February 2012

Feb

28

#59 Complete: Loved and Bid Farewell

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Resolution: Love Where You Live

Despite the occasional mice and fist-sized spiders, Patrick and I’s first place together is pretty rad. Sadly though, we’ve been mad at it since the summer because we live on a beautiful, peaceful lake and we’ve worked too hard to appreciate it. We thought, “well, since we work so much, we should live somewhere relaxing”. True, somewhat.

Don’t get us wrong. We love the work we do. Like, LOVE it. But you know, it takes up a lot of time running a business. That means less swimming, fishing, and fancy parties.

So anyway, it might look like it’d be easy to “love where you live” when you live on the water, but there’s a sadness when you haven’t used it to it’s full potential.

The point is, we’re moving now. Saving for a destination wedding and planning an elaborate honeymoon means we’re gonna nomad it out for a little while to get everything in order. We’re anti-credit card, so while other couples might throw it on the plastic, we’re determined to pay cash. Luxury sacrifices for a lack of future debt sounds pretty good.

Coincidentally, our landlord was showing our apartment for the first time to people today, so we really got to thinking hard about how we won’t be living here much longer. All the cleaning, throwing-away, and donating we’ve been doing to empty the house out in preparation for eventual moving out finally hit us. We’re really gonna miss this place.

And thus, we love where we live.

Feb

27

Why We Love Hiking

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I’ve never wanted to climb a mountain, I still don’t.

One of my fondest memories as a kid was playing man-hunt in the woods down the street from my house. My friends and I would wake up at six in the morning in the summertime to scout out new positions, build new forts, run around and be crazy nine year-olds. We’d spend the whole day in the woods. It was glorious. As I’ve grown up, hanging out in the woods has become a distant memory, Until recently.

A successful diet means you need to accomplish 2 things: Eat less crap and start moving your body more. As king-couch-potato, I’m really good at sitting in front of the computer working all day. Once you’re in “the zone”, getting up to get the blow flowing isn’t always possible. So about three weeks ago, Amanda (who spent a lot of time in the woods as a kid too) suggested that we go for a hike in the woods. Honestly, it wasn’t my first choice of things to do, but it was a beautiful day out, so why not?

After about a hundred yards into the woods, all of these emotions came flying into my head. Thoughts about my childhood, the memories of walking in the woods with my parents on Sunday afternoons; It all clicked. This was something that my life was missing. Being outside, not in front of a computer, I felt like I could relax. I let my mind wander.

When we got back to the car after that first hike we both felt electrified and yes, a bit sore. Since that day on we’ve gone on at least two hikes per week. We’ve explored different parts of Rhode Island and heck, we’ve even lost weight. As much as this post is about how much we like hiking, it also about reconnecting with something from your childhood. For me it was reconnecting with the outdoors that I loved so much as child.

Make a special effort over the next month to reconnect with an activity from your childhood, and if you haven’t tried hiking yet, try it out. Maybe even throw in a little Geocaching for fun.

Feb

25

#56 Complete: Went Hiking, Planned Soup Parties

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Resolution: Stretch Your Legs and Go Hiking

Today should have been a little cheat-ey for us because we’ve taken to hiking like chubby kids to cotton candy (we’re chubby so we’re allowed to say that). However, on Valentines Day Patrick and I took a hike that was a bit.. erm.. optimistic. As “beginners”, we chose a pretty treacherous trail that lasted about 90 minutes too long (ok it was only 90 minutes in total) but felt more along the lines of 7 hours. It was only 3.5 miles (mostly uphill and climbing, wah, wah, wah) but felt like 7.

My point is that we were still a little broken up about that hike. Is there such a thing as post-traumatic stress from hiking? If there is, then I’m self-diagnosing. We’ve got that.

So since that day we’ve been taking the familiar trails. And we’ve been remembering water and protein bars too.

In honor of this resolution, we went for the gold again. No 30 minute trails this time. This time we hiked for two hours, 3.6 miles. Here’s a link to our GPS-tracked trip and photos along the way (which doesn’t seem to work in Chrome).

And if you’re a regular hiker maybe you think we’re a couple of wussies, but if you saw us rolling our tubby butts around the woods like a couple of champions you’d be impressed too.

So in Weetamoo Woods in Tiverton, RI, starting at Pardon Grey Reserve (which has the neatest little cemetary) we took off. The white trail, then the yellow trail, then the green trail, and the red trail, then the blue trail and back to the yellow trail and the white trail. We conquered that mutha*.

