<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"><channel><atom:link rel="hub" href="http://tumblr.superfeedr.com/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"/><description>I love tennis, soccer, Brooklyn, cooking and baking, dreaming about traveling, photography.

Sometimes I like to pretend I’m really fit, like when I ran a half marathon last year. But mostly I just workout so I can eat more.</description><title>Titles Are Overrated</title><generator>Tumblr (3.0; @maggiemaggio)</generator><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/</link><item><title>Four 5-Sentence Book Reviews</title><description>&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#8217;s what I&amp;#8217;ve been reading over the last month or so. My reading list, including what I want to read, what I&amp;#8217;m reading, and what I&amp;#8217;ve read can be found &lt;a href="http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/books"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="the-bolter-cover by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902925911/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6060/5902925911_014e14577b.jpg" alt="the-bolter-cover" height="479" width="316"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bolter-Vintage-Frances-Osborne/dp/0307476421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1309829252&amp;amp;sr=8-1"&gt;The Bolter&lt;/a&gt;: I really enjoyed this book about the slutty, infamous, and fabulous &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idina_sackville"&gt;Idina Sackville&lt;/a&gt;. The author is a descendant of Idina and while at times it can seem like she&amp;#8217;s boasting about her family, the slight annoyance is absolutely worth it. The story goes from pre-World War I England, to World War I France, to Africa, and then occasionally back to Europe. There is a ton of history and recognizable names woven in, but this particular story was completely new to me. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in British history, colonial Africa, or biographies of fascinating women.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="espn_those_guys_hvae_all_the_fun_2011_a_p_0_0 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903484570/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6008/5903484570_accc988054.jpg" alt="espn_those_guys_hvae_all_the_fun_2011_a_p_0_0" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Those-Guys-Have-All-Fun/dp/0316043001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1309829478&amp;amp;sr=8-1"&gt;Those Guys Have All the Fun&lt;/a&gt;: As a huge sports buff I&amp;#8217;ve been excited for this book to come out for a long, long time. Luckily I was not at all disappointed by the 700+ page book. The book is full of stories, most of which I didn&amp;#8217;t know anything about, from the father and son team that started ESPN to the billion dollar negotiations for Monday Night Football. Oral history can be a bit challenging to read and there were definitely times I wished for a bit more explanation, but overall I was very pleased. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in media history, sports, or even business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="maine by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903484618/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5116/5903484618_c9b0f90458.jpg" alt="maine" height="450" width="301"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Maine-J-Courtney-Sullivan/dp/0307595129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;s=books&amp;amp;qid=1309829651&amp;amp;sr=8-1"&gt;Maine&lt;/a&gt;: I have no idea what to say about this book, I can&amp;#8217;t say I disliked it, but I also can&amp;#8217;t say I liked it; mainly I just found it incredibly frustrating. It is supposed to be about the different generations of women in one family who call go to a summer house in Maine. Which is what it&amp;#8217;s about, but rather than being about what happens to them that summer I would say 90% of the book is spent explaining what happened in the past, leaving the other 10% for the present. But nothing ever really happens in the present; there&amp;#8217;s very little character growth and there&amp;#8217;s no definitive ending. That said, it&amp;#8217;s a very well-written book and the women&amp;#8217;s stories are, for the most part, compelling; I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened, I just wish that something had actually happened.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="the-help by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902926111/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5071/5902926111_ea69cf6d99.jpg" alt="the-help" height="500" width="330"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Help-ebook/dp/B002YKOXB6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1309829854&amp;amp;sr=8-3"&gt;The Help&lt;/a&gt;: I don&amp;#8217;t know if there&amp;#8217;s anything I can say about The Help that hasn&amp;#8217;t been previously said. I resisted reading it for a long time, but after reading about the movie in Vanity Fair I decided I had to give it a shot since I thought the movie looked good and I always like to read books before I see a movie. I really loved the book, I love the south and I love history and who doesn&amp;#8217;t love a story of women from different backgrounds coming together to fight injustice? Kathryn Stockett is a great writer and she really made the women come alive through their voices and their world come alive through the descriptions. If you&amp;#8217;ve resisted reading this book I highly, highly recommend picking it up.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And if you haven&amp;#8217;t seen it here&amp;#8217;s The Help movie trailer:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WbuKgzgeUIU" frameborder="0" height="286" width="450"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And here&amp;#8217;s my five-sentence review of the trailer: It seems too happy! The book is fun, but it&amp;#8217;s also really serious. These women put their own lives and their families in grave, grave danger. Hilly Holbrook wasn&amp;#8217;t some silly menace, she was a serious threat to these women&amp;#8217;s lives. I really hope the movie is more serious than the trailer, otherwise I&amp;#8217;m going to be very disappointed.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/7248578715</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/7248578715</guid><pubDate>Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:58:07 -0400</pubDate><category>books</category><category>book review</category></item><item><title>The Month of June</title><description>&lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;#8217;t posted on here since the end of May. That&amp;#8217;s not good. I feel like my life is better when I sit down to reflect upon it, which is really what I view this Tumblr as. So, without further ado, I give you my June 2011.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A great trip to Boston to visit my friend Natalie.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5457 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5804034942/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2682/5804034942_f2e8ca2883.jpg" alt="IMG_5457" height="500" width="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Highlights of the trip include visiting a very cool bar called &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=2&amp;amp;ved=0CCUQFjAB&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yelp.com%2Fbiz%2Fmeadhall-cambridge&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=meadhall&amp;amp;ei=O1sSTp7eGcXYgQfyganiDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGXaH-2rDmD4NpCppIOpDI_0bQAmQ&amp;amp;sig2=Zh7LMZcGSGO16sEles89Hw&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Meadhall&lt;/a&gt; with 100s of beers on tap, walking around Harvard Square,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0264 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902708227/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5077/5902708227_52291205d8.jpg" alt="IMG_0264" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Natalie being asked to take an Asian tourist&amp;#8217;s picture, going to the USA vs. Spain soccer game,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5347 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802547602/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3641/5802547602_9b586bb298.jpg" alt="IMG_5347" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5351 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802011061/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2221/5802011061_8cc8777200.jpg" alt="IMG_5351" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5354 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802026243/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3553/5802026243_61e5d9ab6b.jpg" alt="IMG_5354" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5408 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802902960/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5111/5802902960_9d018070eb.jpg" alt="IMG_5408" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5403 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802852272/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/5802852272_450f185319.jpg" alt="IMG_5403" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5402 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802846902/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2294/5802846902_ec1b0e01df.jpg" alt="IMG_5402" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5467 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5803191754/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/5803191754_a12ebc1d2c.jpg" alt="IMG_5467" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5475_2 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5803938906/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2424/5803938906_24624de4c8.jpg" alt="IMG_5475_2" height="500" width="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5480 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802679803/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3127/5802679803_023e2d694c.jpg" alt="IMG_5480" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5504 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5803352680/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3302/5803352680_033a609925.jpg" alt="IMG_5504" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5534 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5803459774/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/5803459774_a371502aa1.jpg" alt="IMG_5534" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5554 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5802975081/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5802975081_aa14ffea1d.jpg" alt="IMG_5554" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5622 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5803741306/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3401/5803741306_620228b3ca.jpg" alt="IMG_5622" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;and attending a delicious dim sum lunch with some fellow Mount Holyoke grads.