To practice enjoying the experience of cooking
- Make a homemade beef broth by trying out the recipe for "Simple Beef Stock a la Julia Child"
- attempted to buy "meaty beef bones" at local Thriftway; their suggestion was to buy beef short ribs; I will have to do some research on soup bones, I guess (10/19/10)
- called the local New Seasons; the man I talked with said they do have bones for soup, but it might be best to call ahead so they have some set aside for me (5/19/11)
- in the meantime, my son came to visit, and we bought a whole ham for a family get-together; I now have an enormous ham bone in the freezer to deal with (6/10/11)
- Do some holiday baking - to celebrate the season (not to stress myself out)
- Spent most of a day over Thanksgiving weekend making our family recipe for Gumdrop Bread with my two sisters, while recounting holiday memories and playing (and re-playing) the movie White Christmas in the background (11/27/10)
- Experiment with some of my own ideas for cooking
- Made my own personal version of "yam soup" after reading several different recipes for soups using yams (2/01/11)
- Made split pea soup (without referring to a recipe) using green split peas, ham bits, ham stock, onion, potato, and carrot (6/12/11)
- Practice some things I've always wanted to do - or do better!
- Made poached eggs three times during the past week; the third time was the charm - using fresher eggs and one teaspoon vinegar really did help (9/04/111)
- I am finding this intention difficult to write about, but I know I've been slowly working on it. Some days, when I go out to my mail box, I actually take time to walk around the apartment complex. Not as dreary as it sounds - I actually see trees and grass and sometimes even squirrels!
- Enjoying the winter sunshine, I spent about 10 minutes before an appointment walking around one of Portland's older neighborhoods and gawking at the beautiful, big houses (2/08/11)
- After a delicious lunch at Mo's in Lincoln City, I took a walk along the beach, enjoying the sunny weather with only very light wind (3/06/11)
- My two sisters and I visited Mom at the Alzheimer's facility; we took her for a "walk" in her wheelchair around the little lake nearby, admiring the varied colors of the flowers (mostly azaleas) along the way - we all enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air with just a slight breeze (5/18/11)
- On a day trip with son Eric to Multnomah Falls, we traveled one of Oregon's "Scenic Byways," making several stops to enjoy the scenery and admire numerous waterfalls (6/03/11)
- During the past month especially, I have made a more consistent effort to incorporate short walks into other daily activitites: walking around the apartment parking lot when I go to get my mail, walking around the block before or after an appointment, etc. (6/30/11)
- Read the last Harry Potter book; view more of the Harry Potter movies
- Watched "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" DVD (1/29/11). I had read the book and seen the movie in 2009, so this was a review.
- Watched "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" DVD (2/10/11). Ditto.
- Watched "Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Azkaban" DVD (2/13/11). Ditto.
- Watched "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" DVD (3/17/11). I had read the book in 2009, but I had never seen the movie.
- Checked out"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" from the library. I had read the book in 2009, but I had never seen the movie. Brought it home where it sat for a few days, then realized I could not watch it because it was the blu-ray version. Checked out correct DVD format from the library, brought it home where it sat for a few days, then watched it but could not understand some of the dialogue - and there was no closed captioning. (8/07/11)
- Watched first 2 hours of 3-hour presentation of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on ABC-TV. Commercial interruptions were annoying, but I used closed captioning to understand the dialogue better. (8/13/11)
- Finally watched "Order of the Phoenix" all the way through with English subtitles so I didn't miss any of the dialogue (thanks to the helpful librarian). (8/28/11)
- Borrowed "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" book from my sister; this is my reading project for September. (8/30/11)
- Watched "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" DVD (10/02/11). I had read the book in 2009, but I had never seen the movie.
- Visited the Sylvia Beach Hotel and stayed in the J. K. Rowling room which is decorated as Harry's Hogwarts dormitory room. (10/03/11)
- Began reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and passed the 500-page mark within three days. (10/5/11)
- Watched first movie of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on hotel HBO. (10/09/11)
- Completed reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." (10/15/2011)
- Learn more about using my SLR camera
- Got my Canon, its battery and charger, and the owner's manual together. Recharged battery, then hooked camera up to my computer for the first time. (5/08/11)
- Copied photos onto computer in appropriate folder; then I emailed a copy of a picture they had never seen to my two sisters. The photo shows them sitting with Mom in Wolf Creek, Oregon, in September of 2009 when the four of us visited Mom's birthplace - the Wolf Creek Tavern (now called the Wolf Creek Inn). (5/08/11)
- While visiting Mom with my 2 sisters, I took lots of pictures - indoors and outdoors (see also outdoors section above) - and tried a couple of the different settings on my camera. (5/18/11)
- Registered for Finding Photo Freedom class offered at http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ to help me organize my photos and to focus on taking photos that are meaningful to me (6/01/11)
- On a day trip with son Eric to Multnomah Falls, took numerous photos of scenery (6/03/11)
- While Eric was visiting, I also took numerous photos of people and family activities (6/04/11)
- Camera suddenly quit working - within a few minutes I calmly diagnosed the problem (battery needed recharging) and took care of it (as opposed to having a panic attack.). Not sure why there wasn't some kind of "low battery" warning - I will have to look into that. (Oops! I forgot to add the date)
- Read Three Cups of Tea
- bought book with 40% off coupon at Borders (10/16/10)
- heard co-author David Oliver Relin speak at Marylhurst University (10/16/10)
- halfway through the book! (11/09/10)
- finished the book - an incredible story! (12/01/10)
- blogged about Three Cups of Tea controversy (4/17/11 and 4/18/11)
- watched 60 Minutes re Three Cups of Tea controversy (4/17/11
- Find a yoga instructor and take introductory yoga lessons
- had first yoga lesson with Tara (10/22/10)
- after extensive procrastinating, had second yoga lesson with Tara (9/28/11)
- had third yoga lesson with Tara (10/14/11)
- Writing
- took "The Gift of Words" on-line writing class offered at http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ (11/25 to 12/8/2010)
- challenged myself to write in my blog every day for the twelve days of Christmas (12/25/10 to 1/05/11)
- registered for "One Little Word" class offered at http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ (4/24/11)
- attended Write Around Portland's free Saturday workshop (4/30/11)
- registered for "Write Now!" class offered at http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ (8/04/11)
- began daily writing practice using http://750words.com/ (8/06/11)
- missed a day of 750 words yesterday (oops!) after 20 straight days of writing practice; disappointing, but I started right back up again today (8/27/11)
- completed "Write Now!" class - I actually wrote five minutes a day in response to our "writing prompts" for each of the 28 days of the four-week course! (8/31/11)
- signed up to write content for Textbroker.com and had my first short article accepted; I will get paid a whopping $1.67, but this is supposed to prepare me - I hope - for bigger and better things (9/01/11)
- second article for Textbroker.com accepted (9/04/11)
- started "The Artist's Way" 8-week class based on Julia Cameron's book (9/22/11)
- attended Julia Cameron workshop in Cathedral City CA (10/08/11)
- Visual Arts
- took "Intuitive Painting" workshop offered by local artist (12/11/10)
- created and sent family Easter cards (4/20/11)
- registered for "One Little Word" class - yes, this is also listed under writing because it incorporates both (4/24/11)
- entered Craft Warehouse's Design Team Contest (4/29/11)
- took "Composition for Collage" class offered at BPC (6/02/11 to 6/30/11)
- Performing Arts
- attended free workshop at Transformative Voice Institute (4/18/11)
- attended meeting of an advanced Toastmasters Club (9/14/11)
