66/365 - Took this shortly before my Kiwanis meeting on Tuesday. I love Kiwanis. I've been a member since high school - so over 15 years!

67/365 - Reba likes to help keep my purse from floating away.

68/365 - After yoga tonight, tiny moon low in the sky. And omnipresent snow.

63/365 - Black bean salad for lunch.

64/365 - Reba, doing her unshaven & hungover hobo impression.

65/365 - Felafel and Greek salad.

Wow, so much to talk about!

Fitness Related Goals

Nothing specific to report here but things are still chugging along at a happy pace. Lots of running, bootcamp, swimming, and now – yoga! Not as much biking as I should be doing, but I hope to rectify this next month. I’m having equipment issues.

Goal #7 – Make handmade lemonade.

Done! I was able to mark that one off this weekend.

Goal #27 – Make meditation a regular part of my day.

This is going well. I haven’t missed a day since committing to this goal.

Goal #51 – Do 30 yoga classes.

This is the goal I am most excited about right now. I took my first yoga class on Saturday morning and you guys – I AM HOOKED. I have never felt stronger or more in-tune with my body. I can totally see why people give up their jobs to go to India and study yoga and then start little studios where they can teach yoga, walk around barefoot, and wear comfortable clothing all the time.

So, I took a second yoga class on Sunday and then a third one today. Three consecutive days of yoga. I even turned down a friend who offered to buy me lunch at my favorite restaurant today because the time he wanted to go conflicted with the class I wanted to take. I used to look for any excuse NOT to workout, now I look forward to so many of my workouts that I get downright angsty if I can’t do them. Not always, but a lot of the time. And yoga… yoga could get seriously addictive for me.

I thought this goal would be something of a chore. Good for me, but nothing easy. While the yoga practice itself is beyond challenging and hard, doing 30 classes in 1,001 days will be a CINCH. I should have made this goal 300 classes. Hmmmmm….

Goal #77 – Read 30 classic novels and blog my thoughts about them.

I started reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I have never been able to finish a Dickens novel. I love his stories – I’ve seen enough of them in movie and/or musical form – but his writing was always too overwhelming for me.  All those names!

This is my first attempt at David Copperfield and from the start it’s going much better. I am really enjoying it and not feeling overwhelmed at all. In the foreword, Dickens says that of all his novels this is his favorite. I’m taking that as a good sign, for whatever it’s worth.

Goal #78 – Finish my MSBH blog project.

I baked three recipes over the past 10 days and posted one of them today. I’m going to hold some back; by about July my house is too hot to bake in and that lasts through September. (My house, like most in Laramie, is built without air conditioning or central air.) So, I’m going to try to get ahead enough with my baking that I can regularly post recipes through the summer months so the blog doesn’t lag like it did last year. But, I also hope to continue posting at least one recipe a week until then.

Goals rock.

I didn’t follow a recipe, I just used lemons, sugar, and water and mixed it a little at a time until it tasted the way I wanted. And I took photos to share, because that’s just the kind of blogger I am.

The stuff - I bought both regular and Meyer lemons but only used the regular lemons.

I used: lemons, sugar, water. That’s it!

Step One: Bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to a simmer on the stovetop and allow to cook until sugar melts. Mixture should remain clear, so don’t overcook it. Take off the heat and allow to cool completely. This is simple syrup. (I didn’t photograph this step.)

Step Two: Juice lemons.

From 12 smallish lemons I got about 1 cup of lemon juice.

Simple Syrup and Lemon Juice

I ended up with about 1-2/3 cups of simple syrup which is much more than is needed, but I find it’s easier to cook with at least one cup of sugar and one cup of water. Anything less doesn’t work well for me on the stove. The extra syrup stores easily at room temperature in any container, really, and can be used to sweeten any drink. You can also add maple flavor and have syrup for your pancakes that tastes just like store-bought pancake syrup.

Once the simple syrup is cool, I mixed the lemon juice with some water and then just added the syrup a tablespoon at a time until it was as sweet as I wanted it.

I like my lemonade on the very tart side and this was the winning recipe:

Amber’s Preferred Homemade Lemonade

1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice (about 12 small/medium lemons)
2 ½ cups water
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon simple syrup

Mix it all together in a pitcher or whatever container is handy. Enjoy!
Yield: Approximately 28-32 oz

This base recipe is great because now I can play around with flavored simple syrups, different citrus, and other fun variations. I love lemonade, Arnold Palmers, and on the rare occasion I drink a cocktail, I like lemonade mixed with Absolut Citron and ginger beer.

