Complete: 75. See Saguaro National Park

Merry Christmas!

The hubster and I decided to drive to Arizona on our way to California to see my people. We decided to stop at Saguaro because list!

Saguaro is actually divided into two parks across the Tucson valley, so naturally we went to both of them. We took the Cactus Loop drive on the East side and then watched the sunset from the West. It was a great day!

There were just cacti everywhere, and it was glorious. I super love cacti.

Bonus, I got two new smashed pennies on the trip!

Crepes and Christmas

I totally wrote this last week and then I didn't hit publish!!! Please excuse me. I present last week's blog post.

For my whole life I've put off making crepes because I thought they'd be super hard.

I was totally wrong.
This is a terrible thing to realize, as I'm now going to eat crepes all the time.
Making crepes helped me on item #69, cooking dishes from other countries.

Other things this week:
We discovered last minute and saw the premiere of the Princess Academy musical (which was okay - they play version we saw at BYU was WAY better) for item #4. We did get to breathe the same air as Shannon Hale, so that's a huge plus.

I tried Bindi Masala for item #37 - I'm up to 7 out of 10 new Indian dishes!

And a large amount of work was put into item #47, making our Christmas letter. We cut it close, but they're delivered! 2 more years to go and that one will be done.

Big plans for Christmas break! Get excited!

Complete: 22. Watch the Up Series

Let me tell you about the Up Series.

It started in 1964 when some British dudes decided to interview a bunch of 7-year-olds. They decided that interviewing a 7-year-old could give you insight into who they would grow up to be.

They've checked in with those 7-year-olds every seven years, giving us Seven Plus Seven, 14 Up, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, 42 Up, and lastly 56 Up, made in 2012. It's been a really fascinating series, and interesting to see where they all end up.

Some of the kids you hated at 7, you still hate at 56, but some of them surprise you. Some of them, you like all the way through, because they're just awesome. It's so happy to watch them find spouses and have children, and heartbreaking to see them divorce. I found myself just so excited to watch the next documentary because I needed to know what happened to them.

I know I don't really know them, but I kind of feel like I do. 63 Up will come out after my list is finished, so I can call this one complete, but I'm so excited to check in with my friends again soon!

P.S. We got photos taken, so that's one year down, two to go for item 58.

Spirited Away!

We greatly enjoyed seeing Spirited Away on the big screen on Monday. It was super lovely!

I'm going to have such a hard time ranking these guys, let me tell you.

We also got to see Ghiblies 2, a short film that was released in Japan with The Cat Returns and hasn't ever been released here. It was a lot of shorter stories, each in a different animation style and I think it's supposed to be loosely based on the film studio them self. It was beautiful and also crazy and everything all at once. It was almost worth the ticket price to see just that. 

Only 9 more movies to complete this goal! I do feel like I should ride the momentum, but I also have a very tempting stack of books from the library, which unfortunately doesn't help me with any goal, haha. We'll see!

Very Good News

You guys.

I have my first real instagram follower who isn't someone I already know.

I mean, I have plenty of business accounts who follow me and like stuff all the time, but I'm pretty sure they're not real.

She commented and said I had great taste and she would eat everything I've posted and she liked, like, everything.

A real person sees value in what I'm doing! Not that you guys aren't real people, it's just nice to feel validated by someone objective.

And since I've included a link to my blog on my instagram, it's possible the she could read this, so don't be creeped out! I think it's genuinely cool that you like my stuff. Most of my recipes are on my pinterest and I'm glad to send others your way. :)

Ghibli Update

My 9 movies in 18 days is going quite well, as I've already watched  4 in the past 7. Just 5 more and I have 11 days to do it, so no worries here.

I have to tell you about the wonderfulness that is Only Yesterday. I've owned this movie in my Ghibli set for at least 6 years now, but I had never watched it until this week. It's amazing. It was released in the US this year, so you all have no excuse not to watch it.

It follows Taeko, who is 27, unmarried, and working in Tokyo. She takes a vacation to go to the country and work on a farm because she feels more at home there. She begins to remember, for some reason, her 5th grade year and the film is interspersed with scenes from when she was 10. It's delightful and the ending is maybe one of my favorite Ghibli endings now. It also got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes if you need any more convincing.

I also feel it my duty to tell you to steer clear of Ocean Waves (Umi ga kikoeru). Please save yourself the hour of listening to whiny teenagers and watch Only Yesterday instead.

