Start Date: 8/4/2008

End Date: 5/2/2011

Goals in progress are in blue text.

25% complete as of 8/09/2009

Update 10/18/2009: 29% complete!

Update 01/03/2010: 31% complete!

Running, Sports & Fitness:
1    Run a 5K in under 30 min (best time to date: 34:56, March 2008  )
2   Participate in a bike riding event (Bike The Bay, Aug 2009)
3    Participate in a bike club group ride
4    Try a spinning class (1/21/2009)
5    Ride a Century (100 miles)
6    Do pilates 2x per week for a month
7    Go Kayaking
8    Take rock climbing lessons
9    Swim Laps at My Gym
10    Get A Massage
11    Go horseback riding
12    Go mini-golfing
13    Play tennis 6 times
14    Play table tennis 10 times (8/10/08, 8/17/08, 8/25/08, 11/30/08  )
15    Do 25 consecutive push-ups
Cooking:
16    Make one recipe from every cookbook I own (63 as of 8/4/2008 ) (25 complete as of 1/3/10 )
17    Decorate a Cake
18    Successfully make an Italian Meringue
19    Make homemade marshmallows
20    Make a sourdough starter from scratch (1/3/2010)
21    Create a signature beer drink (8/7/2008 )
22    Create a signature sangria (2/15/2009)
23    Create a signature muddled drink
24    Enter a recipe in a competition
25    Complete four Iron Chef dinners (all dishes featuring a “secret ingredient”)
26    Make my own infused sea salt
27    Make an infused vodka
28    Host a brunch party
29    Make pickles
30    Organize Cooks’ Illustrated Recipes (1/18/2009)
31    Make homemade truffles
32    Grow an herb plant
33    Grow a vegetable plant
34    Make something on our grill (instead of making Chuck cook it!) (10/21/2008)
35    Make chicken noodle soup from scratch
36    Make homemade bagels
37    Make tamales
Blogging & Writing & Reading:
38    Complete a cook-through (or drink-through) blog project
39    Post an entry on BlogHer
40    Write a short story
41    Write a travel essay
42    Write 5 poems
43    Read books so that my “to-read” shelf has <= 10 books
44    Write a mini-cookbook (at least 10 recipes, with pictures)
45    Comment on blogs I read: at least one comment per week for two months(done as of 2/1/2009)
46    Read a mystery novel
47    Put together photo albums for my vacations
48    Make a journal of writing ideas & inspirations
49    Send a secret to PostSecret

Traveling:

50    Hike to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite (in this case, almost counts! 9/16/2008 )
51    Hike a 14′er
52    Take a Beer Tour of Belgium (Sept 2009)
53    Hike the Inca Trail <or> Climb Kilimanjaro
54    Visit the Salton Sea (3/8/2009)
55    Visit a National Park I haven’t been to before
56    Take a backpacking trip, at least two nights (5/24/2009)
57    Visit a US city I’ve never been to before (Austin, 11/16/2008 )
58    Visit a US state I’ve never been to before
59    Visit Anza-Borrego State Park (11/1/2008 )
60    Visit a California Mission I haven’t been to before
61    Visit Catalina Island
62    Visit Pizza Port San Clemente (9/7/2008 )
63    Visit Griffith Observatory (June 2009)
64    See an okapi in a zoo I haven’t been to before
65    Visit a brewery I haven’t been to before (The Bruery! 9/5/2008 )
66    Go to Canada(5/1/2009)
67    Spend a weekend at BigBear (or other ski resort area)
Community:
68    Volunteer for a political campaign (phone-banked for Obama, 11/3/08 )
69    Volunteer on a community project (9/28/2008 )
70    Volunteer at a running (or other sport) event
71    Volunteer on a trail maintenance project
72    Donate $25 to charity/community organizations at least 10 times (KPBS, SDCats)
Music:
73    Finish all the lessons in my piano workbook
74    Learn 5 songs from my ragtime book
75    Take a guitar lesson (UCSD extension, July/Aug 2009)
76    Learn to play 2 songs on the guitar
77    Write a song
78    Join a community choir / singing group
79    Take accordion lessons
Festivals / Events:
80    Go to a film festival (Bicycle Film Festival, Sept 2009)
81    Go to a book signing / author event (done! Ann Patchett on Aug 6, 2008 )
82    Go to the National Sandcastle Competition (July 2009)
83    Go to a food festival (strawberries in Ojai, tamales in Palm Springs, Garlic in Gilroy???)
84    Go to a wine festival
85    Go to a music festival
86    Go to a play (Man From Nebraska, 10/17/09)
87    Go to a musical or opera
88    Go to a parade
Other/Local:
89    See a mainstream movie in a theater (do I really need to make this a goal? Well, yes…13 months and counting since the last time…)
90    See an indie movie in a theater (Race Across the Sky, Oct 2009)
91    Visit a San Diego Museum (6/6/2009)
92    Go to the beach! (Maui, Dec 2009)
93    Visit Chula Vista
94    Visit the San Diego County Fair
95    Go to the Lakeside Rodeo(4/24/2009)
96    Go to 10 new San Diego restaurants (Urban Solace, Toronado, Osteria Romantica, Gulf Coast Grill, Tioli’s Crazee Burger, Cefalu’s, Liar’s Club, Vincenzo Ristorante, Blind Lady Ale House, Pho La Jolla)
Learning:
97    Learn to use photo editing software (counting Picassa for this one, it does what I want)
98    Complete all three levels of “Learn Spanish in Your Car”
99    Take a drawing (or other art) lesson
100    Write an app in a programming language I haven’t used before
101    Learn to snap my fingers

