Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Tim Lane

Both Michael and I have spent the majority of our lives growing up on the West Coast, so it's a bit surprising that neither of us have spent much time traveling to or visiting Washington State.  But last weekend, we had a wonderful reason to travel to the Pacific Northwest because we were celebrating the marriage of our dear friend Tim & Janelle Lane!  The little love birds tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Italy, and invited all their friends and family to join them in Spokane to celebrate when they returned from their dream trip.

I was overly excited to travel to Washington state for a few reasons:

1.  I've never been there before and I'm always eager to travel to places that are brand new to me
2.  We haven't seen Tim & Janelle since OUR wedding in April, so we couldn't wait to hug the newlyweds and celebrate their nuptuals.
3.  Autumn is supposed to be a wonderful time of year in Spokane.  Anytime I can see the season unfolding through the lush trees covered in beautiful colors, I get excited

4.  The Twilight series is based in Washington (not Spokane), but being that Halloween is only a week or so away, I was feeling a bit vampire-y and had hopes of seeing dreamy werewolves

Michael with the life size giant rhino at the
entrance of our hotel

 Ok, so I didn't see any werewolves and I didn't get any photo ops with the Cullens but it was our own little adventure.  Let's just start with the hotel.  Per Tim & Janelle's request, we booked a room at the Davenport Tower in Spokane....this place was amazing.  The walls were covered with ceramic elephant heads.  All the upholstery in the lobby was leopard print.  There was a real stuffed tiger lurking above the hotel bar (he died of natural causes...don't worry).  And the lobby was covered in oil paintings of rhino, elephants,

cheetahs & parrots.  Our actual room didn't disappoint either with the lavish animal print bedding and chaise lounge complete with ostrich skin pillows.  I felt like I was at Disneyland!  This was probably the best deal we've ever gotten on any hotel and it was awesome.

We joined Tim & his lovely new wife for lunch at a festive place called the Elk. We were able to take a scenic route through the outskirts of the downtown area to enjoy some of the beautiful trees that were vibrant shades of red, orange & yellow!  And later that evening we all got together to celebrate at a welcome dinner with the family.


But I think Saturday was the most eventful day of the trip!  We all woke up for a group breakfast at none other than the Safari Grill!  The fueling up was absolutely necessary because we packed into vans to head over to the indoor race track with some go-karts!  I've never been go-kart racing, and I'll admit I was a bit timid the first few laps, but it was a blast!  I was one of only a few other ladies and the boys had no qualms with passing me up or ramming into my little car.  But once I got the hang of it, I was speeding around those turns with my wheels squealing and my hands shaking on the steering wheel.  It was really tons of fun, and a little bit of an upper body workout.  It takes some strength to navigate around those tight little turns!!!!

Tim & Janelle's reception was at a beautiful historical mansion in Spokane that was surrounded by tons and tons of statuesque trees.  The evening was full of love for the happy couple as well as delicious festive beer and wine.  And after the lovely party, the crew headed to the dueling piano bar downtown where our party took over the venue by demanding only 80s metal from the pianists.


The bride & groom were so sweet as they danced on the stage in front of the venue. We wish them every happiness and are so glad we could make the trip up to Spokane to celebrate with them.

Wienerschnizel, Lederhosen, Bratwurst, & Biergardens

This was #2 of our beer challenge

I think we were a little late to the game in celebrating Octoberfest, but it's one of the more festive fall activities of the year.  And I always thought it was silly to celebrate OCTOBER-fest in September.   We had even more reason to celebrate this weekend because my brother was in town visiting for one night only!  And, it was Mr, Chuck Buck's birthday.  There are very few weekends in the year where all of our friends are in town at the same time, and this weekend was just one of those weeks where everyone was in the city, and everyone was available and down for some brewskies.

