Oooooooooooooooh Harras'

I have to say, after a $3,500 loss at Harras' and an $8,500 win at Borgata, it was a lucky night for my dear life companion, so "YAY!" to that.

The birthday dinner was ok.  We went to Bobby Flay Steak - party of 12.  I really wanted to like this place, but I can't say I did.  When we got there, we had to wait.  There's something about having a reservation/appointment for a specific time, getting to the place, and having to wait, that doesn't sit well with me.  It's a pretty big restaurant, yet, they only have one stall bathrooms.  ONE for the ladies, and ONE for the gents - which is the perfect setting to have to wait in line for longer than one should.  When we finally got seated, the wait to get water/drinks/appetizers/meal was way too long.  A party of 12 table should have at least 3 waiters tending to it, not just one.  For appetizer, I had the Chilled Lobster-Avocado Cocktail - I love lobster and avocado, but this wasn't executed the right way.  It would have been a better dish if it didn't have this overpowering taste to it that was neither the avocado or the lobster, and I couldn't quite figure out what it was.  For the entree I had the Porterhouse Lamb Chops (Medium) - I LOVE lamb.  I'll take lamb over steak any day of the week, but... they CHARRED my lamb.  Medium it was NOT!  I didn't send it back 'cause it was a late dinner and we had waited long enough to get to the entree course so I just had two and left the third one on the plate with a one way ticket to the dumpster.  The Cactus Pear Margarita cocktail was my fave part of dinner, but by no means was the best drink I've had.  I think it is to be noted that I ordered a second drink that never made it to the table.  Nobody messes with me and my drinks.  That was simply unacceptable!

Now, onto the nightmare part...

Harras' has to be one of the worst/dirty/disgusting hotels I've ever had the DISPLEASURE of staying at (and I've stayed at Travelodge, so I've had my share of bad rooms).

From DIRTY TOWELS to STAINED MATTRESS to FURNITURE FROM THE 70s to CLEANING LADIES COMING INTO OUR BEDROOM while we were still in bed at 10am, TV with TRULY BASIC CABLE, on demand  movies from the "comfortable" price of $15, LAMPS MISSING THEIR SHADES, no shower cap, no pens, no bottles of water, PAPER CUPS INSTEAD OF GLASS CUPS, and let's not forget A KING SIZED MATTRESS on a QUEEN SIZED BED FRAME.  I mean, the list goes on and on but if I were to list them all, I'd be writing this until the end of days. GROSS!

It's upsetting to come to a "fancy" hotel and have to deal with this shit.  This is the type of crap one expects to see at, say, Motel 9 or Econolodge, but never an overpriced hotel at AC.  And yeah, It was a comp room for us, but people pay a lot of money to stay here on weekends to have such a disgusting and pleasurable stay.  This place definitely left an impression on me.  A truly unforgettable one, but not in a good way!  I'm just APPALLED!

Well Hello AC!

Today we are on our way to AC to celebrate my boyfriend's friend's 40 something birthday.  All the boys are stoked since they suffer from the gambling bug.  I personally don't care much about casinos.  I hear "casino" and all that comes to mind is free drinks and food.  Mah man got us a comp room at Harras' Resort.  Who doesn't like freebies?!?!  I'm pretty excited about this trip since it's kind of a break from the weekly winter routine of doing absolutely nothing.

So...  can't wait to meet up with all the kids and celebrate "life"... or death - since every minute we grow old is a day closer to the hole, lol.

37 years ago... I was born.

What a day!

Today started like any other. Up by 7:10 a.m.  cuddled with my doggie for 15 minutes to then get off the bed to start my morning routine to get ready to go to work.  My wonderful boyfriend comes home from the gym and gives me my birthday gifts: (1) The sappiest -and most genuine card he's ever given me; (2) a lil tray of Rocher chocolates - which I DEVOURED by 10 a.m.; and (3) a water pick - which I was thinking of buying myself (therefore making it the perfect gift). Great start of the day I have to say!

All ready, I head out to face the day and commuting animals. What a NICE surprise it was to get to my work desk to find a nice Lil bouquet of flowers and a card from my boss!  Haven't had a boss do something nice like that for me in over FOUR years!  It's amazing how much the little things really count - especially when completely unexpected.  Lunch came and some of my coworkers got me a cupcake (candle and all!) And sang me happy birthday.  That was sweet and unexpected.  Later in the afternoon bossman let me leave half an hour earlier - because every minute counts, YAY!!!!

When I got home, I was so tired I pretty much wanted the couch to swallow me. My boyfriend tho, wasn't having that, so we went to a restaurant of my liking. Food at GP is mofo delicious! Later, as I see a waiter carrying around a big block of what I think is cheese, turns out it's my birthday cake!  This, I wasn't expecting.