Dropped from the list:

1    Run a 10K
2    Complete a race longer than 10K
3    Take a Cooking Class
4    Go to a conference (professional, BlogHer, ??)
5    Watch three Audrey Hepburn movies I haven’t seen before
6   Take a writing class
7   Write a fantasy story OR create a fantasy universe outline
8   Write 2 book review posts
9   Post a monthly self-portrait (pictures of me that someone else takes are ok)

Lemons and Peaches

I’m trying to make the sangrias for my drink-through when the required fruits are in season, but sometimes it doesn’t quite work out. I wanted to make a sangria for my Christmas cookie baking party, but the seasonal sangrias that I hadn’t already tried (grapefruit sparkling, pomegranite/persimmon/tangerine) seemed a little too risky to make for the first time for a party. (Well, the grapefruit sangria seemed to risky, and I just didn’t feel like messing around with pomegranite seeds that weekend!) So instead I chose a semi-seasonal sangria instead – Limonada Espana.

Limonada Espana recipe

I stocked up on fresh lemons – the recipe takes two lemons plus a half-cup of lemon juice! – but I had to settle for canned peaches from Trader Joe’s instead of fresh.

Sangria Ingredients

Since the peaches were preserved in white grape juice, I cut down a little bit on the added sugar. The featured liquor in this sangria is Liquor 43 (Cuarenta Y Tres), a Spanish vanilla flavored liquor with 43 ingredients in its top secret recipe.

Lemons, Peaches, sugar, Liquor 43, lemon juice

Adding wine to the fruit

Since we did our grocery shopping on the same morning as the party, this sangria had only about six hours for the flavors to meld before serving. it turned out well, but I think the lemon flavor overwhelmed the peaches, and I probably should have added the full amount of sugar because it was still pretty tart – I think Chuck added extra sugar to his.

The finished sangria

Eating the wine-soaked peaches was fun, but I suspect that  fresh peaches would have lent more peachy flavor to the finished product. Overall, there are other red wine sangrias that I prefer over this one, but I’d be interested in trying this fruit combination with a citrusy white wine sometime in the summer.

• #16    Make one recipe from every cookbook I own: entries for this were frozen at 63 cookbooks, so if I get more, they don’t get added to the project. I’ve made recipes from 10 books so far, so I’m about 16% done with this task – not too bad, but it seems like a lot of work just to cross one thing off the list! One of these days I’ll write up the recipes and get some blog posts done for these!
  

• #35    Complete a cook-through (or drink-through) blog project: I’ve completed three recipes from Sangria so far, so I’m about 10% done with this one. It’s a little bit less daunting than the cookbook project, and I should be able to finish it fairly easily.

• #51    Hike to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite: I’m scratching this one off the list – I didn’t quite make it to the top, but I did discover that it’s not something I actually want to try to do, at least  in the next couple of years – getting almost to the top is good enough for me!

• #57    Visit a US city I’ve never been to before: Our trip to Austin allows me to cross this one off (technically Fresno could have counted too, but since it wasn’t the main destination of our Yosemite trip, I held out for another trip.)

