I’m about 17 days from needing to complete my 101 in 1001 list, I haven’t been working on it much so it’s time to revisit and cross a few things off. I’ve only completed 52 of my items. Looks like I’ll complete about 6 more. As resolutions go I’m still above average as I’ll have done more than 18 items a year :)

So I love my 101 list but some things just didn’t get done. I thought I’d have done better. Things I could have done to ensure I accomplished more:

So I’ve had thoughts for a plan for Costa Rica, I’ve had it for a while but haven’t specifically verbalized it very much. I think maybe the closest I’ve gotten to verbalizing it is in my 101 in 1001 list, the item that says “Decide if I might actually want to live in Costa Rica” the result has been blank but as the plan proceeds you’ll get the gist of which direction I’m heading…

A few of these will be long posts and some will be short, some might just refer back to some earlier posts that fit in with “the plan”.

“I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” is one of my favorite songs. And that’s what I got! As I present I got a certificate that I’ve adopted a Hippo at the Detroit Zoo. I’ve got a Hippo, a certificate and background (see the photo).

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a Christmas novelty song written by John Coctoasten and performed by Gayla Peevey (10 or 11 years old at the time) in 1953. You can listen here or at the iTunes music store.

This is a favorite Christmas song of mine and I remember it being on a holiday Mix tape that Jim (a co-worker) made one year. It was a few years before it got re-popularized about 10 years ago (maybe from an Ally McBeal episode).

Plus, it includes a trip to the zoo, which (once I go) crosses another item off my 101 in 1001 list…

So it’s the new year. And it’s gotta be better than the last one, or at least better than the last 1/3 of last year. That was just too stressful…

I don’t do regular resolutions. They never take. I think the same goes for most people and their resolutions.

I started doing 101 things in 1001 days, which means you make a 101 tasks/resolutions (manageable ones) and you have 1001 days to do it (about 2.75 years). I originally found this at Day Zero. This have worked for me, I’ve got about 9 months left and I’ve completed about 41 of them (by tonight I’ll have done one more). I’m guessing I’ll have about 60 of them done by the time list runs out, 70 if I’m really motivated. Not perfect but for everyone you know, how many complete 6 out of 10 of their resolutions?

I’ve only got 1 year left in my 101 in 1001 list and I haven’t made much progress lately. I’ve used about 2/3 of my time but only done about 1/3 of my items.

It really has helped me get other items done in my life, they don’t get on the list since it’s static but they are the kinds of things that would be on the list…

(Later – Actually it’s a few days less than a year, for some reason I thought the 9th was “the day”, I guess it’s September 4th, 2008.)

I’ve slept great that last two nights!!! Today I got about nine hours and yesterday I only got 6-7 but I had to get up for work so I probably would have slept longer (but it was quality sleep). I just haven’t been able to sleep in on my days off lately and I think I’ve really needed it. I used to do a 12 hour day (or two), now it’s rare if I get an uninterrupted 5 hours…

I’ve got a few things to do today. Most importantly to mail in my taxes! THey’re done, I just need to get them in a mailbox. This is an item from my 101 in 1001 list to mail them in on time. I always do them late (sometimes years late).

Speaking of 101 list I got 1/2 an item done this week. I was going to change out all my exterior lights on my car. One of the back lights went so I change out all the bulbs on the back end. It’s really cold out, even in the garage, so I saved the front end until the next bulb goes out (I already have them all purchased so I’m ready to go) and it makes a little sense to wait until one’s bad too. I’m hoping to drive this car a few more years so maybe after that I’ll never have to change another bulb on this one ever again…

So I gave up Coca-Cola for a few weeks for several reasons. It’s on my list of 101 in 1001 to try and see how if it makes me feel any better or sleep any better, etc. I chose this time just to hopefully have less sugar/caffine in my body to maybe stay healthier for the holidays (especially since I’m hosting Christmas for 25-ish people on Saturday). I’m not allowed to substitute other (inferior) caffeinated drinks or extra amounts of chocolate, etc.

