Wayy Behind!

Okay, okay, sorry! So I'm a few weeks behind. In all honesty, I have had no motivation to update this blog lately, but for the sake of our family and friends who actually enjoy reading this, I have decided to come give you all an update.

One reason I hadn't posted in a while was because the week and weekend after the 4th of July, we did a whole lot of nothing. We were both busy with work! The weekend after I last updated, Charlie bar tended private parties (in Bel Air and Manhattan Beach) both Friday and Saturday night while I babysat Friday night and made jewelry all day and night on Saturday. I honestly can't remember what we did on that Sunday ...so I'm sure it was a whole lot of nothing!

On Monday July 16th, Charlie got a call from his great Uncle Tom who just so happened to be driving through town for the night. We gave him a place to crash, so he took us out to dinner. After work, we walked down to the Redondo Pier to catch the sunset and grab dinner and a bottle of wine at Kincaids. 'Uncle Tom' got one of the seafood specials, Charlie got braised short ribs in a red wine reduction with roasted mushrooms and silky mashed potatoes, and I got smoked chicken tortellini stuffed with ricotta, garlic confit, asiago, sun dried tomato, and a pesto cream sauce. Needless to say, there were no leftovers and the wine was finished before we got dessert. For dessert, we got a giant piece of cheesecake with three forks. After dinner, I was too full to move, Uncle Tom was tired from driving all day, and Charlie was also tired from a long day at work, so we decided to head home and call it a night.

Thursday, July 19th, we were invited to the South Bay Local's Choice awards party at Terranea in Palos Verdes. The party was hosted at Terranea's adult pool. Longboard and signature cocktails were on the house as well as appetizers being passed around on trays by the staff. They also had an amazing cheese, meat, and bread buffet set up! We tried quite a few different kinds of cheeses and meats including salami, fennel salami, and fresh chorizo. Charlie's company, VOX DJ's, were the entertainment for the evening. We had a great time eating, drinking, and mingling poolside!

 Relaxing by the fire pit

                                                  Charlie & his crew from work -- KC, Phil, & Cynthia

Friday night, we grilled out pork chop sandwiches with augratin potatoes and fresh roasted green beans. I hadn't had a grilled pork chop sammie in forever ...it was incredible. After dinner, we met our friend Brian for a drink at Old Tony's on the Redondo Pier. After a quick drink and some catching up, Charlie and I had to do some last minute shopping for Saturdays event!

Saturday we had a big day ahead of us! Saturday night was the White Light White Night event. White Light White Night is a charity event to raise money for Walk with Sally. Walk with Sally is a non-profit organization that provides healing and comfort to children who are living with parents who have cancer or have lost their battle to cancer. From what I understand, they are like a 'Big Brother, Big Sister' program. They pair children with a mentor who has also been affected by cancer. For more information on it, you can visit www.walkwithsally.org. White Light White Night was sold out at 1,000 tickets, and they raised an incredible amount of money.

 Paul Lemire

Charlie and I hanging out backstage

   

So, early Saturday morning Charlie got up early to meet Allen (the owner of Saint Rocke) for breakfast. Allen & his team were producing the Smash Mouth show at White Light White Night. Charlie was Allen's right hand man for the day, so they had to go over some last minute stuff for the event. While Charlie was working with Allen all day, I got my nails done, bought shoes for the event, and Whitney (and Jackson) came over to do my hair!

Around 2:30, I left to walk down to the event. It didn't start until 5PM, but I was also working it! Danielle, my boss Jen's sister, was the co-chair for the event this year. I was Danielle's assistant for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. She, along with her crew, did an AMAZING job on the event. I only was there to help for a couple of hours, which were of course the most stressful hours leading up to the event, but everything turned out GREAT. As Danielle's assistant, I basically shadowed her the whole time and got to meet a lot of great people who live in the South Bay. My busiest task as her assistant was being the 'door lady' for the meet and greet. A handful of people at the event got to meet and take pictures with Smash Mouth. I had the 'guest list' and wristbands to let people in.

