A Piece of Italy

The other night after dinner, we walked over to Paolo's Gelato for dessert. It's been on our list of places to go for quite a while, and it did not disappoint.

Bo got kiwi and peach, which was really good but his tasted a little more like sherbert than gelato or even ice cream. I got the mint chocolate chip, and it tasted just like gelato should.

It was amazing. Although, I will admit the real thing in Italy is better. Probably because you're in Italy. I had never had gelato until we went there on our honeymoon, but I knew I would love it. We spent a day in Florence and the only thing I ate the entire day was gelato, from several different places. My favorite was stracciatella, which is similar to chocolate chip ice cream, but so much better than ice cream.

I'm so glad we finally tried Paolo's. Every time we've passed this place, I would always say "we need to go to Paolo's and get gelato" and Bo's response was always "we need to go back to Italy and get gelato". For now we'll just have to settle with Paolo's. Just a short walk away from home, it could turn out to be pretty dangerous!

Saturday at the Park

Every Saturday I play softball in a league at Piedmont Park. This was the beautiful view I had of the park and the city in the background while walking to our game this past weekend.

The iPhone camera doesn't really do it justice.

My friend Melissa took her puppy Max to play in the park during our game, and graciously took Molly with her too. She took some great pictures of them playing together. Max is a month older than Molly, but for as long as we've had the pups Max has always been (and probably always will be) double Molly's size. She doesn't seem to realize this.

These two have so much fun together.

Afterward we came home and rested. They were such good little puppies.

And when they sleep, they like to cuddle.

It was such a fun day. We were all exhausted, so we spent most of Sunday on the couch :)

My Half-Birthday

Last week we decided to stay in Friday night and make something new for dinner, which we try to do once a a week or so. I realized on Friday that it was my half-birthday and we needed to celebrate! It really doesn't take much for us to create an excuse to celebrate something.

I love my birthday. I always have. Especially because late January was an awesome time of year for a birthday. The school semester had just started, there weren't any tests or projects due yet, and no one was ever on vacation. It was the best. That is... until I grew up, graduated college, and got a job.  As a CPA, I quickly learned that late January was quite possibly the worst time of the year to have a birthday. For the past four years, my birthday just has not been the same. In the heart of busy season, I was always working at least 12 hours day (even this past year when my birthday was on a Saturday), and two of the last three birthdays I was also traveling for work. That said, I believe I have a valid reason for my enthusiasm and need to celebrate my half-birthday.

We enjoyed a delicious asian grilled chicken dinner made by Bo. My favorite part of the meal was actually the artichokes we made for an appetizer. We love artichokes but have never been able to get it to turn out just right. We changed up a couple things, and these were by far the best we've ever made. They were also easy, cheap and healthy - a great combination.

We've tried grilling and steaming them before with little-to-no success, so this time we boiled them. Here is our very simple recipe:

Ingredients:
2 artichokes
1 lemon, cut in half
Black peppercorns
Ranch (for dipping)

Cut off the tops of the artichokes (this was new and seemed to help them cook easier)
Place peppercorns inside the leaves
Put the artichokes and lemon halves in a pot of boiling, salted water
Cover the pot with a lid and boil for 40 minutes
Let them cool for about 10 minutes. Then peel off the leaves, dip in ranch and enjoy! We did.

We also enjoyed an excessive amount of wine. It's hard not to when a bottle only costs $2.59. You can get a whole case of this stuff for just $36! Yes, please.

Two buck Chuck. It never fails

It was such a great night, and Bo even let me pick a movie to watch with no veto power. Obviously, a chick-flick. I'm pretty sure I will continue my half-birthday celebration every year from now on. And I very much look forward to next year's actual birthday, since for the first time in my adult life I will no longer be in busy season :)

Growing up

While at Blue Angels weekend, Sarah and I realized that we were apparently the only girls our age who still had our belly button rings in. This came as quite a shock to some of our friends who had removed them years ago. We just weren't ready to part with ours, and quite honestly we just hadn't thought about taking them out. Sarah has had hers since she was 16, courtesy of what I'm sure was a stellar fake ID. I got mine a few weeks after starting college, in my new-found freedom from my parents.

Fast forward a decade later. We still thought it would be weird to part with them, since neither of us had taken them out since we graduated college. But we decided it was time. We had to do what every sensible 27 year old should do: we went shopping.

That's right, we got new "adult" belly button rings!

We went to Kolo in Little Five Points.

It was an interesting crowd. We didn't exactly fit in (as in, we had less than 20 piercings each so we did not fit in at all), but we found what we were looking for. Plus it was so much more grown up than going to Claire's, where I bought all my previous rings back in college.

Check 'em out!

I tried to find ours on the website since I don't really want a close-up of my naval on the internet...

Mine

Sarah's

I know, I know. They are practically identical. We might as well have gotten exact matches with "BFF" engraved in them. Because that would have been really grown up of us and all.

Farewell, funemployment

For the past three weeks, Bo has been enjoying life as a house-husband. That will (finally) change today when he goes back to work and starts his new job. His timing worked out really well when he put in his two weeks' notice, since he had just finished up all his current client work and his manager didn't want him starting anything new. So his last two weeks of work consisted of staying at home to play with Molly and watch TV. He had already intentionally scheduled a week of "funemployment" in between jobs, which he didn't really end up needing after two previous weeks of relaxation. But he certainly enjoyed it and ensured me that retirement will be fantastic...many, many years from now.  I will definitely miss coming home to dinner being ready every night. But, as it turns out, we would prefer two paychecks instead of one. So back to work he goes! I am very proud and excited for him. Good luck, Bo!