Well, the health thing didn’t work out since I got sick a few days later (last week) and don’t know if I slept better due to the illness or the decrease of sugar/caffine. No friends or coworkers have noticed I seemed to be less hyper :)

But I do get cravings for Coke, even when I haven’t removed it from my intake. But the other day at McDonald’s I got my number three which includes a drink, fries a Quarter Pounder with cheese, no pickles or mustard for those of you who may not know what a McDonald’s is, let alone what a #3 is. And as I took a drink of my soda I realized I was taking a really really long drink through the straw and it was tasting really really good. And then I realized why, I accidentally got a Coke. So while I hate to be wasteful, I went and dumped it out and got a Sprite instead. The Sprite just wasn’t the same…

So I’ve got two more days to go. Actually, about two days and five hours. And I’m really ready for it. And I know I need to try this experiment again sometime, the getting sick really through off the results the “experiment”. But I think I’m gonna stick it out for a few more days just because I can. Maybe…

So my last post wasn’t to make you believe that life isn’t good, it was just pointing out the blah things and not being in the mood for blogging (or even much blog reading). Life has been good and even today in general has been great.

So I’m heading back off the continent again. Actually, I’m not 100% sure that’s true, Costa Rica is on the isthmus which connects North America and South America and while I think that makes it not part of South or North America I’m not sure if it’s “off” the continent. but I digress…

So it’s time for some sun and relaxing. Want to try to get to some different places this trip but the trip is starting back in Jaco, my favorite town so far. I’m trying to find somewhere out on the peninsula that’s on the northwest part of the country for somewhere different to go.

“Pura Vida” is kind of a catch phrase / motto there, it means “pure life”. I did the magazine cover shown here after my last trip.

I’ll be crossing two items items off my 101 in 1001 list with this trip: traveling somewhere warm this winter and returning to Costa Rica. I’ve also talked about eventually moving there if I make a decision (either way) I can cross that off the list too…

So I’ve definitely fallen behind in my 101 in 1001 list (23% of my tasks done and used 32% of my time.). I’ve got more than a few things lined up in the next few months.

So three weeks ago I started making sure I was drinking at least a half-gallon (2 liters) of water a day. I hear I don’t drink “enough” (whatever that is) and I drink lots of soda and juice (mostly Coca-Cola and OJ). I do drink more water now than in other points of my life (which used to be never). It was one of the items on my 101 in 1001 things list. After 3 weeks I’ve got some results/conclusions:

So as we all know, metric is going to take the word by storm one of these days). HA!

The funny thing is I always thought of it as something that came over here from overseas, but the amount of signage in England that is in miles (and not kilometers) makes me laugh. I always chuckle when I see teachers teaching metric (I work for a school district) since it seems they are telling them the same thing they told me as a kid (and I’m still waiting).

Actually it’s bottled water that’s the cause of this post. One of my 101 in 1001 things items is to drink a 1/2 gallon of water a day for three weeks and see if it makes me feel healthier. So I bought water today (it’s on sale at Target) and the bottles are a 1/2 liter so I needed to figure out how many I needed to drink. Here’s the thing they don’t list it in ounces, they listed it as “1 pint 0.9 ounces” so I had to think if a pint was 16 ounces or not. Why wouldn’t they just list it as 16.9 ounces?!?

The real question is why are the bottling companies going along with this? Most people will pretty much pay the same for 16 ounces or 16.9 ounces, right? So it seems like they’re just giving away stuff (water, coke, whatever it might be).

Although I just looked at the Mike’s Lemonade that I’m drinking and it’s 11.2 ounces. See and I thought I paid for 12 ounces :)

So I’ve replaced my old tables at my place. They were old ones when I moved in 8 years ago. It was about time and it was an item on my 101 in 1001 list. Here’s the smaller one, the other one is just longer. The glass top is interchangeable with the wood, which I’ll never do, but I like the feature :)

Plus I put in this looonnngg cabinet along the front of the room, it’s pretty much exactly what I’ve been looking for DVDs and CDs and “stuff”. It’s 77 inches long so it’s got room for a lots of items.

