NKOTBSB in Cleveland

I literally just walked in the door from the NKOTBSB concert tonight at Quicken Loans Arena.

NKOTBSB = New Kids on the Block + Backstreet Boys

While I was very excited for the concert I'll be the first to admit that I was hesitant about the whole thing and if I was still going to enjoy the music that I originally loved over 20 years ago.

9 year old Alexa looooooooved boy bands, 31 year old Alexa, not so much.

Until I heard NKTOB's first notes...

I was immediately transported back to when the only thing I had to do in life was choreograph dance moves with my childhood friends to step by step and day dream about what it would be like to kiss Jordan Knight.

Thus was my life, and for three hours tonight thus was my life again and I couldn't stop dancing.

Yes, Backstreet Boys were there, but I'm 95% positive Nick Carter was flat out wasted on stage. You see, I never was a big BSB fan, by the time they were really popular I had moved onto jam bands and smoking things in college.

But that doesn't mean that in 2011 I wasn't singing along to their songs - both bands brought it tonight.

And when NKOTB sang tonight, they were singing to this girl....

10-year-old me (yes, that's really me) on my birthday with my totally rad NKOTB cake. I'm positive that I was the happiest girl on the planet that day, 7/2/90.

Thanks for the concert and memories guys, I'll never forget the image of Donnie's crotch thrusting like a Chippendale dancer on the jumbo-tron, it was a great time had by all.

NKOTB 4 EVA.

cleveland wine festival ticket winners

I had grandiose plans of writing about my very civic-minded themed Cleveland day that I had Tuesday but instead I decided to come home, eat watermelon, two coconut popsicles and watch the Real Housewives of New York City Reunion.

Talk about a mindset shift, right?

Instead I'm going to simply announce the winners of my Cleveland Wine Festival ticket giveaway....

Drum roll please.

Congrats to Amy Castellano (comment #32) and IDigSmartLadies (comment #5) who were both chosen via random.org because they both just won a pair of tickets!

If you could both email me at clevelandsaplum @ gmail.com to confirm you'll be able to attend, let me know what day (Friday or Saturday) and I'll get your names on the list.

I have special powers like that.

Didn't win? You can still buy tickets online or at the door for the Cleveland Wine Festival this weekend.

Happy hump-day, kids!

Because I love the Zone family so much...

Oh Zone's, how I love thee, let me count the ways.

1. You have given me countless laughs at the hands of Ms. Lzone herself
2. Who can resist the #zonesissytweets
3. Nina, Joey and Gianna - hello, cuteness!
4. My city councilman Matt Zone really cares now that I'm in his district
5. Two words, Aunt Beth

'nuff said, right?

So when it was brought to my attention that a Cleveland born and bred Zone cousin was in the running to win A MILLION DOLLARS from the Gain Smell Like a Million Bucks contest and needed some help getting votes I couldn't not help spread the word.

Jason Zone Fisher + friends have made it into the top 25 finalists out of thousands of entries by producing a pretty bad ass video and need your votes to get them their beyond rad prize of a million dollars. Literally, a million dollars.

To help them reach this goal we need your votes people, because looking at the other videos they have nothing on JZF. Plus, how adorbs is JZF's appearance on WKYC's Good Company?

You can vote daily thru August 1st when the contest ends and here's how:

Go to the Gain's contest page on facebook and allow Gain to access your information (mildly annoying but work with me here) and then watch and vote for the video labeled LOGAN B (their editor). I repeat, vote for LOGAN B.

Here's a direct link to the video too, if that helps.

My payment for posting this plea to help a Zone and a Clevelander win a million bucks is one whole drink to be purchased for me with JZF's million dollar winnings. I have a lot on the line here, kids...

So vote for Cleveland, vote for the Zone's, vote for the video labeled LOGAN B and do it for the USA! USA! USA!

Smell ya later.

Taking a break from Sunday Funday to blog, cause I can.

What is it about the summer that makes me want to do ANYTHING but sit in front of the computer on a Sunday evening?

Currently I'm taking a break from my Sunday Funday that has included breakfast at home with CK and his little one, brunch with my long lost friend/old neighbor Nameless who was in town for a hot second at Tremont Taphouse and some quality pool time at Lakewood Park (Foster Pool) with AJP, Lulu and Sarabot.

And it's only 6:05pm.... I'm thinking dinner on a patio with friends is in my future (update: went to Deagan's with CK, AJP and JV).

