Entries Tagged as 'ted'

McNulty’s Tea and Coffee

May 27th, 2012 · 1 Comment

While in New York Jess took us over to McNulty’s Rare Teas and Choice Coffees. This is a place that has been open since 1895, so 117 years! It’s tucked away on Christopher Street, near Hudson, and though I didn’t work or live far away, I don’t remember ever seeing it. What’s more, Jeannette was not familiar, and she usually knows about everything. Ted told me that he can remember coming into the city with his dad when he was a kid and they’d always go to McNulty’s to get coffee and then go next door to the tobacconist to pick up tobacco for his dad’s pipe. And now this is where Ted and Jess get all of their coffee. Pretty cool.

Inside McNulty’s is tiny, tiny, with walls lined from floor to ceiling with teas and coffee and all of the accessories needed to brew them. It reminded me a bit of Porto Rico, an old coffee store in a much more visible Bleecker street location. I’d visited this store a few times because it was just a couple blocks from my old apartment. Porto Rico is just about as old as McNulty’s but who doesn’t like to find the hidden gem on Christopher Street?

I picked a few things I wanted to try from the coffee menu. A Kona, a couple I had at Jess’s house and then the older man, the expert, behind the counter made a suggestion for me. I bought four half pound bags, which I thought was a good sampling. Can’t wait to dig into these new brews!

P.S. Yes, I did think of Jimmy every time we mentioned McNulty’s.

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Limey’s Going Away Pub Crawl

November 8th, 2011 · No Comments


Bernie, Vickie, Limey :: Rockwood Place

After 18 years in America, Limey Dave is leaving. His work Visa has expired and without a sponsor he has to go. We have done a few things over the past few weeks as part of Limey’s going away period – cooking class, dinner and football – but this past weekend was the big blowout.


Limey & Kevin :: Bar Celona


Limey & Trent :: Bar Celona


Loden & Limey :: Bar Celona

Limes will still be here for a few more weeks and then he’s off to explore the world. I think he’s still unsure of where he’ll end up. I heard Australia and Asia are in the running, as well as England, of course. All nice places to visit, I hear, so I can’t wait to see where he lands.


Chad & Limey :: John Barleycorn


Limey & Rachelle :: John Barleycorn


Wrigley Field

Limey has lived in Wrigleyville the whole time he’s lived in Chicago, so for his going away party he coordinated a pub crawl around the neighborhood. As well, he’s always loved the Cubs so he chose to make the pub crawl baseball themed. Game time began at 1:20 p.m. with a celebratory shot and then we went to 9 bars around Wrigley Field, one bar for each “inning.”


Ted, Trent, Kevin, Chad, Danny :: Cubby Bear


Natalie, Limey, Annie :: Cubby Bear


Paulie & Limey :: Sports Corner

Dallas and I actually missed the first inning at Mullens, but made it for inning two at Rockwood Place. From there we went to Bar Celona from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. Bar Celona opened the bar just for Limey, their most loyal customer, so we spent two hours here instead of one. From 5 – 6 p.m. we were at John Barleycorn, from 6 – 7 p.m. we were at Cubby Bear and from 7 – 8 p.m. we were at Sports Corner.


Ted, Dallas, Jen, Loden, Danny :: Yak-Zie’s


Ted, Dallas, Jen, Loden, Danny, Chen-Je :: Yak-Zie’s


Here’s a secret: Limey’s shot only had Monster energy drink in it! :: Yak-Zie’s


Somewhere between Yak-Zie’s and Guthrie’s we saw this snowmobile and Sara and Jess had to get on it.

We were supposed to go to Murphy’s Bleachers next, but it was too packed to get in. Limey’s entourage was about 50 people strong and there was just no way we could fit in there. So, we were going to go to an alternate, Bernie’s Tavern, but we ended up going right to the next inning at Yak-Zie’s. The final inning, beginning at 10 p.m., was at Guthrie’s, of course, and we stayed there til close.


Eric & Kevin :: Guthrie’s Tavern


Sara, Jess, Rachelle :: Guthrie’s Tavern


Limey, Maria, Jill :: Guthrie’s Tavern


Jill, Danny, Jamie, Fitz, Paulie, Kevin, Jen, Chad’s Hands, Dallas :: Guthrie’s Tavern


Dan, Limey, Maria, Jill, Danny :: Guthrie’s Tavern


Limey & Maria :: Guthrie’s Tavern


Chad, Ted, Danny :: Guthrie’s Tavern


Time to go!!!

