In progress!

I made a lot of "multiple" items on my list - which makes it hard to check things off!!  Here's some progress I've made:

22.  Take a multi-vitamin every day for a month.  On my most recent trip to Costco, one of those big displays they put at the front to trick you into buying caught my eye.

 

Oh, only a bottle of vitamins, you say?  Let's look closer... 

 That's a whole YEAR'S worth of vitamins sitting on my kitchen counter!

So, I like the idea of vitamins, I don't mind taking pills, but I'm really bad about taking vitamins for some reason.  I took one for two days and... then missed a day.  Gah.  So I'm two days back on track... let's see how it lasts this time!

77.  Learn 5 origami pieces.  While cleaning out John's room with B, we found a buried/discarded/forgotten box of origami paper and instructions.

Jackpot! Look at that, I could have had a goal of 100 pieces!

Item one: a six-step cat. 

One Smokey & One Elliot

(I've gotta learn how to rotate photos...)

Item two: a ten step penguin

A purple and grey one.

I tried to remake the penguin without the instructions to prove that I had "learned" it.  I think the paper was too thick, so I'll have to try again later. 

Can you match the folder to the piece - Nick/Carrie compared to Smokey/Elliot & grey/purple??

New mattress!!

When we moved to San Francisco, Nick and I had basically nothing.  I had two suitcases (which my airline lost - both of them - not kidding) and he didn't have much to bring from his mom's house as far as furniture goes.  So, like all good college kids, we (ok, Nick) scoured Craigslist, found free stuff, rented a huge truck and drove around picking it up.  Did I mention he did all this before I got there?  I lub him.

We still use the kitchen table and chairs, a dresser, bookshelf, some night stands, and - until a week ago - our queen sized pillow top mattress.  We got it from a nice guy in a nice apartment in a nice part of town BUT STILL it was a used mattress then and used mattresses are definitely one of those "too gross to buy used" items.  And now it's 5 1/2 yrs later.  The straw that broke the back for me was the first time we left Lucy here with a house sitter - SOME HOW - Lucy gets on the bed (never does that), pulled back the sheets (never does that), and ate a tennis ball sized hole in the mattress.  Um, what?!  We've been talking about getting a new one for a while, but it's not a super fun task so it tends to get put off...

On another topic:  we like to go to Las Vegas.  Our current favorite resort is Aria in the new CityCenter. 

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The rooms are so nice and fancy and those beds... mmmm.... so so so so comfortable.  Well anyway, Nick has a friend of a friend who has a friend (something like that) who works there and can get employee pricing on them.  But logistically it's still hard because, oh yeah, we live in Northern California, not Las Vegas (?!) and well, we don't even know the person.  Buuuuut..... :)

 Yep, that's my bed.  And my new mattress!! 

Merry birthday to me!!!

Officially awesome!

The bed is so funny and tall, I feel like I have to jump into it.  I've only slept in it one night, but so far - so so so good!  And we just got new pillows and wow.  I'm a happy sleeper!  Come check it out!

Oh and were you wondering what the old mattress was doing?

Sassers!

And to Number 33: Buy a new mattress- I very happily say CHECK!

Thanks honey!!

A Swing and A Miss - Miso Soup

One of my cooking tasks is Miso Soup.

 So this is what I expected/wanted my miso to look like.

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I really love miso soup from Japanese/Sushi restaurants.  Something about the brothy, unique flavor with the little bits of "fun" (aka, tofu, seaweed, green onions, carrots maybe) and how the cloudy part puffs up and drinking straight out of the bowl? Double fun.  It's always a really nice way to start a meal that is pretty filling with very few calories.  It doesn't seem that hard but what do I know, really?

I had to head to Whole Foods today for a couple items and very randomly & impulsively saw a jar of miso paste.  It was $5, makes enough for... oh... 50 bowls of soup, had a recipe on the lid, and is good until October 2013.  A relatively low risk impulse buy, I'd say.

Here we go.

That scary looking bag to the side is just prechopped onions and carrots.

Hm, you look a little thick.  And not brothy.  And I don't have seaweed.

Maybe a *tiny* bit better in bowls with green onion garnish, but not really.  

It tasted fine, just nothing like the miso soup I know and love.  Oh well, no check - but now I know to look up a recipe before starting.  Lids/box tops might not be the most reliable sources.

