We're Back!

And we've completed Item #8! *grin* I'll make a slideshow & share it with you in a couple of days. For now, we're going to check our messages, hang out with the cats & relax!

edit: Here are some slideshows with pictures of our trek through the Magic Kingdom. It just wasn't humanly possible to take a picture of every single public space & make a slideshow...but we DID go into every corner we could!

pretty much everything except Fantasyland:

mostly stuff from Fantasyland:

We've got some really awesome pictures from our vacation ... but this isn't the place we'll be showcasing them! Let us rest and recuperate a bit ... and then we'll get working on more of our 101 items.

Oh, and H tried cherries & mint while we were away, so that's 2 more for him on Item #41!

Happy Birthday, H!

Join me in wishing my sweetie a happy birthday! *grin* Maybe we'll even have a candlelit dinner, who knows?

May 25, 2008

Happy Birthday to me! *grin* We made a serious dent in Item #8 today! See you all later!

May 20, 2008

Item #58: H is going a huge happy dance ... because We are finally done with our 6 week walking!!!! I would be happy to continue, but he is just dreading it, so we'll count this one completed & leave it at that! *big grin*

This is so twisted

We've finished a few challenges & are catching our collective breath these past couple of days, but I thought it would be interesting to pass along this weird little bit of news. Last Wednesday was the last day we had to eat vegetables with dinner every night for a month. We were so damned sick of vegetables, we were looking forward to the 15th with unbelievable relish and excitement. And that night I had a salad. And every night since then, I've had some form of vegetable. Here's tonight's:Damn, but it even looks and tastes good. Last night I looked forward to baby carrots ... to go with my burger & potato chips. This is just so messed up. Healthy, but twisted!

May 17, 2008

Item #58: Our 6th (and final) week of walking is almost over. We went for another walk in the Arboretum, and loved seeing all the greenery! One more walk, on Tuesday, and we are officially done with this item. It cannot come soon enough for H. I'll miss our walks, though!


Item #80: My parents are visiting & they are taking some miniature soaps with them, to send along in a care package to Russia. Woot!

Item #88: Last Saturday we washed, vacuumed, and wiped down H's car. Today we did mine! And we also put air in my tires. Holy cow, my car handles like a dream now. Here's my baby, all shiny and clean. She's got more than 175,000 miles on her ... and she'll turn 15 in August, but so far, so good! *knock on wood*

May 16, 2008

(I'd just like to comment that I had vegetables last night & tonight. Even though I am sick of vegetables, now that they're not "required," it seems like my body has gotten used to them & kind of wants them. That is so wrong.)

Item #40: I played for 1,000 grains of rice for freerice.com.

Item #41: H tried Barq's root beer, which he had said he definitely did not like, but he reports "I actually dug it. Maybe I was really thirsty for a soda, or maybe it just went well with the cheese and crackers." He says he'll have it again. Which is great, because we have about half a case leftover from party. *grin*

May 15, 2008

Item #58: We went for our 20 minute walk ... only 40 minutes remaining on this last week of our goal. H is heartily sick of it. He got very angry & said he was resentful & that our 101 list is stupid. I'm just hoping he remembers some of the other things on our list. And can see the light at the end of the tunnel & will be so glad that this item is over in less than a week!

Item #100: After some additional research & further contemplation, we've acquired a new point-and-shoot camera. I also discovered the reason it was cheaper than similar counterparts is that it doesn't include a digital card, so I had to go to a different store to buy one. Ah, well. Now we just have to read the manual (riiiight .... who are we kidding??) and start playing with it!

May 14, 2008

Item #1: COMPLETE! HALLELUJAH!!!!!! 'nuff said!
See? The vegetable crispers are EMPTY. Yeah, I need to clean them, but hey ... EMPTY. As in NO VEGGIES IN SIGHT!! WOO HOO!!

Item #40: Slowly but surely. H played for 320 more grains of rice on freerice.com.

I am thinking. Just THINKING of joining Bethany in her giving up sugar for a month. Just not right now.

Uh, oh.

H didn't come to sleep until late. Then he left. And I woke up and wondered where he was, so I went looking for him. And went back to bed. And couldn't fall back asleep. I think it's safe to say we'll have to restart our Item #62, to get 8 hours of sleep at night for 2 weeks straight. *sigh*

May 13, 2008

Item #1: Day 29/30 of having vegetables with dinner. We went to Sweet Tomatoes & had giant salads. One more day. We can do this!

