"A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure." - Czech proverb

What's that? Two posts in one month? We have my glorious week off to thank for that! Unfortunately it's almost over but I've tried to take advantage of every moment and now I am updating! Here we go!

76. Brew Our Own Beer

Our good pal Steve got a home-brewing kit for Christmas and invited us over to help him make his first batch! And by he invited "us" over I mean he invited Jamie and Becky but Lindsay and I tagged along.

As you can see, we were very helpful. Note that Steve is in the background reading directions while I am taking pictures of Lindsay making silly faces.




Steve, Becky and Jamie did most of the work of the actual beer-making, but I was in charge of documenting the whole thing. So let me outline the steps:

First: Read the directions



Second: Lay out the ingredients



Third: Ask Steve a lot of questions about brewing that he can't answer because it was everyone's first time.

He's attempting to sound smart here.

Fourth: Eh, I don't really remember. I know we added in a lot of ingredients and waited for water to boil.  I made this pretty collage so you can see all of our steps in relatively the correct order.

It is absolutely essential that someone braids their hair at some point during the process.

Most importantly though, don't forget any ingredients! Especially the yeast! We had everything ready to go and had poured the beer and water into the bucket then sealed it all up.

Suddenly I realized, wait a minute, we didn't put the yeast in! We tried to open the bucket again but the lid wasn't budging. Luckily we're not as dumb as we look though, and with the help of a turkey baster and a funnel, we were able to get all of that yeast where it belonged.



Ta-da!



It may not look very impressive right now, but we made something that I forget the name of (it definitely had "red" in it) and it smelled pretty good. So we will let you know how the bottling and tasting goes when we cross that bridge, beer-brewing is a long process.


Alright, I promised everyone that I would let you know what I got Becky for Christmas for our trip!

Jamie, Becky, Lindsay and I got together the day after Christmas to exchange our fabulous gifts.

I won't go into what we all got, but we do a great job of buying gifts for each other. Mostly because we buy things we know we would like and it usually works out! But for our trip I got Becky:

An awesome travel journal



A passport case.

And these awesome custom luggage tags!

I had to block out the addresses, the Internet is a scary place!

My Mom also got us backpacks and our friend Megan filled up adorable cosmetic bags with a bunch of goodies!

So now we're almost all set for our trip. We just need some plane tickets! I promise to keep you updated on our trip, our beer and everything else we cross off our bucket list!


The Go Getters hope you had a very happy holiday and have a happy new year! And until next time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love Always,
The Go Getters

P.S. You should like us on Facebook! That way you'll always know when we update! Cool, right? Right.

^ DO ITTTTTT!! [Note: from Becky]

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"Art is the center of the real world. Philadelphia is the center of the art world."

Good morning friends! Are you ready for a new and unique post? Well, at least the place we went to is unique.


74. Visit the Philly Magic Gardens

 

For those of you not from the Philadelphia area, you may not know what the Magic Gardens are. Basically, the artist Isaiah Zagar has spent the past 17 years converting an old vacant lot into a mosaic masterpiece. Every inch of the inside and outside is covered in tiles, bottles, wire, found objects and more. It really is a magical place to be in, I only wish the day we went on hadn't been so overcast and hazy. But the work speaks for itself, even if it didn't glitter as much as I'd hoped.

This is what you see when you walk into the first room of the inside gallery. I think Becky was digging for her camera/iPhone to start snapping pictures.

 

Then we ventured outside, where the real magic happens!

 

Every inch of the structure is covered in tiles with pictures, drawings, quotes from famous artists, faces, bicycles, anything you can imagine!

 

 

Sometimes you can make out a figure or shape, other times it's up to your interpretation.

 

You can stand back and take in the big picture.

 

Or zoom in and focus on the small details.

"Art is the center of the real world. Philadelphia is the center of the art world."

   

It really was magical to find something so beautiful and unique nestled in a loud and fast-moving city. Once you're inside, despite the loud art, it is a very quiet and peaceful place.

 

Oh Hey Becky!

   

We will definitely be back.

   
Mostly because Becky had a Groupon that we hadn't made reservations for which would have allowed us to see other places not everyone gets to see, like the artist's studio!

After that adventure we headed to the Reading Terminal Market for some grub.
75. Enjoy delicious fare at the Reading Terminal Market.

