Winter:1 Chuck&Rachel: 0

You guys. It's cold. Lately Chuck and I haven't felt like doing much of anything that involves going outside, even for just a minute. With the exception of work, we haven't left our apartment much because frankly it's just too much work to get that bundled up all the time and also, staying under a blanket on the couch just seems like a better idea than going out there.  Winter is defeating us.

When we HAVE ventured out into the cold and snow, here's what we've been up to.

A couple weekends ago, my friend Kate invited me to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships which were held in Boston at TD Garden. She received tickets from her family as a Christmas present and I was lucky her husband was out of town and she asked me to go to a couple of the sessions! We spent the entire day there and saw all of the Pair's finals and the Women's Finals. It was especially exciting this year because the winners go to the Olympics in a couple of weeks! It was also fun because Kate knows basically everything about figure skating so not only did I get to enjoy the skating, but I got to learn too.

Here are a few of the skaters you'll see competing in the Olympics in February.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White

Gracie Gold

Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir

This past weekend, we drove to Connecticut with our friends Clayton and Christen to watch Louisville play UConn in basketball.  It was a big game because it was College Gameday, so we were the game of the day. The arena is small, so tickets on stubhub were WAY expensive, but luckily we were able to score some cheap tickets from the UofL ticket office a few days before the game!

Before the game, we found one of the only restaurants in Storrs, Connecticut, and it happened to be Chuck's Margarita Grill. I think the restaurant was made for us! We spent a few hours there, eating appetizers, our meals, and of course, enjoying margaritas.  The game was pretty intense because I would guess the stadium was 75% college students. In the middle of the game, their coach got thrown out and things got really heated, but luckily no one bothered us. Louisville came out with a victory which made the trip a lot more fun than if they had lost like they did last time we drove to Connecticut to see them play.

Other than those two events, we've pretty much been hiding in our apartment, watching football, watching movies, cooking food, and... yeah that's about it.

We also saw this gigantic teddy bear at the grocery store.

We lead an exciting life.

Casinos and the Cardinals

Wow. November has officially kicked our butts. We are exhausted. Two weekends ago we were in Connecticut all weekend with Chuck's dad. The day he left, we drove to Virginia Beach for Thanksgiving. Now we're back in Boston and after a couple of ridiculously early bedtimes, I think we're ready to tackle December.  I'll slowly be updating the blog with our recent adventures, starting with our weekend in Connecticut.

Back in September, Chuck's dad turned the big 6-0.  As his gift, we bought him (and ourselves) a ticket to see the Louisville basketball team play UNC in a tournament at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut in the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.  Basically we forced his dad, (also named Chuck, so don't get confused) to come up and visit us in the Northeast!

For the weekend, the Chucks and I stayed at the Foxwoods Casino, right down the road from the Mohegan Sun. Chuck (the dad) arrived at Foxwoods on Thursday and we arrived late Friday night. Soon after we arrived on Friday night, the Chucks ventured into the Poker Room and I held down the fort in our hotel room.

Saturday we took our time getting ready and then headed over to the Mohegan Sun for Louisville's game vs. some team I already forgot the name of. We originally didn't have tickets to this game, but were able to buy them for 5 cents a piece, 2 hours before the game, on Stubhub. Yes, you read that right. FIVE. CENTS.

Louisville played like crap but ended up beating the team pretty easily. After we walked around the Mohegan Sun a little, we headed back over to Foxwoods where we relaxed a little before we had a nice dinner in one of the nice restaurants in the casino. After dinner, Chuck headed back to the poker room while Chuckie and I walked the from the Foxwoods casino to the MGM Grand and back, and did some great people watching. To illustrate how far we walked (inside, it's all connected), here's a picture of the two casinos.

 Yeah. We walked for quite a bit.

After a drink at the Hard Rock Cafe in the casino, Chuckie headed down to meet his dad in the poker room and I headed back to the hotel room to my pajamas and Kindle. Note: I'm the WORST person to take to a casino. I enjoy the restaurants, shops, decorations and people watching, but I hate the gambling. It's not that I'm against gambling, it's that I don't know how to play most games, I hate slot machines, and the one game I do know and like, roulette, takes all my money way too fast and makes me sad. I do not enjoy losing money for fun. Unless I'm losing it on horses at Churchill Downs. On Derby Day. Actually I hate losing money then too so nevermind.

