101 in 1001 - Third Time's the Charm?

Start date: 12-21-2010
End Date: 9-17-2013

Self Improvement:
001. Complete Living in Season’s New Year’s Dreams course (Blogfodder)
002. Complete Living in Season’s seasonal workbooks (Blogfodder)
003. Lose another 25/50 pounds
004. Work out on WiiFit at least 3x a week for 2 months/for 6 months/for 1 year.
005.Take dance lessons with my husband
006. Keep my home ‘drop in’ ready for 3 months/6 months/1 year
007. Have laser eye surgery done
008. Pay off CapOne card
009. Pay off Citi card
010. Enjoy 10 Manicures/Pedicures (0/10)
011. Enjoy 3 professional massages. (0/3)
012. Complete Year and a Day in Magick book (Blogfodder)
013. Decide if I want to do a teaching program and get my license, or continue with Masters and teach college.
014. Finish teaching program/take Praxis ii/get license OR complete masters program of choice
015. Keep a Daily Happiness Journal and use it at least 3x a week (Blogfodder)
016. Donate 100k grains of rice on FreeRice.com

Food and Drink:
017. Cook at least five recipes from each cook book I currently own, & blog about them

(Caveat: just the ones currently in the house. Most of them are packed up.)

018. Take a cooking class
019. Learn how to make 10 different cocktails
020. Make cookie boxes for family/friend gifts for 2011/2012
021. Create a personal cookbook/recipe file of my favorites (Blogfodder)

Creative:
022. Complete a jigsaw puzzle with my husband
023. Participate fully in the 52 in 52 knitting challenge (Blogfodder)
024. Participate fully in the Year of Stash Socks challenge (Blogfodder)
025. Take a quilting class
026. Go on the Believe in Yourself retreat
027. Complete a Journal Journey (Blogfodder)
028. Put together a wedding/Our Life scrapbook
029. Create a photo wall in my office with framed pictures of friends and family
030. Finish the afghan kit I have in the stash (Blogfodder)
031. Finish the beaded bag kit I have in stash (Blogfodder)
032. Finish the beaded scarf kit I have in stash (Blogfodder)

Photography:
033. Take a photograph to represent each month (0/33) (Blogfodder)
034. Upload photos to BlipFoto at least 3x/week for 1 month/6 months/1 year
035. Complete Project 365 (0/365)
036. Submit a photo to a photography competition (Blogfodder)
037. Take part in the 4am project
038. Take ten pictures of things that make me happy (0/10) (Blogfodder)
039. Take ten pictures of things that make me sad (0/10) (Blogfodder)
040. Make a coffee table book out of our travel photography
041. Photograph a landscape from the same location, capturing all four seasons (Blogfodder)
042. Participate in at least one 26 Things list (Blogfodder)

Reading/Writing:
043. Leave 12 notes in 12 different books for strangers to find (Blogfodder)
044. Answer the “50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind”
045. Read 10 novels off the Modern Library’s Top 100 list (Blogfodder)
046. Read 10 novels off the 1001 Books You Must Read before You Die list (Blogfodder)
047. Blog about each of my 101 things as they are completed
048. Send two postcards a month through PostCrossing
049. Participate in and finish NaBloPoMo
050. Read 1 book every month and blog about it
051. Write 1 poem every week for 6 months/1 year/18 months/2 years
052. Reach 500 blog posts in my personal journal/photo journal/knitting journal
053. Submit my writing to a publication every 3 months
054. Read the books I own but have never finished

Movies/TV/Music:
055. See 10 movies on the AFI Top 100 list (Blogfodder)
056. See 25 movies on the IMDB top 250 list (Blogfodder)
057. Compile a playlist of my 100 favorite songs 
058. Compile a list of my 100 favorite movies 

Places to Visit/Things to See:
059. Travel somewhere by train 
060. Take a cruise longer than 3 days 
061. Watch the sun rise and set in the same day.