My weekend brought a way fun happy hour at Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City with too many friends to count and a visit at ABC the Tavern where I may or may not have pissed off a random bike hipster for commenting jokingly on his hipster bike.

Note to self: Don't piss off a hipster on a bike.

I wanted to be like, well i ride a bike too!! I even ride it to work!! I'm cool, I swear!! But then I realized he would probably chastise me for having a hybrid instead of a road bike and wearing a helmet.

You'll have that.

AJP and Heather being oh so gangsta at Market Garden Brewery

Saturday brought sleeping in, shopping the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, and picking up a dinner at the West Side Market that entailed meat from Dionne's and goat cheese ravioli from Ohio City Pasta and cooking it for CK and his perpetual plus one. We stayed in and watched movies, very low key to say the least....

Saturday night's dinner - damn, Gina.

...........

So, um, how does one segue from an image of stuffed raw meat? You let me know if you figure that out, ok?

And that was the weekend that was and to think I'm on my way out for more, man, I LOVE summer.

Good think we have another whole month left.

Have a good week, kids!

Cleveland Wine Festival

I have an event to tell you guys about today that will make all lovers of the glorious fermented grape concoction that is wine giddy with excitement.

The 6th annual Cleveland Wine Festival presented by Giant Eagle is being held Friday July 29th (4-10pm) and Saturday July 30th (3-9pm) at Voinovich Bicentennial Park in Downtown Cleveland.

The two day event features:
- Over 270 international, domestic and Ohio wines
- Belgian Beer Cafe featuring Stella Artois, Leffe and Hoegaarden
- Food from Morton's, Zinc Bistro, Angelo's Pizza, La Strada, and La Dolce Vita.
- Entertainment from Lloyd Dobler Effect and the Michael Heaton Band
- Wine education, cooking demonstrations and more

The festival's proceeds will benefit the Bright Side of the Road Foundation which is a non-profit organization started in Chagrin Falls to help find a cure for ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease.

As far as benefit pricing goes the admission tickets are very affordable in my opinion - Adult Wine Tasting Tickets are $27 in advance (purchase online here) and $35 at the door and include a souvenir wine glass and 10 tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets can be purchased as well at Designated Driver tickets for only $10.

You also can.... wait for it...

Enter to win a pair of tickets to the Cleveland Wine Festival here on the plum!

I'm giving away two pairs of tickets to either day of the festival and you can enter to win by doing one or all of the following:

- Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite variety of wine
- Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post, i.e. "Enter for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the @clewinefest over on @clevelandsaplum http://bit.ly/qNodxD" then leave me an additional comment telling me you did so
- Post a link to this giveaway on Facebook leaving an additional comment on this post telling me you did so

Don't forget to leave me your contact information if I don't already have it and I'll be announcing the winners in a post a week from today on Wednesday, July 27th.

Good luck to all who enter and I hope to be sipping on some vino with all of you next weekend!

Tweet-ups, Kayla, Burning River Roller Girls, and the Taste of Tremont

I would like to open mouth kiss this past weekend.

It was that good.

Thursday I started the weekend off right with the cleveland.com tweet up at Lincoln Park Pub in Tremont where I got to hang out with old friends and meet some new tweeps like @clepoops and @cletacos.

The lovely JV with some autographed stadium mustard and the handsome @tribetalk, #ketchupcheats

Post tweet up a group of us (me, CK, Seanski, Nugget, SSMY, CleveNole, JoeG and Todd) walked over to Bac where we treated not so well and ended up leaving before ordering anything and headed to Lava Lounge next door instead. I'm glad we did because if I could drink the watermelon puree martini they served me everyday I wouldn't complain about it.

Friday, was a chill night for me and CK and I just ended up cooking dinner for the two of us at home while we watch Led Zeppelin DVDs. Now if I had the brain of a food blogger I would have been prepared with recipes and photos but alas, I'm not.

Saturday, CK and I headed to a party at my friend Julie's house in Lakewood to celebrate the one year anniversary of our friend Kayla's arrival in Cleveland. We ate BBQ, drank Kayla's favorite drink of sweet tea vodka and lemonade, played cornhole and even saw the beginnings of a water balloon fight - good times!

Some of the lovely ladies surrounding our Southern belle Kayla in the middle - I'm glad you're here in the CLE Kayla, you're a great addition to the city!

We had to leave Kayla's party a bit on the early side to head over to the Wolstein Center for the Burning River Roller Girls championship bouts where my friend Lulu was not only skating in the championship game for the Rolling Pin-Ups but it was also her 30th birthday.

