A New Year.

Ok, so it’s been forever since I’ve made an update. Life got busy and I got last. Not a winning combination. But the good news is that I actually have been working on my list. So this update will be longer than usual as I get a whole bunch of updates in from the past few months. Here we go:

54. Go Sledding

So, while visiting my parents for Christmas, I noticed they had a big dirt hill across the street (from construction). I decided this would be a great time to get some sledding in. I got a plastic sled from my sister and went out to give it a try. I must say, it was pretty damn fun. Well, except for the walking up the hill part. I really need a tow rope. After a bit my dad came out and joined me. Between the 2 of us we had some quality runs down the hill and even managed to crack the sled (sorry Michelle). Heather even popped out to give me a beer. Sledding with a beer really is the only way to do it.

21. Get heather to do Something with her wedding dress

So this may seem silly to some, but we got married almost 4 years ago and Heather’s wedding dress has been hanging from the back of the closet door for all this time. I have gotten tired of seeing it, so I told her she had till our 4 year anniversary to do something with it or I was gonna turn it into a big parachute (ok, maybe not). But with a little more than 3 weeks to spare, she finally sent it out to get preserved (or donated, either one is fine with me). Good job baby!

28. Win the Super Bowl with the Bears on Madden Football (normal difficulty)

So this one wasn’t too rough. I like playing video games and thought this would be fun. Little did I know that the Bears would actually be in the playoffs this year. I doubt that they will finish with the undefeated record my madden team had, but I’ll be happy if they even win one playoff game this year.

30. Paint a mini for my DnD character

In our weekly game night, I’mu usually the one running the game. Well after a few years of goin, I needed a break. So I stepped down to become a player. Being a player means you get to have a mini to represent your character on the battlefield. I always enjoyed painting these guys so i figured it’d be fun to do it again. And it was, I enjoy painting these guys and need to do it more often!

72. Learn to restring my guitar

My bass strings had worn out some of their sharpness over they year or so of practice. So during one of my guitar lessons, my awesome teacher glenn gave me the tutorial on how to restring it. It was no where near as complicated as I thought it would be thankfully. Although it was a pain to retune the guitar since every string was way off. Oh well. I got some nice new strings to practice on now.

87. Drink a bottle of wine from every continent (except Antarctica)

My parents were down for a visit one month and we decided to hit up Binnys to see what they had. My last missing continent was Africa. Apparently they do drink wine in Africa. I must admit though, the wine was nothing to write home about. Maybe it was just the brand or vintage we got, but it was kinda MEH. I’ll stick with my Sake, Cabs, and Wicker-Basket Chianti thank you very much.

13. Give heather flowers 5 times

I think I probably finished this one a while ago but thats ok. Heather likes getting flowers and, as any man knows, a happy wife is a happy life. But I enjoy bringing her day up with a little treat every now and then. If only they lived longer once you got them.

35. Do 100 crunches without stopping

This one was actually a lot harder to do then I thought it would be at first. Once I got up into the 80s, my neck started to hurt. But I powered through and made it. It helped that I had been working my core muscles to help alleviate my back pain (it helped for sure).  Just need to loose a few extra pounds that have been hanging around now.

65. Sand cast my face in glass

An odd experience here. In the glass studio we have a box of sand we use for sand casting. Well every time you cast, you loose some of the sand in the box. After a few years, we were about out sand, so it was time to replenish. I figured this would be a great time to try and sandcast my face. I didn’t want to do it with the old sand as there is always bits and pieces of glass mixed in with the sand after you cast. Dangerous. So with fresh sand I gave it a go. We tried something new this time and put some saran wrap down first to avoid me getting sand in all kinds of bad places. Unfortunately the wrap didn’t work as well as I had hoped and I lost some detail. Oh well, it was still a neat experience.

99. Add 5 DVDs to my collection and watch them

This one is finally done as well. I don’t buy DVDs as much as I used too so it took a while. But over Christmas I bought a blu-ray player since they finally got cheap enough. To round out this list item, I got/watch Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs The World. If you haven’t seen either i’d highly recommend both of them. (also in the cue are Avatar and Iron Man 2).

State of the List Update.