Enjoying tacos & key lime pies after their long work day

Smash Mouth

 Hanging on the side of the stage during the show

Besides a hosted bar (which I, of course, took full advantage of!), the Taste of the South Bay was also at the event! I had the opportunity to enjoy some of the local food that I love and try some of the restaurants I've never been to. I had vodka penne from Lido, steak and mashed potatoes from Paul Martin's, a Mediterranean sampler plate from Open Sesame, a phenomenal short rib taco from The Rockefeller, and chips, salsa, guacamole, and a house margarita from Ortega 120. I got to hang out backstage at the event (where Charlie and Brian were working!), mingle with people I knew and people whom I met that night, and enjoy the music! Paul Lemire was the opener for Smash Mouth. He was also the acoustic act at the South Bay Home magazine launch party that we went to! Smash Mouth, of course, sang all of their 'greatest hits' as well as some stuff from their new album.

 Rocking the red carpet in style!

After the bars closed and Charlie transported the band back to their hotel, he, Brian, and I went to Saint Rocke for the unofficial after party. One Drop Redemption was covering Bob Marley's 'Legend' album, and I indulged in some more adult beverages!

It was an amazing night, and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it all (thank you x a million, Danielle!!!!).

Sunday was a slow-moving morning. Charlie and I made our infamous biscuits and gravy. We then went to the mall and did some returns (he ended up returning all $200 worth of clothing & accessories that he had worn the night before). We also got a slushy, a smoothie, and pretzel bites with cheese! YUM! I had to exchange my new running shoes at Kohls (the ones I got in the mail were too tight. I opted for some Nikes instead!) and I had to exchange my new camera at Best Buy which was already malfunctioning. After a long afternoon of shopping and returning, we came home to nap. I had to cut my nap short! I made meatball sammies (out of the meatballs & sauce that had been cooking in the crockpot all day) and headed to Hollywood. In exchange for Whitney doing my hair for Saturday night, I had agreed to babysit Jackson while Whit and Andrew went out to celebrate his birthday.

Jackson and I had a nice, relaxing night! ;) I didn't get home until after 1AM though. So as I sit here and type this at work, I.am.exhausted. I have both Kate and Audrey home sick today!

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, there is the latest and greatest in the lives of Brittany Rogy and Charlie Walker.

4th of July Week

As I had stated in my last blog post, I worked Monday July 2nd, but besides that, I had the rest of the 4th of July week off. Since Charlie and I didn't do anything too exciting for the 4th, I figured I'd only make one post about our whole week!

After Jessica and Jeff left on Tuesday, we didn't really do much. We needed a night to re-group after all of the drinking and late nights. On Wednesday the 4th we rode bikes to Hermosa to the biggest party of the year. The Strand, beach, boardwalk, houses on the Strand, sidewalks, etc. were PACKED with people partying. It was madness. Since we didn't come prepared with alcohol (and didn't want to get tickets for drinking in public), we decided to hit the bars! Patrick Molloy's was probably the least crowded besides Waterman's (but I have vowed to never step foot in that place again), so we went there to get a few brews. A couple of beers and a few shots later, we were done spending money that we didn't have. We rode home to continue drinking and to grill out.

At Patrick Molloy's

Boys & myself

Happy 4th<3

At the fireworks show

Charlie grilled us brats and a neighbor gave us leftover grilled corn on the cob. They were deeelish. After eating, Murph and Luke came by for a bit. We walked down to the Redondo Beach fireworks just in time for them to start. After the fireworks, we had the boys drop us off at the top of Pier Ave. so we could walk back down to Hermosa to continue the party. Little did we know, once the fireworks were over, so were the parties. Hermosa was DEAD. I guess people got a little too partied out during the day ...considering people were hammered at noon. We walked three miles home ...making a few stops, mostly to watch personal firework shows and to check out the Crown Plaza hotel. Once we got home, we hung out, I made grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup, and at some point we both passed out in the living room.

Definitely not the most eventful 4th of July of all time ...but it was still pretty fun.

The day after the 4th, Charlie had to work and it was cloudy out. The weather definitely ruined my plans to lay poolside all day, but I got a lot done ...cleaning, laundry, groceries, dinner. After dinner, we headed to the Santa Monica Pier for yet ANOTHER free Donavon Frankenreiter show. Although it was pretty similar to the set he played at Saint Rocke a few weeks ago, it was a great show. People of all ages were getting their groove on ...and we even met up with Murph, Mike, & Luke for the last few songs. 

