#60 - Maybe something was chasing me

I did not expected to have another goal completed so quickly.  In fact, I thought this particular fitness goal would take me at least a month to achieve (if then).  However, yesterday morning, I did manage to break my running plateau in WiiFit - and it wasn't a fluke since I got a 2nd four star rating today.  You can see from the second photo (taken yesterday) that it wasn't a significant jump over my previous high scores.  While I don't believe that I could ever run this quickly in the real world (my living room has absolutely nothing for me to trip over but my own feet and the only hills are on the screen); it is nice to know that I can at least sustain a decent jog in place for half an hour without having a heart attack.

#70 - On My Way to See the World ...

This goal is one of the easiest for me in this round.  I love making lists, and I also like dreaming about all the places in the world that I haven't seen yet.  Combining the two made for an easy start to my 1,001 days - plus, it feels fabulous to have one goal crossed off in the first 24 hours.

I started the list last night and continued on this morning.  When I finally stopped to count, there were far more than the 50 places that I had originally challenged myself to come up with - even when I limited myself to spots that I haven't already gone.  If I had added in the places I want to return to, the list would have been about twice as long before I stopped.  Now the trouble is that I need to come up with the time (and funds) to see them all!

I didn't try to put the places in any sort of order as I wrote them out (though I did sort them geographically as I typed them into the blog).  I did see some interesting patterns come out through this exercise.  First, I'm not a sit on the beach girl - sand and sun are obviously much less important to me than historic sites or natural wonders.  Second, I could definitely group some of these into a nice vacation - New York City, a larger tour of Great Britain, Germany/Austria/Poland, etc.  Third, I really don't like being overly warm when I'm walking around on vacation - and this list reflects it because the only hot places are those with a big historic push behind them.

Here's my list of places I'd like to explore (with stars next to the top five):

In Minnesota:

•  Minnehaha Falls - Minneapolis
• Mississippi Headwaters - Itasca* (I can hardly believe that I haven't been here yet!)
• Big Yellow Barn - Jordan
• Minnesota History Center - St Paul
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts - Minneapolis
• Caponi Art Park - Eagen
• Hjemkomst Heritage Center - Moorhead
• Mill City Museum - Minneapolis
• Kensington Runestone Museum - Alexandria
• Wabasha Street Caves - St Paul

In the United States:

•  Independence National Historic Park - Philadelphia, PA
• New Orleans, LA (preferably during Mardi Gras - because the crowds would be worth the parades)
• Museum of Modern Art - New York City, NY
• Yellowstone National Park - WY / MT
• Hoover Dam - Nevada
• Grand Canyon - AZ
• Central Park - New York City, NY
• Coney Island - New York City, NY
• Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park - Alaska
• Disney World - FL
• Sequoia National Park - CA
• Kennedy Space Center - FL
• Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park - Hawaii
• Mammoth Cave - Kentucky
• Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve - KS
• Assateague Island National Seashore - MD
• Boston Public Library - Boston, MA (and other historic places in Boston)
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Ohio
• Hershey, PA
• Newport Mansions, RI
• EAA Air Venture Museum - WI
• Door County - WI
• Ashfall Fossil Beds - NE

In Canada:

• Banff- for the mountains
• Edmonton - for the historic section
• Calgary - because I've read so many books set there
• Toronto - for the culture
• Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia - due to Anne of Green Gables

In Europe:

•  Rome, Italy (particularly the Coliseum)
• Hadrian's Wall - England/Scotland
• Venice, Italy
• Red Square - Moscow, Russia
•  Leaning Tower - Pisa, Italy
• Stonehenge - England
• Churchill War Rooms - London, England
• Acropolis - Athens, Greece*
• Auschwitz - Poland
• Edinburgh Castle - Edinburgh, Scotland*
• Leeds Castle - England
• Mount Snowdon - Wales
• Tintagel Castle -England
• Berlin, Germany
• Oxford, England
• Cliffs of Dover - Dover, England
• Delphi, Greece
• Cardiff Castle - Wales*
• Caernarfon Castle - Wales
• Alhambra Palace - Spain
• Orkney Islands - Scotland
• Hermitage Museum - St. Petersburg, Russia
• a fjord - Norway (not picky on which - I just want to see what they really look like in real life)
• Giant's Causeway - Ireland
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Pompeii, Italy
• Dublin, Ireland
• Reykjavik, Iceland
• the Black Forest - Germany
• Palace of Versailles - France
• Bath, England
• York, England
• Glastonbury, England
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Vienna, Austria
• Salzburg, Austria
• Oberammergau, Germany

Across the rest of the World:

• the Pyramids / Sphynx  - Giza, Egypt*
• Karnak / Valley of the Kings - Luxor, Egypt
• Site of Troy - Turkey
• Antarctica (anywhere on the continent just to say I've been there!)
• the Terra Cotta Army - Xi'An, China
• Waitomo Glowworm Caves - New Zealand
• Wellington, New Zealand
• Kathmandu, Nepal
• Cairo, Egypt
• Patagonia, Chile
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• the Serengeti Plain - Tanzania / Kenya
• Mumbai (Bombay), India

Starting Round 3

I've spent the week working on a new list of goals.  This will be my third round, and I approached the process of adding goals to this list much differently than last time.  Rather than transferring all the undone items that were still interesting to me from my old list, I decided not to look (much) at the round two list and come up with ideas from scratch.  So, there are a few items from the previous two lists - but not a significant number.  Another component in writing this list was a feeling that I need to balance my life a little (or a lot, depending on who you ask) because I've spent so much of my energy on work in the past few years, so you may notice in reading through the items that many are purely fun things that I'd like to try or haven't had time for recently.