Braves vs. Nationals

Saturday night we went to the Braves games against the Nationals with one of my former co-workers and his girlfriend. The weather did not look too promising earlier in the week so we didn't bother buying tickets in advance, in case it rained and also because we figured the stadium would be pretty empty against the Nationals. Big mistake. Apparently when the sun came out and it was finally less than 90 degrees outside, everyone else had the same idea as us. It was probably one of the most crowded games we had ever been to! After spending 30 minutes in the ticket line and realizing that all the decent seats and cheap seats were sold out, we really wished we had bought them online in advance. That is, until we found out you can get a student discount when you buy them in person. So glad we got a brand new UF ID cards just days before graduation.

It turned out to be a gorgeous night at Turner Field. Our seats were not great for watching the game, but we did have a fantastic view of the city.

The previous night's win was #10,000 for the Braves.

By the 6th inning the Braves were down 5-2, which was the final score. It was not a very exciting game until the bottom of the 8th when a man came running onto the field in a wedding dress! The cops came running out, tackled him to the ground and arrested him. It was pretty awesome.

We couldn't figure out why someone we do that, why he had a wedding dress/ where he got it from, why he decided to wear it, how he got it into the game, how no one noticed him before he got down on the field.... so many unanswered questions.

Blue Angels

Last weekend we went down to Pensacola for Blue Angels weekend. Bo and I had never been to this event, and our friend Christy from Gulf Breeze said we couldn't miss it. She really had to twist our arm... we said yes almost immediately.

We started off with a few too many Diesel Fuel's at Flounder's, our favorite bar on the beach.



Me and Sarah (my BFF, HLP and former roomie)



Friday morning Christy's dad made a huge breakfast for all of us - pancakes, bacon, sausage..the works! After recovering from our breakfast-coma we ventured outside to the backyard...

We spent all day on the jet ski, tubing, boating, and swimming. It was a blast!

That evening I met up with Katrina and her boyfriend, Adam, for dinner and drinks at Fish House. Love these two!!

We all took it easy on Friday night, since we were leaving the house at 8am the next morning. Her dad and another friend of hers took us all by boat to setup shop for the day. We had plenty of beer...

an odd assortment of floats...


In case you forgot her name, it's on her hat




The largest raft I've ever seen


and we even had floating coozies for our drinks. Nice touch, Christy!



Floating flamingo coozie - a new favorite!



Weekends like this makes these two landlocked-Atlantans realllly miss the water and all things Florida.

*Most photos hijacked from various facebook accounts.

Our 2nd Anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. Bo enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home while I was at work. I came home to - surprise! - a clean kitchen and all the laundry put away!

We do not buy each other anniversary gifts. After 11 years together it's difficult enough to think of Birthday and Christmas gifts. We decided last year that we will follow the traditional anniversary gifts and pick something to get for both of us (well, more so for me). Year 1 was paper, so last year we ordered monogrammed stationery and bought tickets to...something (we can't remember). Year 2 is cotton, and we are having our linens monogrammed - do you see a theme here? I love all things monogrammed. As a bonus gift for me, Bo also decided to clean the kitchen with cotton towels and then put away a massive pile of mostly cotton laundry that has been sitting out for quite a while. I loved it.

To celebrate, we enjoyed an amazing dinner at Bacchanalia, one of Atlanta's top restaurants.

We feasted on lamb, pheasant, cured meats, cheeses, desserts and of course wine, champagne (me) and cognac (Bo). The chef brought out mini-courses in between each main course which was a nice surprise and we got to try things we wouldn't normally order - such as cucumber soup, pastries, pressed watermelon, tarts and breads. I rarely take photos of restaurant food, since we tend to devour it before I have time to even think of taking a picture. We really enjoyed our meals, though I'm not sure we will go back with those kind of prices!

I can't believe that two years ago today we were unpacking from the wedding and re-packing for the honeymoon. Sigh. I wish we were still on that trip...

Rowboating in the Borghese Gardens, Rome

Cruising the Mediterranean

Boating to the Blue Grotto in Capri

After a little reminiscing, we spent the rest of last night's dinner planning our summer vacation for next year - perhaps on or around our anniversary. We have a running list of places we want to go, though after each trip we take, it only seems to get longer. Right now our top destinaton is most likely an Eastern Mediterranean cruise, but who knows where we will end up.. we have plenty of time to figure things out before next summer rolls around.

I am looking forward to many more anniversaries, meals and vacations to come!

Jumping on the bandwagon

I love reading blogs so I figured I might as well jump on the bandwagon and start one of my own. I have friends and family all over the country (and some across the globe!) so hopefully this will make it easier to keep in touch with everyone. Plus, I don't have the best memory so I think it will a fun way to keep track of all the things we've done and places we've traveled. 

A little background on the blog title...

I would say a lot of people have a small group of best friends who are all extremely close. I, on the other hand, consider myself a "floater"... meaning I am lucky enough to have several really good friends in these groups and I tend to float along from group to group. I'm hoping this blog will help me stay in touch with several of them. Despite being a floater, I've had one constant best friend for over 11 years who I am now proud and blessed to call my husband :)

A little background on us...

Bo and I both grew up in West Palm Beach, FL. We met in high school math class (typical accountants!) and started dating when Bo was a freshman and I was sophomore.

We both grew up huge Gator fans and went on to college at the University of Florida -- go Gators!!

After graduation, we moved to Atlanta and took jobs with firms we had previously interned with here in the city. What seemed like an eternity later, we got married on July 11, 2009.

Most recently, we both got new jobs and a puppy beagle named Molly who we absolutely adore.

Bo's family now lives in North Carolina, just a few hours away from us.

My parents still live in West Palm, and my younger sister and brother are now in college at UF.

Bo and I love to travel, eat, and drink - which will comprise a majority of my posts. Enjoy!