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Next up a walk along the Highline the following Friday&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0279 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903152156/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6009/5903152156_89d335e325.jpg" alt="IMG_0279" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0281 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902593669/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5199/5902593669_d66f2c38a3.jpg" alt="IMG_0281" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0283 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903154782/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5159/5903154782_8a402fd0c3.jpg" alt="IMG_0283" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After the Highline we went to the &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0CB4QFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehighline.org%2Fthe-lot&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=lot%20on%20tap&amp;amp;ei=q1sSTueTOdTAgQf_6cD3DQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGxMEIvxNt5bTRGH_2xoWQqZctacA&amp;amp;sig2=69p54hPMS7LS4UnLAtCITA&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Lot on Tap&lt;/a&gt; and had &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CCAQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rickshawdumplings.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=rickshaw%20dumpling&amp;amp;ei=zFsSToHRE5ScgQexoOXkDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNG8J-UIz4UpBUo9__H2vN__CrRFug&amp;amp;sig2=Cdyw-FSFbrNMwhTVSzp1eA&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Rickshaw&lt;/a&gt; and spent a gorgeous Friday afternoon outside.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The next day I took my mother out for lunch at &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CB4QFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blossomnyc.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=blossom%20nyc&amp;amp;ei=9lsSTs3PCI-SgQeky6HRDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHfR_7LBh0byyvPBM9YZLsQ0fSfJQ&amp;amp;sig2=UBF4ZnqAbskrkWqAINg5WA&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Blossom&lt;/a&gt; and then we went to see &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0CEwQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anythinggoesonbroadway.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=anything%20goes%20broadway&amp;amp;ei=CFwSTo_FLY6RgQeJpYTcDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNEnrtiCqK-pQyKP2sKD5hE95YQ90w&amp;amp;sig2=OQKGix_VUgbXSEohuZbVDA&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Anything Goes&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="AnythingGoes-Poster by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902733901/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5078/5902733901_0747444a31.jpg" alt="AnythingGoes-Poster" height="430" width="305"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#8217;ll admit I can sometimes be a bit cynical about musicals but I thought Anything Goes was very good. The performances were all great and it&amp;#8217;s just a really fun time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After that my friend Laura and I went shopping for supplies to make hats for our friend Elisa&amp;#8217;s wedding celebration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0289 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902597905/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5071/5902597905_bb775f2a14.jpg" alt="IMG_0289" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And then we made hats.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0293 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903159066/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5077/5903159066_4aeab849af.jpg" alt="IMG_0293" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That Tuesday I attended the Mount Holyoke Club of NYC&amp;#8217;s annual meeting at the Harvard Club.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0300 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902600615/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6016/5902600615_aca5423a07.jpg" alt="IMG_0300" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0303 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902602753/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5274/5902602753_338f506a78.jpg" alt="IMG_0303" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I have to say that the Yale club was a much nicer space and had much better food.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That weekend was Elisa&amp;#8217;s wedding celebration which was great. Our hats went over really well and everyone had a great time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0314 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903167990/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5080/5903167990_78dc862c14.jpg" alt="IMG_0314" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0326 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903173388/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6057/5903173388_84600290b2.jpg" alt="IMG_0326" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0328 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903174424/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5316/5903174424_80eb9c7791.jpg" alt="IMG_0328" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0325 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903172632/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5119/5903172632_8544f734c3.jpg" alt="IMG_0325" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The following Wednesday I was off to Texas for work. I flew into Amarillo Wednesday, had some fun wasting time, and then had a good meeting Thursday morning.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0336 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902622017/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6054/5902622017_fc9b054c14.jpg" alt="IMG_0336" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After my meeting I drove the 6 hour route to Dallas.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0337 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903184582/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5159/5903184582_d8170fafe2.jpg" alt="IMG_0337" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0339 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903182762/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6017/5903182762_b39c441e68.jpg" alt="IMG_0339" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0340 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903183204/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6020/5903183204_a2f2214208.jpg" alt="IMG_0340" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I have to say, as lame as it sounds, it was a hell of a lot of fun. I pretty much just drove through nothing and I loved it. About every 30 miles or so I would come to a town that had one traffic light, a gas station, a Dairy Queen, and a smattering of other buildings.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0342 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903184116/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5191/5903184116_9833fd4376.jpg" alt="IMG_0342" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I passed a few interesting places were I wanted to stop for lunch but being in the middle of no where I wasn&amp;#8217;t sure how safe it would be. I eventually stopped at &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=4&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CDIQFjAD&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tripadvisor.com%2FRestaurant_Review-g55619-d1873036-Reviews-Jackson_s_Steak_and_BBQ-Childress_Texas.html&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=jackson%27s%20Childress%20tx&amp;amp;ei=Z1wSToX9N8LTgAeBnN3-DQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFm1u7QRD6pdEcxVZHB0iDTsPnDZA&amp;amp;sig2=0oIvNkdVMdt59JBp1g_jfg&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Jackson&amp;#8217;s&lt;/a&gt; in Childress, TX (home of Lou Dobbs!). My brisket and onion rings were great and super cheap.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Extra special highlights include driving through Memphis, TX, home of the 1991 football state champions (like in Friday Night Lights!)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0343 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903185050/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6006/5903185050_401af66321.jpg" alt="IMG_0343" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;and seeing freight trains.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0341 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902623829/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6035/5902623829_38242178bd.jpg" alt="IMG_0341" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I know my love of freight trains is weird but I grew up on Long Island so I never got to experience the crazy long train thing. I also did a lot of singing along to country music. There are an incredible number of songs about loving Texas, missing Texas, and being in Tennessee because all your exes are in Texas.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The only bad moment was when I figured I would wait until I got through the &amp;#8220;city&amp;#8221; I was driving through, Wichita Falls, to get gas. I don&amp;#8217;t know why I thought it would stay city/suburban-like. But it didn&amp;#8217;t and I had a panic that I&amp;#8217;d run out of gas. But I found somewhere to stop.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0348 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903189000/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5038/5903189000_858b576e9c.jpg" alt="IMG_0348" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They also sold western clothes and had tons of showers for truckers. And were in the middle of no where. It was super windy also, I think I my skirt might have flown up and flashed some truckers!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I finally made it close to Dallas where I passed the Dallas Motor Speedway&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0351 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903187730/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5313/5903187730_1226157a24.jpg" alt="IMG_0351" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;and things started to get a lot more city-like.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0352 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903188082/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5120/5903188082_ee5b49aaf8.jpg" alt="IMG_0352" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I checked into my &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CDIQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.magnoliahoteldallas.