62. February 7th, 2011 Picture.

I headed to Target after work to appease my craving for shopping.  Sometimes all I need is to thumb through some racks, find absolutely nothing, and call it a day.  I usually pick places like Target or TJ Maxx to do this, because even if I find something I want, it’s going to be like $20, which is totally reasonable, i.e. it fits into my budget.

I walked through the racks, secretly looking for either a few things for work, or something to wear on Valentine’s Day.  After working in a place where jeans were the standard, my work wardrobe has suffered, so I am always on the lookout for a few pieces here and there to build it back up.  I found this totally adorable and surprisingly well made top by guest brand William Rast, which everyone should know is Justin Timberlake’s line.  I guess they did a guest spot at Target and I was not alerted, which is an absolute travesty.  The best part was that I scooped it up on sale, win!  It fits remarkably well, with perfect darts in all the right places – I was definitely impressed.  This is the second fantastic guest designer thing I’ve gotten a Target, the first being a Liberty of London dress that I bought for $39.99 and wore to TWO weddings this summer.  Seriously though, Target rocks.  And I heart JT forevsssss.

62. February 6th, 2011 Picture.

Each of my friends has claimed a holiday celebration as their own.  Jamie has Christmas, I have St. Patrick's Day, while Bill and Tara have Super Bowl Sunday.  As I've blogged about many times before, Tara is QUITE the cook, so you can imagine the spread that was put out for us.  We headed over in the early afternoon, allowing enough time to eat, drink and be merry, while holding their adorable son Liam.  

It was here that Ratty went WAY out of his comfort zone and held a baby.  I have the pictures to prove it!

{See!  Even Liam looks confused!}

{Aw, cuddles for Ratty!}

{Then it was my turn.  Obviously, it's always my turn.}

Just a minor sampling of the spread.  Homemade corndogs, pulled pork in cornbread cups, wings, veggies, fried mozzarella.  We were stuffed.  Absolutely stuffed.

But there is ALWAYS room for cake!  Tara is famous for making a cake, from scratch with homemade frosting, for every type of event.  This time around, she made a football stadium, I mean, look at that detail!  As impressive as it was, it didn't stop us from diving in and demolishing it.

Liam started to get fussy, as most babies do when it's their bedtime, but he screamed even harder anytime Jamie went near him.  She looked at him, he cried.  She tried to hold him, he cried.  She tried to feed him, he cried.  It became comical after a while because the kid would not stop freaking out.  I am sure that we caused some sort of irreversible damage by laughing hysterically every time he cried.  I am sure we will give him a lot of things to discuss with his therapist.

The party was so much fun, I honestly can't even tell you who played in the Superbowl.  When my beloved Patriots got bumped out [kicked out sounds SO harsh, doesn't it?] I really stopped paying attention.  I just had to Wikipedia it to remember who was playing.  We all hate the Steelers, as does most of the country, so we spent the entire game cheering for the Packers.  It must have done some good, because they won!  

As soon as the game ended we packed up and headed home.  We were full, happy and exhausted from a fun day at the DiPilato household!

62. February 5th, 2011 Picture.

My mom invited myself, Ratty, my sister Arleen and her family and my brother Ed over for a little dinner party on Saturday night.  Arleen and Ed had yet to meet Ratty, and an introduction was long overdue.  Especially since Ed and Arleen are friends on mine on Facebook and read my blog – they are well aware of who Ratty is, they just hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting him yet.  Doesn't that seem crazy?  Yes, yes it's officially crazy.  We spent the night chatting, drinking wine and stuffing our faces full of food.  This sounds exactly like every other family event I've ever described on my blog, but whatever, at least we're consistent.  Ratty had a great time meeting some of the Deveau's and I had a great time catching up with my family. 


My mom made a great dinner, honestly, every dinner she makes is a great dinner, but per usual there were TONS of leftovers.  No matter how much we eat, there always seems to be copious amounts of food.  Not that I'm complaining, just making an observation.  My mom packed up a huge, and I mean HUGE Tupperware bin and sent me home with a sampling of all my favorite things.  And when I say sampling, I mean enough food to last me a week.  Again, not that I'm complaining. 

This is no joke.

62. February 4th, 2011 Picture.

For the past 2 years, Ratty has taken the month of January off from drinking, a way to detox after the holidays and to start the new year off on a good foot.  Last year, it was actually my idea, and I roped Ratty into doing it with me.  He stuck with it for the entire 4 weeks, while I backed out around the 2.5 week mark.  To celebrate Ratty's re-entering the world of imbibing, we went to his favorite restaurant Eastern Standard.  My mom had given him a gift certificate there for Christmas, so it was the perfect excuse to use it - as if we ever really need an excuse for anything.  Except for maybe going to the gym, I am really great at coming up with excuses for not going to the gym.

