My First Trip to Brooklyn

4.06.2011

Source: flickr.com via Denise on Pinterest

Last night, I took a great adventure to Brooklyn. I've heard great things about this place and hell, there is a Foursquare badge for this grand mystical place. I was meeting up with two friends at Caracas and looking forward to catching up. Little did I know that there was more than one Caracas location...

So I took an unexpected trip to the East Village... and while I was only there for a few minutes it seemed quite nice. Ooops.
I was making excellent time getting to Brooklyn until I got off at the wrong stop. The train from the East Village to Brooklyn is also pretty crowded. I guess the rumor is true that a lot of people live there and work in Manhattan. Sidenote: I've never been on such a rough subway ride as the minute between 1st Ave and Bedford Ave. Its the only time I've actually needed to hold on to the bars. I wasn't initially and had a slightly awkward moment when I bumped into a gentlemen who seemed to think I was trying to get into his backpack.

But! Once I did get to Caracas... it was really awesome. The pictures I took on my phone were super poor so I borrowed these from the interweb. (Thanks Interweb!) For an appetizer, we split these super tasty Tostones and for dinner I had the La Surena arepa. Oh, and two pitchers of caipirinhas.

Tostones Mochimeros $5.50
Fried Green Plantains topped with Mojito Mayo, a squeeze of lemon and white cheese
Tostones Mochimeros
La Sureña $7.50
grilled chicken and chorizo, with avocado slices and the classic and always enigmatic spicy chimi-churri sauce
La Surena - Source

In the event you were keeping track, I have checked-in twice in Brooklyn. So I need 23 more to get the "I heart Brooklyn" badge.

So truth serum? I actually got off the subway originally at Bedford Ave and thought I should have gotten off at 1st Ave. So I took the subway back to 1st ave and then realized I should have gotten off at Bedford Ave... so I took that rough L train ride 4 times.
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Goal: Geocaching {Part 1}

Like most people, I have a pretty active work week. I like to think I take mine to the next level by doing it in the big Apple.... but I'm probably being dramatic. One of the best things about the ginormous apple is that it affords me the opportunity to try new things. As a result, when the weekend comes around I often want to just sit, be calm, and recharge. However, the great weather this past weekend really inspired me to get out there and take advantage of the sun. Perfect opportunity to check something off my bucket list...

So, geocaching it is! Don't know what geocaching is? Check out this video:

Essentially its like treasure hunting but with GPS. Little brother is a Boy Scout and seemed like the perfect companion for wandering the woods for a few hours.

All I needed for this project was to download a Geocaching app on my Android phone. Pretty cheap adventure if you ask me.

Stay tuned for some pictures and video of the day... but here is a teaser:
That is a mighty big rock in the middle of the woods.
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$11 pick me up

4.05.2011

Mondays are always a little bit of a shock. Its like oh hey there, remember all that relaxing fun you had over the weekend? Its gone. Put on some tights and a cardigan and get to work. Oh, and slap on your headset cause you're going to be on hours of conference calls.

To add to this, on Mondays I have to wake up pretty early to take the train from Boston to NYC. I look like crap on the train too. My face is puffy from lack of sleep, I wear leggings and running shoes and a mismatched cardigan. Its a wonder I'm single right? Weird how I haven't met the love of my life on the train....

regardless.

Yesterday, when I left work the weather was just warm enough and the sky looked great. A winner of an evening in Manhattan. So I scooted back to the hotel to do a Batman change into some casual clothes, charged my ipad, and headed out for the evening. I stopped at one of the million nail salons (Trevi Nails) in the Grand Central vicinity. In an effort to force some spring weather on us, I picked a friendly bright pink color and I loved it. Its amazing how a relaxing $11 manicure can totally change my energy.
After a quick manicure, I headed to my favorite wine bar in the Murray Hill area, Wine:30. I always enjoy going to Wine:30 because I have a great time whether I'm alone or with some girlfriends. It was a great night reading my "book" and sipping a glass of wine. For dinner I had the following:
  • glass of Nieto Reserva, Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina
  • Tomato, Mozzarella, Basil, Balsamic, Honey, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
  • Pan Roasted Halibut. Served with Balsamic Drizzle, and Fresh Vegetable Caponata
  • red velvet cupcakes
After a nice relaxing evening, I am switching it up a bit tonight and taking my first trip to Brooklyn. Going to take in some Venezuelan food at Caracas with some friends I haven't connected with in the ginormous apple!
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Old-fashioned Fun

eggs and candy all over my bed!
I love the internet. You know this. I send emails daily, I like to blog casually, I count on Twitter to give me breaking news.... 

... but I love sending letters. It's like old fashioned fun.

I also love getting mail.... but hey, when you live in a Hilton its hard to get mail. So instead I send stuff to others occasionally.... and this past week it was to Baby Sister.

