Crazy Weather, Beer Fest, and the Oscars

I'm not sure how many of you heard about the crazy weather that came to the East Coast at the end of this last week, but it was craaaazy.  We had a TON of rain, and then really crazy winds (50+ mph winds), and then SO MUCH SNOW.  The winds + snow were occurring in the late afternoon, so by rush hour everything was a mess.  It created a LOT of problems... Trees were falling on the highways, and a tree fell on a bus on one of the busiest highways around the Philly area.  It was chaos. Luckily I was working from home on Friday (I get to work from home every Wednesday, and every other Friday), so I was verrrryyyy thankful that I didn't have to try to drive in the chaos.  We lost power at our house at about 1pm though, so that was a bummer.  Luckily my work laptop was fully charged, and I was able to use my cell phone as a wifi hotspot, so I could keep working. 

Kevin's sister Mook was working kinda out near us, and she was going to drive to her parents' house or her boyfriend's house, but she saw on Google Maps that it was going to take over 2 hours to get to either place!!  So, she called Kevin and asked if she could come to our house, because that looked like only about 30 minutes away with the crazy traffic.  So Mook came over to our house on Friday evening!  Kevin didn't have too much trouble getting home, because he was able to take smaller highways that hadn't had any accidents, etc.  The three of us hung out all evening, with no power and no heat.  We were able to watch movies on laptops (they were all well-charged), and we just bundled up with layers and blankets.  We tried to get a fire going in our fireplace, but the wind was too insane and kept blowing the smoke into our house. So, unfortunately, we had to let the fire die out and just be chilly.  The power came back on at about 7:30pm, and we immediately cranked the heat and charged our phones and laptops, and I'm glad we did because we lost power again at about 9pm.  The power stayed off all thru the night until about 10am on Saturday morning, and it's been on since then!  We're very lucky, because a LOT of people are still without power.  Also, all of our trees behaved and stayed strong!  We are very relieved about that, because SO many trees fell down in our neighborhood or at least lost huge limbs.  Here are some pictures that I stole from a news channel in our area of the damage:

This is in Philly. 

This is that bus I was telling you about on the major highway (I-76). 

This is in Berwyn (where we live). 

This is Rittenhouse Square in Philly (it's a beautiful park, and it's right by where Timmy lives)

This is Wayne (the next town over from where we live). 

On Saturday the weather warmed up quite a bit so all of the snow melted, but the winds were still really crazy (only 40+ mph instead of 50+ mph though).  On Saturday afternoon we had a Beer Festival to go to.  We go every year to celebrate Michael's birthday, but we were thinking (and kinda hoping?) it'd be cancelled this year due to the crazy winds.  It's an outdoor festival that's held in tents... so that just sounded dangerous.  The Festival was still happening though, so we went, but we agreed that if it was too crazy we'd just leave. Well, we got there and the tents seemed to be pretty secure, but it was soooo muddy and gross because they had the festival on grass this year!  It's always on pavement, so we were not expecting the muddy swamp.  Also, they had sold WAY too many tickets and there just wasn't room for everyone.  They are going to be getting a STRONGLY worded email from me, that's for sure.  We ended up having fun, but it was really tough at the beginning. 

Timmy, Kevin, Me, Juliff, Michael, and Jen.

Today we've just been catching up on housework and we've also watched a few movies.  It is STILL crazy windy outside... So we're a little scared about our power, but so far so good.  We're keeping phones and laptops charged, and making sure our house is nice and warm.  If our power stays on, we will be watching the Oscars tonight!  I don't know why really, but I've always loved the Academy Awards.  I love seeing all of the dresses, and I just love seeing awesome movies celebrated. So, with that, here's my opinion on the Best Picture nominees (in alphabetical order):

1. Call Me By Your Name -  I did not enjoy this one.  It's about a 17 year old boy who has a relationship with his dad's assistant while they're in Italy.  So, Italy was beautiful, and the actor that played the kid did a great job, but if this wins Best Picture I'm throwing something at the TV.  It was an extremely slow movie, and parts of it were really weird.  I've heard that the kid (Timothee Chalamet) might win Best Actor, and he did do a GREAT job, but he doesn't get my vote because of the next movie...