As promised, I looked over my 101 list and decided to change a few things around. It’s been a year now and I’ve made some good progress. However, interests change, and somethings I just don’t want to do anymore. I went back and forth on whether I should be “allowed” to change items, but in the end, I decided this list was really about me doing things I WANT to do. If I’m not interested in doing them anymore, why force myself. This should be a fun adventure.

So on that note, out with the old and in with the new. Here is what got cut:

9. Go 1 week without swearing
I thought about this one for a while and it really just wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I don’t swear a ton (usually, unless the Bears are really sucking) and I realized it was really hard to keep track of in a given week. In the end, I was just MEH about this one, so out it went.

19. Cook 5 meals for heather of her choosing
So this one was a little odd. I cook for heather all the time, but she doesn’t really request much. She usually loves whatever I make. I asked her some times what to make and she was fairly non-committal. So in the end, I figured i’d just keep making yummy food as always. Not really list worthy (and Heather, you can always request stuff)

28. Play in an RPG other than Dungeons and Dragons
So this one came down to time. I barely have enough time to play DnD, much less another one. And I like DnD, so why bother with a different one if I have the time. That and I’ve already played a few others so it’s not like i don’t know what’s out there. This one was actually done before I started the list.

36. Go 1 month without Alcohol

Ok, I think I must have been drunk when I thought of this item. Because I love drinking my beer. I was on some medication for my back in august and had to go about 2-3 weeks without and booze. And let me tell you, that was enough of a sampling to know I want to cross this one off the list. Bring on the ale!

37. Eat a meal with vegetables twice a week for 1 monthSorry Heather, but this one is out too. I just don’t like the taste of most veggies. Good for me or not, this one only ever made the original cut because it felt like it was something I should be doing. But alas, not really interested anymore in even pretending I was looking forward to doing this one. And since the list is about doing things I am supposed to want to do, this was an easy cut.

54. Go Water skiing
This one I actually thought long and hard about, but eventually realizes that its one of those things that, if I do it, great. If not, don’t really care. May be fun, but I don’t’ really care that much. I’d rather go jet skiing anyway.

85. Introduce someone new to Sushi
This one was another MEH one. We love sushi and know lots of people that do. It just was never a big deal and felt it could be replaced with something more fun

86. Attend a wine tasting
Much like the one above, this was another MEH one. Plus, I’ve actually been to one before and they are not that exciting. I’m far from a wine snob, so anything fancy would probably be wasted on me anyway.

So that’s what got cut. Now for the fun stuff. What made it in. Originally I was going to try and choose something from the same categories that got cut, but after spending some time trying to think of ideas to fit a specific group I tossed that idea. I figured I would just choose things I want to do. Which is the goal.
So here are the new:

9. Read a spiritual/religious book other than the bible.
I like reading and I figured this would go well with my “read the new testament” goal. I’ll just have to find the right book. 

41. Visit the Bristol Renaissance Faire.
I’ve been to the “ren faire” a few times. But haven’t gone in a number of years. I’d like to go again, get a giant pickle and turkey leg, and see what’s changed.

42. Go to Midieval Times again
When I was a little Tony, I used to go all the time for special occasions. I loved it! I haven’t been back since grade school. And I found out Heather has never been either. So we are going to have to take a trip.

52. Go to a Chicago Blackhawks game
The blackhawks winning the cup last year, coupled with the winter olympics got me into hockey. I can’t watch too many games (thank you stupid dish network), so my new goal is to see them live. I went to lots of hockey games when I was at U of I, so I’m hoping this will be just as fun.

56. Try Scuba diving
When in mexico a few years ago, I got to try this briefly in a pool. I’ve always wanted to get certified. I hope I can convince heather to do this with me once her back stops sucking.

72. Learn to restring my guitar
I’m getting better at my guitar (thank you glenn). I figured this would be a good thing to know.

90. Make an “offsite” computer backup for me and heather’s laptops
This is one of those things I have always thought we really should do. We do regular computer backups (which have come in REALLY handy), but don’t have anything off site. So if our house burns down or gets robbed, the backups will go with the normal computer. I think this would be worth the relatively small investment.