My husband taking every opportunity to wear another costume

After what seemed like an entire week of rainy weather, we woke up to crisp air and sunny skies, right in time for Garrett to arrive in Manhattan from a friends wedding in Upstate.  After waiting anxiously all morning for him to get here, we immediately cabbed it up to head out to Brooklyn's Radegast Beer Hall.  We celebrated Chuck's birthday and Garrett's visit with steins of delicious German beer, Bratwursts, giant pretzels and mead...
Well not all of us had mead...but Mike did because it said that it was made out of "Viking blood" on the menu.  Garrett and I thought that it would be fun to experiment with the beer menu and try everything as it appeared in order on the beer list.  It was a bit aggressive, but it's hard to choose a beer when they have crazy German names and confusing descriptions.  We made it through the first 5, there were some tough ones in there, I'm not going to lie.  Number 3 was disgusting, but we took a picture with each beer to document our challenge.

The boys with their mead in extremely festive glasses

Still counting our beer even though
we've left the biergarden

We continued the party back on the LES at Mike Keohane's rooftop patio.  There is a very short amount of time left for us to enjoy a night sitting outside.  Before we know it, it's going to be snowy and cold, so we were all down for a rooftop outing with cozy blankets, cigars, pungent scotch, berets, and mason jars with Rose wine.  It also meant a lot for me to be able to share the festivity with my brother.  This weekend was a bit windy and after the rain last week, the New York skyline was crystal clear and sparkling in all her glory.  I've been wanting to share an experience like this with my brother since we moved here so that he could see why we love this city and why we aren't sure that we want to return back to the West Coast just yet.  It's fall, and yes, it's very mild, but it's my favorite time of year, especially in Manhattan, and I'm so glad he could be here to have one day of real New York City autumn.

Needless to say, all three of us were hurt-ing on Sunday.  So it was the perfect setting for some good home cooked chili and double (maybe triple...) chocolate chip cookies.  All three of us (four with Winston) were glued to our little spots on the couch the entire day with breaks only to eat and refill on Gatorade and water.  Boy am I going to miss having a couch that can fit 4 comfortably!  The things you sacrifice for space in New York!  And, I'm going to miss my brother because I feel like one night was just too short!  But luckily him and Jen will be back to see us after Thanksgiving next month!  

Couch Potatoes

Michael and I have been married for almost 6 months, and I get the same "how does it feel to be married" question at least once a week.  I'm not sure I've gone more than 4 or 5 days with out getting the question "how different is your life now that you're a wife?".   The first few times I got that question...I played around with fun answers like "well all our plates match now" or "we have a lot more bar ware now".   Or if I was really trying to be quick, I went with the anti-climactic answer of  "it's not much different".  

But that's not true.  Yes, I have a lot more really sharp knives and I spend more of my time trying to figure out what to make for the perfect dinner with my husband, but there IS a difference after you get married.  It doesn't matter if you've lived together for 6 years or had a 3 year engagement.  It doesn't matter if you dated for 8 months or 18 years before getting married.  It feels different when you're married...a LOT different.   Married couples spend a lot more time making "life decisions".  Life decisions like "how can we get to see both of our families around the holidays" or "which neighborhoods are the best for when we decide to have children", "where are we going to live in 10 years".  And for us, our life decision this week was all about buying a couch!

 

We have the most comfortable custom Room & Board sectional couch.  Every Sunday Mike and I can stretch ourselves out completely into our perspective sections while still cuddling with Winston.  We've switched out the pillows once a year to give the couch a new look.  If there was an excess of dog slobber or god forbid a catastrophic spill (usually from me), those little cushions just unzip and go right into the washing machine.  But we do live in New York, and a sectional isn't the best choice for a Manhattan one-bedroom.  Since we've decided to stay in our apartment a bit longer, we've decided it was time to re-invigorate the space and say good buy to the cozy sectional.  So it was very exciting to head out with Mike to make our first BIG purchase as a married couple.  I know that eventually we'll be making bigger purchases together, like houses and cars, but this blog is about how our marriage is progressing and developing, and this was just another step. 

