The Power of Three

No, I don't mean the Charmed ones (although I do secretly love that show!)

I think I've watched every episode at least twice!

You know how they say that bad things tend to happen in threes?  Well, that theory was proven correct yesterday and here is why.

1. We found out that the house on Maple we wanted had multiple bids close to asking price.  Apparently Ian and I do not think that having a pool and a 2 car attached garage is worth $20,000.
2. Ian found out that the job he was waiting to hear back about isn't actually open.  They decided to keep the guy and let him retire in a year or so. 
3. The Bruins Lost and Ian was "heartbroken"

In an effort to stay positive and look for the good I'm going to turn these three negatives into awesome Golden Moments!

1. A new house opened up yesterday, within our price range, and the kitchen looks really nice.  We are looking at it today, fingers crossed!
2. In an effort to keep Ian at Harvard, they gave him a raise and are looking into giving him Friday off (not ideal but an improvement).  They also said that they are looking in to helping him get his Masters in Operations Management from Harvard, so that's awesome!
3. Ian loves the Bruins, which clearly means we made the right decision in moving him up here.  A stretch I know, but a girl's gotta try right?

Just like that, three Golden Moments!

Strawberry everywhere and I LOVE it!!

So, I absolutely LOVE fruit, I mean who doesn't?  What are my favorite you ask?  I'd have to say, bananas, watermelon, grapes, pineapple and of course STRAWBERRIES!  So it only seems fitting that I dedicated a weekend to consuming strawberries.

It all started on Friday when Ian made a smoothie using strawberries, bananas, and blueberries.  So good and refreshing!

From there I went to book club where we had strawberries with each course.  It started off with a delicious strawberry drink, dinner was lasagne with a spinach and strawberry salad, and ended with strawberry shortcake dessert.

Mmmm

My wine charm, perfect for book club

Best. Dessert. Ever!

On Saturday, I went to my girlfriend's house for a gender reveal party.  When she went in to figure out the sex of the baby, she had the doctor write it on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope.  She gave this envelope to the baker, who then used either pink or blue frosting inside the cake to indicate whether it was a boy or a girl.  That way the couple has no idea and they only find out once they cut the first slice.  It was amazing to be there and share that moment with them!  (okay no strawberries, but there was a fruit salad!)

The cake, it had a fish theme

What is it?

Yay it's a boy!!!

Sunday was hot as heck, so what do I do?  Go to the lake, the beach, or stay inside?  Nope not this girl, I jumped in my car and went over to Kaitlyn & Jay's for strawberry picking.  They are so tiny, I couldn't resist chipping them up and putting them into into water for strawberry ice cubes.  So excited for my strawberry water this week!

Kaitlyn filling up the box

The Hilberts hard at work

Beautiful color and oh so sweet

Trivia night with the Hilberts!

My love for trivia started when I moved to Boston and my girlfriend Jenny and I started going to Davis for trivia nights on Wednesday and Thursdays.  It's a great way to get together, feel good about yourself for the seemingly useless facts you have remembered, and learn something while you are at it.

 Did you know that 40 when written out, is the first number spelt in alphabetical order?

Anyways, we stopped going for various reasons, mostly because of moving around and away from Davis.  However, my love for trivia has not gone away and I always jump at an opportunity to see if I can put those useless facts in my brain to good use.   So, when Kaitlyn and Jay asked Ian and I to join them for their night out we couldn't help ourselves.

We almost won last week, we were tied (no idea how that happened).  We lost the tie breaker (see the last question) Some interesting factoids from that night.

• The turkey, tomato and avocado sandwich is no longer available, unless you request it
• German Shepherds, on average, bite more humans than any other dog.
• Marylin Monroe had a 6th toe
• Purina is the largest brand of dog food out there (they stock in in Market Basket)

Last night was a quiet night, apparently people thought that staying home watching the Bruins Game was a better choice than trivia.  False, I say trivia trumps hockey any day, plus there are TVs in the bar.  Some interesting facts from the night

• The turkey, tomato and avocado sandwich is back on the menu!
• Chinese is the most spoken language
• New York is made up of 50 islands
• Ketchup has it's own website... wait what?

