so you think you can narm

i'm a huge fan of the fox reality show so you think you can dance (SYTYCD). i've watched all five seasons and look forward to it every summer.

well this season on SYTYCD there's a contestant, evan kasprzak, that has an uncanny resemblance to a famous local blogger, (i hear he's been in cleveland magazine...).

a couple weeks back i was watching the show with my roommate the klutz, evan kasprzak was on screen and i had an epiphany.

"ummmm, oh my god", i said to the klutz, "evan and narm look A LOT a like. ya know, like if narm could dance and evan didn't use jazz hands so much."

we both busted up laughing imagining narm dancing a broadway number like this, and from there on out anytime evan was on screen we couldn't help but think of narm.

i've decided that they were separated at birth.

a serious yet smirking evan(left) and narm(right)

evan and narm smiling for the camera


button downs and profiles are all the rage on stage



evan and narm both rockin' a suit (jazz hands optional)

i think i've proved my point right?

it's uncanny.

but now after searching for all the above images to share with y'all i'm officially done looking at pictures of narm for oh, ever.

have a good weekend kids, and don't forget to go to krusty's this weekend!

a possum ate my baby

two posts in one day people, which is never going to happen again, but i have a story to tell that just can't wait till tomorrow.

this morning i got in my car and it took a really long time to turn over, and when it finally did it was just put-putting along. i couldn't get it to accelerate and all sorts of check engine, transmission, tire pressure lights were going off.

so i pulled back into my spot and my parking lot attendant came over to see what was going on. not being a car person and already annoyed at the situation i flatly said, "who the fuck knows".

well we opened the hood and this is what we found.

insert yelling, curse words, kicking and more yelling

foam insulation is fun

so basically an animal, which i later found out was a possum, ate my car.

ATE MY CAR!!!

since when are there possums running wild around downtown cleveland? this shit only happens to me.

well maybe not only me because it also happened to the overnight parking attendant who caught the possum in action late last night on her car and shooed it away. well, she shooed it away to my car where it snacked on my wiring.

awesome.

so as i stood on west 9th shaking my fist in the air and watching my car, my baby, get towed away i received an email from your friend and mine, narm, who had just seen my twitter update whining about an animal eating my car and it read as follows:

what the hell eats the wires of a car? was it a blind pig? or a winking lizard? or a flying monkey? or a velvet dog?

you totally aren't in the mood for joking about this yet, are you?

now this email, while funny, is just downright hilarious for us clevelanders because all of those animals he mentioned up there are all actual names of bars in my neighborhood - he's ridiculous.

while the email made me laugh, i still have no idea how much i'm going to have to put on my credit card to make my car work again which makes me sad. here's to hoping montrose volvo is an honest dealership!

anyways, it happened, a possum ate my baby.

but i have more important things to worry about right now, like how many beers i'm going to drink at the dave matthews band concert i'm going to tonight at blossom...

krusty's summer sauce camp

i've said it once and i'll say it again krusty's summer sauce camp is the best event of the summer in all of cleveland.

celebrating the 18th year of raising money for the malachi house, krusty's is taking place this saturday august 1st at the whiskey island marina from noon till dusk.

tickets are $40 in advance and can be purchased at the following locations around cleveland:
-brennan's colony
-ironwood cafe
-kenilworth tavern
-merry arts
-rocky river brewing company
-the clevelander
-whiskey island marina

you can also purchase tickets at the gate for $50 day of the event.

so those of you that aren't familiar with this fantastic day-o-fun you're probably wondering what does $40 gets you?

well besides helping a very deserving charity, you get an all-you-can-eat buffet, adult beverages, 2,000 fellow clevelanders to party with, a beautiful day on the lake and live music from madison crawl and wrong way (a sublime tribute band).

there will also be a krusty's kornhole tournament starting promptly at 2pm with a $1000 purse. if i had any skill at kornhole i would enter in a heartbeat. maybe they can have a beer drinking contest for a $1000 purse next year...

basically what all the above information boils down to is a damn good party for a damn good cause and i GUARANTEE that if you go you will have an amazing time - promise.

so what are you waiting for?

it's going to be beautiful on saturday - call your friends, make some plans and i'll see you there where i'll greet you (if you find me) with a big sloppy kiss of gratitude.