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=magnolia%20hotel%20dallas&amp;amp;ei=tVwSTr-lGY6SgQeHyuSKCQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFjcybFcZu0FM7YTQwGoJ_fCFdZOQ&amp;amp;sig2=2T6eld9n7ZiIL2Er2WOA1A&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;very nice hotel&lt;/a&gt; in Dallas and immediately headed to their complimentary beer and wine happy hour.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0354 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903190278/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5152/5903190278_4ee45871af.jpg" alt="IMG_0354" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I only intended to have one glass of wine but when I finished my first a second magically appeared so of course I had to drink that too.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After the wine I headed out in the heat to see the &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CBsQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jfk.org%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=texas%20book%20depository&amp;amp;ei=0FwSTq2AApORgQecwbHpDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFtnSWbJ3bCn1_00p9ZHkkOsFctow&amp;amp;sig2=rlFpYFUFXDT0k83UJXoVZA&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Texas Book Depository&lt;/a&gt; which was a short walk from my hotel.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0361 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903191714/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5159/5903191714_d1136a9f31.jpg" alt="IMG_0361" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was obsessed with Jackie Kennedy as a kid so this was really exciting to me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0365 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903193082/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6012/5903193082_5d12d4a2f9.jpg" alt="IMG_0365" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0362 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903193946/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5195/5903193946_88f589c682.jpg" alt="IMG_0362" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0366 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902635883/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5232/5902635883_e1fe2e323b.jpg" alt="IMG_0366" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0368 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903196008/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5120/5903196008_92101a49c2.jpg" alt="IMG_0368" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I finished there (the museum was closed) I used Yelp to find &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CBoQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citytaverndowntown.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=city%20tavern%20dallas&amp;amp;ei=91wSTszNA5StgQeol-HfDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNG2VQV0iySFkWYp8JcywNZ7ph1YzQ&amp;amp;sig2=ZFVWeQypT5cujmhRqIPv1A&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;a really great bar&lt;/a&gt; to eat. They had an amazing selection of beers, very good food, a great band, and fun people to talk to.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After staying out much later than I intended I woke up feeling a bit worse for the wear on Friday. But I headed to the Dallas Market Center to work all day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0371 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903195244/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6016/5903195244_9776a177b2.jpg" alt="IMG_0371" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I love southerners. I honestly think Dallas is somewhere I could picture myself living. It was hot as hell, but I was really surprised with the liveliness of the downtown and everyone I met was great.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately I still wasn&amp;#8217;t feeling so great Friday evening (I think a combination of the heat, dehydration, and maybe a smidge too much alcohol Thursday night) so I headed back to the hotel around 5pm and took an hour nap. I still didn&amp;#8217;t feel great and my plans ended up falling through so I just went to bed around 7pm.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I woke up Saturday morning feeling great and spent the remainder of my time in Dallas at the Market Center.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I left Dallas Saturday evening and made it back to my apartment in record time after landing in Newark.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I spent Sunday walking around Brooklyn with friends&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0377 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902639425/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5196/5902639425_ddc62815dd.jpg" alt="IMG_0377" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0380 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903199640/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6014/5903199640_c0eeb7b461.jpg" alt="IMG_0380" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;and I tried a great new ice cream place called &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CB4QFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amplehills.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=ample%20hills%20creamery&amp;amp;ei=Ql0STq7lFczdgQfF1uHzDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNEiROvQX0ZnFokyKeC5-xybyO9fOg&amp;amp;sig2=ZEuMunyhKQXUfGt9atNqBw&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Ample Hills&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Monday night I went to Cincinnati night at &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=2&amp;amp;ved=0CCEQFjAB&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edwardsnyc.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=edward%27s%20new%20York%20city&amp;amp;ei=Vl0STu7TAczqgQeM25jQDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHeIQStZSs7Jl9QFN6UxIkHuSTpLg&amp;amp;sig2=2O70EyRARdRkCHGxjtj--A&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Edward&amp;#8217;s&lt;/a&gt; and enjoyed some of my beloved &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=4&amp;amp;ved=0CFoQFjAD&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.skylinechili.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=cincinnati%20chili&amp;amp;ei=bF0STpuFFondgQf-q_j3DQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHqnoWh2RFwTmZkdWwFrBMu-kASgg&amp;amp;sig2=9JA882g0_MoFFoAGdQxa1g&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Cincinnati chili&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CB8QFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graeters.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=Graeter%E2%80%99s&amp;amp;ei=gF0STo-jLYfpgQeZrujRDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFdhQE1LE1x8b39l4B8skzq61C5dA&amp;amp;sig2=3okFdW6DURk9xGKoCPiDrg&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Graeter&amp;#8217;s&lt;/a&gt; ice cream.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0383 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903202500/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5280/5903202500_25a68a364f.jpg" alt="IMG_0383" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thursday night I went to the &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CBUQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cooperhewitt.org%2Fexhibitions%2Fset-in-style%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=van%20cleef%20and%20arpels%20cooper%20hewitt&amp;amp;ei=n10STpvyL8-RgQelr8XnDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHvZaK1aXbUrRIWmU6DJzspJBGOHg&amp;amp;sig2=AgOWBh1pSVvxWrKxWEcBhg&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Van Cleef and Arpels&lt;/a&gt; show at the &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0CCkQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cooperhewitt.org%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=cooper%20hewitt&amp;amp;ei=uF0STo-sBsT3gAe6itmHDg&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFUGQlkKV25hosCPt32m2-6HUepNw&amp;amp;sig2=4dqDtxl-Ao7D9AFHhJ0tzg&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Cooper Hewitt&lt;/a&gt;. They have a garden party on Thursday evenings so we sat outside and had wine and I had a chicken skewer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0385 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902642359/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5195/5902642359_a34f308ccb.jpg" alt="IMG_0385" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Friday afternoon (I know we&amp;#8217;re in July now) I headed out to my parents&amp;#8217; house. I ran a bunch of errands because my friends Maria and Tim were coming to stay Saturday and Sunday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately my parents&amp;#8217; oven and stove (it&amp;#8217;s brand new!) broke that night, but I still managed to make a &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CBUQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eatliverun.com%2Fblack-bean-quinoa-and-citrus-salad%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=eat%20live%20run%20black%20bean%20quinoa&amp;amp;ei=0F0STunxJ8v2gAelornhDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGu0ff4AToE1AlVhJeSReh9_Xs8Bg&amp;amp;sig2=PwqNVdX8pGLW0QRASl0lGw&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;quinoa, black beans, citrus salad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I watched the women&amp;#8217;s Wimbledon final and Maria and Tim arrived Saturday afternoon. We hung out on my parents&amp;#8217; patio for a while before we figured it was late enough for parking to be available at the beach. It was a perfect beach day and we stayed for about 3 hours.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That night my parents&amp;#8217; barbequed and we hung out drinking beers and watched the USA vs. Colombia soccer game.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The next day, despite the overcast weather, we headed to the beach. Even though it was chilly we stayed for quite a while. It was nice because there were very few people around.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After that we headed back to my parents&amp;#8217; and then they headed back to the city via a quick stop for all of us at TGI Friday&amp;#8217;s.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Monday morning I was up early to head to the beach. Even though it was bright and sunny at my parents&amp;#8217; house it was hazy at the beach.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0390 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902645573/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6032/5902645573_da9cd36fbb.jpg" alt="IMG_0390" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0391 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5903205318/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5075/5903205318_009c9c6cdc.jpg" alt="IMG_0391" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0396 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5902648031/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6017/5902648031_45b8c0b2fd.jpg" alt="IMG_0396" height="500" width="373"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I thought the haze would burn through, but it just became foggy as the day went on. I stayed, freezing, for about three and a half hours before I called it a day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After a quick stop at 7-11 (the Coke slurpee wasn&amp;#8217;t working!) I headed home to eat lunch, and watch the recorded men&amp;#8217;s Wimbledon final.