This time next week I'll be back at school. Well technically I'll be at the main campus of my university for a Board meeting - but school will have started. Not only does that mean that I've got shiny new binders, fresh pens and a box full of lined paper, it also means that it's packing time. Packing time is obviously my favorite time of year, I love it almost as much as I love unpacking (insert sarcasm!). While I am so excited to get back to school and my normal routine of living at the library - no sarcasm here, I am probably one of the few that love school, love spending time in the library and love reading - there is nothing I hate more than packing and unpacking.

Not only will I have to go through my room at pack up what I think it necessary to take back with me, I also have to go through the mountain of boxes that I packed up an stuck in the basement when I moved home last year. This is a three day job if I work efficiently and don't procrastinate, which we both know isn't going to happen.  I am the Queen of Procrastination when it comes to packing, especially when I've finished work for the summer, started watching Friday Nights Lights and have fallen in love with Taylor Kitsch. I mean who wants to pack when you can watch Taylor and the other stunning cast of Friday Night Lights? I can actually blame one of my professors for this newfound love of this show. She watches it religiously and recommended it to myself and another classmate.. now we are both hooked and will fight to the death for Tim Riggins. 

On a completely non-hot and sweaty football note, I spent the day with my Nan on Tuesday and learned how to make the most delicious home-made bread. It was so nice just to spend the afternoon with my Nan and have her tell me stories from when she was my age AND she let me take home most of the bread. It was pretty much a win-win situation all around. So tomorrow I am going to start the all day process of making bread on my own and see if it turns out half as good as my Nan's does. All of my friends are super excited for this because they are under the impression that I will be making homemade bread for them all the time as school this semester. That will only happen if they put an oven in the library!

#20 - Brent's Cove

My friend Jess is from a little town in out port Newfoundland called Brent's Cove - population.. less than 200. It's this beautiful little town with a heart shaped bay where everyone knows everyone and the people are all welcoming and super friendly. We decided to go after a bottle of wine each last weekend and the three of us - Myself, Jess and the boyfriend - quickly made arrangements to score some time of work. Although we only managed to get one day, we did the 3 hour drive out on Saturday and then back again on Sunday. It was well worth the trip.


Her family was so amazing, making us all of these Newfoundland traditional dishes: fish and brewis and bologna stew. There was so much food, beer, homemade wine, laughs, adventures and great memories. We'll definitely be going back again soon. 

#79 - Shaun of the Dead, Changeling & Snatch

Since I enjoyed the first two movies on IMDB's Top 250, I decided to continue on watching two more, with hopes of finding more gems I was oblivious to!

So, Shaun of the Dead.. yeah, I wouldn't really recommend this movie to anyone. I mean I watched it, but it was a forced effort. I'm not a huge fan of Simon Pegg ( Shaun) or this style of movie, and I haven't seen a Zombie movie that I liked yet, but I went into this with an open mind - at least I tried, I promise. But if you like Zombie comedies and Simon Pegg this movie is for you! Unfortunately for the makers of this movie, I will never watch it again! 

Changeling was an inspiring story about a woman named Christine Collins, played by Angelina Jolie, and is based the true story of Christine's journey to find her son after he goes missing. Despite all the odds against her Christine is unwilling to give up the search for her son and refuses to lose faith that her son will return to her. This moving shows the desperation and hope of a mother who refuses to go along with what she knows is not right. This is a movie that I would highly recommend to everyone.

All I'm going to say about Snatch is that it's a story about a diamond the size of Texas and Brad Pitt doesn't wear a shirt is most of it. You need to watch it. 

On another note....

Today is my day off, which means I'll be doing some cleaning, organizing for school and some relaxing. I'm thinking about starting Friday Night Lights and watching the episode of Bachelor Pad I missed last night. This weekend we didn't do any hiking, the weather was too warm for us to have done the hike. We ended up just spending an hour outside, in which we got two nice lovely sunburns, and then running inside to devour cotton candy ice cream. 

#92 - Books Books Books!

#92 on my list - Ask 10 friends to recommend books for me to read. So I posted in my Facebook  status for my friends to recommend books for me. I got more results than I expected. So I'm expanding my list, because I absoloutely love to read and most of my friends aren't suggesting romance novels so that will also help out with # 81 - Read 101 non-romance novels! 