I'm thinking I'll have to do a Studio Ghibli ranking when I'm finished with this, and Ocean Waves is definitely in the bottom spot so far. We'll see how it fares when I re-watch Tales of Earthsea. Bluh.

A Goal Within a Goal

Fathom Events is showing Spirited Away in honor of its 15th anniversary and we got tickets to see it! It'll be amazing to see it on the big screen, and they're showing Ghiblies Episode 2 alongside it - a short film that's never been released in the US before. We're so excited!

I figured it would be extra great to have this viewing count for my list (for watching all the Studio Ghibli movies in chronological order), so I've decided to make it happen. I only have 9 more to watch and 18 days to do it.

Wish me luck!

Gratitude

It's been a tough week.

Since November 1st, I've been doing my 3 month gratitude journal (#30), and it honestly couldn't be at a better time. There's a lot of negativity, so now I feel that it's even more important to focus on the good things. I've been writing three things everyday.

Here's today's:
1. I'm grateful we live in a country where we have the right to vote and select our leaders, even if the outcome isn't what I personally wanted.
2. I'm grateful for the many empathetic posts I've seen on Facebook today. We are mourning with those that mourn.
3. I believe deep down that all people are good, and I'm grateful I can feel at least a tiny bit optimistic today.

Complete: 72: Track health and sleep for 3 months

One more down!

But first another shoutout to Pokemon Go. Heck, this app will get me to Mordor early, I'm so sure! They did a Halloween event and there were more Pokemon out and and more rewards for walking. You have a buddy Pokemon that walks with you and every 1 km, 3 km, or 5 km, depending on the Pokemon, you get a candy. These candies are what you use to evolve the Pokemon. For the Halloween event, these distances were quartered. I only had to walk. .75 km to get a candy for a usual 3 km Pokemon. Anyway, I ended up getting 48 candies this past week for Grimer and I'm going to evolve him into a Muk! I walked so much!

Now back to business.

I've been tracking my health for item 72, and I've already mentioned that data led to a diagnosis. I really feel like I'm taking charge of my health and I'm feeling a lot better these days. I tracked my food, my symptoms (if any), my activity, and my sleep. It's been a great help to have my Fitbit to track activity and sleep without much effort.

It's been three months, so I'm crossing the item off, but I still feel like I have a ways to go. I might keep a few notes still, but maybe not so hardcore. Wooooo gettin' healthy!

Complete: 97. Attend the Giant Pumpkin Regatta

First of all, it's not actually the Giant Pumpkin Regatta. It's the Ginormous Pumpkin Regatta. My apologies. These were not mere giant pumpkins.

We were graced with the presence of both major presidential nominees, as well as the loch ness monster, the little mermaid, and a pumpkin gnome, among others.

It was a quick, drama-filled race which HRC herself won. A foreshadowing of things to come???

After the race we got to see some pumpkins up close and they were even letting people paddle around a bit in them! They were so squishy and slimy I couldn't imagine getting in myself.

Overall, as far as large pumpkin events go, I think I like the pumpkin drop better, but this was a wonderful event. Item completed!

Week 28 Update

This week I really added work for myself: I bought a new cookbook because I couldn't resist, and I've been reading library books instead of what's on my shelf. Oh well! You just gotta do what you wanna do.

I did watch Castle in the Sky for one more off my Ghibli list. Next is Grave of the Fireflies and I'm looking forward to making Garrett sad with that one. He's never seen it.

Speaking of Garrett, I also passed him in Pokemon Go levels from all my walking. I feel a little bad, but only just. If he has to be boring and focus on school, I'm allowed to out-level him in Pokemon Go. :)

Big plans for this week include the Giant Pumpkin Regatta! I learned that not only is it a boat race, but you get to watch them carve the pumpkin-boats beforehand. I'm super excited.

Work on your goals this week! You'll be sad you didn't start sooner.

I will take the ring to Mordor!

So for item 52 of my list I've been walking to Mordor. It's 1779 miles the whole way, and I'm just keeping track of all my walking to decide when I get there.

As of this week, I've walked the 458 miles to Rivendell!

Yay me! Only about 1300 more miles to go!

