Summertime Bucket List

Summer always goes by so quickly. One minute it's 100 degrees, the next it seems like we're back in the middle of winter. I want to make sure that Mark and I get to do the fun things we love this summer, so we made a summertime bucket list. Short, sweet, and do-able:

1. Go camping - up in the Unitas, even for just one night. Campfire cooking and s'mores...need I say more?

2. Go hiking. We love the Salt Lake Overlook, Dog Lake, White Fir Pass and Park City Overview trails in Millcreek Canyon. We also like the Red Pine Lake and White Pine Lake trails in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Park City Overview

Red Pine Lake

3. Go cycling. We've done a few rides already, but we just want to get out on the bike some more. City Creek Canyon and Legacy Parkway are great, traffic-free rides.

4. Make raspberry jam.

5. Dinner at Caffe Molise on a Friday night. Sit outside on the patio and enjoy some live jazz music.



6. An outdoor concert at Deer Valley

7. Brunch at Ruth's Diner. Love sitting on that patio in the summer!


So what's on your summer bucket list?

Cheers!

2013 Goals

I love setting goals. And I make a lot of them. I make one for each month, a few for the entire year, and recently have started making goals that span the year starting on my birthday. It seem like a lot of goals, and I don't usually complete all of them. But that's not the point. The point is this:

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. 

Bruce Lee

It's good for me to have goals. They give me something to work on mentally, spiritually or physically. They help me re-examine how I spend my time. And not all of them are serious and mature. Some are fun and frivolous.

At the moment I have several "in progress" goals. January's goal is to spend a few minutes each week in planning. I'm a big fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done principles, and one component of the system is a weekly planning session. I have been doing this for many years, but was only planning certain things, like menus, so I wanted to be more focused on reviewing all of my projects and scheduling time to focus on the steps needed to complete them. So this month, I have taken a few minutes each week, reviewing my goals, projects and tasks, and fitting these things into my week. I have already seen a boost in my productivity. Simply reviewing my goals weekly helps me focus on those things that matter most to me.

For example, one of my yearly goals for 2013 is to exercise for 3 hours each week. Which is 180 minutes per week. As in 9,360 minutes in one year. So, I set up a spread sheet to track this - I enter the date, the exercise and the minutes, and the Excel spread sheet keeps my running total (pun intended) and shows me how many minutes left to reach my goal. By reviewing all my weekly obligations, I know exactly which days I will be able to spend some time exercising, then can plan accordingly (take my gym bag to work, etc.). So far this month, I'm a bit below what I need to average each week, but I'm making progress. And that's the object of goals - to work toward something, not necessarily achieve perfection.

February is right around the corner. I think I'll keep the weekly planning sessions. My goal for February is to spend 10 minutes, 3 times per week, stretching. I mean, I can hardly touch my toes. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

What goals are you working on this month/year?

Cheers!

2012 Wrap Up

Happy New Year! Before moving on to 2013, let's see how 2012 finished  up:

Mark's birthday was awesome. He received many letters from his family and friends wishing him a happy birthday and sharing some sweet memories.

For my goal of doing "something epic" for Mark's 60th birthday, I surprised him with a Caribbean cruise over the Christmas holiday. I disguised the gift as packing in a box with a gift certificate. It took him a minute to figure out what the surprise was, but once he did, he was thrilled! He has always wanted to take a trip for Christmas and I was so happy all the planning and arranging worked out!

We started remodeling our condo in early December. To make the process more tolerable, we moved out of the condo and into my parent's house (thanks, Mom and Dad!). It's been fun being back "home" for the holidays. The remodel is going well, and hopefully will be done in the next three weeks or so. 

And finally, our cruise! We sailed from Miami to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to St. Maarten/St. Martin and to St. Kitts. It was beautiful, relaxing, and I highly recommend it!

I hope your 2012 was awesome. Here's to a wonderful 2013!

Cheers!

Hellooooo Number Nine!!

Okay, so the title of this post is an inside joke (in fact, it's so inside I'm the only one who gets it), but nonetheless, it's our ninth anniversary! Just thinking about our beach wedding on this cold, snowy day in Utah makes me long for a vacation (which is actually coming up sooner than some people might think! Shhh, don't tell - more to come!). But since we are in Utah, we celebrated with sushi at Takashi* and dessert at the New Yorker - and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Negril, Jamaica, 2003. 

Ten years, coming right up. Already planning that one!


* I love the great service at Takashi. We sit at the bar (yeah, our favorite local bar is a sushi bar) and almost always have the same sushi chef. He knows what I want and in what order, so I don't even have to ask. It's so nice to hear "would you like an Imagine roll next?". Yes, please! And seriously, we haven't been there since June. It's just awesome.

Cheers!

A Sign?

I hope today's weather is a sign of things to come. While I'm not a big fan of winter, if it absolutely has to happen, we might as well be able to ski! Makes life a bit easier to endure.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Just in Time

...for the holidays - an absolutely perfect pie crust!

I love making pies, but sometimes the crust just drives me insane. It falls apart; it sticks to the counter, the wax paper, the rolling pin...augh! Lately, I've caved into the convenience of the store-bought pie crust from Pillsbury. In a pinch, they are great - flaky, easy to use. But I've wanted to revisit homemade crust, and found this recipe from Bon Appetit. I then set about making an apple pie (I like Braeburn apples for my apple pie - a nice combo of sweet and tart).

It. Was. Perfect.

Seriously. Easy to make, easy to roll out, nothing stuck, it didn't fall apart. And, it tasted great! Buttery and flaky. Sigh. I love it. I followed the directions, but only had to use about 1/2 cup ice water to achieve the correct consistency. And I would probably delete the sugar if I were making a savory pie, like a chicken pot pie. I cannot wait to try this with my chocolate pie. So, here's to the holidays! May your pie baking be stress-free!

Cheers!

Ghost

A seasonally named music selection, the Beethoven piano trio "Ghost", was a perfect start to this lazy Saturday:

Checking things off the "40 Things" list. This falls under the "coffee and classical music" heading (#29).

I also recently watched one of the American Film Institute's "10 top 10" movies, "Anatomy of  Murder", with Jimmy Stewart and Lee Remick (#39).A fabulous courtroom drama. Loved it. Had it on while organizing all my crafting ribbon. Good thing it was a long movie! This trailer is pretty good, in its own right:

Cheers, and happy fall!