My Epic Weekend In Pictures: A Shout Out From Bobby V?

Well this holiday weekend was definitely Epic. I was able to get Awesome Girlfriend Megan on Campus in Vernon with me, so that was the ultimate victory. We had great times in Franklin and Vernon. We still don't travel as much as we used to, but we still try to make the most of our time together and enjoy our wonderful friends. We had to be creative with my electric grill which fortunately still works great thank goodness, in between trips to our pool at Great Gorge Village in Vernon - as I call it our Campus pool with a waterfall. The random highlight of this weekend was courtesy of one of my best friends - and Bobby Valentine. Yes, former New York Mets and Boston Red Sox manager, Bobby Valentine. This was one of my most epic, random surprises thrown at me, ever.

Friday night Awesome Girlfriend Megan and I were so happy to kick off our weekend at The Irish Cottage Inn, our home bar. Even though it was so hot and humid out, we were able to enjoy time with our friends under the tent. We were even able to stay dry despite the multiple intense rain storms. It is such a pleasure to see so many of our old friends in person again, and meet some new ones too sometimes. Our Friday night was almost a typical summer Friday night, starting at The Cottage, then wrapping up at Tiki Bar over at Minerals. We had a great time seeing our besties Jasen and Brendan, and bartender buddy Natalee. Fun times, great memories, and we were able to successfully stay dry! We agreed that we should go over their place for breakfast, because Brendan had just gone grocery shopping. They didn't need to twist my arm on that one. Since I'm awful at attempting to whisk scrambled eggs and it takes me forever, I'll gladly let my friends do the heavy lifting for me. I know what you're thinking, how lucky is Awesome Girlfriend Megan, right?

Saturday morning breakfast was great. Then Meg and I went into full cookout preparation mode. This cookout was much more complicated than usual. Last week when attempting to grill steaks for our morning show stars Steve Andrews on WSUS and Borasio on NNJ, my electric grill wouldn't stay on. I was so crushed, and humiliated because Andrews always pokes fun at it saying it isn't a real grill and it's cute because my grill is electric. In most states, if you live in shared dwellings, gas propane and charcoal grills are illegal. I'll admit I always struggled to turn on a gas grill, and my electric grill has been very convenient for me. Plus with an electric grill, you never have to worry about running out of propane. I'm sure that would always happen to me. We tested out my grill, turns out the problem is my outdoor outlet on my deck. Seems to be shot. We rebooted (yes I call it rebooted) it from inside where the GFC is, and Meg was right there to try and hit my circuit breaker thingy. Still no luck with the outdoor outlet, but when I plugged my grill into one of my inside living room outlets it worked totally fine. This meant we had to keep my door open while it was hot out in order to grill for my friends. Despite those challenges, we had great strip steaks and burgers. Meg also made a good salad, and Edward brought over a fantastic one too. Everyone was smiling. We'll take it. Great times with Cait, Brad, Kyle, Tory, Steve and Edward. Many laughs.

Sunday morning was rather relaxing. Awesome Girlfriend Megan was craving a hot coffee, and I was craving a cold brew from Dunkin Donuts. We then returned to our Campus pool which we are loving more and more every single day. Such a relaxing waterfall. Great times in the hot sun and chilling off in the pool.

Sunday at noon we were able to open The Cottage and take the kids out to lunch. Yummy meal and wonderful company. We will take those wins. B-Rad our bartender buddy was terrific as always. I was able to sneak off from the table to the bar to get myself a beer, and slip him my American Express card so Meg couldn't try to pay for lunch for everyone like I knew she would. Surely enough the second I asked to close us out, Meg tried handing over her credit card and got denied. She was ticked. I won. LOL. The little battles in life, right?

Sunday after The Cottage we returned to our Campus pool to relax. One of my very best friends, Nate Mumford called me. He told me he was sending something to me, and that he had me on speaker phone with our friends Jake and Bri. He then asked for Meg to take video of me when I received what he was sending me. Jake and Bri got married 1-2 years ago - I was betting maybe I would be getting an ultra sound video / audio etc. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Side story, back in 2009 I went to a Red Sox Mets game at Fenway park with Nate and Dan. We had a blast. It was an epic day. We got rained on. It killed my phone and I needed to get a new one. The Mets had an early lead and then blew it, getting then blown out by The Red Sox. Nate and Dan diehard Met fans, and I was in my Red Sox jersey. At one point when the Mets were winning, they executed a sacrifice bunt and scored a run. I yelled from the bleachers at Nate and Dan, "WHAT IS THIS? THERE IS NO BUNTING IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE. TAKE YOUR SMALL BALL STYLE OUTTA HERE!" We still laugh at that exchange all of these years later. Well, years later when the Red Sox hired Bobby Valentine I was horrified. Nate, Dan and Jake loved taunting me over it. That experiment lasted about as long as expected.

Fast forward to now. Nate Mumford freakin did a Cameo video, this is where celebrities can do virtual shout outs to you. They sometimes get a fee and sometimes they donate it to charities etc. Nate actually sent a Cameo out, for Bobby Valentine to give me a shout out, and defending bunting. It was honestly shocking to me and hilarious all at the same time. The great lengths that Nate went to prank me are deeply appreciated. Nate told me his lovely wife looked at him at one point, noted his evil smirk and knew he was up to something. Total comedy gold. So I now have a video of Bobby Valentine saying "Steve, it can be good to bunt...." Freakin hilarious.

Overall we had a fantastic weekend. I'm ready for another weekend already lol. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. I hope you had a great weekend too. Time to start planning next weekend!