Life is annoying at times... Unbearable even! But its days like today that u get to realize and appreciate the "little" things in life that make IT matter.

That is all.

Woodstock

This trip was just what the doctor ordered!

Woodstock is a small and very peculiar town.  Plenty of stores to “window shop” at.  Some stores carry pretty weird merchandise, while others have the normal “souvenir” stuff.  If you like “records”, this is the town to go to.  If you like wearing second-hand funky/gothic/hippie stuff, this is definitely the town to come shop at.  I LOVE thrift stores, and this town definitely appeals to that side of me.  My favorite was Castaways in the Woods.  Lots of stuff to go through, but no doubt anybody will find something to take back home with them.



Our cabin was small, cozy and delightful. I was very happy with our stay there.  The only downside of this cabin is the shower, but taking a shower takes only about 15 minutes of your day, so this didn't make me not like the cozy place.  Rock City Writer's Studio was equipped with everything we could need on a rainy gloomy winter weekend.  HDTV, cable, DVD player, movies, board games, a sauna room, a fully equipped eat-in-kitchen.  If grilling is your thing, and I wish it hadn't been so rainy and cold so we could have taken advantage of it, the cabin comes with its very own gas grill.  This lil place was just perfect for our weekend getaway.


Now, lets talk about FOOD!


Whoever goes to Woodstock, HAS to go eat Oriole 9.  Try to get seated AWAY from the door if it's a cold day.  The food here is pretty damn delicious!  They don't have "normal" sodas or cocktails, but they do have homemade sodas -  the orange soda one was pretty refreshing!  We had breakfast here.  I had a chicken sandwich and my boo had a regular breakfast.  The french toast were delicious!


Cucina was a nice lil Italian restaurant.  The service was so nice and welcoming.  The waiter and the

bartender were also very accommodating to my "pain-in-the-ass-requests-for-getting-the-perfect-cocktail", and they DELIVERED with FLYING COLORS!  WOW was that drink amazing!  The food was pretty tasty too.


Until Spring, my dear Woodstock.  We will certainly see each other again!

Weekend getaway.

Well... Double celebration weekend's coming!  And we are heading to Woodstock, NY for the weekend.

No clue as to what's to do there, if anything, but we are going regardless.

Hopefully it'll be fun.  If not, then at least we'll have each other.

Oh, and the pooch is coming with!

The family that travels together, stays together.

Mi isla.

Oooooh how I miss my mommy!  And the warmth of my little island.

I was pretty sad when I realized that my yearly Thanksgiving trip to Puerto Rico wasn't in the cards this year, but that got fixed with a nice Jetblue sale to start 2015 with a nice hot and steamy BANG!  so January... get ready, cause we are leaving your Northeastern cold behind and heading out south to the Caribbean to visit my motherland!  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH YEAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Holidays

Let the Christmas spirit flow!

I don't have much to say about Christmas.  I never get to spend it with my family.  My friends have slowly moved away, grown apart, or simply with their own families at this time of year. It is usually a blue season for me, which I have grown to get used to and care less and less about.

This year, I will try something new, and unlike last year -  and years prior to last, I will spend part of this Christmas day with my boyfriend and his family.  Maybe this is the beginning of a good thing?

I can safely say I feel a little better this time around, and that I am completely enamored with our lil Christmas tree and our door decoration.

How I killed a cupcake... with love.

The best things in life are free.  The pantry room at work is the best place to find free goodies.

This beauty was waiting for me in the pantry room with an "Apple Cider Cupcakes" note on a pretty lil yellow post it.

So I grabbed it and gave it death.

Boy, how I devoured that cupcake!

For the bakers, find the recipe here, here, here, here, and here.

#PickleFest

So a couple of weeks ago I was browsing around the internet and stumbled upon Rosendale's Pickle Festival flyer.

Now, let it be known that I am not a fan of pickles or pickled things, but I figured...  why the fuck not?  It's not like I do anything interesting with my time on Sundays, nor did I have anything exceptional planned for today, so I put my "something to do" hat on and put together this lil trip with another couple.

This was our first time at a pickle fest and have no idea what to expect, except a whole lotta pickled products.

So this day started with a crack of dawn 8 a.m. wake-up (bear with me, it's a fucking Sunday, ok!?)  The four of us hopped in the car and went for a hearty breakfast at the Brownstone Diner - boy was that delicious!

After getting our tummies filled with deliciousness, off we went on a 2 hour car ride to Rosendale, NY to attend the Pickle Festival.