me (with long hair) at the legendary krusty's in 2007

MWAH!

the board of love

girl meets boy, boy meets girl.

girl falls in love with boy, boy falls in love with girl.

girl and boy live happily ever after - the end.

hey, it could happen that easily right? but sometimes times it doesn't.

sometimes it takes FOREVER to find your match. sometimes you need a nudge in the right direction, sometime you need a whole committee of friends to find your soul mate, and while you're at it you might as well turn said committee into a board.

a board of love to be exact.

well three of my friends, cami thompson, jenny chalk and carrie hooks (pictured above) did just that and their board of love is featured in this month's cleveland magazine in an article ironically written by another friend of mine rebecca meiser.

the article gives some history of the group which started nearly two years ago after cami saw a good morning america segment where advertising executive donny deutsch gave a frank piece of advice stating that, "if you really want to get married, you need to treat your love life like your professional life".

basically deutsch recommended getting together a group of friends, your own "board", to guide your dating decisions while holding you accountable for your actions.

blow off that perfectly dreamy and chivalrous real estate agent for the too into himself and flighty hipster? your board of love is going to call you out on it.

according to the article cami's board of love is legit, they have a "office" (panini's on coventry), business cards, guest speakers, assigned reading and they also give her plenty of assignments like lingering in the cracker aisle of the grocery story.

for a period of the time the board thought that their hard work had been a success after cami had met a certain boy and were thinking of taking applications for their next success story but unfortunately (or fortunately?) the board of love is still together working towards the cause that is cami.

now while i think this board of love concept is valid and has some truth to it, i also find it hilariously tongue-in-cheek and knowing these girls personally, they do too. but not everyone feels that way, as they are getting beat up in the comments on the cleveland magazine site as well as on jezebel.com who also picked up the story.

but what do you think? is this something you would consider?

should i start gathering my own board of love or keep searching on my own?

somehow TPing and mary poppins just don't go together

so i "took it easy" this weekend.

which according to me equals going to the movies, going to the theater, going out to dinner with family and friends and TP'ing a good friends house.

yes, you read that right, i TP'ed a house.

i've NEVER TP'ed a house, not in high school, not in college (well, maybe once in college), but i never imagined that as a 29 year old professional adult i would toilet paper a front yard.

friday i headed home to see the ugly truth (way more HILARIOUS than i imagined, go see it) with my mom, cathi and leigh and then to pete's grill and pizza for dinner with oh, the entire greek community of canton, and then went to legend's in north canton with biscuit to meet up with some of my NC friends.

right when biscuit and i got there the guys were talking about TPing our friend gamble's house who had just left to go to another bar - little did i think a group of 8 of us would actually end up doing it.

editor's note: no one was harmed pulling this prank on our friend who now knows we did it, it was harmless and NOT malicious. kids (jenna), don't try this at home.

TP'ing tip: two ply is better than one ply

put your back into it

oakes posing with the fruit of our labor

gamble now knows it was us and not some high school kids from his neighborhood, and promises revenge - we better watch out.

saturday got my hair did where i saw this and was traumatized for the rest of the day, and i also, wait for it.... got my license renewed - finally. saw harry potter and the half-blood prince with my mom, jenna and david. the movie was good and an important piece of the harry potter storyline but not my favorite movie of the series by any means.

after the movie went to papa gyros for saganaki and lamb - can i be any more stereotypical greek? i might as well have a greek flag tattoo on my right calf.

sunday night i went to dinner with muffin, beaver and MOB at lolita before checking out Mary Poppins at playhouse square courtesy of MOB, thanks my friend. it was cute, LONG but cute and i was totally excited to see this musical as i played mrs. banks as a 3rd grader - i told you guys i was always a "drama queen".

anyways.

that's my "taking it easy" weekend filled with movies, theater, dinners and a little TP'ing thrown in for good measure.

have a good upcoming week kids.

don't stay home this time, no don't stay home.

there just aren't enough hours in the day to work, play and BLOG.

it's a serious conundrum - if i don't go out and be social this blog would be just boring. but going out and being social takes away my time to write.

it's hard being me isn't it?

here's last night in a nutshell

-light bistro in ohio city for happy hour with cybil (new nickname, not new friend), my famous friend moe and her boyfriend.