61/365 - The Whole Earth Grainery in downtown Laramie remains closed after Vince Arbour's death earlier this month. It was a Laramie institution for a long, long, long time. As was Vince.

You would think that 61 days into this I would have completed more than one goal, but alas, I have not. I am really eager to cross something else of my list!  Good news – the dogs did not die from the box of Valentine chocolates they ate yesterday (thankfully, it was a box of milk chocolate, not dark) and we went on a great walk this morning. It was one of those perfect winter mornings in Laramie – sharp, cold, and weirdly gray/blue.

Jäger is fine - he's barking at me to stop taking pictures and start throwing the frisbee.

Fitness Related Goals

Today was a hard day on the exercise front. No running, but my bootcamp class was entirely about weightlifting and it killed me. I swam for 30 minutes afterward and really pushed myself so my arms are toast tonight for sure. Tomorrow I take my first yoga class! So while all my progress on my fitness goals is very general, I am making progress toward accomplishing all these goals. Every day I get a little closer.

Goal #27 – Make meditation a regular part of my day.

So far, so good. I’m meditating every day. I also found a couple new meditation groups in Laramie that I can attend when I feel like meditating in a group setting, which I sometimes do.

Goal #45 – Get my dog, Honey Bear’s, portrait painted.

This one is close to being done (which will be when it’s hanging on a wall in my home, I decided). I took it to the framer yesterday.

At the framer's. Choosing the right mat is always tough for me. I'm very indecisive about these things, as I can rarely tell much of a difference. In the end I went with the lightest color.

Goal #61 – Watch 50 classic movies and blog my thoughts about them.

Reba and I watched The Godfather this week. I had never seen it. Here are some of my thoughts as I wrote them down during the movie:

1. Opening scene – you think that’s the Godfather, maybe, but it’s not! Brilliant zoom out (“zoom out” is probably not the correct technical word for what the camera did there).
2. Don Vito Corleone, lover of cats.
3. I cannot understand 97% of what Don Vito Corleone (DVC) is saying. It’s all “uhhhhgggghhg uhhh muhhh” to me. I am considering turning on the closed-captioning.
4. Sicilian weddings look like an outstanding good time.
5. That guy had what I imagine is the most authentic reaction to finding a severed horse head in one’s bed.
6. “Narcotics is a thing of the future.” LOL
7. Don Vito Corleone, lover of farmer’s markets.
8. I just learned to make good sauce from Clemenza, and this scene was almost exactly mimicked in an episode of The Sopranos that I saw five years ago. This is what my brain holds on to: pop culture detritus.
9. Where did the subtitles go? Oh, I see what FFC is doing there.
10. Men always wear three-piece suits to go hiking in Sicily. It’s just their thing.
11. Those braids!
12. Babies are always pitching fits in this movie.
13. Seriously, what is with all the babies crying???
14. I think FFC uses broken glass to signify death and dying. Just a thought.
15. Don Vito Corleone, lover of entertaining toddlers.
16. RIP, DVC.
17. Seriously, Diane Keaton, I mean c’mon.
18. That’s right, he was lying.

Another great classic movie that deserves to be a classic. I can absolutely see why everyone loves this movie. I’m looking forward to Part II.

Budget’s going well though. I’m so grown up, tracking my spending on jelly beans and diet Dr. Pepper.

59/365 - Someone has been sketching. (Me. I've been sketching. It's me.)

60/365 - I got none of these delicious Valentine's candies because while I was at bookclub, my awful dogs ate them. Jager (or Honey Bear) took the box out of a ZIPPED briefcase they were in. And then he (and she, probably) ate them and put the bottom of the box IN THE BATHTUB. Because that is where they dispose of evidence, apparently. And then one (or both) puked all over the hallway floor. They are the worst and now I'm freaking out hoping they don't die.

57/365 - One of my office mates got a puppy and she brought her to work Monday. Totes adorbs.

58/365 - Curlers, heck yes. (Do I look this cross-eyed in real life?)

Fitness Related Goals

I am having the hardest time getting back into the swing of things since returning from my work trip. I didn’t exercise at all over the weekend or yesterday. Today I got up early and heading to the gym and did my Couch-to-5K run, which actually went well even though I’m about a half-week behind now. My Body Shock class was right after my run but it was canceled at the last minute. What I should have done is a circuit workout on my own or done a swim, but instead I went home. I hate when my schedule gets messed up, it totally messes with my motivation.

