#14--Try 50 New Restaurants

That's probably pushing it, but it sure will be fun trying!


1. Damon's Grill, somewhere in middle PA, August 10, 2008





2. Montezuma Mexican Restaurant, Gettysburg PA, August 10, 2008




3. Lost Dog Cafe, Ithaca NY, August 17, 2008








4. Mate Factor Cafe and Juice Bar, Ithaca NY, August 18, 2008







5. TGIF, Westlake OH, August 21, 2008






6. The Stone Oven, Cleveland OH, August 22, 2008





7. Champps, Westlake OH, August 22, 2008






8. The Blue Planet, Cleveland OH, August 23, 2008





9. Key West Cafe, Columbia OH, August 23, 2008





10. Thali of India, Henrietta NY, August 9, 2009

11. wonderful Chinese restaurant with tons of vegetarian choices, Charlottesville VA, August 2009


12. The Tavern (I think that is its name anyway.), Charlottesville VA, August 2009





13. Las Margaritas, Cleveland TN, August 2009

14. Miggie's Cafe, outside of New Orleans LA, August 2009



15. Ignatius, New Orleans LA, August 2009








16. Morning Call, Metairie LA, August 2009





17. Cafe Rani, New Orleans LA, August 2009

#15--Try 50 Different Mixed Drinks and/or Wines

This one doesn't sound so tough, but I'll guess we'll see. ;)

#16--Try 50 Different Beers

This will be a bit harder than #15, as I'm not much of beer person anymore.


1. Mountain Lager (Appalachian Brewing Co.) August 10, 2008







2. Purist Pale Ale (Appalachian Brewing Co.) August 10, 2008







3. Swallow Wit (Middle Ages Brewing Company) July 20, 2009







4. Starr Hill Amber Ale (brewed in Charlottesville, VA) August 2009







5. Fat Tire Amber Ale

#17--Eat 5 Servings of Fruits/Vegetable for 50 Straight Days

I am sooooo bad about this!

#18--Go Meatless for 50 Days Straight

Maybe the 50 days will turn into a lifestyle. After all, I was a vegetarian for nine years.

Day 1: June 1, 2009 (actually it was before this, but I can't remember the exact date)...am planning to make it a life-long thing.

Day 50: July 20, 2009...*GOAL ACCOMPLISHED*...and still going strong...there's no turning back. :D

#19--Read 50 Award-Winning Books

Any book award. Hopefully a variety.

1. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara *Pulitzer Prize* (8/6/08)
2. Looking for Alaska by John Green *Printz Award* (late Dec. of '08)
3. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang *Printz Award* (early March of '09)
4. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Prachett *Carnegie Medal* (late March of '09)
5. Fax From Sarajevo by Joe Kubert *Eisner Award* (early April of '09)
6. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo *Christopher Award* (4/18/09)
7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon *Costa/Whitbread Award and Alex Award* (early May of '09)

**Period where I possibly missed recording some.

8. The Golden Compass *Carnegie Medal* by Philip Pullman (1/1/10)
9. Out of the Dust *Newbery Medal* by Karen Hesse (1/5/10)

#20--Do 50 Things I've Been Putting Off

These can be anything...from scheduling a dentist appointment to sorting/purging out the boys school papers to weeding the flower garden.

1. We went out and looked for (and found) bunk beds for the boys! (7/27/08)

2. I painted the boys' bedroom. (Sept. 2008)

3. I painted the bathroom. (June 2009)

4. I found a way to securely hang the "towel rack" in the bathroom. (June 2009)

5. I ironed the shorts that Annie wanted me to iron last summer. How bad is that?!! (June 2009)

6. Went to the dentist!!! (October 2009)

#21--Write 50 Poems

Sounds rather daunting, but I'm going to give it a go. And after all, I said "50 poems" not "50 good poems" :)

#22--Do 50 Things that Fall Outside My Comfort Zone

And I hate to say it, but my comfort zone has shrunk to an incredibly small size over the years. This once outgoing, try-anything-once young woman turned into a nearly-afraid-to-leave-the-house middle-aged woman. So, even if these are just "baby steps" maybe it will help.

1. Wore a bathing suit. (7/31/09)
2. Jumped off the diving board. (7/31/09)

#23--Read 50 Books from the Library

I've been so bad about buying books lately, so maybe this goal will help me cut down on that a bit.

1. Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman (7/19/08)
2. Sonny's House of Spies by George Ella Lyon (7/24/08)
3. The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer (8/20/08)
4. Daphne du Maurier's Classics of the Macabre (9/22/08)
5. The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper (11/7/08)
6. The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell (11/10/08)

*Long period of forgetting to record them here.*

7. The Sandman: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman (6/20/09)
8. The Golden Phoenix and Other French-Canadian Fairy Tales by Marius Barbeau, retold by Michael Hornyansky (7/24/09)
9. Pedro and Me by Judd Winick (8/8/09)
10. Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg (8/13/09)

*Long period of forgetting to record them here.*

#24--Donate 50 Bags/Boxes of Stuff to Thrift Store

The key here is NOT to come home with a different 50 bags/boxes from the thrift store!

1-8. Boxes of "stuff" donated to VOA spring drive. (mid-spring '09)
9-14. Bags of "stuff" donated to Salvation Army. (late spring '09)
15-22. Bags of "stuff" donated to Salvation Army. (mid-summer '09)

*****Period of forgetting to document.

#25--Read and Recycle 50 Magazines

This won't even take care of my unread stack, but it will put a good dent in it.

1-3. August 7-8, 2009
4-7. August 11, 2009

#26--Read 50 Folktales/Fairy Tales

I so enjoyed this unit in homeschooling last year, and this is a good way to ensure I don't let them fall by the wayside.

1. "The Golden Phoenix" (July 2009)
2. "The Princess of Tomboso" (July 2009)
3. "The Fairy Quite Contrary" (July 2009)
4. "Scurvyhead" (July 2009)
5. "Sir Goldenhair" (July 2009)
6. "The Fountain of Youth" (July 2009)
7. "Jacques the Woodcutter" (July 2009)
8. "The Sly Thief of Valenciennes" (July 2009)
9. "The Story of the Eldest Princess" by A.S. Byatt (November 2009)

#27--Read 50 Books That Aren't on a Challenge List

Yeah...an excuse to get in some "whim" reading!

1. Boris by Cynthia Rylant (6/29/08)
2. The Golden Phoenix and Other French-Canadian Fairy Tales by Marius Barbeau, retold by Michael Hornyansky (7/24/09)
3. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (1/5/10)

#28--Write 50 Love Letters to Rich

Because he so deserves them.

#29--Repurpose 50 Items.

Big, small, whatever. Anything that can be saved from the landfill, at least for a while longer.

1. July 29, 2008:
Made this little mini album using the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle one of the boys got in a kid meal.









































































2. August 1, 2008:
Kind of silly, but I covered one of Max's card binders with a poster. He loves this poster, but it got ripped and wrinkled. So I salvaged to good parts and made him a binder he loves.

#30-Try 50 New Holiday Ideas.

They might be anything...from making a new pumpkin recipe for Thanksgiving to trying a new way to decorate eggs at Easter. Whatever.

1. June 21, 2008. First full day of summer cherry cobbler. It was Gray's brilliant idea that this should now become a family tradition.














2. January 1, 2010. Pizza and banana splits for New Years Day. (The whole pork and sauerkraut tradition of my family, being from the Northeast, just doesn't cut it in a family with three vegetarians. ;) And the black-eyed pea tradition of Rich's family, while okay, just really wasn't our thing either. I did try to spice that tradition up one year by making a black-eyed pea pie--UGH. Anyway, we decided that we needed a tradition that would fit us...and this is it. :D)

#31-Visit 50 New Places.

I'd really like to visit all 50 states, but no way is that going to happen, so I'm going to shoot for 50 new-to-me places instead.

1. The Philadelphia Insectarium (August 12, 2008)



















2. Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY (August 17, 2008)


















3. Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY (August 18, 2008)


4. Cornell Plantations in Ithaca, NY (August 18, 2008)


5. Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY (August 18, 2008)


6. The Cleveland Zoo in Cleveland, OH (August 21, 2008)


7. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH (August 22, 2008)


8. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Cleveland, OH (August 23, 2008)






9. Antietam (August 2009)

10. The grounds of UVA (August 2009)



















11. Bayou Segnette State Park, LA (August 2009)



















12. The French Quarter, New Orleans, LA (August 2009)



















13. Lake Pontchartrain, LA (August 2009)

#32-Read a Book Set in Each of the 50 States.