Anywho, February 4th was a Friday, and I had 'Ratty is back OFF the wagon!' written in my planner.  We decided to go to Eastern Standard after work, get a seat at the bar, have some cocktails, and then settle into a booth for dinner.  I knew exactly what I was getting, an Old Cuban which is described as an 'evocative mix of rum, lime, mint & bubbles'.  It is nothing like a mojito, I don't even like mojitos, but I love Old Cubans.  They aren't muddled, there is no pulp, it is just yummy goodness.

Ratty got a Vesper, which was made famous by James Bond movies, and is a mix of Vodka and Lillet (among other things I'm sure).  When I googled it the recipes called for vodka and gin, which seems like an awful lot of booze for one drink, no?  And for me to say that means it really must be too much!

We started off with shrimp cocktail, my absolute fave.

Followed by arancini with a pesto dipping sauce.

For dinner I got brown butter gnocchi with lobster.  The lobster was amazing, shocker, but the gnocchi were heavy and almost burnt tasting.  They were really dense, not light and fluffy like other gnocchi I've had.  I did my best to clean my plate, but once the lobster was gone, so was my motivation.

Regardless of how disgustingly full I was, practically falling asleep at the table full, I HAD to order Eastern Standards Butterscotch Bread Pudding.  It is delicious and gooey and warm and crunchy and topped with salted caramel ice cream.  I love it so much, I lose all will power when it comes to this thing.  I've even gone as far as ordering one at dinner and then ordering one to go.  I've eaten one from a take out box while driving one handed to a WEDDING.  Yea, no will power might be an understatement.

{Ratty and I fighting over one of the last bites.  Seriously delicious!}

Pretty fantastic way to welcome Ratty back into the world of imbibers.  Thanks Mom for the gift certificate!

62. February 3rd, 2011.

I've never really been the biggest fan of fruit, though I've been trying to make more of a conscious effort to try new things.  I've warmed up to strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and plums, but still cannot get myself to like any type of melon, watermelon, honeydew melon, no thank you.  I don't tend to buy a lot of fruit at the grocery store, mainly because I feel like I don't have the chance to eat it before it goes bad.  I'm rarely at my apartment, so I buy things that can last a few weeks, so I don't feel like I am constantly wasting money on things I can't eat fast enough.  To somehow compensate for the lack of fruit in my diet (the dried fruit I put in my oatmeal from Starbucks probably doesn't count), I started drinking Odwalla smoothies.

Pair my need for fruit with the fact that I have a mild B12 deficiency, and the B Booster smoothie is perfect.  I found out I had a B12 deficiency the last time I went to the doctor, and realized that was probably why I was so tired all the time.  My energy felt zapped and all I wanted to do was nap all the time.  I've actually read a few articles that said B12 deficiencies are pretty common among 20-something women, since we're always on the go and usually avoid most of the things that are high in B12.  I rarely eat meat, don't like oysters, pick skim milk over whole and usually choose to cook my chicken, which drains all the vitamins.  I am totally okay with that though, I'd rather just drink a smoothie or pop a vitamin instead of running the risk of getting salmonella again.

I've always loved smoothies, but found that the ones you can buy at Boloco, Jamba Juice or other places are made with lots of sugar and unnecessary ingredients.  I stopped getting a smoothie at the food court when I worked at BU, because I realized it was probably doing more harm than good.  I love Odwalla because are made with 100% juice puree (hi, I need ALL the fruity goodness I can get).   

62. February 2nd, 2011 Picture.

So even though work was technically closed on Feb 2nd because of the crazy snow, I still fired up my laptop (once my power came back on) to check up on some emails and finish a few time sensitive things.  I love the ability to work from home, not that I do it often, or ever really, but the option is really nice.  We are consistently told not to try and battle bad weather to get to the office, and to bring our laptops home the night before a big storm.  So, I spent the morning of my snow day sitting on my bed, drinking coffee, watching Barefoot Contessa and answering emails.  I’m not going to say that I could do this everyday, because I am pretty sure that my productivity would quickly plummet if I never got out of my pajamas, or out of bed for that matter, but every once and a while, working from home is nice.

62. February 1st, 2011 Picture.

I was sitting in my bedroom, minding my own business, listening to the blizzard wind howl outside my window while watching TV when suddenly my power went out.  Do not panic, do not panic.  It will come right back on, I promise.  Maybe I blew a fuse, quick, yell to your roommates, okay no, the whole house is dark.  I rushed to the window, to see if anyone on my block had power, and saw the pitch black darkness broken by a few shaky beams of light from flashlights.  I knew I was in for it.  I don't own a flashlight, and my roommates don't either [we learned this the hard way].  Just call me woefully unprepared for natural disasters.