With numbers 51 and 57 crossed off, I have eleven things done and several others in progress. That’s about 11% done with 13% of my time gone – not too far behind, but there’s a lot left to be done – I’d better start making some progress on the rest of my list!

Sparkling Apple Cider Sangria recipe

This sangria features several layers of apple flavor: raw apple slices, apple brandy, and sparkling cider. We jumped on this oppurtunity to try an apple brandy, and purchaed one made by Clear Creek Distillery in Portland, OR. Trying the apple brandy was fun, and Clear Creek makes a lot of interesting “pure fruit spirits” that I want to try – especially the eau de vie of Douglas Fir!

I sliced the apple the easy way, and tried to make my inelegant orange and lemon peels look pretty:

Adding the cinnamon to the non-wine ingredients made me feel like I was making an apple pie.

combined ingredients, pre-wine

I added the wine…

Drunken Apples

And then waited for a while! Just before dinner I added the apple cider and poured the sangria into our butterfly glasses:

Ready to Drink!

I think the wine I used here was a little bit darker than what the book called for (or else the glasses in their pictures were just narrower and on a lighter background!), but the flavor of the sangria was good nonetheless. I think the darker wine stood up well to the sweetness added by the sparkling cider, and there was just a hint of cinamon in the finish. It’s the closest to a classic sangria that I’ve done so far in the drink through – classic with an apply twist. For warmer weather, I might lighten it up by chosing tarter apples and using half cider and half sparkling water, but this is a good treat for fall.

Looking ahead to the canyon from the trailhead

After driving the long and windy road from Highway 8, through Julian and to Borrego Springs, we stopped for lunch at Carlee’s Bar and Grill, where the sandwiches were good and the homemade potato chips were brilliant. We then headed to the Park Visitors’ Center – it was big and well-appointed, with information exhibits on par with those at Grand Canyon – maybe not surprising considering that the park is California’s largest state park, covering 600,000 acres!

Palm Canyon Trail Description

We started our backpacking adventure on the Palm Canyon Nature Trail, one of the most popular hikes in the park. It was mid-afternoon when we started out, and it felt like summer instead of the first day of November – it was about 92 degrees and very sunny when we started out along the desert trail.

Trailhead

There are trail markers at strategic spots along the trail, but we hadn’t picked up an interpretive brochure and so tried to guess at what we were supposed to be learning (rocks? plants? dust mites?) as we made our way to the first palm grove.

Clear skies over the valley

There are a number of trails branching off along the valley floor, and so we only saw about two-thirds of hte markers as we made our way into the canyon. After about a mile of very slow hiking (those backpacks are heavier than we remembered!), we got to the shadier part of the trail, protected from the sun by the canon walls.

Oasis Ahead!

The official trail ends on the other side of the palm grove,

End of the Trail

but we continued on deeper into the canyon, scrambling over boulders and through thorny acacia shrubs.

Heading Upstream

As we got further up-canyon, the streams were running at slightly more than a trickle and the pools were more numerous, and most importantly, we saw a lot of frogs! They were fairly tiny and hard to get pictures of, but it seemed like there were at least two different species hopping around.

Have you seen my frog?

It was fun to come accross the pools of water, but everytime we saw one, it meant there were more boulders to climb over as we made our way upstream – four days later, and my legs still have bruises and scratches!

the stream pooling along the trail

After a while (making sure we went further than the other backpackers we knew about, since Chuck is all about competitive hiking…), we came across our chosen campsite. We could see another grove of palms another third of a mile ahead and around the bend, we had a nice little pool of water to relax near and soak our feet in, and there was a sandy stretch for us to set up the tent:

The view to the north of our campsite

Our very own wading pool

Our wading pool had some frogs and water bugs, but as we were getting out we noticed an ultra-scary mean looking bug on the rocks right below where we were sitting – it looked kind of like a rhinoceros beetle, except it was under water – ick! Normal water beetles and little black grubs were ok, but this guy was creepy!

Chuck set up out tent

Good color coordination!

The downstream view

Since it was still pretty warm in the evening, we left the rain fly off our tent and huddled in our sleeping bags and enjoyed the breeze coming through the tent…until one in the morning, when we were suddenly awoken by…raindrops! in the middle of the desert. The rain only lasted a minute or two, but Chuck threw the rain fly over the tent just in case there was more. We didn’t get swept away by a flash flood, but in the morning it was interesting to see how the stream had surged overnight, with the rocks and sand around our wading pool showing new high-water marks. After a night of tossing and turning (I still haven’t figured out how to sleep comfortably in the tent, even with my new packable feather pillow), we woke up early in the morning and headed out in the morning light.