2. Darkest Hour - Just watched this one today, and it is GREAT.  So amazingly good.  Gary Oldman deserves the Oscar for Best Actor FOR SURE, in my opinion.  If you haven't seen trailers for this, it's about Winston Churchill during WWII, when he's deciding whether to negotiate with Hitler or keep fighting in the war. Gary Oldman did such an amazing job, and if he doesn't win then I'm throwing something at our TV.  This one doesn't get my vote for Best Picture though...

3. Dunkirk - Amazing.  This should win for Best Cinematography for sure.  It was beautiful to watch.  It doesn't get my vote for Best Picture though, but I really loved it.  VERY enjoyable movie!

4. Get Out - I really loved this, and it blew my mind.  I'm so happy it's nominated for Best Picture, and I almost hope it wins, but I really don't think it will win.  Really great movie though, and it kept me thinking about it for a LONG time.  I'm gonna pull for Jordan Peele to win Best Director!!

5. Lady Bird - This was great, and the actress (Saoirse Ronan) did a great job. It takes place in Sacramento, so it was REALLY cool to see so much of Sacramento in a movie.  She did bash UC Davis which annoyed me a little bit, but I liked the rest of it a lot.  This doesn't get my vote for any awards, except maybe Best Supporting Actress for Laurie Metalf (who plays the mom).  She did a good job, but there are a few actresses that I would be happy with for the Best Supporting Actress award.

6. Phantom Thread - No desire to see this one whatsoever.  It looks SO boring.  If this wins Best Picture I'm throwing something at the TV.

7. The Post - This was great!!  Very fun and entertaining.  We really enjoyed watching it, but it doesn't get my vote for Best Picture.

8. The Shape of Water - I enjoyed this one.  It's funny, because all I heard about this one was how WEIRD this one was, but I didn't really think it was all that weird!  I thought it was very enjoyable and interesting. This doesn't get my vote for Best Picture, but I really liked it.  Octavia Spencer is another actress that I think would be great to win Best Supporting Actress. I think Guillermo del Toro will probably win Best Director for this (but I'm still pulling for Jordan Peele!).

9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - This one definitely gets my vote for Best Picture.  NO CONTEST, in my opinion. And Frances McDormand should win for Best Actress.  She's so amazing in EVERYTHING, but she really did such amazing work in this movie.  And there are two nominees for Best Supporting Actor (Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell) from this film, and I feel like one of them should win.  I'd prefer Woody, but they both did great. 

That's it!!  Sorry for the super long post!!  I hope you've all had a great weekend!!

Terracotta Warriors and The Dark Crystal

Hey guys!!  I will do a different post about THIS weekend (March 3-4), and an Oscars movie update, but this post will be about LAST weekend (Feb 24-25)!  Last Friday, we had tickets to go into Philly and see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Franklin Institute!  Fridays are always hard (we're always sooo exhausted on Fridays), but we really wanted to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit before it left the Franklin Institute (this is the last weekend for the exhibit!). So, we got reserved tickets for 7pm, and we just jumped on a train into the city right after work!  We got there a little early, so we walked around enjoying all the beautiful sights of the city, and we also stopped in a VERY fancy bar for a glass of wine before heading over to the Franklin Institute!  It was a really lovely way to unwind from the week.

Amor!

City Hall!  You know I love this building, and I always have to take pictures of it. 

City Hall again!  So pretty. 

The Terracotta Warriors exhibit was AMAZING.  It was even cooler than I was expecting.  If you don't know what the Terracotta Warriors are, here's a quick summary: They are terracotta sculptures of warriors that were buried surrounding the tomb of China's first emperor (Emperor Qin) to protect his tomb.  They were first discovered in the 1970s by a farmer, and excavation began in 1998.  Only a small portion has been excavated so far, but estimates are that there are 8000-9000 warrior sculptures, 130 chariots with 520 horse sculptures, and 150 cavalry horse sculptures all buried surrounding the mausoleum of the Emperor to protect him. An estimated 700,000 workers created these life-sized sculptures, and every single sculpture is unique (faces, uniforms, hairstyles, etc).  There's a lot more to read about these awesome Terracotta Warriors (how they were made, how they were buried, etc), but I figure that's a good short summary!! 