Cheap (close to free admission) and quick check-in was definitely a plus.  Once in, they had a four tent setup.  The first tent was full of "flea market" and "homemade" items for sale - which is always entertaining to browse through.  The second tent was full of "fair" foods like cakey goodies, Italian sausage sandwiches, cupcakes, dried fruits and vegetables, coffee, pastries, organic fast foods and the

likes. In between tent one and two I noticed a human pickle parading around to take pictures with the visitors - I totally got one, of course.  It was the one things I was looking forward to.  We then passed

by a stand alone tent with a ginormous pickle Christmas ornament symbolizing a German tradition, to which I made everybody enter and take a group picture with.  The third tent was more like the miscellaneous tent, selling all types of peanut butter, cheeses, salsas, pickle juice energy drinks, pastries, venison meats, and chocolate covered bacon.  The last tent was all kinds of pickled shit "heaven", and the equivalent of L.A rush hour traffic.  Masses of people standing in front of the vendors' tables pretty much blocking me and the ones I was with from seeing what was being sold by them, but it was obvious it was with no doubt, the pickled tent.

So this was my Sunday pickled adventure.  My fave parts of the day were seeing the human pickle *grins*, and the stand alone tent with the huge Christmas ornament.

Looking forward to stumbling upon another "weird" event to go to.

Until then...

Sexy time.

I've always liked going to sex shops, but for some reason, in my area all of the ones I've visited always looked either run down, dirty, tacky and/or classless.  Who said that sex shops have to be "warehousey"?

Years ago I had the pleasure of going to this one specific sex shop in Philly, which name has eluded me for years, but I remember it with fondness.  Well, today I decided to do a lil googling to see if I could find said store - and Google did it again!  Condom Kingdom!  Wow!  Surprised it's still in business after so many years.  Sounds like a day trip is on its way!  I also found a few others I wouldn't mind driving 1.5 hours to visit.

Thanks to Google and Yelp, these seem like the go-to shops:

Condom Kingdom
The Mood
Sexploratorium
The Pleasure Chest

Mah man and I shall make a day trip out of this.

Lil miss blue.

It's cold and windy on a mid November day...

After a long search for the right BLACK winter coat, I finally found it... in BLUE, Lol. And I'm lucky I did because today's weather is in the toasty 20s°!  WOWZA!

Just posting about my new buy/find cause, well... It excites me.

Welcome to my world, cute and warm blue coat!  Let the outdoor Winter activities roll!  WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

It's a.... popcorn?

Um... Gross much?

Let me give you a quick lil back-story.

Two weekends ago on a Saturday, I went to the movies.  I had my regular snacks while watching "John Wick" - which was quite entertaining BTW.  Come Sunday night, I had some discomfort in my gum area where one of my wisdom's reside.  So I do a lil Listerine flush session after a hardcore teeth brushing and hope everything goes back to normal "tomorrow".

Tomorrow comes, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, and my "discomfort" turned into a weirdly painful experience.  There was no amount of flossing, flushing, gargling, brushing that would make this go away.  So a week later I gave in, sucked in my pride, and called a random dentist to check and see what in the fuck is going on in the back of my wisdom tooth.

Wouldn't you know!  A fucking popcorn peel had inserted itself inside a cozy and vacant periodontal pocket and making my days a living hell, rotting right in between my gum and tooth, for a whole week! Yes, gross indeed.

All is good now.  The popcorn peel has been successfully removed with a torture device, and I am now shopping around for a water pick so this won't happen ever again.

Mujer precavida, vale por dos!

That moment.

So after a long day and a bunch of unanswered questions about life, I lay in bed tired of being tired, and ponder for a moment, what was the point of me living "today". Honestly, I couldn't find a reason - which is pretty damn depressing.  Then I turned around and my heart got all warm and le fuzz to the sight of my current " home". I guess its moments like THIS I need from time to time to remind me of how lucky I am and what's important.

Allow me to introduce... Mahself.

I lead a very normal (maybe even boring) life.

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OK, it just dawned on me, I may not have anything to talk about here.

So here goes... This is my diary, of trying to make life - and my boyfriend's life by default, more interesting when faced with the fact that my life has become a cycle of "commuting, working to pay bills, and resting", leaving almost no time (at least none that I want to spend) to do anything else but going for dinners - because I'm too tired to bother to do anything that requires any type of effort or energy out of me.  Lets face it people!  Dinners are boring.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE eating!  But, you cannot compare a sit-down dinner at some restaurant with say, a picnic at the park, or a weekend in the woods, or going to a random nearby town you've never been to.

I'm hoping this is not my first and last post.  If I don't come back, it's because I have officially died of boredom.