This week:

• I watched Nausicaa for number 2 in my list of Studio Ghibli films
• I watched Forks Over Knives for my documentary list
• I read King Lear for the first of my Shakespearean plays
• I forgot to take a picture of my lunch, but it was okay because I just went home and took a picture of the other leftovers (shhh! don't tell!)
• I walked 18 miles (only 17 more to get to Rivendell!!!)

Healthy post!

We are still eating alfajores. They will never end.

This week I walked close to 30 miles (item #52), thanks to a trip to DC and lots of water pokemon to catch. I've got my Pokedex up to 104 and I am so close to Rivendell!

Also, thanks to my health record keeping (item #72), I've been able to get a diagnosis for some issues I've been having. In the interest of not sharing TMI, I'll just say we have an attack plan and we're hoping this solves things finally.

Woo progress! I have a day off tomorrow, so maybe I'll have bigger news for you next week. :)

Feliz Dieciocho!

Another week done. I started watching a Japanese show that I've seen before, but with the subtitles hidden. It's a kid's show, so it's not too bad, but it's definitely more stretching to watch this way!

Sunday was the Dieciocho - Chilean Independence Day - so we decided to make Chilean food. This fits right in with item #69 of my list - to make meals from different countries. We made completos - hot dogs with avocado, tomatoes, and mayonnaise, ensalada chilena - tomatoes and onions with lemon juice and olive oil, and alfajores - dulce de leche cookie sandwiches.

It was delicious, but I have too many cookies! I need to remember to halve these dang baking recipes. Hope your week has been great!

Gueeeest pooooost!

We regret to inform you that the blogger you know and love is currently incapacitated due to a condition I call "Tucanoitis" -- a kind of comatose state induced from certain eating behaviors at certain Brazilian buffets. So you're stuck with ME today! Wooooooo!

Iiiiiit's Garrett!!! *confetti cannons fire*

I've taken the time out of doing homework, needlessly worrying about my thesis, and liking my wife's posts on Instagram to inform you on Sara's doings for the past week.

We watched an anime movie called "The Girl Who Leaped Through Time." It was in Japanese, so, that counts! For those who like anime, and time travel, you'd like this. It's not your typical "I can time-travel now, let's fix my life" story that ends up backfiring -- well, it is that story, and it isn't. Just watch it, you won't regret it.

We also saw "See How They Run," a British comedy play written back in the 1940s. You remember the old joke "Who's On First, What's On Second"? It's basically an hour and a half of that. Lots of slapstick, lots of misunderstandings, lots of unconscious people. So one more play seen! Check!

She also made a Pad Thai recipe from one of Alton Brown's Good Eats books. Does that count? I'd count that. And it's set officially in stone on the blog, so no take backs!

Sorry she doesn't have more done, guys. And sadly that's partially my fault. I had to be born on this weekend 26 years ago, and she wanted to put together a party for me. P.S. thanks for coming guys!

Anyway, back to going in pointless circles about my thesis! Take care everyone!

Garrett

P.S. Sara here, typing one line so she can say she blogged this week. Thanks for picking up the slack, hubster!

This week thanks to Julie!

One of my biggest supporters for my lists has been my old roommate, Julie. She's always willing to help out, especially when helping involves buying ice cream.

This week she got the Fudge Tracks and Harvest Peach flavors of Red Button ice cream and kindly shared with me (item #93).

She also kindly acquiesced when I suggested Brasa's for dinner on Saturday as it was a new restaurant for me (item #35). This trip actually also led me to decide the subject for item #36: carne asada tortas. Heck, they're delish.

On top of all of this, she is one of the best bakers I know, and she will be helping with my year of baking (item #10).

I can't thank her enough. Julie is the best!

Everything Sara Eats

One month into instagramming all my food and I have 170 pictures (which are almost all included below). It's been interesting to see patterns and keep track of things, but it does make me a little self-conscious about what I eat. I feel like I have to eat exciting food or maybe less snacks. I just hope I'm not boring people with all my tomato sandwiches. :)

I'm excited to see what this looks like when I'm done!

 


 

 

This week thanks to

Amazon!

They had a sale on board games, so I bought two that won the Spiehl des Jahres: Enchanted Forest and Legends of Andor.

I've already played Codenames (which was excellent), so these will be 2 and 3 of 10.

So thanks, Amazon, you're the best (at taking my money).

Complete: 33. Cook Meatless Mondays for 3 months

Another one down!