The verdict is in and the books are as following:


1. The Help by Katherine Stockett  - Sara J
2. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter - Carolyn M
3. Mercy by Jodi Picoult - Gail B
4. Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland - Amy Y
5. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie - Stephanie H
6. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell - Ruth L
7. Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult - Marquita W
8. American Gods by Neil Giaman - Kieran S 
9. Twenties Girl by Sophia Kinsella - Kate T
10. The Stand by Stephen King - Andrew B
11. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - Pat C
12. The Hunger Game & Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Taylor W
13. House of Hate by Percy Janes - Jayce W
14. The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

I'm so excited to start reading all of the books that my friends have suggested! And I'm so thankful to have so many wonderful friends who have suggest so many great (at least I hope!) books for me to read!

#79 - The Philadelphia Story & Rain Man

To officially kick off my 101/1001 list I sat down and watched The Philadelphia Story and Rain Man. I started at the bottom of the 250 list to hopefully work my way up to the best movies. But starting with The Philadelphia Story and Rain Man was an excellent decision on my part. 


I was really nervous to start with The Philadelphia Story because it was made in 1940 which means that the movie is black and white. The movies stars Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Katherine Hepburn and story is based on a romantic comedy where everyone wants the girl! I would highly recommend this movie to everyone!

My next movie won the Best Picture in 1988, staring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man. As soon as I told my boyfriend that I was about to watch this movie he told me that I was going to love it. I actually don't know why I haven't watched it before. This movie was so inspirational and I encourage everyone to get out there and watch it right now! Like now.. GO!

I can't wait to continue with the Top 250 movies and the rest of my list! 

And So Begins the 101...

I have 992 days left to my 101/1001 challenge and I have yet to complete anything from my list. I have been making lists and thinking about where I can start instead of actually starting. I think I was scared to actually start because it would mean that I had actually committed to the list and to trying to complete these tasks in 1001 days. 


I decided that the best place to start would be with #79 - watching all of IMDB's Top 250 movies. Surprisingly I've only seen 31 of this ever-changing list. For example, I was looking at the list this morning and Cary Grant's Arsenic and Old Lace was #249 but checking now #249 is listed as Rain Man (1988). So I think I'm going to save the list right now and watch all the movies that are currently on the list. I'm excited to really get started with this list, there are so many influential movies that I haven't watched and so many that are considered classics that I haven't seen. 


Since I'm off tomorrow I'm going to take advantage of a late night and watch #250 ( I thought I'd start from the bottom of the list and work my way up!) with Cary Grant's The Philadelphia Story (1940). I'm looking forward to a nice black and white movie with a big glass of red wine, when I told my boyfriend of this he said it sounded like a perfect relaxing night (not to mention the 1940's heartthrob Cary Grant added to the mix, but of course my boyfriend didn't think like that). 


I also started working on #77 tonight as well - make a custom recipe book. A co-worker of mine, is starting her 2nd year of flight school in a month and couldn't cook if her life depended on it (I'm told her stir fry looks like hamburger meat). So I told her today at work I would make her a recipe book with pictures so she could see what she needed to be doing in order to have her food come up eatable. So when I made fajitas tonight for my brother and I, I took pictures so I could start the cook book. She's really excited about this, which got my really excited and it's a great excuse for me to try cooking some new meals to add to her recipe book! I was also thinking about maybe putting up some of the recipe's (with picture) on here. But for now I'm going to concentrate on making the recipe book for Anne so that she can eat good, healthy food this year at school. 


So cheers to actually starting my 101/1001! Hopefully once I really get into this it'll be easier to get going on the rest. I think I'm going to start working on more tomorrow on my day off! 

101/1001

Kayla from Ramblings of a Small Town Girl has inspired me to participate in a project called Day Zero. This project encourages you to make a list of 101 specific things that you want to do in 1001 days (approximately 2.75 years). Many people have bucket lists or 25 things to do before you turn 25, but this list give you a reasonable amount of time to complete such tasks. 


It was much harder to come up with 101 things than I thought it would be. When I initially sat down to start writing my list I thought I was going to have to cut things from my list but instead it took me a few days to come up with 101 things I thought were important enough to be put on such a substantial list. 


After I looked at my list, I debated if I really wanted to commit myself to this project, so I took a look at the website and decided that maybe this is really what I need to get out of the funk I seem to be in lately. So I signed up, created a profile, and added a list. 