It was a fun day and great to see all of Limey’s friends come together. He is a great guy, which is reflected in how many people made a point to be there. We were taking over whole entire bars and making them open for business when usually they’re closed. It was such a fun day. Bittersweet. I’ll miss The Limes, but I know this will not be the last we’ve seen of him. Maybe he’ll even move back one day, who knows. Hopefully we can get to see him a time or two more before his actual move date.

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Jeopardy: Chad Edition

May 19th, 2011 · No Comments


Chad’s Birthday Mug


Chad, Cousin, Dallas, Trent


Chen-Je, Jen, Jason


Limey, Ted, Fitz, Paul, Carrie, Trent


Chad & Dallas


Chad & Rachelle

In grand family tradition of playing bar games for 40th birthday parties, we all gathered last weekend to celebrate Chad’s big birthday and played Jeopardy: Chad Edition. Remember, for Brian’s party there was the Pub Crawl Olympics and for Jill’s there was Survivor Wrigleyville.


Brian setting up the Jeopardy board.


Jill explaining the rules.


Jeopardy Team Representatives: Carrie, Limey, Ted

For Chad’s 40th birthday Jen rented out the beer garden at Fizz, but since it was raining, we were in a heated tent. We paid $35 for all the drinks we could drink for 4 hours and Jen arranged for some really delicious food to be served as well. At the appointed time, we all gathered to play Jeopardy. When we arrived Jen had given us each a number: 1, 2 or 3. This was to sort people into 3 teams. I was on Team 2: Team Burrito House. We chose Limey to be our team representative. When the answers were presented, Limey had to yell Burrito House to buzz in with the correct question. The other teams and reps were Ted for Team Guthries, Team 1, and Carrie (and later Danny) for Team Syracuse.


Chad


Getting intense!

These were the categories – For the Jeopardy round there was The Man and His Bans, Potent Potables, and Movies & Music. In Double Jeopardy there was Chad’s Sports Follies, Brushes With Fame, and He’s Had a Job or Two. The Final Jeopardy category was Location, Location, Location and the question was about how many places Chad has lived in Chicago. Jill and Brian constructed the Jeopardy board. Jill played Vannah White, flipping the answers open, while Brian did his best Alex Trebec, reading the answers off. Jen was the scorekeeper.


Chad had to charade out one of the Jeopardy answers.


Jeopardy crowd.


Final Jeopardy


Chen-Je with two winning girls, Caroline & Loden

The game got really heated with everyone screaming to ring in and shouting answers. Before Final Jeopardy my team, Team Burrito House, was in the lead by far! We could not mess this up! Well, leave it to Limey…. he wagered something like $4,000 more than we even had, which seems to be breaking the rules to me, and then we lost everything, and then some, when no one on our team know how many places Chad lived in. Wah wah wahhhh…


Cousin & Todd


Baltimore Bomb


Baltimore Bombs


Jill & Dallas

Chad’s high school friend Todd flew into town from Maryland and introduced us to a new shot called the Ravens Bomb. Well, when he’s tailgating at football games he calls it that, but we were opting to call it the Baltimore Bomb. In Baltimore they drop a grape vodka shot into a cup of Red Bull energy drink. At Fizz they only had Monster energy drink, so we used that. Check out the awesome custom shot glasses Fizz had. Perfect for bombs. As for the Baltimore Bomb? It tasted awesome. The grape vodka tasted just like grape soda. Todd did warn me that they will sneak up on you if you are not careful, but I only had two. They were flowing pretty readily, though. I think they did sneak up on some people. Or… it could have been the other bombs…


Chad’s Birthday Cheesecakes


Dessert: Carbombs or Cheesecake?

Of course a night out with all these guys is not complete without Irish Car Bombs. Right as Trent was ordering a round, Jen was in the other room gathering people for cake! Ed (remember The Baked Escape) made two white chocolate raspberry swirl cheesecakes (with a chocolate cookie crust) for the party. So delicious. I’ve had this one a few times. It never disappoints. Just as the cake was being cut the Irish Car Bombs arrived. So, choose your poison: Cheesecake or booze. Or both. Why not? Actually, I only had a tiny sliver of the cake and passed on the bombs.


