Winter & Spring accomplishments

Much of my winter free time was spent with university applications. Now that's finished, and my time is being occupied by wedding preparations! I must admit I've been slacking. Nevertheless I've accomplished a few more goals:

#14, Schedule a church retrofit consultation. A representative from Phillips lighting came to the church and did an energy audit for us. I plan to present the resulting recommendations soon.

#18, Attend an opera, symphony, or ballet performance. James and I attended a performance by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra of the Russian masters.

#32, Grow a garden and harvest something edible from each patch. It took well into November and even December, but my broccoli patch finally yielded some edible crowns.

#39, Knit a sweater. For Halloween I dressed up as Waldo and knit my own red- and white-striped sweater and hat.

#42, Go snowboarding at least three times during the 07-08 season; learn to carve. I massively outdid myself here, buying a season's pass at Mt. Seymour. James and I went almost every week from January to April. I can turn confidently on both sides, I'm working on getting better at maintaining speed, and on one occasion actually landed a jump.

#46, Run 10 km. Well... I did stop to walk a few times, but I think it still counts. On April 20 James and I did the Vancouver Sun Run, along with more than 59,000 others. Our time was 1:11 (yes, we stayed together the whole time).

#61, Compile a cookbook. I did this at Christmas and gave it to my dad, who says he loves it.

#62, Take a yoga class at a gym or community centre. I've been going to radha yoga at least three times a week since the beginning of March - money was the motivator, I bought monthly passes and then felt motivated to get the most I could out of it.

#65, Keep a monthly budget. I've been doing this for some time now, using Pearbudget.

#74, Get a driver’s license. I did this on a whim last month (well, it's just a learner's permit). James was completely shocked when I told him.

#76, Donate 10% of my income to a church or charity of my choice. I've kept this up since at least December... I don't remember exactly.

September & October accomplishments

I've been busy doing stuff! And here's a list of goals I have finished in the past couple months.

#17, visit the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. I went on Oct. 6 with my boyfriend and his mom and sister.

This is the MOST IMPORTANT ONE: #25, pay off student loans by Dec. 31st, 2007. The cheque for my final payment cleared Oct. 10. I have no debt whatsoever at this point. :)

#57, eat everything in my freezer. Everything from last year is gone, and it's now full of new things from this summer - blueberries, blackberries, beans, strawberries, rhubarb, pesto, tomato sauce... I think that's it.

#66, clear Nicole's Trail at Burnaby Mountain. I went with James a while ago and while I wasn't perfect (there were several places where I had to put a foot down) I never had to get off the bike and walk. I think that's close enough.

#71, Change working hours from 9-5 to 8-4. I've done you one better, most mornings I am in the office by 7:30 and done at 3:30. Sometimes I'm even half an hour earlier.

#72, Get insurance settlement taken care of. I actually settled my claim yesterday. It has been more than seven months, and my left hip is still achy every now and then but that has stabilized. The insurance company included a lump sum payment for "future care" should I need more physio at a later date. To be honest he offered me a LOT more money than I was expecting... I'm really surprised.

August's accomplishments

#15, Drink 8 glasses of water a day for 2 weeks. I managed to finish this while on vacation, even with spending an entire day in airports and airplanes!

#26, Develop an emergency fund with $1500. It's actually got $1900 in it now.

#27, Take a camping trip to Oregon; save $500 for camping gear. As mentioned before, I did the first but not the second. I will need to save for camping gear to accomplish other goals though.

#33, Go in with some friends on buying/picking local produce in bulk, and preserve it. I wasn't able to get friends together, but I did it by myself. So far I have either canned, frozen, or dried the following: 13 quarts of cherries, 7 of peaches, and 5 of dill pickles; 9 pints of tomato sauce and 12 of green beans; 6 half-pints of blueberry jam, 6 of blackberry jam, 3 corncob jelly, 5 apple cider jelly, 4 peach jelly, and 1 oil-packed dried tomatoes; and some dried plums and cantaloupe.

#34, Obtain at least 50% of my food from within 200 miles. I know I didn't set a timeline, but I achieved this in August - 52.8% of my food expenditures for the month were local.

#55, Have one meal per week with all ingredients from within 200 miles. Again, I hadn't specified a timeline, and I haven't kept a strict chart, but I have been doing this quite consistently for most of July and August. On some weeks I've had 8 or 10 100%-local meals.

One more goal accomplished!

Well, sort of. #8, Register as an organ donor. When I went to do this, I found that I already was registered! I don't remember doing it at all. Well, regardless, it's done.

Goals Accomplished!

FOUR of them.

#2. Race in an alleycat and bring home a prize. I participated in the Time Bomb team bike race June 16th, and my team took fifth place. Fourth place didn't stick around for the prize awarding ceremony, so between the three of us we bagged two bottles of wine, a lovely decorated inner tube ("like lace panties for your bike" he said), and some toe-strap holders.

#9. Have a picnic. On June 22nd several of my friends and I had a picnic at Stanley Park's Third Beach. It involved homemeade falafels, hula hoops, and a raccoon (ugh). We're planning on having more beach picnics throughout the summer.

#19. File tax return by June 31st; use refund towards student loan payment. Well, this is half done. I filed today. Only two months late! I can expect my refund in about a week or so, at which time it'll get sent straight back to the Receiver General of Canada. How appropriate.

#22. Surprise James with something romantic. On June 17th was the Commercial Drive Car-Free Festival - all sorts of artists, musicians, booths, performers, etc. take over the main street through one of Vancouver's more notorious neighbourhoods. James was looking at a particular teacup; the potter was there doing some carving on un-fired ones and selling finished ones. He decided he couldn't afford one at that time though, so after he went home I went back and bought him one. He was really thrilled with it.