Friday, March 26, 2010

List rewind: Learn more about wine

K and I started our blog a little late in the game and by the time it launched, I'd already crossed off a couple of my items. Because I'm proud of those accomplishments, and you're probably wondering what I did to cross them off, I wanted to share with all of you. Enjoy!

I'm starting to think that between my posts about cocktails, my love of gin and the copious amounts of champagne I drink all of you are minutes away from staging an intervention. To that I say "Cheers! I love drinking too much to give it up." Case in point is #11: learn more about wine. This was actually the very first goal I crossed off. And it's totally because it was one of my favorites on my list.
 
Like champagne, gin and pretty much all alcohol including moonshine, I love me some wine. It took me a while to get into it, but today it's rare to find one that I don't like. However, despite that love affair I know virtually nothing about it. Varietals? Legs? Tannins? What the hell are we talking about? I answered most of those questions and then some on a May 2009 trip to Napa with the hubby. We spent three glorious days touring vineyards, discovering that we do in fact like Merlot and getting pretty drunk.
 
But it was during all those tours that I learned a lot about grapes, the aging process, the difference between bottling wine and bubbly, and how to really use my palate to discover small nuances between blends and when a wine needs to open up and breathe. One of my favorite experiences was doing a barrel tasting at Pine Ridge. Tasting a young, aging wine before it's maturity was incredible. The trip was also a success because we managed to bring back 12 undamaged bottles of wonderful, amazing wine through airport security. This was by far the most enjoyable goal I've crossed off and although I'm not quite a sommelier ... yet ... am glad that this goal will continue to be a passion of mine until my liver gives out.
 

- B
 
Get 30 Before 30 Updates by Email

Friday, March 19, 2010

List rewind: Climb a 14er

K and I started our blog a little late in the game and by the time it launched, I'd already crossed off a couple of my items. Because I'm proud of those accomplishments, and you're probably wondering what I did to cross them off, I wanted to share with all of you. Enjoy!

I crossed off #2: climb a 14er on August 29, 2009 by climbing Torreys Peak (elevation 14,267 ft.) with K's husband and my husband. It was by far the toughest thing I've done off my list so far. #2 was added to my list because despite being a Colorado native, I'd never hiked anything over 10,000 ft. and I was going to be required to turn in my native card if I didn't climb at least one before hitting 30. 

Climbing it was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I never thought my legs could burn so much and there were easily 100 separate times during the hike up that I was ready to call it a day. But I pushed on and managed to summit just over two hours after starting, and it was an incredible feeling to look out across the Rockies and know that I was just about as high up as I could get.

I swore I wasn't going to go another one, one was enough thank you, but K added climb a 14er to her list and I want to share accomplishing that goal with her like she shared running the Bolder Boulder with me.

-B

Get 30 Before 30 Updates by Email

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Riddle me this...

Let me start with a little background information. I am not the type of person who meticulously counts calories or lives and dies by the scale. I generally eat what I want and monitors my weight through sporadic doctors appoints throughout the year. I have always been an active person and have been blessed with never having to really battle a weight problem.


With that being said when I turned 25 I went from having the figure of a boy (save breasts) to having things like hips and curves. Now, I do understand that I cant look like a 15 year old boy my whole life but I would like to not have things like muffin top and cellulite.
For the past two months I have been watching my caloric intake and exercising on a regular basis. To help increase my perception of accomplishment I decided to weigh in when I started this process. Thinking it has been two months I would do a check in on the scale and see how things were progressing. Minor heart attack when the scale said I have gained 9lbs. If that 9lbs was muscle I could rationalize it in my mind... but I assure you it is not.
So here's where I'm at now. For the last two months I have felt starving on days and I miss some of my very favorite foods. Do I stay the course and hope by being more diligent I will start to see the change I would like? Do I give up watching what I eat so I can eat and be happy but keep the gym routine going? Or do I just give up...
I started working on number 14 hoping to trim off a extra 10lbs, but now that 10lbs has doubled and it feels harder then ever to achieve my goal.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The cocktail to end all cocktails

During my romantic weekend in with the hubby I decided to tackle goal #19: create a signature cocktail or drink. Anyone who knows me would say champagne is easily my drink of choice. It’s what girlfriends gift me for my birthday, it’s what I get most excited about drinking and I think it’s symbolic of my personality: celebratory, sophisticated, a bubbly personality … and expensive .