Since we have forced hot air in my apartment, I started to get nervous about the heat, if the power stayed out for long enough, it would start to get really cold, it was February after all.  Once I started to question my furnace, I immediately began to think of carbon monoxide poisoning.  No seriously, I did.  I started to wonder if the smoke alarms were up to date and in working order - I am sure they were, but that didn't stop me from worrying.  I panicked about my DVR, it had cut of right in the middle of The Good Wife, and I was really upset to be missing it.  Sidebar: The Good Wife is the best show on television, second to none.  If you aren't on that bandwagon yet, I suggest you get on it, now.  Since I had no Good Wife to keep me warm, I started to think about what else I could possibly do with myself if the power stayed out.  I thought of a simpler time, before electricity, and just how boring it must have been back then.  If only I had a quill pen, I might have been able to catch up on my correspondence.  I couldn't work on my blog, my computer would die in a matter of minutes, and my wireless connection wouldn't work without power.  I  wasn't tired, so going to bed was out of the question, so I lit about 10 Yankee Candles, and curled up with my Kindle and a book light I got for free when I bought my Snuggie.  If I didn't think it was really funny, I probably would have thought my situation was a tiny bit pathetic.  I do have to say, my room smelled pretty amazing with all those candles burning, so that was a definite plus.  

As the night wore on and I started to get ready for bed, I wondered if the power would come back on in the middle of the night and I'd be awoken to a brightly lit room, with the TV blasting.  That would not be awesome, but I would take that over not having the power come back on at all.  Sadly, I was not awoken in the middle of the night, and I woke up the next morning to find that the power had in fact, not come back on, but my room was absolutely freezing.  I had gone to bed with my Snuggie, sweatshirt blanket and my comforter on, but any inch of skin that was not covered was an icicle, like my nose.  Because of the horrific snow storm the night before, work had been cancelled so I didn't have to get up and get ready, thank goodness because I could barely handle taking my arm out from under the covers just to reach for the remote.  Having to get out of bed would have clearly resulted in immediate hypothermia.  I don't know what I would have done had work not been cancelled the night before.  Showering was not an option, due to the fact there was no hot water, but even more concerning was that my blow dryer wouldn't work, which every girl knows is an absolute travesty.  I was just about to call NStar when the power came back on and the heat started pumping again, crisis mildly averted!

62. January 31st, 2011 Picture.

I bought this book a few years ago, while my car was being towed actually, though I didn't know it was being towed at the time.  The attraction write ups are broken up by state and country, with a few listings in Massachusetts.  One of the places that I am desperate to visit is the Brimfield Antiques Show.  It is the largest antiques show in the world with over 6,000 dealers and 130,000 visitors.  It happens 3 times a year, spans almost a week each time and covers 23 fields in the town of Brimfield.  I am hoping to recruit my brother to go one day, I know he would absolutely die to go, as would I.  I've heard stories about how people will rent u-hauls and bring them to the show in order to transport all the things they buy.  While I don't think we'd need a u-haul, Eddie and I would definitely need to take 2 cards, for sure!

62. January 30th, 2011 Picture.

Okay, so I am not doing a great job at keeping my resolution about not posting as many food pictures, however, this photo was taken 4 months ago before I made said promise, so it's not really my fault.  I promise I have been trying harder to take more people-centric photos.

Now, on January 29th, Ratty and I decided to go to brunch - SHOCKING!  This particular day however, was the Super Hunger Brunch, where participating Boston area restaurants offered a prix fixe menu for $25 with 100% of the proceeds going to the Greater Boston Food Bank.  January is actually Super Hunger Brunch Month, with different restaurants participating every week.  We headed to Stella in the South End to complete our civic duty, and brunch our faces off.

I don't want to go into too much detail about the yummy brunch, as I will be posting it under my 'Try Brunch at 25 New Places' heading, but let me tell you, it was so yummy!

I snapped this photo, of what I deemed 'The Perfect Bite'.  I got the breakfast sandwich, which was bacon, egg, cheese and pesto on a croissant.  It was out of this world!  

The food was really great, and the fact that all proceeds went to the GBFB made it so much better!  After eating 3 brunch-alicious courses, we needed to take a walk around the South End to try and wake ourselves up!

62. January 29th, 2011 Picture.

Saturday night I got to babysit the two most adorable-ist nieces on the planet.  They had called me earlier in the week asking if I could come over and babysit.  Their parents had no plans, they just wanted me to come over and hang out with them - seriously, how sweet are they?!  I made plans to head over around 5pm, where we'd eat pizza, popcorn, watch movies and paint nails.  Any quality hang out time with the girls requires manis and pedis for everyone.  I mean, obviously.  What kind of girls night would it be if there was no nail painting?!

