Movie Review: Ted

Last night, Brigid and I saw Ted, a movie we starred in. OK, a movie we were extras in. You can’t see us but we were there at the Hatch Shell as part of the crowd at the Norah Jones concert. Pretty cool, huh?

The movie was absolutely hilarious and made even better by the fact that it was filmed locally and we could point out places we knew. It made it more realistic which you’d think would be difficult for a movie about a teddy bear that comes to life, but even that was well done. Young Mark Wahlberg’s parents lost their shit and thought it was possessed and then it gained national attention and went on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Mark Wahlberg was really good at playing one of those “man-childs” who is 35 years old but completely irresponsible about his life. Seth MacFarlane’s Ted was as foul-mouthed and ridiculous (alcohol, drugs, hookers) as I had hoped. Even Mila Kunis got to play more than just “the girlfriend” and had a great scene cleaning up a “mess” on the floor. (Or maybe the floor was on the “mess”?)

Take your friends, take a date, just go see it.

Plumbing, Winning and Parenting

This was a pretty interesting week from a handyman perspective. We had a plumber come to our house because one of our sink basins wasn’t draining/our garbage disposal wasn’t working/our dishwasher wasn’t draining. He managed to fix the sink and disposal but didn’t even touch the dishwasher. Apparently, that’s not Roto Rooter’s business. So Brig tried calling GE to get a technician out but they only work M-F 8-5 apparently. So we said “Eff that” and got our hands dirty (and wet) but drained (and cleaned) that dishwasher ourselves. So we still can’t use it but it’s not a pressing issue anymore.

Saturday morning we were up watching Wimbledon and I got the urge to play tennis. Brig consented and we headed over to the new courts we discovered last week. They are actually nice courts and in good shape. I’m not going to say who won our match but I will say it was the greatest comeback of all time and Brig didn’t talk to me all afternoon. (Did I say too much?)

Sunday we went up to see our friends Jason and Kristen and their new baby Samantha! She was so small (less than 7 pounds) but so cute. She didn’t make a fuss at all until I held her :-( It was my first baby-holding experience. It didn’t feel natural lol. Anyway, they did her room in a safari theme and it was the coolest ever. The monkey toy I brought her fit in perfectly.

After catching up for a couple hours we decided to go shoot some hoops. Jason informed me that the basket was a little off and boy was he right. It’s a little lower than regulation and it’s really loose. We were throwing down some dunks and afraid to put any weight on it. It was a little cockeyed too so you couldn’t really shoot from the baseline. But it was perfect for showing off to your girlfriend (Brig was impressed with my aerial acrobatics).

We headed for ice cream at a great place called Mad Maggie’s. I got a frappe which actually wasn’t that bad (I prefer milkshakes). While we were eating Kristen was telling us birth stories and they were half-hilarious, half-horrifying. But a month later and everyone is doing well.

Fun on the 4th

Yesterday we went up to NH for a cookout with my family. We had soooo much food. Burgers, dogs, linguica, chicken kabobs, corn on the cob, pasta salad and potato salad. Dessert included watermelon, key lime pie, whoopee pies and a strawberry cake. Brig & I made mini hot dog rollups for an hors d’oeuvres along with tortilla chips and a mango salsa my mom made.

After lunch, Brig, my sister and I went to the park down the street to play some baseball. We grabbed a couple gloves, a bat and a ball and had ourselves a makeshift batting practice. It was a lot of fun but it was hitting 90 out there so we didn’t stay long.

The two of us stayed late because we wanted to play with sparklers and had to wait until it got dark. Brig had never used them before and realized what she was missing all these years. My sister also had some poppers that we were throwing but not all of them would pop so the girls sent me through the minefield to pop them because I was wearing shoes and they only had flip-flops. We even got to see some fireworks that were being set off at the park across the street.

Even more distracting were all the fireworks we could see from the highway as we were driving home. At first I thought it was lightning because all you could see was the night sky lighting up but then as we got closer to towns we saw the actual fireworks. I just wanted to stop and watch but I had to concentrate on the road. We made it back into Boston by 10:30 and saw people lining up in certain areas to watch the big time fireworks. We took a pass because we were pretty tuckered out but all in all it was a great day.

