Weekend In Pictures Update: Due to Christmas vacation, my next Weekend In Pictures probably won't be up here and Facebook until Wednesday December 29th. You can see all of the action in real time though, on my Instagram Story, @SteveAllanRadio. Follow me, I'll follow you right back.
If this weekend wasn't a classic one of those "can only happen here in Sussex County, New Jersey weekends," I don't know what else ever will be. This weekend I was able to see friends I haven't seen in so long, some first time since before the pandemic, and we brought back some traditions even if on a smaller scale than past years.
Friday night started off my weekend with a medical style massage from my favorite personal massage therapist Elaine. She really is the best massage therapist I have ever had, and my goodness was she needed. The stress, hustle and bustle of holidays but also year round stress just goes right to my neck and shoulders, sometimes yes my Caboose too. She popped so many of the knots in my shoulders and back, I probably sounded like popcorn popping in a microwave. I felt like a whole new person ever that. You can call her, unless it's when I need her for an appointment. You can always direct message me for her #.
Friday night after that I joined besties Jasen and Brendan at Kite's with their outdoor Frosty Catina (ie, Tiki Bar converted to be more winter friendly.) We shared several laughs with bartender buddy Sam. It was so fun starting to plan for their wedding, which reminds me this coming weekend is my deadline to book a hotel room for their wedding LOL. I'll coordinate with my family so we are all on the same page for arrivals and departures.
I cannot tell a lie, The New York Football Giants gave me hilarious content all weekend long. Even though I'm a diehard New England Patriots fan, living here in Jersey there are several terrific Giant fan friends who are great to me. I may not directly cheer on other teams, but rather root for my friends to be happy, unless they're playing against my team, or unless it affects my Patriots playoff chances. I also have several diehard Giant fan friends who are season ticket holders. Some of them have legendary tailgate parties before the game. My friend Brad brought me to one a couple years ago and it was epic. Biggest food coma I have ever had walking into a football game. They have their systems down to a science, that's for sure. The Giants have had a tough record the past several years as they continue to rebuild their system.
Did you hear what the Giants did? I still can't believe their Public Relations team signed off on this. Yesterday was their annual Fan Appreciation Day for Giants fans. If you're a Giants season ticket holder, the annual cost may be $10K plus. What did Giants do for their season ticket holders who have been braving usually terrible weather while watching their 4-9 team going into Sunday (which they lost again?) A free medium Pepsi. A FREE SODA!!! I'm not the only one who finds that insulting, right? You can read all about that by clicking here. They would have honestly been better off doing nothing at all instead of that!
1 of 4 Photo: Me, Bill Snouffer and Colin Carrasquillo with Pay It Forward2 of 4 Photo: Me, Jasen, Bartender Buddy Sam, and Brendan3 of 4 Photo: This was long overdue4 of 4 Photo: Vacuuming fun!
Saturday morning I was able to do something that I've been putting off for far too long - CLEANING and organizing. I even moved my living room couch (why I feel the need to label it as my living room couch, as if I have any other couches in my one bedroom condo is beyond me too) a few feet up to sweep up behind it. Major milestones (ie removal of dust bunnies and other random piles of dirt) were accomplished. I would like to say that it's been a goal of mine to really clean deep dive style under and behind my couch. While yes it was a goal, there was much more motivation after figuring my new electric fireplace remote control likely slipped through cracks landing somewhere into that abyss.
Good to keep on cleaning. I still randomly stumble onto old things connected to my ex-fiance that need to keep getting purged. Ah well. Like they said in Batman Begins, brick by brick we will keep rebuilding.
Basically the theme for this weekend could be work around the house, then play. Saturday night in Vernon I was able to attend Sally and Doug's annual Christmas party. While it was much of a smaller scale than in past years, we still had a great time especially after needing to take last year off from it. I saw some friends for the first time in several months, some a year, some since before the pandemic. It was a great time where everyone just wanted to have fun and laugh. At one point some of our friends were doing dips on the stairs. Yes, dips the exercise. Lots of laughs, silly fun, LOL. It was a great reminder of how lucky I am to have such amazing friends.
Sunday morning I successfully did some Christmas shopping with results that have me really excited. I can't share those results quite yet in case those who I'm trying to surprise are reading my Epic Weekend In Pictures. You can never be too careful, right?
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There are two events that gave me compelling content to share with my friends all throughout the weekend. The Giants PR fiasco with soda I mentioned earlier was fantastic. My other fascinating story? Leave it to my dear friends at Space Farms Zoo & Museum. Last week, I ran into my friends Jill and Parker Space. They started telling me all about their son Hunter and daughter in law Caitlin's upcoming gender reveal party. This would be like no other gender reveal party I had ever heard of in my life. Caitlin and Hunter planned to have a tiger at Space Farms help them reveal the gender of their baby. WHAT? HOW? Jill and Parker then invited me to the party saying "oh Steve you have to see this!" I said "I absolutely do! If I can get there in time after Christmas shopping I will!" Thank goodness I was able to attend this event. WOW.
They executed this by putting a big cardboard box with seasoned meat inside of it, with either blue or pink pieces of paper. The family was nearby ready to shoot out some either blue or pink confetti. Probably within a minute, the tiger pawed open the box and kaboom. IT'S A BOY! Congratulations!
I then was able to take a selfie with Jill and Parker in front of the bear areas, trying to convince them to open their zoo for me during late December because the BEARS finally go away. They're always good sports with my wildlife fears, err, respect.
btw, side note on a minor radio fail. Even though I knew my friends Caitlin and Hunter would welcome me to their party with open arms, technically it was Jill and Parker invited me last week to this event. I partially was hoping to surprise them by showing up. They weren't surprised at all when I showed up to their party. They then later told me Friday morning after 8:45am when Steve Andrews and I were doing our daily crossover feature, where I mentioned that I might be going to a Space Farms where a gender reveal party may be involving lions, tigers, and bears oh my! Apparently shortly after that, friends started texting Caitlin and Hunter saying "we just heard on the radio that there might be lions, tigers and bears involved with this party?" LOL. Sometimes when you talk on the radio, you forget that people are actually listening and it's not just you alone in a studio.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures recap. Time to start planning next weekend - and it'll be Christmas hopefully seeing my family up in New England.