This Epic Weekend was Awesome Girlfriend Megan's birthday weekend! It's always a challenging balance because Meg is low key and hates being the center of attention, while I'm trying to give her the best birthday possible and seeing as many of our amazing friends as possible. I think we struck a decent balance. This weekend I worked a bit, played a bit, and grilled two phenomenal filet mignon steaks on my grill in 19 degree weather.
We will start our Epic Weekend with Friday afternoon. Our besties from work Shawn Stinnett and Kim Eid took me and Meg out to The Cottage for Meg's birthday. We had such a terrific time. As wonderful as the holiday season is, I personally get very excited in January when we can get back into our normal "routines." Sometimes it's easier to see your friends after the holiday season hustle and bustle is over. Then we had a round of birthday shots for Meg's birthday which were very yummy. Success!
Friday night, I then had to get back to work to run the board for WNNJ for our iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. Will Ferrell and Conan O'Brien were both absolutely hilarious and did a great job keeping me awake which wasn't easy, as it aired from 11pm-Midnight. I was also able to get some paper work done with it being commercial free, so that helped at least.
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Saturday morning, I had in my mind that I wanted to take Awesome Girlfriend Megan on a new adventure. Even though I have been to this place a few times, Meg has never been to Alice's on Lake Hopatcong. I then saw online that they were closed due to the pending snowstorm. I came up with a backup plan. First I took Meg grocery shopping so I could make her a scrambled eggs and taylor ham sandwich Sunday morning. Whoops. Poor Meg. I took her to a grocery store right before a pending snowstorm. I must be the worst fiance ever! We survived the insanity and got what we needed. I joked that I even brought her basically to the bread and milk aisles.
We then went to Smokey's in Vernon which we haven't done in quite some time. We even ran into an old friend and shared some laughs along the way. As we were leaving Smokey's, the snow started and the temperature immediately started getting much colder. We agreed I'd have to start my electric grill right when we got home.
I absolutely LOVE my outdoor electric grill that Steve Andrews always picks on and calls "cute." When you live in the Condos or Campus as I lovingly call it in Vernon, or any shared dwellings you cannot legally do a gas grill. I always brag that my awesome electric grill is street legal. One negative to the electric grills are that they can take awhile to heat up, and in cold weather it can take much longer to get the temperature back up too. I knew I had a challenge ahead of me. I'm proud to say I successfully grilled the steaks in the 19 degree weather and both filet mignon steaks came out fantastic. Mine was pretty close to medium rare, and for me I always say Redder Is Better!!! What did we pair it with? Originally we were going to have a bottle of red wine with it, but wine's been giving Meg headaches lately. I might be purchasing a sulfite strainer in the near future for us and see if that helps. We decided on sharing a yummy stout beer that we purchased at the Newport Vineyard back in December. Simply perfect.
Meg and I were reclined together on my couch in food coma mode. So relaxed. Perfect. Then we start getting texts from our Bestie Jasen. He needed us to distract Brendan so he could purchase an engagement ring. We had no warning on this at all. Meg and I looked at each other and said "how are we going to do this? We text on our text thread with the boys everyday but we never actually cold call Brendan. What will we even talk about?" LOL. We then called and tried to distract him for a minute or two. He picked up pretty quickly what was happening. We are SO happy for our besties. Jasen and Brendan were there for me and Meg up in Maine when I proposed to Meg, and we in a way got to be there for them during their proposal. Jasen was the first friend I ever made here, the night before my interview over 6 years ago. We've been partners in crime ever since. Brendan is the one who took all of our engagement photos we did in Maine. We've only known Brendan a year and a half, yet can't even imagine life without him. Talk about making an immediate impact! Congratulations to the boys.
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Sunday morning I wasn't as successful. While I put on a minor grilling clinic in the cold elements, I am definitely rusty making scrambled eggs. Especially when you consider I was challenged with this even when we did it more often. I struggled cracking the first 4 of 6 eggs, but the last 2 went well. No shells in the bowl so we'll take the small victories. Meg was very patient with me and appreciated me trying hard for her. I think sometimes she gets a kick watching me squirm and fumble with minor tasks. I'm Program Director for 3 radio stations, yet struggle royally with scrambling eggs.
Sunday night time for birthday dinner where Meg is officially The Top Fan, The Cottage. We were able to take the kids out with us and we all had great meals, and shared many many laughs. Then the kids had The Cottage team sing Happy Birthday to Meg. We cracked up. I'm happy the kids requested it, because I would be in the dog house for bringing even more attention to Meg.
Monday I had a very successful Physical Therapy session with Amanda at Trinity Rehab in Sparta. We are making major, noticeable progress with the pinched nerve in my right hip...okay my CABOOSE. The EPAT, stretches and strengthening exercises Amanda and Keith are giving me definitely help make a huge difference. I'm increasing flexibility, mobility, strength, and in less pain. They are going to help me get back into running! I then went to a routine annual physical checkup and we are good. Woohoo.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We will certainly never forget our weekend. Time to start planning next weekend!
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