91. Fill out the picture frame in our bedroom with photos
So we got a collage frame for our wedding as a present. We hung it on the wall “temporarily”  and have always meant to go back and put some actual photos in there. Well almost 4 years later, it hasn’t happened. Whoops!

So that’s it. Out with the old, in with the new. Should be a fun ride!

End of the First Year

So It’s been quite a while since i’ve done an update. Haven’t had too much progress made. It’s been almost a year now, so my next post will be the state up the list update. I’m gonna check over the list and see if any items need to be changed or revised. Sometimes things change so we’ll see. Anyway, here are the updates.

10. Do 5 random acts of kindness

A friend of mine had a phone accident and lost her cell phone. Being mid contract, it would have been quite expensive to get a new phone. So I dug up one of our old Motorola razors and handed it off. Hopefully it found a good home with its new owner.

14. Give Heather 5 random gifts

So, our tshirt company at work release new tshirts every week. One of our newest releases I felt was quite fitting for heather. My poor wife is always so gracious with my game habit, unfortunately that makes her a “gamer widow.” If your not familar with the term, google it. It will make sense. So when I saw this tshirt on sale. I had to get it for her.

26. Try 10 new board games

So I pretty much destroyed this one last month at Gencon. It’s the annual game convention I go too. Since all the major game publishers are there I got to try out a TON of new board games. So rather then me re-post them all here, I’ll point oyu to this list. My friend Alex did a great job of listing all the games we played. Here’s the list for your browsing pleasure.

27. Play 1 board game from every shelf in the “library”

Along with the new games I played at gencon, I got to dust off a lot of old ones. Here are some shelves in my library that had a game played on them since the last update: Battlestar Galactica, Settlers of Catan, City of Theives, Carcasonne,

61. Take someone sailing who has never been

This was one of the funner items i’ve finished lately. Me, Heather and my friend Kelly went up to Wisconsin for a weekend of sailing. It was Kelly’s first time being behind the helm of a sailboat. My good-natured parents had no problems throwing her behind the wheel right away. But she did a great job and I was able to sit down and enjoy my cocktail. Unfortunately the sailing season is just about over, so we’ll have to wait for next year for another trip.

76. Try 5 new restaurants

So finally done, and this one took a whole lot longer than I thought it would. I guess I need to visit other restaurants more often. Anyway, we went for lunch to a place called Firehouse subs. It was apparently a sub shop started by firemen. But it was actually pretty tasty. And the best part was they had a whole shelf of hot sauces for us to sample. I would go back again for sure.

Well that’s it for this update. Stay tuned for my next post in which I’ll take a look at my goals and see what needs to be revised.

July was good to me.

Ok, I know it’s officially August, so I’m a tad late in updating my 101 list, but I had a good month. So I’ll take a bit of grace. On to the list:

13. Give heather flowers 5 times

So not too much to this one. I was thinking of my lovely wife on my way home this week, so I decided to stop by the store and get her some flowers. I know she’s been dealing with a lot these past few months, so I always like to try and make her day a little more special.

20. Watch the sun set from a quiet place with heather

So this one wasn’t exactly quite, but it was fun. We were on my parents sail boat for the 4th of July and were hanging out in the harbor ready to watch the fireworks. Well they can’t shoot off till the sun is down obviously. So we went out to the bow of the boat and sat down to relax. We got to watch the sun set from the boat, it was pretty nice. It’s not often that we have the time/location to watch the sun go down. We definitely need to do this more often.

24. Get every achievement in 1 Xbox 360 game

This one actually took a lot longer than I thought it would. For those  not in the know, achievements are something you get for playing an Xbox game. It usually  involves completing  a specific task. Some are easy, but some are also really hard. Anyway, I played a game called Assassin’s Creed 2, which had 50 achievements. It probably too me around 30-40 hours, but I got every one of the achievements. This was the first time I was able to do this. It’s a huge load off, because I’ve played probably 20-30 games and the closest I’ve come is 47/50.

26. Try 10 new board games

For my birthday my sisters got me the board game Agricola. It’s another abstract strategy game. I had been playing it only, but it’s nice to finally be able to play it with the components. It’s a lot of fun and pretty hard to master. I’m still working out strategies.