Do you like miso soup?  If you've never had it, you MUST try it.  Well, don't go out of your way necessarily, but it IS good stuff.

Eat new things - Jackfish

Our New Year's Day celebration dinner was at our of our favorite fancy places: Morimoto Napa.

Morimoto Sashimi

Look at this crazy thing!!  Five little test tubes of sauces: BBQ eel, roasted orange and yellow pepper, arugula, and yuzu and then five layers of sashimi.  They "encouraged" us to use our appetizer plates as "painter's palates" and mix and match fish and sauce.  Kind of hard to eat, but really different and fun. :)

This is not adventurous AT ALL, but this shrimp tempura is out of the world.

Nom nom.  Our "Chef's Choice" sushi.  Seriously, so so good.  Very expensive and there are definitely good ones for a lot less $$ in the city, but none better.  The fish is so soft and tasty, the rice is nice and sweet with a good texture.  I don't even normally like spicy tuna, but that roll last night was so super good.  Love it.  

My "new food" of the day was the fish in the bottom center next to the rolls: Jackfish.  At least I'm ~90% sure that's what she said.  According to Google/Wiki, the best I can figure is it's actually just pike, but I'm not sure.  (Might just be a cousin of yellowtail?  Well anyway, she said a fish name I didn't recognize and I ate it and liked it, so #17 - eat new foods, you get a CHECK!)

We ordered cocktails and got carded (love it) and the waitress mentioned a "Happy Belated Birthday" to me.  And then at the end of the meal, brought out these ice cream sandwiches - Chocolate, Cardamom, Banana.  Omg, the texture was perfect, and how cute is that stenciled wafer!!  What a nice touch!

Anybody have a better guess as to what a jackfish is??

Hair: I think it counts

This post is a little goofy, because everyone reading it has already seen it... but this blog'll be complete, darn it!!

So this is what my hair has looked like (on a good day) for... oh... several years.

That's long. Real real real long.  And on a given day, I'm at work with it pulled back, poorly styled and it's just a hassle and not pretty and... I was ready for a change.  I headed to my stylist without a photo and only vague suggestions, but we found an inspiration in an unlikely place.  (Ok, it's a fashion magazine, so not that unlikely, but I really don't normally like anything about this actress.)

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Short but not-too, cute layers, long bangs that can be tucked.  (Nick would approve of the color, but I'm not that cra-zay.)  I think Wendy-the-hairdresser was nervous to cut too much and I was nervous to do too much bang, so here's what we ended up with.

Definitely shorter (almost 6 inches I think), definitely more layers and lots of short ones.  I have to pin them back at work now, which I'm still getting used too.  Anyway, it wasn't as dramatic of a change as I thought I was signing up for, but it might be a stepping stone. :)  But for now item #94 - get a new hairstyle, I say CHECK!

Any suggestions on what I should do next?? 

Museums: Houdini!

Although most days at home were spent kicking it with a blanket and a snuggled up dog, one (cold very cold) day Nick, Bridget, and I headed out to see a museum in Appleton.  The History at the Castle- Houdini Exhibit to be exact.

The building is across from Lawrence University and really very pretty.

I'm pretty sure that's a typo and it was MINUS 22 degrees that day.

The main floor of the museum was all about photos from turn of the century Appleton.  The Houdini exhibit was upstairs and fairly small, but comprehensive regarding his life - he almost gave up magic, but one guy told him to focus on escapes and his fame grew from that & that he hated fortune tellers and worked to get them outlawed were two of the more interesting tidbits.  Nothing was really said about his death (which seemed odd).  We walked through the exhibit backwards (oops), but did learn alot about the guy. 

Houdini (actually Ehrich Weiss from Budapest) was a 

circus performer in his early days.  

Nick's testing out his balancing skillz.

 

There was a little stage with a box to teach you how to do the switch-out-a-person-inside-the-locked-box trick.  Here I am in my successful glory!

 Oh B.  Causing trouble.

As would be expected, Houdini's "tricks" are definitely not as cool when explained.  This demo was about how he would get out of locked jail cells.  A common way he did it?  Had a guy hide a key in there for him ahead of time.  I'm pretty sure even *I* could get out of that one! 

A very fun afternoon (before a nice lunch and fun movie) and to #92 - go to 5 museums, I say (1/5) CHECK!

Anybody have any other NE Wisconsin museums that I should check out next time??