Crate & Barrel was having a pretty big upholstery sale for the Columbus Day and we still had a bit of credit from wedding gifts, so it was a perfect time to shop for our little investment.  Our decision was a great display of compromising both of our individual styles for something that was perfect for our little home.  And it wasn't a decision that was made quickly.  We sat on what felt like hundreds of houses and scoured over racks and racks of wonderful fabrics.  When decided on the couch/fabric, I was disappointed to hear that our couch wont come for another 10-12 weeks.  But it was more important to me to get the exact couch that we wanted and wait, than to settle for something just so that we could get it quicker.  So here it is in all it's glory!!!  Well...that's he shape of the sofa we purchased...our fabric & color are different, but I'm clearly happy about the purchase as you can tell here!

For anyone in apartments looking to buy a new couch, make sure you ask your building management about the size of the elevators to ensure that you can in fact get your purchase into your apartment.  We had to measure our elevator ourselves and speak to our super, but luckily, we're clear. 

A new couch means we'll be buying other items to enhance our cozy little living room, and we're a long way from where the room is going to be, but guess what?  I have 10-12 weeks to figure that out! :)

Ditka vs. a Hurricane, Who Would Win?

I find it extremely profound that I have written 20 posts on this blog thus far without once mentioning one of my greatest passions...THE CHICAGO BEARS!!!  I know I'm not alone when I say that football season is hands down the best time of year.  It's the only time of year when it's socially acceptable to have buffalo wings and potato skins as a meal.  The months of September through January are the only times I strategically plan out my Sunday outfits.  If you're on the west coast, it's totally normal to start your FIRST pitcher of beer at 10a.  And finally, if there was some way to measure the statistics, I'm pretty sure there would be a spike in random high-fiving and hugging of strangers during football season.

My outfit was a little retro, so we decided to be groovy
for a picture

To embrace the season and milk the football festivities as much as possible, the DuPont family has started a wonderful tradition of heading out to Chicago for an annual football game together.  But this year, our trip to Chicago was even more eventful as we also flew in town for a reunion for my mother's side of the family.

Garrett and I with Aunt Dorothy!
Sweetest lady in the world

Unfortunately my maternal grandmother passed away before I was born and when my mother was young. So my mom organized a wonderful event to bring all of her side of the family together to reminisce and celebrate everyone who could make it and remember those who were looking down on us from heaven.  The weekend kicked off early Saturday morning with the family reunion lunch with some of the best Italian food I've had in a long time.  The turnout was wonderful and it was great to see family that I haven't seen in years!  It was also the first time Michael was able to meet so many family members from my mothers side of the family all at once.  Last time I saw a lot of this family, I was so young!  And now I am married!  I hope that we can have events like this more often.

Surrounded by the wonderful world of Ditka...my heaven

After the reunion lunch we packed up in the mini van that we rented for the weekend.  I think my Pops had a LITTLE too much fun driving the minivan (we never had them growing up).  But we moved the party to downtown Chicago where we checked in to the Hilton AKA the same hotel that the Chicago Bears stay at the night before the games.  My beautiful mother was so organized in making the reservations for the family, but somehow Michael and I got upgraded to a beautiful lake view room on the penthouse floor, and the rest of the crew was cozy in their double room.  So needless to say, Mike and I volunteered our room as the "party room" as we were equipped with a wet bar and mini fridge.  While our room faced north, it was still fun to have everyone up to the room for happy hour and prosecco as we watched the color change into night time over Navy Pier.

As if we didn't have enough to celebrate, our very dear family friend Marissa Mazza who also lives Downtown announced to everyone that she passed the Bar Exam!!!!  So we continued the party with the Mazza family at Ditka's Steakhouse.  Would you believe that after 27 years of my life and being an avid Bears fan, I have never been to Ditka's Steakhouse?   The restaurant is one of the most magical places I've ever been in my life.  I was like an over stimulated child at Disneyland!  I wanted to take a picture of every "picture".  There were hundreds and thousands of vintage posters and autographed pictures.  It was seriously a Bear's fan's Mecca, at the risk of sounding cliche.  It was the happiest any restaurant has ever made me.

