Back in the Day

Remember back in the day when I had time to blog like twice in one week. Yeah, those where the days.

Life’s gone a little cray cray in a good way.

Right after a wholesome breakfast of good coffee and an amazing chunky monkey scone from Northside Social  (my go-to order), we spent this past Saturday in our church hall learning about how to create a successful marriage and also the many ways to communicate (and over communicate) in the next 10384390598 years we have together. Scary but also a very insightful and organized session we were happy to attend. We talked a lot about kids and jobs and religion and somewhere in the middle found ourselves to be the only couple laughing in the whole room. I think it’s a sign that we’ll be successful….hopefully.

Then on Sunday we ran around the back alleys of Old Town Alexandria getting engagement photos taken. Felt like superstars! We incorporated dancing and funny faces obvi.

And I have just recently discovered Instagram, as you can tell by the photos splashed about in this post. I am so late and so obsessed it’s not even funny. Who else is on there with me? (Look for me! I’m the divaofyum.)

Those are the latest developments in our lives.

Also, some sad news. My kitchen is getting no play and our eating has gone from bad to worse. The bubble tea you see above was delicious but unfortunately NOT part of the “Shredding for the Wedding” diet plan. Yes, I just made that up.

We did, however, celebrate all the accomplishments we made this weekend to get us one step closer to the big day by treating ourselves to a late but healthy sushi dinner while still dressed in our engagement photo shoot duds. It felt fancy even though we were in a strip mall. We rolled our exhausted bodies into Kyoto Sushi  and ate the feast you see below.

Calamari to start. Nothing to write home about aka I could have done without the fried calories.

Sashimi boat for me.

Spicy veggie ramen for him. He felt the need to pose with it for strange reasons.

Kyoto’s sashimi was surprisingly fresh and flavorful and I’d go there again for more of that and to try their rolls. Despite the pose Mr. Beatz was not too impressed with that ramen so I think he’d have to do more exploring of their menu.

With full bellies we wrapped up our weekend and have to mentally and physically prepare for even fuller weekends to come. Here’s hoping my blog doesn’t die a slow, painful death because I love blogging here!

Not my proudest moment

I was really hoping that life and wedding planning wouldn’t get in the way of the blog but alas there are dresses to choose, cakes to taste test and addresses to collect. I can’t complain because I’ve been squeezing in tons of fun in between with milkshake competitions (3rd place for Foodie and the Beatz, HOLLA! More on that later)  and boat rides and good times laughing with the girls.

There was one moment though in the past few weeks that I’m not quite so proud of. Ok, let’s be real, I think it was an AWESOME decision but I still can’t be proud of it and neither are my love handles. I’ll just come out with it and spare the dirty details: I convinced Mr. Beatz to follow me to our local Taco Bell to partake of a Doritos Locos Tacos .

A sad truth that I can’t take back and you know what? I don’t care because I enjoyed the damn thing. It was delicious.

Live mas, as they say!

Easter in Review

This week has been such a whirlwind that I kind of feel hung over but with no alcohol involved! It’s the end of the week and I feel like I’m just getting started. This post was supposed to be up by Monday and obvi that did not happen. But here it is, our awesome Easter weekend in review.

Saturday was an exciting day for me and the Beatz because – drumroll please! – we had our first taste of registering for the wedding. We spent lots of time with good ol’ Mr. Scanner. He was our best friend for almost 2.5 hours of Crate and Barrel fun!

Item #1 that made it on the list include the beauty in the pic below. Don’t let the bad picture fool you, the SodaStream is at the top of my wedding gift wish list! I’m in love with bubbly water!

Item #1 that did not make it onto the list: this equally beautiful steamer bar cabinet that Mr. Beatz drooled over for a good 5 minutes while I picked out bedding. If someone has $1200 to buy it for him, we’d name our first child after you. (Maybe)

After registering for things we could only dream of owning, we relaxed and prepared for a marathon church visit for the Easter Vigil. Mass started at 8:30 and three hours later I broke my Lenten fast with two Godiva chocolates and a good 9.5 hours of sleep.

The rest was needed because we had big time Easter plans. My sister and her hubby were out for a very important wedding (Congrats Joyce! We love ya!) and so we stole her in-laws for a fun day to celebrate Jesus, duck and good boating weather.

Our brunch plans with my parents and Mac and Diane was scheduled a week in advance at Peking Gourmet Inn on Leesburg Pike – and good thing because the place was packed.  Everyone seemed to want to be like us and have an Easter duck tradition. That’s what happens when you are rockstars.

This is some of the best crispy duck you can get in the area and they prepare it all in front of you and it’s like a great show. I love watching how everything is methodically prepared right in front of you. It might look barbaric to some but to me it just all looks delicious. Ye, the lady above, uses the sharpest of knives to get paper thin slices of duck meat and skin onto a pretty platter for everyone to enjoy. Then her partner in crime follows behind her and creates this masterpiece of pancake, sweet hoisin sauce, cucumber, scallion and of course the duck – all put together with a flurry of two spoons. This is brilliant stuff folks. The result is a sweet, crunchy, decadently rich meaty burrito of duck meat love. My mom is not a big fan of duck but between me, dad, Beatz, Mac and Diane we killed two birds with five bellies.

Bellies full to the brim, we moved on to the second portion of our Easter plans – boating on Mac and Diane’s pontoon! They live in Lake Barcroft but they could have lived in Maine or Annapolis or any boating town because I honestly felt like we had left Arlington on a brief vacation. We had a great time looking at turtles, learning about the community and enjoying the cool breeze. The Beatz and I looked at million dollar homes for sale along the water that our pennies will never add up to but it’s all about big dreams!

When we docked, our Captain stepped off the boat and suggested making root beer floats. I’d never had one before and el Capitan was a bit appalled by this sad truth. Off we went to their kitchen and root beer floats were made in about three minutes.

Oh my I can’t tell you how amazing this tasted to me. It was frothy, light and not too sweet – because of excellent Virgil’s root beer – and I loved digging my spoon deep into the root beer soaked ice cream at the bottom of my glass! Amazing flavors on my happy tongue.

I’d say it’s a pretty good day when you can say Jesus rose from the dead and you got to taste your first root beer float. My Easter was better than yours, it’s true.

Our thanks to my mom and dad for treating us to an Easter basket and a great lunch. And more thanks to Mac and Diane for a refreshing boat ride and my introduction to root beer floats! Here’s to many more!