So...I actually miscalculated and cooked Meatless Mondays for 4 months. Do I get extra credit?

We ate the following meals

• Coconut Quinoa Curry
• 3-Bean Chili
• Lemon Broccoli Pasta Skillet
• Chana Masaledar (Indian-spiced chickpeas and onions)

• Onion soup with star pasta

• 7-Layer Burritos
• Waffles
• Veggie Sushi
• Veggie Curry
• Southwestern Chopped Salad
• Indian-spiced Lentils
• Cheese pizza with basil and tomatoes (we kinda cheated here: this is Costco pizza, but we added to it!)

• Crunchy Thai Quinoa Cashew Salad

• Pad Thai

My favorites were the 3-Bean Chili, Pad Thai, and Chana Masaledar. 

The biggest challenge was still being full after dinner. We learned quickly that we needed to make sure there was plenty of protein in whatever we had. I think it was a good experience, though! I feel like we eat a lot of meat and I feel bad about that. It's a bit cheaper and a bit more healthy, and I can sacrifice at least one night a week. :)

More progress

I've started the health tracking and consumption instragram and it's been harder than I thought it would to remember to document everything. I'm sure I'll get into the swing of things soon, though. I have people holding me accountable, so that helps. My co-worker ratted me out at a company dinner last night and I was kind of embarrassed, but it actually helped to make my picture taking less awkward, and now everyone knows for the future.

I made Spanish tortilla in celebration of the olympics and heck, it was delicious. I visited Spain when I was 15 and we had tortilla at every hotel. I fell in love with it, but I've been intimidated by the recipe and hadn't made it until now. It's kind of a potato and onion omelette, and the terrifying part is flipping the omelette once one side has cooked. It was pretty stressful, but we managed. I'm really glad I've made it, but I might not stop making it now, haha. I plan to make a smaller batch to make the flipping easier.

So delicious!

Items completed!

Dear readers, I am thrilled to announce that I have completed two items on my 101 list.

41. Go on a new factory tour

We visited the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA. We didn't realize they had a factory shut down for most of the month of July. We showed up on the last day of the shutdown, so some things were functioning, but a lot of it wasn't.
Luckily, the tour incorporates awesome videos showing each stage up close, so we didn't miss too much. Some machines were working and we got to see the jelly beans in storage - crazy amounts!

This machine weighs out the amount for each package.

They press a mold into cornstarch to create the jelly bean shape.

Spider packing machine

Overall, it was a super cool tour and we got to wear sweet hats and went home with a free bag of jelly beans each. I'd super recommend it.

20. Go to a food festival

The Gilroy Garlic Festival is what I had in mind for this item. Like I've said before, I've been wanting to go to this place ever since I found out about it. I wasn't sure if I could swing it, so I left it open. However, Hubster and I were talking and we were just like, why not? If we don't go now, when will we?

And I'm so glad we did. It was delicious, entertaining, and so so garlicky. We watched the Garlic Cook-Off where 8 cooks from across America competed for the best garlic recipe. They threw garlic into the audience and Hubster caught me a bulb. :)

We had garlic shrimp, garlic ice cream, garlic butter roasted corn, garlic steak tacos, garlic kettle corn, pickled garlic, garlic bread, and a garlic peanut butter cup. Everything was great. The garlic ice cream was probably the surprise hit of the day.

Another cool part was the Pyro Chefs. They cook massive portions with lots of fire. 

It was a pretty crowded place, but it just warmed my heart to see so many people passionate about garlic. Totally worth the trip and I'd totally go again if I got the chance!

Big Plans!

Guys. I'm actually going to check something off this week! We're headed on our California trip starting tomorrow night. Expect a full report soon, with two items accomplished!

In addition to that, I'm going to start two big items on August 1st: 72. Track health and sleep for 3 months and 84. Keep a consumption instagram for 1 year.

For health and sleep tracking, my Fitbit will take care of a lot, but I want this to be super comprehensive. I've been having a lot of headaches and stomach issues lately (TMI? Maybe.), and I want to see if there's a connection with what I'm eating or what I'm doing. I'm thinking rating energy levels throughout the day will be helpful, too. I feel like having quantitative data will be great if I do need to get more advice from a doctor. Any other ideas on things I should keep track of?

