A Year in Review

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? I'd never been a "Best Lady" in a wedding, and I have to say, it was a pretty awesome experience. Getting to be a part of a wedding ceremony is cool, and even more awesome when you love and are totally excited for the couple getting married.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't make resolutions, but I do make yearly lists, like this one, and last year's list was a bit of a wash, actually. I'm hoping to do much better this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friend Lori, in Ohio! The cuteness is killing me!

 4. Did anyone close to you die?  yes, my Nana.

5. What places did you visit?  I visited friends and family in Rhode Island, went to Chincoteague Island in Virginia. I also spent a lot of time driving back and forth to New Jersey.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? A better sense of purpose and direction. Some answers for questions I've been asking myself for a long time.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I am bad with dates. but I've had several snippets stand out- Katie's 30th birthday, Weddings, Watching my little cousin turn one. People coming to visit me in Baltimore,  starting the quest for the best burger in Baltimore.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  I adopted a cat! and he's awesome. and bitey. I also catered two bridal showers, which was a lot of fun.

9. What was your biggest failure?  Not making very many positive changes in my life that I've wanted to.  On many levels.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Not really- a few colds, some dental stuff, but mostly I've been good.

11. What was the best thing you bought?  My Macbook, for sure. It rocks.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All the cousins and friends who got married this year! I can't help it, I'm a romantic sap. I love weddings. 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I try to not get too appalled and depressed at other people's behavior. I can't think of anything right now that I was appalled enough to put on this list. I may come back to it.
 
14. Where did most of your money go? Rent. Food. Cat expenses.


15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?  Porkapalooza, baking contests at work, Chincoteague. Menu planning for the two wedding showers.

16.  What song do you associate with 2009? That's a tough one. I think anything by Sara Barrelles will probably remind me of this year. I've been listening to her a lot.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?  sadder
b) thinner or fatter?  Fatter
c) richer or poorer? poorer
(note to self: fix this for next year. yeesh)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I'd read more. I knocked about eight books out on vacation, but I am not reading as many books as I would like to.


19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Staying in my apartment when I could be out doing things. there is life outside my apartment!


20. How did you spend Christmas in 2009?  With the family, in New Jersey.


21. Did you fall in love in 2009? Nope, not even close, sadly.


22. What was your favorite TV program? I think it's a three way tie between Glee, Modern Family, and How I Met your Mother.


23. What did you do for your birthday in 2009? I think I went to see Whip it with Katie and Lisa.


24. What was the best book you read? I really liked Paper Towns by John Green

25. What did you want and get?  A shiny, red Kitchenaid stand mixer! Thanks Santa!


26. What did you want and not get? I want an ipod touch. however, I know that I have a perfectly fine working ipod classic, and do not NEED an ipod touch. Still, though. want.


27. What was your favorite film of this year? Julie/Julia was pretty good.


28. Did you make some new friends this year? I did!


29.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I'm not sure. Someone to share it with, I think.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? heh. I do not have a personal fasion concept.

31. What kept you sane? Talking to Potter and Jack on gchat, mostly.

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? The cast of Glee. I love them in my heart.

33. What political issue stirred you the most?  I think the issue of marriage equality- Yays in DC, Iowa, and Vermont- Boos for Maine, New York, and various and sundry other states. Keeping my fingers crossed that good things happen in New Jersey.

34. Who did you miss? I missed my Nana, very, very, very much. I also missed my aunt. We had a lot of joy this year with my family, but a lot of sadness too- and them missing it made me ache sometimes.  This Christmas especially, the first one without my Nana, was especially hard.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.  Sometimes, the only way out is through. And progress doesn't happen overnight.

Tom Cruise

I'm going to write about the Snowpocalypse and taking Earl out in the snow tomorrow. Today has been watching a lot of youtube videos, crocheting, and making things that are tasty. 

I've watched this one approximately seventy billion times.



Watch it.

Jimmy's

*I'm trying to find the Best Burger in Baltimore want to know more? Click here.

I'm beginning to understand the maxim "you can't judge a book by it's cover" because I freqently make judgements (in a food snobbery way) about some of the places on our list. One of those places was Jimmy's. I had been there before (in fact, Julie and I went there for Baltimore Over Easy) and I had liked it then- solid diner food, decent scrapple, no frills, and inexpensive. Julie and I had made plans to meet in Fell's so we could do some Christmas shopping and get a burger to cross one off the list, so we thought that we might as well do Jimmy's.

It was pretty empty on the Wednesday night we were there, which meant that the service was fast. We ordered the Jim Dandy Burger, which was a 1/2 lb burger with your choice of cheese and toppings. I got mine with American, pickles and mayo.  I ordered the burger medium rare, and it was truly medium rare, which is nice.  Frequently I think that shops are a little gun shy with medium rare, and I end up with more of a medium burger. Julie ordered hers medium, and it was a little on the medium well side. The burger was really really good. The meat was seasoned well, the bun stood up to the meat- soaking up the juices from the burger.

  

The fries were from frozen, but they were cooked well, and were nice and hot. The price point was excellent- about seven bucks for a burger, fries and a soda. The moral of this story? Don't be a food snob- the best burgers come from unexpected places!

It's a solid #2- Jennings is still holding tight at the first spot- but if I'm in Fell's and I want a burger, this is where I'm going.