This was my first BRRG bout and it was so much fun! We literally sat on the circle track up front and cheered on Lulu - sadly her team lost the championship but it didn't dampen her birthday spirit as we continued the celebration at the Garage Bar in Ohio City for the after party.

Nick, Lulu the birthday girl and AJP at the Wolstein Center

I always love all the bikes, both motorized and pedaled outside of Garage Bar.

Some of my favorite ladies at Garage - Lulu, Sara, JV, Shibani and AJP.

Ahmed loves hyper color tshirts and that may or may not be my hand print...

Sunday brought one of my favorite days of the summer, Taste of Tremont! A big group of us started out at Barb's house in Tremont (obvy) where we (or mainly I) drank lots of bubbles and got ready to get the party started. We also quickly realized how hot the day was going to be and that all you had to do was stand outside for one minute and you would start to sweat from the heat.

Yes, that's me and yes, I'm doing what you think I'm doing... whatever you guys, it was THAT hot.

The majority of the day was spent at Lago where we attempted to ignore the heat, say screw it and just have a dance party - it was fabulous, sweaty and fabulous. I wish I knew the name of the reggae band and the DJ who were entertaining us because I would give them a major shout out as they brought the fun all day long.

That would be CK, the band's lead singer, and Drigg's dancing together "on stage" in some form of kick line - pure brilliance.

Driggs, Jesse, Muffin, Heather and CK at Taste of Tremont

Another solo shot of Ahmed is required here as this time he's rockin' a sweet CLE Clothing Co tank top that he bought on the spot on Sunday to combat the heat. #swag

After spending hours and hours at Lago we headed over the Treehouse to see The Boys From County Hell perform and met up with more friends and continued the perfect day that was.

A blurry but adorable shot of Foxxy and Middaugh at Treehouse.

Me and KAW at Treehouse being awesome.

By the time night had fallen I had barely "tasted" anything in Tremont food wise other than a steak sandwich from the South Side booth, but I enjoyed the day to its max capacity to say the least.

Do you wanna know what I did Monday?

NOTHING.

I had a well planned vacation day and spent about 80% of it in bed watching movies until I decided to leave my home and go see the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (SO GOOD) at Capitol Theater, by myself mind you. There's something about seeing a movie by yourself that I just love, I think I'm going to do it more often.

And that ladies and gentleman is what I'm doing when I'm not blogging...

Happy Tuesday, kids!

everyone reads/sees what they want to read/see

I received an email from a reader Wednesday night who felt the need to tell me that she thinks I drink too much.

...

So, in search of my own defense, I flipped through my last few posts to see if she was right and I noticed a theme.

Crap, I do drink to much!

Psyche - no I don't.

Here's the situation, I write about one very small sliver of a portion of my life on this here blog. I write about the "entertainment" side of me, my friends, and the fun side of my life.

Would you guys keep coming back to read my blog if I wrote about how I stay home on many nights during the week to clean my house, sleep, water my flowers, get my car washed, go on bikes rides, eat ice cream, buy things at Rite Aid and volunteer with the elderly?

Nope, probs not.

I'm social for you guys, FOR YOU ;)

Also, if I go to three bars in one night it doesn't mean that at each bar I drink a bottle of wine, 5 beers and do 4 body shots.... if you think that's what I'm doing, lord help you.

I'm an unmarried woman with no children living in the city that I love and you're damn straight I'm going to go out and enjoy myself. I work hard for my lifestyle.

End Rant.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a happy hour to attend.

Happy Friday, kids!

Cleveland Bloggers who don't suck

Find great magazine deals at Value Mags with no auto-renewals.

One of the first things I said to Michelle last night as we were enjoying cocktails and food at Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City was, "I need to make sure I get a picture of all of us before we leave."

Well, that didn't happen.

Must have been all those Shoreway Coolers, right ladies?

So I improvised.... behold:


It's art people, ART!

From left to right top row that would be Michelle from All Lacquered Up, me from well, the blog you're currently on, Allison from Confessions of a Cohabitant and Suzanne from Life on Mars.

From left to right bottom row that would be Katrina from BiteBuff, Allison from Green Dog Wine and Seanski from Happy in CLE.

Did you notice the highlights in their "hair"? I'm sooooooooooooooooo attune to details, you guys.

In all seriousness though, it was wonderful getting together with some of my favorite Cleveland Blogger friends for an evening out on the town, and I can't help but be thankful that I started this blog for the pure reason that I've got to become friends with some of the coolest ladies (and Seanski) around.

