By Sara Conrad Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Nov 08, 2010 at 11:45 AM

Today is my birthday!

Last year I turned the big three-o. There was a giant party with balloons, a cake, a million friends and a billion margaritas. The night ended with dancing from what I can recall. The details were fuzzy at best. The party, drinks, and dancing were a great time with great people and all that jazz.

This year I'm officially in the column of folks who say, 'Birthday, eh it's just another day. Carry on. Nothing to see here.' There will be no whooping it up with tequila or posing for pictures next to bunches of balloons or customized cakes. Thirty-one doesn't flow off the tongue quite like thirty did.

That's not to say I won't be celebrating my accomplishment of not croaking for another year. In fact, I began my celebration yesterday with a long standing birthday tradition (by long standing I mean second-annual with big intentions) of devouring "Das Boot".

What the heck is Das Boot? Das Boot-better known as the Glass Slipper for those without friends who have a hankering for making up names for everything and anything- is a ginormous glass boot which sets you back $51 and holds 96.628 ounces of (wait for it) bloody mary. And not just any bloody mary.

You can only find Das Boot at The Wicked Hop, 345 N. Broadway. It's a well known fact that the best bloody mary this side of the Mississippi is found at The Wicked Hop. Delightfully spicy, velvety and smooth; it is bloody delicious. So imagine that in a towering boot with a mountain of cheese strings, oodles of olives, mushrooms and beef sticks, and an ever-flowing beer chaser.

The glass itself is approximately two feet tall, although after an hour in everything seems a little askew. The straws which reach all the way to the toe are even taller, which forces you to stand up to sip. The three of us looked like a human game of whack-a-mole; up, sip, down, up, sip, down.

Last year at the inaugural Das Boot my brave friend and I sipped and slugged for four hours. This year we brought reinforcements and buried the boot in a mere two-and-a-half. Next year less than two hours is the goal.

Folks in my age-bracket set all sorts of 'I'm not really this old' birthday goals such as climbing mountains, running marathons, or jumping out of a planes. Me, I'm happy and content with my birthday-bloody-marathon. The year of training to prepare isn't too bad either.

Sara Conrad Special to OnMilwaukee.com

To say Sara is a woman of many hats would be like saying sour gummy worms are delicious: an epic understatement. Besides blogging, vlogging, tweeting and designing, she is a gal about town. Hopping, skipping and jumping all over this fair city to seek out the latest and greatest.

Since moving to Milwaukee right after high school, Sara's ADD has led her to reside in nearly every ZIP code Milwaukee has to offer. She recently moved from the Third Ward to Shorewood, and though the quieter scene isn't sucking, she vows to prove the burbs' swagger is right up there with the city's.

The Milwaukee area is one of many hats. And Sara's determined to try on each and every one of 'em.