Cupcakes!

So another one down on my list of cupcakes! These cupcakes (which sidenote, cool picture, right?) are gingerbread with chocolate chips in them and cream cheese frosting. I had the chocolate/gingerbread combo about a year ago, and I really liked it.

So a success! my co-workers certianly enjoyed them.

Overheard at Panera

When I have time off and I want to work on writing projects, I come to Panera. Aside from the delicious shortbread cookies, they have free wireless.  So I sit and sip and eat and work, and crazy stuff happens. in the past few months I have seen:

- Multiple Job interviews

- A breakup  (so sad)

- A woman valiantly trying to sell some Amway products to a confused looking blonde woman.  (More than once!)

-A guy pitching what sounded EXACTLY like a pyramid scheme where a guy was talking to two women about it. They were SUPER into it. The way the guy was describing it, it sounded like a cult. When I see these people, I just want to go to them and be like, you know this is a bad idea, right?

- A kid completely work over her mom, alligator tears and all, to get her to pick up dinner from Red Robin, because she did not like where the mom and dad wanted to go for dinner.  (seriously? If I had tried to pull that crap, my mom would have said "fine then, I hope you like being hungry"

- Kids that were very obvoiusly cutting school, and had loosened their prep school ties and tried to generally disguise themselves as not school cutters. Note to them: it might help if you weren't wearing your school uniforms, still.

The Contender

For more about Best Burger in Baltimore, click here

Jennings Cafe is a fairly unassuming, local place on frederick road in Catonsville.  I did not have high hopes for this place, because having lived just outside of catonsville for two and a half years, I've never thought to go in this place.  I made a judgement bcaus it looked like a small, local place, a bar that also served food. Which I assumed would be mediocre to bad.

I was wrong.  Well, not about the bar and the food part, that part's true.  The food there is fantastic, and I was really happy with everything that we ordered.  We started with the crab dip (as has become our tradition)  and it was awesome:

The dip was hearty, with a good amount of crab, a little kick from Old Bay seasoning, and was what is best about traditional crab dip. Julie especially wanted me to mention how awesome the bread was, warm, with a crusty outside, and a soft, yielding inside.

After we were mostly finished with the dip, they brought our burgers. both of us had ordered them medium rare, and they came to the table with bun off, ready for adornment. Mine came with a pickle, and mayo on the top bun, Julie's with lettuce, tomato, and onion. I added some kechup (from an actual glass bottle! Extra ten points for real glass bottle)

I took the first bite, and I knew that we had a serious condender for the title of Best Burger in Baltimore. It was by far the best of the three we've had, Julie and I agreed.  The meat was cooked perfectly, seasoned just right, and there were no extraneous spices to compete with the flavor of the beef. It was pure beef,  melting in with the cheese to create a great burger.  The only criticism that I have (and it's a small one) is that the size of the burger could have used a slightly heartier bun. The bun was good, and fresh, but it was a little on the small side. But all in all, a fantastic burger.

The burger comes with chips, or you can upgrade to fries for a dollar, which we both did. The fries are from frozen, they were hot, and salted well.

We finished our meal with dessert- not something we usually do, (because we are usually too full from burgers) but Jennings Cafe makes all their desserts on site- and you can tell. Great, homemade tasting Coconut cake, and chocolate pudding pie.   I would go back just for the coconut cake, which was soft, and moist, and covered in delicious coconut flakes.

I will be back to Jennings Cafe. 

Jennings Cafe
808 Frederick Road
Catonsville, MD 21228-4505
(410) 744-3824

List update!

22. Get my camera fixed

Done!  Through the Magic of the Mail, the awesomeness of Canon Repairs, and me finally getting off my butt to get my camera fixed, it's done!

To celebrate, here are some pictures of Earl.*

* I fully know that crocheting a hat for my cat makes me a Crazy Cat Lady.  I crocheted him some booties too, but he wouldn't wear those.

Ten things that are making me happy right now

1. Crossing items off my 28/28th list
2.  Homemade Stock.
3. Awesome Welcome Winter party this weekend
4. Iron Crow Theatre Company
5. Pictures of my cute 15 month old cousin seeing santa
6. Day off later this week (what what, thursday!)
7. Camera being fixed
8. Tim is blogging!
9. Chicken corn dogs from Target (surprisingly tasty and awesome!)
10. Creme Brulee Latte from Starbucks- they probably have a million calories, but they are really good

What's making you happy right now?

Randomness and updates

One of my favorite people on earth is now blogging! Tim is awesome, and you should go and check out his blog right now! Do it! He's also doing a 26 in the 26th list, which I think is awesome.

I did facepainting for a work event yesterday, where staff brought their kids in for a holdiay party. And i'm not gonna lie, when the sleigh bells started jingling and Santa came in, I had a moment of  eeeeeeeeeeeee! SANTA! It passed, after a second, but I think it is funny, that even at 28, the draw of Santa is paramount.

It's supposed to snow tonight, which on one hand (eee! snow!) but on the other hand, I don't need it to get crazier at work.

My christmas present crafting is waaaaaaaaaaaay behind schedule.  I'm glad I have a comp day this week so that I can get stuff done. Day O' Crafting, Here I come!