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I spent the rest of the afternoon on my parents&amp;#8217; patio and then took the dogs for a walk with my dad.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And now I&amp;#8217;m posting this and relaxing before I head back to NYC tomorrow.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wow, that was long! Happy Fourth of July! A special thought to everyone serving overseas and their families!&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/7246726037</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/7246726037</guid><pubDate>Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:48:27 -0400</pubDate></item><item><title>Beaching It</title><description>&lt;p&gt;I made it to the beach!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I really love being close to the water. I love the sand, I love the smell, I love the sound. And I consider myself incredibly lucky to have parents that live by the beach.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, I do not love the people. Which is why I get to the beach early, when there&amp;#8217;s no one around.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5773397480/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/5773397480_74f2010494.jpg" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5772882839/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3560/5772882839_397655438a.jpg" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5772897699/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2076/5772897699_de189b1ed9.jpg" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5772908589/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3572/5772908589_79161ed2d8.jpg" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I never felt like it got too crowded today. A few big groups set up around me (really, if you see someone quietly sitting alone and there&amp;#8217;s tons and tons of space, can you not set up next to the single person?), but it stayed pretty peaceful.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I stuck around for about 3 hours and then headed to my favorite after-beach place: 7-11.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5774369360/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2455/5774369360_a89ffdd60b.jpg" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A small Coke slurpee and half a 100 Grand bar. Heaven.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5986892765</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5986892765</guid><pubDate>Sun, 29 May 2011 22:15:18 -0400</pubDate><category>Long Island</category><category>beach</category></item><item><title>Wine Tasting</title><description>&lt;p&gt;My plan today was to write about the beach. And while it was warm and sunny when I woke up around 9am, about an hour or so later it was still warm, but overcast. The sun kept trying to burn through all day, but it never succeeded. I went to Target and grabbed lunch and planned on just hanging out at my parents&amp;#8217; house.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But then I checked &lt;a href="https://foursquare.com/maggiemaggio"&gt;Foursquare&lt;/a&gt; and saw that my friend Maria had checked into a vineyard on the North Fork of Long Island, about 25 minutes from my parents&amp;#8217; house. So I inquired and was invited to tag along with her and her boyfriend.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I (am ashamed to?) admit I&amp;#8217;ve never actually been wine tasting at the LI vineyards even though I&amp;#8217;ve lived so close to them my entire life, but when I had a lot of friends here I was under 21 and then everyone moved on and my parents don&amp;#8217;t drink and people from the city rarely come out to visit and there we are.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But I was excited to give them a try.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;First up was &lt;a href="http://www.jamesportwines.com/"&gt;Jamesport Vineyards&lt;/a&gt;. There indoor area, where you can do tastings, was packed, so we went outside, paid a $10 admission fee, and got to sit at a table and listen to music with our complimentary glass of wine.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0222 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5770078064/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2489/5770078064_45f3001371.jpg" alt="IMG_0222" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was very pretty and the jazz band was good, but it probably wasn&amp;#8217;t the best deal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Next we headed to &lt;a href="http://www.palmervineyards.com/"&gt;Palmer Vineyards&lt;/a&gt;, which I think was my favorite. We each did a tasting flight and the pours were really generous. Plus, they give you all four tastings at once and you can take them outside to sit in the beautiful vineyards while you listen to the live band.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Definitely a pretty good deal. Who doesn&amp;#8217;t want to look at this?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0226 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5769538141/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3054/5769538141_31c6672901.jpg" alt="IMG_0226" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The negative part was that our white wines got warm, but when you&amp;#8217;re sitting in adirondack chairs with that gorgeous view, really, who cares?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After finishing off our tastings we went to &lt;a href="http://www.marthaclaravineyards.com/"&gt;Martha Clara Vineyards&lt;/a&gt;. This was definitely the largest of all of the all vineyards we went to. Their tasting room was huge.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0230 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5770080780/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3405/5770080780_01011a9483.jpg" alt="IMG_0230" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And the first things we saw driving up were these enormous animals.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0228 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5769539963/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/5769539963_2560ced052.jpg" alt="IMG_0228" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0229 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5769539503/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3226/5769539503_924d063f0b.jpg" alt="IMG_0229" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I think Martha Clara tries to cater to the whole family as there were a lot of children and dogs there.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I really liked my &amp;#8220;summertime&amp;#8221; tasting, but my friends didn&amp;#8217;t like their &amp;#8220;dry and sweet&amp;#8221; tasting. But the guy behind the counter was really funny and friendly and ended giving us our tastings for free after we bought a glass of wine. Plus we got to keep the glasses!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After buying our glasses we took them outside to drink by the fountain.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0232 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5769542507/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/5769542507_48e99d734a.jpg" alt="IMG_0232" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After finishing our drinks we went to visit the goats.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0243 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5769547175/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2066/5769547175_8056771dfb.jpg" alt="IMG_0243" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And the mini goats&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0246 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5769549005/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2315/5769549005_ac33796e90.jpg" alt="IMG_0246" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And the mini pigs&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0250 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5770090546/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2331/5770090546_9c03eb0aa1.jpg" alt="IMG_0250" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After visiting all the animals we headed to TGI Friday&amp;#8217;s for dinner (pretty much the only place to eat on the way back to the Long Island Expressway).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was a really nice, unexpected day, but I am so ready for the beach tomorrow.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5949908466</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5949908466</guid><pubDate>Sat, 28 May 2011 21:55:38 -0400</pubDate><category>Long Island</category><category>wine</category><category>animals</category></item><item><title>What I'm Listening To</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Rfo9VAQxmKI" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/As61-cmK4OI" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lreebPTbuTU" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5909944592</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5909944592</guid><pubDate>Fri, 27 May 2011 18:41:47 -0400</pubDate><category>music</category></item><item><title>Betting Kind</title><description>&lt;p&gt;One year, when I was in elementary school, my dad decided to have me and my brother try to pick the winning NFL teams each week. I don&amp;#8217;t know why, I don&amp;#8217;t know how we did, but he had this notebook he would keep track of our picks in.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My dad also used to take me to the horse racing track frequently where I could bet all day. And on a few sick days I remember him taking me to the special store that sold the racing forum and I would lie on the couch watching the ghetto horse racing channel.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Which brings me to my love of tennis. Which I&amp;#8217;m sure will be elaborated on much, much more, but for now revolves around picking winners.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This year I&amp;#8217;ve been participating in a &lt;a href="http://tennis-pool.com/"&gt;fantasy tennis league&lt;/a&gt; (yep, they exist). I have to say that I think I&amp;#8217;m doing pretty well. As of yesterday (they haven&amp;#8217;t updated for today) I&amp;#8217;m in 101st place out of almost 1000 people.