Eddie and Christine had to literally make up plans so that they could leave the house, at the girls request.  They opted to go out to dinner and said they'd be back in a few hours.  We got right down to it, making popcorn in their new swanky popcorn popper that Ratty gave them for Christmas.

We each got one of these adorable little popcorn bowls and added butter and salt until we each had the perfect serving.  We went straight upstairs to watch 'Alice in Wonderland' which is one of th girls' favorite movies.

I put the TV on the floor and we grabbed a bunch of pillows and blankets and curled up to watch the movie.  I don't know where these girls get ideas like this, but watching the movie in the den was out of the question.  It needed to be in their room, on the floor, surrounded by pillows.  

The girls were absolutely riveted with the movie.

I completely forgot just how weird 'Alice in Wonderland' is.  The girls were asking me questions about why Alice was lost, why she was eating a mushroom to grow, why she was able to flood a room with her tears, I mean, how can I possibly answer that?  Oh sweetie, the author was probably high on drugs when he wrote this, pay no attention.  Within seconds of the movie ending, we heard Eddie and Christine come through the front door.  The girls lapsed into hysterics and begged them to go out again.  We hadn't made cookies, we hadn't painted our nails, they'd come home too early!  Christine said that they finished dinner and drove around the neighborhood trying to kill time before finally heading home.  What kids beg their parents to leave again, and moreso, what parents don't take total advantage of a free babysitter that their kids actually like?!  I was like 'Go have a drink!  Go to a movie!  Go do something without your children, enjoy this free time!'  Oh well, I guess we'll just have to do manis and pedis another time!

62. January 28th, 2011 Picture.

Since I was deep in hibernation mode this winter, I packed a bag and headed to Ratty's apartment on Friday after work so we could do absolutely nothing besides eat food, drink wine and watch movies - that's really the life, isn't it?  During our now weekly trip to the store to buy provisions [don't you just love the name drop of my favorite word?], we bought a pint of Boston Cream Pie ice cream from Ben & Jerry's.  Man oh man it was good!  I love love love Boston Cream Pie, and this ice cream was almost as good as the real thing.  There were chunks of yellow cake, swirls of cream and chocolate chips.  If you like BCP then you will love this - Amy approved!

62. January 27th, 2011 Picture.

On my list of daily photos, next to January 27th all I have written is MORE SNOW.  Honestly.


We got hit with even more snow, almost 2 feet on top of all the snow we already had, which meant snow day for me!  I didn't know work was going to be cancelled until that morning, otherwise I would have enjoyed the StyleBoston party a little bit more!  When I woke up that morning, I decided I needed to go out and get the shoveling over with.  Last time I'd waited until almost 5pm, and the plows had totally blocked my car in and the snow had started to freeze.  I wanted to get a jump on the day and get my car all cleared out, I used my morning coffee as a great motivator!  No coffee until I shoveled.  I'm a real slave driver sometimes.

{The snow was up past my knee.  So.much.snow!}

{I had to pull my door with all my might just to get it to open.  The snow was up past my door!  Oh!  The horror.}

{Since I'd been plowed in and everyones cars were so close together, the only way I could get to my car was to scale this mountain.  Seriously, thank God for Uggs - my feet were all toasty!}

62. January 26th, 2011 Picture.

Wednesday night Ratty and I had plans after work to attend a Style Boston party at the Taj Hotel downtown.  I've attended a few Style Boston parties, and blogged about them on here, most recently the Fashion Show at the Liberty Hotel.  This time around, they were celebrating the fact that the show moved from NECN to Channel 5 and was renewed for another season.  

These parties are always top notch.  They have lots of sponsors, so typically the food, booze and entertainment are pretty great.  I was looking forward to it, aside from the huge impending snow storm that was coming our way.  The party started right in the throws of the blizzard, which caused me to leave my wet Uggs on for the entire party.  There was no way I was going to try and walk in the crazy snow in a pair of heels, I voted for safety, comfort and sheer practicality on this one!  But of course, everyone was decked out to the 9s which made me feel slightly out of place no matter how rational I was.

There were two fantastic DJs who pretty much battled all night, playing the best songs ever.  Ratty was in absolute awe at the mash-ups and mixes they put together.  The music was hands down the best part of the event.

The party was also sponsored by Patron, who handled most of the alcohol.  Thankfully there were a few other options as I am not a fan of tequila.  It goes back to one fateful night in college, tequila and I got in a fight and neither one is waving the white flag.  Ever.

There were lots of models walking around in flapper outfits, not totally sure what they had to do with the Casino night theme, but they looked good so who cares!  There were casino games around the room, craps tables, black jack, you name it, they had it.  They had multiple auctions going on, along with raffle prizes including a day on a chartered yacht.  I'm telling you, they go big!

