Almost Halfway!

I can hardly believe it's been almost 500 days since I started this list! And sad that I haven't been the best at updating my blog (hello! that's number 54!!!), but happy to say that even though I haven't been writing about it, I sure have been doing it!

So let's recap my progress, shall we?

#2: Read 1 new book every 2 months

One of the biggest changes in my life since I've started this list had been getting back into reading. Even though so far it's mostly been chick lit and fantasy that Justin has given me to read, I feel confident now that I will continue to make good use of the library branch down the street and always have a book to read before bed! My last few books were: Something Blue and Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin, Little Lady, Big Apple and The Little Lady Agency and the Prince by Hester Brown, and Ship of Magic and Mad Ship by Robin Hobb.

#7: Go to at least 3 Mets games each summer

This summer I've only made it to 2 Mets games (tho I went to a whopping 4 last year, so I'm still on track!) - one winner (yay!) in DC at Nationals Park and another disaster for my Dad's birthday in July. Across the two games, I think there were 3 David Wright home runs (yay!) but that wasn't enough to pull out the win in game #2. 

#8: Go to 10 concert

Back in July we had a big concert weekend - Weezer on Friday night at Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn and DMB at Citi Field on Saturday! Both were amazing...the best Weezer concert I've ever been to no doubt and possibly the best DMB set. Still have a couple more concerts left this year too.

#11: Try a new restaurant every month

#12: Go to a restaurant for Restaurant Week once per year

#14: Go to brunch once every 2 months (not just at the diner)

Will write about all three of these together since they're related! J and I have spent the summer trying new brunch places (I'll add our reviews in another post) and we went to two new restaurants for RW this summer, One if by Land, Two if by Sea and Mesa Grill - both were fab! What did I eat? Why, of course I'll tell you!
At One if by Land, I had:

App: Haricot Vert Salad: grape heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese, slithered almonds, basil, sherry vinaigrette (AMAAZZZZZING)
Entree: Grilled Bavette Steak: roasted radishes, fingerling potatoes, braised red cabbage, beef jus
Dessert: Gianduja Mousse: caramel bananas, banana bread ice cream

At Mesa Grill, I had:

App: Roasted Corn Soup (INSANELY DELICIOUS)
Entree: Cornmeal Crusted Chile Relleno filled with Roasted Eggplant, Manchego Cheese with Sweet Red Pepper Sauce + Balsamic Vinegar (UMM I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK)
Dessert: Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake with Chocolate Chip Marscapone Whipped Cream

#23 Visit Lawrence in DC

Another fun travel 101thing down!! We finally visited our friend Lawrence in DC and the timing couldn't have been better, we went on July 4th weekend! We had amazing food (Zaytinya, Co Co. Sala), we were pro tourers and got to see a lot of monuments and some museums (and got to play with my new awesome camera), we went to a Mets-Nationals game (and the Mets won!), we watched amazing fireworks over the Washington Monuments, AND I even got a little bit of a tan! Totally awesome trip!

#41: Try a new recipe at least twice a month 

Sadly, I'm also very behind on my recipe blog...I'll do better, promise!

#63: Get a Massage once a year 

I see that I didn't mention our Valentine's Day couples massage for some reason! I got a second massage to celebrate the next 101thing I achieved.......

#64: Get a raise

I got a new job! Yup, I accomplished one of my best 101things - getting a raise - almost exactly on the 1 year anniversary of creating this list too! :)

1 for 4 in Mets Wins This Summer

#7 Go to at least 3 Mets games each summer
Pics from Mets game #3 (Aug 2nd with J's mom and sis) and game #4 (rescheduled birthday Mets game for my dad with the rest of the fam).


J with his mom and sis!


My fam at the Apple!

Progress Report: #7, #16, #41, #44, #49, #90

#7. Go to at least 3 Mets games each summer
This past Saturday, May 30th, J and I (along with J's sister and her roommate) voyaged back into Queens for another Mets game! While this one wasn't as good as the last one (half the team was out "resting" and they lost pretty badly), we DID get to take a picture with the old Shea Home Run Apple, which is pretty awesome.


#16. Try to find the best burger in the city
Another trip to Citi Field also gave us a reason to start our best burger quest! We each had a Shake Shack Double-Shack Burger and it was mmm mmm good! We decided to judge each burger we taste on 4 points: Taste, Presentation, Value, Overall each on a scale of 1-10.

Taste: 8

We liked the charbroiled taste of the burgers and the cheese to burger ratio. The burger came with a special shack sauce, tho I couldn't really taste it, it was overpowered by everything else.

Presentation: 5

Nothing really special on the appearance front. It looks like a homemade burger - kind of messy/sloppily piled together.

Value: 8

The double-shack burger was $8.25. We're not sure of how the prices compare with the Madison Square Park location (we'll be sure to try it out there as well) but we felt that it was pretty reasonable for a regular meal, let alone a ballpark meal. We were also so stuffed afterwards that we didn't really need to eat anything else.

Overall: 8

J: If I'm at Citi Field, this is hands-down what I'm eating.

C: While we ranked the burger for presentation and value, what's really important to me is taste, and this burger tastes GOOD. I'm in for more, both at Citi Field and hopefully sometime soon, at the Madison Square Park location.

#41. Try a new recipe at least twice a month/#44. Make (or order in) one vegetarian meal per week/#90. Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes
New June Recipes up! Includes Southern-Style Chicken Stew, Egg Salad Sandwich, my official new recipe of the week Saucy Pepper Steak, Penne with Veggies in a Ricotta Sauce, and Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Dressing. Yumm-o! Not only did I do a lot of delicious cooking this week, but got a lot of leftovers out of it, which makes for my favorite recipes.

#49. Scrapbook all my saved up stuff
So this week, our modem broke leaving us internet-less for a night. I took this opportunity to finally start organizing all the random stuff I want to scrapbook!! I've kept everything in this tote bag in my closet, so I had to organize it by year (going back to 2007, eek) then start scrapbooking! Unfortunately, the progress stopped when my scotch tape ran out. Doh! And now that we've got our internet back, it's all in a pile in my armchair. But! Now that I've started, I have a renewed yearning to finish, so I don't think it'll be there for long!

Progress Report: #7

#7 Go to at least 3 Mets games each summer (1/9)

I went to my first Mets game of the summer and first EVER game at Citi Field last night!! It was such a great night! First of all, even though it had been gray and rainy all day, the moment we got off the 7 train, it was bright, sunny with blue skies - perfecto! The stadium is so gorgeous, I fell in love with it. I love that you can see the field no matter where you're standing, I love that you can basically stand anywhere in the stadium no matter where your seats are, I love the new food area with seating where you can either see the field or a big screen of the game. I love it all! We got Shake Shack DoubleShack burgers for dinner and let me say MMMMM! Phenom. I'll have to make my way to the original one of these days... And the best part - Mets Win!!

Me in front of the new stadium!

J and I on line to buy tix for my Dad's b-day in July - that makes 3 more games I'm signed up for already!!

The view from our seats - Section 431, Row 1!

In the Shake Shack Line - a half hour and 3/4s of an inning, but well worth it!