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! :)

Wednesday Bloody Wednesday

#8: Go to 10 concerts

Every time I've tried to get U2 tickets, I've come up empty-handed. When I heard tickets were going on sale for Giants Stadium, I was determined to get them. I didn't. Then miraculously, they added another concert, this time on a Friday night (so much better than a Thursday night anyway) and I was able to get in at the very second they came onsale and got great seats to boot! It was all very exciting! Unfortunately, the entire concert experience wasn't as wonderful as the thrill of actually getting tickets. First of all, they moved the concert from Friday night to Wednesday, meaning we had to go to work the next day (of course I couldn't get that mad about it since they moved it because the Jets moved their game up to finish before Yom Kippur). Then, came the traveling debacle we call NJ Transit. I don't need to go into the whole ordeal, but you can read about it here. Long story short, it took an hour 40 minutes to get there and 2 hours to get home.

BUT on the bright side, U2 seemed to wait til the EXACT moment we got to our seats to come on stage (thanks Bono! xoxo) and the concert was pretty entertaining (including really drunk U2 enthusiast guy behind us who enjoyed dancing and singing every word loudly along with the band). It was by no means the best concert I've ever been to, but they played all the hits, I sang and danced along in the sweaty heat, and all in all had a great time.

U2's Setlist:
Breathe
Magnificent
Get On Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
She's The One / Desire
Elevation
Your Blue Room
Beautiful Day / Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
No Line On The Horizon
New Year's Day
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
The Unforgettable Fire, Mofo
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone
Encore #1
One / Amazing Grace
Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love
Encore #2
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Progress Report: #5, #8

#5: Watch all MetaCritic best-reviewed movies of the past 5 years
Now that I've started to use the library in addition to my Netflix, I've been watching a lot more movies lately - hurray for summer! Last week, I got Ratatouille out of the library, which was the top reviewed movie of 2007. I have to say, while I thought it was cute, I don't think it was my favorite animated movie or even my favorite movie of 2007! In fact, at some times in the movie, even though everything's animated - it's still hard to watch hundreds of rats in a kitchen, making food. The thought kind of turns my stomach...but overall, still an enjoyable movie!


#8: Go to 10 concerts
Justin and I attended our 3rd concert this year (2nd since I started the list!) this past weekend - Paramore & No Doubt at Jones Beach! The concert was awesome - Paramore is a band that we've really started to like lately so we were excited that they were opening up and No Doubt has been one of my favorite bands ever since Tragic Kingdom came out, like 14 years ago! They played all of their big hits, plus other favorites - including ending with my favorite No Doubt song, Sunday Morning! The sets were awesome and included a big screen in the background that played some of their music videos in the background as they sung the songs or other fun graphics and the band was really energetic. Even J loved the concert, and he can be a hater!

Here are some pictures from the concert:
TBD

Progress Report: #8

#8: Go to 10 concerts (1/10)

My first official concert of my 1,001 days (DMB last month doesn't count since I hadn't started my list then!) was last night, and it was a great way to start out. Green Day at Webster Hall. For those who don't know, that is a RIDICULOUSLY small venue to see such a big band play at and I was one of the lucky 1400 who was able to get a pair of tickets! The concert was 2 hours and consisted of 2 halves; the first half was all songs from their new album, 21st Century Breakdown (with which I am fairly obsessed) and the second half was a free for all, with 3 songs from American Idiot, a few requests, and some all time greatest GD hits.

SET 1:
21st Century Breakdown
Know Your Enemy
East Jesus Nowhere
Before The Lobotomy
Last Of The American Girls
Murder City
Viva La Gloria (Little Girl)
The Static Age
21 Guns
American Eulogy (Mass Hysteria/Modern World)
See The Light

SET 2:
American Idiot
Jesus Of Suburbia
St. Jimmy
Longview
Coming Clean
At The Library (!!!)
80 (!!!)
Basketcase
She
Surrender [Cheap Trick]
King For A Day/Shout [The Isley Brothers]
Minority

I will post some of my best pics once I look through them, but for now I will put some links to some other site with awesome pics and reviews of the concerts:
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/05/green_day_webst.html
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1611789/20090520/green_day.jhtml
http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/05/green-days-live.html
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/green-day-celebrates-breakdown-with-nyc-1003974931.story