Good Eats: Popeye's & The Tap

You know how sometimes you just get the feeling that you’re not going to like a place? We went to The Tap on Friday, and even though we knew nothing about the place beforehand, we actively skipped over it on our initial walk-by. If you’re familiar with the Faneuil Hall area at all then you’re probably aware of the Union St. strip of bars: The Bell in Hand, Purple Shamrock, etc. Well, we wanted to try somewhere new. So we walked over to Blackstone Grill but there was a musician playing very loudly and we wanted to be able to talk. So we walked over to Hennessy’s which is one bar over from Blackstone Grill. What’s the one bar in between? The Tap. Somehow, without even vocalizing it, we didn’t consider it as an option and just kept walking to Hennessy’s. Anyway, we walked in and they also had a way too loud musician playing. So, we decided to head into The Tap (where there was no music whatsoever).

We got a table right by the window and were nicely secluded. The first sign of trouble was our 13 year old waitress. Legit, she had braces. The second sign of trouble was our food. We ordered something called tap tots as well as their nachos. The tap tots sounded promising -- “Homemade tater tots stuffed with bacon and cheese” -- but they weren’t as good as the description. Then, the nachos came out and there was one layer of cheese over the top row of chips and that was it. Everyone knows nachos are like an iceberg... the majority is beneath the surface; so to ignore them like that is a real no-no. I will never go back there.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we had our first taste of Popeye’s on Saturday. Brig’s friends from Syracuse had been posting on Facebook about the new Popeye’s that had opened up there, so, she wanted to try the one that had recently opened in our neighborhood. It was very clean and bright and the staff was nice and helpful. I got a chicken sandwich (it comes with lettuce, pickles and mayo but I went sans pickles) and it was fantastic. I liked it better than KFC. My only complaint is I didn’t care for the mashed potatoes as much. Next time I’ll try the Cajun fries.

A weekend down on the farm (and the beach)

Saturday we woke bright and early and made our way to Revere Beach. We haven’t been there since I moved last July and we were able to take a bus the whole way. It actually wasn’t a bad ride and on the way we saw tennis courts and a public pool that we can use!

We arrived at Wonderland station and it was brand spankin’ new. I used that station for 2 years when I was still living in Revere and when I moved last summer they were in the middle of building a new parking garage. Well it’s completely done and it’s massive. They even re-did the bus area so it pulls through the garage and stops right at the doors. Now, they are doing construction on the back side of the station which I can only imagine will be more parking. The place looks fantastic. (And when do you ever say that about a T stop?)

So we walked over to the beach and there were a few others out there like us at 10:30 am. We played a little Frisbee in the water but the wind was really carrying it. So we went back to our blanket to read and listen to some music. Except the aforementioned wind would periodically gust and bury us in sand. It was so gross and annoying. We stayed for about an hour before it became too much.

Later in the afternoon I convinced Brig to head across the street and play basketball with me. It was a lot fun and even more so when we learned they have 4 hoops and 1 of them is a little shorter – aka dunkable for me. I tried upping the difficulty level by bouncing it off the backboard, catching it in mid-air and dunking it. It was really hard to get the bounce right. It kept hitting the rim on the way back and bouncing away from my eager hands. After countless attempts it dawned on me just how tiring the slam dunk contest must be.

On Sunday, we went to Kimball Farm with Brig’s friend Vinny. The place was awesome! They had mini golf (2 18-hole courses), batting cages, bumper boats, a driving range, an arcade, an animal “area” and an ice cream stand. You can pay for everything separately or the best deal is to pay $30 and you get to pick any 5 things to do. We played mini golf first (I won) then did the bumper boats (which were the most fun ever). Lunch wasn’t outrageously priced considering there were no other nearby alternatives. They offered a special where you could get a burger or hot dog with chips or potato salad and a watermelon slice for under $8. Not too shabby. (Although bottled water cost $2.50.)

Next up we went to the animal “area” and you can probably guess from my quotation marks just how impressive this was. Not counting the horses they had for pony rides or the goats and chickens they had out in the open they charged $6 to see this: a skunk, an owl, a lemur, a fox who is constantly asleep (it was even asleep in the picture they had on its cage), an alligator, an Asian water monitor (it looked like a komodo dragon), a snake, 2 tortoises (1 was checking the fence for weaknesses and actively trying to escape) and 2 rabbits. These were all located under 1 mid-sized tent. It was a pretty big letdown for my zoo member girlfriend.

After the animals we went to the arcade and got our fill of skee-ball, the basketball shooting game and air hockey. Brig cashed in her winnings for a yo-yo (which may or may not have lit up at one point) and Vinny got a popper and a weird gummy hot dog thing. I got some Skittles.

For our fifth and final selection we opted to get sundaes. No offense to the batting cages but it was pretty hot and we wanted a treat. The amount of ice cream we got was unreal and I couldn’t even finish mine. The 5 for $30 thing really is a great bargain and gives everyone a chance to pick something they want to do. Take a trip out there yourself; I guarantee you’ll have a good time.