Item #58: SCORE! We've now completed week #5 of 6, with our 20 minute walk down to the neighborhood park & back. I was moving slow, after my tai chi/yoga/sword/Nia/elliptical training/walking I did this morning for a total of 2 hours. My feet ache so badly. H did the 20 minutes with only 2 stops, which is a new record for him. GO, H!!! Love ya, babe!

Item #62: Day 8/14 of 8 hours of sleep at night. H wasn't sleepy at 10:30 pm, but he came to bed anyway & fell asleep without too much of a fight.

Item #100: I forgot to mention yesterday that last night we looked at the Olympus FE-310, which seems like it might meet our needs for a lightweight point & shoot. We tried some with a 3X zoom, but we are so spoiled with our SLR that has a 10X, I just don't know if we can handle the 3Xs, and this one has a 5X, which is an improvement. It has an ISO of 640, though, which worries me a tad ... but then again, we don't do a ton of really low light shots.

Item #101: I finally dropped off the donations! Go, me!

May 12, 2008

Really quick, 'cause 10:30 approacheth quickly...

Item #1: Day 28/30 of having vegetables with dinner. We had corn. Only 2 days to go. We can do this.

Item #62: Sleep. Yup, we both got about 8 hours last night, doing good!

and speaking of ... off to bed I go!

May 11, 2008

Our list is much shorter than yesterday's! Very simply, here are our gains:

Item #1: Day 27/30 of life with vegetables, uh, I mean having vegetables with dinner. We are now trying to avoid vegetables at lunch because we know we'll have them with dinner. This may be backfiring a bit. As I mentioned before, we're getting sick of them.

Item #62: Sleep. Yup, we both got almost 9 hours last night, so we made our goal of 8. We're also getting better at going to bed close to 10:30 pm. Not bad, after a week, eh?

Item #81: Having our body scrubs/lotions/potions in plain sight is helping us remember to actually use them. I even unwrapped a fresh bar of soap & put it in the shower to replace the little sliver that was there. Comically, as I moved some washclothes & the stored shower-radio I found a half-used jar of body scrub, a half-bottle of hand soap, and a bar of soap. *sigh* Luckily, Kim is volunteering to take some Mango Body Wash off my hands. Thanks, Kim!

May 10, 2008

Item #1: Day 26 of vegetables with dinner. I'll stop whining and just say we are in the home stretch. I had a giant salad for dinner & Ken made a side salad from some of my leftovers.

Item #30: Find a new restaurant worthy of becoming a favorite. We may have found one! See below, Item #99!

Item #58: Our 2nd 20 minute walk for the week took place at the Arboretum, again. Who can resist it with such beautiful scenery? It almost makes H forget how much his back hurts when he walks!
Item #62: Day #5/14 of getting 8 hours of sleep at night. We woke up freakishly early today ... and now it's almost 10:30 and we're both pretty wiped. We'll be going to bed soon, of our own free will!

Item #80: H helped me with what we're calling "my soap-making empire." Good thing we have more soap. *grin* Wait until you scroll down to Item #81. It's truly ridiculous. Here's a shot of some of the soaps I made today.

Item #81: I've finally pulled all of our body scrubs, body butters, bath gels, shower gels, bubble baths, hand creams, massage oils, body lotions, bar soaps and hand soaps into 3 places. Yes, THREE places. It won't all fit on one shelf, nor will it fit in one medicine cabinet. So, this is what we currently own:


Isn't that INSANE? Who wants some? LOL. We are going to use this stuff up before we buy anymore, no matter how interesting the "new" scents are, or how wonderful they are for our skin. We like this stuff, honestly we do ... we just forget it's there. Out of sight, out of mind. So, I've placed pretty much one of each thing in plain sight as a reminder to actually use this luxurious stuff!

Item #88: On our way to pre-order a game for H, we stopped at the gas station & took the opportunity to wash, vacuum, and detail his car. I won't say it looks brand new ... let's face it, it is about 11 years old, but it sure looks a lot better than it did! Sweet!