Since I can't visit each state in person, I'll visit amidst the pages.

1. California: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (6/28/09)
2. New Jersey: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. *reread* by Judy Blume (6/29/08)
3. Alabama: Sonny's House of Spies by George Ella Lyon (7/24/08)

***Long gap of not remembering to record.

4. Washington: Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule (January 2009)
5. Massachusetts: The Crucible (January 2009)
6. New York: The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (April 2009)
7. South Carolina: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd *reread* (June 2009)

***Long gap of not remembering to record.

8. Oklahoma: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (January 2010)

#33-Read 50 Non-Fiction Books.

Self-explanatory.

1. New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers: Tales of Parasites and People by Robert S. Desowitz (6/28/08)
2. Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them by Mark Jerome Walters (7/5/08)
3. 50 Reasons To Buy Fair Trade by Miles Litvinoff and John Madeley (10/23/08)
4. The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper (11/7/08)

***Period of forgetting to record.

5. Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule (Jan. '09)
6. Science and Society by Robert Snedden (Jan. '09)
7. Tanzania by Joan Vos MacDonald (Jan. '09)
8. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole (Jan. '09)
9. In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD (Feb. '09)
10. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (Feb. '09)
11. Dictatorships: Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe by James R. Arnold and Roberta Wiener (Feb. '09)
12. House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-Torn Zimbabwe by Christina Lamb (March '09)
13. Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull (March '09)
14. Poverty: What If We Do Nothing? by Cath Senker (March '09)
15. Fax From Sarajevo by Joe Kubert (April 2009)
16. George & Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism by Charlotte Moore (April 2009)
17. South Africa by Ettagale Blauer and Jason Laure (April 2009)
18. Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby (May '09)
Young Adult Non-Fiction:
19. Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson (May '09)
20. The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA by Mark Schultz (May '09)
21. Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon (June '09)
22. No More Strangers Now: Young Voices from a New South Africa interviews by Tim McKee and photographs by Anne Blackshaw (June '09)
23. Focus on Afghanistan (World in Focus Series) by Nikki Van Der Gaag (June '09)
24. Pedro and Me by Judd Winick (August '09)

***Period of forgetting to record.

#34-Read 50 Kid Lit/YA Books.

Self-explanatory.

1. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (6/28/08)
2. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (6/29/08)
3. Sonny's House of Spies by George Ella Lyon (7/24/08)
4. The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer (8/20/08)
5. The Witches by Roald Dahl (9/23/08)
6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (10/18/08)
7. The Floods: Good Neighbors by Colin Thompson (10/28/08)
8. The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell (11/10/08)

***Period of forgetting to record.

9. A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti (Jan. '09)
10. Amulet: Book One The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (Feb. 2009)
11. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (March 2009)
12. Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater (March 2009)
13. The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg (March 2009)
14. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (March 2009)
15. The Dead & The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (April 2009)
16. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (April 2009)
17. The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech (April 2009)
18. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (April 2009)
19. The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot (May 2009)
20. The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater (May 2009)
21. Samuel Blink and Forbidden Forest by Matt Haig (June 2009)
22. Legend of Chun Hyang by CLAMP (June 2009)
23. The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going (July 2009)
24. Nation by Terry Pratchett (July 2009)
25. Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg (August 2009)

***Period of forgetting to record.

26. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (January 2010)
27. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (January 2010)

#35-Read 50 Short Stories.

Self-explanatory.

1. "Where I Live" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (6/28/08)
2. "Theo Duga's Cab" by Don Norum (Aug. '08)
3. "The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the Change" by Kij Johnson (Aug. '08)
4. "Don't Look Now" by Daphne du Maurier (Sept. '08)
5. "The Apple Tree" by Daphne du Maurier (Sept. '08)
6. "The Blue Lenses" by Daphne du Maurier (Sept. '08)
7. "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier (Sept. '08)
8. "The Alibi" by Daphne du Maurier (Sept. '08)
9. "Not After Midnight" by Daphne du Maurier (Sept. '08)
10. "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs (Oct. '08)
11. "Jerusalem's Lot" by Stephen King (Oct. '08)
12. "Graveyard Shift" by Stephen King (Oct. '08)
13. "Night Surf" by Stephen King (Oct. '08)
14. "I Am The Doorway" by Stephen King (Oct. '08)
15. "Gray Matter" by Stephen King (Oct. '08)
16. "Strawberry Spring" by Stephen King (Oct. '08)
17. "The Last Rung on the Ladder" by Stephen King (Nov. '08)
18. "The Man Who Loved Flowers" by Stephen King (Nov. '08)