One of the cooler aspects of the night was that the bars were made out of a solid block of ice.  I thought it was pretty cool! 

The room was decorated with red lighting, combined with black and white check dancefloor.  I LOVE black and white check dancefloors - I think they are so awesome.  I was totally impressed with the amount of people who got down on the dance floor.  Ratty was in the middle of 'Sober January', his month of detox from the holidays, and since there was a crazy storm outside, I wasn't much in a drinking/dancing mood.  I did love people watching of course and this place was so perfect for that, as you can imagine.

One of the 'attractions' at the party, if I can call them that, was this group from New York called The Bumbys.  They sat a table with old school typewriters, wearing wigs, hats and masks covering their face.  Their schtick is that they give you a brutally honest opinion of your appearance.  They look you up and down, type their thoughts on these little cards and hand them back to you.  I couldn't work up the guts to have them do it for me, but there was a line down the hall for them.  

The party was really fun, but the snow had me stressing about getting home.  There were snow emergencies all over Boston, and I knew that finding a parking spot near my apartment would be a huge challenge.  Plus, I felt bad for Ratty, my sober accomplice, since there were so many drinks flowing but he couldn't sample any.  It was definitely a fun night regardless!

62. January 25th, 2011 Picture.

I came home from work and put on my pajamas and crawled into my bed under my oh so comfy Nantucket sweatshirt blanket.  Something about winter makes me so lazy, in particular this winter.  It probably has something to do with the fact that we got so much snow it made it physically impossible for me to leave my house.  By the time 4:30pm rolled around I was so beat that I just want to put on my pajamas and do absolutely nothing all night.  That’s great every once and a while but multiple nights per week is out of character for me.  That being said, it didn't stopped me.  So, I laid in my bed, under my sweatshirt blanket, wearing my Black Dog sweatshirt (no island fueding here!) and watched Barefoot Contessa and Ghost Whisperer reruns all night.  At about 7pm I was SO tired that I fell asleep!  For an hour!  I never ever nap, ever, so me passing out for an hour on a weeknight is uncharted territory.  I woke up all like, ‘what day is it?  What time is it?  Do I need to go to work right now?’ and all that jazz.

It was probably because this blanket is so awesome.  It is so soft and so cozy and so warm, I just love it.  I call it my sweatshirt blanket because it’s made just like a sweatshirt, unbelievably soft on one side and heavy and dense on the other, it’s even stamped with a Nantucket beach permit logo on one side.  I bought it when Erin and I went to Nantucket for Figawi a few years ago, which is an ultra famous boat race that takes place during Memorial Day weekend each year.  I scoped out every t-shirt shop on the island, before finally picking out the perfect blanket at the cheapest price (hey, it’s still me we are talking about).  

I pack it on every vacation, bring it to Ratty's when we're doing movie nights, it has literally become my security blanket.  You know, if I am regressing back to my toddler days.

62. January 24th, 2011 Picture.

Boston hit -2 degrees on January 24th.  First time since 2005.  Isn’t that insane?  Buses stopped working, trains didn’t run and everyone I work with was late.  The MBTA did damage control for leaving people stranded out in the cold and I was pretty sure my car wasn’t going to start.  By the time I was home and took a picture of the weather forecast, it had bumped up to a balmy 12 degrees.

To make matters even more ridiculous, I even saw girls wearing tights to work.  Tights?!  I wore pants, Uggs, a sweater and two jackets to work!  But, I’m also crazy, so I guess it’s a wash.  I like the winter, I can stand the cold, but let’s try to keep the temp above 20, deal?

426 Down, 575 To Go!

I started my blog on April 13th, 2010, which was 426 days ago!  It has been 1 year and 2 months since I started this journey, and I thought I'd write a post to talk about how I think I'm doing.

{4 from my neighbors door, 2 from the elevator at work and 6 from my stove clock.}

I find myself slightly freaking out about my ability to keep up with my daily photo goal.  I love taking the pictures, documenting all the things I do, sharing them with my readers, but I've shot myself in the foot somewhat.  I think when I originally came up with my 101 list, I thought that I'd just post the picture and call it a day.  Then I realized I wanted to explain it, tell the funny stories behind it, do that particular day justice, and well, that is slightly hard to keep up with.  It all started when my hard drive crashed and I was without a computer for about 2 weeks.  I fell behind on my posting and have been trying to play catch up ever since.  The problem with having all these fun things going on, fun things I want to share with everyone, is that I spend most of my free time doing said fun things instead of writing.  All those weekend trips to Nantucket, the Cape, Maine and New Hampshire mean that it's a weekend I am unplugged and falling even more behind on my posting.  I find myself wide awake in the middle of the night, thinking about how unbelievably behind I've fallen, but then I remind myself that I am posting things, lately I've been posting things daily, and as long as I keep chipping away and contributing to my blog, I feel successful.  The more I post the more traffic I get as well, which is a huge motivator.