Things to Buy:
062. A traditional Anniversary gift for my husband on our 10th, 11th and 12th Anniversaries
063. An iPad

Other:
064. Drink beer (wine, mixed drink) at noon on Tuesday in a bar that faces a giant car wash
065. Leave 20 Operation Beautiful notes somewhere (Blogfodder)
066. Repaint our kitchen cabinets white
067. Repaint our bedroom
068. Paint bathrooms
069. Encourage someone to write their own 101 in 1001 list
070. Have my wedding rings resized
071. Frame and hang our diplomas when we get them in January/February
072. Decrease my stash by 1 tote/2 totes/3 totes
073. Have my holiday gift list finished by September 1st 2011/2012/2013
074. Have all purchasable gifts wrapped by December 1st 2011/2012
075. Frame the print we bought in Asheville last year, and my poster, and hang them somewhere
076. Clean out my closet every six months and donate old clothing to Goodwill/Tender Mercy

Myrtle Beach

Jason and I went to the beach this weekend. It was a wonderful time, and we had a lot of fun, even though there was some .. unexpected "excitement" in the form of a fire two floors up from the condo we were staying in, and a shark about five feet from my feet.

We stayed at Louise's condo at Sand Dunes Resort on 74th ave in Myrtle Beach. Louise works with him at Tindol; she and her husband went to Florida for a week, so she let us use their condo for the weekend, free of charge.

We left early Saturday - early for us anyway - and drove the whole way to the beach. We got there about 1 in the afternoon and got all our stuff up to the condo, got settled, then headed out to Barefoot Landing. Our first destination was a winery we'd heard about that makes fruit wines, like blackberry and strawberry. We tasted a bunch, bought a few bottles for gifts and for ourselves, bought a blackberry wine slushy, and headed out to check out the shops. We found a few more gifts and me some pretty shell earrings, then picked up our wine and moved to the other side of the landing.

Damn Bees!

Okay, so I dunno if I've told you this, but I hate hate hate bees. Hate them. They terrify me like spiders terrify Jason. I freeze up and scream and in general beome non functional. That will become important later in this email.

So I woke up feeling kinda ickie. I'd eaten a lot of spicy and heavy foods yesterday, and I think I paid for it. So I got off to a slow start, but finally got to feeling better and was able to go have breakfast. It was sweet too, because the ladies, the two from North Carolina and the 4 sorority sisters in thier 50's, were all so concerned about me and wanted to make certain I was feeling better. So sweet.

Anyway, I got to feeling better, and we started off on our treck up the High Road towards Taos. Basically it's the scenic route. And it was cool. As we drove we saw the snow-capped peaks getting closer and closer. We stopped a couple times for pictures, which I'll send when I get home.

We stopped first at this place that is a sanctuary of some sort, some Catholic pilgrimage? I can't remember offhand but I'll remember eventually. It was pretty, and kinda neat to see. Not the biggest attraction for me but it was interesting. We were getting hungry by then, but the place they had there looked kinda cheesy, and the place Larissa wanted to go had burned down a couple months prior. Oh noes!

So, off we go again, down the road. We find this little .. and I do mean little .. town that has a little tea room and bistro It sounds neat, andwe're all starving, so we try it. Enter the fist bee clamity.

We had to sit outside .. which would have been fine. We order drinks, and I got hot apple cider. Also would have been fine. But for the bees. Which kept coming to the table to buzz around me. Just me. Not Jason, not Larissa, just me. Remember .. I hate bees. Terrified of them, I am. Well, time goes on, and we're waiting for our food, and I'm getting more and more stressed by the bees .. when one -lands on me!!!!!- I scream and jump .. and of course I was drinking at the time, so I get apple cider all over me. And by then I'm in tears because I'm so stressed and embarrased and everything. It almost ruins my appetite, but we get moved inside .. because the bees just keep coming to the table.

Lunch was good, honestly. It was a cute little place, with good food, great desserts, and yummy hot apple cider. Jason has decided that I'm an unwilling bee charmer though, because as we were leaving, the dern things followed me to the car. One landed on my cleavage!!! I about screamed and ran in a panic.