-FYI light bistro has an amazing happy hour - TEN DOLLAR BOTTLES OF WINE! you're welcome clevelanders for dropping that little gem of knowledge on you.

-maproom with too many friends to list.

-it was a fun night out in my neighborhood with w 9th closed off for the downtown cleveland alliance sponsored sparx thursday night live going on for the next three thursday's in a row.

-met a cleveland's a plum "fan" - wait, do bloggers have fans? if so she's one of them and was so sweet and adorable. i wish she lived in cleveland so we could be friends - hi janiece!

-went to dive bar for the first time in literally two years. it's just not my scene, i'm too old, yo. but some of my guy friends are in a skeeball league there on thursdays so it looks like i might be making some random thursday night appearances in the near future. oh, and they have half priced drinks on thursday's HALF PRICED. again, you're welcome clevelanders for dropping that gem of knowledge on you.

oh to be young(ish), single and living in the city.

i wouldn't have it any other way.

have a good weekend everyone!

rain, rain go away

it rained in cleveland yesterday.

it'll probably rain today as well, which is fine when it means that i don't have to water the potted plants on my deck, but it's not fine when i have to walk around in it.

you know how you feel gross after you've been rained on?

well i don't get it.

rain is supposed to be little drops of deliciousness from the heavens, clean, pure and untouched.

and if the above statement is true, why in the world does one feel like a drowned rat after being caught in the rain for even the shortest amount of time.

walk ten feet in the rain - instant drowned rat status.

walk a block in the rain - noah better build the ark.

why can't rain be more like a fresh clean shower instead of a swamp bath?

i'm NOT only happy when it rains - i'm gonna go ahead and blame it on the rain.

(yeah, yeah)

20sb blog swap 5.0

welcome to the 5th ever 20SB blog swap!

today you'll be reading a post from the lollygagger who writes the chicago based blog Blah, Blah, Blah over here on the plum and you'll be able to read the post that i wrote for her blog by clicking here.

i talk about my friend ms procrastination so you know it's worth checking out. read me.

now, onto the lollygagger's post.

When I first found out that I’d be swapping blogs with cleveland’s a plum, I was like CRAP. Not only does she have a gazillion (I’m just estimating) people who love and follow her, but she’s also funny. Welp, I’m screwed since I tend to write over and over about needing a FT job (That’s not funny. Anyone in Public Libraries? Help!) and how I get fortune cookies that say: I’m struggling and it shows.

Sooooo. I thought I’d go with the good ole 2nd date story. Ya know the one where I’m crying beforehand for other reasons. Crying is an awesome way to get yourself psyched for a date.

So I picked the place. We met at Bin36, which is basically a nice restaurant/wine place where you can either eat or just do the whole bar thing. We did the bar thing. With the lovely help of Jessica, I decided to do wine and cheese flights. Nice. Simple. Except for the fact that when we got there he said: I don’t really drink wine. I’m more of beer person. Wait. What? I’m actually a beer person myself, but who says that? Not even in a funny way.

Next. He gave me a rundown of reasons he didn’t go to the local music fest (Pitchfork) which included short sets and crowds. I’m not a big crowd person myself, but I absolutely LOVE music. I just kept thinking, if he’s complaining and it’s only the second date, then what’s next? Saying no to zoos (I like zoos) because they smell? Or no to swimming in a lake because it’s dirty. (Ok well, others may agree on that last one. There’s a big lake by me and I like to play in it. I can’t help it that stuff like that doesn’t bother me. And yes I am clean. Most of the time.) But all I know is that I need to find someone who’s a little more go with the flow or laid back, but also someone who takes the bull by the horns and makes the plans and is up for anything. They’re out there, right? Pretty please? Le sigh.

So, to be fair, the time and conversation did fly, and I did have a nice time, but I’m looking for something different, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

And no. I’m not picky. I didn’t even complain when I had to pay for the tip. Twice.