The front of the Franklin Institute! 

 

Ben Franklin in the front hall of the Franklin Institute! 

 So, that was an AMAZING Friday night!!  On Saturday we went for a really nice hike around Valley Forge with Guinness, but it started raining SO hard!  We got pretty soaked, but it was still fun.  After that we ran a bunch of errands (even though it was still pouring rain!).  On Sunday we met up with our friends Michael (the opera singer) and his fiance Jen to go bowling and see a movie!  The bowling alley near us has $1 games on Sunday mornings, so that's always fun. After we bowled a few games we went to grab lunch and a few drinks at a place by the movie theater, and then we walked over to the movie theater to see a special showing of The Dark Crystal (yes, the 1982 Jim Henson movie).  McGee and I loooove Jim Henson and pretty much everything he's ever done, and Michael loves Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, and Jen had never seen The Dark Crystal before!!  It was a really fun time, and it was so cool to see the movie on a big screen.

That was last weekend!!  I will do another post later today about this weekend and an update on the Oscar movies (and my hopes/predictions!). I hope you're all having a great weekend!!

NYC and crazy snow! And Black Panther.

Wow, the weekends have been sooo busy!!  Super fun, but busy.  Two weekends ago (Feb 17-18) I went into NYC with Kevin's mom, aunt, and sisters for a little daytrip.  We caught a morning train and were in NYC in time for a nice brunch!  The restaurant where we ate brunch (Lillie's) was AMAZING, and so darn cute.  One of the items on their drink menu sounded a little scary (see below!) - I did NOT have one, don't worry!! 

Here's the restaurant!  Our seat was way in the back by that awesome window. 

Here's the awesome window!  Such a cool restaurant. 

I can't for the life of me get this picture to rotate... I'm sorry!  But that drink is called "Death In The Afternoon" and it has sparkling wine and Absinthe.  Noooo thank you.  

Here's Kevin's sister Mook and her Bloody Mary!  

After brunch, we walked just down the street to see the broadway show Waitress!  McGee's mom knows someone who works for Broadway, and he gave us the MAJOR hookup on some amazing seats.  We were maybe 10 rows back from the stage!!  It was crazy.  I've seen the Waitress movie a bunch of times and I love it, so I already knew the plot, but I was sooo curious about how they would turn it into a musical!  They did a really great job, and it was such an amazing show.  After the show was over we started walking back towards the train station to head home, because we wanted to get home as soon as possible since some bad snowy weather was supposed to be hitting soon!  Our walk started out great, but after a few blocks it was starting to snow pretty hard!!  We got to the train station and were able to jump right on a train!!  It was amazing timing.  

You aren't allowed to take pictures during a Broadway show of course, but I took this right when we sat down so that you could see how close we were to the stage!  Isn't that pie backdrop cute??  

Here's the group of us!  Me, Mo, Kevin's aunt, Kevin's cousin, Mook, and Kevin's mom! 

Here's Mo (on the left), Kevin's Mom (dark coat in the middle), and Mook (right) walking back to the train after the show!  The snow was starting to hurt our faces it was coming down so hard!  

Mook didn't have a hat or hood!  We were totally making fun of her and kept singing "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match!" 

 

Madison Square Garden!  You can kinda see how hard the snow was coming down. The ground was too warm for it to stick at this point though. 