Blog on kids, blog on.

It was a near westside of Cleveland type of weekend, natch.

Can I get an Amen for how awesome/beautiful/sunny/glorious this past weekend in Cleveland was?

It was picture perfect.

So in order to kick it off right I met CK for happy hour + dinner at XYZ the Tavern then headed to meet up with AJP for beers in my old 'hood at Map Room. We enjoyed the patio and our special guest Paulius for some cold ones before we headed to Market Garden Brewery in the OHC where I discovered my favorite new drink of the summer, the Shoreway Cooler.

Saturday, more time in the OHC was had when I attended my friend and fellow "everywhere girl" Kim's bridal shower at Market Ave Wine Bar where we ate, drank vino and celebrated all that is the fabulous Kim and her upcoming nuptials to Ahmed.

Kim opening all her presents with her sisters - too bad my iPhone didn't want to cooperate with a clear shot...

After the shower myself, Muffin, Court, Babs, and Lverdova headed to Tremont to attend the "Lymphoma Sucks Mega-Bash" at our friends Mitch and Beth's house. We all were gathered to celebrate Mitch's clean bill of health after going through 6 months of chemo battling Lymphoma. After all that he went through he needed and deserved a party right?

And a party was sure had - my only regret is that I didn't get a proper picture of our host and hostess!

Clark and Driggs sporting their F*ck cancer shirts while molesting some water balloons. Nice view of the CLE from the rooftop deck, huh?

Court knocking back some CREAM, aka alcohol infused whipped cream, aka absolutely delicious!

Sunday was a very special Funday in that myself, AJP, Lzone and Seanski brunched at Flying Fig for the first time. I expected the Fig to be nothing short of amazing for brunch and we weren't disappointed - this brunch spot will definitely be added to the rotation.

Post brunch AJP, Seanski and I headed to Edgewater Park for a beach day! Yes, for those of you not familiar with Cleveland we have beaches, like real ones with sand and everything, you guys.

The beautiful Edgewater Park beach and Seanski's butt crack, natch.

Seanski's sad because we just found out we weren't allow to use our 'tubes in the section of the beach we were swimming in.

The beach day theme continued after hours of sun when I headed to Cropicana on Whiskey Island with CK to meet up with friends like AJP (cause I hadn't seen her all weekend....), Hartzell, timmybennett and KJ.

It was at Cropicana that I found two more new summer loves... Labatt Blue Light Lime beer and the band Monica Robins and the Whiskey Kings - yes, yes and yes please. The nachos and burgers we had at Reddstone for dinner weren't too bad either...

I woke up Monday morning happy, tan and already counting down till I can do it all over again this weekend.

I mean, I live in Cleveland, and I have a limited amount of time to enjoy the summer so I'm going to take advantage of it as much as possible. duh.

Happy Tuesday, kids!

no, i'm not a professional blogger, i work at thunder::tech!

Quite a few times in my blogging "career" people have asked me if blogging is my full time job, to which I respond one of two ways:
1. I laugh in their face
2. Say, "Oh my gosh no, if it was my full time job I would sure as heck hope it would be a lot more awesome and I would post a lot more!"

So no, blogging isn't my full time job.

For almost four years now I've been happily working on the accounts team at thunder::tech, an integrated marketing agency, located in downtown Cleveland.

The company is fun, the team is rad, our clients are entertaining to say the least and in a day and age where so many of my friends aren't so fulfilled in their work environment I consider myself lucky to be a part of the thunder::tech family.

We work with anyone from non-profits of all sizes, large publicly traded companies, mid-market manufacturers, professional sports teams, start-ups and more all over the USA. And with our staff of 25 talented team members we can handle all projects in house both big and small.

Plus, I can wear jeans, drink beer on Fridays and throw things when I feel like it at people - that's a win/win/win in my book.

So why am I telling you all of this?

Because if there's anyone out there that needs help marketing their company or organization whether it be in the form of website development, mobile apps, video, public relations, graphic design or social media, I'd love to see if thunder::tech could help.

So give me a call at 216-391-2255 or email me at alexa @ thundertech.com and we'll see what I can do.

Now, while you're scurrying to pick up the phone and call me check out these videos to get a better feel for who thunder::tech and some of our clients are - enjoy!





You can also follow thunder::tech on twitter, youtube and our blog chat::ter.

Happy Friday, kids!

Quite the 4th of July Weekend Celebration

The longer a blogger waits to post about their weekend the harder it is to actually post about said weekend - this is a fact.