Todd & Brian


Dancing around the birthday boy.

After this, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel very drunk, but there was a lot of dancing. And Ed sent me photos of things this week that I only vaguely remember happening. So yeh. Kind of proud that us old people can still have a good time!

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Hanalei Valley & Lappert’s

March 17th, 2011 · No Comments


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From Queen’s Bath, Jess, Ted, Richard, Amanda, and Stephanie went to Kilauea Lighthouse to watch the sunset. Paul Baker, Kate, Tien, Shannan and I decided to check out the Hanalei Valley Lookout….

…. and then, more importantly, stop for Lappert’s ice cream. As if there would be any doubt about it, I got the Kauai Pie, my favorite ice cream ever! It’s Kona coffee ice cream swirled wtih chocolate fudge, coconut flakes, macadamia nuts and vanilla cake crunch. Someday I will try another flavor, but not this day! This was my only Lappert’s on the whole trip!

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On the first day of the trip some friends made a Costco run and we had them pick of several bottles of white wine and several of red. We were buying the wine for our wedding and needed to know which to buy cases of. During the week we had wine tastings and chose a white wine, but somehow we never tasted or picked a red wine.

Well, Jen didn’t go ziplining and just hung out by the Ho’Onani pool all day, so I assigned her the task of tasting the reds and picking one! Tough day for her! So, Jen texted me her choices and on the way home from the North Shore we met up with Dallas, Matt and Ross at Costco in Lihue where we bought a case and a half of our chosen white wine (Menage a Trois California White) and our red (Mirassou Pinot Noir). Yes, everyone had a menage a trois at the wedding!

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Queen’s Bath

March 16th, 2011 · 3 Comments

When we finished ziplining, we couldn’t decide what to do. Some wanted to go for a drink, some wanted to hike, some were not sure. Somehow we all decided to go to Queen’s Bath. I’d been to Queen’s Bath before, but not since my first trip to Kauai. No one else with me had ever been to Queen’s Bath. It’s a little hard to find, you have to go through a bunch of residential and a golf course.. you swear you’re not going the right way. But then there’s a small parking lot and a trail.


Hiking on the wooded trail.


Surprise waterfall on the hike.

So you go hiking down the trail. At first it’s just a path in the woods. Pass by the waterfall.


Jessica


Shannan found a crab.


Ted wasn’t sure about going into the water, but in the end could not resist!

Then there’s a spot where you have to maneuver around some rocks and there’s a warning about people dying. If you keep going, you walk on a bed of lava rock. For a long time. Like, longer than you think you should.


Ted, Kate, Stephanie and Yvan climbing down to Queen’s Bath.

But then finally, we saw Queen’s Bath (Named after Queen Emma who was the mother of Prince Albert, from whom Princeville gets its name.) Basically, it’s a tide pool that has been carved into a lava shelf. When the tide is out, the pool is filled with water (and small fish and sealife).


Swimming in Queen’s Bath.

The water is so clear you can see all the way down to your feet and beyond. It’s so much fun to swim there, and so beautiful, but you can’t let your guard down. It can be very dangerous if the surf is not calm. People have been swept out of the pool into the ocean. And the current in the ocean here is very strong.


Swimming in Queen’s Bath.

So, I can never be totally relaxed at Queen’s Bath, thinking about all of this. I got nervous any time anyone was on the ocean side of the pool.


Jeannette


Richard


Richard’s splash.


Richard, Kate, Ted, Tien


Richard

If that’s not enough, there were a bunch of locals jumping off a cliff here and some of my more daring friends decided to give it a try, much to my dismay. After the wedding, people! How many times do I have to tell you?


Shannan


Paul

Paul Baker said it was the best thing he’s ever done in his life. He did it a few times that day and then went back on another day to do it again!

We had checked the times for low tide before we went to Queen’s Bath and we were in the clear. Still, as soon as the waves started crashing a lot on the ocean-side of the pool, we got the heck out of there!

Check out this video I found online of Queen’s Bath:

Sources: HawaiiWeb, Summit Pacific.

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