Friday Charlie had to work again, so I hung out with my dad for some of the afternoon. We rode bikes from our place to the Manhattan pier and ended our ride with lunch at El Torito on the Redondo pier. I'm not usually a fan of El Torito, but this location was BOMB. Their salsa was super fresh (and not too spicy like the other locations), the chips were super crunchy, and my carnitas tacos with tomatillo salsa were delicious. After lunch, I hit the pool for a few hours before Charlie came home.

We honestly ended up doing a whole lot of nothing Friday night. Saturday we did some street team work for Saint Rocke before hitting the pool for about two hours. We had to leave the pool early, because my dad and Lisa were coming over for dinner. We had some incredible blended margaritas (thanks Char!), two kinds of chips and salsa, grilled chicken & carne asada fajitas and refried beans. Unfortunately we forgot to grill the corn on the cob that we had sitting in the fridge (oops!). We had a great time sitting around chatting and eating for a few hours. After my dad and Lisa left, Charlie and I put in a movie and were done for.

It was SO nice to do some much needed relaxing!

Sunday we got up early, he went to say bye to Murph while I cleaned up the house and went rollerblading. When he got back, we decided to head up to Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes. They have a public walking trail that has a gorgeous view of the ocean and leads down to sea caves. The property at Terranea is gorgeous in itself. Not far down the road is the whale watching spot (Vicente Pointe) that my family has spent a lot of time at. Charlie had never been, so we had to go check it out! After spending some time at Vicente Point, we decided that since we were already in Palos Verdes, we might as well check out Malaga Cove too. We hiked down, watched a man swimming around like a mer-man in the ocean, talked to a man who was training on the hills, and took in the scenery.

After all that walking around, we had quite the appetite. We headed home and walked down to the Redondo pier. We stopped at a spot called Kegs, because they rave about their 26 beers on tap and their pizza and burgers. We decided to split mozzarella sticks and a cheeseburger with fries. The mozzarella sticks were less than appetizing. The fries tasted like they had been fried with a bunch of seafood. Charlie thought the burger was okay, but I thought it was amazingly delicious. I usually order turkey burgers, so most of the time I find that beef burgers freaking rock!

After lunch we headed home, picked up the car, and went to Trader Joe's for some groceries for the week & also hit Redbox. On the way home, we stopped at Dive and Surf, so Charlie could look at wetsuits. We ended up in their clothes bin for a while picking out new swim trunks & shirts, but as usual, we walked away empty-handed.

Once we got back home, I made ham & alfredo flatbreads with tomato soup, and we watched 21 Jump Street. Although it was extremely fake and outrageous at times, it was a pretty funny movie.

And that, my friends, sums up our 4th of July week! 

Our First Visitors of the Summer

Ohh my goodness! Where do I begin since I last left off??

Charlie and I finally got all settled into our apartment ...at 11PM the night before our friends came we put the finishing touches on it by hanging up all of our art and pictures.

Thursday, June 28th Jessica & Jeff Erlandson got to town. I picked Charlie up from work, we headed to LAX and picked them up around noon. We then dropped Charlie off and went back to our place. After sitting around catching up for an hour or so, I had to head to work for the afternoon.

After work, we were all ready to get after it. We started the night by meeting Mike at Waterman's in Hermosa. Although our time at Waterman's made for some great memories, it was a horrible experience. The service was terrible, the food was so-so, and Charlie, Jeff, & I got ketchup spilled all over us by our waitress. Luckily, we all got a round of free shots to somewhat make up for the spill. After dinner, drinks, and the round of shots, we decided to head down the PCH to the Shellback in Manhattan. The Shellback was definitely our kind of place. It's a little dive bar near the pier with decently priced drinks, a laid back crowd, and a fun atmosphere. Shot after shot after shot (with a few peanut M&M's thrown into the mix) and we were ready to head out for the night. On the way up the Manhattan Beach Blvd. hill, we stopped in at Henesseys for two more shots -- car bombs & vegas bombs. At this point, I think we were all pretty bombed ourselves. We got back to our place, had a few beers, and decided to call it a night (or at 4am, should we call it a morning?!)

