Happy Birthday Kaitlin

First, today is Kaitlin's 25th birthday! Official Happy Birthday album here! Sad that we're not celebrating our birthdays together this year. Hope it was a good one! 

Weekend recap:

Friday night after Sketchy's mom got home Sapna surprised me with a cake she baked for my birthday! 

red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and some pretty teal/blue sprinkles!

They also got me a bottle of wine (really shocked by this, given it's also from his dad who is all kinds of against drinking) and this really neat mason jar plastic water cup. i've been actually looking out for one of those starbucks-like plastic cup things so this was pretty fitting and perfect! The only one thing i realized is that it's too large for the cupholder in the car so it's a little difficult to travel with at times.

better view of the cup. it's pretty awesome.

Saturday we took a drive down to Richmond hoping to find some indian jewelry or an outfit for sketchy for the wedding. We wrote down addresses of three places we found online. every single one of them was closed down. it was pretty comical by the third stop. 

Sunday most of the local family members came over to Sketchy's parents house. Sketchy's grandma passed away one year ago on Sunday. For brown folk, it's traditional to host a religious ceremony or a gathering of the family members on the one year anniversary.

We spent most of the day there hanging out with his family and actually got a lot of our wedding invitations written and sent out. 

This week is going to be absurdly busy with getting wedding things handled. Most of the vendors are going to start finalizing contracts and collecting the remainder of balances. This is really our last chance to change things. Caution, will probably be pumping out wedding planning blogs the next few days.

Chipotle the Savior

Tonight we met up with a photographer to talk wedding stuff. All of our vendors seem to be falling apart but luckily good things fall into place as soon as something terrible goes wrong! Planning a wedding is certainly a roller coaster ride. You never know what's going to go wrong and you just gotta learn to roll with the punches. 

After meeting with the photographer we grabbed chipotle. I learned earlier this week that you can have a seriously low-cal meal from chipotle if you do it properly. I love that their site has the calorie counter. I'm able to have a salad bowl that's super filling and still very tastey under 450calories! 

I've also downloaded MyFitnessPal which is a pretty neat app that has calorie count for items at restaurants! You can also scan a barcode for some items and it'll show you the calorie count. You can keep track of your calories as well as figure out how many calories you should be eating based on your age, gender, weight and height. I use it mainly to look up calorie count of things to buy. Trying to make everything myself so i know exactly how many calories are in the meal but sometimes i rlly crave things! 

So far this week has been pretty good and i've been able to keep to under 1000 calories a day! Still drinking all the water and green tea! 

We're down in Fburg for the weekend. Hopefully getting invitations done and spending some time with sketchy extended family. 

Happy Weekend Folks!

Kitchen Purge Day 3

Almost to Friday. Tonight I made a gumbo with some veggies, potatoes, shrimp and chicken sausage we've had hanging around. We also made some corn on the cob that's been in the freezer since the bbq last weekend. 

it was actually very hearty and tasty.

served it over rice.

I know i've been making pretty delicious and unhealthy looking things this week but i've been portioning ridiculously and counting calories since Tuesday. I'm on only water and green tea with a salad for lunch and very light dinner. I'll start making even more healthy things next week as we're near the end of the kitchen purge. Salads have been going well. Also doing well with drinking tons of water (around 8-10 glasses of water a day and a couple cups of green tea).

Need to get back to the gym soon but going to definitely do what i can in the way of eating healthier from now (yes, sadly through the holidays) until as close to the wedding as possible! My dress should be here next Tuesday and I need to fit into it. Would like to have a little room in the dress to alter down to perfect size by mid December! 

Kitchen Purge Day 2

In today's daily dose of stupid news:

geniuses have approved the construction of a record breaking new top of its class scoreboard for EverBank Field -- home of the ever so popular and deserving Jacksonville Jaguars. This scoreboard is going to be the largest in the world of its kind and is costing the city and owner unbelievable amounts of money. You can read about it here. I guess the jags winning their first game in week 9 of the season merits this kind of celebration and reward. ooc things. #priorities #thisiswhywesuck 

Continuing with kitchen purge, we had an indian night. 

paneer makhani, fried chickpeas, basmati rice and fried salmon with indian spices. 

