THE MARINI FAMILY

WELCOME TO THE CRAZINESS OF OUR LIFE WITH TWO BOYS!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Tidbits

Welcome the blog post about nothing. Let's just run through some topics and we will catch up that way.

Basketball--We are approaching the end of basketball season.  This is always a sad time for me, because I do love a good basketball game.  And both boys have really had great teams this season and it has been so fun to watch. 

Matthew has decided to not play baseball this spring!  (THANK GOD!) Last year was painfully long, and ugly, and boring, and in the heat.  So, when asked if he wanted to play again, his answer was no.  Instead, we are going to try out tennis.  He has lessons starting next week and I am anxious to see if  he enjoys it. 

Ryan of course is starting baseball in a few weeks.  But, this is different.  It's machine pitch and moves MUCH faster than kid pitch.  And a bunch of his friends have signed up to play so we are hoping he has some friends on his team. 

TV-- Let's talk about my new obsession...The Following.  Kevin Bacon (or affectionately, Ren McCormack) has a new show on Fox where he plays an disgruntled ex-FBI agent who was brought in to work on a case about a serial killer who he successfully had brought down.  I LOVE THIS SHOW.  I love it so much that I no longer wait until Saturday afternoon to watch it (it is on Monday nights).  After the first episode I told myself that I would NEVER watch it before going to sleep due to the fact that I didn't sleep that night on account of all the noises I heard outside.  I have become a big girl though and I can watch it Monday nights now.  (Disclaimer--I get to fall asleep with lights on until Rich comes to bed...you are welcome!)

And secondly---Scandal---Best Show on Television.  Let me say that again....BEST. SHOW. ON. TELEVISION.

Oscars-- I love the Oscars.  I love everything about them.  Yesterday, from 2:30pm on, I was glued to my twitter account getting updates about the red carpet arrivals.  As we were walking through Toys R Us yesterday I could be heard saying things like..."Really, she went with that color?" or "There wasn't a single pair of pasties available in LA for this event?"  At one point Rich's eyes rolled so far in the back of his head I thought we were going to need to take him in for corrective surgery.  He is clueless about these things...I love me a gorgeous gown!  It's in my DNA.

And can we just talk about Ben Affleck?  Come on!  I crazy love that guy and I am so happy that his film won for best picture.  As darling as he is, I really have more of a crush on his wife.  Is that weird?  I think not.  I'm like 99.8% sure we could be best friends.  I love her.

My favorite part of the evening last night...when my sister text me and said, "Hello darling!  And who are you wearing?"  She gets it.  We are girls. She gets it.

School-- Two more weeks of school then spring break.  I hate spring break.  Only because it is the biggest tease of what summer will be like.  That's all I am going to say because I know it is not normal to have a job where summers are off, along with three other two week periods during the year. 

We will be spending part of spring break in Carmel because Matthew picked San Carlos Borromeo de Camelo Mission.  His mother is no fool.  With a mission report, there will have to be research done.  And with research, there will be a project--we picked a scrapbook.  And with a scrapbook comes pictures of him visiting his mission.  And that my friends is how we negotiate a trip to Carmel, "for school business."  Can't wait to see what state he picks for next years state report ;).





Sunday, February 17, 2013

Napa Weekend

Last weekend we took off for our now "official" Napa weekend for Kelly's birthday.  I can call it officially an annual weekend because this makes it two years in a row and that's a pattern, so it makes it official.  We also have restaurants picked out for next year already, so the "annual" part feels okay to say.

By accident, and that is what we will refer to it...an accident, we ended up at this restaurant in Napa called Ristorante Allegria.  It was fabulous.  Best dinner I have had in a while.  All four of us loved everything we had and we will definitely go back next year, on our annual trip to Napa. (See, it's catching on).  I say it was an accident that we ended up here because we were supposed to eat at this other place that Lynn wanted to eat at.  We were all ready to go, I even called to see if we needed reservations (this became the joke of the weekend) and I should have known when the girl semi-chuckled at my question if I needed to put our name down for four, that something was up.  Turns out when we got there, it was like an upscale Butcher Shoppe.  An order yourself, seat yourself, serve yourself kind of a place.  When we walked in, hoping the wait would not be too long, and saw the guy filling the ice machine with a bucket from the back...we all started hysterically laughing and turned around and walked out.  But it was okay, because we rebounded with Ristorante Allegria.  It was a beautiful place and perfect dinner.

This was my dinner.

The next day we headed to this place for lunch that was on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  It is called Gott's Roadside.  Because this is my first Triple D experience, you understand how excited I was.  I don't know what it is about that show, but I can turn it on and five hours later I have sat through ten episodes.  So when we showed up...I was super excited.  That lasted about twenty minutes.  I was a little disappointed.  What I had and what the girls had was nothing special or nothing that we couldn't order anywhere else.  And it was crazy overpriced.  I know it was Napa and everything, but I felt like when they put our tray down and we saw what was on it....it wasn't worth the $70 total it was. 

Look at Kelly...she is hysterical!

To make us feel better, we then headed to the outlets.  My mood became better instantly.  I love me some outlets.  After the outlets, we headed to the cupcake place that Kelly had been talking about called Sift.  They won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network.  Overall they were good...but the best one we had was the Samoa...like from the girl scout cookies (middle row, on the right).  Delish!


Saturday night we headed to Bistro Jeanty.  Don't go if you are in Napa.  Well, I take it back, I had a fantastic dinner...but my girls did not care for what they ordered.  And it was a small restaurant and I felt like I was sharing my meal and conversation with people around us.  The only great thing about dinner was the birthday girl and the fact that she had had a little too much to drink.  That made dinner fun....and entertaining....and short.  And french food...not my favorite.


We had a great time on our ANNUAL weekend trip to Napa for Kelly's birthday.  I can't wait to go back next year.  Because we always come away with good stories...like me almost killing myself in the shower...that we can laugh at and talk about for years.