Mike had a hard time deciding what to eat as the menu was a barrage of cleverly named entrees including: the "fridge" burger, da pork chop, and the fullback sized filet mignon.  My husband's decision was made when he heard the special  was "the tomahawk prime rib".  It was an aggressive move, but when in Rome!  And no meal is complete without a nice bottle of Ditka's finest Pinot Noir...which Mike and I


drank by ourselves....whoops.   There will never be a trip to Chicago where I go without a visit to Ditka's from now on.  I feel terrible that I've missed out on it this my whole life, but the experience was probably heightened by the amazing company and great family friends who joined us for our meal.

Sunday was the big day.  Sunday was the day I've been waiting for since the day we booked this flight.  My head wasn't feeling too hot, but I woke up with Chicago Bears pride in my heart and excitement for the big game.  The sun was shining, the day was beautiful, and the city was painted in navy & orange.  I was so excited for the weekend that I stressed for weeks over my outfit to the game...but Mike and I chose beautiful matching Ditka shirts that were one-of-a-kind.

The stadium was one of the most beautiful sights I've seen in a while.   I love the Bears, and the only think I love more than the Chicago Bears is being around OTHER people who love the Chicago Bears just as much as I do.  So to be in a stadium full of people sharing my enthusiasm was electric.  Not to mention, we got to see a phenomenal game which included a defensive interception, Devon Hester setting the record for the most punt returns, and most importantly, a big fat W.  I enjoyed every point scored and every time I got to sing "Bear Down" whilst wearing my over sized foam Bear claw.

Unfortunately we had to fly back immediately following the game, and I vow to never leave on game day ever again.  But we did get home to see our little boy and to get just enough sleep to start the work week with out missing a beat.  It may be another year until I get to go back to Soldier Field, and we may not have a Super Bowl team this year, but I leave you with this last piece of Bear Pride:


Bear down, Chicago Bears, make every play clear the way to victory;
Bear down, Chicago Bears, put up a fight with a might so fearlessly.
We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation with your T-formation.
Bear down, Chicago Bears, and let them know why you're wearing the crown.
You're the pride and joy of Illinois, Chicago Bears, bear down.

Something wicked this way comes....

This one is Michael and I if we were skeletons! 

As you can probably tell, Michael and I are big on holidays and anything "festive".  Festive is a term that can be used for any time of the year, and is a term in the Mobley vocabulary that we use daily.  Lobsters and anchors are festive in the July.  Mulled wine and miniature pine cones are festive in December.  Fresh tulips and rain boots are festive for spring time.  Fresh picked strawberries and sangria is festive in June.  And candy corn and pumpkins are festive for October!  So as soon as we can prep our little apartment for the next holiday, we take every opportunity to upgrade our home decor to match the season.



What's that you say?  It's still September?  Yes, we realize that, we may have been on the earlier side of our decorating this year, but next weekend we'll be out of town, and GOD FORBID my husband waits until the weekend of October 10th to decorate for Halloween.  That's 10 whole days we'd miss out on all the witches, pumpkins, mummies and spiders that have been accumulating between us over the past few years.  We officially closed out the summer season by packing up all our summer clothes and bringing in the fall/winter attire from storage.  Winston even got in on the action playing in our different piles of give-away items & clothes to un-pack. We're starting the season out with clean & organized closets....all the more room for me to go shopping to "supplement" my fall wardrobe :).  

Those skull bottles are NOT Halloween decorations, they are up all year...
we're THAT metal

I know a lot of my friends and readers share the excitement I have when that Pottery Barn catalog comes in the mail with pages and pages of beautiful decorations to make your home beautiful during every holiday.  It's only a matter of time before I end up with those turkey plates on my dining room table.  If we had the room, I think my husband would buy different dinnerware for every holiday of the year.  So it was no surprise to me when Mike disappeared for a good 2 hours today....and when he came home, we had a bag full of Halloween goodies from Pottery Barn!!!!  Decorations included: owl lanterns, pumpkin candles, 6 bags of candy corn (as a filler for my hurricanes) and a spooky family of iron rats...which ended up on our dinner table,  much to my chagrin.

