Pizzeria Uno in Allston, Mass.

My new friend, Jonesy-at-the-Rink, has been watching my blog "like a hawk" to see if I've written about our Pizzeria Uno outing this weekend. I told him to sit tight, it would be a while, then I decided, what the heck, why put off 'til tomorrow what you can do today.

I have been hearing of the football event, Harvard-Yale, for several years now, though have never had the fortune of attending the Ivy League equivalent of Florida-Georgia (it's not exactly on the same scale as the world's largest outdoor cocktail party, but you get the idea). I was supposed to go to New Haven last year, but a swim meet got in the way of day drinking. Tailgating is one of my favorite pastimes and I was not letting the same thing happen two years in a row. I didn't go to either school, but this event is on my bucket list.

I met Jonesy-at-the-Rink at the New Haven train station. It was sort of a blind friend set-up, courtesy of GoldenT. Jonesy and GoldenT saved me from sitting six hours on a Fung Wah bus next to some smelly stranger while praying we wouldn't blow up on I-95 and wishing I was in a car or riding first class in the Acela.

Jonesy and I were getting along swimmingly on the ride to Boston until he mentioned an e-mail he received in error.

"So, tell me about so-and-so?"

"Excuse me!?" I died.

"Yeah, GoldenT may have sent an e-mail the two of you exchanged..."

"Oh my god! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!"

I was mortified. I kept trying to pick up where the conversation left off, but I was too flustered to continue and worried just how much I had written and how much he had read. Turns out GoldenT had inadvertently forwarded him an e-mail we exchanged when she meant to just send him my e-mail address. Thanks G-mail. I still am not sure which e-mail he was referring to, but I hope it was rated PG.

We arrived in Boston and the weather was awfully frosty. We opened a couple of Whale Tails and put our feet up for a few before we went in search of food. We walked at a fast clip for about seven minutes before we did a U-turn and ended up at the first place we walked by Pizzeria Uno.

The staff was extremely friendly. The girl who served us had a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon and she was more bubbly than my kitchen sink after Thanksgiving. I ordered the pizza -- my favorite -- the personal, deep dish with pepperoni and peppers. Jonesy-at-the-Rink ordered the steak. We opted for red wine, hoping it would warm us up.

"How about we splurge on the most expensive bottle?" asked Jonesy.

"Umm, sure the one for $25?"

I love Boston.

The Malbec left a lot to be desired, but we polished it off before heading home to a movie and pajamas.


Jonesy killed his steak and I even got a nibble. It was surprisingly really tender and tasty. My pizza wasn't as good as the one I'd had on the upper west side, but I still grabbed a box to take home (and GoldenT and I enjoyed it in the wee small hours of Sunday morning).


I don't care what you say about chain restaurants. Pizzeria Uno's crust cannot be beat. It is sweet, buttery and crispy and it never disappoints. I challenge anyone to give me a better-tasting crust.

The rest of the weekend was a blast and a blur. We woke up at 6:45 a.m. Saturday and tried going to Kupel's Bagels to contribute to GoldenT's pre-game fiesta. Sadly it was closed for the Sabbath and GoldenT grabbed some Brueggers instead on her way home from the hospital. We were making drinks in the kitchen while rocking out to Vampire Weekend on Pandora. We loaded up on coffees and every kind of whisky and chocolate, caramel and coffee liqueur we could get our hands on. Coffee cocktails made up the first course, while Bloody Marys and screwdrivers made up the second.

I didn't see a football on Saturday, though we did sneak a peek at the Yale football team exploding out of the locker room, and I heard Sen. Ted Kennedy made an appearance. After bouncing around tailgates in our puffers and snow gear, the crew headed to the pool for some flip cup games. When that got old we made our way to John Harvard's and a couple other Cambridge establishments, where we met up with Young'un, TheTustler and BeanieBaby. Before we knew it, 10 p.m. felt like 3 a.m. and GoldenT and I headed back to her house to play a few rounds of GuitarHero.

Sunday morning I messaged a few friends to see if brunch was happening, and when nobody seemed alive, Jonesy-at-the-Rink and I decided to grab Starbucks and hit the road. We already started planning next year's Harvard-Yale.

"Party at your place?"

"Sure," he said.

"So...tell me about so-and-so?!" I had to give him somewhat of a hard time about the previous night. Luckily, I managed to escape scathe-free and with a "finer co-pilot" award.