Thankfully, I am like Magellan when it comes to finding a parking spot, for real, I am.  Erin was the one who gave me this nickname a few years ago.  I always find a parking spot, always!  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I never, ever give up looking, ever.  I will circle for an hour until I find a parking spot.  Some might find this excessive or stubborn, but I think it's perfectly normal.  Once I set my mind to something, I am not going to give up easily, or at all.  Since I refuse to give up, I know where all the visitor spots are in the North End, and I have carefully crafted routes, the streets where I've had luck with finding parking, followed by the streets that I've never found a spot on.


That being said, on January 7th, 2011, I finally got the elusive spot!  And yes, I call it the elusive spot in conversation.  I drive by this same little 3 spot strip every time I'm on the hunt, but I've never seen a spot free.  Each and every time I pass it, I make sure that I remind Ratty that they're never open, and he always humors me and pretends to be hearing the story for the very first time.  Well, NO MORE my friends!  I finally got the elusive spot.  Yay!  [Golf claps]

{I mean, the photo isn't really all that exciting.  It is after all, just a parking spot.}

62. January 6th, 2011 Picture.

In true Ratty fashion, he got screening tickets to see the movie 'Country Strong' a day or two before it hit theaters.  He knows how much I love country music, so he knew I wanted to see it.  I mean, free movie tickets, how could I possibly pass that up?


Normally previews are pretty packed, where you have to wait in line and even then it's not a guarantee that you'll actually get a seat.  While there was a line for this one, the theater wasn't completely full.  Ratty and I chalked it up to the fact that the movie was coming out the next day, and there must have been sneak previews all week long.


I'm just gonna say it, I didn't love it.  The music was great, I'm totally going to buy the soundtrack, or illegally download it at least,  and I was really impressed that everyone did their own singing.  Gwyneth Paltrow has a great voice and she did a pretty believable job as a celebrity/recovering addict - I mean that in the nicest way possible.  I just didn't love the story.  The commercials made it look like a semi-entertaining, uplifting movie, sprinkled with country music, hi what's not to love about THAT, but it was a lot darker than I thought it would be.  Like, really dark, like overdoses, miscarriages, extramarital affairs,  and suicide attempts dark.  Yeaaaa.  I wanted to like it, I really did, but I just couldn't get behind it.  There was a baby bird in it at one point and I was more concerned about what was going to happen to the baby bird than Gwyneth's recovery.  Hm, that's probably not what the director was going for, huh?

62. January 5th, 2011 Picture.

While at the Yankee Candle Flagship Store, I picked up a scented calendar, that's right, a SCENTED calendar.  It's cool, be jealous.  Every month is a new seasonal scent, with a pretty picture on top and a scratch and sniff square at the bottom.  Isn't that totally cool?  The scent doesn't really reach all that far, I had fears of my office being filled with Balsam & Cedar and annoying my cube mates, so it's perfectly okay that the scents aren't that strong.  The best part was that the calendar was $10, but inside there was a $10 coupon - so it was totally free! I love free things!  I held on to it through November and December and brought it to hang in my cube starting in January.  It's already gotten at least 1 million compliments!

62. January 4th, 2011 Picture.

January 4th was a Tuesday and I spent the evening with one of my oldest friends, Maura.  Maura and I met on September 17th [yes we have an anniversary], during our freshman year of high school at Arlington Catholic.  I accosted her that afternoon, because aside from it becoming the day we met, it was also the day I was getting my braces off.  I stormed the library, determined to tell anyone that would listen about how excited I was.  Ah, the mind of a 14 year old is a funny thing.

Maura lives in DC, now the web editor of two military publications.  I have no idea what magazines she works for, gah I am a horrible friend, but in all honesty, military magazines aren't really my niche.  Plus, she JUST got the job, because as of our dinner in January, she was working as a freelance writer in DC, debating every month whether or not to move back home.  So, looks like I'm not that horrible of a friend after all!