So, how many chances do you give a guy? One date? Two? What are your deal breakers?

cleveland bike riding bar crawl and taste of tremont recap

so much to write about.

i just got home from a very fun blogger dinner at the greenhouse tavern with my fellow cleveland bloggers allison, michelle, amelia, and new blog friends devra and sarah who were road tripping through our fair city en route to the '09 blogher convention in chicago.

as always we were taken very good care of at the greenhouse, with ample amounts of food (try the new gnocchi dish for something amazing) and great company (i love my blosse) i forgot about how ridiculously tired i was from this past saturday and sunday debauchery.

when i wrote this post sunday night i was pretty much deliriously tired and unable to form a full sentence and here's why:

saturday afternoon when i was supposed to be at a wedding i participated in a bike ride patio bar crawl that my friend cubby organized instead. the concept was pretty literal to the title we road our bikes to various patios in cleveland for a beer, or five.

if you followed me on twitter this weekend you got all of my location updates but for the rest of you the route that myself, muffin, cubby, martha, hatchel and court took is as follows.

1. left from my apartment downtown with court and hatchel riding to southside in tremont. ate some lunch and i discovered the stupid good leinenkugel summer shandy. three beers at the first stop is always the best idea.

2. biked to the harp for more leinenkugel but this time it was of the summer wheat variety that we ghetto made into the summer shandy by adding lemonade. we knew what we wanted. it was here that we also learned that muffin "keepsherbikelockedup"

court, hatchel, cubby, martha and muffin on the harp patio

3. headed to stone mad pub, which is beautiful by the way if you haven't checked it out - where we made friends with a gentleman named vinnie (i think?) and where the following picture was taken.

cubby, martha, vinnie (?), muffin, court and hatchel biking it up

4. next stop reddstone in battery park where we drank more, grabbed a snacky and had out first shot of vodka. at this time i think we were all getting a little loopy and i thought it would be a great idea to take a video while riding a bike.

here's the set up - all day we had been changing the words to the now famous youtube video i'm on a boat to say "i'm on a bike" - well that became the theme of our day as we tried to be drunken white rappers.

warning: there's a few f-bombs in this video, it goes with the song, and me almost falling off my bike. you'll have that, but i PROMISE i don't curse like this normally.




i'm on a bike.

5. up until now the bike rides had been fairly short, our butts were beginning to hurt but the alcohol eased the pain. the next stop had a bit longer of a distance attached to it though as we were starting to make our trek out west. the girls stopped at twist social club and the boys went to el jalapeno around the corner for shots of tequila.

6. this next ride made me want to shoot myself. not only was i now drunk but i had to ride my bike from twist to around the corner in lakewood which took 35 minutes. for those of you that know cleveland, you can understand my pain. but we made it, barely, and retired our bikes for the evening.

lesson learned, bike riding patio bar crawls are fun as hell but next time we need to stick to certain neighborhoods and not trek across town.

UPDATE: maxie made a request in the comments to see the map of all the bar locations and how far it actually was - you can view our bike route here!

by now it was 9pm and we got a late dinner at ATC, met up with more of our friends, watched some weird and creepy hermit crab race, drank multiple shots and had our ears bleed from a crappy cover band. right as "club ATC" was about to be in full effect we made a move to lakewood riviera.

for karaoke.

there were some rousing renditions of multiple songs from our group like cubby singing "how bizarre" and court singing "build me up buttercup" - but at this time in the night i think we were all lucky to be standing let alone carrying a tune.

drinking from 2pm to 2am will do that to you.

fast forward to noon on sunday and i already have a mimosa in my hand as we are at southside (again) celebrating julie's birthday.

the ladies at julie's birthday brunch

it was the taste of tremont this past sunday and in comparison to going to the event in years past this was by far the biggest turn out which is such a a great thing for one of my favorite neighborhood in the city of cleveland.

with stops at lago, 806, fahrenheit and the majority of our time being spent at the treehouse patios we didn't stop (again). i don't know how our old bones did it, but sunday turned into such an amazing day for us, so much fun.

muffin would make a great linebacker don't you think?

mitch, beth, lastic, brandon and erin on treehouse's patio

writing this post made me tired, yet happy, that the city i live in allows me to have such fun adventures with my friends no matter what damage it does to my bank account.

i love cleveland.

cleveland kicked my ass this weekend (in a good way)

*ring ring*

*ring ring*

*ring ring*

hi, you've reached the voicemail of alexa and clevelandsaplum.com. we're currently unavailable at the moment due to the ridiculous amount partying fun that we've been having over the course of this past weekend. we will be returning to our regular scheduled blog posting on tuesday. if you have any questions please contact alexa at clevelandsaplum [at] gmail.com or leave a message at the tone.