First group shot of the night

Dinner at Waterman's

Drinks at Shellback

Car bombs at Hennesseys

Friday morning Charlie had to get up early for work, so I just kind of hung around for the morning. Jess, Jeff, and Mike all slept in. After they all woke up, Mike headed out, and Jess, Jeff, and I headed up to Palos Verdes. I took them to the Malaga Cove (a Rogy favorite for visitors). We hiked down, took pictures, and enjoyed all of the SoCal scenery. From the cove, we hit the grocery store to get food for the weekend. After a fun-filled grocery shopping trip, we went back to our place to unload the trunk and wait for Charlie to get home from work. Once Charlie was home, we all got our suits on and went to the pool for a few hours. From there the boys cooked out ("brats" ...which were more like bad hot dogs & burgers) while Jess and I got ready.

After dinner and a few beers, we headed to the Hollywood Park Race for the Michael Franti show. We got there two hours early, because if you get there before 8:30, it's only $10 to get in. Since we had two hours to kill, we drank beers and downloaded the drinking game 'Kings Cup' onto Jessica's phone. It was definitely one of the funniest rounds I've ever played -- from Charlie having to drink every time someone put their thumb down or pointed to 'the heavens' (he wasn't paying attention), to everyone having to 'pick a mate' to drink with, to the rule 'Jeff Erlandson can't talk.' The two hours actually flew by, because we were having so much fun with our friends.

Pre-gaming before the show

Once the show started, it was incredible as always. We were front row, of course! Beach balls were flying, we were all dancing, and it was a great time. It was so fun having friends in town to experience these kinds of things with! During 'Gangsta Girl', Charlie and Jessica both got pulled on stage to dance. When 'Gangsta Girl' was over, Jeff got pulled on stage to 'play' guitar! When the show was over, Jess & I each got a Michael Franti guitar pick, we all got beach balls from the show, we talked to Jay Boogie (guitarist) who remembered me from Summer Camp, and then I got Franti to sign Jess's beach ball. The crowd was way too large and pictures/autographs were taking forever, so unfortunately we didn't get to talk to Franti this time around...however, it was still an awesome show and a killer experience. He once again told us to have the 'best summer of our lives' ...little did he know I'm writing this blog because of him!

Jess & Char dancing on stage with Franti

Erl rocking out with Jay Boogie

Saturday morning Charlie and I got up early and headed to the beach. He had won a 'Learn to Surf with Donavon Frankenreiter' competition! If you recall, a few weeks ago we got to see a Donny show at Saint Rocke. Charlie even got to meet him during his sound check before the show, so this was definitely an experience we couldn't pass up ...even with friends in town. We got to the beach, and there were a few others who were at the surf camp as well. I decided to hang back on the beach and take pictures, since I'm not a big fan of the ocean. After group pictures and a quick lesson on the beach, they were all headed out to the water. Donny had a few surf instructors there to help him with the lessons, so Charlie started out with other instructors. He caught (and stood up on) the very first wave!! That is so impressive, because most people are lucky to get up once during their first surf lesson. After being on his own for a while, he decided to come back to the beach for a break. We saw Donny on the beach as well and decided to take advantage of the situation. We went over to talk to him ...told him we met him last summer at Doheny Days and saw him at Saint Rocke a few weeks ago. He invited us to a couple of his upcoming shows (including a private show THAT night that he invited us & our friends to), and we each took a picture with him. He asked Charlie how he was doing at surfing and then asked if Charlie wanted to go back out in the water with him. Not only is Donny an incredible musician, but he is also a pro-surfer. Not many people have the opportunity to learn how to surf from a professional, so Charlie definitely couldn't pass this up. He caught a few waves and had a great time!

Donny giving the 'on shore' lesson

Charlie SO excited to learn how to surf

 Catching waves, BRO!

Mistaa Frankenreiter & myself

Char & Donny

Best bros for life

 Looks like a pro to me!

After the beach, we headed home to catch up with our friends and get ready for the Dodgers game. Upon arriving back at our place, Mike and Murph were there! Murph had gotten into town on Friday, but we didn't get to see him until Saturday afternoon. Mike had to go to work, but we had a few beers (the theme of the weekend I suppose) and headed out to the game. We only stayed for 3 innings, but our friends got to experience Dodger stadium, drink a beer, and munch on some delicious garlic fries (my favorite!!!).

