$5.94 - yogurt parfait and coffee from Starbucks

$12.69 - prescription, yogurt and diet Coke

$18.08 - happy hour with emma at E&C

Total = $36.71

$1.69 - diet Coke

$13.62 - drinks at Elephant & Castle, now open directly beneath our office -  dangerous!  

$23.50 - two tickets to see Origins: Wolverine on Friday.  I am so excited!

Debt Update

Current remaining credit card debt: $2,837

Expected payments: $900 in May (regular payment), $900 in June (regular payment), $700 in June (security deposit from apartment), $337 in July (remainder of debt).

SO CLOSE!!

$99.20 - BWI-BOS roundtrip ticket for June 20-29!!

BIRTHDAY

Friday birthday happy hour with friends at Stetson's ended with an epic Red Sox win over the Yankees and the coolest birthday cake ever.  We drank lots of pitchers and some oatmeal cookie shots and my very nice and very generous friends picked up the whole tab ($0). After Stetsons, a smaller group of us went to The Blaguard ($20), Bourbon and finally Tom Tom for some hilarious late-night dancing followed by some serious pizza noshing.

Saturday was a slow-to-get-started day, but eventually Emma, Wallis, Alexis, Ross, Sean and I all made it to Cantler's in Annapolis for delicious crabs, mussels, clams and shrimp ($45.07).  After our epic meal (and some more birthday cake), we chilled at Ross aand Alexis' for the rest of the night ($5 on icecream sandwich and soda water).

On Sunday afternoon, Wallis and I walked to the zoo, stopping for iced coffee on the way ($4).  After the zoo (FREE!) we went to Lebanese Taverna for a very relaxed and pleasant afternoon nosh ($30.55), then listened to me on the radio (!) and then headed over to Alexis' to watch the final Sox-Yankees game -- SWEEEEEEEP!!! ($46 - beers and food).  Wallis and I headed home around midnight, sleepy but very satisfied ($2.35 - Gatorade).

Epic birthday weekend: $152.97

Video Killed The Radio Star

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103509103

$12 - added to Metro Smartcard to get to the Board Meeting in Crystal City

$9.80 - 6-pack Longhammer IPA (I had a beer before NPR came over to my apartment to interview me about being a 20-something with credit card debt and about this blog!)

$18.60 - Camel Lights, an empanada and $10 for Zoe from a cab loan from last week (I smoked one and gave the rest of the pack to Zo)

$25.20 - dinner at Tamarindo with Wallis (yay!), Alexis and Ross

Total = $65.60

$1.35 - bus to work (I think it will never stop raining)

$9.08 - CVS

16.33 - drinks with Emma at The Bottom Line

Total = $26.76

The elusive zero dollar day strikes again!

It's a depressingly infrequent occurrence.

$27.50 - 2 Twilight books (augh, embarrassing, but they are addictive) and Little Heathens (to make myself feel more intellectual)

$12.50 - monthly pledge to WAMU

$5.49 - lunch from Sandella's

$112.95 - Trader Joe's (I cannot control myself in that store)

Total = $158.44

$5.97 - Washington Post, orange juice, milk

$13 - takeout from Mr. Chen's with Alexis and Caitlin

Total = $18.97

$11.98 - 12-pack Miller Lite 

&

$13.97 - coffee and sandwiches from Starbucks (Ross requested beer and sandwiches while watching Alexis play lax Saturday morning/afternoon, it was his birthday)

$20 - drinks at Medieval Times

$40 - drinks at Stetsons and The Blaguard

Total = $85.95

$4.68 - coffee and a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks, it was one of those mornings . . .

$27.64 - take out dinner from Nooshi

Total = $32.32

$25 - to the District of Columbia for taxes.  I filed weeks ago, do you think they'll notice that I just now paid?

$8.25 - Remember The Alamo salad from the brown bag

$47.25 - Medieval Times reservations for Ross' b-day on Saturday

Total = $80.50

$5.50 - five . . five dollar . . five dollar footlong! sandwich from Subway on my way to hear Handel's Messiah at the movie theater (recording of King's College Choir this Easter; it was beautiful!)

$48.93 - cds from BMG (they're closing and having super sales, I after recently getting TV on the Radio's new album, Dear Science, I want more new music!).  So, I got: Sugarland - Love On The Inside, Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Morning, Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song, Keith Urban - Greatest Hits, Ryan Adams - Cardinology.  I am in a country kind of mood!

$78.77 - groceries from Harris Teeter, to make tilapia fish cakes, salt crusted fingerling potatoes and coconut cupcakes, all Martha Stewart recipes.  The fish cakes were "eh", but the potatoes and the cupcakes were delish!

$8.75 - ticket to see Adventureland (filmed in the amusement park in Pittsburgh - Kennywood, and had a cameo/extra role by my childhood best friend's little brother-hilarious!)

$36 - dinner and drinks at Mandu with Alexis, Ross, Sean and Clay

Total = $44.75

$4.86 - oatmeal and coffee at Starbucks

$14.79 - Netflix subscription (watched in the last month, in order of awesomeness: Rachel Getting Married, The United States of Leland, Friday Night Lights Season 2, This American Life Season 1, Greenfingers.  They were all really good!)

$33.03 - happy hour drinks & nachos with Emma, Agnes and Patrick

$46.00 - delicious micro-brews with Emma at Galaxy Hut

Total = $98.68

$50 - copay at dentist.  I really like my new dentist, and I really hate my dental insurance.  Also, I have 4 cavities, but two are in one tooth, so really it's like, 3, right?