Speaking of traffic, here is a breakdown of how many people read my blog.  I have 14 subscribers, meaning that 14 people have my blog posts emailed to them on the day they are posted.  Okay 13 people really, as I have my posts emailed to myself.  I like to make sure that my formatting in the emails comes through correctly, it's all about the quality control!  It's also a great way to have all my posts someplace other than Blogger.  Sometimes there are glitches, and posts are erased or posted out of order, should anything happen to the server, I want to make sure that all my posts can be recovered.  I probably have data issues stemming from the Great Hard Drive Crash of 2010.  I like to make sure things are triple backed up, just in case.  I have 41 subscribers on Google Reader, meaning that the moment I post something, it goes straight to 41 super fans' Google accounts.  I also have 39 Blogger Followers, where the posts get sent to their Google Reader accounts as well as their Blogger Home Page. That means, on any given post, 94 people are reading it.  That's not including general traffic to my blog.  According to Blogger stats, I've had 9,823 original views on my blog, which breaks down to 23 additional views a day, though lately I've been averaging 50+, before you even count the 94 various subscriptions I have.  For the past view months, I've averaged more than 1,000 page views per month, with the number right now sitting at 1,373.  I think that is pretty great if you ask me!  It makes me realize that people care about what I have to say, but I need to make sure that I keep up with the content to get people coming back.  I want to make sure that when people read my blog, they enjoy it and therefore keep reading.


I've completed 10 goals with 21 in process and am pretty proud of that.  A few goals seem obsolete now, and I think it's because I am at a different place in my life now than I was 426 days ago.  Last year I was at a job I hated.  I felt like I was floundering, that I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.  I called it a quarter life crisis and thankfully, I think I've come out of it a much stronger person.  I love my job, I love my coworkers, I love everything about where I work.  I feel successful, happy, driven and motivated, all things I couldn't associate with my last job.  Take for example goal 39. Find A Mentor.  I didn't have anyone I could talk to or look up to professionally, as my boss was disconnected from almost all aspects of my position, so I really wanted to find someone who could point me in the right direction.  Well now I have 2 great bosses who really support their employees' personal and professional growth and it has definitely filled in my development void.  I may find a mentor down the line, who knows, but for right now I feel pretty happy where I'm at.


I've built some blogging relationships, some new and some old, and I really love the support I've received from these people.  I think it has made me and some of my long standing friends closer, and has also helped me connect with some people whom I might not otherwise have met.  I look forward to reading their blogs, commenting on their posts and having them read mine.  I look forward to everything our blogs have in store for us!


I think it has been a great 426 days so far, and hope that you stick around for the next 575!  And beyond, because I have a feeling this blog isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

62. January 23rd, 2011 Picture.

Sunday afternoon Ratty and I headed off to Kev & Bianca's house to watch the NFL playoffs.  They'd invited 2 other friends over that afternoon, so we spent the day eating the most ridiculous amounts of food, drinking some beers and watching LOTS of football - it was a pretty spectacular day now that I think about it.  The only thing that could have made it even better was if the Patriots were in the playoffs, sadly they'd been bumped out already.  Kevin created the most lavish spread, per usual, complete with a panini station.  He had every type of sandwich meat, bread, cheese and accouterments you could imagine, and we each got to create our prefect sandwich.  This day has since be dubbed 'Panini Day' and we reference it every time we get together; it was pretty epic.


And of course, it wouldn't be a party at Kev and Bianca's if I didn't hold baby Elliott for an obscene amount of time.  She wasn't feeling good all day and was so fussy.  I did my best to keep her happy, but she became so overtired that she was borderline inconsolable.  Poor little thing.  Bianca spent a good hour upstairs trying to get her to fall asleep, and even then, we could hear her through the monitor fussing in her sleep.  She was having an off day.

She is still totally adorable though, right?!

62. January 22nd, 2011 Picture.

January 22nd was a Saturday, I know this mainly because I opened up my planner and looked up the date, but also because Ratty and I took a trip to up to Tyngsboro to visit with his Grampy, go out to dinner with his family and ::drumroll please:: buy Ratty a new MacBook!  Yay Apple!


Ratty had been saving all his hard earned pennies (I say this as if he is 16 and saved up all his lawn mowing money to buy a telescope - reference anyone?!) to buy a new MacBook.  I absolutely love my Mac, I can say that I have never owned a PC, and I don't plan on ever owning one.  My Mac is the best.  Ratty had taken my laptop for a spin a few times, so when he needed to replace his old, dying Gateway, he opted to invest in a Mac, a very wise choice.  The plan was to buy the computer right over the NH border, so he could avoid paying sales tax, smart guy.