Moving on.  Maura was home for the Christmas/New Years holiday, she was heading back to DC the next morning, so we hit up our old haunt for some drinks and catching up.  Myself, Maura and our friend Kerrie used to frequent Davis Square when we all lived at home right after college, so it seemed only fitting that we head back there and check out a new restaurant, Foundry on Elm.

I had taken a picture of our food, but I realized, thanks to Shelby's helpful comments, I am always posting pictures of food!  I am going to try and take more meaningful photos, like, I would have loved to post a picture of me and Maura right now, but unfortunately, I didn't take one.  It's so easy to snap a picture of food, or a drink, or the inside of a restaurant, but I definitely need to step it up and take pictures with actual people in it!

Maura and I spent the night sipping on drinks, munching on appetizer pizzas and chatting all about our lives.  We reminisced about the time Shelby and I traveled to London to visit Maura while she was abroad, our 9 hour walking tour of Paris, spending countless hours on the beach of Maura's summer cottage in Scituate and attending no less than SEVEN 'N Sync concerts during their heyday.  It is always so much fun to catch up with Maura, and even though we don't get to see or talk to each other as often as we'd like, when we do finally get together, it seems as if no time has passed whatsoever.  Isn't that a sign of a good friendship?  We're never at a loss for something to talk about!

62. January 3rd, 2011 Picture.

So to keep my awesome Kindle safe and sound while I lug it anywhere and everywhere, I bought this adorable, padded case off Etsy.  It is thick and plush, with a closure at the top, making sure that my little Kindle isn't going anywhere.  I scoured various shops at Etsy, trying to find the perfect fabric sleeve, before I settled on this.


It's from an adorable boutique called Bertie's Closet, where everything is handmade and oh so sweet.  I ordered it right away, and it was at my door TWO days later.  There is nothing better than instant gratification!

62. January 2nd, 2011 Picture.

Sunday afternoon myself, Ratty and my cousin Susan went to Shenanigan's in Southie to watch the football games [RIP Football Season, I'll miss you.  I wear my Patriots hat everywhere as a sign of my love and devotion].  Since we were in the throws of the season, the bar was packed.  We had a few beers, some lunch and watched the Pats completely crush the Dolphins.  Ratty had bet that the Dolphins were going to win, mainly because the Pats had already clinched the AFC division title, so he thought that most of the first string players would sit this game out.  I thought to myself, there is NO WAY Belichick is going to just lay down and let someone else win the game because it didn't matter.  It's all about pride with the Pats, and I'm pretty sure winning is high up on their list of priorities.  Shockingly, I was right and he was wrong and boy we did not let him forget it.


We wanted to stick around and watch the Colts game too, but the bar turned off the sound and put music on instead.  I really don't understand the whole concept of playing music instead of the game, I mean, a game is MUCH more interesting than any song they could ever play.  I don't want to listen to a random selection of muzak but maybe that's just me.  We decided to pack it in and headed down the street to The Stadium instead - we knew they'd have the sound on.


This story really has nothing to do with my photo of the day, I just wanted to share it.


I took a picture of a sign in The Stadium that said 'Provisions'.  Isn't that a cool word?  There is a little sandwich shop on Nantucket called Provisions and they make some pretty amazing sandwiches, maybe I'm projecting my love of sandwiches and Nantucket on the word, but I'm okay with that and you should be too.  I love old words, and I definitely think provisions is just that, an old word that doesn't get used all that much anymore.  I imagine people in the 40s, heading to the store and saying they were going to buy provisions - and it just sounds so nice!  I love the image it conjures up in my mind, even though I can't fully explain it.  Am I the only person out there with favorite words?  Provisions is high on the list, but my all-time favorite is apothecary.  Again, an old word that is rarely used.  I'm going to try and bring it back.

62. January 1st, 2011 Picture.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I knew we'd get here someday!  Finally in the present year, ahhh it feels good, doesn't it?!


So, New Years Day.  What did I do, what ever did I do?  Ah yes, we had a party!  Since Ratty spent Christmas with his family, obviously, my mom had him over so he could celebrate with us.  Plus, since Eddie and Christine spent Christmas day with her family, they didn't get to see Ron, Sybil, Cam or Chloe, so it was the perfect opportunity to have a little party and celebrate Christmas again AND ring in 2011!  Cousin Sue came over, along with a few neighbors and we had a really great time!  We really like spending time together, huh?