58. Juggle fire for someone who hasn’t seen me do it before

This one will go hand-in-hand with the next one, but it’s one I can cross off the list. In college I was part of the Juggling Club. So there I learned how to juggle balls, clubs, rings and torches. We used to have a lot of fun juggling fire. I haven’t done it in about 6-7 years, so it was nice to be able to dust off the old clubs and entertain people (and maybe start some lawn fires 🙂 ).

62. Throw a big summer bash

So every year, we used to throw a nice summer bbq. But last year, since I was unemployed, we didn’t do it. We had a lot of request to have another one so we had to oblige. It’s always a great time to get everyone together. And, of course, I used this year’s bbq to try out my fire juggling. Maybe it will be better next year…

89. Drink a bottle of wine from every continent (except Antarctica)

So this one, I’ve actually been forgetting to update. So to round it out, we’ve now polished off bottles of wine from Aulstralia, Europe (italy), South America (Chile), North America (California), and Asia (Sake from Japan). So all that is left is to dig up a bottle of wine from Africa and I’m set!

96. Get a new Bears jersey for me and heather

So this one is almost done. For my birthday this year, my parents got me Jay Cutler bears jersey. We are all hoping he will be the QB of the next 15 years for the bears. The lase good QB we have had was Jim McMahan in the 80’s. Scary I know. Here’s hoping to a great season for the bears and cutler.

Well that’s it for this month. A nice selection of finished items. I have less than 2 years to go, but I’m almost 1/3rd of the way there. I can’t wait to knock a few more of these off.

Summer Fun and Finished Goals

Summer is officially here and it’s time to cross off a few items on the list. For those new, I’m trying to accomplish 101 goals in 1001 days. Head over here if you want to see the list. Anyway, here’s where I’m at:

8. Send a care package to someone

So this one ended up not being what I had originally intended but that’s ok. My last time in Wisconsin, I went and saw my dad at his office. I must say his desk was pretty depressing. Not a photo or toy in sight. So for Fathers day, I sent him a framed photo of me, Heather and my mother. Something to beautify his desk. And to help him out on those long days, I included a bunch of snacks and such. If he were in college, he’d be in heaven! I even sent the box to his work so he’d have it right there. Little did I know the goofball would see the box and bring it home without opening it! I had to set him straight and he wasn’t allowed to have anything until he brought it all back to work!

26. Try 10 new board games

I was able to try out another board game for this item. This time it was called Castle Panic. I’m always in the market for a new cooperative board game (much easier to get heather to play those).  In this game the players work together to defend a castle being constantly attacked by monsters. One thing I really liked about it was that it was pretty easy. We were able to pick up the rules quickly and get a game in. I’m sorry to say that the game beat us, but we’ll be trying it again for sure.

51. Attend a fair or festival

So for this one we actually volunteered at the festival. We went to the For The Love Of Hops Festival at our favorite restaurant Two Brothers. This was their yearly release party for the really tasty Hop Juice Beer (it’s a seasonal). So me and heather volunteered there and worked the beer tent.  The crowds were crazy, even for a rainy day. But by then end of our shift, I could pour a beer like an expert. And to top it all off, we finally got to see our guitar teachers band The Prairie Surfers play (they were good). All in all a ton of fun and I can’t wait to go back next year.

68. Read 2 new non-fiction books

Finally done with this one. I ended up reading anouther book for work called Inbound Marketing. It was all about the new way to market in todays digital world. Its started out pretty good but ended up being a little too basic for me. But for anyone who is new to things like Social Media, Blogs and SEO, it’s a good read. For anyone who has used those a lot, take a pass.

70. Pay off both cars

I was very excited to cross this one off. After over 3 years of thowing money at car payments every month we are finally done! It feels really good to know that we can now keep that money. I’m hoping we can drive these cars for many more years. I have decided I really hate having car payments (that didn’t take long to figure out) so I’m going to enjoy this time.

71. Play a full song on my Bass guitar

I have been taking lessons on my beloved bass guitar since last September and I feel like I have started to really improve. That’s no small part to my fabulous teacher (who I’d highly recommend). So the first song I really felt comfortable playing all the way though was Allstar by Smashmouth. A great summer song, although I had to use a pick, which I didn’t like. But it was a big accomplishment for me all the same. And to make things better, shortly afterwords I was able to work my way though The Reason by Hoobastank (much easier of a song, BTW). But for someone with zero musical talent, I feel like I’m making good progress.