I used the extra time this morning to put my hair in curlers. Tomorrow is Bootcamp and I’m really looking forward to it. The instructor always gets me to work harder than I ever thought possible. I’m hoping it will kick-start my fitness enthusiasm and I can regain the momentum I had throughout January. Tomorrow: Couch-to-5K Run (Week 6, Run #1), Bootcamp, and some time on the bike.

Goal #13 – Go 30 days without eating out.

I will attempt this goal starting March 1st. I don’t anticipate it will be too difficult. Work lunches and dinners may be tricky and I may not let them count. Some work meals I simply cannot get out of and they occur every month of the year.

Goal #21 – Develop and implement a photo organization system.

I couldn’t sleep last night so I spent a few more hours culling photos from my hard drives, organizing the remaining files into logically named folders and sub-folders, and doing other general housekeeping on my computer files. As I add new photos (which I do through Aperture), I will make sure that I organize them upon importing and delete those that I obviously wouldn’t need to keep. I will consider this goal accomplished when I have 100% of my current photo files organized and I have a simple, step-by-step process in place that I can use every time I add new photos to my computer.

Goal #27 – Make meditation a regular part of my day.

Now that I have two months of regular, early-morning exercise as a part of my daily routine, I feel confident that I can add a block of time for meditation. I usually finish at the gym (including showering and drying my hair) at the same time each day. I plan on using this time directly after the gym to meditate for 30 minutes and then meditating another 30 minutes each day after work. Some days I won’t be able to sit that long and other days I will be able to sit longer; 30 minutes, twice a day will be what I aim for.

I am not new to meditation; I have been meditating off-and-on for six years now and have attended several multi-day meditation retreats as well. Meditation is one of the very best things I’ve found to help my sleep, stress levels, and focus. I’m happier when I meditate.  Despite all this, I have not made an effort to meditate daily and I want to. Like anything, it’s about making the time. I’ve proven I can make the time for exercise and my life is so much better for it. I don’t feel like I’ve given anything up – rather, I feel like I’ve gained time in each day. So I want to do this now too and I imagine it will yield the same positive results that exercise has.

I will consider this goal complete when I have meditated at least 15 minutes every day (every single day) for 60 days.

Goal #70 – Eat no sugar or gluten for an entire month.

I’m going to start this March 1st and do it in conjunction with Goal #13 – Go 30 days without eating out. I am a SUGAR ADDICT. I love candy so much. I also love bread, but not as much as candy. I’ve given both up for stretches far longer than a month, but I always go back with a vengeance. This time, however, I am going to have my bloodwork done before and after. I don’t think I have celiac disease, but I do think gluten is causing some issues for me. And even though I don’t have diabetes, I know sugar is awful for me. I know I will feel better without it. I will never give it up 100% forever, but I think a month-long detox from it will be good. I plan to begin March 1st and will keep updates here about how I’m feeling.

Goal #88 – Complete a no-spend month.

This one is slated for March too! I figure it makes sense. I will spend $0.00 – not a single penny will leave my pocket, wallet, bank account, or credit card accounts during March 2012 except for my regular monthly expenses like my mortgage, electric bill, etc. But any unnecessary spending (including gas for my car, dog food, etc.) will not occur. Which means I’ll have to stock up the last week of February so the dogs don’t starve. If I run out of gas in March, I’ll be walking. If I run out of food… well, I’ll stock up on groceries February 29th so that doesn’t happen. I’m weirdly excited about this challenge. Mostly because keeping track of my budget will be so much easier.

55/365 - Saturday was all about baking. I made a coffee and planned.

56/365 - Sunday was all about cleaning. The claw feet on this table were disgusting.

I traveled all last week for work, so I didn’t figure I’d accomplish much in terms of goals. I made an earnest effort to run and exercise each day, however, and I did continue with my daily photo project. I didn’t have much opportunity to do anything non-work related most of the week, but as I went through my goals, I realize I have made some significant progress on several things.

Goal #1 – Complete Project 365.

I am already on photo #56 – over 15% complete! It’s so easy with my iPhone. I imagine if I were having to take all the photos with a regular camera, I’d have missed several days already.

Goal #22 – Break my internet habit at work.

I was not 100% successful with this last week so I start anew tomorrow. The plan I outlined for myself does work, however, and I think it is just a matter of holding myself accountable. The few times last week when I lingered online were simple laziness and procrastination, rather than the lack of an overarching method of keeping to my work. So I’ll strengthen my mental resolve this week and stick to my GTD system.

