Sorry this is a week late. I know it’s totally bad form. Just know I still love you one and all!
51) Use the Solo Vino GC we got as a wedding gift. Not done. Blasphemy, right? This is a story of us putting this in a good, safe place, not remembering where it was, promising to put it in a better place, so on, and so on. It’s somewhere, and we will totally use it. The other part of the problem is that in MN, one can’t just walk into a store and buy alcohol. Blasphemy, right?
52) Shop at the farmer’s market at least once a month during the summer. DONE! I’ll be honest, it helped to move to a place down the street from the market. Mostly, I just bought fresh flowers every week. A gorgeous bunch of flowers for less than $5? Yes please! I’m sure I will expand my horizons and purchase things to make food with, but that’s a pretty big step for me. I have a feeling that pretty blooms will be my farmer’s market thing for a while. As a lovely bonus there are very many great brunch and coffee spots surrounding the market, so it’s a nice summer weekend ritual. I highly recommend it to all.
53) Create and follow a household budget. Kind of done? Budget created. The harder part is sticking to it. Mostly when it comes to food. I really, really don’t enjoy cooking. The prep, the clean-up, none of it is appealing. I just like eating and drinking. It’s really nice to go someplace and have them handle all those unsavory things so I can just sit back and enjoy. To illustrate how unappealing cooking is, I am willing to cut back on clothing to pay for going out to eat. I know, right?? So, this is still a work in progress. We are improving, but it is a process.
54) Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. DONE! The last time we went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure was our honeymoon. A long time ago. We got two day passes, and only used one because it was a pretty disappointing experience. The park was kind of shabby, many of the rides were showing their age and lack of maintenance. The staff, was, um, let’s just say that if your job is so miserable, maybe just find a different one. Anyway, this lack of quality was especially glaring when surrounded by the week we spent at Disney. Disney gets to every. Single. Detail. Every inch of every space is immaculate. If a cast member treats you poorly, they will be taken aside and counseled, possibly assigned to a new position. At Universal? That’s just how you are treated. Lots of flat voices, annoyed tones, dead eyes. Things are dirty, worn, and not in a cool faux-post-apocalyptic way. In a sad, neglected way. I really wished that another park could have gotten the rights to WwoHP, but my love of the HP-verse was making it so tempting. It was a mental struggle. Then, I remembered we still had one day of our passes left. Since the in-laws live in Florida anyway, it wouldn’t be a big deal to squeeze it in to a family visit. So, we decided to go for it during a weekend we were down there for a family wedding. The lead up was pretty lackluster. The usual mediocre staff revived our ticket, let us through the turnstyle. We walked through the other areas of the park. They were fine, I was a little worried, a little ready for a let down. However, entering WWoHP was pretty magical. We were totally in the HP-verse. The staff (most of who were from the UK) were 100% in character. The little shops were right out of Diagon Alley. There were a couple of things they could have done better. The wand choosing ceremony is a little lackluster. Most of the rides are recycled. They just took the rides that were already there and added some set dressing. The rides are decent, but it seems a little cheap considering the investment. The other disappointing factor was the food. It was tough finding things I could eat, being a vegetarian-not-by-choice. Again, with every single park at Disney having fast food and sit down options of all levels, the restaurant choices were lackluster for sure. The butterbeer was tasty, though. (go for the regular version. The frozen one lacks the true essence of butterbeer.) Also, there are other houses in Hogwarts besides Gryffindor and Slytherin! If you are a fellow Ravenclaw, you might be a sad panda if you are hoping to stock up. It seems that if anyplace is gonna have a full range of items to cater to the die hard fans, it should be this place. I overheard some fellow Ravenclaws bemoaning this, and we were able to commiserate a bit, at least. During peak seasons, there is a large queue to get into the candy store. Totally worth it! Anything you could want from the books is there. I had a hard time choosing among table after table of confections. I settled on a jar of lemondrops. I love me some hard candies and lemon is a favorite. It came in a lovely glass jar with the Honeydukes logo. Also, I took the opportunity to pick up some birthday gifts for loved ones. One of these was a pygmy puff. You name your puff when you purchase it, and they announce the adoption of the puff to the whole store. Since ours was a gift, we kind of thought on the fly, and named her “Polly Prissypants.” It made the clerk laugh, then he had to ask us, “South Park?” Indeed. It was a good time, for sure. However, there isn’t much in the rest of the park. It only took us a short amount of time to ride everything we wanted to ride in the rest of the parks, and head to dinner. We were able to hit everything in both parks and eat a couple of meals in less than a day, even with a late start. So, worth it if you really love HP. Not so worth it if you are planning a vacation around this attraction.