Well that’s it for this month. I feel like I made some decent progress. Thanks for following along!

4 Down, baby!

Another month goes by and some more items finished. I feel like I made a little bit of progress this month as I’m actually crossing 4 items off (a record for me I think), yea me!

23. Run a DnD campaign in a campaign setting i created

So as most of you know, I play in a weekly DnD campaign. It’s my way to hang out with friends and have a “guys night” (sorry heidi). So one thing I’ve always wanted to do was run a game in a world I completely created myself. So late last year, I started writing and I fleshed out a world for my players where I created the history, rules, races and everything else. It’s a new experience for sure, as it’s all on my now (as opposed to professional writes). So far, it’s been a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

26. Try 10 new board games

The newest game to grace a shelf in my library is an expansion to a great game. Dominion is a really easy card game that even heather loves to play (always a bonus). Alchemy is their newest expansion. More cards, more fun. It adds some quirky new rules, but so far I like it. While not my favorite expansion for the game, it’s still a nice addition.

40. Get a physical

So my yearly physical turned out to be a 7 year one. Oops. I should really be better about that. Oh well. I’m happy to report though, that all checked out ok. My BP was surprisingly good. All the tests came back ok. The doctor did say i should eat more veggies and less fat, but what do they know. I actually laughed as the nurse was telling me that. Poor girl.

59. See the series Finale of lost

So one of my favorite shows the past few years has been LOST. If you have ever watched this show, you know it’s filled with about 1000 questions. So seeing the finally finally answered a lot of those. I, for one, really enjoyed the finale. While not the best season of the show, I ended up liking what they did a lot. I’ll avoid and spoilers, but the more I read about the show as a whole, the deeper I realize it is. So we ended up having a little LOST get together to watch the 4 house worth of finale shows. We had tropical drinks and food and even Dharma Water!

76. Try 5 new restaurants

So last weekend, we had a get together of former coworkers and we went to a place called Paulie’s Pub. Not too far from my house, I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. Unfortunately it pretty much sucked. The food was not very good, the service less so. And to make things worse, because we were on the patio, people thought it was ok to smoke. Even thought IL law says you can’t do it within 15 feet of the building. And being downwind of them, just made out night that much crappier. I suppose I’m a little spoiled ever since the smoking ban law went into effect, but it’s one of my favorite IL laws. It’s really hard to sit around a smoker without having it effect you somehow.

88. Make my own wine

So with our day off today, me and heather decided to try out the wine making kit we got for our wedding (3 years ago). So it’s going to be a month long process (at least). But we got the first step done today. I suppose it’s technically not wine yet, more so juice, but I’m calling this one done anyway. In a couple months, we’ll see how it tastes. I believe we should get 4 bottles of merlot out of this.

Well, that’s it for this month. Lots of updates. Hopefully more to come this summer. Thanks for following along!

Movies, Games and Church

Another month goes by and some more updates, Woo Hoo. OK, nothing to ground breaking, but I get to cross one more off and more progress made on a few more.

6. Volunteer at church outside the normal production schedule

Me and heather like to serve at our church by volunteering on the production team. (It’s how we met each other in fact). So I figured it’d be good to help out a bit more. On Easter Sunday we went to a service at our old church. After the service, we walked around for a bit and stopped to talk to some old friends. They had just finished working there for the day and had to tear down the stage in the room before they left. We decided to stay and help them out so they could get out of there a little sooner and spend time with their family. So a couple of hours later the work was done and everyone got to go enjoy the rest of their Easter. Hurray!

27. Play 1 board game from every shelf in the “library”.

Ok, I forgot this one in my last update, but at a friends party we played a game of Apples to Apples. As party games go, it’s not bad. Its flexible depending on how many people you have and its pretty easy. However, I think I’m at the point with this game where I only want to play it now as a drinking game.