Happy Hump Day!

Birthday Dinner Extravaganza

So last night we were all set to go to Vantage Point (a restaurant on the 27th floor of a building overlooking Georgetown and the Potomac) but at the last minute I decided that i'd rather do that on a weekend or sometime it was light out so i could enjoy the view a little more! 

Having decided against our plan, we were left in a huge conundrum of not knowing where to go. We sat around thinking about it, checking the blog for list of top restaurants i want to go to and generally wasting time before we decided to just get in the car and start driving in the direction of the city. Half way to the city i pitched an idea i had wanted to try out. Stolen from Kaitlin. She told me about this cute date night which would be easy to do in a city. 

You go to one place for drinks and apps. Move on to a second place for Entrees. Finally hit a third spot for dessert/night cap! It keeps you moving, trying different foods or variety of food and keeps you entertained throughout the evening.

So we decided on Chinatown since there is a good variety and tons of places close to each other. 

The evening started off pretty sweetly by landing a parking spot right in front of legal seafood at exactly 6:30 (when parking begins in chinatown). We hopped into legal seafood for happy hour. 

i ordered the Sangria which was incredible Spanish red wine, cruzan raspberry and citrus, massenez creme de peche, lemon-lime soda and fresh fruit 

it was super large. this is for size comparison.

buffalo calamari (sketchy tried and actually liked!)

blacked fish tacos with siracha aioli sauce (also super delicious)

such pretty colors. they were pretty large portions too.

the sangria went way too quicky. juice. after finishing up we moved on to entrees.

we ended up at clyde's for entrees.

once in we found out that they had half price bottles of wine, so of course we had to do it! 

They were out of the merlot so we went with the red blend that the waitress suggested

it was sooo delicious. i could actually taste the mocha and vanilla in it. probably one of the better blends i've ever tasted!

more organized pictures as we waited for food. 

after all the sangria and apps at legal seafood i realized that i was really not that hungry anymore and wanted to save some sort of room for dessert so i just had a cup of crab soup which had tons of fresh crab meat. 

sketchy had more tacos. this time korean something or other tacos. 

for dessert we headed down the block to Zengos.

i always like the set-up in there and think it's really pretty. i also really love zengos in general. same owner as another restaurant i really like -- el centro.

zengos has the best mojitos and has fresh churros with crazy chocolate sauce. 

I basically ate and drank my way through chinatown at some pretty fantastic places. Best birthday dinner ever -- not sure this one can really be topped! I really liked going from place to place and trying out different types of food in one night. Definitely would recommend as a cute date night or girls night out!

Thank you Sketchyface for taking me out and giving me all the foods and all the drinks all night long. =)

Perfect end to a fantastic birthday weekend!

Tonight I decided that we were going to start a kitchen purge! I keep buying all these random things and then they just sit in the fridge/pantry. Going to not buy grocery and use all these random things to make meals... so the next few nights might be weird meals but we have got to do something about the crazy amounts of random things we have!

turkey meatball with homemade jalapeno aioli sauce and siracha aioli sauce with a side of asparagus risotto. success.

Quarter Century Class.

Today i'm 25-years-old. Part of me can't handle that reality while the other part of me is kind of excited to be 25. It sounds like a legitimate age. This is probably the first birthday I actively wanted to plan and do something big for! 

First, i received a huge surprise at work today: 

so pretty! def brightens up my desk.

A lady walked into our office and was like "is there a Nalini Prasad here?" so i raised my hand. Then she said i had a package and brought a pretty bouquet of flowers up to me. The girls around me all said 'awww are those from sketchy?' to which i replied 'i don't ...think...so.' so then i opened up the card (which is quite clever and witty as you can read above) and realized it was from nourita! So i turned to the girls and said 'no it's actually from my friend in boston!' so then 5 minutes later one co-worker says to me 'that was really nice your friend sent you flowers... just for fun?' and i was like 'haha no it's my birthday.' to which all of the girls were like 'omg HAPPY BIRTHDAY!' 