55) Learn to ice skate. DONE! Another list item made easy by our move. We are in downtown Saint Paul, and wind up in the heart of the Winter Carnival each year. This means we can use the Winter Carnival ice rink, and we don’t even have to go outside to get there (until we get to the rink, of course). As a bonus, it’s free! So, we headed over, got some skates and did some laps. It took a bit, but I did get going okay. I doubt I will be in the Olympics anytime soon, but we had a lot of fun.
56) Make our wedding album. Not done. Wah-wah. Back when we were getting married, I had a very specific style in mind for the photography. I didn’t want someone who would direct us where to pose and stand within an eighth-of-an-inch. I wanted photos that captured the personality of the wedding party. I wanted the photos to be hip and artsy. We’d talked to many photographers, to much disappointment. Finally, we were at a wedding fair, when we turned down an aisle and I saw them. Photos that were exactly what we wanted. Like fashion photographs. Rich colors, interesting composition. We talked to the photographer, and we were in love. We booked in the nick of time to get the photographer we wanted, and before the rates went up for the next fiscal year. The day of the wedding, they were rockstars. A friend referred to their cameras as “machine gun cameras.” They fired a mile a minute, in four types of film. Color, black and white, infrared, and cross processed. They found interesting locations for our couple photos. They stayed well into the reception. We were blown away by our album. We had over 1000 proofs, plus all the negatives. Those are some of my favorite pictures of my friends and family. They were worth every penny. However, year after year, the proofs stay in the proof album. I keep telling myself I will choose my favorites and make a true wedding album. I even bought a great leather binder to put them in (it’s a one-of-a-kind piece). However, I just haven’t sat down to start the process. In an age where processing film is becoming a lost art, I need to get on this asap. I know, I know. Before our 13th anniversary, for sure!
57) See all the Best Picture winners of my lifetime. Not done. In progress, though! I started with my birth year and started going forward, and have seen all the winners since I created the list. Some of the titles are trickier to find, especially once we ditched Netflix after they doubled their prices for our services. Some of the winners are disappointments. Some are amazing. I am still working my way through. I am down to 13 out of 34. Once I get those finished, I will start on those from before my lifetime. I’ve seen some, but there are lots of revered films I’ve yet to see. The tricky part is that they keep making great films. So, the list keeps getting longer, no matter how much I see!
58) Go to the NAIAS preview gala with my sister. Not done. For me, it’s the combination of coordinating the trip out there at the right time with having the dollars. Then, on top of that, coordinating my sister having the dollars. We’ve both wanted to do it for a very long time. The NAIAS is epic. It’s one of the top shows in the world. This would be my one reason for moving back to the Detroit area. It’s amazing. The night before it opens, there is a charity preview. Lots of rubbing elbows with fancy people, plus getting to get really, really dressed up. Both things we love! Throw in how great of a time we can always have together and the guaranteed people watching, we are so in. So staying on the list, just have to get the stars aligned!
59) Make a pair of jeans. Not done. This fell through the cracks with sorting out health issues. I think I will make the perfect pair of red jeans I can’t seem to find anywhere. First step is finding the perfect red denim. Jeans are one of the trickier pieces to make, because of the fabric and all the finishing details to make them. I think once I conquer these, it will make me a stronger designer and seamstress.
60) Learn curling. Not done. I’ve been looking into this with a friend since I made the list. Living in the land of curling (most of the Olympians train at a club right in my old ‘hood), it seems like it should be pretty easy. However, because it’s the land of curling, people take it pretty seriously. Joining a league is the main option. I am not ready to join a league, that’s for sure. My friend has a connection who said we could do a “party” ten people for 100 dollars, and just having a fun curling time. We haven’t been able to get this coordinated with the connection, though. If we enjoy it, we might join a league and maybe get some fabulous curling apparel.
So far, I’m operating at 28% Huh.