{Here we have little Miss Abby dressing Ratty up in a pretty pink bow.  It totally matches his eyes, doesn't it?  I mean, if they were open.  But let's turn the attention back to Abby, she is seriously the cutest.  Notice that she's wearing my Christmas gift.  I can't even handle it, I love her so much!}

{Here we have Abby loving their gift, and Cassie carefully inspecting it.}

After opening some gifts, we had dinner, champagne and a delicious trifle my mom made.  It was layers of lady fingers, crunched up Heath bars, chocolate pudding and whipped cream.  It is seriously so good, we all ate about 10 plates full.

And that would explain the naps we all needed to take and why the kids were so quiet.  My mom soaks the lady fingers in Kahlua, which I've never even noticed before, but this time around it tasted pretty strong.  I'm almost positive we accidentally drugged the children.  And Ratty.

So while the adults laughed, ate trifle and drank champagne [we should honestly have stock in a Vineyard for all the champagne we drink!], all the kids collapsed in the den for some much needed zoning out time.  When all the cousins get together they're crazy, like 'let's play hide and seek and suddenly I'm in the bathtub' crazy, so it's no wonder everyone needed a time out.  I thought it was just so adorable that Abby was using Ratty as a pillow, aren't they all just so cute?!

Ratty eventually emerged from the den, blurry eyed and sleepy.  Too much trifle.  We kept the festivities going, well past midnight, in true Deveau fashion.  The last few standing were myself, Ratty, my mom, my cousin Sue and some neighbors and we were having a great time.  Between Christmas Eve, Christmas, the 'Downey Family Christmas Party' party, the snowy after party at my Uncle Paul's, Jess' New Years Eve/30th Birthday Party AND this New Years Day party, I was pretty partied out, I am sure you can understand why!

{We'll close this out with the cutest picture of the cousins in matching fleeces, a gift from Aunt Sybil and Uncle Ron.  Chloe was beside herself with excitement over the fact that her, Cassie and Abigail all had the same fleece.  Honestly, could they be any cuter?!  The answer is no obviously!}

95. Learn How To Bake Red Velvet Cupcakes From Scratch.

Just before Christmas I was wracking my brain trying to come up with gift ideas for Ratty's dad.  I'd bought his mom a Yankee Candle, naturally, but I was having a hard time thinking of ideas for Bob Ratty.  I was well aware that his dad had a soft spot for sweets, so I decided that I'd attempt Number 95 and bake him red velvet cupcakes.  Okay, not really cupcakes, rather red velvet sandwich cookies from Paula Deen, but the batter and frosting are the exact same, so I'm counting it!  Task completed!

Obviously, because I am an awesome daughter, I waited to make these until I came home for Christmas.  I did this mainly for one reason and one reason only, my mom had all the stuff I needed.  I don't have baking powder, or red food coloring, and don't even get me started on a mixer [which has been totally taken care of thanks to Ratty, but remember, this was PRE Christmas gift.]  To me, it made perfect sense to make these at my mom's house, but I thought my mom was going to legit murder me.  As if she didn't have enough work to do, putting together a Christmas eve spread, Christmas morning breakfast spread AND Christmas afternoon dinner spread, her wonderful daughter came home and tore her kitchen to shreds.  No seriously, shreds.  You'll see.

I started off by putting all the dry ingredients in a bowl and BOOM, realized I already made a mistake, and I'd JUST started!  Apparently I was supposed to whip the sugar and butter together, separate from the other dry ingredients, then add them later.  Whoopsie!  If this was any indication of how my baking outing would go, I was in for a long night.  [Cue scary music.]

So because I had inadvertently skipped a step, I just blew through the rest of the instructions and got down to mixing.  By the time I was done, there was red batter EVERYWHERE.  It was on my mom's white curtains, all over my clothes, it honestly looked like someone had been stabbed in the pantry.  Steph was not pleased.

