From the category archives:

Music

Surprises, New Hair, and SOWA!

by agirlandhermutt on May 7, 2012

Hello friends! I had a busy weekend so lets skip all the shenanigans and get right into it, shall we?!

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Friday Night
The Scientist said he has a surprise for me and asked me to meet him at Rock Bottom in the Theater District for dinner. We had dinner and as we were leaving I looked up and saw a sign on a local theater that said “The Shins” were coming to play. I got so excited and told The Scientist that we had to get tickets to see them. Then I looked back and realized that they were playing that same night. I looked back and The Scientist and he had two tickets for us! I was surprised with concert tickets!

The concert took place in the Wang Theater which is just gorgeous on the inside.

Such a fun night and a total surprise!

Fun Fact: Rock Bottom was the first restaurant that The Scientist and I ate at together just by ourselves and The Shins was one of the first things we talked about the night we met.

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Saturday
I woke up bright and early to hit the salon and get my hair all changed up for the summer.

Before & After

I love my dark hair, but it is fun to try something different for the summer.

Since it was Cinco de Mayo I met up with The Scientist a little later in the day to grab a margarita and celebrate. Having a plethora of Mexican restaurants in the neighborhood is a nice bonus on May 5th!

We finished up our drinks and headed out to the most exciting part of the day…to see The Avengers! I love all of those super hero type movies (although Thor was not my fave) and was just as excited to see this movie as my nerdy comic book loving Scientist.

I loved the movie! The change of Mark Ruffalo as hulk was perfect and I didn’t hate ScarJo like I had thought I would. Oh, and who doesn’t love a good Robert Downey Jr moment?!

Fun Fact: To see this movie 3D digital cost $35 for 2 tickets through Fandango. SERIOUSLY! I kept my glasses. That was the least they could do for me.

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Sunday
Sunday=Shopping! It was the return of the SOWA market for the season and I could not have been more excited.

My pal, Meg, and I enjoyed a day of outdoor shopping and dog watching. Come on…how cute is that pup?! I wanted to sneak up and steal him.

Lunch was from the BonMe food truck. Mmm…

While I was gobbling up my sandwich I couldn’t help but laugh when I caught this sign out of the corner of my eye on a rib food truck next door. Technically…they are right!

Final Results of Shopping…

Pickled Grapes from Grillos Pickles.

Nothing but goodness in these bad boys!

Myer Lemon and Sea Salt Popcorn from Quinn Popcorn.

LOVE tshirt in Sign Language & Hindi from Zamforia. Love the cute potato chip bag packaging!

Reusable Snack Bags from Edie & Fin

The rest of the night was spent with this guy just hanging out and looking out the window.

No grapes for you buddy!

Fun Fact: The SOWA Market is a MUST visit if you are in town throughout the summer!

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The whole weekend was just what I needed after a busy work week! I hope you all had a good few days.

Check back tomorrow for a fun new giveaway!

Did you see The Avengers? What did you think? Who is your favorite character?

{ 13 comments }

Music is Food for the Soul…

by agirlandhermutt on September 27, 2011

and wine helps to wash it down!

Last week was a bit of a laid back week so I decided to cram as much as humanly possible into my weekend. My weekend kicked off on Friday night on the Vino Voyage 2011 hosted by Gordon’s Fine Wine & Liquors.

Vino Voyage is basically an expensive booze cruise. Located on the Spirit of Boston, over 300 people come together to taste over 200 wines as the ship cruises around Boston Harbor.

On any beautiful day this would have been awesome. However, the weather forecast looked like this as I left work Friday afternoon. Right. Who doesn’t love a boat ride in the rain?!

Despite the nasty weather, I met up with Megan, Karen and a few other friends for a night of wine tasting.

We got there right as everyone was starting to arrive so we made a beeline to the Taittinger Champagne Lounge for some champagne, snacks, and live jazz.

The boat filled up pretty quickly but with over 30 tables of wine there was no lack of places to grab a taste. There was something for every palatte with everything from classic merlot to the super fun ChocoVine (spiked chocolate milk!).

There were even some familiar wines from my Napa/Sonoma trip earlier in the year. It was like seeing a long lost friend!

After tasting for about 2 hours Megan and I were FAMISHED. We headed down the dining area to grab some bites off the buffet. I had to get a little creative with my dining table, but who really cares. It all ends up in the same place no matter where I am sitting…a little on my dress and a little in my belly.

Dinnah was a mixture of caesar salad, pasta primavera, and a roll. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.

Once we had some food in us we got back to tasting. These girls are wonderful wine companions. We had a tasting plan/goal and we achieved it!

A new feature to this Vino Voyage was the “Wine Discovery Deck”. Mini-seminars were going on every 20 minutes that included 6 different wines to taste. I was really looking forward to a class on American Reds, but unfortunately due to some timing issues it never happened. Boooo….

The voyage lasted until 10p but by 9:30 I was DONE with wine tasting. You can only taste so much before you start to not actually TASTE anything and the wine headache starts to creep in. I drank enough water over the night to keep mine at bay and stopping at 9:30 made sure to totally eliminate it. It also allowed me to watch the dancing start.

Yep, dancing. By people who have been “tasting” since around 6p. Bwahahaha! You have.to.watch.the.video. EPIC.

When the boat docked we gathered up all of stuff (umbrellas, coats, wine glasses!) and said our good-byes. Oh, and we might have posed for ridiculous photos. Giant props make every event more entertaining.

Aren’t you proud of me Mom?! Winking smile

Believe it or not out the TONS of wines that we tried, only two were cringe worthy. One smelled and tasted like canned tuna. The other was Ed Hardy Sangria. Seriously. Ed Hardy.