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Picture 2 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5763133057/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2211/5763133057_ac7de1b395.jpg" alt="Picture 2" height="125" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For the Grand Slams I also participate in the Racket Bracket challenge on the Tennis Channel&amp;#8217;s &lt;a href="http://www.tennischannel.com/index.aspx"&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#8217;m probably jinxing myself, but I think I&amp;#8217;m rocking it so far. For the men I&amp;#8217;m in the top 4%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Picture 5 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5763133153/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3027/5763133153_ec054a35df.jpg" alt="Picture 5" height="131" width="273"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And for the women I&amp;#8217;m in the top 3%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Picture 6 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5763133185/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/5763133185_b23e69660e.jpg" alt="Picture 6" height="131" width="267"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I am a really competitive person by nature and a total tennis geek so I couldn&amp;#8217;t be more excited.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And, if you&amp;#8217;re wondering, I have Nadal winning the men&amp;#8217;s and Sharapova (I almost had a heart attack during her match today) winning the women&amp;#8217;s.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Fingers crossed.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5884954487</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5884954487</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 May 2011 22:00:31 -0400</pubDate><category>tennis</category><category>nostalgia</category><category>betting</category></item><item><title>Cupcakes</title><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#8217;m not usually one to talk about work outside of Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, but I spent the past two afternoons in the Javits Center (which, outside of war zones and other terrible places, I believe to be one of the worst places on earth) attending &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0CC0QFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bookexpoamerica.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=book%20expo%20america&amp;amp;ei=FLTdTa2uGoTogQf62fTqCg&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFFZ3XggwLFvBvjqVkqIZhR2MYU7A&amp;amp;sig2=Mw549Op_ulWTB1nUmavRAw&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Book Expo America&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Everything for work went well and my company did some cool things, but my favorite was the large pizza box full of mini cupcakes that we served this afternoon.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5759928847/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5147/5759928847_8f4f7c978f.jpg" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Cupcakes are from &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0CCQQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bakedbymelissa.com%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=baked%20by%20melissa&amp;amp;ei=trTdTcXXGMnIgQfl1JHnCg&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNELy-F0SMaZkn1cc5MuVVOYt1abtA&amp;amp;sig2=J-MltbSFVZ3EipKO4SKFOQ&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Baked By Melissa&lt;/a&gt; and if you happen to be in NYC I highly recommend paying her a visit. The chocolate chip pancake cupcake rules.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5852861010</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5852861010</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 May 2011 22:03:25 -0400</pubDate><category>food</category><category>work</category></item><item><title>Brooklyn Botanical Garden</title><description>&lt;p&gt;A few weeks ago I took a trip to the &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0CDEQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbg.org%2F&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=brooklyn%20botanical%20garden&amp;amp;ei=nv3aTa-FBYnfgQee-cxX&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFSACvU7Tdg24uKXTthaEOfqj_ClQ&amp;amp;sig2=yaS6xUK2n3ey4X37ZHVcVw&amp;amp;cad=rja"&gt;Brooklyn Botanical Garden&lt;/a&gt; right around the time the cherry blossoms were blooming. I realized I never posted the pictures so here we are&amp;#8230;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5198 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5706775794/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3654/5706775794_8667596c0c.jpg" alt="IMG_5198" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5201 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5706785202/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2354/5706785202_2a71066f85.jpg" alt="IMG_5201" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5214 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5706264359/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3023/5706264359_83fe1c936e.jpg" alt="IMG_5214" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5218 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5706839692/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3600/5706839692_00cdcd3baa.jpg" alt="IMG_5218" height="500" width="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5243 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5709954758/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3599/5709954758_ab529da523.jpg" alt="IMG_5243" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5257 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5709989346/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3076/5709989346_ac006b9a78.jpg" alt="IMG_5257" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5262 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5709457751/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2687/5709457751_19d5e789fa.jpg" alt="IMG_5262" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5274 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5712035592/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2011/5712035592_23ac0db2e8.jpg" alt="IMG_5274" height="500" width="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5277 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5712032242/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2646/5712032242_2c0fff08bf.jpg" alt="IMG_5277" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All the pictures (good and bad) are &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/sets/72157626578832987/with/5711508887/"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. This was my first time at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and I loved it. I definitely need to make it back again this summer.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5784767589</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5784767589</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2011 20:37:48 -0400</pubDate><category>brooklyn</category><category>great outdoors</category></item><item><title>My Weekend: Burgers and Lobster Rolls</title><description>&lt;p&gt;I had a pretty great weekend. It was busy, but relaxing, and I got to see a bunch of friends.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For lunch on Friday I had a burger from &lt;a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/westville-new-york-3"&gt;Westville&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Friday night I went with my friend Josy to her coworker&amp;#8217;s photography exhibit at the &lt;a href="http://yesgalleryyes.com/"&gt;Yes Gallery&lt;/a&gt; in Greenpoint. It was a very cool show featuring photography of carniverous plants, plus some of the actual plants.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Photography:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5748488965/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/5748488965_83155d8a0c.jpg" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Actual plant:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5748993224/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2452/5748993224_300a59caca.jpg" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I thought this one would make a cool wedding bouquet:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5748542071/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3452/5748542071_7bd533e581.jpg" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I thought the photos were really gorgeous, the art was reasonably priced (but still out of my price range), and the food (lobster rolls) and wine were delicious.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After the gallery we headed to dinner at &lt;a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/calexico-brooklyn"&gt;Calexico&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While waiting for the G train I saw this lovely subway ad:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5749104136/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5144/5749104136_780f96b2fa.jpg" height="500" width="374"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Notice anything different?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Saturday morning started bright and early with my Step and Sculpt class. In a white Mount Holyoke tee shirt in honor of the &lt;a href="http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5704984384/laurel-parade"&gt;Laurel Parade&lt;/a&gt;. Then a bagel, then lots of catching up on TV shows.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the late afternoon my friend Laura and I headed into the city to see Midnight in Paris.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="midnight-in-paris-movie-poster by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5748676069/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5144/5748676069_24762b2198.jpg" alt="midnight-in-paris-movie-poster" height="500" width="338"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was good. I think if you weren&amp;#8217;t familiar with the writers and artists he meets in Paris it might not be as good, but I thought it was enjoyable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I also finally figured out &lt;a href="https://foursquare.com/maggiemaggio"&gt;Four Square&lt;/a&gt; on my phone (it was doing this weird thing where it wouldn&amp;#8217;t find any places).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After the movie we headed to &lt;a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/emack-and-bolios-new-york-3"&gt;Emack and Bolio&amp;#8217;s&lt;/a&gt; for ice cream. Low-fat malted cookie dough. Delicious.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then we headed to dinner at the &lt;a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/dram-shop-brooklyn"&gt;Dram Shop&lt;/a&gt;. Veggie burger and fries. Fantastic as always.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sunday morning started bright and early with a damp, depressing, really hard &lt;a href="http://runkeeper.com/user/maggiemaggio/activity/36449795"&gt;3-mile run&lt;/a&gt; in Prospect Park.