Naturally, you'd think that these new additions would take the place of some older, less mature decorations, right?  Nope, we still have our crepe paper pumpkins out, the vintage plastic light up ghosts, Mike's Halloween toys (Dracula, Frankenstein & the Mummy dolls), and the full collection of Halloween themed Smurf figurines.  AND, he's still going...as we speak Mike is online shopping for black roses to have as a centerpiece (the sunflowers are JUST not spooky enough) and a haunted candelabra.  So the apartment is clean, it's organized and primed for Autumn, and it's decorated to a tee for the impending Halloween season.  We can't wait to have people over for our next Sunday Dinner to enjoy the decorations and share a festive October feast with people we love.

Fuggedaboutit!!!!

I'm not sure if it's officially fall, or if we just got to experience what the weather man is calling "a fall preview", but the weather was definitely beautiful this weekend.  As you know, Michael and I have been out of town the past two weekends, so New York welcomed us home for the weekend with a little bit of football weather.  I love our travels and I wouldn't trade our fun, crazy life for anything in the world, but we have come to cherish our weekends home in the city. 

There is no shortage of things to do in New York City, especially during autumn.  We've lived here for a year and a half together, and we can find something new to do or somewhere new to go every weekend.  So this weekend's adventure was to the Saint Gennaro festival in Little Italy.  We recruited the Bucks to come join us for a festive evening embracing the Italian culture in New York.  It's shameful, but I have not ventured out to Little Italy for a meal since living in the city.  I think Mike always thought it was a tourist-y thing to do, and there is SO much great Italian food in Manhattan.  So we braved the crowds (literally hundreds of thousands of people) with one of our favorite couples on a perfect Saturday night.  

After navigating through the swarms of people, we stumbled upon a little Italian restaurant (aren't they all "little"?!?) and got a seat outside right on the border of the festival.  The little white Christmas lights were twinkling, Italian flags were waving, and the smell of zeppoles filled the air.  We thought we found a quaint place for a bite to eat, but it ended up being one of the most famous Italian restaurants in New York.  So famous that we ate at a table adjacent to the ONLY remaining member of the Ramones...Marky Ramone.  My husband is really good at catching rock star sightings.  But he was pretty recognizable.  

When we were seated by the adorable old Italian man, he said "the kitchen is going to be slow tonight".  Our dinner could have taken 4 hours to come out, but none of us would have cared in the slightest.  We had a delicious bottle of Chianti and enough great people watching to keep us happy and satisfied.  

But the food DIDN'T take 4 hours, and it was amazing...so amazing that I didn't even feel bad about the carbs, or the the friend mozzarella mini sandwiches for that matter.  And what Italian meal is complete without a little dessert.  I was determined to try zeppoles for the first time in my life....but was quickly distracted by the "best cannoli on planet earth" sign.  So naturally that's where I ended up...and it was delicious.  "best cannoli on platnet earth" is a big claim, and I'm not sure I've had enough cannolis to agree/disagree with that, but there are few things that I like better than a good ol' fashioned Italian cannoli.  I think we all felt a little bit more Italian after our experience....even though I'm the only REAL Italian of the group.  

 The night ended with us spending an unrealistic amount of money on carnival games.  But it paid off though, because we won three goldfish!!!  I donated one to a sweet little girl on our way home, but we did keep two of them, which I've named Cannoli and Parmesean...duh!  My husband was not happy about undertaking the huge responsibility of having two more pets...because "goldfish are a lot of work".  But they are happy and healthy and enjoying a new life in a tiki-filled paradise.

Tiger Blood, Warlocks, the Wild Thing and Winning!

In my year and a half of working on the planning team for Axe Body Spray, this was one of my favorite things I was able to participate in as an advertiser.  This past weekend, Axe was a presenting sponsor of the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen!  And with Mike starting his new job, he was given tickets to the event from his clients who do the digital planning for Comedy Central.  So we both packed our bags and headed west to LA for a fun filled weekend of comedy.

While we both were traveling out to the west coast together, we were both on separate trips that were work related.  In fact, we hardly saw each other until Saturday after our Friday work functions were complete.  I suggested BOA as our client/Comedy Central dinner with our hosts.  For those of you who don't know....BOA is the site of Mike and my first date (back when it was a tiny little restaurant in the Grafton hotel).  So we've developed quite a friendship with the clientele there after years of dating and client dinners in LA.  It was like seeing old friends during my client dinner.  Always such a pleasure to visit our favorite restaurant even though I wasn't with Mike.  But nevertheless, dinner was amazing as always and was a hit with the crew at Unilever and Comedy Central. 