***Period of forgetting to record.

19. "Down to a Sunless Sea" by Mathias B. Freese (1/3/09)
20. "I'll Make It, I Think" by Mathias B. Freese (1/10/09)
21. "The Father Thing" by Philip K. Dick (1/12/09)
22. "Orange" by Neil Gaiman (1/17/09)
23. "Ass-Hat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld (1/17/09)
24. "The Menace From Earth" by Robert Heinlein (1/17/09)
25. "The Home Team" by Greg Wickenhofer (1/17/09)
26. "Summer All in a Day" by Ray Bradbury (1/18/09)
27. "Cheats" by Ann Halam (1/18/09)
28. "The Fluted Girl" by Paolo Bacigulupi (1/18/09)
29. "The Harvest" by Amy Hempel (1/23/09)
30. "The Surfer" by Kelly Link (1/31/09)
31. "The Chatham Bear" by Mathias B. Freese (1/31/09)
32. "Herbie" by Mathias B. Freese (2/14/09)
33. "Alabaster" by Mathias B. Freese (2/15/09)
34. "Juan Peron's Hands" by Mathias B. Freese (2/15/09)
35. "Little Errands" by Mathias B. Freese (2/16/09)
36. "Arnold Schwarzenegger's Father Was a Nazi" by Mathias B. Freese (2/17/09)
37. "Echo" by Mathias B. Freese (2/20/09)
38. "Chicxulb" by T.C. Boyle (2/23/09)
39. "Young Man" by Mathias B. Freese (3/1/09)
40. "Nicholas" by Mathias B. Freese (3/7/09)
41. "Billy's Mirrored Wall" by Mathias B. Freese (3/8/09)
42. "The Babysitter's Code" by Laura Lippman (3/9/09)
43. "Unanswerable" by Mathias B. Freese (3/12/09)
44. "For a While, Here, In this Moment" by Mathias B. Freese (3/17/09)
45. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor (3/17/09)
46. "The April Witch" by Ray Bradbury (3/21/09)
47. "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair" by Charles de Lint (3/22/09)
48. “No One’s a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent (3/23/09)
49. "Repair Kit" by Stephen Baxter (7/5/09)
50. "Phantom Pain" by Lydia Peelle (8/3/09)

***GOAL ACCOMPLISHED***

#36-Give Away 50 Books.

Not to the library sale. Not bought new for holiday gifts. Just giving away books after I've read them. Either to someone specific or as giveaways on my blog.

1. & 2. Notes From a Small Island and Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits to Nymeth

3. Green River, Running Red to Chris

4. & 5. That's Life, one each (yes, I had two copies) to Trish and Sarah

6. 50 Reasons to Buy Fair Trade to Chris

7. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents to Megan

#37-Make 50 Layouts for Our Family Albums.

This, along with the next three goals, may be a bit hard to reach. But I really hope I make these ones. Yes, they're definitely fun, but I also think they're a wonderful gift to give my family.

1. Day 4 of our 2006 family vacation. I counted all three of these layouts as one, as they didn't really involve a lot of designing. (I came up with a design scheme when I started the album that I'm repeating for each day to give it some consistency.)





(Completed August 2008.)

2. Tinker Nature Park.



(Completed August 2008.)

3. Fall 2006.



(Completed August 2008.)

4. A Slice of Life Interview.



(Completed July 2009)

5. Popsicles in Springtime.
















(Completed July 2009)

#38-Make 50 layouts for Annie's Albums.

Self-explanatory.

1. Completed August 16, 2008.



















2. Completed Feb. 2009.


3. Completed April 2009.



















4. Completed May 2009.



















5. Completed May 2009.



















6. Completed May 2009.














7. Completed July 2009.
















8. Completed July 2009.















9. Completed August 2009.