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After a quick trip back to my apartment it was back up to the park to meet my old roommate Amy and her boyfriend Mike to go to the &lt;a href="http://www.prospectpark.org/calendar/event/foodtrucks"&gt;Prospect Park food truck rally&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The lines were all very long but we decided to brave one of the longest lines and try out the &lt;a href="http://redhooklobsterpound.com/"&gt;Red Hook Lobster Pound&lt;/a&gt;. Once I got over the fact that I was paying $16 for something from a truck I really enjoyed my Connecticut lobster roll.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5749112244/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2641/5749112244_f028772d2f.jpg" height="374" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The bread was delicious and buttery and the lobster was so fresh and perfect. As much as it pains me to say it, this was worth the $16 and the 30 minute or so wait on line.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What comes after lobster? Ice cream sandwiches from &lt;a href="http://www.eatcoolhaus.com/"&gt;Coolhaus&lt;/a&gt;! I got the chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter ice cream. Very good. More than worth the $5.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After a quick walk around Grand Army Plaza it was time for me to hop on the 3 and head up to the Met to meet my friend Maria for the &lt;a href="http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/"&gt;Alexander McQueen exhibit&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Savage-Beauty-Poster by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5749265904/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2692/5749265904_67975d9c83.jpg" alt="Savage-Beauty-Poster" height="359" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I made it to the Upper East Side in record time, but unfortunately the line for the McQueen exhibit was insanely long. They said it was an hour and a half wait but I think we only waited for about 45 minutes. They moved us along quickly.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And once we got in it was totally worth it. Even though it was PACKED (like you could barely move) the pieces were so interesting. It&amp;#8217;s definitely very avant garde, but the stuff was so detailed, so beautiful, and in many cases just freaky. I just wish there it hadn&amp;#8217;t been so crowded so I could have spent more time studying the clothes in detail and reading about them, but oh well.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By the time we finished the McQueen exhibit the Met was closing so it was back on the subway to Williamsburg where we met Maria&amp;#8217;s boyfriend Tim for drinks and a little food at &lt;a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/mugs-ale-house-brooklyn"&gt;Mugs&lt;/a&gt;. I had their delicious veggie burger which I highly recommend.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So if you&amp;#8217;re keeping track that 2 lobster rolls and 3 burgers (1 beef, 2 veggie) this weekend. Kind of gross.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But a great weekend. That&amp;#8217;s left me ready to pass out.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5754992808</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5754992808</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 May 2011 22:31:13 -0400</pubDate><category>food</category><category>art</category><category>brooklyn</category><category>workouts</category><category>movie</category><category>museum</category></item><item><title>Laurel Parade</title><description>&lt;p&gt;I graduated college four years ago. I don&amp;#8217;t really believe it, but the numbers don&amp;#8217;t lie.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#8217;t want to talk about it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But I do want to talk about the Laurel Parade. Today, Mount Holyoke, my alma mater, held the Laurel Parade. What is that you ask? &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Holyoke_College"&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; so eloquently describes it as the following:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Laurel Parade&lt;/strong&gt; takes place the day before commencement.  Graduating seniors wear white and carry laurel garlands, in a parade to  Mary Lyon&amp;#8217;s grave. They are escorted by approximately 3,000 alumnae,  also in white, who thereby welcome them into the Alumnae Association.  Once at Mary Lyon&amp;#8217;s grave, the garland is wound around the cast-iron  fence, and the Mimi Farina song &amp;#8220;Bread and Roses&amp;#8221; is sung by all in  attendance. White is a tribute to those who fought for women&amp;#8217;s suffrage.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Picture time! There aren&amp;#8217;t really any pictures from my Laurel Parade that I like. First, I was fat. Second, I apparently had a crap camera. So here&amp;#8217;s one:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="P5260014 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5743350160/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5070/5743350160_3e5cb90905.jpg" alt="P5260014" height="375" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And here&amp;#8217;s me and Becca two years later at our two year reunion:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="CIMG2141 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5742810433/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2410/5742810433_b96c2b020f.jpg" alt="CIMG2141" height="375" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Much better.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Me and Natalie:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="CIMG2002 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5742800393/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/5742800393_44580c6278.jpg" alt="CIMG2002" height="375" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;#8217;t my eyes look really blue in these pictures? I had an eye infection, maybe it was a good thing?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Seniors walking to Mary Lyon&amp;#8217;s grave:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="CIMG2036 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5743354686/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2033/5743354686_18241e0845.jpg" alt="CIMG2036" height="375" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the (many great) signs help by alumnae.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="CIMG2074 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5743356812/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2401/5743356812_65348bbbbb.jpg" alt="CIMG2074" height="375" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I love the older alumnae, especially the yellow classes since that&amp;#8217;s my class color.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="CIMG2089 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5742806799/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5182/5742806799_1866feed4c.jpg" alt="CIMG2089" height="375" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Really, really old alumnae.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="CIMG2103 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5743360610/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5223/5743360610_3342864b51.jpg" alt="CIMG2103" height="375" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Next year is my five-year reunion. Unbelievable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#8217;ll leave you with Bread and Roses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LdI5eomL5Qo" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5704984384</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5704984384</guid><pubDate>Sat, 21 May 2011 14:53:01 -0400</pubDate><category>college</category><category>mount holyoke</category><category>nostalgia</category></item><item><title>"Healthy" Mother's Day Cupcakes</title><description>&lt;p&gt;Since I was going home this past weekend I didn&amp;#8217;t want to go home two weekends in a row. Therefore I missed Mother&amp;#8217;s Day. My mother, who has been a vegan for a year now, gave me lots of guilt about not being home and sent many passive aggressive messages that I should bake her &lt;a href="http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/art-smith-cupcakes"&gt;these&lt;/a&gt; cupcakes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So I did.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wet&amp;#8230;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5727082880/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/5727082880_f173b4951c.jpg" width="374" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8230;combines with dry&amp;#8230;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5726539611/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2337/5726539611_8457dd483a.jpg" width="374" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8230;to make somewhat lumpy cupcakes&amp;#8230;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5727125776/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2568/5727125776_5b65cd6165.jpg" width="374" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8230;that look and taste delicious when iced.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5727167844/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2029/5727167844_c79177f6a2.jpg" width="374" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Happy Mother&amp;#8217;s Day, Mom! And thanks for the non-vegan birthday cake.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5548640762</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5548640762</guid><pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2011 13:46:42 -0400</pubDate><category>baking</category><category>family</category></item><item><title>Oyster Ponds 5K</title><description>&lt;p&gt;This morning I ran the &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0CCEQFjAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oysterponds.k12.ny.us%2FPDF%2F5K%2Fscan0001.pdf&amp;amp;ei=CLLOTZP1A4u4sAP0gsSsCw&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNH9o0sBCilek5xQ2vMVoBpula0Rxw&amp;amp;sig2=ATUUOWb_qye5yrNMnIbu2g"&gt;Oyster Ponds 5K&lt;/a&gt;. This was my fourth 5K race, but the first race I ran since I ran a half marathon on April 3, 2010. I can&amp;#8217;t believe it&amp;#8217;s been more than a year!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My dad was the one who wanted to run, as I&amp;#8217;ve mentioned I haven&amp;#8217;t really been running a lot, so I can&amp;#8217;t say I was too excited. But the gorgeous scenery driving out to Orient Point certainly helped.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Nice view driving out to the 5K by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5718650359/"&gt;&lt;img alt="Nice view driving out to the 5K" height="374" width="500" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/5718650359_a348c5b7b4.