Also, I finally put some curtains up in the living room (this is also on my 101 in 1001 list)

It’s resulted in some movement and rearranging around the house. It’s never exactly what I want so I’m still thinking about the layout.

I’ll need to get some photos on-line.

Oh, and I got a hutch for the dining room. I’m trying to keep the laptop in there when I come home and I’m keeping the chargers for all my gadgets in there so that I’m not always digging them up and having them on the dining room table and then misplacing them :)

I need to add an item to my list: No more shopping at Ikea!!!

So I got my Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera (with an 18-55mm Lens) and I really like it! I’ve wanted it for a while but it’s the upcomming Egypt trip that inspired me to finally purchase it. (This was also one of the items on my 101 in 1001 items list so you can read a little more about the purchase itself in it’s completed entry over there.) So I got it with the 2GB card (and a spare 512MB) and the last few days I picked up a mini memory reader, a case, a filter (mostly to protect the lens) and one of those things with the rubber band around the lens to hang onto the lens cap so you don’t leave it anywhere.

I really like the fact when you “click” the button it instantly takes the picture. And I like the control it gives me over the pictures. I dislike the fact that the knob has confusing symbols and letters on it (I think I’ve got most of them figured out now). It’s got an LCD screen on the back, would it be so hard to have a mini manual built into the camera for review when you’re not so sure? I think any device should have this: iPod, camera, mp3 player, DVD player or anything with a display (it can’t take that much effort).

I’m definitely lacking nice brown shoes and I own several pairs of these shoes (see image) in black but needed to order the ones in the color brown. I knew I’d like them (this has been my standard black shoe for years) and I’ve been meaning to do this for ages so I added it to my 101 in 1001 list. So the guy at the Hush Puppies store said he could order them for me cheaper than I could buy on-line (which was true). I just wasn’t sure exactly what my size was so I wanted to check my black ones at home.

So I found the size and called them back and when they got on-line to order them it turns out they didn’t have the brown ones any more. So I checked all the on-line stores and the few places that did have them didn’t have my size (and they were all more expensive than he could have got them for me)…

Then I found Boscov’s!!!! They have the Sutton Hush Puppies in Brown and they were half off. So I ordered two pair! And I loved them. (Of course I did, they’re the same as the black ones!)

Did I tell you I hate shoe shopping? And that they don’t make these any more? And they were brown? And they were exactly what I wanted? Guess what? I ordered 4 more! I won’t have to deal again with this for a long time…

Is Boscov’s a real store? Has anyone shopped at one? Was it a catalog place before they were on-line?

(FYI: This is one of my 101 in 1001 days items, and this post is pretty much the same post as I put over there…)

Way back in September 2005 I said I liked the idea of this 101 things in 1001 days.

As it says on the 101 in 1001 site:

The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

So I’ve built a list and I’m crossing them off. I broke them down by categories: Blog, Entertainment, Family, Health, Home, Me, Money, Other, Technology and Vacation (the last category may be overloaded). Of course the list is at http://101in1001.garylapointe.com/ and I’ve got it all geeked out (but the template needs work).

On the site there is a countdown as to the time left and how many tasks I’ve completed (and what percentage of tasks I’ve completed vs. percentage of time passed).

Recently completed items are in the left sidebar of this site on many of the pages. Also on days that I post a new entry there and here, it’ll automatically show up under the date. Unfortunately, it was an afterthought so it doesn’t show up on days when I don’t post here, but I’ll figure something out…

There are RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds if you’re a feed reader…

These are things I’m doing so some of the posts will be relevant to life so I’m trying to figure out a way to incorporate them more here.

So I found this cool meme and the object is to make a list of 101 goals and get them done in 1001 days. I’m going to put something together and see how far I get. This ties in with today’s Friday Forum (goals and reflections) and 9/11 (no, not that 9/11, the other one).

Actually, I didn’t find it Sarah did.