March Madness

Since apparently we only come out of hiding when it’s above 40 degrees outside, today is a balmy 45 and therefore time for me to share something great with you:

Playing the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Buffalo. Coincidence? I think not. See you Thursday, Hawks!

If you haven’t heard about coach Phil Martelli’s grandson yet, this BuzzFeed article will give you a whole new reason to root for the Hawks (as if there weren’t enough reasons already). 

So much for not picking favorites…he’s the favorite grandson for sure. I will do whatever it takes to meet lil Philip at the game. I should have some alumni privilege, right?

Anyways, GO HAWKS! See you next time it’s warm enough to feel our fingers again, but that could be weeks. Don’t forget to fill out your Billion Dollar Bracket! When I win, I promise I’ll give every reader $1000. You’re welcome in advance.

The Hawk Will Never Die!

PS – Whoever decided that alcohol cannot be sold at these games can GFY.

 

Alcohol Power Rankings

With warmer weather in our sights (at least for the next 6 hours), little Buffalonians slowly creep out of their hobbit holes and cautiously poke their noses out into the open air. Could it be….spring? No, probably not, but with the hope of warmer days ahead your friendly bloggers are only looking forward to one thing: Cold drinks.

Our “drinking habits” started to get a little bit questionable around the holidays (but really, whose didn’t?) so we’ve slowed down and settled into mid-winter hibernation mode, enjoying only the occasional romantic bottle of wine (or 3) while sitting on the couch with Don.

It’s time for that to change! Monday is St. Patrick’s Day and you’d better believe these two Irish girlz will think of the holiday as the official kickoff of the next drinking season.

wut to order?!

For us, the most important question preceding a night of debauchery (like last week when we ripped Mardi Gras decorations from the walls at an undisclosed number of Allentown bars) is WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DRINK?

As we are sure that most of you frequently encounter this same dilemma, we have created this handy alcohol-rating system for your convenience.

Margaritas (and tequila in general)
Rating (out of 10): 9.5

Really, a good Margarita is the perfect drink. I’m not talking about those shitty, gag inducing excuses for margs that come out of the machine (I’m looking at you DON TEQUILA), I’m talking about a freshly shaken, delicious slice of heaven that is not made with sour mix. Not too sweet (especially if you get the Spicy Margarita from Cantina Loco), and enough tequila to have you feeling good after just one (ok maybe that’s just me)…what could be better??? Plus, when you are drinking margaritas, chances are high that Mexican food is not far from your clutches. Enough said.

Wine (and Prosecco…and champagne)
Rating: 9

My go-to. The perfect thing to drink in front of the TV when you want just enough to make you sleepy on those nights spent alone on the couch. The perfect thing to get you “happy drunk” if you’re feeling adventurous and embark on multiple bottles of Prosecco before a trip to the bowling alley (…again…just me?). The perfect accessory to create the illusion of classiness. The perfect thing to drink with your parents. Red? White? Bubbly? So many varieties. The mimosa rivals the margarita for best drink ever award. Take us to brunch so we know it’s real. The possibilities are endless. The only reason it didn’t receive a 10 on our scale is that the wine hangover sucks. a LOT. But really, it’s worth it, I promise.

Vodka

Rating: 8.75

Vodka Lemonade: Official drink of the summer. Don’t ask Tricia to make it for you (actually, do ask Tricia to make it for you) unless you don’t want to remember your night. For those of you watching your figures (#bye) it doesn’t get more low-calorie than a vodka soda. Just plz don’t drink flavored Smirnoff…memories of sophomore year of college come flooding back….

Beer
Rating: 8

The problem with beer is that it’s so filling. It tends to fill me up before I’m ready to stop. Which can lead to serious problems such as me having to unbutton my pants or even worse: having to stop drinking. Other than that, you can’t really go wrong with beer (Keystone being excluded from that statement). The perfect thing to drink when sitting around watching sportz, when you can’t decide what to order, when you’re too drunk to drink anything else but still want to be holding something in your hand, and to sip…or chug…on a hot summer’s day at the beach (whaddup corona and lime).

Whiskey
Rating: 7

I am not the biggest fan of whiskey, but when the right mood hits, I will happily down it. A more “manly selection” (probably why Emily has become a self proclaimed whiskey sipper), you can instantly appear more bold if you are sipping straight whiskey. I have tried this once and will be steering clear of repeating it for the foreseeable future. A jack and coke isn’t bad, though. Whiskey shots are what happen late at night when I will down anything someone hands me at a bar…but otherwise, no thank you.