My consumption instagram has been created, and I'm going to post everything I eat there.  I feel like these two go a bit hand in hand, so it shouldn't be too difficult to work on them at the same time. I love the idea of quantitative living, and I did a consumption photo log for 3 months on my last list. If you want to follow this crazy adventure, I'm at @everythingsaraeats. It'll be interesting to see who follows an account like that, too. Oh, and credit where credit is due - I got the idea initially from Tucker Shaw's book Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth. All good artists steal!

Success is waiting on the other side!

100 Days in!

And I still haven't checked off anything! Wooo!

But I'm still making lots of progress:

• I'm caught up to present day on the Newbery books. I'll just need to read the winners for 2017-2019 as they're announced.
• I watched a super sad, but also super lovely anime as part of my weekly Japanese watching: Your Lie In April. It's on Netflix so you have no excuse not to watch it.
• We tried some new Red Button flavors thanks to Julie. 6 down, like 20 more to go!
• I've read books of my shelf at home including Welcome to Night Vale. 
• I made cucumber sandwiches for a fancy tea party. Totally counts as a recipe from England.
• We finished season 5 of Adventure Time and we're like a third of the way through season 6.

I gotta keep focused! Gotta keep working! Our trip is coming up soon, so I'll definitely check something off by then. :)

This week brought to you by:

I have two big thanks (thankses?) to give out this week.

First, Pokemon Go. Seriously. I've never really been much into Pokemon until now. I mean, I watched the show and had some trading cards, but I never played the games. This one is just too awesome not to get involved in. You get exercise, you catch sweet Pokemons, you meet awesome people - what's not to like?
The very best part of it is that it's helping with my Walk to Mordor challenge. I've walked at least 2 miles every day this week, whereas most work days I'm struggling to hit more than 1.5. I've hit 22 miles this week, which is actually my second highest week for the 101 list so far. I'm not good at exercising for the sake of exercise, so it's great to have Pokemon as a distraction.

Second, T-Mobile Tuesdays. If you have T-Mobile and you haven't downloaded the app yet, do it now. You get free stuff for just using T-Mobile. Free movie tickets, free Frostys, free magazine subscriptions, and the chance to win bigger prizes. It's been great.
They've been giving out free credit for Vudu, an online video site. They rent movies and shows and you can also purchase them to own in the cloud. This week Good Eats was on super sale for some reason, so I got 2 seasons for $10 total, using my free credit to cover most of it. Boom. Another item helped along.

So here's to you, Pokemon Go and T-Mobile Tuesdays! Thanks for helping me with my list!

Surprise progress

Hubster and I were supposed to leave for Georgia last Wednesday night so I made all the 101 List preparations - I blogged early, I made sure to get my Japanese watching in, I even picked a ponderize scripture early so I wouldn't have to worry about it on the road.

Then our flight got cancelled and we weren't going to be able to go until Friday morning. We suddenly had a day off we weren't expecting to have.

So we binge watched Adventure Time season 4. What a great day!

Announcing 101 List Night

So I decided to quit volunteering at the local library (something I started doing for my second 101 list). I gave them 3 hours a week for almost 9 months, so I don't feel too bad. I was starting to get a little burnt out, and I felt like I could use that one evening a week a little better.

What I've decided to do now is make Wednesday nights 101 List night! I'll keep working on things throughout the week, of course, but I think I'll plan bigger projects for that night.

Hopefully, this will help me blog every week better, too. Fingers crossed!

Exciting plans!

Well, dang it, I missed my deadline again! I'm limiting myself to 10 misses/late posts, so if I can only do this 8 more time for the remainder of my 1001 days. Goodness, self, get it together!

On my very first 101 list, I learned how to say "garlic" in 20 different languages. This was because my grandpa used to say "If you know how to say garlic in any language, you can get a good meal anywhere." I didn't meet my grandpa - he died before I was born - but his love for garlic lives on. My father has it, and I have it.

I'm happy to announce that we'll finally have a family representative at the Gilroy Garlic Festival (considered one of the best food festivals in the country) this year (hint: it's me). With this, I'll check off item 20 - go to a food festival. This place sounds amazing. There's a garlic cook-off and garlic ice cream. You can take your picture with a giant bulb of garlic!

Conveniently, the Jelly Belly factory is in the area, so I'll also check off item 41 - go on a new factory tour. I've also looked up smashed penny locations, and I can add at least 3 new pennies for item 86.