According to the next step in the directions, I was supposed to scoop a little bit of batter onto the sheet tray, creating little perfect, yummy red velvet cookies.  Somehow, and I'm not totally sure how I let this get so out of control, all my cookies merged into one.  It was an entire cookie sheet of batter.  I think it may have been the fact that I sprayed the cookie sheet with Pam, and the sheet was so slick the batter just spread everywhere. It was right about now I locked my mother out of the kitchen.

I poured all the dough back into the bowl, now glistening with it's non stick cooking spray addition, wiped down the cookie sheet and started again.  I'd like to say that my second attempt went a little better, and it did, but Ina Garten I am not.

I let the cookies cool before I cut them out of the pan, and yes, I definitely mean cut.  They were supposed to be on the small side, so I could make them into individual sandwiches, but because they were so ridiculously gigantic, I decided that I'd quarter them to make mini cookies instead.  That was a MUCH better plan.

I made a batch of cream cheese frosting, this went off without a hitch, mostly because my mom supervised i.e. made it while I watched.  I matched up the cookies based on size and shape, they were ALL different so I tried my best to make the sandwich cookies roughly the same shape. I filled them with LOTS of frosting, because that's how I like it and I knew Bob would too.  Plus, with enough yummy frosting, no one would even realize they were poorly constructed.

Then I quartered them and added more frosting to the sides.

I obviously needed more frosting on the sides in order to get as many chopped almonds as possible.  The recipe called for pecans, which would have been equally as awesome, but I think we've learned that I'm apparently not one for following directions.  Did I mention I also forgot to add the vinegar?  Not sure what it was for, but they still tasted amazing without it.  Must have been all that extra Pam.

I then packed them up in a little red Christmas tin with doilies and some of my mom's homemade fudge.  The doilies were my mom's idea, obviously.  And Voila!  It'll be totally easier next time I make them, right?  Just tell me it gets easier.  Especially now that I have my Ina Garten approved standing Kitchenaid mixer.  I'm practically a pro already and it's not even out of the box yet.

For the record, Ratty's dad LOVED them.

62. December 31st, 2010 Picture.

We woke up bright and early [as bright and early as vacation allows, which isn't really all that early to normal people], and went off to meet Chad, Christine and Emily for lunch.  They had suggested trying out the new Irish Pub in town, RiRa's, which was the bar Ratty and I closed the night out at the evening before.  It is very strange going to a bar at night and being there less than 12 hours later, when it's light out.  But that's what vacations are for, right?  I mean, kinda sorta.

The lunch was great, and I finally got to spend a little quality time with Miss Emily!  Chad and Christine live up in New Hampshire and most times we see each other are at non-kid friendly events, like weddings, where the don't bring Emily along.  We had a great lunch, catching up and picking up all the toys Emily threw on the ground.  Christine had to head into work that afternoon, so our visit was brief but still so much fun.

Once we walked the cute little family back to their car, Ratty and I headed off to walk through town and do some actual shopping.  Ratty still wanted to buy a Christmas gift for Eddie, Christine, Cassie and Abs, so we were on the hunt for something they might like.  He'd already bought them the Despicable Me DVD, since we took the girls to see that, but he wanted to add something to it.  While browsing through the most awesomest of home goods stores, we found a stove top popcorn popper.  Eddie and Christine don't have a microwave, don't worry, I make sure to tell them how weird it is any chance I get, so they usually make Jiffy Pop on their stove.  Ratty ended up buying them that, plus popcorn kernels, sprinkle butter, and adorable little individual popcorn buckets, so everyone in the family could have their own.  

We continued walking around town, it's pretty adorable, with lots of cafes, shops, and restaurants, all along the waterfront.  Not that waterfront property is ideal in the middle of winter, but it was still pretty gorgeous.  The whole town was getting ready for the First Night activities that were taking place that afternoon/evening, and it make me slightly sad that we weren't staying an extra night.