68. Read 2 new non-fiction books.

For work, I have been doing a lot of ecommerce projects. One of them involved setting up a google adwords account for the company and running it. It has apparently matured since the last time I’ve used it so I felt a little behind in my knowledge of it. So I got a book called “The Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, 2nd Edition.” A really informative book. I still have a good amount of learning to do on the project, but I feel a whole lot better about how it works now.

99. Add 5 DVDs to my collection and watch them.

The newest DVD to the every growing collection is one I’ve actually seen before. In college, we spent a lot of time watching the movie, The Big Lebowski. I don’t know why, but this movie just grew on me. So after finding out Heather had never seen it, I decided that she needed to. (even thought I knew she wouldn’t like it, women never do). So I traded for a copy from swaptree.com and we watched it one weekend. As predicted, I laughed a lot and Heather didn’t get it. Oh well, they can’t all be Breakin 2: Electric Boog-a-Loo.

Well, that’s it for this month. See you on the next update!

Stairs and Beer

Almost 3 months gone by in 2010 and I can finally cross another item off the list. I’m getting close to finishing some partials as well. Slowly i’m whittling down those 101 items. On to the list items!

35. Participate in some kind of fitness challenge (race, walk, stair climb, etc…)

This was without a doubt the hardest list item I’ve done yet. (and one of the harder things i’ve done in a long time. As most fellow list followers know, I participated in the Hustle Up the Hancock this year. I climbed 94 floors of what I’d like to call pure hell. You know it’s going to be rough when you can already feel it by floor 10. I was going strong until I got into the 70s. That’s when I had to really dig deep and kick it into high gear. I’m glad it’s done though. It was quite an accomplishment. My official time was 19 minutes, 57 seconds. (placing me 1081 out of just under 3000 people). Not too bad.

41. Go 2 weeks without eating fast food

This one was not as hard as I thought it would be. My newly dubbed “slow cooker Sundays” where I’ve been trying new recipes in the crock pot have left us with lots of leftovers. So I started taking those to work a lot more. The result? Not a whole lot of change really. I thought I’d feel healthier and such but I really didn’t feel any different. It was more just a hassle. It was harder to find things for lunch when I didn’t feel like bringing one. So I’m glad it’s done. MEH.

76. Try 5 new restaurants

So this is kind of a weird story. A week or so ago we went out for tapas with another couple. We decided to try a restaurant called Tango in Naperville. We got there and were seated pretty quickly. (for those not in the know, when you go for tapas you are basically ordering a lot of appetizers, so you eat in “waves”). The waiter took our drink order and we perused the menu. That’s when things got weird. Once we placed our first order of tapas, we sat back and relaxed. After a while about 30 minutes had gone by and we only saw our waiter once more (to give us a second round of bread). Another 15 minutes go by, no food, no waiters, no updates. Finally I grab a passing one and tell him to bring me another beer. He does and brings us another round of bread. At this point we’ve been waiting for our 1st round of tapas for 45 minutes. By now, we are getting pretty fed up and the lack of food and communication. We make a deal that if the food isn’t here by the time I finish my beer, we were out of there. Another 15 minutes go by and no food. So 1 hour to cook 4 small dishes (2 of which didn’t even need to be cooked). We said forget it. I threw down some cash for our 3 beers and we walked out. Fail Tango, big time Fail. We won’t be going back there again.

Which leads me to our second restaurant, Bar Louie (also in Naperville). It now being 8pm on a saturday night in a crowded area, and we were pretty starving, we went to the closest place that could get us right in. Almost across the street was Bar Louie. We got seated right away. Ordered a round of beers, had a nacho appetizer, got our dinner and were out in 45 minutes. Now thats more like it. I had a BLTT (bacon, lettuce, turkey and tomato (which went to heather)). The food was great, the beer cold, and the wait staff really nice. I’d go back in a heart beat!

27. Play 1 board game from every shelf in the “library”

This one is not too exciting. Me and heather played a game last week and she got to pick. Scrabble was chosen. I think you all know what scrabble is so I’ll skip the description. But it was a nice relaxed game, we didn’t even keep score. We were both tired so it was nice to just hang out. We even cheated a little because someone needed a letter or two she didn’t have (not mentioning any names). It was a fun time though. So all is well.

10. Do 5 random acts of kindness

So my friend Ryan bought a new mattress and box spring for his little offspring. Needing a way to get it home (and knowing he only has little cars) I offered the use of my Honda Element. So one rainy Saturday we drove out and picked it up. It’s a good thing too. Mr. Optimism thought he could fit it in his Honda Civic. It barely fit in the “elephant.” Hope your youngin’ is enjoying his new sleeping pad.

81. Try 10 new Microbrew beers I have never tried

And lastly my beer goal I must admit I’m sad to see this one done.  My friend Ryan has been doing a great job of hooking me up with new brews to try. I’ve also been spending a good amount of time at my favorite restaurant, 2 brothers. So, on to the beers. First, from 2 brothers are their new year round offerings. Long Haul Ale and Resistance IPA. The Long Haul is probably one of my new favorite beers there. Its really, really good. The IPA was ok, but i’m not a huge IPA fan, so i wont hold it against them. I also managed to try a special offering they had. In very limited quantities, they had something called Cuvee Des Jacobins Rouge from Belgium. It was a very odd beer. Sweet and sour, tart and savory. It took about 3 sips to like it, but once i did, I thought it was really good. Next I tried my own creation.  I have a Mr. Beer kit and I made the Octoberfest beer. It actually turned out pretty good. I’m glad i have a full case of it! Lastly, I tried a beer called Canadian Sunryse. One of Ryan’s on home made beers. I think it turned out really good. I only got too bottles of it, so I’ll have to make it last (doubtful). I’ll have to smuggle a few bottles out next time I’m at his house.

Hello 2010!

Ok, I haven’t updated in a while. I was hoping to have more concrete progress to report. I have a lot of partials, but few things crossed off for good. Oh well, slow and steady wins the race. One to the list!

99. Add 5 DVDs to my collection and watch them.

A few months ago I got the movie District 9. I love Peter Jackson as a director so I figured I’d give it a shot (I heard he produced this). Success i’d say. I really liked this movie. Totally not what I expected, but it was great. I wonder if there will be a sequel. Sure has set itself up for one. A really cool Sci-Fi mock-documentary.

81. Try 10 new Microbrew beers I have never tried.

I had a lot of fun trying micro-brews these past couple of months. I can add another 4 micro-brews to the tally. The first, was a beer called Hop Stoopid. Pretty hoppy, but really good. I’d rate as a “would drink again.” Then my friend Ryan brought me over a bottle of Hop Slam. Always a great source for new beers, I wasn’t disappointed. I’d definitely throw one down again. And speaking of Ryan, while at his house, he gave me a glass of his home made micr0-brew. It was pretty tasty from what I remember (was a while ago). But I’m eager to sample his next batch of homebrew.  Last, was a beer I had while at my favorite restaurant Two Brothers. It was a special beer they had in called Cuvee Des Jacobins Rouge from belgium. Pretty expensive as far as beers go, but it was pretty tasty. Described as Sweet and Sour, Tart and Savory and smells like a backyard. Which i’d find to be pretty accurate.

87. Make a batch of beer.

While were on the subject of beers, I can finally cross one item off on my list. These past few weeks me and heather busted out the Mr. Beer kit and brewed up a batch of Octoberfest. Can’t wait to try it, it should be ready in about another week at least. But I have 16 resealable “grolsh” bottles. Bottoms up!

76. Try 5 new restaurants.

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to try a new restaurant, but I finally did. After our favorite hangout 2 brothers had a 1 hour wait, we drove around all over looking for a new dinner spot. Luckily, we stumbled across a burger place called Meatheads. Custom burgers, chili cheese fries, lots of weight watchers points, My kind of place! It wasn’t the best hamburger I’ve ever hard, but the food was good and I’d go back for sure.

27. Play 1 board game from every shelf in the “library”

Making progress on the board game item is always fun. With our usual RPG game canceled for one night, we busted out some board games. Shadows over Camelot came off the shelf. I love a good Co-op game. For those that have played, it can be sometimes hard to win, but win we did. And probably had the easiest time we ever had. Go us!

26. Try 10 new board games

For new games, I tried a game called Red November. Another co-op game where you are a group of gnomes trying to survive on a doomed submarine. Great concept, and I liked it (heather clearly didn’t). The only big downside of the game is that there can be a lot of downtime before your next turn. The game has a few quirky mechanics that I didn’t like as well. I’d play it again, but probably not add it to my collection.

67. Read 5 new fiction books.

Following up on my last post, I finished a book called The Two Swords. The 3rd in a fantasty series. It was a good book, R.A. Salvatore is a pretty good author. Although now I’m stuck with nothing to read again, so I’ve began making headway on goal #5.

13. Give heather flowers 5 times.

Ah Valentine’s day. Where, as one video game I played said about it, the combination of “commerce and reproduction.” Heather loves flowers so I figured what better time then to give her a lovely bouquet. Although I don’t really need a commercial holiday to tell her I love her. Take that Sweetess day.

19. Cook 5 meals for heather of her choosing.

And last we have this one. I told heather for valentine’s day she could choose anything and I’d cook it for her. After MUCH deliberation she finally got me a decision……Seafood! So with the ball in my court, I planned/cooked a pretty tasty meal for her: Garlic Bread, Crab and Corn Bisque, Salmon Cakes with Fiery Red Pepper Salsa and Lemon Garlic Shrimp. All Weight Watcher approved recipes, it was a really tasty meal with clearly not enough leftovers. 🙂

Well that’s it for this update, hopefully the next one will have a bit more then 1 item fully crossed off!

Last for the year…

The year is almost over and I figured it’s time for one more update on my 101 list progress.

One of my favorite goals was #52, go a Chicago Bears game. I haven’t been to Solider’s Field in a long time (not since before the new stadium), so I have been looking forward to doing that for a while. The positive side of the Bear’s dismal season is that tickets are dirt cheap now. So me, heather and my parents went to the Bears-Rams game. We got some greats seats, 19 rows up from the field. Although it was pretty cold outside, we had a blast and can’t wait to go back again (it was also one of the few games they actually won this season).

Another easy one I was able to cross off was #34, go work out with Heather. She is also bugging me to go work out with her, so one friday evening, we decided to head over to Cardinal Fitness to try out the stair climber. We are both doing the Hustle up the Hancock this year and it was time to start training. Not much more to say on this one. It was about as exciting as one could expect from an hour at the gym. 🙂

I finally made a bit of progress on #10, 5 acts of kindness. My parents have a hankering for Italian Lunch meat (which is somewhat hard to get in Wisconsin), so last week, I went to the deli for them and picked up an order of groceries. I had thought it would have been a 10 minute trip, but apparently everyone was stocking up for Christmas meals and it took me a good 45 minutes to get in and out of there. I was able to reap some of the benefits as the sampled some while we were up there, so that was nice. Hope you guys enjoy the food.

One to cross off the list that actually required a bit of work was #33, get a new belt in Tang So Doo. I think it has been almost a year since I last tested, and I survived many classes, as well as breaking my toe (a bit of a setback). I went through a 2 and a half hour test, and in the end, I passed. During the graduation, I was even able to break the boards I needed too on my first try. So that was good. Only 2 more belts to go before black. But I still have a long way to go as far as I’m concerned.

I made my first bit of progress on #67, read 5 new fiction books. This one had been sitting on my shelf for a while and I finally got around to reading it. The book was The Lone Drow, part of a fantasy fiction series I have been reading. It was better than I had thought it’d be, my only gripe is the publisher cheaped out and the print is super small. Either that or I’m just getting really old. Maybe both. Oh well, 4 more to go.

Similiar to the last one, I made my first bit of progress on #99, add and watch 5 dvds to my collection. This one was Star Trek. I saw it in the theater and absolutely loved it. So I made sure to pick it up when it was released. It did take me a couple of weeks to carve out the free time to watch it. But it was just as entertaining as the first one. I’d highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

My last update for the year would be to cross off #18, Spend an evening relaxing and finish a bottle of wine together. For our own Christmas this year, we spent Saturday together. I made a nice dinner of Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon and lobster tails. We cracked open a nice bottle of red and just relaxed on the couch. All in all it was a nice relaxing evening.

Well that’s it for the year. 15 goals out of 101 crossed of the list. Many more started. I still have hundreds of days left, so I’m not too worried. I hope to have a lot more progress made as 2010 comes to a close.