As i discussed on friday, a few friends and I did a limo winery tour. We visited three wineries that were all fantastic. We were on a time crunch so the last place was a bit rushed but we still got in the full tasting and even got our wine slushies to go for the ride home!

I would go back to any of the three wineries and spend an entire day just picnicking and drinking wine.  Something to look forward to in the spring. =)

After the tour we came home and met up with all the guys to just relax and drink some more. Sketchy had grilled chicken (a few different flavors). I don't think i actually ate any of this. Sketchy's dad also stopped by for a bit to hang out. 

I have tons of pictures to share, so here we go: 

Winery 1: Leaves of Grass (this is the one that used to be a horse stable and uses special vines from Cornell)

pictures of what the stable used to look like

you can see the original wood is still being used

awesome marketing. their colorful and fun bottles.

group picture

classic selfie

pictures on their patio. a good one

fantastic flip book laughter.

terrible picture of me but awesome winery owner man.

Winery 2: Cana Vineyards (this one was super pretty and had really tastey wines)

wine country

wine country

wine barrel ... love. also some event going on out back. think a live band.

mirror selfie! 

love this. there was one on every table.

Winery 3: Quattro Goombas Winery (this was the fun place. The people there were also very nice. Will definitely go back to this one to try their pizzas!)

WINE BARRELS! =)

Quattro Goombas tasting

wine slushes group shot!

limo ride on the way back

haha love this shot. 

limo selfies

other half of limo selfie

kelsey and i in the vip section of the limo lol

initiated the firepit

was still daytime when we got home

quickly became nighttime evidently. no pictures between the last picture and this one.

i don't remember taking any of these pictures of them. lol

selfie with the firepit?

Lindsay!

smoressss

Entertaining moments: 

1. I evidently spilled an entire drink (alcohol) into the firepit while Diana was standing close to the fire. She then yelled crazy things at me about how i was evidently trying to kill her. lol in my head i thought i dropped water into the fire and responded with 'no, it'll just put the fire out.' in reality we all know that is not what happens when alcohol is poured over open flames lol. maybe i was trying to kill her.

2. towards the end of the night diana starts looking for her northface. she then starts getting very upseticus about how these things always happen to her. we knew it was in the house somewhere so we started looking through alllll the rooms (crazy places where it would never be). It was becoming a giant mystery and quite upsetting to me too because it made no sense. So then naturally we decided it was melanie who hid the jacket for funzies. After sending a few texts to melanie accusing her of playing childlike jokes on Diana, Lindsay tells Diana to check outside jokingly. Diana then decides to open the door and look outside. As she's looking outside Lindsay notices that Diana's jacket is hanging from the outside doorknob. In the most neutral matter-of-fact tone ever, Lindsay says "oh yes. Diana it is right there ::points at the doorknob:: I remember now. You said your jacket was smokey so you wanted to air it out. 

at this point, i texted melanie apologizing for calling her a ridiculous human being lol

3. Diana and I fell asleep on the couch around 11pm when Sketchy took AJ and Lindsay to the metro. When i woke up it was dark and the TV was still on. Believing it had only been 30 minutes and sketchy was not back yet, i immediately yell SKETTTCHHY!!! Thinking he's dead because he has not returned i look outside for the car. I do not see the car because it's parked on the street and i'm way too groggy and out of it to really notice. I immediate go to the bedroom where i find sketchy completely bundled up passed out. I then ask him what time it is. Startled by my existence and voice he looks at his phone and says "3:30am" WTH!! Where did 11-3:30 go?! At that point i just pass back out but this time in bed. 

The next morning i wake up in a top i was not originally wearing. Not sure when i changed clothes, but that was not the most baffling thing. When i finally looked in the mirror, i saw this:

 

WHERE IS THAT PIECE OF THIS SHIRT?! 

Filing that under mysteries i'll never solve. 

As the final picture should suggest, it was a fantastic birthday evening. 

Sunday folks came over and we watched football all day. 

Tonight Sketchy and I are going out somewhere for dinner for actual birthday. Super long, exciting and exhausting birthday weekend. 

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate and who helped make this probably one of the best birthdays i've had so far!