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was a very small, local race that was run out of the elementary school. I like when races have a real location because it means nicer bathrooms!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="School where the race took place by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5719216092/"&gt;&lt;img alt="School where the race took place" height="374" width="500" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3405/5719216092_df662e6be0.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5718672911/"&gt;&lt;img height="374" width="500" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2091/5718672911_3740fc7b26.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here I am before the race. Ready to run! It was very chilly, I kept my long-sleeve shirt on while we waited and even during the race.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Before the race by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5719239916/"&gt;&lt;img alt="Before the race" height="500" width="374" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/5719239916_c415ecb072.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My dad stretching. He was in a much stranger pose when I first went to take the picture.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5718685129/"&gt;&lt;img height="500" width="374" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/5718685129_a8c8e3cb3f.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This guy with the megaphone was in charge. Overall I thought the race was really well-organized. Granted there weren&amp;#8217;t a lot of people (maybe 100-150?), but it was easy to sign in, they had lots of shirt sizes, they were very clear about when and where the race started, they started on time, and the course had mile-markers throughout.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5719249232/"&gt;&lt;img height="500" width="374" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2776/5719249232_524045119e.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Plus, afterwards, there was plenty of cold water, orange slices, bananas, and bagels. Cream cheese would have been nice but that&amp;#8217;s my only (very minor) complaint. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5718692669/"&gt;&lt;img height="500" width="374" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3413/5718692669_8e8c3c0872.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And here&amp;#8217;s me after the race. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="After the race by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5718697265/"&gt;&lt;img alt="After the race" height="500" width="374" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3405/5718697265_c124742a90.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I finished in 32:48 which is the slowest 5K I&amp;#8217;ve run since I started running again. I didn&amp;#8217;t have high expectations going in, but I did expect to beat the times I&amp;#8217;ve been running in Prospect Park since the park is pretty hilly and this race course was pretty flat. However, my legs were SO tight that it made the first 2 miles pretty unbearable. I even stopped to stretch during mile 2 they were so tight. By the time I got to 3 miles I felt pretty good. Which is the hard thing about running shorter distances. But I was happy. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5719260474/"&gt;&lt;img height="500" width="374" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3250/5719260474_b7eb768aa9.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They did a really nice raffle and awards ceremony at the end. My dad (who finished in 25:12!!!) won 3rd place in the men&amp;#8217;s 55-59 division. The old guys are always so fast!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5719274168/"&gt;&lt;img height="500" width="374" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2348/5719274168_c3eec9bc91.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I sat under this tree stretching for a while.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And then I won 2nd place (out of 2 people!) in the women&amp;#8217;s 25-29 division!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5719277480/"&gt;&lt;img height="500" width="374" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/5719277480_28a686543d.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall a really great race and a good experience. And it didn&amp;#8217;t rain!&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5484377027</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5484377027</guid><pubDate>Sat, 14 May 2011 13:01:40 -0400</pubDate><category>workouts</category><category>road races</category><category>long island</category></item><item><title>What I'm Listening To</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cqZ_3hYmYCo" width="425" frameborder="0" height="349"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-Waz7PMZHeg" width="425" frameborder="0" height="349"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JZyGdXSCe6U" width="425" frameborder="0" height="272"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5452195177</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5452195177</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 May 2011 12:05:06 -0400</pubDate><category>music</category></item><item><title>Royal Wedding Party</title><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#8217;ll admit that I&amp;#8217;ve always been interested in the British royals, mainly William and Harry since they&amp;#8217;re around my age and, like most people, I have very vivid memories of when their mother died. I was never obsessive about it, but I&amp;#8217;ll read an article if I see one. I watched the ITN interview William and Kate did when they got engaged and I figured I would watch the wedding, but that was about it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then one of my friends at work became obsessed with it and would send daily updates and the wedding became our main topic at lunch. So I decided to throw a royal wedding party (and I might have read &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Making-Royal-Romance-Harry---expanded/dp/1602861536/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1305206104&amp;amp;sr=8-1"&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; book).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On that Thursday night 3 of my friends slept over and the following morning 2 more friends, who live close to me, came over to watch with me and my roommate. I had spent the past 3 days cleaning and getting ready for them so I was exhausted. Still, at 4am, I jumped out of bed, excited to watch the festivities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I made &lt;a href="http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2007/05/13/chocolatey-morning-goodness/"&gt;these&lt;/a&gt; chocolate chip scones. Except I added two tablespoons of orange zest which I highly recommend.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5289 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5711528237/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3401/5711528237_b771781478.jpg" alt="IMG_5289" width="500" height="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(Pictured uncooked, I never got a cooked picture.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We bought my friend Elisa, the really obsessed one, a replica of William and Kate&amp;#8217;s engagement ring.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_0167 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5711576003/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2778/5711576003_6f6d7a0a2c.jpg" alt="IMG_0167" width="373" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We enjoyed a delicious spread that included my scones, bagels, tea, and mimosas.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5290 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5711531289/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3549/5711531289_529f139742.jpg" alt="IMG_5290" width="500" height="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5295 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5712102766/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2255/5712102766_789f053a88.jpg" alt="IMG_5295" width="500" height="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My friend Laura and I also may have made royal wedding cupcakes for the bake off at work.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5291 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5712092912/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2558/5712092912_141e30492a.jpg" alt="IMG_5291" width="500" height="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5292 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5712096332/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/5712096332_b24acb326a.jpg" alt="IMG_5292" width="500" height="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5293 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5711557947/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2480/5711557947_2f5b83a37e.jpg" alt="IMG_5293" width="333" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Cupcake toppers are from &lt;a href="http://www.etsy.com/listing/72459230/printable-cupcake-toppers-prince-william"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Cupcake recipe is the devil&amp;#8217;s food cake from &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Baked-Explorations-American-Desserts-Reinvented/dp/1584798505/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;s=books&amp;amp;qid=1305206769&amp;amp;sr=8-1"&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; book and the icing is the Magnolia bakery&amp;#8217;s recipe. Design is purely our own :)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5294 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5712099494/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/5712099494_35aed29f62.jpg" alt="IMG_5294" width="500" height="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And then my friend Elisa gave us all a gift!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5299 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5711572377/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2657/5711572377_1af0c8efe7.jpg" alt="IMG_5299" width="333" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;William and Kate teabags. They&amp;#8217;re hilarious.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5303 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5711574953/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/5711574953_4bcc95273a.jpg" alt="IMG_5303" width="333" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And then we all toasted in our PJ&amp;#8217;s and went to work.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5422817316</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5422817316</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2011 12:00:06 -0400</pubDate><category>royal wedding</category><category>party</category><category>friends</category><category>baking</category></item><item><title>RunKeeper Review</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I&amp;#8217;ve moved my Wednesday Workouts to their own &lt;a href="http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/workouts"&gt;page&lt;/a&gt;. It makes it easier for me to track what I do and allows me to write this review.