Goal #36 – Read each New Yorker magazine issue in the week it arrived.

This one was simple this week because I love reading magazines on planes. But I also think I may just have got this one down in general. Linking it to other things I do every week (eating breakfast out, riding the bus to a weekly appointment, waiting in line for various things, etc) really cinched it for me. If I can keep it up through March, I’m going to call it completed.

Goal #38 – Prepare and follow a budget each month.

This is so simple for the “big” things like my mortgage, insurance, and so on but it is very trying for miscellaneous spending like eating out, grabbing a soda at the gas station, buying a newspaper on a whim, etc.  Because my bank account has instant updating, I have long been in the habit of checking my statement online each evening and making sure the miscellaneous expenses from my debit card match what I spent that day. Now I have to log it in my budget, which isn’t that much more work but it seems so tedious to me. I hate it. Alternatively, I also hate saving all the receipts and logging them at the end of the week. It’s just bothersome. I’m being lazy, I know.

Goal #45 – Get my dog, Honey Bear’s, portrait painted.

This one is pretty much done! I got the final proof from the artist and approved it last week and he’s already shipped it to me. I’ll count this as done once I have it framed and hanging up. I have been meaning to do this for years and years but just never made myself sit down, pick a photo, go to etsy, purchase the portrait, and communicate with the artist. It seemed like so much to do but honestly, it all took less than 15 minutes altogether. Here’s what the final painting looks like:

I love it so much. It captures her exactly.

Goal #54 – Complete all tasks/adventures on Red Dead Redemption.

I played a couple hours of this on Saturday night and while I do like this game a lot, I realized I simply do not want to put in the kind of time it would take to complete all the tasks/jobs/adventures/challenges it offers. I’m going to change this goal to something else, perhaps another game-related goal, although there are no games I like enough right now to attempt and all the games I love (Crysis2, Portal2) are ones in which have already accomplished everything. Maybe Crysis3 and/or Portal3 will come out in the next 950 days. Hope of hopes!

Goal #65 – Read all of the unread books in my house and then donate them to the library.

I took this book on my trip this week and it was a very fast read.

I liked it; it was published in 1989 so it is quite dated but I love Ian Frazier’s writing style. It’s basically a patchwork history of the Great Plains states but it feels more like you’re on a road trip with Frazier and he’s telling to a bunch of stories “about the time when…” It gives me a lot more appreciation for where I grew up (Western Nebraska) and where I now live (Southeastern Wyoming). (Another great book about this area, although with a much more specific subject, is SC Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon.)

I love to read and before I got a Kindle I had hundreds of books in my house. I try to now buy only e-books or audiobooks because I like not having a bunch of books occupying space on my shelves. I have slowly read through most of the books I owned and now just have one small bookcase of about 50 books left to read. Great Plains was the first from this shelf to be read and tomorrow I’ll drop it off at the library for one of their book sales.

A select few of these I will keep forever, a few I just want to read one more time, most I just need to read and then donate.

Goal #78 – Finish my MSBH blog project.

This is a slow process. I had every intention of doing two, if not three, recipes this weekend but the one that I did took so long I didn’t get to the others. It will post on Valentine’s Day.  Here’s a little tease:

Now that the days are getting longer, I might be able to make and photograph some recipes on weekdays either before or after work.

Some Goal Adjustments

I’m going to edit a few of the goals that I think need some fine-tuning. Coming up with 101 things was not exactly easy – I had a strong, I’d say, 95 goals that I definitely wanted to do but the last six or so I kinda just pulled out of thin air. I have come up with some better things over the past couple of months, however, and feel that my list will be more meaningful if I add them and remove some others. None of these have to do with failing to meet a goal or thinking something is too hard. It’s entirely about whether I think a certain goal is worthwhile and/or something I genuinely want to spend time attempting.

50/365 - I pack running shoes when I travel now. They take up a lot of space.

51/365 - Whimsical art installation at the baggage claim.

52/365 - Old timey candy shoppe.

53/365 - My job brings me into contact with things like this from time to time. I love all the primary colors in the background.

54/365 - White prairie, white sky. Outside Denver Int'l Airport on Friday afternoon.

47/365 - Honey Bear

48/365 - This is usually my favorite stretch of in-town road to run but it was not so fun Saturday with the snow. I was concerned about twisting an ankle and took it very slow.