Starting tomorrow, Friday July 30th, 2010 - I have until April 13th, 2013 to complete the following list:


Indulge
1. Fall in love
2. Buy myself a nice piece of jewelery
3. Buy something from Etsy
4. Buy a piece of Art from an Art Auction
5. Eat ice cream Sundae's with homemade ice cream
6. Spend and entire weekend watching movies
7. Shop at a farmers marker
8. Spend an afternoon reading in the sun
9. Get a tattoo
10. Dye my hair brown
11. Spend and entire afternoon in an antique store
12. Buy myself a new camera
13. Have a candlelight dinner
14. Spend an afternoon reading in the park
15. Buy a real vintage dress
16. Dance in the rain


Explore

17. Visit Europe

18. Visit two new states

19. See New York

20.  Stay overnight in a new town (within my province)

21. Visit Cape Cod

22. Take a family vacation

23. Hike Gros Morne Mountain

24. Take a week long camping trip

25. Eat at 10 new restaurants

Education

26. Graduate with a BSc in psychology

27. Get accepted into one of my top 5 grad schools

28. Get all A’s as final grades for a semester

29. Become a member of the CPA

30. Take a course I wouldn’t normally register for

Expand

31. Visit the Museum of Natural History

32. Learn conversational French

33.Try every red wine from Portugal

34. See a Broadway production

35. Perfect an Indian dish

36. Watch and understand the Rugby World Cup

37. Learn to make an authentic dish from three different countries

38. Join a book club

39. Get a job as a bartender

40. Make 5 new desserts

41. Learn to drive a standard

42. Make curry from scratch

43. Make a soufflé

44. See a play 

Caring

45. Sponsor a child for 1001 days  (at least)

46. Donate blood 5 times

47. Volunteer once a month within my community

48. Go through my closet and donate all clothes that doesn’t fit or I no longer wear

49. Make a $100 donation to a charity every year

50. Plant a tree

51. Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years

52. Grow a plant

53. Bake cupcakes for a friend for no particular reason

54. Pick 5 people who have changed my life/inspired me and write them letters

Healthy Choices
55. Join a gym and go three times a week
56.  Give up all soft drinks for a month
57. Give up coffee for a month
58. Give up fast food for  a month
59. Go swimming once a month
60. Join an outdoor club or group
61. Learn to snowboard
62. Successfully complete P90X
63. Go zip lining
64. Run a half marathon
65. Be able to do 100 push ups


Money Wise
66. Put away $20 for every goal I complete
67. Start a travel fund
68. Put $25 of every cheque into the travel fund
69. Put $100 extra into the travel fund each year
70. Get a grant/scholarship for grad school
71. Have all my Christmas shopping finished by November 30^th, 2010
72. DIY all my own Christmas wrapping paper and cards


Misc.
73. Go on a picnic
74. Fly a kite
75. Knit a scarf
76. DIY a custom picture/bulletin board76. Make a custom recipe book
77. Make a custom recipe book
78. Make a list of 101 things I am grateful for
79. Watch all of IMDB 250 top movies
80. Read 5 biographies
81. Watch every episode of The Simpson’s
82. Read 2 Jane Austen novels
83. Watch The Godfather
84. Have (and maintain) an old-fashioned pen pal for 1001 days
85. S uccessfully complete a 30 for 30 challenge
86. Have 101 followers on my blog at the end of the 1001 days
87. Document as many of the 101 items as possible
88. Read 101 non-romance novels
89. Spend an afternoon with my Nan learning to make bread
90. Take my parents out to supper
91. Make 5 skirts (and wear them!)
92. Ask 10 friends to recommend a book and read them all
93. Host a dinner party
94. Make my own wine
95. Give a creative gift rather than buying one
96. Learn to curl my hair
97. Spend an afternoon with my mom
98. Watch a sun rise and set in the same day
99. Make pizza from scratch
100. Write a letter to myself  to open at the end of the 1001 days
101. Write another 101 list at the end of the 1oo1 days


I know that some of these are going to cost more than the others but I hope that I enjoy each and everyone of these items and that by April 13th, 2013 I have completed everything on this list. When I hit publish post I am going to pour myself a nice glass of red wine and toast to the next 1001 days.