They were doing ice sculpture carving in front of the church in the town center.  All the children, and adults, were pretty much rapt with attention.  This is right where we bumped into my friend Shelby's brother Tommy - I saw him from across the crowd and he came over to say hi.  He went to school up there, and stayed in New Hampshire after graduation.  It was totally random but so nice to bump into him!

{Red Velvet Woopie Pie mix at the Stonewall Kitchen store in town.  MUST make these!}

Just before leaving, we popped into the Gaslight restaurant for a bite before hitting the road.  We got a seat right at the bar, and sitting right next to us was my sister's Arleen's brother-in-law Ed.  We were bumping into everyone in Portsmouth!  I swear, between Ratty and I, no matter where we are, we always bump into someone we know!

We finally had to pull ourselves away from our serene little town and head back to the city for Jess' New Years Eve party.  Jess was one of my new co-workers, and her birthday is New Years Eve.  This year she was turning 30, so she was throwing a huge bash at her still in the throws/newly renovated house.  Her husband and her had bought a slightly run down little house in Medford, and had spent the past couple of years fixing it up.  She had the most amazing spread of food and drinks, with a champagne cocktail station set up in the kitchen.  She had ingredients and instructions set out for two different types, a candied ginger cocktail and a Kir Royale, which is champagne and Chambord.  There were a few other co-workers at the party, along with a slew of friends.  We spent the whole night eating, drinking, playing Apples to Apples, toasting with champagne at midnight and closed out with a showing of the hangover.  No seriously, we left at 2:30am.  It was definitely time to go.  What a great, and exhausting day!

62. December 30th, 2010 Picture.

As I am sure you've noticed throughout my year of blogging, Ratty and I like to take weekend trips here and there to get out of the city.  It's fun to visit a new town, experience new places and test out new restaurants.  Ratty had come up with a great idea to head to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for the night, over New Years weekend.  We had my co-worker Jess' birthday/New Years Eve party, so we decided to go Thursday night and head back to the city on New Years Eve day.


I'd been to Portsmouth as a kid, but hadn't been in at least 20 years.  I was really excited to see how adorable it was, walk up and down Main Street and just relax.  I worked until about 1pm, and then picked up Ratty and hit the road.  Portsmouth wasn't far, probably an hour or so, so we zipped right there.  We checked in at the hotel, unpacked a little, and then walked into town to grab a bite to eat.  It was probably close to dinnertime by the time we actually sat down and ordered food, we got sidetracked at a few really awesome stores along our walk.  We wanted to order something light, so we could go out for a nice dinner later on, at least that was the plan.  Even though it was 5pm, this was our 'lunch', meaning that at some point, we'd need dinner.  This makes perfect sense to me, as I am pretty sure I inherited it from my dad.  Apparently, he'd come home from work at 4pm, eat a meal, and then be asking what was for dinner an hour later.  When my mom would remind him that he'd just eaten an hour before, he'd claim that THAT meal was his lunch and now he was ready for dinner.  I am the exact same way, it drives my mother crazy.


My idea of a light lunch was a burger, what?  I was hungry!  I'm apparently not that great at sticking to plans, but Ratty is way worse.  He ordered not one, but TWO bacon wrapped hot dogs covered in cheese.  I wish I was joking.  It was absolutely disgusting to watch him eat his meal, even though he claimed it was the most delicious thing ever.  Every time I made a face he would say something like, 'but Amy, at least I didn't get the chili.  You should be happy I didn't get the chili, because I could have!'  He said this as if he was doing me, his heart AND his stomach a favor by 'taking it easy'  I think there was enough cholesterol in that lunch to kill a small horse.  SPOILER: We weren't hungry for dinner.


In true Ratty fashion, he'd packed a bottle of champagne and some flutes in his bag, and once we were done walking around town, and done sweating out meat, we headed back to the hotel to relax, have a few glasses of wine and freshen up before heading out again.