We headed up to NH in the afternoon and headed straight to the nursing home where Ratty's Grampy lives.  I'd heard so many wonderful things about him and I was so excited to finally meet him.  We'd stopped off at Bova's in the North End before our trip and brought Grampy a boxful of his favorite treats.  While we were visiting, he ate his entire dinner plus a giant slice of Boston Cream Pie - at 92 he is not slowing down!  Ratty's mom had to take the desserts away and hide them, because I'm pretty sure he would have eaten everything in one sitting.  The man loves his sweets, and I mean, who can blame him?  We spent a little over an hour chatting with Grampy, mostly talking about the Red Sox and Celtics while watching sports highlights on TV.  According to Ratty, the man loves two things, food and Boston sports, that's my kinda guy!  It was so great to finally meet and spend time with him, I can see why Ratty loves him so much!


After getting some significant Grampy time in, we headed off to the mall to buy Ratty his new laptop.  Yayyy!

{Ratty walking into the Mac store.  Totally not staged.}

{Testing out a few floor models.  This was totally for show, Ratty had been researching models for weeks and he knew EXACTLY what he wanted.}

{There it is!  Ratty documenting his new purchase with a picture - he probably Facebooked, Tweeted and texted it to everyone he knew.}

{So new and shiny.  It made me want a new one, even though mine is perfectly fine it's not brand new.}

{Still savoring the newness!}

After buying the laptop and getting a quick tutorial from the 'genius' who helped us, no honestly thats what Apples' sales associates are called, we packed it all up and headed off to a resturant to meet Ratty's parents and his brother for a late dinner.  Ratty was going to leave the laptop in the car, but I quickly squashed that idea, telling him he HAD to bring it inside.  He thought he looked pretty foolish carrying around an Apple bag through the restaurant, but it's better than someone stealing it, am I right?!

62. January 21st, 2011 Picture.

I feel like I’ve taken a lot of snow-centric photos lately, but that is mostly because Boston is getting pummeled with the most snow we’ve seen in years.  We are above the average snow fall for the entire YEAR and we are barely half through winter.  At this point, I am used to a 12-17+ inch snow storm hitting at least once a week.  It would be weird at this point NOT to have a snow day. 

Anywho, the last storm that came through was an ill-timed one, so I still had work.  Most schools in and around Boston were closed, with notices going out the night before, so jealous.  The worst part of the storm was during the morning commute, so I left extra early in hopes that I’d still get to work at a reasonable time.  Here is a quick shot of me crawling down an unplowed and dangerous, albeit pretty street.  At least there was no one behind me, so I could take my time.

76. Learn to Fire a Gun.

A few months ago, I headed up to New Hampshire for the weekend with some of my cousins, and was given the amazing, un-pass-upable opportunity to learn how to fire a gun.  YES!  Miss City Girl actually went deep into the woods and fired not one, but TWO different types of guns [cue the roaring applause].  We were all staying at my cousin Billy's in-laws' which is on a remote mountain in Sugar Hill, a small town/area within Franconia, WAY up in the White Mountains.  I mean, who doesn't think of guns when they think of New Hampshire?!  Their motto IS Live Free or Die after all.

Here’s how it all started.  My cousin Timmy knows a few things about guns and would probably use some time during the weekend to do a little target practice in the middle of nowhere.  He had plans with is brother and father to go out shooting on Saturday, and I was secretly holding out hope that I’d be able to go with them.  I had no idea what shooting entailed.  Do we pack a bag?  How long are we gone for?  Where do we go?  Do I need to bring a snack?  Are we gone for the whole day or is it like, an hour?  I had absolutely no idea how involved this would be, but all I knew was that I wanted in.

Since we were there for the weekend, I was hoping that there would be a few opportunities to go, since I’d made plans for Saturday afternoon with my mom to take Sue and Ratty to our favorite haunts around Franconia.  I mean, there aren't many, so it wouldn't take long, but who wants to rush?  I pretty much assumed it wouldn't work into our schedule, but I secretly hoped another opportunity would arise over the course of the weekend.

I got home too late on Saturday to go with them, as expected, but talked with Timmy about the possibility of going on Sunday before people headed home.  I explained to him that it was a part of my 101 list and he immediately was like ‘we HAVE to do it!’.  He asked that why, of all things, I wanted to learn how to fire a gun and I told him it was simple – if ever in a struggle with someone with a gun and it slides across the room, I want to get their first and know how to use it.  No seriously, that’s why I wanted to learn.  I’ve watched perhaps one too many Lifetime movies in my life and am convinced that someday I will get into a violent struggle with someone holding a gun [whyy I have no idea].  I know there’s a safety that you need to release before you can fire, and I wanted to make sure I know the basics – just in case.  I mean, wouldn't it be awful to get the gun and then not be able to fire it?  That would be a complete and utter fail.  This is the same reason why I want to know how to hot wire a car, because if I’m ever being chased I want to know how to steal a car and get away.  This all makes perfect sense to me, and honestly Timmy was right on board.  He was like, ‘Yea!  What if you get the gun and you don’t know how to shoot it?’  And I was all like ‘EXACTLY!’  He gets it, we’re family.