While we were playing, I noticed that the ketchup bottle had a QR code on it... the conversation went something like this.
Kendra: Did you know that this bottle has a QR code on it?
Kaitlyn: YES!  I made Jay do it last week because I was curious!
Kendra: Oh yeah?  Where did it go?
Kaitlyn: Ketchup's website
SILENCE
Jay: You mean Heinz's website? Ketchup isn't a brand
Kaitlyn:... yeah (laughter) it's not funny guys!

Stay tuned for more interesting factoids from trivia night with the Hilberts!

Graduation and Father's Day

What a fantastic weekend!  We had perfect weather (despite my burn), had a great time with the family, managed to run/walk 4 miles, and capped it off with the girls coming over for dinner.

Tried to get a picture of her giving the speech!

Saturday morning started with chaos around my apartment as Wes, Ian, and I all tried to get ready to head up to NH for Becca's graduation.  I wish I had a camera because Ian + Wes = the most adorable thing ever.  I love that these two get along so well, it makes me so happy and I feel so lucky! 

Becca's speech (she's the co-president of the NHS) was perfect.  She managed to bring mom into the speech in a way that people who knew her understood, but to everyone else it was just a nice quote.  Her speech actually brought tears to everyone's eyes and she still managed to make everyone laugh, I was so proud!

After graduation, we all went back to the house for a family BBQ and pictures.

Becca and her brothers, LOVE!

Her cake!

Family photo time!

After the BBQ, my dad, Jillian, Nonni and I all piled into the car and did a little house hunting.  Yep you heard right, Ian and I are house hunting!  I'm so excited and nervous to finally get out of the apartment situation and own my own place.  I cannot WAIT to be able to paint walls, change the flooring, park wherever I want, have whoever I want over, not worry about the noise, have my own backyard, and most importantly have something Ian and I can really make our own.  Sadly, we haven't found anything yet but I haven't (completely) lost hope, we'll find something!

Instead of chopping and stacking wood on Sunday, our Father's Day tradition, the family got muddy at the Ruckus Run.  This is the 3rd year I've done it and I honestly cannot think of a better family bonding experience.  It's amazing to me that we were able to complete a 4 mile mud run; going through mud, running up and down hills, scaling walls, tackling cargo nets, and navigating through very muddy wood trails.  We were laughing and joking the entire time, we didn't worry about our time and waited for each other after every single obstacle. Then we took our medals and free food and drove home smelly and exhausted.

The Bassi Bunch after finishing the muddiest course we've seen so far!!!

After taking a shower, as you can see I was covered in mud and smelled terrible, I relaxed for a few hours before getting dinner ready for the girls who were coming over for dinner.  It was the perfect end to an amazing weekend.  We ate delicious food, including black bean and avocado brownies, drank some wine, and caught up.  We've all left Pearson and all live in different areas so it's always nice to get together.  Sometimes it makes me sad that we don't live closer or all work together, but when we chat and I see how happy everyone is, it just makes me smile.  It makes me smile because despite the fact that it take a bit of coordinating and a lot of effort, we LOVE getting together and making plans.  It's a rare quality to have in friends, normally when you move away you talk every now and then, but these girls are different and I'm so grateful for them!  Plus I'm seeing them this Friday for Book Club, yay new books!

HASHTAG LakeLife!!!

Seeing as how my job requires me to be on and understand the various social networks and how i have two (now three) younger sisters on Twitter, it only seems fitting that we have come up with a hashtag (#) for the summer.  We all love to be up at the lake, especially during the summer so it only seemed fitting to have #lakelife as our official motto. 

While I spent last week in VA, I did spend Memorial weekend as well as the weekend after opening up the house and enjoying Lake Winnipesaukee to kick off the summer.  

Here's a quick snapshot of the past few weekends spent at the lake.  It's going to be amazing summer!!

First boat ride of the summer.  It was so windy out!

View from the top of the fire tower of Red Hill

T and I at the top of Red Hill!  The first of many hikes this summer

Trying to capture the entire view with the iPhone, it doesn't do it justice you HAVE to be there!

Kaitlyn and Jay came up for a weekend!

Yummy drinks for lunch in Wolfeboro

Boat ride around the lake!

Words to live by, painted on the bridge going to Long Island

View from Lago of Meredith Bay, See Church Landing?

Church Landing - they have a wedding tent up, so excited!

One moment we're out on the deck, the next a crazy wind storm hits

Which is quickly followed by the sun and calm water #lakelife!