The train got us back to Trenton NJ at about 6pm, and that's where Kevin was waiting to drive me and Mo (Kevin's sister) back to our house!  Everyone else was going to Kevin's parents' house, but we wanted to get home as soon as possible because it was snowing HARD and it wasn't supposed to stop for the rest of the night!!  That drive home was SCARY, but MY GOODNESS was Kevin amazing!!  He was driving so carefully, and there was NO visibility whatsoever (one inch of snow was falling per hour!)  It was pretty scary.  But the highway traffic was down to one lane, and everyone was behaving themselves and going super duper slow.  So, the drive took a really long time (and we all needed a drink by the time we got home!!), but we were relieved to be home.  Mo was spending the night, because the next morning we were going to see Black Panther!!  By Sunday morning the snow had stopped and the roads were totally fine (all of the snow was melting, actually), so we were able to easily get to the movie theater!  Black Panther was absolutely AMAZING.  We all loved it. 

I also snapped a few pictures of Guinness playing in the snow on Sunday!!  He loooooves the snow so much.

That's about it for that weekend!  I'll do a separate post for this past weekend. It was another super fun one!! 

The Eagles won!! Valentine's Day!! And The Oscars...

Hey guys!!  So, the Eagles won their first ever Super Bowl!!  How awesome is that?!  It was such a fun game to watch (and slightly stressful... haha), and McGee was SO beyond happy at the end of the game. And McGee made sure to take off work on Thursday and Friday of this last week so that he could go to the Eagles Parade!  He met up with Timmy and Mo in the city, and they had a blast at the parade!!  I had to work that day, but it is CRAZY how many people at my work took the day off!!  I was one of like 4 people there, so I was BUSY.  I have a few pictures from McGee's parade experience!!

Super cool "Philly" skywriting! 

Mo, McGee, and Timmy! 

That's Jason Kelce! He put on one of the Mummers costumes. And his speech was epic if you have time to look that up. 

Valentine's Day is on a Wednesday this year!  Such a bummer.  I love when it's on a weekend, because then we can just chill all day.  We did some of our Valentinesy activities this weekend though!  We went bowling on Sunday, but OH MY GOSH it was crowded!!  It was a super rainy day, so I think that's why... But we bowled two games (I lost both of them... boo...), and then we went home and watched a horror movie!  That's one of our traditions.  We got "It" from Redbox and watched that, and then we made homemade pasta for dinner (another Valentine's tradition for us).  It was a lovely day!! 

The Oscars are coming up soon!!  I loooove watching The Oscars, and I can't really explain why.  It's just been a fun event for as long as I can remember, and it's something I look forward to every year. McGee and I have also been trying to watch the Best Picture nominees for the past 5 years or so (I think we only saw all of them one year though... but most years we see a majority of them!).  Here are this year's Best Picture nominees, and my thoughts on them so far:

1. Call Me By Your Name - I literally know nothing about this movie.  I think there's a kid in it?  That's about all I know.  Haha :)  I haven't even seen a trailer.

2. Darkest Hour - I know this is about Winston Churchill, but that's all I know!  I haven't seen a trailer yet.

3. Dunkirk - McGee and I saw this when it was in theaters, and we loved it!  It's amazing, and the cinematography was incredible. Great movie! 

4. Get Out - Oh my gosh you guys.  We are late to the game on this one, but we just saw this for the first time last week. And... holy shit.  That's all I can say about this one. It was SO GOOD, and it definitely stays with you!!  I am proud to say that I predicted a few of the "twists", but definitely not some of the others. Awesome movie. 

5. Lady Bird - I haven't seen this yet, but I'm soooooo excited to see it.  I've really really really been wanting to see this, and I've had multiple people tell me I'm going to love it. I know it takes place in the Sacramento area, and I know it stars Saoirse Ronan (who I looove... She starred in the movie Brooklyn a few years back), but that's about all I know so far!

6. Phantom Thread - This one seems super boring, and to be honest I don't really have any interest in trying to see this one.  I might try to watch another trailer or two and see if that makes me more interested... but so far nope. I know it stars Daniel Day-Lewis (and he's always amazing), but that's it.

7. The Post - I know this one is about the Washington Post, and I know it stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, and it's directed by Spielberg.  So, it's probably awesome, but I haven't really seen any trailers or anything for it!  I'm sure we'll try to see this one though.