The plan was to go to this speakeasy type of a martini bar called The Red Door and then grab a bite at one of the many restaurants in town.  Ratty's friends Chad and Christine had lived in Portsmouth when they first got married, their wedding reception was actually at the hotel we were staying at, so they recommended a few places that only the locals knew about.  We walked to the address where The Red Door should have been and were faced with a burrito place.  We didn't see any sign of a cool martini bar, and ended up pacing the block, checking to see if we'd somehow past it.  I pulled up the website on my phone, and saw that it was in fact supposed to be right where we were.  We finally buckled and asked a couple walking by and they showed us the door.  It was literally just a red door.  No sign, no number on the door, no hint at all that there was anything of note inside.

{It doesn't even LOOK red!}

We walked up to the second floor and finally saw what everyone was talking about.  It was a cool little bar, with leather couches and a dance floor, and 1 little bar with 1 bartender.  The place couldn't hold more than 75 people tops, but I got the feeling it could get crazy.  I snagged a few comfy chairs while Ratty went and grabbed us some drinks and chat with the bartender.  We hung out there, listening to the DJ who was playing the most ridiculous mash-ups that almost caused Ratty's head to explode.  Maybe he'll comment and elaborate, since I couldn't tell you one thing about the music.  We hung out for two drinks apiece before deciding to go and grab a bite someplace else.  I know I know, you're asking 'how could they be hungry again?!' And here is what I'll say to you, I have no idea.  I wasn't starving, but knowing that we wanted to stay out and have some drinks, I thought it would be in our best interested to eat something.  Like a salad.  Or a smoothie.  Or a miracle substance that could cleanse your system immediately.


Since it was the middle of winter, it wasn't surprising that a lot of places stopped serving food around 9pm or 10pm.  We'd missed service at most places, but ended up at the Portsmouth Brewery for a late night bite.  I grabbed a bowl of chili and a little salad, because somehow that seemed 'light' to me, but the absolute best part of my meal was the pretzel bread.


Now, not everyone knows what pretzel bread is, but let me tell you, it is a little piece of heaven.  It exactly what the name states, it's a roll made out of pretzel dough.  It is awesome and delicious and somewhat elusive.  I've only ever seen it at the Gamma Phi Beta Convention in Chicago, which I went to my senior year of college.  They'd serve it with every single meal we had and we'd still have to ask our server to bring back more.  We talk about pretzel bread as if it's as mystical as a unicorn, so I obviously had to take a picture.  Then post it to Facebook.  And text all my friends.

Once we finished eating, I know you're all saying 'FINALLY!', we decided to hit up a bar that was right down the street called RiRa's.  We grabbed two seats at the bar, ordered a few beers, and listened to the awesome singer that was performing that night.  The music was great, it was 2 guys, one with a guitar and one on the drums, playing every popular song ever played on the radio.  They played rap songs, pop songs, 80s, honestly they played everything!  What made it even better was that they ended the night with Bryan Adams 'Summer of '69', which made me freak out.  I love Bryan Adams, I know, totally random but totally true.


We called it a night and headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye.  Chad, Christine and their daughter Emily were coming to meet us for lunch (MORE food?!) so we needed to be refreshed in the morning!

62. December 29th, 2010 Picture.

As you can imagine, the week between Christmas and New Years was absolutely dead at work.  And when I say dead, I mean DEAD.  There was not a sole in sight, plus I was the only one from my department in the office, so literally not a sole in sight.  We all have the capabilities to work from home remotely, but I was having issues with my laptop, the work one not my beloved MacBook, I would never speak ill of my personal laptop, it's perfect and I love it and it never fails.  I don't ever want it to leave me [i.e. crash.....again], so I need to make sure I keep it happy and say nice things.  Happy wife happy life!  Or something like that.

Anyway, since I was having issues logging in from home, I went into the office every day that week.  I was relatively new at that point, and there was honestly no reason for me NOT to go into work.  If I had plans, or a vacation to go on, I obviously would have taken the days off, but I couldn't rationalize using precious vacation days in the middle of winter for no real reason.  There was absolutely nothing preventing me from going to work, except that pesky whole getting out of bed thing, so off I went like a responsible, and well dressed employee.