Anyone who knows my husband and I would say that our signature couple cocktail are Moscow Mules. We’ve introduced many a friend to them either out at bars or at our annual holiday party. But vodka isn’t my liquor of choice, gin is, and ginger beer is hard to find.

But it seemed too simple to just choose champagne, how is stating something I know really meeting a goal? So the hubby and I hit up the liquor store and tried some combinations using my favorite tastes and liquor. The end result was ultimately representative of me, and something I plan on ordering as often as possible.

Pamplemousse Royale (pamplemousse is grapefuit in French)

2 oz. St.-Germain Liquor
2 oz. white grapefruit juice
Top with a brut champagne of choice (mine is Veuve)

We messed around with the amount of each part, and I think the above was the best combination. Mix it up a little to match your preferences and enjoy!

-B

Get 30 Before 30 Updates by Email

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Don't let it whoop ya

Reading 30 books is going to be one of the hardest things to complete on my list. Life of Pi almost whooped me. I started reading this book just after the first of the year after finishing two books I couldn't put down. Needless to say this was a book I had a hard time picking up. Part 1 was long... and hard. Though Martel makes some interesting points that made me think twice, it could have been about 20 pages long instead of 100. Part 2 was much better. Straight to the point and action packed. Part 3 was was hit or miss... I could have done without it. It was a cute story that made me laugh out loud in places... but not one I would recommend as a must read.

All in all I am glad I didn't give up on it. 

Monday, March 1, 2010

It was a big weekend!

Last weekend was spent crossing off a couple items from my list. It was so nice to cross them off the blog this morning, mainly because it finally felt like I was making progress. I’m going to blog about completing each item separately otherwise this post will become some sort of 12,000 word monster blog; exactly what everyone wants to read.

#27: spend a romantic weekend away from everything with the hubby

Originally I created this goal so the hubby and I would force ourselves to take a weekend out of our insanely busy lives and focus on spending time together and enjoying our relationship. After looking at finances and seeing six weddings on the calendar for this summer, not to mention that goal about getting out of debt, we decided to spend a romantic weekend at home away from family, friends and our phones to save some cash.

In my mind the weekend was going to be spent watching movies we’ve never seen, but feel like we should. Movies like “Casablanca,” “Roman Holiday,” and “Gone With the Wind.” We’d curl up on the couch and bond over classic romances, drink bottles of wine we had took home from Napa, and eat copious amounts of food.

In reality, our romantic weekend away couldn’t have gone more wrong. We signed up for Netflix so we could download movies cheaper than renting them and spent a large chunk of the weekend sorting out technical difficulties. We wanted to make homemade pasta for dinner on Sunday night; we ended up with big, dry piles of dough which we then had to clean up. We didn’t watch any classic movies, but instead spent most of the weekend watching the Tudors. I actually think this ended up better than forcing ourselves to sit through movies we’d probably hate. And, worst of all, I think we drove each other a little crazy and were anxious for the weekend to come to an end.

Oh we also had to leave the house, something we didn’t want to do, to attend a friend’s engagement party; fortunately we had a blast.

I’m a little disappointed that the weekend didn’t meet all of my expectations, but I still loved spending time with my husband who I continue to love deeply despite how much I annoy him and he drives me crazy. Also, if ever we want a romantic weekend away from it all we really need to go away so we can truly get away from it all. Netflix, chores and home cooking do not a romantic, relaxing weekend make.

-B

Get 30 Before 30 Updates by Email