So the first time I got to spend time with Mike was Saturday morning when we were up early enough to take a trip up to our old neighborhood in West Hollywood for a quick detox hike at Runyon Canyon.  As I mentioned in my previous entry, I like to take in any opportunity I can get for some exercise in the outdoors.  So while it may have been pretty ambitious after a long night of entertaining clients and having cocktails, it was nice to take some time to wake up and smell the roses!  AND, since she lives in the neighborhood, we got to enjoy the company of our cousin Julie for our hike and a quick breakfast (at Cheebo, another Mobley favorite from our days of living in LA).   Saturday quickly got away from us so it was nice to take the morning to enjoy all the things we loved about living in Los Angeles.

Comedy Central was fabulous and gracious hosts for both Mindshare representatives and our Unilever clients.  They were extremely generous in putting us up at the beautiful Four Seasons resort in Beverly Hills for the weekend.  Not only did they host us, but they treated us to a cabana during the day on Saturday for the entire day.  The day was perfect for some Comedy

Central/Unilever/Mindshare relaxation time, not to mention that it was a beautiful, sunny day in Southern California.  The day quickly turned into an eventful evening as we left the hotel to head out to the Sony Pictures studio lot where the Roast was being taped.  We've been building this program with CC for a few months, so it was so fun to see the whole program come to life.  We are so thrilled about how Comedy Central was able to customize a program for Axe.  And we got to watch it all unfold from the star-studded red carpet. B and C list celebrity appearances included: Ron Jeremy, Kristin Cavelleri, Slash, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Kate Walsh, Kristy Swanson, Mike Tyson, Maria Menudos, William Shatner, Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, Seth McFarlane, Charlie Sheen, and my personal favorite of the evening...the Tick himself...Patrick Warburton (LOVE!).

This was my first time going to the Roast, but it was SO much fun.  The actual Roast was hilarious (I'm a little interested to see what exactly they will be able to clear for TV!).  As you can imagine, with Charlie Sheen being the Roast subject, all of the jokes were about drugs and hookers.  But it was the hardest I've laughed in a long time.So I'm looking forward to seeing how much Comedy Central can actually air from the event. And we got HOOKED UP with our tickets to the Roast as we got front row seats at table #1.  Mike wasn't as lucky, but at least we kept tabs on each other before the after party.  

The after party was fabulous.  It was less about mingling among the celebs, and more about the fun we had with the clients and with Comedy Central.  Mike's CC clients got him tickets to the after party as well so we finally got to enjoy the fun of the weekend together.  After a few cocktails, I was a bit more brave later in the night, and felt confident enough to take a picture with Patrick Warburton.  He's so random and awesome, and was very friendly and may or may not have tried to pinch my hiney.  Chatting with him was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.  Everyone else at the event made fun of me for my random obsession with someone who played a tick on a quickly cancelled cartoon...and who is most famous for his high-fives..and who stars on a CBS sitcom of which I think I'm the only viewer.  But it was a highlight, and he took not only one, but TWO pictures with me.  Thank you Patrick, I think I'm your biggest fan. 

It was weird being in LA this past weekend and not having time to see all my favorite people in LA, and it was strange to be in my former home for business.  However, I'm so lucky to have such wonderful colleagues and clients because it was the most fun "business trip" I think I'll ever take!!!!  Plus, I got to have my husband there too!  It was bitter sweet coming home from LA.  I'm a bit delayed in posting this week as I've had a busy week of work, but Mike and I flew back to New York on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  We were sad to leave our old home and the beautiful lifestyle we used to live out there, but we were happy and proud to be New Yorkers, and to return to the city on such a memorable day.  During our drive back from the airport, we saw two beams of light shooting up into the sky from Ground Zero where the Twin Towers used to stand, and it was a very moving sight.  And I've never been happier to call New York City my home.