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Pay off my student loans.

Go away for a weekend and don't leave the hotel once (hello room service).

Give away clothes I don't wear anymore.

Make it through entire Netflix queue (buffer of 20 okay).

Buy a PS3.

Plant an herb garden.

Take three days off in a row with NO CONTACT with work.

done done, these are all done.

40

Finish five video games.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
God of War
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Heavenly Sword
Pirates! (PSP)

50

Buy two World Cup posters (official competition posters, not venue-specific).

Done:
Mexico '70
Italia '90

I think we've now reached the end of the ones we can afford without cashing in our 401(k).

76

Get passport changed to married name.

Done as of March 2008. woot.

83

Cook a recipe from each cookbook that I own.

Finished this one some time last year as well. I wish I had tracked which recipe from which cookbook, but the gist of it is, The Joy of Cooking is still a really useful resource.

84

Go to San Francicso and the Monterey Aquarium.

Done, last April. I suck for not updating this. Monterey is an awesome little town. The Aquarium is... not quite what I remembered from my visit there when I was 13.

San Francisco will require another visit; even though we were there for three days, I feel like we just barely started to explore the city.

90

Build an emergency fund totalling at least 3 months of expenses.

We managed to do this last year; kept it that way for months, too. Then tax time came and we don't have quite so much in the emergency fund anymore. Oh well, my goal said nothing about maintaining it for any particular length of time.

95

Sample every whiskey on our list of targets (refined from scotchwhiskey.net).

We've located and sampled every one of these that's available in the States. Broad conclusion: price is not necessarily an indicator of quality, though it is fairly obvious when some are more expensive than others. Also, we don't get very many "distiller's edition" type bottlings over here. Oh well, guess we'll have to visit Scotland again.

98

Go for an entire week without swearing.

I bet you guys didn't think I could do this. I didn't either. Technically, I probably didn't, but I came as close as is possible, given where I work.

Some time in January, it became fairly obvious that Bradley was learning very quickly how to imitate the sounds we make and it was only a matter of time before he would be repeating everything we say, like a little parrot with a potbelly. So, with a tremendous amount of effort, I began cutting down the number of swearing type words. After several weeks of this, it got to be more of a habit to the point where I started being uncomfortable around work colleagues that swear a lot, particularly in anger. (I have issues with public displays of emotion, apparently.)

While I'm not quite so rigorous with the profanity ban at the moment, I definitely am swearing less than I used to. Supposedly my word choices will now be more creative, and I will express myself more clearly and eloquently. Whatever.

52

Buy a grown-up winter coat.

Done. Much better for work meetings and nice evenings out than a ski jacket.

73

Get D a new wedding ring.

His old one, which we quickly discovered was too small, has been living on my thumb for a couple years now. The sharp edges cut into his finger to the point where it took months to get rid of the permanent dent it made.

The new one is beautiful and heavy and much more comfortable for him, what with being the right size and all.

93

A month or two at a time, add the following habits to our routines: 5 fruits/vegs a day; replace soda/coffee/juice while at work with a pot of green, white, or herbal tea; start the day with a glass of water; eat two to three servings of fish or shellfish a week; at least twice a week, have a non-animal protein source for main meal; drink 8 glasses of water a day; replace processed flour with whole grains whenever possible; stop eating at least two hours before bedtime; increase frequency, decrease size of meals until 5 small meals a day is the norm most days.

This was a big one and both easier and harder than it sounds. Most of these are easier to do for a week or two than they are to make habits--until the habits are formed, and then when you deviate, you feel funny. Or at least I do. There are plenty of days where we fall far short of these goals, but at least we're aware of it now. Apparently my Catholic/Presbyterian upbringing means I like having rules to follow. Plus, y'know, it feels good.

We both actively keep track of servings of fruit & veg and take steps to have enough. Soda has been replaced by herbal tea, still water, or (more often) sparkling water, though we could still drink more fluids overall. Beans and fish now make regular appearances, and our meals are smaller and more often. Habits pretty well established, I think, and should be relatively easily maintained.

On top of all that, we've been making more of an effort to buy organic and local when possible, which makes us triply, smugly, virtuously, head-swellingly righteous, and really someone should point out the fact that there's a pot of oil sitting on the stove for the next time we want fried okra/chips/whatever, and also two packets of brownie mix in the pantry.

71, 88

Get my car professionally detailed.

This was my birthday gift from my father. He did it himself, and I bet even if I'd paid a million dollars, my car would not have been prettier when it was done.

Buy five bottles of wine with the express purpose of cellaring them for at least 3-5 years.

Harry's Farmers Market, the swish but eco-friendly supermarket right across the street from our new apartment, is closing. Their whole wine section, which was large and varied, was on sale, we discovered today. We also discovered that the sale was only good through tomorrow. So we bought a lot of wine, some of which will benefit from years of cellaring.

24

Collect and read all of John Barth's work.

Turns out I don't like Barth as much as I thought I did. I got about 2/3 of the way through his published works and realized that his early work, while tending toward genius occasionally, is positively unpleasant for the most part. Leaving out the fascination with anal sex, evidence of which appears with startling regularity throughout his catalogue, I found him smug and pompous about his own post-modernism, which kind of defeats the purpose for me.

Thus, I am crossing this off on the grounds that further reading does not hold anything for me but irritation and annoyance.

Find the perfect everyday necklace.

For the past three months or so, I've been wearing the silver chain Dunc bought me a year ago. This is ultra convenient since I've been at a sales meeting or interviewing prospective employees at least twice a week for the past month, and I never seem to have time to dress up properly. Not having to think about jewelry does make the whole business(-casual) thing much easier. I guess that defines this the perfect everyday necklace.