#17 Take 10 book suggestions from people and read them.

This is an easy one for me.  I love to read!  I also joined a book club this spring.  So with two sisters who are librarians and a new book club I have no shortage of suggestions.  I know I read more than these, but these are the ones that have stuck in my head for one reason or another.

Souless by Gail Carriger.  The first in a series that introduced me to the steampunk movement. I liked the mix of vampires, werewolves, and inventors.

50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James.  I read all three of the books.  They were interesting, the second and third seemed like they were more toward the romance genre. I hate romance novels.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. I enjoyed this book although it was very sad.  Don't let that stop you though.  It gives you something to think about.  I like books that make you think.

Grave Matters by Mark Harris  I feel this is a must read for everyone!  It lets you know what goes on with a body after you die and what your options are.  I just wish I would've read it before I had to bury a loved one.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens  I made it through this book, it was one for my book club.  Very lengthy.  I was told after I was done that Mr. Dickens got paid by the word, so that is why there was so much.......stuff (?).  It was ok.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  As a general rule the book is better than the movie and this was no exception.  I enjoyed her journey to self discovery.  I just wish I had a job that would let me travel for a year to get myself together.

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.  Loved this book!  First the author started writing when he was 70 years old.  His characters are wonderful.  Flavia is delightful, I wish she was my friend growing up.

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher This is actually a series about a wizard in Chicago.  I have read the first 3 books.  Sci-Fi is my favorite genre.  I am delighted to find a new series to devour.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson  I really enjoyed this.  I got to read about Sweden, which at times was a little confusing but still good.  I like mysteries and strong female characters.  This had both.  I am now on the third of the series.

Murder by Peacocks by Donna Andrews.  This is a fun quick read. Mystery with quirky family mixed in.  It is also a series but I haven't had time to find any of the other books.

These are only a few of the books I have read this summer.  I would list more, but I have been on a cleaning spree and gave two large boxes of books away to a high school teacher so that she can use them for her class room.  I hope you get time to read some of these too.

Where have I been?

This summer was especially busy with both of my boys getting married in the month of August.  I had many things to do in preparation.  I made 3 cheesecakes for Jason's Groom's Dinner and 12 cheesecakes for Dan's wedding.  It was a wonderful time and I am very glad to have Michelle and Nicole as my daughter in laws.  Fun moments include...At Jason's Wedding:  The sand ceremony, parasols, the shoe game, cutting the cake with a sword.  At Dan's wedding:  Nicole walking barefoot down the aisle, very personalized vows, Cedric's cartwheel, painting the tree instead of a unity candle. 

Along with the weddings I have also started to date a wonderful man, Pete.  It has been an unbelievable summer with many great memories.  Unfortunately that has left very little time for my Day Zero project.  I have completed a measly 4 projects in the last 7 months.  I know at this point that I will not finish the entire 101 projects.  The experience has been enlightening and I want to continue it in some shape or form.  The things that I have enjoyed the most are Postcrossing  and Geocaching.  I love getting cards from all over the world and not getting just bills in the mailbox isn't so bad either.  Geocaching has been so much fun, I now have a group of friends hooked on it.  There has been talk of doing it as a competition, complete with trophies and everything.

# 93 Rewire/replace 5 outlets in my house 3/3/12

I hate working with electricity.  I also hate it when you plug something in and the plug falls out of the wall.  That is what inspired this goal.  Off I go to Menards to get new outlets.  Who knew that you had to know what amps and volts you need.  I guessed right on the kind I needed.  I guessed wrong on the color that would match the rest of my outlets.  I started with the outlet in Jason's room.  Being paranoid about the electricity thing I turned off the power to the whole house.  The first one went really good.  The people who put them together really cranked the screws on tight.  After the first one I turned the power back on and plugged a nightlight in to make sure it worked and didn't blow anything up.  I did really good until the last outlet.  This outlet is connected to two other outlets and is controlled by a switch.  The replacing went great, but I somehow screwed up the light switch thing.  The outlets work, but the switch does nothing at all. 
I googled what may be wrong with the outlet and discovered that there is a metal tab that needs to be broken off of the new outlet to make the switch work.  I will have to wait until another day to fix this because it is now dark out and I would rather wait to do it in the daylight.  Problem solved and another item crossed off the list.

#5 Do yoga twice a week for four weeks 2/16/12

I have a yoga tape that I like to do.  I don't do it consistently, okay I rarely do it.  I did manage to spent 4 weeks doing the tape twice a week.  I quite doing the tape after the four weeks because I started to go to a fitness club.  I do miss it and wish I had time to do both.  When does it ever slow down? When the weather gets nicer and there is light in the evenings I would like to start walking in the evening.  That would be besides going to the fitness club.  I have two weddings this summer.  :) 

# 41 Make pie crust like my Mom's 2/12/12

I have been working on this for a month or more.  The first attempts tasted ok, but they were a little tough.  I talked to my mom about the recipe and found out that the measurements were a little off.  Once this was fixed the pie crust turned out fantastic. 

I made these pies for a meeting right before Valentines Day.  The people who ate them thought they were fantastic.  I can now say that they passed the test.  This is my last baking project and I am a little sad about that.  I have really enjoyed trying new recipes and perfecting foods that my Mom makes. The bright spot is that my oldest son has asked me to make 20 cheesecakes for his wedding in August.  I am going to try each recipe at least once so that I know the ins and outs of each one.  I will need more taste testers I guess.

#57 Go to an Art Museum 2/4/12

So, my good friend Janet and I planned a trip to the Walker Art Museum.  We managed to talk two of our guy friends (Steve and Glen) into going with us.  I haven't been to the Walker in years, I think the last time I was there was in college.  I met Janet and Glen at Ridgedale (they were coming from St. Cloud) and we drove together.  Janet drove since she grew up in the cities and she has the GPS.  Steve was going to meet us there, he is from Blaine.  We managed to get lost even with the GPS, we were only a couple of blocks off.  Thanks to a "Minnesota Nice" pedestrian we were soon at our destination.  Steve went in a different door than we did and we waited around for a while before we hooked up.
The Walker is larger than I remember it.  We walked around for about 3 hours and still didn't see all of the displays.  The Walker is filled with modern art unlike the Metropolitan Museum which has more traditional forms.  Some of the pieces were very different.  There was one of a box that was made of mirrors and had holes to look into.  That one was very interesting, depending on which wall was behind you and what pieces of art were on the wall, changed how the box looked inside. I was drawn more toward the black and white pieces for some reason.  Steve and Janet sat and watched a video of a McDonalds being flooded. 
After the Walker we went to a small coffee shop and talked for a while because our dinner reservations weren't for another hour.  Dinner was at a brewery and the food was really good.  We sat and discussed the art and other things in life.   It was a very successful outing and I hope that we can do it again sometime. What a great group of friends to go to a museum with. A variety of opinions and tastes.  Thanks Janet, Steve, and Glen for helping me cross this one off my list. 

# 24 Submit a photo to a photo contest 1/24/12

So I feel like I cheated a little on this item.  The photo contest that I submitted the photo to was one through Facebook.  My original idea was to submit one to National Geographic or something like that.  Those competitions cost money and money is in short supply lately.  The facebook contest was free.  The theme was winter.

I didn't win anything.  Which I wasn't surprised about.  It was one of those contests where you get your friends to vote for your picture.  I'm not one to bug my friends to do things like that.