Anne on Tap: January 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Matt and Mags Visit to 'Bama!

We just had another fun-filled Alabama Adventure with our friends from the "north." This was Margaret's 3rd time visiting (I think she secretly likes it here!) but it was Matt's 1st time so we had to find a nice mix of new southern things to do!

Matt arrived first on Friday, while I was still at work, so Tom picked him up at the airport and they went to see the Vulcan. After they rescued me from my super busy day at work, we went to a local favorite, Jim 'N Nick's for lunch. Then we went to get fresh-squeezed limeade from a local deli in Mountain Brook (my favorite! I big puffy heart limeade!)

For dinner Friday night we went to the J. Clyde, a local Birmingham restaurant with a wide variety of beers on tap and a fun atmosphere. We sat outside (in January, yes, it was warm enough to sit outside! Well, it was kind of a "tented in" area on the deck but still) and enjoyed some live jazz music during dinner. Afterwards we strolled over to meet some friends at the dueling piano bar. It wasn't the best performance we had seen there, but we still had a good time.

Saturday we woke up and got ready for the main attraction! We drove to Archibald's, a tiny, family run BBQ joint a few miles north of Tuscaloosa in the back yard of Archibald's house! Tom and I first learned about this place while watching an Alabama football game on tv when Todd Blackledge went there for his "Todd's Taste of the Town." One look and we knew we had to go there before we left Alabama! The menu consisted of small or large rib plate, rib sandwich, pork sandwich, or rib/pork combo. That's it. We all got rib plates and they were awesome! You really can't beat this experience. You are driving through this neighborhood and all of the sudden you see smoke coming up from the "oven." You pull up and walk into this tiny little "restaurant" where there is a bar with a few stools and right behind the bar George Archibald himelf is hosing down the ribs with water so they don't get too hot. His wife (I'm guessing) takes your order (or smirks at you when you tell her you've never been there before)! Then you enjoy your ribs outside on some picnic tables and the smell of smoke lingers with you for the rest of the day!

After Archibald's we hit up another local winery that we had never been to, Vizzini Farms. We sampled some of the wines and went on a "tour." I wouldn't even call it a tour, considering the "tourguide" was some guy that had obviously been drinking wine all day and we stood in this garage while he pointed out the barrels they make the wine in. But we got to sample some yummy Alabama wines, including a peach wine and an apple wine!

We were all BBQ'd out for dinner so we went to Surin, a local Thai restaurant. We had originally planned to head out to a bar in the Lakeview District to see a band called The Cheesebrokers, an 80's cover band! But we were all too exhausted and full after dinner so we went home and hung out instead.

Sunday we went to the Original Pancake House for brunch and stuffed ourselves silly yet again. I think we all gained about 5 pounds this weekend! After brunch we went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. You all know how I feel about museums, but I actually enjoyed it. We ended our visit with some Milo's Sweet Tea because you can't come to the south and not have sweet tea! All in all it was a great weekend! Thanks for coming to visit guys!! :)

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Eagles, you break my heart yet again.........

I realize I've been slacking on my blog entries lately and haven't updated much about what's going on in our lives!! We've both been pretty busy since the new year with work, lab, and the pup! We started obedience training class with Bailey. We've had 2 classes so far and have learned "Sit" "Down" "Come" (she's still working on this one!) "Look" and we are also working on "Walk with me." Bailey has been doing pretty well. She has been excellent in her crate *knock on wood* and has never had any accidents in her crate so we decided to get her a soft mat to sleep on.