Sunday came and people started packing up, cleaning and getting ready to head home.  I started to think that my window of opportunity had passed, considering Timmy’s wife was sitting in the kitchen with her jacket on, ready to leave.  It had been a long yet awesome weekend, so I don't blame her.  He mentioned that he’d like to wait for his dad and brother to get back from dropping the trash off at the dump before leaving, which left us with about 30-45 minutes of free time.  Tim asked if me and Sue wanted to go shoot right then and there, and we grabbed our jackets and ran out the door.  Although, we did run back inside so we could get our beers.  I mean, doesn't everyone drink beers at 1pm on a Sunday right before they go shoot shotguns?!  I asked Ratty if he wanted to come, to which he said 'absolutely not'.  Oh well, his loss!

The house we were staying at was way up a hill, so there was lots of property around the house.  We drove all the supplies down the driveway until we came to a clearing at the base of the hill, where we helped Timmy unload all the stuff and carry it to the spot.  And by 'helped' I mean I took photos the entire time and carried nothing. 

 

This is no joke, we were going to do it right, targets and all.

Seriously intense, but SO exciting!

Timmy set up the target a good ways away from our shooting spot.  I sound so professional in this, 'a good ways away' and 'shooting spot', I wish I knew how many feet or yards it was, but all I know was that it was far away, okay?

There was a tackle boxed filled with almost everything you could imagine, different types of bullets for all his guns, cleaning cloths, ear plugs and whatever else you might need.  Again, I sound like such an expert.

He showed us how to load the clip, release the safety and pull the barrel to load the bullet into the chamber [k, I may have had to google for the exact verbiage on that last step.]  After he showed us, he gave me the chance to try it.  Sue, knowing the importance of pictures for my blog, acted as the photographer.

Bullets.  Check.

Bullets in the gun.  Check.

Pull that top part back just like Timmy told me too.  Check.

I'M READY!  

Safety first people, always wear ear plugs and protective eye wear.  Yes, ski goggles count, Timmy said so.

A few last lessons before I try it out.  Tim showed me how to line up the shot through the grooves on the top of the gun.  This would prove moot due to the fact that no matter where I thought the bullet was going, it ended up no where near my intended target.  Like in the snow.  Or a tree.

Taking my first shot!  I was not prepared for the loudness.  Even with the ear plugs, it cut right through me.  Just holding the gun made me so anxious.  One wrong move would not be good for anyone.  Tensions were high, I repeat, high.

Aw look how cute I am, thinking I might have actually hit the target.  I didn't.

Big round of applause to Sue who took this picture - IT IS THE BEST EVER!  I have no idea how she was able to catch the shell casing in the shot, since everything happened so fast, but she did and it's AMAZING!  Thank you Sue!

Next Tim took a couple quick shots and honestly looked like a pro.  He looked a little TOO good at shooting, dontcha think?  We joked that he played the part of a bank robber too convincingly.  We joke because we love.

Next up was Sue.  Check out her form.  She'd fire the gun and would literally try so hard to get far away from it while still holding it - so hilarious.

Then she pretended she was a Charlie's Angel and tried to blow the imaginary smoke off the barrel.  I had to remind her that it was still a real live loaded gun.  I did so by screaming hysterically 'AWAY FROM THE FACE!  AWAY FROM THE FACE!'

Next up was the 12 gauge shotgun.  I'd be lying if I said this thing didn't absolutely terrify me.  Like, legit had me shaking in my Ugg boots.  

The kickback was so hard it hurt my shoulder.  Tim thankfully warned us that we had to keep our face away from the handle or else the kickback would break out jaw.  No pressure or anything.

There were bird pellet bullets in the shotgun, meaning that when we fired, millions of little metal pellets flew everywhere.  I hit the target MULTIPLE times with this technique, but it scared me more because I feared getting hit with a stray pellet, which was physically impossible.  I doubt that spray could kill a person, but that would REALLY hurt.  Like a lot.  Like enough to make you wish you were dead.

Yay!  Checking 76 off my list!  Thank you to Timmy and Sue who helped me complete it!  It was everything I ever dreamed of and more.  I am ready for my Lifetime movie scenario now!

Seriously Sue, we have to work on your form.