*BEEP*

miss cleo told me to write this post

i've always had a thing for astrology.

i also interpret dreams, and read my horoscope daily (i'm a cancer). numerology intrigues me, and when i was in college my friends and i would make nights out of me reading everyone's tarot cards.

my book shelves are filled with a mixture of chick-lit, music books, dream dictionaries, astrology and numerology books.

i'm in no way a medium, but i can't shake the fact that many of my "dreams have come true". i've been to a psychic, and while i think many of them are full of crap (ahem, miss cleo, ahem), i truly believe that a percentage of them really do know what they are talking about.

there's just something about trusting my gut feeling, my intuition and instincts that have never steered me wrong. i'm also slightly superstitious, am undefeated when it comes to predicting the sex of a baby, and i know that mercury rising isn't just a bruce willis movie.

i've played mash and silly fortune games my whole life for entertainment value. i mean who doesn't want to know the name of who they are going to marry in the 7th grade? so far i'm marrying, ben, bob, brian, brett and brandon - and that's just the B's.

last night while at the maproom with some friends the triangle/square piece of paper fortune teller thing came up - yes, that's the technical term for it. just see below to know what i'm talking about.

pick one, blue, yellow, pink or green...

as we were making it, well, page and lara were actually making it because i don't know how to fold it correctly, we were coming up with some excellent "fortunes" like...

-make out with the jerk
-bone a bum for 10K
-split your pants
-get laid tonight
-have your pinky toe fall off

lara just found out that her pinky toe is going to fall off.

the klutz, erin, me, lara, marcia and page - the fortune teller told us to take this pic

now i know that the paper "fortune teller" is a funny little game, but the other stuff i mentioned? i can't help but believe a little bit, it intrigues me.

so do you believe in astrology, interpreting dreams, numerology, etc? or do you think it's all just silly fun?

bring back the awesome sauce please

normally my days have a breakdown of the following:

85% awesome
15% annoyance

yesterday my breakdown was the following:

80% annoyance
15% disappointment
5% awesome

not cool.

i think the only way i'm going to get past the annoyances is to blog them out, and as my loyal readers you are obligated to read them and then comment telling me everything is going to be ok.

reasons why yesterday sucked:

1. i bought tickets to see the ultimate michael jackson coverband, Who's Bad?, on august 13th at HOB thinking the entire time that i was traveling the week before the concert not the week OF the concert. long story short, i'm going to be in arizona and i can't see my "favorite" band - hopefully someone will buy my ticket and wear a sequined glove in my honor. i'm looking at you narm.

2. i want to go see the DMB concert on July 29th at blossom but i don't want to sit in the lawn. i'm a ticket snob and to me it's worth the extra money to buy a pavilion seat. but not all my friends feel that way - stupid recession.

3. now, to piggyback off of the fact that no one will buy DMB tickets with me, my mom calls me this morning telling me that her office manager had just won two pavilion seat tickets to the DMB concert with a VIP parking pass (which is clutch at blossom), from a radio station in canton. but here's the kicker - SHE TURNED THEM DOWN - just cause she didn't want to go.... the humanity.

4. i'm supposed to be going to yet another wedding this upcoming weekend - a big fat greek wedding to be exact - we are talking 500+ people, and the last thing i want to do is go to this wedding alone. three wedding weekends in a row (solo) is tough, not gonna lie.

5. i'm a big fan the the aveda air control hairspray. i always have a full bottle at home and random small ones in my purses. well one of the small ones fell out of my purse in my car and i found it today exploded and stuck to my car seat. when i tried to pry it away, it left a big hunk of hard glue like goop that pulled up the color from my leather car seat. awesome.

6. network parking - YOU SUCK! i can't even get into it it makes me so mad.

7. i had to go to terminal tower to drop something off and you have to show your ID to get into the building. well i showed my ID and the lady at the counter said that i couldn't be let in because my license was expired which in turn made it invalid. WHAT? this isn't the airport lady. thankfully i talked myself out of the pickle but it was another waste of my time. (yes, i know - i need to go get my license renewed...)

