A Week of Certificates

I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but on Wednesdays for the last 14 weeks I've volunteered as a mentor for Streetwise Partners. It was grueling, but awesome, Streetwise is an amazing program. Last week our mentees graduated and even I got a little certificate--that was so nice! And...drum roll, please...
It's finally here!! It's official now, I'm a New York State CPA. Wow...hehehe.

Heat Wave

I finally had to get one. If this summer was mild like last year's I could have lasted...but 100 degree days are just not survivable without an AC. I'm glad I got one before Connor gets here...I was feeling a bit guilty about my plan to get him a fan and a bag of frozen peas. I'm not kidding.

Acadia National Park

This is the road outside of the Seawall Campground where I stayed this weekend in Acadia National Park, Maine. So this park is AMAZING. I had the best weekend ever here. It is incredibly beautiful and you would never run out of things to do. There is tons of hiking, but even better is biking on the carriage roads built between 1913 and 1940 as commissioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. The roads were intended for carriages so they are 16 feet wide and none are too steep or hilly and they wind around and up hills for 45 miles all over the park. They are really easy to bike on and the views are incredible. The little town in the park, called Bar Harbor, is very cute and there are some good restaurants, however the best lobster is in little shacks around the harbors. I would really love to come back to this park, many times over...it's so beautiful and there are so many fun things to do. Camping was a first for S, but he figured out how to set up our rented tent and really took to the outdoor life.
This is me at the Bass Harbor lighthouse that was built around 1850.

View from our table at Thurston's Lobster Pound.

This is me, about to tear into my lobster. Tip for next time, don't tear parts off. Just leave it whole and go for the claws and then rip the shell off the tail...but don't detach the tail.



Views from the top of Cadillac Mountain, it's the tallest peak on the Atlantic coast.

More views from the mountain. Those little islands are known as the Porcupine Islands.

These are some views from our hike up Acadia Mountain. The hike was tough! The book I have called it "strenuous," so I knew it would be challenging, but I was surprised...a lot of climbing up and down rocks. I got pretty sore by the end of the hike, it was about a 1.5 hour trip.

Also from our hike, this is the sound...the only Fiord on the east coast.

We went on a lobster boat our last day...this is me looking for seals.

Pretty neat sailboat.

Here are a couple bobbing around behind our boat.

This is our lobster-fisherman.



It was a keeper. You know that the smallest keeper lobster are about 7 years old? I was surprised by that fact.

Fireworks in Bar Harbor on our last night there.

I want a Girlfriend!

I saw this picture on design sponge and I thought, I want one of those! Why is it so hard to find a good girlfriend? Or, hm...is it just hard for me? I have a few requirements...must be smart, but not annoying about it, must like books, movies (nothing comic-book related though, please), food, coffee, wine, museums, galleries, shopping (but not a lot or on a frequent basis), music (not pop, however, I mean good stuff), bike riding, running, traveling. She also should be a positive, upbeat kind of person...also nice and a little funny. She needs to be good at driving because I want to take some weekend road trips and I don't want to drive. Must NOT: talk too much about herself, worry a lot about guys or dating, gossip about other people (a little is ok), be judgy, be poor (let's be honest, you can't have any fun in life without having some money to spend), be boring (that includes philosophizing about life--it's meaning, etc--snooze), be into Japanese anime--yuck, political (awareness and opinions are nice...obsessing, not), high maintenance, a poor listener. I think that covers it. Yep, that's about it. Is that a lot to ask for...I think not.

I Upgraded

I'm sad to say goodbye to my old Apple....it's cute and white and I remember the days when the battery lasted 6 to 7 hours....but 5 years later, I needed to invest in some new technology:

It's so pretty. I actually hate getting a new computer or a new phone or new anything where I have to learn how to use it again. But once I get past that, I'm sure I'll love it--no more old operating system which websites were no longer supporting. Even iTunes quit on my machine last year. I could have gotten the same quality of laptop for a couple hundred less, but HP instead of Sony...but they were hideously ugly. All the HP's had swirls or some checkers pattern on them....they were looking like snowboards. The track pad was reflective like a mirror. Who is buying those? I couldn't imagine anyone over 10 wanting that. Well, this Sony better last me at least 5 years too.

How I Spent my Rainy Day

So the weather was crap on Saturday. When it rains in New York, it RAINS. I met my friend Jenn for lunch at Co. I love this place. The pizza is a little expensive, but it's one of my favorites. I stick to the Margherita, just tomato sauce, basil and yummy, salty, buffalo mozzarella. The crust is what really makes this great, though. I like the atmosphere of the place, also...it's in Chelsea and it has big windows so you can see out onto the street and the place is casual with friendly service. The pizzas are small so we also split a salad which was really good, it had radicchio, sliced mushrooms, chunks of creamy taleggio cheese, and olive oil and vinegar dressing.


Then, we walked a couple blocks south to Billy's for cupcakes. I had a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and wolfed it down before I could think to take a photo. Well, we were already pretty soaked from our two block walk from Co. so we decided it wouldn't hurt to walk the 15 minutes to Stumptown coffee. Stumptown is located in the Ace hotel in midtown; both the hotel and the coffee place are based in Portland, OR. I wanted to check it out because I saw the pictures and thought the place was beautiful. You can see more, and better, pictures here.


And my coffee...just what I needed.


We crushed ourselves into a couple of seats in the lobby for a bit.
And then I was starting to get cold and feel really tired of being wet so I headed home. Here I am on the subway with the water wicked almost up to my knee. It was great to get home and throw those jeans onto the radiator and wrap up in sweatpants for the rest of the day. Ah, Saturday, you're the best.

Ski Trip

Here I am, standing. It's my best ski move.

S and I took a little ride up to Hunter Mountain, conveniently just two days before my last CPA exam! Honestly though, I needed the break. We'll see soon enough when I get my scores what the damage was (eek). I have boarded before, but decided to give skiing a try. I liked it better, except for the part where you can't get up after falling. It's seriously impossible. It was a pretty fun day. We got up there early and that was the only way to go. At about 9 am, the lines were hours long. It was like all of Manhattan was there for the day. The food was totally gross though. Next time, we bringin' sandwiches.

Hard at Work

Yep...this is how we do it, folks.

We Got Wheels (Temporarily)

S was excited to rent a car for his client for the next few weeks. We may get outside of the city for a bit on the weekends! His excitement dampened a bit, though, when the rental car company could only rent us this:

The Chevrolet HHR. Heard of it? Um yeah, we didn't think so.

Monica, Meet Early Mornings

Yaaawwn....Honestly, I'm going to probably fail at this...mornings are a real weak spot for me. BUT, I would like to try getting up at 6 a.m. every morning. I have some plans for that time...like running for 30 minutes. Eating breakfast at home instead of work. Flossing. Just kidding...I floss already, honestly...but, you get the idea.

We will see how this plan goes....no matter how early I go to bed, waking up before 9 am is always traumatic. This morning was day 1 and I managed 6:15, but I kind of had to do it today because I had an early morning work meeting. Well, time to wrap up...it's 7:30, almost bedtime.