Morning sun over the canyon

A baby palm tree growing near the stream bed

Ocotillo

We didn’t spot any bighorn sheep on our hike, although they were rumored to be in the area, so that’s another reason we have to go back to Anza Borrego. We did come across the skeleton of a baby sheep, presumably killed by a mountain lion – it looked like it had been laying in the stream bed for quite a while. We also heard a scary growling noize once on our way out of the valley, and quickly movedaway from that spot to the other side of the stream bed in case we were being stalked by a mountain lion ourselves!

We got back to the car shortly after eight am, and stopped at Los Jilbertos in Borrego Springs for breakfast burritos before driving back to San Diego – it was the perfect post-backpacking breakfast!

Our trip to Anza Borrgo allows me to cross #59 off of my 101 Things list. Now that we’ve made the trip and know how much fun it is, we’ll definitely be going back!

The rules:

1. I’ll make all of the sangria recipes in the book, but not necessarily the tapas recipes at the end.
2. I can make the recipes in any order I choose, but have to finish before the end of my 1001 days (May 2, 2011)
3. I’ll try to follow the recipes exactly (recommended wine styles, etc), but may ignore optional ingredients or substitute ingredients, especially for the several sangrias I’ve made before (red jalepenos instead of bell peppers in the Spanish Harlem sangria, maybe…)

The first sangria I made as part of the project was Fig, Cherry, and Cognac Sangria. With the dark, rich flavors, this might be considered more of a wintery sangria, but we had the dried cherries and figs on hand from one of Chuck’s brewing projects, and it seemed like a good idea to use them up.

Cherry, Fig, and Cognac Sangria Recipe

My Ingredients

One of the best things about sangria is that it’s super-easy to make – combine the wine and flavorings, chill for a few hours, then add some sparkling water and serve. By combining different kinds of wines, fruits, and other flavorings, the possibilities are almost endless. For most red-wine sangrias, the book recommends light-bodied red wines, particularly a Spanish Rioja Cosecha. (Cosecha refers to the vintage, and I think the book perhaps means crianza, which means aged for at least two years, instead, especially since the introduction contrasted the cosecha wines with the reserva wines, which are aged for at least three years). After much searching of the meager Spanish wine section of my local grocery stores, I found Campo Viejo Tempranillo, cosecha 2005, a rioja crianza (that should cover all my bases!) The wine was very dry and fairly light-bodied. I only had a small taste before adding it to the fruit, but would have been happy having a glass or two.

Step 1: slice figs and cherries; add warmed honey and cognac; stir to combine.

Fruit, Honey, Cognac

Step 2: add the wine; refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Adding wine to the fruit and cognac

Step 2: add chilled sparkling water, stir gently, and serve in pretty glasses. (optionally, strain seeds out before adding sparkling water; garnish with mint).

Cherry, Fig, and Cognac Sangria

The finished product was delicious – the dryness of the tempranillo was nicely offset by the sweetness from the cherries and figs, and the cognac added an oaky warmth. We paired this sangria with homemade roasted garlic-pepperoni pizza, then ate the wine-soaked cherries and figs for dessert.

This is a great sangria (it’s not the first time we’ve made this recipe), and I highly recommend it; to me, it matches well with tomato-based sauces because of the sweetness, and is more of a cooler-weather sangria because of the warmth added by the cognac – it’s kind of a “comfort sangria”. The richness of the figs and cherries also provide a sophistication to the flavor profile.

Trolley Barn Park entrance

This seemed like a great way to fulfill goal #69 from my 101 Things list, “Volunteer on a Community Project”. Despite the early start hour, the project was really fun – our captains had everything well oragnized, everyone working on the project was friendly, and people in the park seemed to appreciate all of the work that we were doing. I spent most of my time spray painting – check out my handiwork on the “Hot Coals” containers:

I was the queen of red spray paint

After heading home to scrub the spray-paint off my skin, Chuck and I headed out to the Adams Avenue Street Fair, a larger and more musically eclectic version of the Roots Fest. We spent some time wondering around the varoius stages, but ended up spending most of our time in Lestat’s watching the acoustic acts. My favorite newly-discovered musician was Josh Damigo – I can’t get this song out of my head today:

We also saw Gregory Page, Molly Jenson, and Chuck Cannon. And, we had yummy mini-churros and horchata.