8. i was pumped to plan my gap brand enthusiast party for all my friends and had picked the date of aug 8th. well some other fabulous friends decided to throw a party that night too and i can't take back the 8th and half my party now wants to go to the other party. i'll figure something out, but it's just an extra nuisance.

sigh.

but on a positive note my interview and podcast debut is now available for you all to listen to on the throwing quarters website. be kind to me though, i've never done anything like that before. but still, check it out.

so who wants to drink wine tonight?

alexa the cyborg

want a sure fire way to in one fall swoop make your coworkers laugh hysterically and want to slap you to shut the hell up at the same time?

talk like the cyborg/robot in the chi chi's salsa commercial below.

over and over and OVER again.




i want chicken and chi chi's.

i WANT chicken and chi chi's.

and then, when you want to grab some take out from your favorite lunch spot tastebuds repeat "i want tastebuds, i WANT tastebuds" over and over again.

all while cracking yourself, and only yourself up.

you have to watch the video to even have an inkling of what i'm talking about.

for whatever reason i do an excellent impersonation of the robot, i may as well have been the voice talent on the commercial - it's uncanny.

i'm thinking of letting people hire me as entertainment at parties and i'll only talk in the robot voice, it'll be awesome.

awesomely horrible.

i'll stop now.

good to know i'm still an annoying, immature child at heart merely pretending to be a savvy marketing professional by day.

this is how you wedding

i would like to consider myself a wedding attendee professional and each wedding that i attend has something special about it, something unique, something that i haven't seen done in a particular way.

making all of them enjoyable in their own right.

but the wedding that i attended this past saturday for my good friends anne (the giff) and chris kicked it up a notch for me because i have never been to an outdoor wedding ceremony and reception on the beach.

it (the wedding) had me at hello.

we gathered on the beach, clifton beach at the clifton club to be specific, for the short 15 minute (!) ceremony with the waves crashing on the break behind us. there ceremony flowed directly into drinks on the beach.

there was no schedule, no sit down dinner, no rules.

we drank sangira, ate when we felt like it, sat barefoot in picnic tables and watched the sunset, lounged around, danced and danced some more. it was a perfect evening with my friends and i'm so so so so happy for the giff and chris who are so in love and so happy together.

congrats anne and chris!!

an overhead blurry shot of the giff, chris and the groomsmen during the ceremony

MOB, foxxy, me, patti-o and muffin before the ceremony

a shot of the reception area - such a cool set-up and venue

bridesmaids beaver, jilly and blair 'bout to drop some words of wisdom on us

brian and foxxy who are so cute you want to pinch their cheeks, watching the sunset

anthony and patti-o and no she's not trying to hide that she's 7 months pregnant, ha.

me and muffin being awesome

the mr and mrs and bridesmaid beaver (where did those lei's come from?)

muffin, jilly, MOB, the giff, beaver and the drunkest boy on the planet tyler

now i would post the rest of my pictures, those that include the post reception party at around the corner in lakewood but those are a bit inappropriate and tequila filled.

which automatically means they're my favorite, but i'll keep those to myself.

here's to hoping that you all had as good a weekend as i did.

snobbery is the new black

i know that 99% of you think that i am a wonderful, beautiful, amazing, skinny, funny and perfect human being.

(sarcasm)

well it may be a shocker for you, but in all reality i can put on quite the pair of bitch pants.

and it's because of these bitch pants that i've been having this problem where if i don't know you, or if you don't know one of my friends, i automatically don't like you. it's like i'm mean or bitchy to a new person until that said new person proves themselves to me.

i believe that some cultures have defined that as being a snob.

i might as well wear a sign that says, "yes, i'm judging you".

but if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time you know that i'm the furthest from a snob - if i was how could i have so many awesome people in my life?

(confession: i bribe them)

now for those of you that know me well and love me you are shaking your head "yes" and laughing at your computer screen cause you know what a brat i can be because you've witnessed it firsthand.

but if you know me well and hate me you are shaking your head with your middle finger pointing at the computer screen.

(let's hug it out, ok?)

obviously i want this so called snobby side of me to go away and i'm actively trying to make this change.

for example there's no reason for me to give a dirty look to the girl that one of my guy friends brought to my party, she's probably a very nice person. in fact she IS a nice person because after a few hours of being a brat to her we end up bonding over a shot of tequila and become best friends.

so why do i have to start out with the cold shoulder? why can't i just be pleasant from the get go?

oh yeah, i know why - it's because i'm that awesome and you should have to prove yourself to be friends with me.

shit...

