it's just not fair

as much as i love philly/city summer, there's just something about a suburban summer that can't be beat. i think it's the fresh air and driving with the windows down late at night and the perfect blend of stuff to do with ample green spaces. and the fairs. love me some fairs.

we ventured out to the sweet suburbs last week to visit our friend mary. we swam in her beautiful backyard oasis pool, played pool games (movie game! marco polo! make your hair look like martha washington!) and ate pizza & nutella brownies. i also ate a bacon-flavored dog treat because corrie told me she would buy me ice cream if i did it. spurred on by the promise of ice cream, i did it but spit it out almost immediately because that shit was far too chewy. besides, i'm a working woman. i can buy my own damn ice cream.

we then proceeded to pile into mary's suv and blast the radio and head to the local fair. we bingo'd (perhaps over enthusiastically), i got my ice cream (mint choco-chip hot fudge sundae!), played a tragic round of skeeball (mom, you would have been so disappointed), sang along with dueling pianos (this one was definitely overly-enthusiastic. people were staring. and probably thought we were under some influence. nope. just your average college students with extensive knowledge of 70's jams and absolutely no sense of shame), and felt extremely old in comparision to all the tweens running around. have you see what these kids are wearing? all the crop tops and daisy dukes? i was appalled. (please note my grandma outfit above. the ensemble really added to the whole 'disapproving old person' thing i was going for.)

at the end of the night, we all piled back into the suv with jimmy sleeping in the trunk. drove back to mary's, then back to philly. i fell asleep in the car with the warm breeze blowing in from the rolled-down windows. perfect, perfect summer night.

working that fire

best way to celebrate your independence? sneaking into space-age looking apartment buildings to see all the fireworks displays across the city & lounge on roof couches & act dangerously with sparklers. proud to be an amurrican, that's for damn sure.

h to the o to the m to the e

last weekend was baby brother's graduation party. i made the trek back to harrisburg - got stuck in crazy traffic on the way home, but thank god for turnpike scenery! i got to see my brother's band play for the first time. they played at this venue i used to volunteer at in high school - it was kind of really bizarre to go back there (and by myself). i felt like an old person. his band was really fun to watch and it was crazy to see kids in the audience who knew the words and were singing along. drew can jump ridiculously high and was super energetic. went out for beers with liz later. chowed down on some wings and nachos and washed it back with a micro-brew buckets. this is an aspect of grown-up life i really like. the whole going to high school venues by myself and feeling old part? not so much.

a bunch of family from pittsburgh came in to town for the party including my ridiculously cute baby cousin nick. we ate, we drank, we did pudding shots, we swam, we danced, we played games. standard fiesta stuff. you know how we do.

corrie's a grown up

'

corrie finalllyyy turned 21 last weekend. she's one of those summer birthday people we've been waiting around for. we went to pat's for pre-midnight cheesesteaks, sat around watching the time, freaked out when it was midnight, and went to a dive bar so co could enjoy her first legal beverage. mikeyaz was having some issues at pat's - in an attempt to conserve money, he didn't get a cheesesteak (his favorite) but he was going through some serious issues being around them. please note the fourth picture from the top, where he looks like he might die of cheesesteak deprivation.

the next night, corrie had a fourth of july party. imma be honest and say that wearing your standard christmas garb, in july, is not fun. it's just suffocating. we all danced a lot and played with sparklers and eventually stacy fell asleep with a santa pooh bear on the papasan. summer cute. christmas is a magical time, even in the summer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORRRIIIIEEEEE!

philly haps

GET READY FOR YO' BROWSER TO SLOW DOWN LIKE CRAAZZZAAYYY! I GOT MAD PICS UP IN HURRRR!

don't you just LOVE when i unload all my pictures on you at once? and like 95% of them are food? glorious. here's the long and short of it. IT'S SUMMER IN PHILLY! i am doing things! and by things, i mean eating! and sweating a lot! and seeing my friends and dranking dranks and falling more and more in love with philly as the days go by! notable points:

1. phileo yogurt owns me. toppings are a secondary owner.
2. made strawberry balsamic focaccia bread. it said to let it rise in a hot place so i put it in my roommates bedroom on the third floor of our house. pretty steamy up there. it worked out well.
3. also made ricotta cheese. because i was feeling like a pioneer woman. i even used the leftover whey to water my tomato plants (ups the calcium content!).
4. those same tomato plants i just mentioned? they're doing preettttyyyy well. a recipe calls for tomatoes? i just cruise out to my backyard and pick some. i'm in love with backyard grocery store.
5. backyard in general is pretty sweet. super nice setup that feels like a north philly oasis.
6. went to johnny brenda's with friends a few weeks back and danced my butt off to old school jams. also enjoyed the wide city specials (mexican beer and a shot of tequila.)
7. went to sketch burger in fishtown. oh sweet lawd. so good. got belgian fries with chipotle sauce and a cookies'n'cream milkshake that i split with my boyyyfrrannnn. the main attraction was a dr. pepper pulled pork sandwich and mikeyaz got a truffle butter burger. went into a food coma almost immediately. if you are anywhere near the philly area, get on your scooter or hoverjet and go there asap. so bangerang. my tastebuds pine after it on the daily.

so that's me! in a nutshell. eating good food and loving everyone around me. what about you? what are you doing? are you eating good stuff? i hope your summer bellies are full of treats and your feet are always dirty from cruising around on summer adventures.

twin dads

my dad shot this in high school. it's a panorama he took in several parts. he's the person sitting in both chairs. this is the kind of thing that makes me freak out about how awesome my dad is. my brother and i are super obsessed with this. click on it! make it big! it's incredible. also note how sweet all my grandparents furniture is. they still have most of those pieces. the chair on the fair right is from the cathedral of learning at pitt. no big deal.