Item #99: After our pre-ordering adventure, we decided to stop into a restaurant a few doors down that looked intriguing. They'd just opened, and we checked out the menu and thought, "Why not?!". Wow ... great idea! The food was just superb, and incredibly well priced. We had some delicious spring rolls, a "side" dish (enough for 2 entrees, in our opinion) of adobo chicken garlic rice, and a seafood paella for less than $30. YOWZA. Where is this little gem you may ask? Okay, we'll share the secret. It's called Cebu, pronounced say-BOO, and it's mostly Spanish-Chinese fusion cuisine ... and uber-tasty! If you're in the Chicagoland area & are up for some adventurous cuisine, we'd highly recommend you check it out. After all, it may be completing our Item #30!

We're tired. I think that's enough for one day. Tomorrow will probably just be veggies-with-dinner & 8 hours sleep!!

May 9, 2008

Item #1: Day 25 of veggies. Dear Lord, make it stop. Five more days. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Next Thursday, we are so not having veggies with dinner. I had corn, H had salad.

Item #62: Day #4 (of 14) of getting 8 hours of sleep at night. It's the weekend, and since we do not have anything time-critical in the a.m., we are going to bed slightly later tonight. We don't want to stay up too late, though, or it'll throw us off when we need to revert back to a 10:30 bedtime.

This weekend, if the weather is nice, I'd like to tackle Item #88 & clean our cars. If not, I am hoping to get H's help with some soapmaking for Item #80. My mom had some great ideas for people who would be happy to have some soaps, and if I can make 'em before next weekend, then I'll be able to hand them off to her when she & my dad come to visit!

May 8, 2008

Item #1: Day 24 of veggies. We both had baby carrots. We are also getting sick of carrots. H has also admitted he is sick of vegetables. We are looking forward to a night of no vegetables. I think I have to look on the calender, find day 31 & plan on no veggies. At all. Whatsoever.

Item #58: We both did our walking today, at the Morton Arboretum. Wow. It was just gorgeous. We took lots of photos. And we would've taken more if it hadn't turned out that the "spare" batteries (as we had suspected & feared) were actually mostly-dead old batteries that should've been pitched. Ah, the dangers of using our camera so much in so many locations we don't keep good track of these little details. Anyway, we got lots of pictures of crabapple trees & awesome flowers that lined the little hiking trail we took.

And, as we rounded a bend, there was a deer, just hanging out. It, of course, fled when it deemed we were close enough to be a danger...but how cool is that?Item #40: As mentioned below, H played for another 2,000 grains of rice!

Item #62: Day #3 (of 14) of getting 8 hours of sleep at night. Again, we are struggling to go to bed "early"!

Item #75: We went to the Arboretum for the 2nd month in a row. Our goal is to go every single month for a year. So, we're at 2 of 12. *grin*

Item #101: I put the bags of clothes into my car. I plan on dropping them off at a different charity in the next couple of days. Annoying!

Progress Report

Item #40: H played for another 2000 grains of rice...go me! :)

May 7, 2008

Item #1: Day 23 of veggies. We both had salad. H reports he's really sick of salad. Too bad we have more salad in the fridge to be eaten. *sigh* Not far now ...

Item #58: We both did our walking today, just separately, at different times, but we wanted to get our weekly quota in. Thus endeth week number 4. On to weeks 5 and 6!

Item #62: Day #2 (of 14) of getting 8 hours of sleep at night. Again, it's 9:30 & I am trying to wrap up my day. It's very hard. I got home from work just 1 hour and 15 minutes ago!

Item #81: I have begun the process of gathering all of our "lotions & potions," as my Aunt Mary Ann says, in one place. We've gotten many things as gifts & collected souvenirs from hotels, and bought things that just smelled too good to pass up. I am bound and determined that we use it all up before we buy more!

Item #101: The charity did not pick up the bags. I am so freakin' annoyed with them. Their postcard says they need to be clearly visible from the street (they are), clearly marked for them (they are), and they will be picked up rain or shine (as of 9 pm, they're not). This is what happened last time with this charity (St Vincent De Paul, by the way). If they're still there in the morning, I'm chucking them in my trunk & giving them to someone else, dammit.

May 6, 2008

Item #1: Day 22 of veggies. Only a few more days to go. I had salad. Yippee. So did H. I am sooooo tired of vegetables, but I am just hanging in there.