49/365 - My super-thick glasses, which I both love (because they let me see) and hate (because they are heavy and cumbersome). Soon I will no longer need them. Soon, soon.

Fitness-Related Goals

I am amazed at how much stronger my body is now. I could not do a single push-up at the beginning of January. Now, I can do five in a row. Okay, that doesn’t sound impressive, especially since I still do them modified-style with my knees on the ground, but it is EPIC to me. In a month I went from feeling like my wrists were going to snap from attempting ONE push-up to now knocking out five, taking a breather, knocking out five more, taking a breather, and knocking out another five before my arm muscles turn to jelly.

I wonder how many I will be able to do at the beginning of March? July? January of 2013?  I want to start logging these feats of strength each month and tracking my progress.

Goal #20 – Write my grandmother once a month and send photos.

January 2012 was the first official month of this project and I did it. I had not actually printed a copy of a photo in YEARS and that part was a bit of an adventure. It required going to Wal-Mart, which I never enjoy, and using one of their godforsaken photo machines. I swear, what a miserable experience. First of all, nothing about the HP line of photo printers is intuitive or makes sense and the touchscreen required me to jab each button manically until I had a certifiable case of tendonitis. I’m going to try Kinko’s next month.

The machine tried to up-sell me at every turn. Also, they are playing a little fast and loose with the word, "Instant."

Twenty minutes and $22.70 later (!!! for 10 prints !!!), I had my pictures. It was just an assortment of shots of my life in Laramie, including several of the photos I’ve taken for Project 365. I wrote her a letter in large font explaining the photos and just generally filling her in. It was a nice project for me and helps me feel a little less guilty about not being able to visit her as often as I’d like.

It all went into a photo mailer and is currently en route to my Grandmother.

Goal #36 – Read each New Yorker magazine issue in the week it arrived.

The New Yorker + Diner Breakfast Food = Happy Morning

So I decided to attempt to pair this goal with something I already do once a week.  Well, I go out to breakfast alone once or twice a week and I always read while I eat. Perfect!

Goal #38 – Prepare and follow a budget each month.

Going well. I have already significantly cut back on my “miscellaneous” spending. In part, it’s simply because if I don’t spend the money then I don’t have to take the time to enter it into my budget software. Laziness beats willpower for me, nine times out of ten.  I probably won’t comment on this one again until the end of the month when I will do a general report of my Budget-vs-Actual comparison.

Goal #45 – Get my dog, Honey Bear’s, portrait painted.

She is a smelly, furry angel, this one.

I have portraits of all my other dogs framed and hanging in my house, but not Honey Bear. She hates cameras and will actually leave a room if she can whenever a camera is in use. Something about the whirring and clicking noises puts her off, I think. Getting her to look at a camera is near impossible and many of the shots I do have of her face have come by luck or long, hard, doggie-treat-laden “photoshoots.”

Well, I finally realized she’s not getting any younger and I need to just get this done. I took this photo (above) a while back and when compared to all the photos I have of her, it’s going to have to do. It’s not ideal, but it has a lot going for it. It shows her eyes crossed, which is a distinctive look for her (one of my friends always refers to her as “you know, your cross-eyed dog). I went on to Ron Krawjewski’s etsy shop and purchased the dog portrait today and emailed him the photo. I should have the final product in a couple weeks, if not sooner!

Goal #56 – Run a 5K.

My Couch-to-5K program is going well and I finished Week 4 yesterday. The runs are always challenging – on the longer running periods I find myself trying so hard not to check my iPhone screen to see how many seconds remain before I can walk again, I just try to wait for the prompt that seems to never come – but I can do them all. This amazes me and will continue to amaze me until who knows when, probably forever. I can now run 5 minutes straight without stopping and I can do several 5-minute runs within the total 30+ minutes workout. And I don’t feel like dying at the end of the five minutes, it’s actually okay. My body is doing this. Amazing!

Goal #71 – Swim 30 minutes/day, 30 days in a row.

Foiled again! This one is going to be HARD. First, I need access to a pool 30 days in a row. Second, I need my schedule to be conducive to the somewhat more fussy nature of a swim workout (getting in a suit and getting all pool-wet requires that I shower and dry my hair at the gym afterward, adding considerable time to my schedule). These two things – primarily the latter – have conspired to keep me from fulfilling this goal. Add to this a travel schedule for work that is only going to get more demanding and I don’t see this one getting done any time soon.

But within 1,001 days (or however many are left), it will get done. And in the meantime, all these attempts have really improved my technique and my fitness level.