 

I don't have photos of what we ate or what was inside. But if you're ever in Philly, it is a must-see! First of all they have every kind of food you can imagine along with other trinkets and fun finds you won't see in your local strip mall.

Like these candles for example, the only thing we have a photo of besides the sign.

Well that's it for now guys! Don't worry we have more posts coming up and we'll keep you updated on our travel news! We still haven't bought our plane tickets yet so that will be any day now. AND I bought Becky AWESOME stuff for our trip for Christmas. But I can't tell you because she doesn't even know what it is yet.

Until next time ladies and gentlemen, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love Always,
The Go Getters

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The Go Getters Are Going Abroad!

Attention! Attention! Special Announcement! The Go Getters are Going Abroad!

That's right! We just booked our trip to London, Paris and Amsterdam for next June through Contiki Tours!

We called up our good pal, what's-his-face at Contiki Tours and he helped us set everything up!



Now we still have to book our air fare anndddd it would probably be a good idea to let our bosses know that we won't be at work that week....but that's just details people! The point is WE'RE GOING TO EUROPE! Paid in full!



(At least I am, Becky will be paying in installments)

Don't worry, we'll keep you updated on all of our progress! I hope you're as excited as we are! And we'll also let you know how Contiki is, because then you should book your own trip! Woooo!!!!

And until next time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss!

Love Always,
(And soon from overseas!)
The Go Getters!

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The city so nice, they named it twice!

Hello friends! I know, I know, we are the worst. It has been FOREVER since our last post. But it's not because we don't love you, it's not you, it's us. But we're hoping to make it up to you with a BRAND NEW POST! Let's go!


72. Go Museum Hopping in NYC
A few weeks ago Jamie, Becky and I traveled to New York City to check out a few of the museums. Jamie has been to pretty much every museum in the tristate area, but Becky and I had never been to the Museum of Modern Art and Becky had never seen The Met. So we figured we would check it out and make a post out of it!

So we hopped on a train from Jersey and headed to the city so nice, they named it twice!



When we reached the city we headed right to MoMA. Now the three of us have extensive artistic backgrounds, Jamie went to an all girls' art school, Becky majored in Art Conservation and now works at two galleries, and I minored in Art History at school, so we're kind of nerds when it comes to museums. Seeing the famous pieces that you learned about up close and personal is a surreal experience. When you study a painting you're told the dimensions, but they're just numbers until you actually see how huge some of these canvases are.

Exhibit A

What I'm trying to say is, you don't have to be an art nerd to appreciate a museum! And a trip to a museum doesn't have to be boring! Especially at MoMA, most pieces are anything but boring. (Fun Fact: If you go to/went to a SUNY school and have your school I.D. you can get into the MoMA for free!)

The MoMA also had a piece you could interact with. Carlito Carvalhosa's "Sum of Days" is a labyrinth of soft, translucent material that visitors walk through. Above their heads are several microphones that record the ambient noise, and then the following day the recordings from previous days are played quietly from speakers around the room. We got to walk through and touch the exhibit and essentially become part of the piece.

Jamie wanted to sing so the people the following day could hear
our wonderful voices. We didn't go along with it.

The Go Getters looking ponderous.

And for good measure I'm adding this to the list because come on, this is pretty freaking cool.

73. See Starry Night by Van Gogh




Fun Fact: Becky's laptop has a Starry Night sticker on it.

After the MoMA we had some time before The Met closed and Becky had to experience it. But first Jamie had to eat a genuine NYC dirty water dog.

When we got to The Met we sort of had to run through it to reach our ultimate goal: to see the Anthony Caro sculptures on the roof. But Becky was able to snap some pictures and at least experience a little bit.

Then it was up to the roof! Luckily we had a beautiful day, if not a little windy.

This is how Jamie explains art.

Becky looks like a regular NYC native here.

We were sad to have to leave, but we'll be back in NYC soon doing even more fun things! More to come on that, so keep your eyes peeled! Annnddd we have REALLY exciting news that should be finalized before the end of this week. I won't spoil the surprise but another post about it should be coming up soon. 

In other news: Oh, I've Done That is one year old! Thank you to everyone who has been there from the beginning and welcome to the new people we seem to get every day! We hope you've enjoyed our posts, because we REALLY enjoy doing all of these cool things! And don't forget, we take suggestions and would even love to help you cross things off of your bucket list! 

This is the Go Getters signing off...

And until next time, good luck exploring the infinite abyss.

Love Always,
The Go Getters

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