Down With the Update

Absurdly, I haven't updated my 101 in 1001 since July 13th. Here's the rundown:

2] Run 3 Marathons - I completed the Philly Marathon on 11.02.09. It was my second marathon overall, and my first towards completing three for my 101. I bettered my time from the previous year by almost 30 minutes, and my knee held up the entire time.
25] Paint a Room for Someone - In August we went over Brian & Dawn's new house for their Painting Party. Barb and I tackled the bedroom.
31 / 32] Do something charitable every Thanksgiving / Christmas - I totally dropped the ball on this and didn't do anything significantly charitable for the holidays. However, I allowed myself to make up for it by donating money to Haiti via the Red Cross.

41] Donate 100,000 Grains of Rice on freerice.com - Currently up to 30,200 grains of rice.

43] Donate a garbage bag filled w/ old clothes - Check. I can't believe some of the clothes I at one time liked and/or fit in.

49] Figure out my credit score - Check. Satisfied.

50] Save up for and buy an Apple computer - This one is tricky. I did save up enough to buy one, but then we were dumb-struck when we received one as a gift. I'm counting it as done.

54] Cook 50 Different Recipes - Done!
- Lime Basil Cous-Cous
- Moroccan Chicken Kebabs
- Grilled Pork Tenderloin à la Rodriguez with Apricot Glaze and Orange Jalapeno
- Burger with Red Bell Pepper and Feta Spread
- Chicken with Grilled Onions and Plums
- Greek Roast Chicken
- Southwestern Salmon
- Beet, Goat Cheese, & Arugula Salad
- Emeril's Oven Roasted Pork Tenderloin
- Corbi-Fein Brussel Sprouts
- Bacon Herb Wrapped Pork Tenderloin
- Broccoli with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Parmesan
- Lemon Glazed Sweet Potatoes
- Maple Glazed Spiced Carrots
- Weight Watchers Cheeseburger with Grilled Onions
- Beef and Vegetable Cheese Casserole
- Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms
- Lemon Grass Chicken and Noodles
- Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs
- Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
- Open-Faced Tuna and Artichoke Melt

55] Drink at 5 Different Breweries - 2 new ones, 4 out 5 done total.
- Dogfish Head. Amazing. The vintage 120 Minute IPA was memorable for sure.
- Pocono Brewing Company. It was OK. The brews helped nurse my newly fractured distal radius.

57] Maintain an herb garden for an entire summer - Done. It helped that I was pretty much laid off for the entire summer. It was nice to have so many herbs at my disposal. It definitely helped out grilling meat and amping up my omlettes.

58] Enjoy a glass of real spiked egg-nog (bonus: next to a fire!) - Done and bonus achieved with some local Pennsylvania Dutch egg-nog.

63] Learn the basics of a popular editing program - In September I was responsible for cutting together some casting videos and had a crash course using the Avid. I am no maestro, but I no virgin either.

65] Learn 5 "popular" (read: recognizable) songs on the guitar - 2 new ones, 4 out 5 done total.
- R.E.M. - "Man On the Moon"
- The Wallflowers - "Three Marlenas"

69] Attend 25 concerts / shows - I've missed out on a lot of good shows that have come through town but I did see a few. The count is now at 11 out of 25.
- Sunny Day Real Estate at the Trocadero
- Brand New at the Electric Factory
- Sainthood Reps at the North Star Bar
- Brian Fallon, lead singer of the Gaslight Anthem (acoustic show) - First Unitarian Church

72] Geek-out on iTunes #2: Give star-ratings to all of my unrated songs in iTunes - I have a few unrated right now, but at one point everything was rated. All 20,000+ songs, aka approximately 55 days worth of music. Booyah.

73] Compile a playlist of my favorite song each week for a year (each selected song must be new to me that week) - This was completed, and has since been dubbed "A Year In the Ear". If anyone's interested I'll send you a copy. Let me know. Additions since the last update:
- Crocodiles - I Wanna Kill
- Dinosaur Jr. - See You
- The Exploding Hearts - Modern Kicks
- The Rural Alberta Advantage - Edmonton
- The Big Pink - Dominos
- The Knife - Heartbeats
- Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - More News From Nowhere
- Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor
- Julian Plenti - Only If You Run
- Brand New - At the Bottom
- Girls - Lust For Life
- The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
- Comet Gain - Brothers Off the Block
- The Feelies - The High Road
- The xx - VCR
- Woods - Rain On
- Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension
- The Raveonettes - Gone Forever
- Best Coast - When I'm With You

78] Read 30 books by 30 different authors - I've had a major slow down with this one, but a few updates. Currently at 18 of 30.