Ratty was off that entire week, so he stopped by to drop off a huge box of treats from Mike's pastry in the North End.  He'd left them off in the mail room and they got delivered to my desk right around lunchtime.  Isn't that so sweet?  He's really thoughtful, but obviously you all already know that.  He'd even written out a card, telling me that I had to share with my work friends.  Hm, what work friends?!  I was totally alone!  I thought about taking all the pastries home and eating them myself, but something about that seemed wrong, plus I'd already gotten called out for not sharing, so I had to prove Ratty wrong.  I can share!  I made sure to send my co-workers an email, gloating about my delicious desserts, just to make everyone jealous.  As if they would really be jealous that they weren't at work.  Wishful thinking on my part. 

I grabbed a few things that I wanted, like a moon pie and cannoli, and then took the box of sweets around and offered them up to people on my floor.  Boy, I got to meet people real  quick!  If you want to make friends, walk around with sugar, it's a no fail situation!  Thanks Ratty!

{Ratty knows these are my favorite!}

62. December 28th, 2010 Picture.

It snowed a lot in Boston over Christmas, 18.2 inches to be exact, and we are still struggling to clean up the mess.  You'd think that we'd have a handle on it by now, but we are still lackluster at doing things, like shoveling, plowing or general labor.  Snow doesn't cripple us, like some other cities across the country, so no one really batted an eye to a blizzard warning over Christmas, or at least I didn't.  I can drive in snow, don't panic about where I'm going to park, and do my best to shovel out my car in a timely fashion.  I apparently, am a rarity in Boston.  I never knew how psychotic people were about snow until I moved to Southie.  And when I say psychotic, I mean P-S-Y-C-O-T-I-C. 


I grew up literally one city over, right across the Charles River.  We got the same amount of snow that Boston did, but we did not lose our minds during a storm.  Cambridge kind of had a tough guy snow mentality when I was growing up, so weird, who would have thought Cambridge would have a tough guy mentality about anything?  When I was in grammar school, they rarely had a snow day.  I would get so mad at Canton because they would always pop right up on the school cancellation list where Cambridge should have been.


So you can imagine my shock (not really shock, I had known about this before since it always made the news after a snow storm, but I had never experienced it first hand), my SHOCK that people saved spaces.  How can you save a spot on a public street?  Did you pay for that spot?  Half the time they don't even SHOVEL it, they just throw an orange cone, chair, trash barrel, saw horse, paint can, lawn jockey, porcelain Elvis head or some other piece of junk into a mounting snow drift and 'claim' it as theirs.  Forever.  

About 2 or 3 winters ago, Mayor Menino decided that he was tired of Southie making up their own rules and sent garbage trucks around the city to pick up all the stuff that was claiming spots and throw it away.  Well, when everyone came home from work that day, it appeared as if spots were stolen, a HUGE no no, and lets just say lots of tires were slashed.  The Mayor never announced he was clearing out the spot savers, so people parked in what they thought were available spots, and people came home to find their spot savers moved and someone parked in 'their space'.  There was one incident 2 winters ago where someone parked in a handicap spot, illegally.  Hey there wasn't a cone!  Free grabs!  Anyway, the poor little old lady parked in the spot directly in front of her handicap spot, moving a cone that was 'saving' it.  She made the news when all 4 tires were slashed on her car.  For real.


Once that disastrous winter was over, Mayor Menino decided to let people keep their space savers for 24 hours.  Because that's logical!  Give people an ambiguous timeframe and then don't enforce it.  That will work out well.  These are all pictures that I took around my apartment of saved spaces.  A casual 3 days after the storm hit.  No big deal!  [End Rant].


On a completely unrelated note, I have a cone in my trunk at all times, and I DO save a spot, hey if you can't beat 'em JOIN 'em!

62. December 27th, 2010 Picture.

I had taken Monday off, prolonging my mini Christmas vacation, but it turns out that because of the snow, work was cancelled!  While at my Uncle's house the night before, I got an automated phone call telling me that the office would be closed and to not come in.  I could definitely get used to getting messages like that!  Since it was oh so snowy outside, I didn't leave the house, except to shovel out my car.  Here is a shot of my front door.

You can see why I didn't leave!