Rum
Rating: 6

I really dislike rum unless it is masked well. Mojitos and dark and stormys are some of the most delicious drinks out there. While in the Bahamas Tricia and I sipped on some rum punch that I will be able to taste forever….yum… Otherwise EW and if you drink rum and cokes HAHAHA what is wrong with you.

Gin
Rating: 4.5

A good gin and tonic is good and oh so refreshing. A bad gin and tonic (like the one Tricia CHUGGED last month when she ordered a “gin and tonic, hold the tonic”) triggers my gag reflex like no other. The taste of gin is way too overpowering for me and it’s hard to be creative with it with limited mixers. Added half a point to the rating only because Gin and juice is my favorite song.

Well, welcome back to the blog…and in case you thought we had matured since last we posted, we have not–as you can see from the subject matter of this post.

Dasvidaniya, Halloween

Unfortunately, this was not our first postgrad Halloween. Old. So old. Shit, we are old. It was, however, Frances and Tricia’s first Halloween together in more than five years (holy shit). Add Stephanie and Steph into the equation and, well, cue hangover.

Rewind to a few weeks ago when we had no plans for Halloween, no costumes, and Tricia was “boycotting” the holiday. Frances, being the genius that she is, came up with the brilliant idea of doing a group costume of matryoshka dolls, and our plans fell together relatively quickly. Because we are almost perfectly equidistant to each other in terms of height, with Frances pulling a strong lead over lil’ Stephanie and Tricia in the middle, the idea worked perfectly. We picked out the perfect fabric to make our costumes and slaved over sewing them by hand (despite the presence of a perfectly functional sewing machine SMH), bought matching dresses (on sale yabish), all with days (one day) to spare before the main event. What better place to display our handiwork than at The Witches Ball at the Hotel Lafayette? Stephanie, Becca, and Frances went to the same shindig last year and had pretty good and creepy things to say about the night, but this year was promised to be bigger and better than the first.

The rest of our costume was left in the hands of Mommy Tran the night of, who did a pretty fantastic job with our makeup. Our costumes came together quite well, despite a number of people asking what we were supposed to be………………….

 

We ventured over to the Lafayette early to have a few drinx at the new apartment of (ayyyyy) Szy, which we are all extremely jealous of.

Frances ❤ Tricia

Rare size order pic

AYYY szy

A few drinks turned into a copious amount of drinks, and the next thing we knew we were crawling out of coffins and storming the stage with monsters at the Hotel downstairs with strangers. Really though, why are there so many pictures of Tricia with strangers?

Stage life

Strangers and Tricia…

Tricia and Strangers….

We wreaked havoc on the party and made great impressions to all who we encountered. Storming the stage may have been the highlight, but camping out in the hallway outside of Szy’s apartment for almost an hour comes in at a close second.

All downhill from here…

I would love to provide you all with more details, but unfortunately those are strictly confidential and have a very unlikely chance of being revealed any time soon. What I can tell you: we walked to Chippewa (freezing cold, feet bleeding, no sense of direction) and mistook the line outside of Noir (that went out the door and down the block) for the line outside of Jim’s Steakout. Tears may or may not have been shed. Have no fear, we got our Jim’s in a speedy manner and walked back to the car where we so gracefully ate in warmth and then ran home for cover.

Happy November!

The only secret you need to know for a successful Thanksgiving

From my girl Beth

Happy Halloween

 

 

 

From us to you, HAPPY HALLOWEEN…. Ya girlz are celebrating in style tonight…. Post 2 come! Until then here are some pumpkins we carved.

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today, a truly beautiful thing was born…

 

THIS BLOG.

 

8,000 views later and we’ve still got a ways to go but we’re on our way to internet stardom.

You’re welcome for so many colorful posts that regularly (or not so regularly…) bring joy into your lives.

Thank you to all of our dedicated readers for a great first year! Plz don’t forget about us.

 

With Love,

YAGIRLZ

The Freakin’ Weekend

Now that yagirls have reclaimed their weekends after a month of that 9am-6pm Sat/Sun grind, Stephanie and I decided to grace the ex-Buffalonians of NYC with our presence while Frances continued to die of the plague in B-Lo. First weekend back in action after a not-so-brief hiatus made up for being locked in a hotel conference room dungeon for the entirety of September (weekends…).

