23 skidoo!

Wee! I've turned 23!

Thanks to the amazing Sig O we are now the proud owners (not the temporary borrowers) of a Wii!!! Andrea reminded me that my mom can send us the Miis we made months back, something I totally forgot about. Now I have to find a good karaoke game (sorry sweetie) and I lurve the boxing that comes with Wii Sports so maybe Punch-Out would be a good investment. And that Wario game I can never remember the name of... and maybe MarioKart.... I'm so excited!

As if that and several other goodies weren't enough... last night Mr. Sig O told me we had plans and surprised me with a trip to 10 Tables in Jamaica Plain, a tiny restaurant with only - you guessed it - 10 tables. We had the vegetarian tasting menu - four courses of the chef's own choice and it was divine. Lots of the produce is locally sourced, too!

I like this 23 thing. So far, soooo good.

Just finished two very good and very different books - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti. Olive Kitteridge is so well spun and I find myself wanting to reference it when I talk to other people about their life in New England, and I can't wait to read it again in a few years - something I rarely consider when I'm reading. The Good Thief reads like a fairy tale for adults - the child's point of view gives the dingy world of the story a magical quality.

Now I'm psyched for my parents' visit this weekend and the Sox game Friday night - can't wait!

holy MOLY

TGIF!

I made a bucket full of oatmeal raisin cookies this past weekend because SOMEONE doesn't like butterscotch chips and said he'd prefer RAISINS. Now that the week has passed and I'm the one who ate the whole bunch, I'm going to make sure next time I bake, I'm doing it for ME!!!!!

And I'm gonna make these. So THERE.

It's Friday and I'm lovin' the capslock, can you tell?

Must read

I need this book:

Success!

Yay for small victories - Second Time Around took nearly ALL of the clothes I wanted to consign! I had convinced myself they wouldn't take a single thing and would laugh at my castoffs like some awful retail version of Mean Girls, but my anxiety was unfounded. The appointment was a delight and now I can't wait to track the sales on their website.

Fall is in the air and the sun is being fickle, so it's nearly time for the days when I can start cozying up to a book with a cup of tea. Can't wait for leaf-peeping season and cider and apple picking... hopefully we can get some more use out of our fireplace!

In the meantime, I'm going to unabashedly profess my love for this dress - it make me feel like Lydia from Beetlejuice. It looks great in my freshly pared-down closet - and looks even better on ME: And my mom taught me well - I refuse to buy anything full price: it was my purchase from Anthropologie with my birthday month discount. That reminds me - I need to make sure my Starbucks card is registered with my birth date so I can claim that free birthday drink. Vente chai latte here I come...

And my parents are scheduled to visit from Buffalo the first weekend of October! We're planning on catching the Sox game against Cleveland - I can't wait!

Bring it back

I'm bringing back Comedy Tuesday in all its lackluster-titled glory - especially since I need a laugh after last night's game ... the Bills were THISCLOSE ....... ack!

Septemberiffic

I'm so anxious about my consignment appointment tomorrow! I hope they take most of what I bring and I'll be so embarrassed if they determine that my duds are, well, duds.

The good news is that if they don't take anything I found out that the Garment District also buys clothes (for 35% of their determined selling price) - and gives cash up front! And if all else fails, good ol' Goodwill will get a dazzling array of what I like to call the Kate Drop-Off Collection Autumn 09.

About Boston Cares - I'm going to sign up for my first volunteer event with my coworker, so I'll have a buddy to go with! I'm really psyched!

In other news, 2010 is just around the corner and I feel that no one has addressed a major problem - we still have nothing to call this decade. How will we refer to the past? Please don't say the 2000's - because we'll be living in the 2000's for the next, oh, THOUSAND YEARS. I vote for the "Oughts" but am open to suggestions.

To-do lists

I was all set to write a post about how great my Labor Day weekend was when I peeked back at my last post: I did NONE of what I'd planned for...

But I did have a great weekend. Margaritas and nachos on Friday (the happy hour of champions) and Saturday was great: slept in, got a manicure, and met one of my jet-setting friends for lunch at Petit Robert Bistro in Kenmore - YUM. We later went out for Thai at Rod Dee where I've discovered that my love affair for peanut sauce is alive and well. Side note: this is great as it confirms I have officially recovered from Food Poisoning June 08 - aka Kate's First Day On the Job (Now With Stomach Flu!). Heh... ew... Still reading? Grand!

That night we hopped out for drinks at the Enormous Room in Central where the eclectic crowd vies for the award for Strangest Scene Ever. Something about the MIT bachelors and the Central hipsters made for an odd mix of Trying Too Hard/Trying Too Hard Not to Try Too Hard. Moody's Falafel capped the night, of course.

The next morn I watched Baby Mama...in what will probably be my last dose of cable TV for quite some time. Last year I foolishly signed up for a Comcast triple play deal and bottom line: we pay TOO MUCH for premium channels we don't watch. After (drum roll please) a whopping two hours on the phone with various reps (eye twitch) I was able to downgrade our service to lower our monthly rate without incurring a fee for breaking the contract. Good news? Lower monthly bills. Bad news? No more impromptu Amy Poehler fixes on lazy weekends and I now have to catch all my Project Runway on justforwomen MyLifetime.com (ooh, but they do have that super fun Build-a-Mall game!). Sig O has promised to explore online/video feed options.

After a decadent buffet lunch at Tamarind Bay (ate there with Kara and her parents and it's now one of our fave Indian spots!) we wandered out to mini-golf on Route 1 where I won by a tremendous amount. Because it is my blog and I can lie if I want to. Retail therapy, er, celebrations, followed at Target. And then we had sushi with yet another jet-setting friend.

Ok ok I'm done telling you what I ate this weekend. Yesterday we gave the house a good cleaning and organized a bit, and I need to prep a bit more to consign a bunch of clothes. We also gave the bikes a good workout around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. And then I had tart yogurt. Oops, I mean, I didn't.

Tomorrow? I'll probably eat some more... oh right nope I'm doing an orientation at Boston Cares so I can start signing up for volunteer opportunities. One of my coworkers recommended it and has loved it, and the schedule offers so many options it'll be hard to choose where to start. Hopefully more on that later!

All a-Twitter

Okay - I'm officially obsessed with Twitter. I love it more than rainbows. I love it more than bunny rabbits. I love it more than cupcakes. Don't make me go on.

The news feeds, the topical stuff (GMail down zomg!), the celeb brilliance (much love to @LevarBurton), I want it, I need it, I crave it.

I've been following Favrd for a while now, and love pretentious Twit Wit in all its abbreviated glory.

It's overwhelming but somehow completely managable to follow dozens of active groups posting about restaurant deals, free events, local artists, etc... Especially now that I'm spending the first weekend in Boston since... mid-July? I don't even know anymore.

What to do?! So many options! Willy Wonka in Smell-o-Vision is showing tomorrow night in Inman so that's a possibility... I wanna get in a good bike ride (and it's supposed to be great picnic weather, maybe we could ride to Volle Nolle on Saturday, pick up awesome sandwiches, and eat in the Commons) ... And I've been meaning to get to Drink for ages. And SLEEP. SLEEP IS GOOD. Also, on to do list: watch Inglorious Basterds without fainting.

Is it Friday yet?