Sunday, August 30, 2009

#88 Read 5 non-fiction books


My 2nd choice was Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs.

I love the show Deadliest Catch. It airs from April to July on Discovery Channel and showcases 5 crab boats that fish the Bering Sea for king and opilio crab. H, myself, and a friend, S, have become addicted to this show over the last 3 years.

This book is written by 2 brothers who co-captain the fishing vessel, Time Bandit. They are one of the 5 boats featured on the show. Having seen what life is like for these captains and their crew I was very interested in seeing what they had to say.

The book is pretty good. Definitely some great lines in the book. "I have give you boys every means at my disposal to kill yourselves, and you have failed." I also gained some insight into why these guys are the way they are and background that isn't divulged in front of the cameras.

While I don't necessarily love these guys, you can't help but see that they are the product of how they were raised and they don't make any apologies for that. They do what they love, and that is fish.

I'm sad that this season of Deadliest Catch is over, and I can't wait to see what next season has in store. I know the Hillstrand Brothers won't disappoint.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

#38 Kiss in the pouring rain

We've had some storms recently, and every time it rains H bugs me to go out, so we can check this one off the list. Well until last night every storm included lots of thunder and lightning. I'm not a fan of getting electrocuted. :)

Anyways, so pretty late last night H asked if I wanted to go outside. It was raining pretty good, and it was late enough (after 11pm) that I knew no one would really see us (we live in an apartment complex).

So we went outside barefoot, and did the kissing in the grass. As proof we took pictures of ourselves after we came back in. Hey, I'm not gonna take a picture of us kissing and post it! ;)


#56 Make 5 vegetarian meals


Spinach-Artichoke Ravioli-Lasagna.

Recipe: Bun in the Oven

I included the link to my post in my food blog, instead of posting it both places.

I saw this recipe on Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals. I actually watched an episode. Some of her stuff has just gotten so strange and out there that I don't often watch her anymore. I saw her make this, and knew I wanted it to be my first vegetarian meal. H and I like spinach and artichoke dip, so figured we would like this. We also love pasta dishes, so that was another bonus for this meal.

Overall it was great, and a good intro to vegetarian meals. Hopefully my other 4 tries will be as successful.

If anyone has a vegetarian recipe that they think I should try let me know. I consider H and I to be kind of adventurous in eating, but no tofu!

Monday, August 24, 2009

#73 Donate clothes/shoes I don’t wear

While cleaning/organizing my closet wasn't part of the 101 list, it was essential in order to establish what needed to be donated. I made H go through his clothes, so not everything is mine. But our closet and both our dressers are looking a lot better now.

Closet Before:


Closet After:


Clothes/Shoes we're donating:




I love the feeling of accomplishment from cleaning the closet and donating stuff.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

#87 Start an online journal/diary

I added this to my list because I want to get back to writing a journal. All through school I had a diary. I wrote about my crushes, problems with my father, anger and depression about death, and everything else my heart desired. I pretty much stopped when I started dating Tim. Plus he found and read it, so I thought online would be a better idea than paper.

Livejournal is where I chose to set up shop. You can choose your privacy settings from private to public like this blog. I chose private, and even made my password something that Tim doesn't know. Plus I didn't have my computer save my password and I didn't write it down in our password book, so there will be no snooping for the Mister!

So while I already have 2 blogs, this journal is just my way of being able to express myself always without fear of offending anyone or being judged for my thoughts.

Friday, August 21, 2009

#78 Donate 100,000 grains of rice on freerice.com

Free Rice is a website that donates rice through the UN World Hunger Program.

How it works is it asks you a vocabulary question, gives you 4 choices on a definition, and for every correct answer the site donates 10 grains of rice.

It goes really quick, I spent like 5 minutes on the site and managed to donate 500 grains.

The site won't keep track of my donations from separate visits to the site, so I'll have to keep track of it.

100,000-500= 99,500 more to go.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

#40 Take an "Us" picture every month


So this picture is technically from June 27th. But H and I did absolutely nothing this month where we would take a picture of us. At least in August we'll have a wedding to go to.

This picture was at another wedding. This time a cousin of mine got married in the U.P. It was a lot of fun, and great to get away if only for a weekend. Plus we got to see family that we haven't seen in years.

#88 Read 5 non-fiction books


I read my first non-fiction book for the 101.

I read Through the Storm: A Read Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World by Lynne Spears.

This was the review I posted on Goodreads.com

Not really sure why I decided to read this book. I'm not really a fan of Britney Spears. While I like her music, I don't really like her all that much. And I don't get into the tabloid stuff, and I don't have to know what is going on with the stars.

For whatever reason, I decided to read it. Maybe just to get the mother's perspective on such a crazy family. Of course everything the media reported wasn't accurate, so getting a first hand account of the family's decisions sets things straight.

While the book certainly sheds some light on why some things happened, and background info that is otherwise lost, I just didn't seem to really care about Lynne Spears or the Spears Family. I lost a lot of respect for her when she kept defending her husband's alcoholism and preferred to live in denial. And perhaps looking back now she realizes her mistakes with him, but I just have a problem when she says that she doesn't believe in divorce, so therefore wouldn't leave her husband. Even when that is what her kids wanted her to do.

I could appreciate that Lynne Spears recognized her mistakes and limitations and wasn't afraid to share them with the world. While I know that there are more than 1 side to every story, she wasn't shy about her version of events.

I've read other non-fiction books that I preferred. I'm hoping that that the other 4 I read will be better.