Item #62: We both got 8 hours of sleep last night. And we plan on doing what we did last night -- off to bed by 10:30 pm, which is why I'm doing this now, so I can shut down the computer & be that much closer to being wound down.

Item #101: The charity will pick up the bags tomorrow ... so I am bagging it all up tonight. We managed, between tonight & today to go through all of our clothes & decide what to keep & what to donate. There was nothing we wanted to sell or throw away.

May 5, 2008

Item #1: Day 21 of 30 of vegetables with dinner. I had a bunch of baby carrots. H had a tomato. Bethany asked in yesterday's post how we were reacting to having vegetables. I'll let H speak for himself ... he'll probably just comment to this post. Me? I am so sick of vegetables. I have never been a huge fan of them, and there are many kinds I don't like, so I am pretty much having the same vegetables over and over and over. Boring. And, in my opinion, pretty tasteless. But, only about a week and a half to go, so I am toughing it out, lest I have to start all over again. That'd be a nightmare. For me, anyway.

Item #62: After reading an article on how much sleep deprivation messes with people's heads, we've decided to start tackling this item, tonight. It's not hard for me to get 8 hours of sleep at night. I actually prefer nine. H, though, struggles to get enough, every night. We looked at our calendar, and it's possible and reasonable for us to have lights out at 10:30 every night, which will allow him to get his 8 solid hours. So, we're going to give it a shot. The tricky part for me is that I prefer to stay up until 11. And I tend to sleep MUCH better when I've had a "head start," which means I really need to be in bed by 10. Which is less than an hour and half from now. *looking around* And I have about 2 hours worth of stuff I'd like to do. So, I'm going to aim for being in bed with a book by 9:30. Wish us luck!

Item #101: One of the things that I wanted to get to tonight is to sort through all of our clothes. Okay, not all of them in the next hour ... but at least one closet or dresser drawer full. I tackled one side of a closet this afternoon & pulled out about 8 items. I'm motivated to do so, because we have a charity making rounds on Wednesday morning, picking things up. Perfect timing, right? Except for the fact that there's not enough time to go through it all (and I don't even own that much ... it just takes time to try things on & make decisions!). Again ... wish us luck!

May 4, 2008

Item #1: Day 20 of 30, eating vegetables with dinner! GO US!!

Item #40: I played for 100 grains of rice, just to round it up to 30,000 grains!

Item #56: We had a blast, today, at the Field Museum! First we had a picnic near the Adler Planetarium & had a beautiful view of the Chicago skyline.
Then, we walked to the Field Museum under sunny skies, and looked at a few permanent exhibits.
And we were able to get into the new special exhibit, which was just too cool!

Item #58: We walked all around the Museum Campus & logged almost 30 minutes of walking time!

May 3, 2008

Item #1: H subbed green beans & carrots for his fries ... and I had a giant salad, so we both got our veggies in with dinner.

Item #58: We both got in walks today, separately. I went for 30 minutes & H went for 20. So we start week 4 of 6!

Item #78: COMPLETE! H is the proud owner of brand new glasses!

Item #99: We tried out Champps, a sports-bar type place that we'd not been to. It was ... okay. Our server alternated between being an eager beaver & being a total space cadet. The food was decent, but I don't know that I'd rush to go back there again. 28 more new restaurants left to visit!

For those of you new to the blog, check out our master list by clicking here.

May 2, 2008

Item #1: A slight cheat -- we had bunches of carrots after dinner, since we had dinner at the movie theater & there were no vegetables to speak of, so we fixed it afterwards.

Item #40: Another 300 grains of rice from H!

That's it! I'm thinking about doing Item #101 in the next 5 days, but I don't think H wants to do it with me, so I may wait for another time!

May 1, 2008

Item #1: Day 17 of 30, veggies with dinner. We were in separate places for dinner -- H had leftovers from last night, replete with spinach & tomatoes, and I made sure to have a salad with my meal while out with my best bud. Triumph!

Item #40: I played for 9,000 more grains of rice. That's right. Nine thousand. Go, me!

Item #80: I made 3 more bars of soap. Green ones, Chinese themed. Come and get one, Kim! Maybe I'll just bring it with me to class tomorrow morning!

I somehow thought we did more, but I guess it was just wishful thinking. Oh, yeah ... we were going to go for a walk, but we rearranged things so we'll walk on both Saturday & Sunday. Let's hope the weather cooperates!