Talk about a memorable, Epic Weekend! We're going to let my pictures do most of the storytelling this weekend! Friday was Tee It Up For The Troops day at Crystal Springs, one of my favorite days all year. Saturday we had a blast at New Jersey Taco Festival at The Sussex County Fairgrounds, and Sunday I went to the New York Giants home opener at MetLife Stadium. I want to shout out my friend Michael Guidice along with his wife Rose, who does a fantastic job running Tee It Up For The Troops. They care so much and work so hard to make this event a great time for everyone involved. The choir singers were tremendous this year like they are every year. This year they even had firefighters playing bag pipes. WOW. I must have teared up at least 4 times throughout the whole event. Work wife Shawn and I were able to golf with our new friends from Visions Federal Credit Union Rafael and Lionel. We were very happy that they had the same "let's just have fun," mindset that Shawn and I have. We definitely don't take ourselves too seriously out there on the golf course. Upon arrival, Shawn warned me that we were playing on Crystal Springs course as opposed to Wild Turkey. Uh oh. Thank goodness I packed a ton of golf balls before this event. I needed all of them! While my drives were absolutely atrocious, my short game was actually pretty decent. There were several times where we used my shots during our best ball charity tournament. I'm very grateful that everyone was patient with me. I had several terrific pitching shots and putts. We'll take it! Then they had another new fun thing at Tee It Up For The Troops. They had a BBQ cocktail hour right behind Crystal Springs. It was tremendous and I got filled up on spicy italian sausage. We had a wonderful time. The weather was definitely on our side. Plus, the sun didn't come out as much as predicted, which made this Irish boy quite happy! Typical day of golf where you're lousy for most of it, but those few great shots you hit make you wanting to keep coming back for more!
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Saturday I was able to take my besties Margie, Artie and Roy to New Jersey Taco Festival at The Sussex County Fairgrounds. Another one of my favorite traditions. Am I likely the only freak there at Taco Festival who doesn't really usually like tacos? Yes. Do I care? No! We had a great time hanging around the VIP tent making new friends and running into some old ones too. It was Margie, Artie and Roy's first ever time at Taco Festival whereas I go every single year. I had so much fun getting to see them experience Taco Fest for their first time. I had a great time running into our friend Steve who does a great job running the event every year. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very cooperative for a great Taco Festival outdoors at all. It rained on us pretty hard for a couple of hours. We were grateful to be under the VIP tent dry, and surrounded by the open bar. If we had to be trapped under a tent for a couple hours, at least we had the open bar nearby!
Saturday night, I was ready for a quiet, low key chill night in. When I saw that the movie Old School was on television, I was psyched. Decision made! I love trying to get a good laugh in before going to bed. Plus I knew that we would all be waking up early for the Giants game Sunday morning. I woke up at 5:45am Sunday hopped in the shower and was ready for our Giants tailgate party.
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We were psyched that the weather was much better Sunday for the Giants game. Artie drove, and it was the 4 of us, Roy and Margie, all together again. So many fun adventures I swear we laughed almost the whole way down there to East Rutherford, New Jersey. So many fun traditions and rituals with tailgating.
If you want side comedy, I went to Artie's minivan and he warned me at 6:45am "ugh Steve. I was chopping onions all morning yesterday for the sliders, my car reeks of onions. I said "Artie, are you seriously kidding me right now?" Artie then cracked up and said "oh no I forgot you either hate them or are allergic to them or both!" Between the onions reeking up the car, and me taking the rear passenger seat with the broken door, I joked that they were trying to kill me.
Artie and Margie's friends are all always so awesome at Giants tailgate parties. They went all out and put an entire pig in a smoker! I joked that there are no burgers and hot dogs at these tailgate parties, no way! They go all out at these parties. It's so great seeing the fun friends who we see every year going to the games. The tailgate party was a blast! Food coma!
Oh, then the game happened. Wow. Talk about an atrocious performance by the New York Giants. Every phased of the game they were awful. I just wanted them to throw it to their rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers who is on both of my fantasy teams. One of my games I did okay even though Jordan Love got hurt, and my other team? Well, they are doing about as well as the New York Giants did yesterday. Seriously. That bad!
Overall we had a great weekend. Thank you for taking the time to read my recap. Time to start planning next weekend!
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