....and now we're back to where we started from.

eat, drink and be merry

i've dubbed this evening tipsy tuesday because that's what me, court, hatchel and the klutz are right now.

at about 4:30pm on tuesday court and i decided that we were going to drink wine on my deck and that i was going to whip us up a nice meal to enjoy.

flash forward to 7:30pm and i'm cooking dinner with a glass of belle glos pinot noir blanc (see right) in my hand.

so this evening i made a couple of my new favorite summer meals which not only are delicious but are ridiculously easy things to put together and i think you all should make them.

summer watermelon salad
watermelon (cubed)
feta cheese (crumbled)
red onion (chopped)
fresh mint (chopped)
balsamic dressing drizzle

i cut up a half a seedless watermelon as the base ingredient, covered it in crumbled feta cheese and chopped fresh mint leaves. i add red onion because i like it but i think it can be optional. finally drizzle some balsamic dressing over the salad (i use the whole foods organic 365 brand), and toss everything together.

i think the salad tastes better chilled adding the balsamic dressing right before serving. and i know it sounds like a completely random gathering of ingredients but it's SO GOOD. try it.



peanut chicken lettuce wraps
boneless skinless chicken breasts
t marzetti thai peanut dressing
sriracha hot sauce
minced garlic
salt and pepper
bibb lettuce
julienned carrots and cucumbers
crispy rice noodles

cut the chicken into thin strips and place in a bowl. add salt/pepper, a tablespoon or more of minced garlic, and sriracha to taste depending on how hot you like it. add enough peanut dressing to heartily cover the chicken and mix. let sit for a half hour or so.

while the chicken is marinading prepare the bibb lettuce wraps and cut the carrots and cucumber.

add chicken to an olive oiled skillet and cook - i like to make sure there is plenty of the dressing in the skillet to help it simmer. once the chicken is finished let your guests make their own wraps adding chicken with sauce to the lettuce wraps, veggies and crispy rice noodles to taste then enjoy.


i highly recommend this meal combination - make it, it's tasty!

after dinner on the deck i realized that i haven't chosen the winner for my stove monkeys t-shirt giveaway giveaway contest and decided that what better way to choose than through a video!?!

now i must be tipsy on court's famous sangria because i'm letting myself be video taped, so please excuse my lack of make-up, grubby clothes, tired eyes and my hair not being done but that's me tonight and it's what you're getting.

and thanks to hatchel, the klutz and court for their awesome participation.



congrats to the winner, you loved the excitement in my voice didn't you? now go pick out your shirt of choice at stovemonkeys.com

editors note: the jerk is WEAK

young at heart

while there are many perks to getting older such as being able to drink copious amounts of wine and have cheaper car insurance, there are a few things that i wish i could still do as an adult without getting looked at like i have three heads.

balance a spoon on my nose: i used to be able to do this as a child but i can't do it to save my life today. also, i may or may not have spent an hour today trying to do so.

jump on a pogo ball: i had a purple and gray one that i dominated in my garage that sat right next to my skip-it.

host a lemonade stand: this was one of my favorite past times as a child but i feel that as an adult hosting a lemonade stand could how you say, give off the wrong impression...

participate in recess: how perfect would it be if i could still take a half hour midday to play handball, swing from the monkey bars and kiss boys behind the gym.

nap time: i think my boss would get a little annoyed if i decided to saunter over to the couch across from my desk and start snoring and drooling for all our clients to see.

redeem my innocence: war? murder? rape? hunger? bills? global warming? yeah, none of those existed as a child, i think today if i just stopped paying my bills i would get into a bit more trouble than a 5 minute time out in my bedroom.

pick my nose: who am i kidding? i still do that.

not work: unless you have recently won mega millions, have a husband to support you and your children or are lucky enough to have a massive trust fund, it is generally frowned upon in society to not work - which sucks. cause i would much rather spend my summers outside playing at the beach.

play dress up: boa, hot pink lipstick and blue eye shadow, tutu, and a tiara. i'm talking pretty pretty princess mode in full effect, all while dressing my barbie doll to look like my twin.

what childlike thing do you wish you could still do as an adult?

this is how you weekend (again)

as i'm typing this sunday night from canton i'm overwhelmingly exhausted, fighting to keep my eyes open but still on a high from how wonderful this long weekend was.