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5708449361/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2538/5708449361_1f3a1b464c.jpg" width="333" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I started running again. I had stopped about a year ago due to some pretty bad knee pain. Over the last year I&amp;#8217;ve ran on and off but because of pain or lack of interest I haven&amp;#8217;t been able to get back into it. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#8217;ve used my &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Forerunner-Receiver-Heart-Monitor/dp/B000CSWCQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1305079606&amp;amp;sr=8-1"&gt;Garmin 305&lt;/a&gt; to track my mileage, pace, and time for a while, but for some reason it stopped holding a charge. I had heard about the &lt;a href="http://runkeeper.com/home"&gt;RunKeeper&lt;/a&gt; app from &lt;a href="http://thatwifeblog.com/"&gt;That Wife&lt;/a&gt; recently and my broken Garmin was the perfect reason to try it out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As far as I can tell, and I&amp;#8217;ve only used RunKeeper once, it can do many of the things my Garmin does. While I&amp;#8217;m running it tracks mileage, time, and pace and I can even set it to do voice cues over my music (you pick a playlist for it to play through your iPod). I set it to update me every mile with my overall time and average pace. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Normally I find myself glancing at my Garmin all the time so it was a change for me to run not constantly looking at something. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I kept pretty much exactly a 10:30 pace, which is what I&amp;#8217;m currently aiming for, even without looking at the Garmin.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What I really like about RunKeeper (and my Garmin, but RunKeeper is free!) is looking at the data after a run.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5708445589/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3440/5708445589_f5ef70a621.jpg" width="333" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are three screens to analyze data, the first one, pictured above, tell you your overall time, average pace, calories burned, and gives you a map of your route with the mileage broken down.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5709013452/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2191/5709013452_ffcb321a00.jpg" width="333" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second screen has the same info at the top but then breaks down mileage by minute. I don&amp;#8217;t find this particularly helpful, but it&amp;#8217;s certainly nice. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5709014298/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2415/5709014298_dac1162a7c.jpg" width="333" height="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The third screen shows the mileage split which I really enjoy looking at. When I was running a lot I aimed for negative splits, but for now I&amp;#8217;m happy with having approximately the same splits and not slowing down at the end. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The RunKeeper app also automatically syncs with RunKeeper&amp;#8217;s website. Everyone gets a profile, you can check mine out &lt;a href="http://runkeeper.com/user/maggiemaggio"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. There seems to be a really great social networking community there which is something I need to explore more.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall I really, really liked the RunKeeper app and I&amp;#8217;m excited to play around with it more. Highly recommend!&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5392716484</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5392716484</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 May 2011 12:00:00 -0400</pubDate><category>workouts</category><category>running</category><category>iphone</category><category>review</category></item><item><title>Five-Second Movie Review: Bridesmaids</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="bridesmaids-movie-poster by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5705894160/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2012/5705894160_e817566840.jpg" width="337" height="500" alt="bridesmaids-movie-poster"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My old boss (this is one of many reasons why you shouldn&amp;#8217;t burn bridges) sometimes gets free advance movie screening passes and  I was her third choice to take to see Bridesmaids last night. I often worry (I don&amp;#8217;t know why) that movies with female comediennes won&amp;#8217;t be funny, but I thought Bridesmaids was hilarious. Although I can do without the potty humor (pooping in the street? no thanks), the movie had a lot of smart humor and I found myself laughing a lot. The actresses were all perfectly cast, I especially enjoyed Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy and I thought Chris O&amp;#8217;Dowd (as the love interest) was adorable. It was quite long (almost exactly two hours), but they needed to squeeze in the most blow job hand gestures I&amp;#8217;ve ever seen in one movie. &lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5362564610</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5362564610</guid><pubDate>Tue, 10 May 2011 12:00:06 -0400</pubDate><category>movie review</category></item><item><title>ilovecharts:

-Nick H.
If only it were this simple…
</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkvwlsBsSR1qa0uujo1_500.png"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/5334594146"&gt;ilovecharts&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Nick H.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If only it were this simple…&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5351267969</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/5351267969</guid><pubDate>Mon, 09 May 2011 23:14:50 -0400</pubDate></item><item><title>What I'm Listening To</title><description>&lt;p&gt;
&lt;object height="269" width="425"&gt;
&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mVWeqAPQUXc?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US"&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mVWeqAPQUXc?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="269" width="425"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;object height="349" width="425"&gt;
&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0UpXBS0nXyU?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US"&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0UpXBS0nXyU?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="349" width="425"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;object height="349" width="425"&gt;
&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xUIBnmdJJ50?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US"&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xUIBnmdJJ50?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="349" width="425"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/4838100909</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/4838100909</guid><pubDate>Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:03:06 -0400</pubDate><category>music</category></item><item><title>Easter Eggs</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5092 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5640468112/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5266/5640468112_074d1c273d.jpg" alt="IMG_5092" height="500" width="333"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I love British candy so when Easter candy is rolled out every year I am so excited to see the Cadbury Mini Eggs on sale. I love the creme-filled eggs, but these mini eggs, with their hard candy shell and milk chocolate middle, are probably my favorite candy ever. So much so that I&amp;#8217;ve had to cut myself off this year which. Which is probably good because &lt;a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=1&amp;amp;src=me&amp;amp;ref=general"&gt;sugar kills&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was so excited by the eggs that I apparently forgot that I need to focus my camera when I take a picture.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_5090 by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5640466258/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5144/5640466258_a568e30332.jpg" alt="IMG_5090" height="333" width="500"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In other news, I got my hair cut for the first time since August (bad, I know, don&amp;#8217;t judge). Check out how glam I look.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Untitled by eiggam's flickr, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiggamsflickr/5640465196/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5186/5640465196_d7c5f0c671.jpg" height="500" width="375"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Well, as glam as one can look in gym clothes, in the gym locker room, in a picture taken with an iPhone.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/4808206258</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/4808206258</guid><pubDate>Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:00:06 -0400</pubDate><category>Easter</category><category>Hair</category></item><item><title>Wednesday Workouts</title><description>&lt;p&gt;Sunday&lt;br/&gt;Plan: Run + 100 Pushups Challenge&lt;br/&gt;Actual: Ran 3.1 miles (ran 1 miles, walked .25 miles, ran 1.25 miles, walked .25 miles, ran .35 miles) + 100 Pushups Challenge&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Monday&lt;br/&gt; Plan: Treadmill before class, Body Sculpt class.&lt;br/&gt; Actual: 20 mins. treadmill (10 running, 10 walking), Body Sculpt class.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tuesday&lt;br/&gt; Plan: Elliptical before class, Step &amp;amp; Sculpt class, Ab class&lt;br/&gt; Actual: Elliptical 17 mins., Step &amp;amp; Sculpt class, Ab class&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wednesday&lt;br/&gt; Plan: Run + 100 Pushups&lt;br/&gt; Actual: 30 min. elliptical speed workout + 100 Pushups&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thursday&lt;br/&gt; Plan: Ellptical&lt;br/&gt; Actual: Ran 3.1 miles (ran 1.25 miles, walked .25 miles, ran 1.25 miles, walked .25 miles, ran .1 miles)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Friday&lt;br/&gt; Plan: 100 Pushups&lt;br/&gt; Actual:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Saturday&lt;br/&gt; Plan: Run&lt;br/&gt; Actual:&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/4778610523</link><guid>http://maggiemaggio.tumblr.com/post/4778610523</guid><pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:00:00 -0400</pubDate><category>Wednesday Workouts</category><category>workouts</category></item></channel></rss>