We ventured to the Exchange St. Amtrak Station in downtown Buffalo on Friday and collectively killed ourselves due to the overwhelming odor of (BO) Subway, and then killed our fellow passengers via death stare (typical). Our train ride started off pretty rough when we realized we had no Wi-Fi in our car, and then we got stuck behind a freight train and took 2+ hours to get to Rochester (umm) so that was fun. Things got slightly better once we befriended the man in the cafe cart who provided us with sustenance (wine + cheese duh) to cure our boredom.

thank you sir for the cups but those will not be needed

Things took a drastic turn for the worse when one of our fellow Wi-Fi-less passengers collapsed in the aisle a few rows in front of us and starting having a seizure. In usual idiot fashion everybody on the train just looked around at each other as if someone would magically cure this man/boy through their gazes, so ibbles saved the day (and by “saved the day” I mean got the dumbass Amtrak worker who proceeded to do nothing but thankfully this man/boy is okay) but could not spare the delay of our train’s arrival.

When we finally got to Penn Station, Drawde attempted to greet us with his to-go cup of beer in hand, but instead Stephanie and I walked in circles trying to find him while he was running around trying to find us on the floor below. SMH. Emily and Sam met us literally seconds after Teddy and we chilled out with some brews for a breather before trekking to Ian’s apartment.

Well, Teddy got a McDouble on the way and we drank a lot of delicious whiskey and that bitch took a long ass nap on Ian’s couch, and then before we knew it it was 5am and this was our view:

goodnight drawde

And then we ate frozen pizza and chugged Gatorade and went to bed after the sun was up. Rise ‘n shine on Saturday, Sam and Emily made us breakfast (thxbabs), and just a few hours later the DDD was back in action.

Continued the drinking for several hours and then chowed down on some pretty nasty Peruvian food. At least the plantain chips were good? And the ceiling was pretty cool…

And then we stopped to get ice cream which I have been told was the best ice cream ever eaten, and I am still kicking myself for not partaking in this amazingness. I did, however, sample the watermelon black pepper sorbet and it was seriously bangin’.

….and then I saw Kevin and Ross for the first time in over a year and died a little (a lot) on the inside (and the outside). We continued to drink on their sweet patio and then Grammy Emily fell asleep (and so did Stephanie) so we left and Ian ran away from us and then we got Popeyes because…..Popeyes.

hi kevin

hey

On Sunday we went to the Williamsburg Flea Market which could have been really dangerous if I wasn’t so poor. We did get some scrumptious bubble tea, though.

Then we walked to what we thought was Joey’s apartment but had some technical difficulties and actually ended up 2 miles away in the middle of some kind of Polish celebration involving a man being pulled behind a car on a motor boat with Polish flags everywhere. We eventually made it to Joey’s for a brief visit before going back to Emily’s to pack and leave. 😦

We just barely made our bus because we stopped to get food and the man behind the counter was quite possibly the slowest human being in the entire city of New York. But we made it and eventually (unfortunately) got back to Buffalo at 4am and the end.

Thanks for being a great hostess Emily 😉

IN OTHER NEWS Kaitlin and Frances and Tricia have officially graduated from our class and are now certified to teach English as a foreign language YABISH! Yayyyy, look out world!

heh

Food Truck Tuesdays

Buffalo, despite what all of you out-of-towners tend to believe, is awesome. Two weeks ago I finally went to Larkinville on a Tuesday evening for Food Truck Happy Hour, and as soon as I got there I immediately regretted not having been sooner.

I am an avid follower, both on Twitter and in real life, of Lloyd’s Taco Truck. I obsessively check twitter in hopes that a delicious chicken burrito is within a stone’s throw (let’s pretend that I didn’t follow Lloyd on twitter for 3 months before I had even tried it, creepily plotting my first bite). I’ve also seen Frank’s Gourmet Hotdog truck around Elmwood, and a couple other trucks in Allentown in the wee hours of the morning, but I was shocked when I got to Larkinville a couple weeks ago and saw just how many food trucks were there….food heaven.

Hello Larkinville!

Nestled in I-don’t-even-know-where, some oasis between Downtown and South Buffalo, the atmosphere in Larkinville is something you all need to check out. There are Adirondack chairs set out, a huge bar serving #buffalobeerzonly (Rusty Chain and Labatt Blue on tap doodz) and wine, a huge covered patio with couches and tables, and of course…food trucks.

Let me lay out some of the delicious options for you:

-Lloyd’s Taco Truck
-Franks Hot Dog (and by hot dog, I mean HOT DOG) Truck
-a Thai truck (complete with Thai iced tea whaddup)
-a Grilled Cheese truck
-a Mac and Cheese truck
-the Knight Slider truck (sliders…obviously)
-a Souvlaki truck
-a Beef-on-Weck truck
-the Black Market Food Truck (delicious food of all sorts of kinds…and they wear black gloves)
-a Coffee Truck (be still my beating heart)
-an Arepa Truck
-a truck that serves ALLIGATOR
-a Sandwich truck
-a Panini truck
-Amy’s place has a truck

…I could go on forever, and am definitely forgetting a ton of the options…but you get the picture, there’s a LOT of really good food.

Needless to say, I couldn’t stay away, so I dragged Yabish, Stephanie, and Steph (a new Buffalonian!!!!) down to Larkinville this week! After weighing our options (trust me, it’s hard), Steph (x2) and I opted for the Knight Slider truck. Tricia wasn’t hungry because she is a noob….her loss.

I got a slider with fried onions, chipotle sauce, and cheese and Truffle Fries…it was delicious. There were scallop and kimchi sliders, plain old cheeseburger sliders, goat-cheese sliders…you name it. #cheeseburgerheaven.

yum

A band serenaded us as we chowed down with Don and friends, and we went home full and hungry to our beds at 8:00…..grandma status……

GOOD NEWS per the friendly Lloyd employee: Food Truck Tuesdays is going on through late October so do yaselves a solid and get down there. Every Tuesday from 5-8 pm in Larkin Square (drive to Chef’s restaurant on Seneca street and keep going away from the arena)…I promise you it will be worth it.

#panoramapro

In other news, Yabish, Kaitlin, and myself are officially going “back to school” starting this weekend….well, not really back to school, but getting certified to teach English abroad. PLZ send prayers that our brains will still work after a year and a half of hibernation.

A weekend in (Sh)Ithaca

This weekend, we were presented with the rare opportunity to go out of town for free. Naturally we jumped on the offer and headed off to Ithaca with Don and Martha for a weekend of free drinks and debauchery. We (Frances) worked extra hard to take pictures to enhance this blog post…gettin’ back in the game! Romantic getaway hannnn.

Don and Martha went to Cornell for “Fredfest”, a conference to honor one of their (and Francine’s) old professors… A gathering of the world’s biggest nerds (and smartest people)! Classic Classics (Dept).

Friday evening we arrived at the lovely Holiday Inn of Ithaca, and quickly headed off to Madeline’s for (free) cocktails…thank you Cornell.

Cecelia met us there and when we had polished off our second round of drinks (and were almost left with the bill) we went over to MAXIE’S (Frances’ favorite restaurant) for some good ass southern food and drink. If you ever go, be sure to try the Fried Green Tomatoes.

Trish ponders the menu

Yum

Too tired to go out (ups…postgrad problems), we went back to our room where we discovered that our remote AND PHONE didn’t work so we went down to the front desk and got a friendly employee to help us out…

thx dood

Saturday morning we woke up BRIGHT AND EARLY! and needed some serious exercise to (unsuccessfully) work off the food we ate on Friday, so we walked to the Ithaca Farmer’s Market and looked around. We eventually decided to get breakfast burritos-a great decision.

gimme that apron

fresh squeezed juice yes plz

yum

We slowly wandered back downtown and visited CC at work. Then we went up the hill to Cornell and met ERIC BLAIR (hi!) for coffee at our old stomping ground…Libe Cafe. The three of us went to look at the best view on campus (behind Uris Library, obviously) and YaBish took some great panorama shotz…

ups sry rookie panoramic taker (hey fam)

gorge

After a brief nap (I wish), it was time for dinner. CC picked us up and we drove up to Agava for some margaritas, mojitos, and good food.

Agava

yum

Hey Trish

Determined to make the most of our night, we headed to Collegetown and proceeded to barhop until last call. Your friendly neighborhood bloggers may have had a bit much to drink, but it was worth it. 2turnt off of 2many $2 tequila shots (but actually TOO many smdh) (and free champagne) (what’s up ladiez nite).

Thatcher came too!

not amused

 

…not looking our best

We somehow made it home into our beds, and passed the F out. We woke up at 11 (and our room was so dark that we were shocked/bemused to find out that it wasn’t earlier) and pulled our hung-over selves out of bed because Sunday was the most exciting day of the year (minus a few other days)….THE BILLS SEASON OPENER! We bravely checked out of our hotel and went outside to face the day (after buying Advil from the hotel vending machine) (that was so clutch).

4 advil please

We made our way to the Ithaca Ale House, where we were joined by Caroline at the bar to watch the game. We (of course) made best friends with the bartender, who was also a Bills fan, and enjoyed an afternoon of food and (free) drinks. Shouts to Brian, who stole Tricia’s heart by making her a complimentary peach ciroc and red bull (be still my beating heart) to cure her nasty hangover. If you’re ever tryna holler at ya girl, that’s the way to do it (for future reference dudez). Of course the afternoon was ruined when the Bills, who were leading the Patriots for much of the game, lost…in typical Bills fashion…in the last two minutes of the game. O well…we’ll get em next time.

Gobillz

Hair of the Dog!!!!!!!

yum

DEJECTED, your friendly bloggers got in the car and headed to Seneca Falls for a cocktail party at Fred’s house. Our journey (of course, since we were in the car with Don and Martha) was not without detours. We stopped at Taughannock Falls to snap some quick pix of the Falls….

ya girls at the falls

Then found ourselves in Montezuma Nature Preserve to snap some more pix…. Why? No clue.

Finally, we made it to Fred’s house, where we chowed down on delicious food and tried not to look TOO out of place amongst a crowd of people, the majority of whom were at least 3 times our age. Mostly we just sat in a corner and ate cheese and took pictures of the fish.

pimp my ride

MTV Cribs

Finding Nemo

We left at 9 and are back in beautiful Buffalo and exxxxhausted. Time to OD on expired Benadryl and sleep for the next 16 hours!

We leave you with this video. How many famous rappers can YOU spot? (No that’s not Rick Ross)

The Official Notorious BABs 2k13 Buffalo Fall Sports Preview

Well folks, it’s that time of year again, and the blog is back juSDT in time! What time of year, you ask? 

 

Time for sportz! 

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, you will know that your friendly neighborhood bloggers are xxxtreme Buffalo sports fans. This means that we, like every other poor follower of the Bills and Sabres, get really excited every fall and trick ourselves into believing that our teams won’t suck.

So, without further ado, here is our extremely informative and well-researched season preview for the 2013 Buffalo Sports Seasons.

 

THE BILLS

Go Bills

2012-2013 Record: 6-10 (lol)

Preseason Record: 2-2

First Game: Next Sunday against the PATRIOTS

Alright y’all, I’m not going to pretend to know as much about football as I do about hockey, but I do know a little bit and I also know that the Bills usually suck. A win by the Bills around here is not usually expected; A heartbreaking loss in the last second snatching defeat from the jaws of victory IS. 

This year, the Bills are something to be excited about (or at least they were until 2 weeks ago, but I’ll get there in a minute). Ralph Wilson finally realized that he was too senile to make football decisions anymore, so that was good. We got a new coach who looks like Alec Baldwin, whaddup Doug Marrone?! EJ Manuel was looking promising AF during the first 2 preseason games, which the Bills actually won (I know, I know-it’s just preseason). People around town were getting PRETTY EXCITED!! 

yaboi Doug

Then, in typical Buffalo fashion, a bunch of bad things happened. EJ Manuel got hurt, then #2 QB Kevin Kolb suffered what might be a career ending concussion, forcing the Bills to sign MATT LEINART and name undrafted rookie QB Jeff Tuel as their starter against Tom Brady…..kewl…..seems like we’re back to square one.

IDK-when EJ Manuel comes back hopefully the Bills will win some football games, but who knows, I won’t be holding my breath. I will, however be drinking heavily at whatever games I can get to and watching Stevie Johnson’s hilarious vines:

Freddie J Dunks on Doug Marrone

 

THE SABRES

K

2012-2013 Record:21-21-6 (lol)

First Preseason Game: September 15 @ Montreal

Hey remember last Sabres season? Unfortunately, so do I. Yabish Trish and I were the unfortunate holders of season tickets and we had to drag ourselves down to First Niagara Center to watch the sorry excuse for a “hockey team” that came on the ice in Sabres Uniforms (on the plus side, we drank a lot of beers). 

If you are fortunate enough to have forgotten everything that happened last year, let me remind you (sry) of some of last year’s highlights:

-After losing like a million games in a row, Lindy Ruff got fired. He has since been hired by the Dallas Stars HAHAHA #nogoal99

SMDH

-RonRon got hired as the interim head coach….he has since been installed as the permanent head coach…we’ll see how this goes .

Y so serious?

– The Sabres missed the playoffs (obviously) by a lot.

-Steve Ott was awesome and licked Jeff Halpern’s helmet

lol

-Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek basically said they didn’t want to come back and were super annoying and everyone wanted them to get traded but of course nothing exciting happened in the offseason!!!!

it’s ok because Vanek’s good

 

So, really nothing could be worse than last year (or could it…). I’m pretty sure the Sabres are going to be pretty bad again, but who knows, maybe they’ll surprise us. Regardless, you’ll be sure to find Trish and myself booing Lil’ Milz and getting 2turnt off Bud Lite Lime tallboys in section 323. Holla atcha girlz