For the fun of it, we'll probably do some other things while we're out - visit The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz and try and find some slugs, and also go to Yosemite. We're so pumped for our trip!

And most importantly, I'll finally be able to check something off my list!

Plus two more

I started two more items this week:

22. Watch the Up Series

79. Get up to 1000 HITs on Mechanical Turk

Maybe I should just see how many I can simultaneously work on before I actually finish one. Hah!

Items in Progress

So I realized this week that I've kind of doomed myself to a lot of work with delayed payoff. Only about a third of the items on my list that can be checked off in one sitting, as it were. The rest have multiple steps or time required, so it'll take me a while to finish most of them. Just so I can stop feeling bad about not finishing something yet, I present to you, the items I have started:

2. Read all of the Yakitate!! Japan manga in Japanese

3. Watch 50+ episodes of Good Eats and cook 25+ corresponding recipes

4. See 10+ new plays live

5. Make 10+ recipes from Cooking With Dog

6. Send picture or video thank you notes for the duration of the list

9. For every feature film I watch during the list, watch a documentary

15. Culling of the cookbooks

16. Finish a grown-up coloring book

24. Read a Newbery Award or Honor book for each year since I was born

29. Watch all Studio Ghibli movies in chronological order

33. Cook Meatless Mondays for 3 months

35. go to 10+ new Provorem restaurants

37. Try 10+ new Indian dishes

42. Find the best waffle recipe

43. Read a biography of each President of the church

52. Complete the Walk to Mordor challenge

54. Read/watch/listen to 30 min+ of Japanese media each week and keep vocabulary lists

60. Either read or get rid of the books I own but haven't read

65. Add pictures to our map for all western states

68. Have people over for dinner 10+ times

69. Cook a dish from 25+ different countries

82. blog updates weekly

86. Collect 10+ new smashed pennies and clean and organize my collection

88. Ponderize a scripture each week and handwrite that scripture each day

91. Beat Dinky Park

92. Catch up on Adventure Time

93. Try every available flavor of Red Button ice cream

94. Make 10+ new panna cotta recipes

96. Follow an apostle through their General Conferences

98. Listen to 100+ episodes of This American Life

101. Watch all of the Yakitate!! Japan anime with Garrett and re-create a bread from the show

That's a whopping 31 items, so it does make me feel a little better. I wish I had more completion news to share, but hopefully I'll actually finish something soon! I just need to cross something off that list! :)

Getting things done

It's been a busy week otherwise, but I managed to do a few things. I've started cooking Meatless Mondays and will continue for 3 months, I started my grown-up coloring book (this will take forever!), and I read a couple Newberys. I'm really close on those, but I can't finish until 2018's winner is announced. At least I've done all the groundwork! We also saw a new play: Antony and Cleopatra by Grassroots Shakespeare. These guys are amazing.

Something I've been putting off is adding more pictures to our map. I got this for Garrett for our first anniversary (it's paper!) and I needed to add Washington and Wyoming from our trips last year. Now I have! The goal (#65) is to add pictures for all western states, so now we just need Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. We've got that west coast wiped out.

New smashed pennies!

I went to Spokane and Coeur d'Alene with my wonderful former roommate this weekend. We both love smashed pennies, so I made sure to look up where we could find them on the trip.

I ended up getting 2 - I'm well on my way to having 10 new ones by the end of the list.

The first is of the world's largest Radio Flyer we saw in Riverfront Park in Spokane (sadly there was no garbage goat penny). The second, pictured twice as it's double-sided, is of Tremors, a roller coaster at Silverwood amusement park. I do like a good double-sided penny. It saves you from having to get more than one if you want the location or a logo.

Wooo pennies!

I already messed up.

I had every intention of posting yesterday, the last day of week 6 of my list. And as per item 82 of my list, blogging once for each week of my list is what's required.

But I forgot.

Technically, I've already failed on item 82.

However, if I've learned anything while doing these lists, it's that you have to help yourself succeed sometimes. Maybe you weren't able to complete a goal up to your original imagined standards, but completing it at all is more than you would have done without the goal.

You also can't be too lenient, because then what's the point of the list at all? But it's important to give yourself breaks.

So for now, I'm calling it good as long as I blog twice in week 7. You gotta be nice to yourself.

Melon Tea Panna Cotta

Aw heck, you guys, I made the BEST panna cotta.

Based off this recipe, I changed it to an herbal tea, cuz that's my style. Melon and cream are excellent together, so I went with a Golden Honey Dew. I think other teas could also be great.

I also changed the method of gelatin incorporation, because heating the gelatin as she asks you to do can have disastrous results. Please follow the instructions of master David Lebovitz instead: recipe here.

So this is the first time I've really experimented with adding my own flavors and I'm ecstatic that it worked so well. I have to make 8 more panna cotta recipes for my list, and perhaps I'll do some more experimenting. :)

Until then!

Newbery Award Winners, Part 1

For item 24 for of my list, I'm reading an Newbery Award or Honor book for each year since I've been born. I decided to go ahead and knock these out now. They're short books generally, and they're lovely reads.

So far I've read:

• (1988) Lincoln, A Photobiography
• (1989) Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
• (1990) Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
• (1991) Maniac Magee
• (1992) Nothing But the Truth
• (1993) Missing May
• (1994) Dragon's Gate
• (1995) The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm
• (1996) The Great Fire
• (1997) The Moorchild
• (1998) Lily's Crossing
• (1999) A Long Way From Chicago
• (2000) Bud, Not Buddy
  

I think my favorites so far have been Joyful Noise, The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, and The Moorchild. Great stuff!

I'm up to age 13, and I'm reading Hope Was Here. I've read a lot of the nominees and winners already, but it's great to catch the ones I haven't. I feel like this should be a lifelong goal - to always read the nominees and winner for each year. Kids' books are just so great! 

My new friend

Hey guys! I'm still hard at work, riding the adrenaline of beginning my list. I think it's starting to set in just how much I have planned for myself, too, though.

However, I've greatly improved one aspect of the list this past week. I'd like to introduce you to my Fitbit:

I found him on sale on groupon (he's refurbished, but shh, don't tell him that - he's fabulous) for $40, so I couldn't resist. Now I can count all of my daily walking for my Walk to Mordor challenge (item #52), not just walks I take directly for that purpose.

I just got back from DC for a work trip and I'm so glad I had my Fitbit. On just one day of that trip I walked 6.5 miles. Heck (I also climbed 26 flights of stairs. Yikes!).

This will make things so much easier for me, and will also assist in doing my three months of health and sleep tracking (item #72). I also love love love all the graphs and data that Fitbit just keeps for you. So great.

How great is modern technology? The greatest, I would submit.

Week 1 Update

I love the energy I get when I start something new. I've gotten a lot done this week!

• I read 4 Newbery Award and Honor books: Lincoln, A Photobiography (1988), Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (1989), Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind (1990), and Maniac Magee (1991).
• I walked 12 miles. What?
• I started watching Your Lie In April for my Japanese language goal.
• We had friends over for dinner: Spaghetti Carbonara, Za'atar crusted cauliflower, and Ginger Panna Cotta with Black Sesame Gelee. I'm not counting the panna cotta for my panna cotta goal because it didn't set right. I'mma try it again. But that's one dinner party down!
• My first ponderizing scripture was 2 Chronicles 15:7: "Be ye strong therefore and let not your hands be weak: for you work shall be rewarded." I feel like writing it everyday is helping to internalize it.
• Garrett and I started watching Adventure Time season 3. 
• I decided on Uchtdorf to follow through his General Conferences, and I've read his first three talks. 
• I listened to three episodes of This American Life: My Damn Mind, What I Did for Love, and Accidental Documentaries.

Woooooo 101 List! It's nice to have goals to work towards again. 

101 3.0

It's hard to believe I'm on my third 101 List. By the end of this one, I'll have been doing them for almost 10 years! I'm pumped for this one. It's been a few months since my last one ended, so I'm raring to go!

