It feels like we're off to a good start, but I can't believe all that's happened just this month. What a crazy, terrible, beautiful world we're living in.
Completed:
55. ultimate lucky New Year's meal
- Have you been waiting on pins and needles for me to tell you what we ate? I sure hope so.
Baked Fish - viewed as lucky in many cultures as they can only swim forward - no going backwards!
Toshikoshi Soba with fish (traditional in Japan for New Years Eve), also dumplings - symbolizing money
Cider and 12 grapes at midnight (the tradition in Spain is to gobble one for each toll of the bell - we failed miserably, but hopefully the other foods make up for that...)
Greek Vasilopita - there's a quarter hidden in there! It's for luck!
Hoppin' John and cornbread - representing my Georgian heritage - cornbread for gold, black eyed peas for prosperity, pork for wealth and prosperity
Lentils (representing coins) and Sausage (Italy) and salad with greens and pomegranate - representing money, wealth, prosperity, good luck
Homemade marzipan pigs - pretty sure these go along with the wealth aspect of pigs and pork
- Most of these have to do with wealth/prosperity. So if we get all the money this year, I guess we'll know why! Even if we don't, it was fun to learn about different cultural foods and eat them all ourselves! Hopefully we've at least built up some luck for the year to come. :)
69. display 5 pieces of my art
- All done! I ordered some photo tiles from Snapfish - they had a very good deal and they print square, so it was perfect to order some of my instagram work and not have to worry about cropping or anything. I got 4 of them, and already had 3 pieces otherwise, so I get extra credit for this one!
Updates:
3. study daily routines, develop one that works for me, and keep it for at least 6 months
- I've officially started my 6 months and I have a schedule that I'm trying my best to stick to. It seems good so far!
- This month was Samin Nosrat and her excellent cookbook: Salt Fat Acid Heat. We made some amazing chicken, delicious salads, and a killer chocolate cake, among others. I really recommend the book, as well as her series of the same name on Netflix. And if you need more Samin, she has a quarantine cooking podcast called Home Cooking that is just delightful. I learned this month that she came into cooking with no background - she ate at Alice Water's Chez Panisse and loved it so much that she asked to be a dishwasher and worked her way up into cooking. Her approach to cooking is so encouraging - if you mess up, it's just dinner and you can try again tomorrow. I love how popular she's gotten despite not fitting the stereotypes or matronly expert or charming keeper of the hearth. She's single, she travels, and everything is just so good.
30. see 30 new international films (8/30)
- I watched Sweet Bean (Japan), The Life Ahead (Italy), and Downton Abbey (UK/US). Hubster says Downton totally counts, haha. I liked them all okay. I am excited because our library just got us all access to Kanopy! It has a lot of international films, including a lot of the Criterion Collection (aka cream of the crop). I'm excited to watch some there this month.
35. watch 10 anime series (6/10)
- I finally finished catching up with Haikyuu! I came late to the scene, but it's such a lovely show. Sports anime are just so wholesome, in general (though I don't usually care for sports in the real world - funny how that is), and this series gives you lots of Hai-cuties to root for. There may be a season 5 before my list ends, but who knows with delays these days. I'm glad I've had it to keep me company.
40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf
- The scarf has begun! And by that I mean the scarves have begun because I couldn't give up my idea of one for fries and another more serious one. So we have the fries scarf that's a simple binary - if I had fries I knit with yellow yarn, and if I did not, I knit with grey. The second scarf has 8 possible colors, depending on how far I travel from home (thank you, Emily!!). There is a color for traveling no distance from home, and I'm a bit self-conscious about how often that color show up so far. But it's going to be lovely to see as weather gets warmer and I go outside more and we hopefully are safe to travel more and farther. I'll get a picture for you next month, when it will be a bit more impressive.
53. get all the Stardew Valley achievements
- I should really revise this to get all the base achievements, because there are a few having to do with the in-game game Journey of the Prairie King and those are never going to happen. But there are a few "bonus" ones I'd like to do. Let's just say everything except JoPK, hahaha.
- In fact, I did one of the bonus achievements this month! Only 3.2% of all players do this, so I'm going to brag about it. Stardew Valley is a game in which you play a weary corporate worker who decides to try their hand at farming. Throughout the game, you are able to restore a community center and bring joy to the town. However, they also offer a route that allows you to support the corporate greed of Joja, the terrible workplace you had just escaped. So I started up a new file and decided to be as evil as possible, naming my character Karen McButt and naming all my animals after Survivor villains. I didn't make friends with anyone and sometimes I gave them trash. It was great. I just focused all my time on making money so I could earn the upgrades and get out of there. I was able to do it by Fall 25 of the 1st year and honestly, that was a lot quicker than I expected! And now I never have to play with Joja again, hahahaha. I'm only sad I can't reap the benefits of my soda machine. Oh well!
- So in preparing for this, I realized I don't really overspend too much, except for in the treats department. I can justify anything, haha. So we've set up a fun money budget for each of us for the year, and we're going to just try to keep an eye on other expenses. I think tracking spending will be enough for us to stay aware of how we're doing. But the year has started as far as my personal budget goes!
91. play 20 games from Board Game Geek's top 100 (10/20)
- This month brought a life-changing discover: Tabletopia. This website has tons of board games to play online for free, including many that are highly rated by Board Game Geek! I was able to play Die Quacksalber Von Quidlenburg and Roll Player this month, checking 2 off the list. Added bonus, we were able to play with faraway friends. I love the internet. If anyone else wants to play online, just let me know! I still have 10 games I need to play, but I'm hopeful I can wrap this up soonish with the help of Tabletopia. It's a lot cheaper this way, too, hahaha.
96. wikipedia cooking challenge
- I decided upon the wikipedia page List of dumplings and seeing that there was a dumpling for each letter of the alphabet, it has morphed into an Alphabet of Dumplings challenge. 52 weeks in the year means I'll make a dumpling every 2 weeks. So this month so far, we've made apple dumplings (Northern US) and Banh Bot Loc Tran (pork and shrimp tapioca dumplings from Vietnam). I'm very excited for this one!
Whew! That's a lot of updates! But so it is with the beginning of a new year.
2 more done this month puts me at 38 total, and lots more in progress promise that number will continue to rise. This is my last full year of the list, so I've got to be working hard!
Happy new year to you all! I hope it finds you well.