I digress.

Sunday morning we got our things together, checked out of the hotel and headed to the Mohegan Sun again for some lunch and then the main event- Louisville vs. UNC.

The game was really exciting until the end when Louisville lost. Womp womp. On the up-side, we had great seats and got to see our team in person for only the second time in 2 years! We also got to see Dicky V, our old coach Denny Crum, our athletic director Tom Jurich, aaaaaand a million North Carolina fans.

On Monday, I had to work and Chuckie had class all day, so Chuck entertained himself during the day and then that night, we took him to the North End. We had a drink at the Green Dragon, one of our favorite spots in Boston, and then a good Italian dinner on Hanover Street. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures on Monday, so you'll just have to imagine the 3 of us doing those things.

Like with all our visitors, the weekend went by way too fast and Tuesday morning, Chuck left to fly home. After school and work, we started our (long, rainy, really long) drive to Virginia Beach for Thanksgiving! More posts coming soon....

Football and Modern Dance

Friday, Chuckie and I got to see Louisville play football in person for the first time in almost 2 years.  Lucky for us, they had a road game at UConn in East Hartford, Connecticut, just a little less than 2 hours from Boston! Our friends Ana and Jose came with us and fully committed to being Louisville fans for a night. The game itself wasn't the most exciting game ever and it was super cold outside but that didn't stop us from having a blast.

After dinner at a place called "Margaritas," we drove to the stadium and found parking in a field a million miles from the stadium. Not really, but it felt like it.  I couldn't get over the fact that everyone, even pass holders/season ticket holders, park in a field! It was so different from Papa John's Stadium, but in a good way.  UConn's football team may be 0-8 but their fans still tailgate as if they're 8-0. We didn't have much to tailgate with except a backpack full of beer and a little speaker for music, but really, what else do you need?

We sat in the Louisville section and met a lot of Boston residents who are UofL alums. They get together at a local restaurant for most of the football and basketball games, so I have a feeling we'll meet up with them in Boston in the future.

Ana and I took a bathroom break at one point in the night and on our way back to our seats, I spotted Mike Marra and we asked him for a picture. Although when I first saw him I think I said "Hey! You played basketball! But I can't remember your name!" I'm sure he really appreciated that. His friend told me, "I'll give you a hint- it starts with a Mike" and as soon as he said that I yelled "Mike Marra!!!!!!" So he knew I was legit.

Also please notice Ana throwing up the L. She's a really good and committed fake Cards fan and this is why I love her.

We thought the team would come over to their fans who stuck it out to the end (it was pretty cold, y'all) but only 3 players came over! And now Damian Copeland and Hakeem Smith are our favorites because they shook every fans' hand and said "Thank you for coming. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for being here."

So that was Friday. In two weeks, we're heading to Connecticut once again, this time to see the basketball team play in a little tournament!

Saturday we switched gears and instead of Louisville clothing and football, we got dressed up and went to a dance show. Sami's BFF Ines, who you've seen on the blog HERE before,  attends the Boston Conservatory for dance and she's a-maz-ing (both at dancing and just at being a lovely, wonderful person). So Chuck and I went to see her dance in the fall showcase at the Conservatory. It was so fun to see Ines on stage and we got to meet her entire family which was fun too!

Sunday we relaxed from our busy weekend and I got myself hooked on another show on Netflix, Mad Men. Chuckie's not watching this one with me because he actually has to do some work sometimes and isn't allowing another show to distract him like Breaking Bad did. So I watch a few episodes of Mad Men and then I update him on the crazy antics of Don Draper. It was a good weekend.

This Thursday, Chuck and I are headed to Chattanooga, Tennessee so he can visit an Amazon fulfillment center (I'll explain more after the trip) and we can spend the weekend with one of our favorite friends of all time, Branden!