Its official, I am 11 years old again

So today it was all I could manage to not start screaming hysterically at work at my desk. I found time to do some much needed research on the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK REUNION TOUR! Thats right ladies and gentlemen, I said it:
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK REUNION TOUR.
It's been 14 long years with none of my favorites. No Jordan, No Joey Mac. Absent from Danny and Donnie and alas Jon has been absent too. Well now its come time. People made fun of me for keeping all those tshirts, buttons, pins, wall hang ups, dolls and books but I've shown them. Whose the one laughing now?
Now all I have to do is figure out which concert to attend since I am pretty sure Rick won't be down for selling all of our stuff and becoming band groupies, I am going to have to pick a concert to go to....but which one to pick.
If you too need to schedule your concert events, please check out this handy dandy link for the NKOTB
. See you there!

The East Coast in 500 words (or more)

Memorial Day weekend had us jet setting from Sacramento to Connecticut to celebrate the graduation for my bro-n-law. He received his PhD in a lovely and very interesting ceremony at Yale.
We left Sactown Friday early afternoon and arrived in Connecticut around 1230am (EST - to us it was only 930 so it sounds worse than it really was!) and drove from Hartford to New Haven which took about 45 minutes. Driving there was a change for sure. First of all they have a lot of left side exits (which can really confuse a Cali girl like me)and they do not have mile markers (you know the ones that say 53 miles to Tahoe) which can make you feel like you're lost or have gone to far - all in all driving was an interesting experience!
Saturday we met up with afore mentioned BIL and had a lovely breakfast - I am not a big syrup fan, but let me tell you, there is NOTHING as good as real Vermont Maple Syrup on French Toast! Then we went on an excursion to try and find the graduation present we had planned. We had plans on purchasing a bottle of Dom Perignon at Sam’s Club (rather than transport it from CA to CT) however we quickly learned that not all Sam’s Clubs in CT sell alcohol, in fact of the 3 Sam’s Clubs in the state - only 1 does! Later I learned that CT goes by what is referred to as Blue Laws which basically make buying alcohol to take home difficult. Some of these laws include the following:
• you can't buy alcohol on Sundays
• you can't buy alcohol after 9pm
• the proof there is much different
Since we're used to being able to purchase bottles until 2am this was a bit of a culture shock for us, but we finally figured it out!
For dinner that night we all went on a fun road trip to Mystic, CT which is on the sea side of the state. It was everything you've ever stereotyped as Eastern State beach town. It had cute shops and mom and pop ice cream shops. It also is home to the very famous Mystic Pizza, that’s right ladies and gentlemen the original Mystic Pizza from the movie! It looked - JUST LIKE THE MOVIE! The pizza was super tasty and the atmosphere (much to the chagrin of my SIL) was a lot of Julia Roberts and other 80's movie icons.
Sunday sent Me, Rick and Mimzy to New York for some sight seeing. This was Rick and I's first trip to NY and since we only had 1 day, we tried to just pick a few things we wanted to see as to not over do it. We went to Battery Park and had a nice cocktail at the cafe that looks out to the Statue of Liberty. We went to Time Square both during the day and at night. We saw Central Park and sat outside the Met (unfortunately it had already closed by the time we got there). We went to the UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and tried to get tickets to ASSSSCAT but unfortunately they were sold out and the stand by line had about 300 people in it! We had an amazing lunch at Maze by Gordon Ramsay which was amazing and delicious. They let us tour the kitchen which was beyond cool! We also visited Rockefeller Center and then headed home on the train. By the end of the day we felt very much like New Yorkers!
Monday was the actual day of graduation and we watched in much pride and excitement as BIL received his doctorate. Then that night we went to a party hosted by BIL and a few of his friends. It was nice to get to meet the people he speaks so highly of when he is on the West Coast. They were all super nice and down to earth (I guess I was expecting stuffy and boring, I am not sure why though).
Then Tuesday we flew back home to the West Coast. It was an exciting and fun trip and both Rick and I can't wait to go visit again. I'll post pictures as soon as we download them!!

I am BACK!!

Okay, I know I know, Long time not blogging. My apologies things have been quite hectic and the pace is just now returning to normal. I'll do a quick overview of missed events starting where I last left off:

1. March 28th was my hubby’s bday which we celebrated at Viscontti’s in Folsom and he received a super fun Movie Theatre Popcorn machine that makes super yummo popcorn!
2. March 30th – April 13th is a period we’ll call crazy times. My grandfather went into the hospital on Sunday and then passed away on April 7th. This brought family from all over the Western states to town. My uncle came from Washington and then his 3 children all came with their families. For the first time since I was a toddler all of my cousins were around. It was so interesting to be around them and their families. I also had the opportunity to meet a second cousin I didn’t previously know. She’s a super sweet girl and I can’t wait for her to come visit this summer!
3. April 14 – Current has been us trying to get our lives back in order from the chaos that the last two weeks brought. Since we have the biggest house and because its what we’re good at, while my family was in town (all 25 of them) we made dinner every night and most nights had guest in not only our guest bedroom but also on a blow up mattress in our living room. After everyone had gone home, Rick and I felt a little empty nest syndrome (we’re over it now though – don’t worry).

So now we’re just back to normal. We’re getting ready for our trip to Connecticut over Memorial Day weekend and that should be super exciting! Rick’s had a lot of birthday party business lately which is a fun change for him and otherwise we’re just goin’ along! I’ll try to be more regular now that things have calmed (: