Things Undone: #71 Go whale watching

This is sort of stupid of me, but when I wrote this I thought I had never been on a whale watch. Technically, I haven't. I have never gone out on a boat with the express intention of finding whales.

On our honeymoon, we did go out on a boat to see the Tracy Arm glacier. On the way back to Juneau, we stopped to watch a baby whale splashing about. I'd show you a photo, but I took 11 pictures of whale splash. It's just not that easy to photograph a baby whale at play. Eventually I gave up on the photos and just enjoyed the fact that I was in a small boat with about 15 other people watching a baby whale in Alaska with my new husband. It was pretty awesome.

Then we all went into the cabin to continue our journey. And the mother breached.

That whale must have been 3-4 times the size of our boat. And there she was popping out of the water a few yards away.

You'd think I wouldn't forget something like this. But you'd be wrong. I thought I hadn't been on a whale watch.

So, if the opportunity presents itself to go watch whales, I'll do it. But I don't think I need to put this one on the next list.

Photo courtesy Nalfanion, Wikicommons

Things Undone: #62 Visit Iceland

When I put this on the list, I knew we didn't really have the funds to take all the trips I scheduled. It was more of an attempt to put this one out there into the universe "help get me to Iceland."

Here's what happened:

1. I have made friends in Iceland.
2. Iceland has become much more affordable. Much more. Let me just say to my friends in Iceland that I am sorry for whatever part sending my desire into the universe played in this fiasco.

So even though things look a lot better for me getting there, there have been some setbacks, like the riots in Iceland. If you read my other blog, you may know that we don't travel to coutries with riots. Not on purpose. (I was in Paris during an anti-American demonstration. Hey, look at me! American tourist in Bermuda shorts and knee socks*!)

This one will find its way onto the next list.

*It was the 80s. I was in high school. It was cute, really!

Things Undone: #54 Pick fruit at a UPick Farm

Here's the thing about Southeastern Pennsylvania: summers are really unbearable. Horrible humidity and high heat. I don't understand why people go outside for three months out of the year.

The problem with the UPick is that you pick in the summer, with the high heat and humidity. It's a little hard to get motivated. We did participate in a CSA last year, which is like UPick without you picking, but still, doesn't count.

Since my 1001 days end in March, which is planting season, I will have failed to pick my own fruit. Still I think we should do it because the dude makes amazing fruit preserves. This will make it onto the next list.

#15 Read 16 works of non-fiction

Woot! I have read my 16th work of non-fiction.

I organize a little book group for my alumnae organization. Since we're so close to the college, we get professors to assign us fun little books and lead our discussions. It's like being back in school without the effort. This time around we read Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Because everyone loves a pirate. The book had it's flaws--perhaps too much focus on the parts of history that fit his argument and he stretches it a little when he talks about women and Africans as pirates. Nevertheless, I was interested in his assertion that pirates were sort of socialist revolutionaries. And we got to talk about Somalia a little which makes me feel like I know something about things.

Things Undone: #48 Get tested for celiac

For a while I was having a lot of trouble when I ate wheat. Big bad trouble. But I talked to my gastroenterologist who specializes in autoimmune diseases about this and he just didn't feel like this was my problem. I don't believe in unnecessary testing, so I didn't force the issue.

Things Undone: #20 Watch an Eagles game at Lincoln Field

This month, I am going to talk about some of the things that won't get done and why. I'm not sorry about many of them. While I love a list, I am not much of a stickler for achieving my goals.

We thought about it. I even went online to price the tickets. They wanted over $200 for cheap seats. I decided, list or no list, that I didn't need to see the Eagles that badly.

Then the dude got invited: 45 yard line, hospitality tent, Dawkin's record for most games played for the Eagles. I was a little bitter.

But next time I make a list, I'm checking on the prices!

#77 Replace kitchen counter

Replacing the counters was a housewarming gift from my parents. Yeah, we've been in the house for three years. Last Thanksgiving, we finally applied ourselves and organized a day off to be home for the installers. Special thanks to Sissy for being there for the creation of the template. It's Zodiac, a composite stone, never needs sealing in Galaxy Black. We love it!

Of course, then we realized what we needed was a backsplash. Fortunately, it's a lot easier to organize our contractor; he knows where we hide the key.

Now we realize how much we need new cabinets. Let this be a lesson to you, never fix up your house...

#37 Finish 2 FUFOs as flatfolds

This segment, the place where I listed the finishing of the stitched pieces, was really meant to motivate me to have some more of my stitching displayed in the house. It's a bit of a shame that I spend so much of my time and money on this hobby with, literally, nothing to show for it. (Well, I do have my sanity, and I'm pretty sure that's a direct result of all the stitching.)

Anyway, I've finished more than two of these. These were the most recent pieces.

#73 Install toe molding in bed room

You know, we've had the toe molding for ages. We even started putting it in. But we knew our limitations...

When the contractor came to do the kitchen door and the backsplash, we put this on his list of things to do (as well as the craft room). We're no dummies. Now it's done!

I think this one will morph into "paint all trim" in the next list.

#57 and #58 lunch

Obviously, I left my last job, so it became more difficult to have lunch with those people! But since I have been at my new job, I have had lunch with all the members of my team and three other people in the "front office." I have also had a group lunch with four other people outside the department. I have done a better job of lunching with coworkers in the last five months than I did in the previous two and a half years!

Part of the goal of this project was to "get out there more." I feel like I have succeeded here.

#38 Frame 10 FUFOs

One of my goals last year was to have this piece hanging on my wall this Christmas. As you can see, I have succeeded--and this framing job is #9.