Final result for my fave wines:

NV Roger Goulart Brut Reserve Cava
2008 Banfi Centine Rosso
NV Emeri Pink Moscato
2010 Frog’s Leap Sauvignon Blanc
2010 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc
2009 August Kesseler “Rheingau” Kabinett Riesling
2008 Sequoia Grove Cabernet
2009 Dreaming Tree Crush Red Wine (Dave Matthews wine. I tried not to like it, but I just couldn’t say no to this. Ugh.)

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The rest of the weekend wasn’t a wash though. Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to keep The Scientist company while he ran and ran and ran. He had a 12 mile training run and I kindly rode alongside him singing and telling him all the celebrity gossip I could think of him. I’m not really sure if he was just running to train or running to get away from me. Heh.

Our final event for the weekend was, according to The Scientist, “the best concert ever”. We headed over to the Paradise Lounge to see The Shins perform. We both love, love, love The Shins and this show was just fantastic. Their music is so melodic and just instantly can put a smile on your face. Having a bad day? Put on The Shins. You feel better immediately but not in that fake way. It is an honest to goodness happy feeling. AWESOME show=Photo fail. Forgot to take photos. Ohs wells. The memory will live on forever!

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I hope you guys are having a great start to the week. This week I have all the CSA veggies to myself. EEK! I better get cracking on looking for some recipes to use corn up.

Do you have happy music? What is the one song or band that you listen to in order to get you in a better mood?

{ 3 comments }

Just Say Yes…

by agirlandhermutt on May 31, 2011

Have you ever read or seen the movie Yes Man? Basically the main character has a string of crappy events happen and in a last ditch effort for happiness in life he attends a seminar that teaches him to seize every opportunity presented to him by saying “Yes!” whenever he can. Fast forward through the rest of the book and the movie to see hilarity ensue.

This was my weekend to be the Yes Woman.

I started out Friday thinking that the long holiday weekend was going to be pretty chill. No big plans other to survive the upcoming heat wave we had coming our way. On that note…what up Boston?! Where did the four seasons go?! I missed Spring apparently.

Anyway, mid-afternoon The Scientist IMs me to say, “Hey, want to go to a music festival in CT tomorrow?” I wrote back “Yes” before he even finished typing. For me summer means the beach, flip flops, and music festivals. I was ready to start the music season in full force! So on Saturday afternoon I found myself in Hartford, CT with The Scientist and his buddy from NYC for a day of music at the B.O.M.B. Fest 2011.

There were tons of local bands that I had never heard of, but my main goal for the night was to rock out to Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros. I was kind of disappointed by the show though. Not only did they come on late, but they also only played for about half an hour. Sad smile I did a lot of sweating all day (and people watching) to see them and was ready for a full hour! Possibly they should have said “Yes!” to being on time?

Any disappointment I had was quickly squashed by an AWESOME concert by Weezer. I didn’t realize I knew so many of their songs. I also didn’t realize The Scientist did either, but after hearing him sing all the words to several songs I have seen the error in my ways. Winking smile

One question though…what is the deal with mosh pits? I don’t get them. I discovered that I really REALLY don’t care for uncontrolled chaos. Jumping around and hitting each other is fun? Rubbing on other people’s sweaty bodies. Eh. No Thank You.

After a LOOONNNNNGGGG day in Hartford, we all headed back to Boston. I found that the mutt is dealing with the heat the best way he can….by doing ABSOLUTELY nothing all day long. Bum.

Sunday I woke up bright and early to The Scientist calling to find out if I was interested in drinking some beer. I didn’t even ask questions and just said “Yes”.

An hour later I was at Harpoon Brewery waiting for my tour of the brewery. Despite the almost 6 years I have been in Boston I have never toured this brewery. Bad Bostonian! We toured, we tasted, and we tasted some more.

At the end of the tour there is quite of bit of tasting that can occur. Its kind of a strange set-up with the people coming for the tour and those leaving all mingling in the same place, but worth the craziness to taste beer fresh from the factory. My faves included the Uber-Bock and UFO Hefeweizen. Lunch time was calling as soon as we were done.

The Scientist’s friend requested lobster rolls for lunch. “YES!” Those suckers are perfect for a hot Boston day. It doesn’t hurt that I’m obsessed with lobster rolls too. We were in the waterfront area so we trucked down to James Hook & Co. I’ve been wanting to try them for awhile, especially since many Yelpers have declared them the Best Lobster Rolls Ever.

Eh. It was good, but the best ever? That might be stretching it. I did enjoy the large chunks of lobster but not totally memorable. At $15 for a large one I was hoping for more. Best lobster rolls in Boston (IMHO) are at Charlie’s Kitchen in Harvard Sq. $12 for 2 and some waffle fries! However, the stuffed scallop we decided on at the last minute was fantastic. At $3.50 it was a great snack or the perfect side to our lunch.

We did a bit more touring around the area before heading home for the day. After 2 full days of being the Yes Woman I was heading home stuffed with lobster, a new brewery glass for my collection, and a little bit of a tan. Woot!

Memorial Day was dedicated to just recovering from a couple of busy days. I didn’t have an BBQs on the calendar so when The Scientist suggested I ride my bike around to get some quality outdoor time I thought “YES!”. I rode around the neighborhood, stopped by the store, and rode along the river.

Being the Yes Woman for a few days was kind of fun. I’m not sure how long I could keep it up for without totally losing steam, but I was happy to just jump on a few opportunities that were totally unplanned.

I hope you all had a nice long weekend! I’ll be posting my Napa winery reviews this week along with a new recipe. Fun times!

Random Question of the Day: Are you a live music person? Do you prefer big name concerts or will you just head into a random music venue to find some new bands?