My Epic Weekend In Pictures, Plus How The New Tax Laws Impacted Me

This Epic Weekend In Pictures wasn't supposed to be all that Epic, but I think we did it once again. This weekend my travels took me to Newton, Vernon, Franklin, Pine Island, Hackettstown, and back to Vernon. I had a mix of work, play, NONSTOP jokes about Patriots Owner Robert Kraft due to his alleged solicitations, yummy beers and wings, and many laughs with some of my wonderful friends. We'll start the weekend off with Thursday night, where we had our monthly Minerals Sports Club Member Social at Kite's. Despite the heavy crowds from last week's holiday President Week, which results in arguably the biggest skiing week all year, we still had a tremendous time. Everyone kept coming over saying they enjoyed my Weekend In Pictures featuring my parents the previous weekend and loved spending time with them.

Friday morning, Awesome Girlfriend Megan texted me that she and Awesome Daughter Caitlyn were going to surprise me at work during the afternoon and we could do lunch together. This definitely put a bounce in my step. Meg and Cait swung by work where I always parade them around to see everyone here at our radio stations. I made the executive decision to treat them to a pizza place nearby. Within 3 minutes of us sitting down, one of our besties, Marky the Dolphin fan was texting us about how he couldn't believe the news on Patriots owner Robert Kraft. We honestly figured he was just trying to push my buttons like any normal week. Meg googled Bob Kraft and immediately we saw the shocking allegations on reputable news sources everywhere. Within 2 minutes, my phone started blowing up from my friends back home in Boston and all over Jersey, and beyond. The shock, jokes, embarrassment over allegations were nonstop. My phone was blowing up so much nonstop from Friday around 12pm through Saturday morning so much, I had to charge my phone TWICE!

Friday night, we had a quiet night in over with my besties Jasen, Brendan and Carrie. This was just what the doctor ordered. Yummy red wine from Josh, pairing with medium rare steak. This made me very happy. I also figured out how to add UB40's Red Red Wine to my Instagram story and amused myself. It's the little things in life sometimes. Jasen wanted us to play Cards Against Humanity, which is one of the few drinking games I can tolerate. I'm usually not into drinking games after I've been slammed at work all day, usually just wanting to relax, socialize with my friends and drink. Since Cards Against Humanity didn't have any Bob Kraft or Patriots references though yet, it was just what the doctor ordered for me. We also attempted several pictures with my selfie stick, which once you see these pictures, will show that I have a long, long, long way to go with my selfie stick game. After some yummy red red wine, Jasen and Brendan started debating which of their mouth washes was better. Lots of laughs and had to be there moments from a great Friday night.

Saturday morning after my check in call with Madre and Padre, I was off to our live broadcast at Audi Of Newton on Route 206. This was our first live broadcast with Wally Darwish since he crossed the street over to Audi Of Newton, so I was hoping that everything would go perfect. It did! I was able to hang with Wally, my bestie from work Kim, and our Promotions Assistant budding superstar, Zach. Those two hours really do fly by when you're having fun enjoying our iHeart The 80s Weekend, and you're surrounded by smiling faces. Speaking of smiling faces, I ran into one friend, John. He recognized me but I was having trouble recognizing him, while he was buying a new Audi SUV. After a few minutes, I figured it out that I recognized him from Kite's and the pool, where he is always wearing a bandana. I've known him for years, but didn't recognize him without his trusty bandana. He was happy to see Wally making people happy and helping deals happen. Then, Wally ordered pizza for us from Dominick's and it was delicious! Wow. How have I never had that until this past weekend? I'll be seeing them again.

Saturday after work I was in Franklin getting ready to grocery shop, until I got a text from my bestie Brad. He texted our Sunday night Kite's group thread announcing he was going to Pine Island Brewery and asked if any of us were interested in joining him. Sign me up! I immediately skipped grocery shopping (remind me to do that this week please,) and drove to Pine Island right away. WOW. It felt weird exploring a new to me brewery without Awesome Girlfriend Megan, but I was able to power through it like a champ. Brad recommended their Scottish Ale, and he was right on the money. They were fantastic. Fun place. I will say they had a limited amount of beers on tap, I think I counted only 4 or 5, but still a wonderful time. Then they brought out nails to hang on a tree stump. The pictures might explain better than I can. It was complete comedy gold. Then Brad busted out a penny circle bartending trick that also impressed several at the bar. I did crush him when announcing that the trick could probably be easily found on Youtube these days.

Saturday night, I was in bed by 9pm. I watched the new Alliance Of American Football again, which isn't too bad. This is basically serving as a minor league football league for the NFL, and since I'm a football addict, I'll take this whenever I can get it. After a few yummy IPAs, getting to bed early Saturday night was fantastic.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 4:30 to pee and never fell back asleep. Don't you hate those days? Ugh. By 8am Meg texted me and I told her I was feeling lousy. I took a Melatonin to try and fall back asleep, only to learn that my Melatonin stash apparently expired over a year ago. No wonder why it didn't seem to work! Time to get more of that when I'm grocery shopping next time.

Sunday afternoon I went to Sheridan's Tavern with a goal in mind. I got a gift card for Awesome Daughter Caitlyn and her fiance Robbie P, who helped me and Meg a ton this weekend. Between Robbie helping Meg get our new dining room pub table, and Cait helping me with my taxes, they were clutch just like always. We enjoyed many laughs with them. They're closing on a house that's only a 5 minute drive away from Sheridan's, so I wanted to give them a little early housewarming gift.

Meg's new pub table came out GREAT. We want to bring this to our new place together when we move in a few years. I don't have room for a dining room table at my place, so this is absolutely perfect. I love that it even came with a bench!

Sunday after that quick errand, Meg and I ventured out to downtown Hackettstown. We enjoyed yummy Hot BBQ wings at Marley's, and then some yummy IPA's at Czig Meister. Meg and I were more than happy to walk around downtown Hackettstown, so many of our favorite options all in walking distance from her place.

Sunday night, drumroll both for us watching the Oscar's and Caitlyn doing my taxes. We did Turbo Tax, which ended up being drama. Since I used Turbo Tax one time when I was in college over 15 years ago, they had me still as an active account. Therefore, I couldn't start a new account, and they kept claiming I got my security question wrong. I did not forget the name of my first pet, trust me! They shut me out. Then we were able to answer a million security questions to get my account password reset. This process was TEN TIMES MORE PAINFUL than taxes!!! The end result after all of these tax changes? My tax return was just under $200 more than last year. Everything else basically identical.

We watched the Oscar's for a little bit, but I was in bed by 9:30. Exhausted from everything. Looking at clips of Gaga and Bradley Cooper performing 'Shallow' together, they crushed it just like we knew they would. Great for them. Of course everyone's talking about how intimate their performance was. I think they're both phenomenal showman. I could understand if Bradley Cooper's significant other gave a double take though.

Overall we had a wonderful weekend with friends enjoying laughs and yummy drinks. I hope your weekend was wonderful too. Now time to start planning next weekend!