A "Monday Morning Recap" this is not, but I can't not post about my rad 4th of July weekend because quite frankly it was too perfect to not share.

So let me pull up my foursquare check-in history to remember the 2011 Independence Day weekend that was.

Friday, July 1st:
Had a vacation day at work which allowed me to get organized for my upcoming party, clean the crap out of my house, get a mani/pedi at Liz Nails and even get to check out the newest and hottest place in Cleveland these days Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City.

I knew the Market Garden Brewery was going to be cool, but I was blown away by the decor, the pure size of the the place/patio and the "hip" vibe. I have yet to eat the food, or even try the beer (I was sippin' on vodka that night see picture of Moe and I for proof), but I can't wait to go back and do so.

But take note ladies and gentlemen, with the addition of valet service on W25th enter in the new crowd.

Saturday, July 2nd:
MY 31st BIRTHDAY where I threw a party at my townhouse in the Detroit-Shoreway, was surrounded by my friends and family and was essentially the luckiest woman alive that day. I couldn't stop smiling, and it couldn't have gone better.

I can't thank my friends who stopped by enough for all the good times and gifts - you guys sure know how to make a lady feel special. My only complaint about the day into night party extravaganza was that I took little to no pictures, apparently I was having too much fun.

A random outdoor shot of some party goers - see, I took at least one picture.

Me, beaver, foxx, muffin and Holler, aka my Dayton lovelies chilling in my backyard - I guess I took two pictures.

Now this picture I flat out stole from Heather, but it was too cute not to post! Here's me and some of my favorite blog friends, Allison, Heather, me and Suzanne - gossiping not included.

The evening ended with a rain downpour around 11pm, an impromptu dance party captured on video by lzone and a trip to Tina's Nite Club at 1am.... because we can.

When waking up the next morning and taking in the mess that was my house the morning after I realized that my friends know me so well, because I have the pleasure of enjoying all of these in the upcoming months.

Who wants to come over for a glass or three?

Sunday, July 3rd:
Recovery day. This included cleaning, naps, ordering pizza and just flat out lounging all day with CK - it was wonderful, fyi.

We gathered ourselves by evening to head over to Carla and Craig's, aka C-Rossi Squared, house in Lakewood for a party for America. I sipped on the new skinny girl sangria, caught up with the Rossi clan, dug into some shrimp boil and dominated some flip cup. The one flip wonder returns again.

Craig and Patrick, aka the authors of Cleveland's own Cork and Kegs blog, being oh so very Americana.

Delicious shrimp boil!

The winning flip cup team comprised solely of University of Dayton kids - Mark, me, AJ, C-Rossi Squared, and George. I was most definitely the oldest alumni on the team though. As an '02 graduate, Mark an '11 graduate, made me feel slightly old to say the least...

Monday, July 4th
Party hoppin' time for me and CK after we spent the day at Crocker Park shopping and taking in a showing of Bad Teacher (it was O.K.).

We started off at Bo and Babs's house in Tremont for the Bo and Barb-B-Que where we noshed on pulled pork, and brisket amongst other delicious items and spent some quality time visiting with my "main crew".

Action shot from Bo and Babs's - please note the adorable pumpkin that Martha is holding... that's Christopher!

After a few glorious hours CK and I left Tremont and headed back to the D-Sho for another backyard party but this time at the BZone Casa. The food was a plenty but I was beyond stuffed so I drank my calories in some vino instead - that is until Justin brought out the ribs, mmmmm.

CK enjoying BZone's backyard.

Me and Seanski being awesome, thanks for the pic Justin!

I'm not sure how to explain the crowd at BZone's but it was an awesome eclectic crew - the D-Sho at its finest, especially the neighbors who put on quite the firework display.

Who needs fancy country club fireworks when we have the W61st street show?!! I sure as heck don't.

The remnants... I have some great video but that'll be for another day. Perhaps a "fireworks chat"? (hint hint)

By the time Monday was over I was spent but so so so so happy. It was one of those weekends that leaves you fat, happy, loved and blessed.

And now I'm getting all schmoopy over here, I'll stop now.

Happy Wednesday, kids!

USA! USA! USA!

You guys didn't think I was going to stay in on the 4th of July and write my traditional "Monday Morning" weekend recap blog post did you?

Good, I knew you guys knew me better than that.

Hope everyone is having a great Independence Day, but now if you'll excuse me I have more food to eat and beer/bubbles to drink.

USA! USA! USA!