The best part is really that long the way we discovered new places we hadn’t found before. For example, on the yellow trail there’s this giant cliff of rocks with this awesome cavernous tree in the middle of it. We’re thinking of having a soup lunch there one afternoon. Perhaps planing a wine-bottle geocache in the trunk of the tree. All things to ponder.

Further in, there’s a place called “High Rock” in between the yellow, green, red and blue trails. This rock is like a city. It’s freaking huge, bigger than a house. So, again with the soup date.

In any case, winter hiking is awesome. I hope it stays cold longer honestly because there’s just something so divine about keeping cool while exercising for 120 minutes straight.

Feb

24

iPhone Dolly Shot

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Feb

20

Why We Love the MacBook Air

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I was brought up with Apple Computers from birth. The highlight of summer vacations as a child was going to Macworld in Boston and New York. I met Guy Kawasaki when I was 12 years old. I remember Apple’s dark times and I’m astonished at all the wonderful things they have created in the last 10 years. With that said (and my obvious bias), one family of Apple products has made such an impression on Amanda and I that we’d say they are finest computers we’ve ever used/owned. If you don’t own a MacBook Air yet, consider one. We have two.

Yes, these are laptops and not a desktop computers, so they do have the advantage of mobility over their bigger desktop brothers. With the MacBook Air I have the true mobility of a fully functioning computer. We have three MacBook Pro’s in the house too. They are excellent, high performance laptops as well, but they weigh a ton. When I’m carrying Amanda’s 17″ Macbook Pro, I feel like I’m smuggling gold bullion through customs. It’s so damn heavy that it’s difficult to lift it up with one hand.

My 13″ Air weighs just under 3 pounds (Amanda owns the 11” model), so you can easily pick it up with one hand. It performs all the major functions that I need to run my digital life. I take it everywhere. I’ve owned an iPad but I found myself not using it after I bought my Macbook Air. They are both exquisitely built and exemplify Apple mantra of “making really good stuff”.

If you’re in the market for a new computer, swing by your local Apple Store. Spend sometime with the Airs. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a better laptop experience. They don’t have CD drives (the one drawback for some people) but in the year we’ve owned ours, we haven’t needed a CD drive even once.

Feb

13

Why We Love the MyFitnessPal App

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Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal - MyFitnessPal.com

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Amanda & I are engaged. I know, you can’t believe it. It’s OK I’ll give you a minute… With our wedding planned for next year we’ve decided we should lose a few pounds before the big day. We know that diets suck and your motivation can get drained easily. Luckily Amanda & I can be each other’s accountability partners. So what kind of diet are we doing?

Being business owners, we tend to work on our computers too much. We don’t get enough exercise and end up eating way too much of the wrong foods at all the wrong times. So we’ve embarked on a strict low calorie diet. We weren’t really sure whether or not this type of diet would work for us (vs. the slow carb diet, raw diet, etc.) but based on personal experience and preferences, this made the most sense to us. And honestly, it’s been great. We just completed our third week and we’re down 10lbs and it honestly hasn’t been that devastating.

Since we’re analytics nerds, counting calories and exercise is actually fun!

However, we probably wouldn’t have gotten through week 1 without a really great tool to help keep track because documenting everything you eat is a must. The week before we embarked on our diet I found this free app for the iPhone called Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal. After about an hour fooling around with it I knew it would be perfect tool to make this diet a success. And honestly, it’s probably the only reason we’ve been able to stick to what we’ve been doing.

You tell the app how much you want to lose, when you want to lose it by, and how much you weigh now. You also tell it how active you usually are, and how much exercise you plan on doing. From here it tells you how many calories you should be consuming every day in order to hit your goal weight. And when you exercise, it takes into account your current weight which is also important in order to tell you how many calories you’re really burning since the heavier you are, the more calories you burn.

This app takes the hassle out of calorie counting too. Set your daily calorie limit, add foods as you eat them and track your weight and measurements as you go along.

The best, most fantastic feature of the app is the food database, which is constantly being updated by users like yourselves. Chances are you won’t need to enter the exact contents of your meals because someone has already eaten and tracked them for you.  Even the menus of fast-food no-no’s like McDonalds are in there.