$31.53 - dinner and lots of drinks at The Bottom Line with Emma -- fun fun fun!!!

Total = $81.53

$4.24 - Ricola cough drops, kleenex and floss (I am sick and have a dentist appointment tomorrow.  yech.)

$6 - cab from work to home to pick up the CD that had all the work on it that I'd done over the weekend which I had forgotten when I left the apartment this morning (Happy Monday :P)

$20 - two weeks worth of Tim losing more weight than me (I lost just a pound, but am not feeling too bad about it since I was on vacation for a good chunk of that time.  Next week I will win!!)

Total = $26

$124.10 - groceries from Harris Teeter (some day I will go there and spend less than $100; my excuse this time is that I bought $13 environmentally friendly light bulbs, a Brita filter, and olive oil)

$25 - doctor copay

$10 - prescription

$11.97 - Honey Nut Cheerios and Raisin Bran and milk from 7-11 (I had a serious cereal snack-attack craving)

Total = $46.97

San Fran Trip Day 3

So on Friday morning, Ian woke up early-ish and went to the gym (how he managed that after our 14 mile walk . . well, that's Ian :), and I slept in and then got some coffee and a lox bagel and went to Dolores Park to read the paper. Ian met me at the park and we checked out some thrift stores in the Castro; I was on a mission to get a new hoodie, but couldn't find the right one, I think truly great hoodies are generally "borrowed" from other people.

After thrift-shopping we drove to Little Luca, and had what had to be two of the world's largest and messiest sandwiches. They were DELICIOUS, but afterwards we thought we were going to explode. Then we drove almost to the top of San Bernadino mountain, scrabbled our way through what may or may not have been off-limits terrain, to very top, and enjoyed a beautiful clear view of all of San Francisco . . .

. . . while being irradiated by the 6 very large radio towers that we were standing right next to.

Next we headed across town to Coite Tower, where we were hoping to climb the 21 stories to the top of the tower to burn off those sandwiches, but the stairs were closed so we rode the elevator to the top for another beautiful view of San Fran and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Afterwards we walked down the hill behind Coite Tower, which is where the wild parrots live (from the documentary The Parrots of Telegraph Hill), and where there are some of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen. The whole hill is covered in private gardens, but there are public "streets" (which are actually wooden walkways and stairs) that you can walk up and down the entire hill. As we walked around, flocks of parrots flew back and forth over our heads, it was magic!

After the gardens we headed back to Ian's apartment for a couple hours of R&R, then got a drink at the 500 Club, and then met up with Ian's friends, Matt and Heather, at Elixer. We stayed until close and after stopping for pizza, headed home to bed happy and tired!

$2.79 - shipping and handling for free CD from BMG (Dear Science - TV on the Radio)

$5.94 - Drain-O and a can of chick-peas

Total = $8.73

San Fran Trip Day 2

Ian and I were both up by 9:30am or so, we got coffee at Ritual (Ian's favorite coffee place), and then croissants at Tartine (Ian's favorute croissant place), they were both outstanding! We hung out in Dolores park for a bit and enjoyed a cookie, and then walked over to Golden Gate Park, where we ran across a couple of lawn bowling courts, and struck up a conversation with the very nice retirees who were playing that day (they let us take some pictures too!)

Next we went to the California Academy of the Sciences, where we spent most of our time in the aquarium section, which was SOOOO COOL! Ian took some great pictures, and overall I was just in awe!

After the aquarium we walked through a couple of different San Francisco neighborhoods and saw some truly spectacular houses; we ended up in Crissyfield Park by the bay, where we had about an hour to lay around and rest our tired feet.

Next we walked over to the North End to have dinner with a Ian's friends, Matt and Heather, a very nice couple from PA! We sat outside at a lovely Italian place and enjoyed some very refreshing beers and delish pasta. After dinner we all went to Beach Blanket Babylon(they had won free tickets in a pub quiz the week before). BBB is a San Francisco tradition, and is basically like a crazy acid trip cabaret show.

Ian and another friend, Larry, and I then took a cab to the Castro (thank goodness no more walking!), stopped for a couple drinks at Moby Dick's and ended up at the 500 club in the Mission, where we ran into a friend of ours from Oberlin! After a couple more drinks, Ian and I headed home with very tired feet but happy hearts and heads! The next day we figured out we had walked 14 miles all over the city!

$12.51 - drinks (margaritas!) and dinner (quesadillas!) with Emma (yay Mexican happy hour specials!)

San Fran Trip Day 1

On wednesday, Ian picked me up from the airpot around 2:30 in his very nice Honda Civic, we dropped my stuff off in his very nice 1-bedroom apartment in NOE Valley (it's on a hill, so I don't know why it's called a valley, but whatever.)  We picked up fish tacos from a delish taco place near his apartment and took them to Dolores Park, a beautiful park near Ian's apartment with a fantastic view of the city.  We decided to drive to Point Reyes to watch the sunset, and took some very funny pictures on the beach.  It was super windy, but so cool to see the huge (to me anyways) waves crashing on the beach, and watch the sun set into the fog.

For dinner we went to Plant Organic Leaf Cafe (or something like that), a veggie-focused cafe that was super delicious.  We had wasabi veggie burgers and split a salty chocolate caramel tart -- so good!

On the way back to Ian's we stopped by Twin Peaks for a night-time view of the city.  Again, incredibly beautiful and also very windy!

Stay tuned for Day 2 tomorrow, where we walk 14 miles all over San Francisco!

Sunset Day 1