Josh Damigo

Gregory Page

Molly Jenson

Chuck Cannon

We also stopped by the booth of Nha Vuu, an artist from Seattle who had some incredible artwork with her. Chuck and I were both enamored with her work, although I was most fond of the Plum Blossom series while he was more into the series depicting intermixed houses and calligraphy characters. Since I am usually more indulgent in art purchases, it was his turn to choose a favorite, and we got a print of this drawing.

Last weekend, we spent some time in Orange County, hanging out at The Happiest Place On Earth with Chuck’s family. During my ritual pre-trip beer scouting, I noticed that The Bruery (whose beers we had sampled at the Stone Fest) was opening its tasting room that same weekend – what incredible luck!

So on Friday afternoon, we snuck away to the Bruery, only six miles away from our hotel (seriously, with such good beer SO close, how could you even think of going to Disneyland and not visiting the Bruery?):

I’d only learned about the Bruery at the Stone Anniversary festival, so I wasn’t sure what to expect at the opening of the tasting room – I was picturing an Alesmith-like, no frills tasting bar, crowded into a corner and surrounded by brewing equipment, with just a few people hangning around..the Bruery blew those expectations away! The place was hopping with people, and the tasting room was well appointed in a rustic  elegance way, almost as if a wine bar had been dropped into the middle of a brewery. It was also quite well attended – if opening day was any indication, the Bruery is well on its way to craft beer success.

They had a full menu of beers available for tasting, as well as a cheese pairing, growler fills, and bottles to go. We didn’t have time for a full tasting flight, so Chuck got a glass of Humulus Bruin, and I got a glass of the Cask-Melange#1, plus we snagged some bottles of the Saison Rue and Tripel (but haven’t tried them yet!). The Cask Melange was brilliant! A combination of Russian Imperial Stout and a Flemish Red, it was sweet, sour, velvety, fruity, creamy, roasty, and soooooo good! Between the Melange #1 and my Hoppy Okapi adventure, I’m all about beer blends! Sometimes the sour Belgians (which are all the rage this year and last) are a little too sour for me, but combining the bright sour flavor with the smooth dark Imperial Stout, and it’s a perfect pairing – the best qualities of the sour still come through, and the stout takes the edge off and allows me to enjoy the flavors without grimacing with every sip!

I’ll be trying to visit the Bruery again when they release the “Autumn Maple” (made with yams!) later this month – it’s fast becoming one of my favorite breweries.

On our way back from Anaheim on Sunday, we also managed to visit Pizza Port San Clemente, our final leg of the Pizza Port trifecta! I had a Pier Rat Porter and a Double IPA (I think it was Dana Point Double? – I don’t remember the name quite so much as the uber-bitterness!), and Chuck had a Way Heavy Scottish Ale. The beers, and the delicious pepperoni and garlic pizza, were the perfect end to our weekend road trip.

As a bonus (or was it an ulterior motive all along???) I managed to make some progress on my 101Things list with both of these breweries – #65 (visit a brewery (Bruery!) I hadn’t been to before), and #62 (Pizza Port San Clemente) are now complete!

Start Date: 8/4/2008

End Date: 5/2/2011

Update 8/17/08: Goals in progress are in blue text.

Update 12/12/08: 11% done in 130 days – time to get moving!

Update 8/9/09: one year in – changing some goals, see the new post.