thursday (my birthday!) was about as perfect a 29th birthday as i could ask for - full of "alexa time" during the day and family and friend time at night. and thanks again to everyone for the kind wishes via blog comments, facebook, email and twitter - i was like one big social media hug. my birthday dinner at the greenhouse tavern brought many of my groups of friends and family together - my work friends, college friends, family friends, blogger friends and my mom and sissy.

we took over the whole back mezzanine at the greenhouse and all had wonderful meals and cocktails. i'm in love with the cranberry infused vodka and would drink it by the gallon if in doing so wouldn't cause me to be considered a lush.

the best part of the meal though for me was the birthday cake. my mom called the day before and asked if it was possible to make a cake for me, chef sawyer happily agreed and the result was amazing. the whole party was licking their plates wanting more - i'm thinking this cake just might need to be added to the menu.

jackie, little sarah, sissy and me

ben, batch, matt, sean, salami rose and steve

erin, the klutz, court, muffin and foxx

tim, allison, laura, mike and narm

a blurry muffin, foxx, beaver and MOB

another blurry sissy, craig and c-rossi

after the wonderful time at greenhouse tavern we headed to the maproom for patron xo and additional debauchery. my favorite part by far being my mother giving narm shit for a guest post he wrote for me and a comment he made on a post about me getting a tattoo - it was hilarious. stepho (my mom) doesn't forget.

laura, mike, allison, narm and yours truly

after maproom only the strong survived going to anatomy for dancing. it was fun, but weird at the same time - a bit too packed for my liking causing us to go back to maproom but not before finding a lost weave on the patio.

friday i was how you say, tired. but i headed back to canton to take sissy to the airport sending her back to nyc. i took it easy friday night simply going to see johnny depp and christian bale in public enemies with my mom. it was a good but not great movie, i think i just had such high expectations for the film that i was slightly disappointed. i would still recommend you checking it out though.

saturday was the wedding of two of my good friends erik (sweet moves) and aly in canton. it was a beautiful service and a beautiful reception with many friends in attendance - it was SO MUCH FUN.

the new mr and mrs, aly and sweet moves

marc who caught the garter, sweet moves, aly and biscuit who caught the bouquet

shannon, me and j-birdie

after the reception and the multiple dance-offs between oakes and gamble everyone headed to gamble's house for an old school garage party which was hilarious because the cops got called and suddenly we found a group of 26 to 31 year old adults "hiding" in a garage. it was laughable yet semi fitting for the group of us.

a north canton kids group shot, stinks it was blurry (again)

after the garage party i crashed a biscuit's getting little to no sleep causing me to waste a beautiful sunday sleep on my mom's couch. but after this weekend? i think i deserved it.

back to work reality - have a good week all.

today is a good day

if you are looking for a daddy downer post today you have absolutely come to the wrong blog because i have nothing but awesome things to report.

actually, now that i think about it this is going to be the most sugary sweet happy post i have ever written for a few major reasons.

1. today's my birthday!! goodbye 28, hello 29 - let's go ahead and agree to make this a stellar year ok?

2. i'm 20SB's featured blogger!! <--- is a HUGE honor for me, because not only do i have some amazing company in my fellow featured bloggers, but with a member count of over 6,800 bloggers in 20SB i can't even mentally wrap my head around the fact that i have been given this honor. thank you so much to those who voted for me, seriously.

plus, i'm going to enjoy seeing that picture of my fat head on the 20SB homepage for the month of july.

3. i'm not working today or tomorrow which allows me to sleep in, go shoe shopping and get a manicure and pedicure.

4. i came home last night to a "loaded" birthday card from my yiayia and a bottle of champagne and chocolates from georgia peach and nameless - so amazing. although i wish georgia was here to drink the champagne with me.

5. i have amazing plans for tonight including a party with all my best friends and family at the greenhouse tavern where i will be drinking my face off and making bad decisions because i can do whatever i want to because it's my birthday.

i can't help but feel happy and loved today, it's like i have a permanent smile on my face!

and each and everyone of you reading this has had something to do with putting that permi-smile on my face today, and for that i thank you.

have a fabulous holiday weekend everyone - ALEXA OUT! (<-- that's for you jess)

[editors note: today is the last day to enter my stove monkey's t-shirt giveaway contest. comment here to enter!]