62. December 26th, 2010 Picture.

The day after Christmas, my family hosted the annual Downey Family Christmas Party, a yearly tradition, obviously.  There are so many of us that we now rent out a hall, hire a DJ and have our party catered, oh and a bar, and usually TV so we can watch the Patriots game.  It started when I was 10 and has continued for the past 17 years, at various locations.  It's completely impossible for one person to host us all, at their house, when it's the middle of winter and the kids can't be running their energy off outside while the adults sip beers in lawn chairs.  I told you - there are A LOT of us!

It was a great venue, our first time testing it out, mainly because there was a separate room for the music, i.e. kids dancing, running and yelling.  There are so many young kids now, that when we're all thrown together in one room it's utter CHAOS.  Like, I want to pull my hair out and throw myself off the roof chaos.  I love children, especially those I'm related to, but I have always said I cannot handle them in mass, it's one of the reasons I didn't become a teacher.  That and because I'd have no patience and would most definitely hate teaching, but I would really love to only work 9 months a year.  Anyway!  I loved that the adults could be in one room, talking like, you know, adults while the kids caused absolute mayhem next door.  The DJ was great and played all the songs the kids loved, including the Hokey Pokey, and the Chicken Dance (which he played twice).  What?  It's the quintessential family party playlist.  I'm pretty sure we threw in a little Sister Sledge too.

{A handful of kids doing the Chicken Dance.  I use the term 'handful' loosely.  Trust me.}

The day after Christmas we were actually hit with the most ridiculous snowstorm.  The news was saying that we could get 2 feet overnight, which caused a lot of family members to stay home, including my brother Eddie.  Here's a shot of my Uncle Bill calling Eddie to give him a piece of his mind.  I'm pretty sure he called him the biggest wimp ever.  God, I love Uncle Bill!

{My Uncle Paul getting in on the Chicken Dance action.  This was the second time the DJ played it, we're total dorks.}

{We even did crab races.  The kids were hilarious at this, but the best part was when the adults tried it out.  Fortunately for us, those photos don't exist!  What a shame.}

Ratty had spent Christmas night at his parents house, so his mother drove him down to Melrose for our party.  She came in for a few minutes, and got the opportunity to meet my mother and most of my extended relatives.  She could not get over the size of our family and when I told her that there was probably only about 35% in attendance, her head almost exploded.  That's the typical reaction we get from people.  To us it's completely normally, to me it seems strange to come from a small family, like, what do you mean you're an only child and you have NO cousins?  I have 50 and I love them all!

We stayed at the party until the last possible second, and then decided to go to my Uncle Paul's house for an after party.  This was the plan all along, though almost everyone backed out due to the weather.  Most sane people would have just headed home to wait out the storm, but being the adventurous couple that we are, Ratty and I braved the weather to spend more time with my family.  In all it was me, Ratty, Uncle Paul, Susan, my cousins Annmarie and Richard.  We spent all night cozied up in the living room, drinking beers and just hanging out.  I love spending time with my family, a theme that is well documented on this blog, so I didn't want to pull myself away.  Eventually my mom called, repeatedly, and said that we had to leave, the roads were closing due to the storm and unless I was willing to sleep in a twin bed next to my cousin, it was time to go.  We all said goodbye and headed home.  Poor Annmarie's car got towed, and her, Richard and Sue spent a good portion of the night trying to get it out of the impound lot.  We left a few minutes before her, so it wasn't until we got home that we heard the news.  I was totally upset for her, what a horrible ending to an awesome day. 

Uncle Paul lives probably 20 minutes away from my apartment, but the highways hadn't been plowed, AT ALL, so we had to crawl through the back roads.  It took us over an hour and a half to make it the few miles back to Southie, even the side streets weren't plowed!  I don't know what the cities were doing but all the roads were totally unsafe.  I was so tense going up small inclines, knowing that if I stopped for a second, my little standard wouldn't make it.  BUT we made it home and lived to tell the tale!  Regardless of the commute home, and the car towing of course, and you know, all the snow, it was a great day!

{So much snow.  We had no idea that this was JUST the beginning!}