8. The Shape of Water - I know this one is by Guillermo del Toro... and that's about it!  I've also heard this one is awesome, but I haven't even seen a trailer for it yet.

9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - I didn't even know the full name of this one (I thought it was just "Three Billboards"), but I know it stars Frances McDormand and Peter Dinklage... and I know there are three billboards... and that's about it.  I did see a trailer for this one, and it looked funny. I definitely want to see this one.

So, we've seen 2 out of 9!  And I think we only have a few weeks... So I'm hoping we get to 5 out of 9.  We will see what happens!  :)  I hope you're all doing really great, and I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Guinness is 5 years old!! And E-A-G-L-E-S!!!

Happy February, you guys!!  And yesterday was Groundhog Day, which also happens to be the birthday of a certain puppy!!  That's right:  Guinness turned 5 yesterday!! I can't believe our little guy is 5 years old... Where has the time gone?! We celebrated by playing a bunch of frisbee with him when we got home from work (frisbee is his favorite thing ever, and we try to play whenever the yard isn't muddy!), and we MAY have given him a few extra treats yesterday too. We spent our evening chilling on the couch with Guinness, and we watched the movie Groundhog Day!  I love that movie, and Bill Murray is just always amazing.

This weekend is the Super Bowl, and the Philadelphia Eagles are in it!! Wahooooo!!  Goooo Eagles!!  I will definitely be rooting for them, and the excitement in this city is so crazy and infectious. Plus, you all know I really hate the Patriots (and Tom Brady). I hope it's a really awesome game, and I hope the Eagles win!!  We are NOT going to go into the city or anything, because it's going to be total madness whether the Eagles win or lose, so we are going to stay home and make some good food.  We're going to make wings, and then we're also going to make some pulled pork!  We bought an Instant Pot with some gift cards we got for Christmas, but we have been too nervous (and busy) to try it out for the first time!  Tomorrow is going to be the big day where we make our first Instant Pot meal!

Last weekend was a very fun weekend!! On Saturday we went to Valley Forge (like 10 minutes from our house), and went on a long hike with Guinness!  The weather was very Spring-like and great, so we figured we should get outside!!  And on Sunday the weather was kinda crappy (rainy, but not too cold), but we figured that might be perfect to head into the city and go to one of our favorite restaurants for breakfast (Sabrina's Cafe), check out the new Yards Brewery, and go to the Philadelphia Zoo!  We have season passes, so we want to get some use out of them before they expire!  And we figured if it was a little rainy then it wouldn't be crowded. We put on our waterproof pants, waterproof boots, and our rain coats, and OH MY GOSH the zoo was so empty!!  There was no one there, and I think the animals were LOVING the peace and quiet! 

Guinness was very puzzled by the cannons at Valley Forge.

 

There's some cabins over to the right in the pic! 

Sabrina's Cafe!  They always have a themed Brunch Specials list, and last weekend it was Super Bowl themed!  I had the "In Foles We Trust".  But I was also tempted by the "Bleeding Green Chilaquiles". 

Kevin!  We had an awesome window seat, so we could check out all of the cool houses/buildings around the restaurant! 

After brunch we went to the new Yards Brewery in the city!  It's brand new (opened in November), and it's always SO packed but we were there kinda early and I think the rain also kept people away, so it wasn't packed at all! 

The zoo was so fun!!  This tiger was just chilling, and seemed super relaxed. 

But then it noticed us standing there.  Haha.  Less chill and relaxed.  We left shortly after this so it could relax again. 

A pretty red cardinal I saw in just a random tree at the zoo! 

The giraffes were super excited to see us!   

This adorable rhino was just scratching its horn on this big log for a long time.  I love rhinos! 

Then we went to the primate house and watched this baby gorilla for a looong time. She was so playful and active!!  And there were only two other people there, so we could just sit there for as long we wanted!  She was thoroughly entertaining. 

Papa gorilla was mostly napping while we were there, but he woke up for a bit to look around and check on everything.  There were two moms there (and two babies, but the other baby was just napping the whole time).

A picture I took of the city as we were leaving!  Such a fun day in Philly.