Nearly there...I bet I can reach my goal by March.

#22 Contribute additional $$ to retirement

When I started this job back in September, and I found out that I didn't have to wait in order to have the company contribute to my 403b, I started putting the maximum--not the maximum that they would match, but the whole maximum--into my account. So for the past five months, I've contributed additional money to my retirement. It's probably worth less than if I put it into a savings account, at this point, but the goal is to make contributing a habit.

In all my future jobs I will contribute the max. I haven't missed it yet.

Neglect

I have certainly neglected this blog of late. I have managed to do a thing or two, but I'm starting to realize I am a long way from completing this list in the next two months. Of course, if I'm out of a job at the end of the week, I may have a lot of time on my hands to get to some of these items.

At any rate, over the next few days, I'll go some housekeeping and report on some of the things I've done in the last three months.

#16 Thunderbolt Kid

Bill Bryson was the Thunderbolt Kid, not a real comic book character, but it does show to some extent the influence of comic books on the boys of his generation, or in Iowa, or in fact just him. Even then, I think this book is much less about Bryson than it is about the culture in which he was immersed: 50s middle America. It's a lot like the Shakespeare book in that way.

I enjoyed it because even though I'm much younger than he is, I grew up in a semi-rural area that grew much more suburban and "American mall" as I aged. So even though we started out having McDonald's, you still had to get your shoes from one of two stores in the nearby small city, and they knew us when we went in for new school shoes because they had fitted my grandmother and mother before us. Or knowing when Kessler Farm really was a farm and not a municipal soccer field before it became a K-Mart.

Still, we can't get too nostalgic about the old days. I shudder to think of the choices or lack thereof women had in semirural New Hampshire in the 50s, 60s, and even 70s. I'm not sure Bryson is as critical as he could be, either. But being critical isn't that funny, is it? (Of course, his mom worked.)

1. The Palace Under the Alps (1985)
2. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (1989)
3. The Mother Tongue (1990)
4. Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe (1991)
5. Made in America (1994)
6. Notes from a Small Island (1995)
7. A Walk in the Woods (1998)
8. I’m a Stranger Here Myself (1998)
9. In a Sunburned Country (2000)
10. Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words (2002)
11. Bill Bryson’s African Diary (2002)
12. A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
13. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (2006)
14. Shakerspeare (Eminent Lives) (2007)

#16 Bryson in Africa

I'm behind here. I finished Bill Bryson's African Diary a week ago. It's a very short book--64 pages. At the invitation of CARE, Bryson visits some of their African project. All proceeds from the book go to the organization, and here I am taking it out of the library. It is not quite as laugh-a-minute as some of his other books, but how can we expect it to be so? There is a very funny bit on flying in bush planes. (I'm with him there--but I was in the first world making that flight.)

There's a photo in the book that confirms the need for an organization that the dude and I thought up: bringing soccer balls to poor kids the world over. Probably, there is already an organization doing this; maybe we should just give them money.

I've started both Palace Under the Alps and Neither Here nor There and they make for good companion reading since the former is a guidebook to interesting little-known and less-visited sites in Europe and the latter is his European travel journal. (Yes, I read guidebooks cover to cover, and I'll even read them if they are 25 years out of date.)

#16 Bryson

This book came out after I created this list, but my library had it so I figured wtf, let's just read it. Right up front Bryson tells you we hardly know anything about Shakespeare. So, you figure, how'd he manage to write 200+ pages? It's a cutural study of the period, and a good one. It's in his usual snappy style, but if you've ever read an academic book about the period, you can skip this one. If you haven't, this is a good one!

Finis #34

I finished the Toy Gatherer, one of my WIPS.

I've got a Bill Bryson book to report on, and another one nearly done. And four ordered through interlibrary loan. Thursday and Friday, I'm between jobs, so I'll have some time to update here.

#15 More Non Fiction, Still Scientific

I'm writing an article about changes in medical education, a sort of "then and now" piece. It's why I was in the anatomy lab hallway today; all that formaldehyde got me feeling a little lightheaded. But on some level, I was prepared for it because I just finished Christine Montross's book, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab, which I am reading for the article. Before Montross went to medical school, she was a poet and you can tell. She looks at anatomy class historically and culturally as well as opening the specifics of dissection of her group's particular body to the reader. She writes with compassion. She skillfully negotiates emotion, drama, comedy and does it all while examining the larger issues of medical ethics and training. I thought this book was remarkable and if you've got the stomach you should read it. You'll never look at your doctor quite the same way again.

Non-fiction: 15.5 (finish the damn flu book already!)

#38 More Framing

I have had four more pieces framed. Two to go.

More Non-Fiction of the Science-y Kind

Last week I finished reading An Obsession with Butterflies by Sharman Apt Russell. I have to tell you there is some science you simply shouldn't read while you're eating lunch! I learned way more about frass over food than I wanted to.

One chapter was incredibly touching, a sparely written timeline about the lives of two men who are obsessed with the butterflies of coastal California. This chapter is worth the whole book. Unfortunately, this is also the chapter where she used "glamorous southern California" and "El Segundo" in the same paragraph. People, there is nothing glamorous about the second city. There used to be a really good cross stitch shop there. Used to be.

In the end, I'm not obsessed with butterflies. But you should see me watch the bumblebees on our glossy abelia. Where's the book on bumblebees?

Right now I am reading Body of Work: Meditiations on Mortality from teh Human Anatomy Lab, which a bunch of first year medical students have been assigned. So far, lots of cutting people open, but not so many disturbed lunches...

Non-fiction: 14.5