I met up with Lee from In My Tummy the other night so that we could enjoy a few beers together and let our husbands get to know each other too. They both like really good beer, apparently, and that’s as good a reason as any to go drink some!

Aren’t they cute?

Some of these pictures are yoinked from her own account of the evening, check it out!

Anyway, on to the booze! We met at The Brick Store, which was crazy busy even for a Monday night.

I started off with an Allagash Curieux, an interesting beer that is aged in bourbon barrels, it actually retains a slight hint of bourbon flavor! I didn’t love it, there was something cloudy and waxy about it, still enjoyable though. Jeff had one of his usuals, Chimay Blue, which I love as well.

We we super hongry. I got a turkey sandwich with smashed avocado and a salad with basil dressing.

Jeff had the roast beef sandwich with more spicy mustard than is right for any one person!

I was eyeing Lee’s hummus plate.

After we were sufficiently fed we could move on to round two. I got the St. Bernardus Abt. 12 and Jeff switched to scotch.

There was a slight mix-up with our order and we ended up getting a free round in apology. It was super-nice of them to do that, but man we did not need those extra beers!

We had a great time talking about all kinds of stuff. A lot about blogging, of course, but much much more too.

It was a fun double date. I am always reminded that I should do this kind of stuff more often.

Thanks guys for a fun night!

January 19, 2011 Alayna Discussion 2 comments

You knew it was coming. It’s almost the new year, I’ve got to proclaim my intentions for it before it starts so I can be held accountable!

I really feel like this is my year. Last year was full of burden, both wanted and unwanted.

I had to plan a wedding in a short span of time and on a tiny budget because I was also planning a 2 week honeymoon to Japan, learning to read and write Japanese, learning how to quit biting my nails, learning how to work out, learning how to cook fancy things that weren’t also terribly unhealthy, trying to find a new place to live, packing everything we own, moving in 90+ degree humid weather, changing my name, adjusting to a new job then quitting said job after 6 months with no other plans all while Jeff made 2 job changes of his own that would mess with our health insurance which I desperately needed so I could get regular chiropractic adjustments to keep me from curling up in a ball in one giant cramp.

Woah! It feels good to let that all out!

So yeah, some of the best events of my life happened this year, but not without a lot of stress of their own. I’m hoping this year will bring many new things as well, but hopefully things that are less stressful.

Let’s start with my personal goals for the coming year:

-Attend a blog conference.

-Run another 5K, run a 10K, and THEN run either a 15K or half marathon. Yes, all of those!

-Do a lot more strength training.

-Lose the last few pounds I meant to tackle this year but got burned out on.

-Read many, many more books (got off track with reading last year.)

-Find a new place to rent that we could see ourselves in for a few years.

-Take another vacation overseas. Maybe Madrid?

-Get back on track with chiropractic care.

I also have some goals related to my blog. You should expect to see a lot of changes this year: new features and a more professional overall look. Here’s some of what I hope to achieve:

-Increase overall blog traffic by at least 200% (more doable than it sounds)

-Have a professional portrait session so I can appear on my home page and make a more interesting header bar.

-Make blogger business cards (I wish I had these all the time!)

-Monetize. (I’d have done this already but I’m still deciding on what company to do this through.)

-Do a giveaway or hold a contest.

-Ask for guest posts when I will be away for more than 2 days. Also feature some guest posts from Jeff on tea.

-Figure out and more clearly define what my blogging point-of-view is.

-Write some research pieces and talk more about food ethics and other political food topics that I am passionate about rather than just blogging what I eat.

I think I can do all or most of this stuff.

What are your goals for 2011? What would you like to see on this blog next year?

December 30, 2010 Alayna Discussion 3 comments