I did spend quite a bit of time looking at the DayZero site for ideas.  I also sailed through the blogsphere looking for what other people are trying.  It was an interesting experience.  I never realized that there is such a blogging community since I am fairly choosy in how I spend my online time and have never really considered meeting others who blog as a goal to achieve - it was sure on many lists though.  Some people were working on goals that are not really applicable to my stage of life - not interested in pregnancy, thank you very much!  While other goals just didn't interest me - "milk a cow" for example doesn't mean much as a goal to someone who grew up on a working dairy farm.  And, I just can't afford the amount of travel that was on many lists.  I do want to be realistic about goals that are achievable, and more than 10 big trips in less than 3 years just isn't in my budget (especially considering my #1 goal on the list for this round).  I did find 11 ideas that I either borrowed as is or used with a tweak as a result of my searching; there were others that were very similar to ideas that I already had as well.

So, here's my new list - which will end, by coincidence, on two of my nephews' birthdays!

Day Zero Take 3

1. Pay off my mortgage 
2. Cash out my first paycheck after paying off mortgage and spend it all frivolously 
3. Take a trip to London
4. Take a Trip to the amethyst mines by Thunder Bay
5. Take a trip in United States
6. Take a trip to somewhere I haven't visited before
7. Run / walk a 5K
8. Go to a baseball game
9. Take a free online course 
10. Go to Gen Con
11. Make a rag rug like the ones Grandma did
12. Drive the Lake Superior circle tour
13. Create a computer font with my own handwriting 
14. Make a piñata 
15. Make a photo worthy dessert
16. Visit a zoo
17. Do one thing off my lifetime bucket list
18. Visit at least two nephews or nieces 
19. Keep a gratitude list for a month
20. Go on a carnival ride
21. Learn the steps to a dance
22. Host a murder mystery party
23. Write a mystery party script 
24. Make faces on cars in fresh snow
25. Host a wine tasting party 
26. Go on a picnic 
27. Finish my Dewey reading goal
28. Finish reading the essential section of the Proulx list
29. Play croquet at the farm
30. Solve an escape room
31. Buy a pair of dance shoes
32. Have professional photos taken of me
33. Donate blood
34. Leave May baskets for my friends 
35. Play mini golf
36. Go on a factory tour
37. Do at least half of the challenges in Creative Photography Lab book
38. Make fortune cookies 
39. Learn to throw knives well enough that they stick in the target board at least 50% of the time
40. See an IMAX movie
41. Do 5 random acts of kindness 
42. Host 10 game nights
43. Visit 10 museums
44. Go to a circus
45. Hatch butterflies 
46. Make ice cream from scratch 
47. Teach Amanda how to make a basket 
48. Make snow cones
49. Play Shenandoah perfectly on my harp
50. Play the harder version of Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella perfectly on my harp
51. Go caroling
52. Make caramel apples
53. Find my way out of a corn or hedge maze
54. Send out 5 care packages that are a surprise for the recipient 
55. Host a fondue dinner
56. Make a new main dish recipe that doesn't include chicken or ground beef
57. Make German pretzels 
58. Make first snow doughnuts 
59. Send a letter or postcard to a friend or family member each month of the challenge 
60. Get a 4 star rating on a 30 minute free run in WiiFit
61. Make ice candles
62. Give myself an unplanned mental health day when I need it
63. Do a coin toss road trip for a day with a friend 
64. Finish one of the craft projects that I currently have in progress 
65. Use all of the supplies from one of my baking subscription boxes before the next one arrives
66. Watch a silent film
67. Attend a concert
68. Give / loan through Kiva.org
69. After completing goals 1 & 2, put 10% of each paycheck into savings
70. Make a list of 50 places I would like to visit 
71. Complete all of the beginner level units in German in Duolingo
72. Finish 5 pages in my adult coloring books
73. Learn 15 yoga poses to do without help from memory 
74. Eat 5 things I've never tried before 
75. Write the family traditions book
76. Make my own vanilla extract 
77. Convert 3 reels of Mom and Dad's slides to digital 
78. Try 3 new photography techniques 
79. Do a 30 day photography challenge
80. Make a denim quilt from old jeans
81. Go to an air show or fly-in
82. Visit all of my siblings 
83. Make a 50 state map with photos for the states I have visited 
84. Grow crystals from a solution 
85. Have a themed movie marathon 
86. Host a wine and cookie tasting
87. Leave a $20 tip for a meal that costs less than $20
88. Buy a real smartphone 
89. Write a "if anything happens to me" letter
90. Organize my recipe clipping binders
91. Take a cider making / cheese making / cooking class
92. Watch 10 TED talks
93. Distribute 20 "you are beautiful" cards
94. Have 5 local photography sessions 
95. Update my resume
96. See 10 live theater performances including at least one Shakespeare play
97. Ask 10 friends to recommend a book they loved and read each
98. Watch 5 movies from my "to watch" list
99. Do something that makes me nervous 
100. Do something that I feel is worthy of this list but I didn't think to add
101. Put $10 in the fun jar for every goal I complete or donate $10 to charity for each goal not completed by my finishing date of January 20, 2019