So we keep going, me smelling like an apple press, and drive up to the Taos Pueblo, which is a native pueblo that has had a population living in it for hundreds of years, still does, and they live in the old ways, no electricity, they get their water from the river, cook in stone ovens, the works. it's really cool. I got pictures there, too. There were cute dogs everywhere too .. all ones we couldn't pet or feed or antyhing though .. cos they didn't want anyone getting bit. So sad, cos they were cute. As we were leaving we tried this fried blue cron bread .. very yummy, and then headed out. As we were getting into the car though, as I was putting my camera away, a damn bee flew into the car right in front of me! I couldn't even move, because my very expensive camera was in my lap. It was and ordeal to get away because we kept having a bee getting in the car.

Then was the coolest part of the trip, escpecially for Jason. We drove up to a gorge over the Rio Grande near Taos, and as we were taking pictures .. well, I was .. someone pointed out that there were bighorn sheep on the riverbank waaaaaaay below us. So I pull out my telephoto lens and sure'nuff, bighorn sheep grazing by the riverbank. Got pictures of them, too. yay! Jason had been wanting to see some, so it was really cool.

ETA: Sanctuary de Chimayo was the sanctuary. When I get home and stuff, I'll add links to everything.

Huh. Blogger must be hungry.

It totally ate a post.

WoW is down for extended maintenance. Like .. 10 hours is what they have scheduled. That's insanity. They weren't down that long last patch day. *sighs* But I guess it's a good thing. I've got to get this paper written.

I'm totally sliding on schoolwork this semester and I know why. Wow is sucking my brain. All the drama of the last few months has just totally sapped me. The crap with Andrea and Nich and Elisabeth stabbing me in the back .. well, they'll get theirs. If they don't think I'm a vindictive bitch, they've got another thing coming. I know how to get to people.

Is that a healthy thought? No, probably not. but after the shit they did to me, I feel totally justified.

Jason is trying to figure out if we can afford to go to Santa Fe with Larissa in the early part of next year. I'd like that, even if it's only a couple of days. He's also thinking we can switch things around so my paychecks go into a savings account rather than getting used to pay bills, now. Which would be nice.

One .. thousand .. dollars.

So. Atlanta was fun. We met Larissa at the hotel, hung out a little bit, and then caught a shuttle (gotta love staying at 4-star hotels!) to the mall, to have lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Then we spent 4 hours at the mall .. mostly in Nordstrom's.

Yes. Nordstroms.

And of course, the first thing I saw was a coat. It being Fall and all, they were obviously going to be on display. But this one was cashmere. Made in Italy. And the price tag was $1075. Now .. I ask you. Why on earth did it have to be $1075? Was $1000 not quite enough? I just don't get it.

I didn't have the heart to try it on. I knew I'd just cry, because I'd want it, and there's just no way I could justify owning a thousand-dollar coat.

I did, though, end up getting a couple of sweaters. One was on -serious- sale .. though it's a $200+ sweater I got it for like $80, and another one was only like $60 or something. They're gorgeous too. And at that cost, they'll last, I expect, much better than something bought for $10 at Target.

We left Atlanta a little before noon today, and on the way home stopped first at an outlet mall, where Jason bought some clothes, and then we stopped at a Harry and David store. We didn't intend to buy anything. We, of course, did. Quite a bit. But well worth it, I think.

Then we stopped at Whole Foods, because we don't have one near us. And left with -way- more stuff than we probably should have gotten. Chocolate by the ton. Stuff I've never even heard of. Plus desserts, and coffee .. though not much of that. Mostly it was the chocolate. A bunch of Vosges bars .. though a good bit of that was Jason's and not mine. I did get a plant for my flowerbed though, a new kind of mum I'd never seen before. It's really funky and pretty.

I just made my first batch of 'Tania Soup' for the year. It came out simply delicious. And is gone. No leftovers. Not that that's terribly surprising. There's not usually any leftover unless I make a huge batch. But .. yum. I missed this soup. Gonna go curl up and sleep now .. full tummy = sleeeepy.