I think she likes it ;) The picture is from my phone with no flash so the quality isn't that great...I wish I had my regular camera ready to snap this pic! She has mastered the art of destroying plastic squeaky and soft stuffed toys. The last one lasted about 5 minutes. So I did some internet research and we ended up with a few good ones including The Galileo Nylabone, Planet Dog Orbee Snowball, and the Buster Cube Mini. She also loves her Bobo's, but she just destroys them so quickly! I stocked up on a few that were on clearance for special occasions ;)

Tom has been so busy in lab lately. He went in a lot over the holidays and got a ton of data. It was a good thing he did because he got sick last week so he wasn't in lab a whole lot. He's starting to feel better now. Work has been pretty busy for me too, and is about to get crazy ridiculous this week. But if I can just make it through the week it will be worth it......because Margaret and Matt are coming to visit this weekend!!! The last time the two of them came to visit we ended up having breakfast "shots" to ring in the new year! Of course that was Philly, and circa 2005. I'll let you know if 4 years and a trip to the deep south changes anything ;)

Sunday, January 11, 2009

How I became a Philadelphia Eagles fan

Growing up in Central Pennsylvania, it really could have gone either way. I was born into a family that was indifferent about professional sports.

Mainly because they are such huge Penn State fans. So naturally, I became a Penn State fan too.

Fastforward many years and I end up going to Penn State (imagine that)! Essentially Penn State is comprised of 49% Philly fans and 49% Pittsburgh fans, with 2% in the "Other" category. This is where I decided I wanted to go to Physical Therapy school. Before deciding exactly which school I wanted to go to, I worked at a summer camp north of Pittsburgh for a summer.

Pittsburgh was fun enough, but I always imagined myself moving to Philly. So after my summer in Pittsburgh, I applied to PT school in Philly, and got accepted.

Then I met Tom :)

Then I moved to Philly and met Tom's friends.

Then I made some new friends at PT school who also happened to be Eagles fans.

Then I married Tom.

Then we went to a bunch of games.

And by the time the Superbowl rolled around I was a die-hard Eagles fan with the best of them!!

After living in Philly for a few years, I even got to "rub elbows" with some of the players!

Then, the Eagles themed gifts started coming, and the rest was history!

The End.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Philly Pride

Last month I watched the movie Invincible when it was on tv. Ahhhhhhhh it made me miss Philly soooo much! It was such a great movie, better than Rocky. Yeah, I said it! AND, I didn't even know that Vince Papale was from Delaware County (where Tom's from!!) and he worked and lived a couple towns over from where Tom grew up!! Apparently Disney Executives thought making it look like Vince was from South Philly "more neatly" fit the script and "was more easily identifiable to the national audience." Whatever.

Watching that movie made me miss Philly so much!! Occasionally I frequent this website, which can have some pretty funny stuff on it. Also, my brother took this picture out of an airline magazine (I think) and sent it to my phone a little while ago. It pretty much sums it up!

So, in tribute to Philly, here is a list of things that I miss dearly and can’t wait to get back to (someday *sigh*):

Ordering a “Lager” in a bar and getting a Yeungling draft instead of a blank stare
Some yummy cheesesteaks (a provy without!!)
A pizza joint on every block
Dunkin Donuts! (Not specific to Philly, but we don’t have them down here!)
One word: Wawa!!!
E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES! If I tell anyone in Philadephia I just bought Eagles tickets, they would absolutely, 100% know what I’m talking about. When I tell someone from Alabama I just bought Eagles tickets, they look at me and ask “the band?” *Beating. Head. Against. Wall.*
Honking my horn at horrible drivers (think: on cell phone. Nobody honks down here!)
Running along Kelly Drive
An Irish Pub on every other block
New Year’s Day and St. Patty’s Day in the city
The Erin Express
Tastykakes!!
Living in a city with FOUR professional sports teams
Fado & McGillin's
Free concerts on the parkway (like this one)
Restaurant Week!
Seeing fireworks from the Eagles & Phillies Stadiums from my apt window!
Roula! (The street vendor outside Hahnemann Hospital. Top 2 favs: Bacon, Egg, & Cheese and Grilled Cheese on wheat with tomato. YUM!)
BYOB restaurants
Rittenhouse Square
Being able to walk to work
Monkey Knife Fight from Nodding Head

Don't worry Alabama, soon enough I’ll be posting about all of the things I’m going to miss about you when we leave (oddly enough, it’s going to be a lot more than I would have ever imagined!)