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Boy this past weekend flew by for me!  Well, I do say that most every weekend, but this one was packed with friend meet-ups and recovering from late nights 🙂  It was nice to catch back up with good friends since we’ve been caught up with life and busy with cycling, school and work.  Sometimes it sure is hard to keep in touch with everyone, although I know that shouldn’t be an excuse.  Do you find it hard to juggle it all sometimes?  I sure do and I hope that my buds don’t think any less of our friendship.  So here’s to a great weekend catching back up with good friends 🙂  

The whirlwind weekend started Friday night when Kristen, her sis, another friend and I all went out to grab some small plates at a local tapas bar called Firefly to have a little late b-day celebration for me.  I had never been there before and it was a lot of fun!  Although it’s probably not the best place to go if you are hungry, it’s fun to order several different items and share.

We ended up ordering a pitcher of red sangria first of course!  It was nice and refreshing (Thanks to Kristen for the pictures!)

Before we ordered they brought out some tasty bread.  I didn’t have any though since I had a pretty large afternoon snack and wasn’t too hungry.

Each of us ordered some tapas which included . . .

bacon-wrapped stuffed dates (my fav)

stuffed mushrooms

It was a bit dark to photograph, but other items included a beet and goat cheese salad with sugar-crusted pecans, veggie empanadas and a marinated octopus dish (I actually really liked this one too).

After chatting it up for a bit, we decided to head to the Hard Rock to have a drink and wait till Vanity opened up.  My other friend, being the tequila connoisseur that she is, recommended we try some aged tequila.  I thought it was actually nice and smooth; not too shocking like most hard liquor lol And then the bartender proceeded to pour us another 1/2 shot of some more smooth tequila.  Oy, and we were ready for da club!

At this point I wasn’t feeling anything from the alcohol surprisingly.  Normally I’m a light weight, but since I started drinking on an already full stomach I had a delayed reaction I guess.  My friend proceeded to buy me another sweet shot and drink at the club, thinking I needed more.  Nope, not feeling nuthin . . . And after some more dancing she ordered another lemon drop shot . . .  ok I’m good, no more thank you! 😉

I’m not a frequent club goer, but I really enjoyed Vanity.  Even being a local, I’ve only gone to about 4 or so.  Being a local you really don’t go downtown much unless you have friends in town or want to play ‘tourist’.  The only thing I really enjoy when going to a club is dancing, lots and lots of dancing.  Vanity was perfect because it wasn’t overly crowded and they were playing great music.  It was a fun night, thanks ladies!

Kristen also got me a nice bottle of wine, aww I love personalized gifts!

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Saturday was mostly spent recovering from the night before and getting ready for a little dinner party we had planned with some good friends that we hadn’t seen in awhile.  We also got a new wine fridge to store our wine properly, since it’s probably not the best idea to let wine age in an 81 F house = /  We really like the new addition!

There were two other couples, one of which just got married and another that recently got engaged and will be married in October!  Very exciting!  But boy, I’m really feeling the pressure of marriage all of a sudden.  I don’t know I just want ours to be nice and not over the top, but we can’t really afford that much.  I honestly feel overwhelmed with it all.  I think Chris and I are still going to wait till Spring of 2012 after we both graduate and have time/money to plan.  Enough of that blabbering . . . on to the festivities and fun!

Usually when you come over for a dinner party at our house, there is always some kind of vino involved 🙂  Since we also just got back from Napa, we had even more that we needed to share.  Chris and I decided to play a little wine tasting game with our guests.  We opened up 5 bottles (4 reds and 1 white) and each person had their own sheet of paper with the name of the winery and tasting notes on one side.  On the other side they would have to guess which winery it was and also the grape type.  Whoever scored the most points got to take home a bottle.  It was a ton of fun!!

Here are the wines we ended up tasting:  (from left to right)  2008 Pride Chardonnay, 2008 Ritual Pinot Noir, 2007 Willow Springs Cab (can’t find this anymore anywhere), 2003 Fire Block Grenache (aged very well), and 2001 Twomey Merlot (ages very very well).

Throughout chatting and tasting I made some appetizers which included spinach-artichoke dip.  This is our favorite for parties and everyone loves it.  I usually add more spinach.

There was a cheese platter with 5-year aged gouda (great with fruity reds), parmesan, brie, grapes and honey.  I also put out some mixed nuts and dates.

Dinner was another crowd pleaser –> Broccoli Sausage Pasta <–  We can never get enough of this stuff!  With dinner we had the Pride Chardonnay that we also used in the tasting game.  It has a nice balance of oak, butter and fruit.

Most of the night was spent chatting away and it was a lot of fun to catch up.  I had another small glass of the Willow Springs Cab and Twomey Merlot.  We also got to see wedding pictures and showed everyone our vacay pics.  By 12:30am I was pooped, but we decided to play a game of UNO.  One quick game lasted about 1.5 hours of course and we didn’t say our goodbyes until 2am!  Way past my bed-time!

It was sure nice to see everyone again, especially since we all kind of live far away from each other.  Every time we get together it is so much fun, but sometimes it’s hard with cycling and everything going on with life in general to have extra time.  Cycling and being active can take up a lot of time and doesn’t really leave much room for drinking for me. It takes me awhile to recover and of course my training suffers.  I can say that while I probably won’t be drinking for a looong time after this weekend, we definitely need to plan these more often because keeping in touch with friends is sure important.

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In other news, it is freakin’ HOT here and has been reaching 108 F these past few days, ugh.  Hot weather makes me cranky and lethargic.  I’m sure I’m not going to like our next power bill, but I really can’t stand any hotter than 80-81 F in the house.  In order to get in some cross-training since cycling when it’s really hot is out of the question, Chris and I signed up for basic swim lessons!!! I still have to find a suit asap because they start this Saturday and go for 6 weeks! I haven’t been in a pool in about 2 years and don’t really know swim mechanics at all.   I’m hoping my inner dolphin will somehow come out and shine 🙂

I also tried bikram yoga for the first time after work today and OMG I have never sweat so much in my entire life!!! It was INTENSE!!!  It’s definitely not like your average yoga class.  There isn’t any relaxing zen music playing in the background and the instructor doesn’t do the poses with you, but calls out every position like an auction announcer!  I just tried not to focus on the fact that it was 105 degrees F in the room with very little breeze.  Wow, I could see how it could get addicting because you really can stretch, but I just don’t know about how HOT it was in there.  That is going to take some getting used to.  It was funny because stepping outside after class with the 100+ temps here it actually felt cooler!  When I got home all I wanted was a big, refreshing salad.

I got this avocado from the farmer’s market and it was absolutely blemish free and probably the best one I’ve had.  Isn’t it precious?

I made a quick salad with romaine, spinach, salmon salad, local strawberries, barley, goat cheese and a sprinkling of lemon vinaigrette.  It was just what I was craving!  mmm

Hope you all had a nice weekend and a good start to the week!

Do you find it hard to keep in touch with friends sometimes?  Does having an active lifestyle effect your social relationships?