101 Focus Month

I feel like I've been slacking lately, so the 30 day project this month is putting at least 30 minutes of work into a 101 list item each day.

I have a commute now (bluh), but one really great thing about it is having dedicated time for reading. I do love that. I'm putting a dent in my bookshelf books (#60) and my Yakitate manga (#2).

We watched Tales from Earthsea (bluhhhh) and Ponyo, so only 5 more Ghibli movies to go (#29). I've also watched a few documentaries - Regency House Party (#9)! I need to stay up on the documentaries or I'll have to watch a ton in the last few months of the list.

I'm also making lots of plans! Items #12 and 13 will be completed in September, and I've done research for some others.

I think it's been good to center myself and re-focus. Doing things!

Complete: 84. Keep a consumption instagram for 1 year

I'm done! One whole year of posting my food on instagram. I love that I have a record of this. I think it's really fascinating to go back and look at things.

I had 2096 posts in the end, that's an average of 5.7 photos per day.

I only posted pictures of empty or mostly empty vessels 7 times (though confession: I probably forgot a few more times than that. But only a few, I promise!)

166 of the photos were from eating out
75 were takeout eaten at home

28 photos were from samples at Costco or the like
6 hotel breakfasts
3 weddings' worth of food - probably like 20 photos

sandwiches:
32 salami
30 tuna
8 tomato
4 BLT
I realize I should have counted ham, but I'm not going through the photos again...it would probably be between tuna and tomato

2 mini donut batches
2 cotton candies
6 rosemary shortbreads
7 crazy breads

It took me 2 months to finish a box of chocolates, it being featured in 4 photos.

my most popular snack was popcorn: 98 times
44 almonds
34 sunflower seeds

34 cucumbers

27 peanuts

26 fries

popular dinners included
31 refried bean tacos
23 mabo dofu
21 manchurian cauliflower and tofu
12 cilantro chicken dumplings

most popular restaurants were
Kohinoor 10 photos
Cubby's 8
Bombay House 8
Ganesh 6
Shoga 6
McDonald's 6

I guess we've learned that I like popcorn and Indian food. But we knew that already!

Instagram deleted my old account apparently, so keep following me @everythingsaraeats for now. I may change the name in the future, but it'll be the same account. I would hate for Instagram to delete my food record so I'll stay there.

I hope you all enjoyed looking at my food!

It was a week.

I made cinnamon rolls with Julie the Master Baker:

We also walked 15 miles just over the weekend, thanks, as always, to Pokemon Go.

Wooooooooooooooo!

Summer Reading Program!

So I've been doing a lot of reading lately. Totally understandable with 5+ reading goals on my list, right? Too bad none of it is for my list!

It's the Provo Library Summer Reading Program!

I really can't pass up the extra motivation. They have great prizes. Last year I won a gift card to Communal, one of my favorite restaurants ever, and this year there's a gift card for kolaches. Kolaches!

They have a great interface that's really a mini goal list, too. You get extra entries for cute things like reading a book with a character who has your same name or reading a book by a Utah author. I super love it. I did manage to squeeze in A Midsummer Night's Dream toward goal 14, but everything else has been for fun. Oh well! It's the Summer Reading Program!

(We did see play 9 out of 10 for goal 4, and also tried Red Button's Watermelon Sherbet, so it hasn't been a complete slack off week, list-wise.)

Summer Reading Program!

Complete: 1. See Hamilton

It was amazing.

While fantastic, the cast album just doesn't do the play justice. It's really only half the story. It was so cool to see the action that accompanies the music and get the full picture. The turntable stage is superbly utilized and the choreography was amazing.

It was interesting to see different actors playing the roles, and getting their interpretations of the characters. It was also super weird because I love the recording so much.

Hubster likened it unto a book-to-movie adaptation where you get certain images in your head and then you see how they interpret it. Along with that, there were a lot of "surprise" moments that you just don't get any sense of with just the music. I don't want to spoil anything, but they were just great.

There were also many tears shed. That orphanage!

Overall, it was super great. 10/10 would recommend. We might just have to see it again when it comes to Utah. :)

Double the bakes!

So it's breadstick/rolls month here on the Great Sara Baking Show and I've made twice the buns as we'll be off for vacation all next week and I don't want to bake. It's okay. I make the rules.

Dinner Rolls

Burger Buns

Both were quite successful, I think. Perhaps I'm finally taming this beast of an oven!

I may take one of my free pass days and not post next week, because a real vacation is sounding really good right now. We'll see! There will certainly be very big news upon our return. :)

2017 Best Animated Pictures

Per goal #45, I'm watching every film nominated for Best Animated Picture and this week I finished those nominated for this year's Academy Awards.

• Kubo and the Two Strings - overall, my favorite. The animation was stunning, and I do have an affinity for origami. I also loved the music - especially the Regina Spektor cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
• Moana - but I also loved this one! Again, great music - thank you, Lin! But most of all, I loved the story. I loved that Moana was in line to be the chief with no man to qualify that position. I loved that she saved her people and opened up the world to them again. Tears were shed.
• My Life as a Zucchini  - this one was enjoyable, but in a more subtle way. When his mother dies, Zucchini is sent to live in an orphanage and the movie follows his experiences there. There's some heavy material, but it's treated in a light manner. We watched the making of and saw how they created the models and filmed the dialogue - all the kids were untrained actors, just regular kids - and I really liked that.
• The Red Turtle - Hands down the worst film on this list, and also a terrible film in general. The animation is beautiful, as Studio Ghibli had a hand in it, but from what I understand, they let the director have free reign on everything else. I think it was supposed to symbolize man's relationship with nature or something, but I didn't find the story gripping. It felt like a short film that was stretched out for a longer run time.
• Zootopia - I also loved Zootopia. I think it was really close between this, Kubo, and Moana for me, so it's quite alright that Zootopia won. This was probably the funniest of the five, and it had a great message. Also a shout out to Shakira/Gazelle's "Try Everything" - I got chills when Judy was listening to it riding into the city for the first time.

I'm really enjoying this goal - I just wish it was possible to see them all before the Oscars themselves, but some weren't released in the US until after. I had already seen Kubo, Moana, and Zootopia when the list was announced, but I had to wait for Zucchini and The Red Turtle. Many thanks to the Orem Library for their excellent DVD collection that make it possible for me to watch those two.