When Baby Sister was a junior in college, she went to Barcelona for a semester and missed celebrating Easter with the family. It wasn't until this time that I knew Easter was her favorite holiday. I think she even said she would have rather missed any other holiday than Easter... bold statement. 4th of July, Thanksgiving? Both great days. Apparently not as good as Easter in her book. {see her Barcelona Easter blog post}

So when I was trolling the local Walgreens before dinner, I stumbled upon the idea of sending her an Easter basket at work.... and here is the end result.

supplies!

believe it or not.... I only ate 3 Reese cups during this entire process ... and about 15 peanut M&Ms.

all assembled and ready to be mailed

So if you happen to work for the Digital Marketing firm that Baby Sister works for in Boston, you'll have to swing by her cubicle cave and have an egg.
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Weekend checklist = complete?

4.03.2011

Little Brother in Summer 2004
 It's amazing how much writing my goals down has made me more accountable to getting them done... especially when you put them on the interweb and you only write down four.

My weekend to-do list was pretty simple and involved mainly doing things that I have been waiting to do for quite awhile (like consolidate all my digital photos). Since I told the interweb what I wanted to do, I figured I might as well follow-up with a summary of my accomplishments.

(1) organize.
Its rather incredible to think that I have 10 years worth of digital photos all organized. I consolidated all of my old files (songs, pictures, video, tv). A pretty great feeling... especially when I discovered a few gems that have reminded me of some great times. Like this one above of Little Brother at the beach... and there are even better ones where this came from.

(2) recycle.
I love these Mango Peeled Snacks... and they really appreciate you saving the bags and recycling them. So here you go, I am sending you back 27 mango bags.

(3) good ole exercise.
Not only did I go to the gym three times.... I also went geocaching with little brother in the woods. Posts coming soon on that! {I almost included links to my Foursquare history, but perhaps you can just trust me that I went?}

(4) organize. again.
I didn't get around to organizing all my cooking magazines - maybe that'll get done next weekend. Oops. Every time I come home the pile in the corner of my room seems to get bigger.

Alas, it was a really great weekend filled with sibling hangout time... playing at the local new hardware store (so suburban), planting flowers and herbs for the summer, and watching Pride & Prejudice.... twice.

win. win. and win.
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Trend Alert

4.02.2011

Oh for you fashionable people you might have thought I was referring to a fashion trend. Silly.

In an effort to consolidate and clean up my digital life, I've been organizing files and deleting duplicates.... all very exciting things. It just makes me feel better knowing that all my pictures and videos are organized.... and that in the event something happens I won't lose my entire collection of Ashlee Simpson music.

As part of these efforts, I noticed that I had a lot of songs that contained the word "breathe" in the the title. Fourteen to be exact.
Then I started to realize that a significant portion of these songs were from the artists "debut" album... or singles that they released. I didn't do the math on it but it made me curious about how many songs there were out there that had "breathe" in the title.

Neither Amazon or iTunes was really helpful in this search.... but here is a rough go at it.
An advanced search on Amazon's downloadable MP3s revealed 10,778 songs that contained the word "breathe". Now, as you can see from the screenshot there are some in there that have the word in the album those don't count in my opinion.

I guess I really don't have a point here except that I thought it was interesting that there were a whole lot of songs titled "Breathe" and that a lot of them came from new artists. In my case of the 14 songs, 8 of them came from the first time I bought that artist's music.
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Weekend To-Do List

4.01.2011



As the weekend ends or as it approaches, I think about all the things I wish I had done or need to do. I guess that makes it sound like I'm constantly make lists.. which I guess is a bit correct. So here is my small list of goals for the weekend. Its nerdy but....
consolidate my hard drives....


organize my cooking magazines....


recycle my Peeled Snacks bags....


go to the gym ... twice...

Let's see how much progress I make on these goals... or whether I spend most of Saturday tucked in neatly on the couch with my Tivo remote.
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Photoshopped?

3.30.2011

I love me some Kardashians. This family is banana pancakes crazy and I'm 100% on board for it.

Between the antics between the older girls, the older girls and their mom-ager, and old fashioned, out of the loop Bruce .... I savor every episode.

But, one thing that I've always really liked about these girls and this family in general is that they appear "real". Part of the whole real thing is being honest about their curvy bodies and let's face it ... larger than normal butts. Yes, I know they pedel Quiktrim as a dietary supplement... but I don't feel like they've ever lied to me about how they look or how they got to how they look.

During my evening loop of the celebrity gossip sites, I noticed this post on X17online for Khloe. Apparently, she is going to be on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. Now, she looks great on the cover ... but I have to wonder how much of this is even her.
Screenshot from x17online.com

I'd say the top half of the body looks pretty realistic. Its the bottom half that I begin to question ... and as further evidence to support my crazy suspicion.... Khloe only shows the top half on her website.
Screenshot from http://khloekardashian.celebuzz.com/
I look forward to the internet attacking this one a bit - or perhaps not at all. Perhaps I wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't read the Huffington Post's article on the Kardashian's recent Redbook cover. Its hard to tell (obviously) but she just looks different. I understand that the covers aren't shot on the same day and she could have done a crazy diet before her solo cover.... but it just looks different.

So go ahead internet.... debate.
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