tow31: update

i'm seven weeks into my 31st year, and i'm feeling pretty successful so far. here's an update on the goals.

1. watch 31 johnny depp movies: finished! including Alice in Wonderland, i've seen 35 johnny depp movies this year. 35 movies in 25 days. slightly ridiculous, but a fabulously good time. :)

2. read 31 chapters: i'm currently 13 chapters in. after watching Alice in Wonderland, i sat down & read through the book. now i'm getting back into Eclipse. i'm hoping to get a good chunk of it read this week.

3. go 31 days without watching Friends: finished! i lined this one up with watching the johnny depp movies. so i basically traded one obsession for another. :) yesterday actually made day 32 without Friends. tonight i popped disc one of season one into the dvd player ... and all seems to be right with the world.

4. make 31 new recipes: eight tried so far. mostly good. i didn't really appreciate the crock pot squash, but it would work really well for squash soup.

5. prepare food for someone else 31 times: five so far.

6. take 31 photos a day for 31 consecutive days: i haven't started this one, yet.

7. send 31 pieces of mail: i've sent one so far.

8. blog 31 days in a row: i don't know, maybe i'll do this in may? i can't do everything at once, right?

9. watch 31 episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent: i'm 20 episodes in right now. i'd hoped to finish off season one today, but it turns out i got the wrong disc from netflix. the sleeve said L&O: CI, but it was regular L&O instead.

10. watch 31 Friends episodes in preparation: in honesty, even with my 31 day fast, i've probably already watching 31 episodes this year. but the 31 that accomplish this goal will be watched with purpose.

11. take 31 photos of the same object or scene: i haven't found the inspiration, yet, for this one.

12. do 31 things i've never done before: i've claimed four so far. i'm trying to be picky about what i choose. it'd be easy to come up with 31 if i claimed things like "watch 35 johnny depp movies in 25 days." i need to challenge myself. ;)

13. lose 31 pounds.: i'm down almost five pounds since my birthday.

14. drive 31 miles on US Route 31: i figure i'll take Route 31 down to indianapolis some time when i'm visiting marlana.

15. go 31 days without meat: two days so far. they were spread out, but still it's two days.

16. make 31 pieces of jerky: nothing, yet. but i did have some tasty homemade venison jerky this week. good stuff.

17. sew 31 seams on a quilt: i thought about quilting this week. and i did do some mending today. so that's something.

18. take at least 3100 photos: at last count (about a week ago), i was at 232.

19. play a 31-game series of Phase 10 with liz: we're currently 12 games into the series. i was on a winning streak at first, but liz is coming back with a vengeance. i'm only one phase ahead of her right now.

20. fill 31 holes: the weather's getting nicer, i'll be getting around to this one soon. once the holes are filled, i'll need to do some painting - so warmer weather for open windows will be good.

21. make use of 31 photos from Ireland: no plans, yet.

22: play 31 notes on a musical instrument: i've started coming up with a plan for this one. if i follow through, it'll be fun.

23. ride 31 miles on my bike: again, the weather's getting nicer. i'll pull the bike out soon.

24. scan 31 old photos: nothing, yet.

25. go 31 days without leaving dirty dishes in the sink for more than 31 hours: finished! and still going strong - today makes 39 days.

26. secret: i've made progress on this one. it's small, but that's okay. :)

27. give 31 handmade gifts: currently one, soon to be two.

28. finish Christmas presents at least 31 hours early: c'mon, it's march ... no way will i be THAT early!

29. print 31 photos for the photo album: finished!

30. print 31 more photos for the photo album: 18 done. then i ran out of magenta ink. :)

31. print another 31 photos for the photo album: and i misspoke about my photo albums. i was at the spring of 2007, not 2005. currently, i have 2008 finished.f

L&O: CI

so i've started watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Season One. i'm surprised that of the four episodes on disc one, i've seen at least two of them. i say "at least two" because the first episode felt very familiar, but i'm not quite certain i'd seen it before.

i don't expect you to find the above information interesting. i'm just writing it to keep you informed.

brand new weekend

one of my goals this year is to do 31 things i've never done before. this past weekend i made a decent dent in that goal.


fred, liz and i headed down to marlana's for an oscar weekend. we went for sushi friday night - the first new thing.


we tried a variety of rolls. some cooked, some raw. some tuna, some salmon. some shrimp, some eel. yes, eel. it was fabulous. we had a great time.