Running, Sports & Fitness:
1    Run a 10K
2    Run a 5K in under 30 min (best time to date: 34:56, March 2008  )
3    Complete a race longer than 10K
4    Try a spinning class (1/21/2009)
5    Do pilates 2x per week for a month
6    Participate in a bike riding event
7    Go Kayaking
8    Take rock climbing lessons
9    Swim Laps at My Gym
10    Get A Massage
11    Go horseback riding
12    Go mini-golfing
13    Play tennis 6 times
14    Play table tennis 10 times (8/10/08, 8/17/08, 8/25/08, 11/30/08  )
15    Do 25 consecutive push-ups
Cooking:
16    Make one recipe from every cookbook I own (63 as of 8/4/2008 ) (21 complete as of 8/9/09 )
17    Decorate a Cake
18    Successfully make an Italian Meringue
19    Make homemade marshmallows
20    Make a sourdough starter from scratch
21    Create a signature beer drink (8/7/2008 )
22    Create a signature sangria (2/15/2009)
23    Create a signature muddled drink
24    Enter a recipe in a competition
25    Complete four Iron Chef dinners (all dishes featuring a “secret ingredient”)
26    Make my own infused sea salt
27    Make an infused vodka
28    Host a brunch party
29    Take a Cooking Class
30    Organize Cooks’ Illustrated Recipes (1/18/2009)
31    Make homemade truffles
32    Grow an herb plant
33    Grow a vegetable plant
34    Make something on our grill (instead of making Chuck cook it!) (10/21/2008)
Blogging & Writing & Reading:
35    Complete a cook-through (or drink-through) blog project
36    Post an entry on BlogHer
37    Take a writing class
38    Write a short story
39    Write a fantasy story OR create a fantasy universe outline
40    Write a travel essay
41    Write 5 poems
42    Read books so that my “to-read” shelf has <= 10 books
43    Write 2 book review posts
44    Write a mini-cookbook (at least 10 recipes, with pictures)
45    Post a monthly self-portrait (pictures of me that someone else takes are ok)
46    Comment on blogs I read: at least one comment per week for two months(done as of 2/1/2009)
47    Read a mystery novel
48    Put together photo albums for my vacations
49    Make a journal of writing ideas & inspirations
50    Send a secret to PostSecret
Traveling:
51    Hike to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite (in this case, almost counts! 9/16/2008 )
52    Take a Beer Tour of Belgium
53    Hike the Inca Trail <or> Climb Kilimanjaro
54    Visit the Salton Sea (3/8/2009)
55    Visit a National Park I haven’t been to before
56    Take a backpacking trip, at least two nights (5/24/2009)
57    Visit a US city I’ve never been to before (Austin, 11/16/2008 )
58    Visit a US state I’ve never been to before
59    Visit Anza-Borrego State Park (11/1/2008 )
60    Visit a California Mission I haven’t been to before
61    Visit Catalina Island
62    Visit Pizza Port San Clemente (9/7/2008 )
63    Visit Griffith Observatory
64    See an okapi in a zoo I haven’t been to before
65    Visit a brewery I haven’t been to before (The Bruery! 9/5/2008 )
66    Go to Canada(5/1/2009)
67    Spend a weekend at BigBear (or other ski resort area)
Community:
68    Volunteer for a political campaign (phone-banked for Obama, 11/3/08 )
69    Volunteer on a community project (9/28/2008 )
70    Volunteer at a running (or other sport) event
71    Volunteer on a trail maintenance project
72    Donate $25 to charity/community organizations at least 10 times (KPBS, SDCats)
Music:
73    Finish all the lessons in my piano workbook
74    Learn 5 songs from my ragtime book
75    Take a guitar lesson
76    Learn to play 2 songs on the guitar
77    Write a song
78    Join a community choir / singing group
Festivals / Events:
79    Go to a film festival
80    Go to a book signing / author event (done! Ann Patchett on Aug 6, 2008 )
81    Go to the National Sandcastle Competition
82    Go to a food festival (strawberries in Ojai, tamales in Palm Springs, Garlic in Gilroy???)
83    Go to a wine festival
84    Go to a play
85    Go to a musical or opera
86    Go to a parade
Other/Local:
87    See a mainstream movie in a theater (do I really need to make this a goal? Well, yes…13 months and counting since the last time…)
88    See an indie movie in a theater
89    Watch three Audrey Hepburn movies I haven’t seen before
90    Visit a San Diego Museum (6/6/2009)
91    Go to the beach!
92    Visit Chula Vista
93    Visit the San Diego County Fair
94    Go to the Lakeside Rodeo(4/24/2009)
95    Go to a conference (professional, BlogHer, ??)
96    Go to 10 new San Diego restaurants (Urban Solace, Toronado, Osteria Romantica, Gulf Coast Grill, Tioli’s Crazee Burger, Cefalu’s, Liar’s Club, Vincenzo Ristorante, Blind Lady Ale House, Pho La Jolla)
Learning:
97    Learn to use photo editing software
98    Complete all three levels of “Learn Spanish in Your Car”
99    Take a drawing (or other art) lesson
100    Write an app in a programming language I haven’t used before
101    Learn to snap my fingers

I already completed one thing tonight, will blog about it later this week!