My favorite part of the app is the ability to scan the barcodes of items into my daily food journal as I eat them. The app automatically pulls in the nutritional information for the food item. It saves so much time and makes tracking a breeze. Here are a few other features you’ll love:

  • Track and send messages to friends (it’s community-based, like Weight Watchers without the meetings)
  • Track your exercise routines (it will calculate how many calories your burned, and how many more calories you’re allowed to eat when you’re done)
  • The app has a companion website, which you can access from any web browser
  • Advanced privacy settings, so you can pick and choose what information you want to share
To top off the awesomeness, the Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal app is free. Yup, FREE.
Are you on a diet? Let us know how it’s going in the comments. Which apps or tools are helping you lose weight? Discussing weight-loss plans is like arguing politics, so feel free to tell us what’s working for YOU, regardless of what the latest fad-diet is out there.

 

Feb

11

#42 Complete: Got Lost, Multiple Times

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Resolution: Go Left When You Should Go Right

The truth is that it snowed and was fa-reezing out, so we had to complete this one a day late. To make up for it we got lost twice instead. First, we went hiking in the blistering cold. We forgot the map, we followed trails, chose different ones on a whim, and tried our best to get lost. And we did, but not lost enough. So to make it more fun, we got lost in the car too, deep in the backwoods of RI. Honestly, it was pretty great. We saw some giant, ridiculous houses with indoor swimming pools and five-car garages.

It led to a discussion about what we’d have done if we were the Rhode Islander who won the Powerball. Personally I’d pay off my absurd student loan bills that cost more than my rent, and then just be happy to be working to put money in my own pocket, not those scoundrels at Sallie Mae. From there I’d start a group home and just be happy doing that for the rest of my life. And traveling, lots of that.

Pat decided he’d take out a little, buy us a house, get us traveling the world, and throw the rest in investments.

Obviously we’d do the usual.. take care of anyone who’s ever taken care of us, donate to a cancer foundation, etc. But mostly, we’d just keep on’ keepin’ on.

I’m sure everyone says that, but I’d rather cut my right arm off than carry a designer handbag so I honestly don’t know how I’d spend it. Traveling and really good health insurance, those are my top two.

Feb

08

#39 Complete: Sent a Birthday Card to My Dad

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Resolution: Send a Birthday Card

I admit, I cheated. I wanted to send a nice birthday card to my dad this year, so I planted this one here. However, the reason why I recommended TinyPrints in my original post is not because they pay me to recommend them or anything, but because I loooove sending custom cards, especially the ones with photos in them. So thankfully this resolution landed on the last day I’d be able to send one in order for it to get to my dad on his birthday, February 11th.

And below is the text message I received after he checked the mail and got my card. Followed by his next-day disappointment that he wasn’t getting the birthday gift he hoped for.

In any case, SORRY ABOUT THE POWERBALL, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Feb

06

Why We Love Aveda’s “Comforting Tea”

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Aveda Comforting Tea

I’ve been an occasional tea drinker for many years, however, I never fell in love with one. Around Christmas, Amanda bought the “Comforting Tea” bags from Aveda after tasting in the store, and promptly buying them for everyone she knows. First let me say that this is not a morning tea. It contains no sugar or caffeine. It’s really meant to be sipped when you want to relax.

Well my friends, this tea is simply amazing and totally mellows you out. Since we work on computers all day, we can get pretty tense and some days it’s hard to unwind at the end of the day. This tea helps us relax and get into sleep mode. For me, getting into sleep mode is a big deal, that’s why Aveda Comforting Tea Bags are a life changer.

Tasting Notes:

  • Watery Start
  • Sweet sugary mid palette (it doesn’t contain sugar)
  • Lemon zest and sugar finish

This tea reminds me of a hot toddy without the whiskey and minimal lemon taste.

Try it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Patrick H.

Feb

05

#36 Complete: Loved a Bottle of 2007 Eaglepoint Ranch Petite Sirah from JC Cellars

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Resolution: Drink a Glass of Fancy Red Wine

For this very special occasion, we broke out our favorite bottle of red wine.

The 2007 Eaglepoint Ranch Petite Sirah from JC Cellars in Oakland, CA smells like bacon and tastes like smoked meats. It’s perfect. It’s the wine to which we compare every other Syrah/Sirah and may even be responsible for my personal love of red wine.  It’s not too expensive at $45 bucks a bottle, and as a wine club member I can tell you that Jeff Cohn and family are good people. And they ship to Rhode Island, which is pretty rare.