over the course of the weekend we managed to watch every movie that's been nominated for this year's Best Picture award at the Oscars. or, at least, we tried to watch them all. we agreed that if we got 20 minutes in and no one was enjoying it, we would turn it off. we took advantage of that with two of the movies. the other 8 we watched in their entirety. i've certainly never watched that many oscar nominees before.

we headed home sunday afternoon, but traffic on 465 was terrible, so i took us on a little detour. undoubtedly we did not save any time by detouring. there were a lot of other people doing the same thing we were, so we still sat in traffic. we did, however, pass a Trader Joe's along the detour. and seeing as none of us had ever been to a Trader Joe's, we simply had to stop. :)

the value of johnny

i figured out that if i switch to the 8-at-a-time plan from netflix, and watch the movies as quickly as possible (three per night, most nights) i can watch all of johnny's movies before going to see Alice in Wonderland on opening night. that sounds awesome.

and a bit overwhelming. i should have come up with this plan last week.

crabs in the dishwasher

so i didn't move on to Gilbert Grape. instead i started watching Benny & Joon again with the commentary track on. what have i learned? that there was a third cooking scene originally shot. sure, we see sam make grilled cheese with an iron and mashed potatoes with a tennis racket ... but what was cut from the movie? he apparently cooked crabs in the dishwasher. kid you not. the fellow on the commentary just said so.

i've also learned that benny was originally going to be a psychiatrist instead of a mechanic. and that they thought about naming the movie "it's a shame about raisins."

i'm starting to love the commentary tracks.

quiet productivity

i have watched four johnny depp movies in the past 27 hours. five if you count the fact that i watched Edward Scissorhands twice. no, i'm not crazy ... the second time i watched it i turned on tim burton's commentary.

okay, so maybe i am crazy. but that's beside the point.

during the movie watching i framed some artwork for my mom, made marked progress on a present (Christmas? birthday? i just don't know), and got the dividers made for my TOW31 book. oh, and some laundry - it is saturday, after all. in between movies i got the scorecards printed for the 31 game series of phase 10. and did a little cleaning in the living room.

i do believe i'm avoiding facebook completely from now until monday. i won't complain about all the sappiness that is currently oozing from the site right now ... but i will say that the last couple of "i heart valentine's day" posts made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. i did, however, get a valentine in the mail yesterday. my niece loves me. :)

i wonder if i got mail today ... i haven't been outside the house. i like to take my carefree weekends very seriously.

and now i think i'll pop a bag of popcorn and check out the special features on Benny & Joon. and then, on to What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

the makings of a great year

so far my 31st year has been all about making. i know, i'm only two weeks into the year, but hear me out ...

i spent my birthday making my 2009 archives continue through my birthday. it just makes more sense, and it's easier on the post tags to do it that way.


i also finished making my 30th Year Journal. it has tabbed sections for each goal - seen here is the ireland recap.


the making has gone both ways. april made me this fabulous artwork for my birthday.


and patti made me this adorable banner, which is still atop my television.

i spent the weekend after my birthday at my parents' house, and my mom made a big deal about my birthday. there were streamers on the bedroom door when i got up on sunday and balloons hanging over the kitchen table. it was great! :)


on saturday i made this southwestern quiche that was scrumdidliumptious.


plus i made progress on my 31st Year Journal. i made a monthly overview calendar, so i can keep track of when i make progress on the goals. but sorting through the calendar to decipher what scribbling goes with which goal would be a pain. so i sorted through all my pens & markers and found 31 distinct colors. then i paired each color with a goal, and made labels for the caps so i could stay consistent.

yes, i know that makes me a nerd. :)


on sunday i made a muffuletta for dinner, and i made croutons out of the bread i scooped out of the sandwich loaf.


and today i realized i could make my hair go back in li'l braided pigtails.

yup, it's gonna be a good year.

the one with 31

alright, who's ready for a new list? :)

if you're not familiar with my list making, let me explain. on my birthday, i publish a list of goals equal in number to my age. today i turn 31, so this year's list has 31 goals. i've done this each year since 27. if you're interested: the 27 project, the great 28 and the year before 30. v3.0 was just summed up this morning - you can scroll down to see that one.

1. watch 31 johnny depp movies: between my netflix queue and my own stash of movies, i have 37 movies available to me. one that netflix doesn't have is The Brave, which i hear is johnny's directorial debut. i may do a little searching to find a copy of that one.

2. read 31 chapters: i have a beautiful bookcase filled with beautiful books. most of which i've never opened. i can't commit to reading 31 books - it's too much and i don't want to be tied to reading a book i'm not enjoying. so i'm going to read 31 chapters. granted, all i need to do is read Eclipse (which has been sitting next to my bed for months) and i'll be almost done. :)

3. go 31 days without watching Friends: hi. i'm 'becca. and i'm addicted to Friends.