- About.com Guide to Web Design - Jennifer Kyrnin
- Learning Web Design - Jennifer Niederst Robbins
- 33 1/3: Gentlemen - Bob Gendron
- 33 1/3: Murmur - J. Niimi
- Open - Andre Agassi <-- highly entertaining

86] Visit the West Coast - Unexpectedly done. It was a very last-minute thing, but I was sent to LA for work. Luckily it wasn't all business. I got to see my good friend and old college roommate, AJ, as well as experiencing a culinary tour de force thanks to Gerry and Carla. Check out the LA run down in this older post.

94] Photograph 5 sunrises in 5 different places - 2 of 5. An early call time on set out in LA generated this shot:
95] Photograph 5 sunsets in 5 different places - 3 of 5. AJ took me down to Venice Beach and I happened to catch this shot:
99] Visit 10 new places in our Philly guide book - 5 and 6 out of 10. I'd really like to concentrate on this more. F'real.

- The Ritz-Calton / 10 Arts by Eric Ripert. We ate at the restaurant, we didn't stay at the hotel. We went because we're huge fans of Top Chef and this is where Jennifer from the latest season works. We went while the show was towards the end of the season, before Jennifer was kicked off, and we didn't know if she'd be there or not. Barb can tell you she was, because as soon as I left to use the bathroom she walked out of the kitchen with her trademarked scowl.

- North Star - We got to see our friends Derrick and Cesco's new band, Sainthood Reps, here over the holidays. Check out their music!
This is long. I bet you didn't read all of this. Did you?

Los Angeles

At the end of January I was lucky enough to take a last minute business trip to LA. It was my first business trip and it was frustrating to not be able to handle it like a vacation. Normally I would have the entire trip planned and spend every wakened hour out and about exploring. Instead, I spent most of my time on set dealing with landscapers and setting up time-lapses. I can't complain though because I got to experience a plethora of amazing food and shared a baggage carousel with Andy Dick. When all is said and done, let it be known: LA is a ridiculously good food town.

Here's a list of where I got to eat, loosely ranked from my favorite to my least favorite:

- City Sip (great wine deals, great cheeses, stoned waitstaff)
- Kogi (Mexican style Korean BBQ served out of a truck whose location you follow on Twitter)
- The Kitchen (I'm embarrassed to boast about how ridiculous their turkey burger is)
- Soy Cafe (1st pho experience)
- Wurstkuche (snake sausage, truffle oil fries with curry ketchup)
- Malo ($1 taco night!)
- Bacon-wrapped Hot Dog outside of the Drawing Room (a dive bar frequented by Kiefer Sutherland)
- Lemongrass (really good appetizers, but I ordered off of the Specials and it was a tad under-seasoned)
- Vinoteca Farfalla (again, really good appetizers, but my short rib was not spicy like advertised, although it was remarkably tender)
- In-N-Out Burger (Animal Style. NBD)
- The Oinkster (I regretfully ate healthy here, but the goat cheese crouton was cool. Their pastrami looked nuts.)

... and this doesn't include all of the authentic Mexican places we ordered from on set. One word: "sopa".

And watering holes:

- The Dresden (yes, the 2 singers were there)
- Silverlake Wine ($4 wine tasting + free cheese. Somehow Carla noticed some New Melrose Place cast members. And I thought no one watched that...)
- The York (food looked/smelled really good, but only got drinks. Cool interior, nice local beers.)
- 4100 (darkest. bar. ever... good juke box)
- Formosa Cafe (I think this place is "known". Not sure.)
- Good (was OK. Large beer list, but nothing too crazy. Waiter was weird. And there's no bar, only tables)



"If patience started a band / I'd be her biggest fan" - Elliott Smith

Rules of Engagement

If slacking at blogging was skiing then I'd be first to the bottom of the mountain.

I'm not sure that made sense.

Well, the big news first: Barb & I are engaged! Woo-hoo!
Now, the 101 update:

8.) Get under 185lbs - I did. I'm currently at the 180 mark, which gives me some room to play with when it comes to #9 (remain under 185lbs). I'm not sure how to measure that because I think it's unfair that if I slip to 186 for a day it disqualifies the entire thing. Maybe I'll weigh in once a month and average it all out. Regardless, the first part is done.

35.) Send an (extremely weird, non-sensical) message in a bottle - I did. Over July 4th weekend Barb and I hosted Craig, Carla, Derby, and Erin down at her parent's place. At around midnight on Saturday, and a few drinks in, I whipped out my glass bottle, a pen, and a sheet of paper. I started the letter and proceeded to pass the note around in a circle until everyone added a few lines. I wish I transcribed it but I didn't. However, I know it included losing my virginity to the Beastie Boys, cherry picking, Neverland Ranch, and ended with "Dammit". Amazingly, we weren't lazy and walked down to the ocean and chucked it in for some very lucky person to find.