Great group shot, hanging at our place

View from Dodger Stadium parking lot

We decided to leave the game early, because Donny had invited us to a private show. How can you pass up a private show when the artist himself invited you?!! We all headed back to Hermosa to hit The Lighthouse. It's a pretty small venue, and Donny did an acoustic set with the guitarist (who also plays a variety of instruments like the harmonica & ukulele) from his band. We drank, had nachos, and danced a little. It was definitely a cool experience! Thanks for the invite, Donny :)

Walking to The Lighthouse

Donny & his guitar player

We went home to re-group after the show....Jess and I changed our clothes, and we were all off to Hollywood. After the longest car ride of our lives, we met Whitney and Mike at Power House right off Hollywood Blvd. At this point, I wasn't feeling very good, but still had a great time catching up with old friends. We shut down the bar and headed out to the ever-so-amusing Hollywood Blvd. Upon walking out of Power House, we all were told to jump into someone else's pictures ...the result was a giant group picture with a bunch of random strangers. After the photo, we found a group of about 10 guys rapping & filming. We encouraged Murph to jump in. He got to rap twice for the camera, and the second time he walked off saying 'and this is how I'm leaving ya'll' (or something along those lines ...a little help here, Murph!). Everyone in the group exploded and started cheering. It was great! We continued to walk down the street, parted ways with Whit, Murph, and Mike, and checked out all the hand and footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater. At this point it was about 3AM, and we were ready to head home.

Dunlap does Hollywood

                                   Murph rapping on Hollywood Blvd.                                  Grauman's Chinese Theater

Sunday morning Jessica and Jeff were woken up with a breakfast consisting of eggs, potatoes, and bacon. We got ready and eventually made it to Venice Beach to meet Mike, Murph, and Luke. It was super packed, but we managed to find a spot on the beach. We had a fun-filled afternoon of laughing on the beach (a bird pooped on Charlie), the boys played frisbee, catch, and even got in the ocean, and we walked the boardwalk a bit too. We all stopped by Mike and Lukes for a little while on the way home, and eventually made it back to Charlie and mine's apartment for dinner. I had a bolognese sauce cooking in the crockpot all day, so we had that accompanied with garlic bread, spaghetti, and bruschetta for dinner. It was so fulfilling, and it totally hit the spot! We had made plans to go out and do something fun, but we were all tired and decided to have a fun night in. We played six hilarious rounds of Scattergories (like Charlie using the wrong letter, Jess putting answers like 'hairy peaches', Jess & Jeff arguing over every answer, and me dominating as always ;)) and watched Blow. Charlie and I had to call it an early night, because we both had to work early on Monday morning.

Beach day

Jellyfish 

Scattergories!!

What an incredible weekend with old friends! I cannot believe how much we fit into ONE weekend. Memories were made that will last a lifetime ...and we got some great pictures to capture all of the fun.

Monday Charlie and I had to head back to work for the day. Jess and Jeff spent the day hanging out and hitting Del Amo (the biggest mall in America...located just blocks from my dad's house in Torrance). Once we were finally off work, we all headed over to Saint Rocke for 'Geeks Who Drink' aka trivia night! Everything (food and drink) was on special for $5 for the night. I ordered garlic fries and carne asada street tacos, Charlie got a barbecue chicken flatbread, Jess got goat cheese and marinara dip and sweet potato fries, and Jeff got chicken and steak skewers. The food was great! We also each had a few beers. Our trivia team name was 'Bros and Hoes', and we actually started out doing pretty good. After the first three rounds, we were in third place! The next 5 rounds were extremely difficult, and we ended the night in 12th place. Jeff did get a bonus question right for a free Busch Light though. After hours of trivia, we decided to head to (my favorite place around) Sharkeez in Manhattan Beach. Ironically enough, it was country night. Although we all went to school in the country, I despise country music. We decided to stick around anyway and order some shots. A few shots, a few mixed drink, and four giant jello shots later, we closed down the bar. It was probably one of my favorite nights with them.

Tuesday morning (err, afternoon) we walked over to the Redondo Beach Pier for lunch at Kinkaids before taking them to the airport. It was a perfect 'last lunch' ...we were posted up outside next to the crashing waves. After lunch, we walked home and left for LAX! I was so sad to see our friends go, but it was an extremely fun-filled trip. We did so much in just five short days! Thanks for the visit, guys! :) Until next time...

Pelican on the pier

Lunch @ Kincaids