4. make 31 new recipes: it's too bad i couldn't have started this one two weeks ago. i've made a lot of new stuff lately. :)

5. prepare food for someone else 31 times: it can be dinner, it can be appetizers, it can be cookies. but why make 31 new recipes & not share them? :)

6. take 31 photos a day for 31 consecutive days: this works out to being a photo for every 31 minutes i'm awake. it's nice of the math to work out that way, isn't it? i'm thinking of setting the alarm on my phone to go off every 31 minutes, and taking a photo of what ever is in front of me at the time. i think people at work will just start to phase it out.

7. send 31 pieces of mail: that's pretty self-explanatory, right?

8. blog 31 days in a row: i've done it before, i can do it again.

9. watch 31 episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent: truth is, i love Vincent D'Onofrio (even if i do have to copy & paste his name because i can't spell it). 31 episodes won't even cover 2 full seasons, but it'll give me something to watch as i avoid the Friends dvds. :)

10. watch 31 Friends episodes in preparation: i want to have a Friends trivia party this year. but since all of my goals include the number 31 one (and i can't fit 31 people in the house. nor do i know 31 people who would come to such a party), this was the best way to include it on the list. i know, i'm also avoiding Friends for 31 days. but i'm thinking i'll avoid the show early in the year and then have fresh eyes to watch 31 episodes & glean trivia goodies.

11. take 31 photos of the same object or scene: i want to do a series of photographs where the only thing that changes is time. perhaps all the photos will have the same framing of my backyard, but when i take one each day you'll see the flowers bloom or the grass get cut or whatever.

12. do 31 things i've never done before: the thing is, i think i'm probably more daring than i realize. i want to pay attention to the things i do this year and really notice when i'm pushing myself to do something new.

13. lose 31 pounds.: i've dropped about 15 pounds since the beginning of december. i can lose 31 more - and keep them off.

14. drive 31 miles on US Route 31: US Route 31 is a north/south highway that spans from northern michigan to southern alabama. it's total length is 1280 miles. since it's so stinkin' close, i'm thinking i need to drive at least 31 miles of it.

15. go 31 days without meat: i don't have any moral issues with eating animals. in fact, i think they're quite tasty. but i want to try some vegetarian goodness. really rely on the fruits of the earth. and, you'll notice, i'm not forcing those 31 days to be consecutive. 31 days total, spread throughout the year, without meat.

16. make 31 pieces of jerky: last year i used the dehydrator for halloween decor. this year, i'm making jerky. personally, i like how i talk about dried animal right after saying i want to go 31 days as a vegetarian.

17. sew 31 seams on a quilt: i don't have to finish anything, but i really need to sew!

18. take at least 3100 photos: this past year i did more traveling than ever, so my photo count was way up (around 5600). i don't foresee quite as much travel this year, but i still want to take a lot of photos.

19. play a 31-game series of Phase 10 with liz: hopefully i can continue my current winning streak. :)

20. fill 31 holes: that's my creative way of saying i'm taking down the photo wall in the living room.

21. make use of 31 photos from Ireland: part of the reason i'm taking down the photo wall is because i can't swap out the photos easily. i have nothing from Ireland printed out & displayed. i need to do that.

22: play 31 notes on a musical instrument: it can be the trumpet, the fluglehorn, the accordion or the piano. i just need to play.

23. ride 31 miles on my bike: not all at once, but i need to use my bike this year.

24. scan 31 old photos: this will require buying a scanner. or using my parents'. and since all the old photos are already at my parents' house, that works out nicely.

25. go 31 days without leaving dirty dishes in the sink for more than 31 hours: i stink at washing dishes promptly. this goal doesn't require me to wash them immediately, but it will help keep the kitchen much tidier.

26. secret: i believe the time will come this year when i can reveal this one. however, to avoid any conflict or misunderstanding, i'm keeping it hush-hush until that time arrives. if it doesn't, i'm sorry.

27. give 31 handmade gifts: i'm going to try very hard to not have to include my handmade Christmas cards in this goal ... but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right?

28. finish Christmas presents at least 31 hours early: "early" being defined as "before i leave for my parents' house."

29. print 31 photos for the photo album: my photo album is seriously behind.

30. print 31 more photos for the photo album: honest, i don't have anything printed since spring of 2005.

31. print another 31 photos for the photo album:spring of 2005, people!