51.) Brew my own beer - I did. A few weeks ago I went over Jim's house and we went to the local home brew store. We picked out the ingredients we'd need for a nice Bavarian Wheat Beer and went back to his place to get started. I went back this past weekend to bottle it and can't wait for it to carbonate. Should be about 2 weeks before I tell you how good it is.

The Brewmaster himself:

54.) Cook 50 New Recipes - not quite there. So far I've made 38 out of 50, which is a tremendous pace. Being that some of these were made over July 4th weekend when I was in the midst of hosting / celebrating I got lazy and didn't bring my camera out. The real shame is not having a pic of the ahi because it featured the best damn grill marks I've ever made! At least I have eye witnesses.
Dijon Grilled Pork Chops:
Grilled Eggplant and Tomato:
BBQ Alaskan Salmon:
Corny Cous-Cous
Seared Ahi w/ Wasabi Vinaigrette over Baby Greens
Crispy Potato Cakes

62.) Re-learn CSS - I kinda did so I'm counting it. This was a goal of mine because I hope to go back to school for web design and/or programming. For those of you who don't know, CSS is a language similar to HTML that allows you to stylize and layout the content of your web site. It's like learning a new language, and is kind of tricky, but I would say I have the basics down. This past weekend I built our entire wedding site. It's currently not live, but once we confirm our reception site I'm going to post it.

65.) Learn 5 "popular" (read: recognizable) songs on the guitar - 2 of 5 - The Beatles - "Can't Buy Me Love". The chords aren't hard, but I'm terrible at deciphering strumming patterns. Luckily, I found the strumming pattern online and can play along to it now. If they posted strumming patterns along w/ every tab I'd be a happy guy.

73.) Compile a playlist of my favorite song each week for a year - added some more. This one always makes me realize how long it's been between 101 updates...
The Dodos - Fools
Don Lennon - Junior Year Abroad
Good Old War - Looking for Shelter
Maritime - Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts
Passion Pit - Little Secrets

78.) Read 30 books by 30 different authors - 2 more added bring the total to 13 of 30. I believe both of these were recommended by one Jennifer Scanlon, and coincidentally, today is her birthday. Happy Birthday, Jen!
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
Cormac McCarthy - The Road ... Honestly, this is one of the best books I've ever come across. I highly highly recommend it. Seriously.

94.) Photograph 5 sunrises in 5 different places - 1 of 5 done. I stayed up for the full 24 hours during Relay for Life and got the shot below. It's not the most stunning sunrise ever, but that's not part of the deal.
95.) Photograph 5 sunsets in 5 different places - 2 of 5 done. The first pic below is the sunset that came before the aforementioned sunrise. Again, nothing great but it counts. I'm also including a second one below it that I got on the 4th of July at LBI. It doesn't count towards my total because I already took one at LBI, but it's nice enough to include.
Some random photos from the past few weeks:

Kodachrome

Some recent shots that don't have frames:

Obey 101

Some 101 updating is due:

54. I have now cooked 32 out of 50 recipes (can you tell I burn through a ton of charcoal and enjoy the taste of corn?):

Spicy Grilled Chicken
Grilled Sweet Potatoes
Curry Grilled Chicken
Grilled Pork with Avocado Salsa & Campfire Potatoes
Summer Vegetable Medley
55. There's not much I enjoy more than enjoying a beer in a brewery. It's like drinking milk straight from the nipple. I tackled my 2nd of 5 breweries while in Boston last week. After walking approximately 9 miles we stopped in to the Boston Beer Works outside of Fenway. Now, I know this falls on the wussy side of the beer line, but I went with a Watermelon Ale. I had to. I had never heard of such a thing, and I'll admit it was damn good and refreshing.
73. 3 more songs of the week... I can't believe I've been hacking at this list for more than half a year already...
Phoenix - 1901
Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire
The Church - Metropolis

75. I didn't report on this originally because I didn't even realize I did it, but a few months ago I checked out the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Contemporary Art in Philly with Shu and Sheila. This past week, when I went to visit Jackie and Chris in Boston, we checked out Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. It was pretty awesome because they had a Shepard Fairey exhibit entitled "Supply & Demand." Shepard Fairey is the guy behind the iconic Obama image seen everywhere during his campaign for President. They had the original on display, plus tons and tons of his "Andre the Giant Has a Possse" work. Yes, the same guy is behind both. It was a terribly inspiring and crushing exhibit to say the least. So... 75 = 2/5.

101. I was so close to fulfilling this one that it hurts. Damn you Ian Toth!!!!

Thank you Jackie.
Thank you Chris.
Thank you Dave, for driving.