Kicking Things Off...

I've been a participant in the blogosphere since around 2003, but I've never attempted to make anything particularly interesting out of it.  It's always been "this is what I did last weekend" type posts with sprinklings of venting and attempts at being "deep" here and there.  I suppose I mostly still keep my longest running blog for myself.  Every once in a while, it's fun to go back and look at how juvenile I was 6 or 7 years ago, or perhaps relive a fond memory.  It's a poorly kept/sporadic chronicle of my awkward transition into adulthood.

Now that I've (mostly) figured out who I am as an adult, I really want to keep a more interesting blog about the things I take a personal interest in, and that other people might find interesting/useful as well.  I'm planning on posting things like New England hiking and kayaking spots, healthy living tips and discoveries, recipes (both healthy and not-so-healthy), restaurant reviews, and whatever else I find interesting at the time.

So, here we go!  A couple of things to kick this off:

Last year, my boyfriend Brian and I bought a couple of kayaks.  They're nothing fancy, just a couple of 10 foot recreational kayaks we use for quiet water paddling.  Brian put together a fantastic Google Map of places to go kayaking in New England.  In red are the places we've been to, and in blue are places we've read or heard about.  He has added so much that it doesn't even all fit on one page anymore, so make sure you click "next page" down at the bottom to see everything!  You'll find a little blurb about what we thought of each place we visited, which serves as a great "where I've been so far" starting point for the kayaking aspect of this blog.  Once the weather warms up and I am able to get back in the water again, I'd like to provide more detailed descriptions and pictures of the places I go.  But, for now:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=EN&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=204543044242738038814.000489a6dab5661798c89&t=h&z=7

Recently, I've become addicted to Yelp.  I was made an Elite member this year, which I'm pretty excited about!  So if you care to read about my opinions of various establishments I visit, then you may do so here:
shamrocandroll.yelp.com

Okay!  I'm ready for fame and fortune!