Without further ado, I present my new list:

1. See Hamilton

2. Read all of the Yakitate!! Japan manga in Japanese

3. Watch 50+ episodes of Good Eats and cook 25+ corresponding recipes

4. See 10+ new plays live

5. Make 10+ recipes from Cooking With Dog

6. Send picture or video thank you notes for the duration of the list

7. Go to a banjo camp

8. Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando with Garrett

9. For every feature film I watch during the list, watch a documentary

10. Year of baking

11. Ride the Heber Valley Railroad

12. Go to the Utah State Fair 

13. Attend at least one full day of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

14. Read the complete works of Shakespeare

15. Culling of the cookbooks

16. Finish a grown-up coloring book

17. Play 10+ Spiel des Jahres or Kennerspiel award winning games

18. Make bottle cap magnets

19. Re-read Harry Potter

20. Go to a food festival

21. Re-evaluate my favorite things (i.e. books, movies)

22. Watch the Up Series

23. Host a Rummikub tournament

24. Read a Newbery Award or Honor book for each year since I was born

25. Take one second of footage everyday for a year

26. Take a train trip somewhere

27. Keep a doodle journal for 3 months

28. Rank and chart Cinderella adaptations

29. Watch all Studio Ghibli movies in chronological order

30. Keep a gratitude journal for 3 months

31. Create my own topical guide of the scriptures

32. French "Fryday" blogposts for 3 months

33. Cook Meatless Mondays for 3 months

34. Pierogi making party!

35. go to 10+ new Provorem restaurants

36. Find the best dish of my choice in the area

37. Try 10+ new Indian dishes

38. Complete a 30-day project each month for 2 years

39. Take an internet course

40. Find my scent

41. Go on a new factory tour

42. Find the best waffle recipe

43. Read a biography of each President of the church

44. Become a master of small talk

45. Watch the nominees for Best Animated Picture for each year in the list

46. Make a 101 List report

47. Send a Christmas newsletter each year

48. Work through Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy

49. Learn 5+ songs on banjo

50. Learn 5+ songs on guitar

51. Learn 5+ songs on ukulele

52. Complete the Walk to Mordor challenge

53. Get a massage

54. Read/watch/listen to 30 min+ of Japanese media each week and keep vocabulary lists

55. No complaining for 1 week

56. Run a fun 5K

57. Take a road trip to Michigan

58. Have yearly family portraits taken

59. Visit a friend who lives far away

60. Either read or get rid of the books I own but haven't read

61. Try laughter yoga

62. Follow an elimination diet to see if I have food intolerances

63. Take a dance class with Garrett

64. Buy 5 new dresses that I love

65. Add pictures to our map for all western states

66. Make a new cosplay with Garrett

67. Build a fancy cake for someone

68. Have people over for dinner 10+ times

69. Cook a dish from 25+ different countries

70. Make homemade cheese

71. For 3 months, only buy what is on sale or what I have a coupon for

72. Track health and sleep for 3 months

73. Create a map of my heart

74. Find out my blood type and donate blood if they'll let me

75. See Saguaro National Park

76. Crochet an amigurumi

77. Watch 25+ new foreign films

78. Make mood playlists

79. Get up to 1000 HITs on Mechanical Turk

80. Make a young me/now me photo

81. Put $20 in the coin pusher games at the Nickelcade

82. blog updates weekly

83. Make a silly photo project

84. Keep a consumption instagram for 1 year

85. Go to the Penguin Encounter at the Living Planet Aquarium

86. Collect 10+ new smashed pennies and clean and organize my collection

87. Mark and annotate a Book of Mormon

88. Ponderize a scripture each week and handwrite that scripture each day

89. Create pie charts made of pie

90. Attend a Utah Old Time Fiddlers Association meeting

91. Beat Dinky Park

92. Catch up on Adventure Time

93. Try every available flavor of Red Button ice cream

94. Make 10+ new panna cotta recipes

95. Take a local cooking class

96. Follow an apostle through their General Conferences

97. Attend the Giant Pumpkin Regatta

98. Listen to 100+ episodes of This American Life

99. Make a peep diorama

100. Host a Miracle Berry party

101. Watch all of the Yakitate!! Japan anime with Garrett and re-create a bread from the show

101 Redux Results

Hi blogland! Long time no type, huh?

I finished my second 101 List on December 31, 2015 with a record-setting 75 items completed.

My reporting this time, though, was on my YouTube channel - I made a vlog for every item I completed - so I didn't post anything here. You can check out all the videos at this playlist: 101 List

I've waited a bit to start my next list and I'm feeling like that was a mistake. I quickly found myself starting to feel aimless. I wanted to wait, though, until I knew where I'd be living for the next few years, because, OH YEAH, I got married in the this gap, as well, and my husband was waiting for grad school decisions.

Now that we know we're staying around these parts for the next 2 years (woohoo!), I am ready to begin. Keep your peepers peeled for my new list, coming at you soon.