The List - #101 completed

101. Organize all the books in the library.

On the surface, this seemed like a pretty easy one. But like most items on The List, it was tougher than it appeared. There were a couple of factors that contributed to this: that we had book in several locations, and that Beth and I are both particular (and stubborn) about even little things, like where to put our books.

I started the job and the master plan was to have fiction on one side, non fiction on the other, and a big row of cookbooks in the middle. That is basically what we went with, aside from a small section of Southern Writing, both fiction and non fiction, together. I started strong but ran out of steam and patience partway through the job. Beth picked up the slack from there, doing a lot of the hard core sorting midway through. Then I came on strong at the end to finish up. We're happy with how it looks. So, that's about 2% of our house that is now neat and organized. 98% to go!

The List - #53 completed

53. Spend one weekend eating only what we have one hand.

I took this one a step farther and did it for a whole week.  Reported with some details on my other blog.

I really need to get back to working on The List.

The List - #119 completed

119. Visit the Oaklawn poker room.

This wasn't a hugely noteworthy list item, but I put it on there because they recently updated their poker room and it would be my first time trying out the PokerPro electronic tables. Oaklawn is a horse racing track with gaming, located an hour away in Hot Springs. Last week I left in the afternoon and went to check it out and I was pleasantly surprised with everything.

First off, I was trepidatious about the quality of the place to start with. This was based on nothing, really, just the overall idea that a casino located at a track in remote Arkansas had the potential to be pretty janky. It really wasn't. I didn't spend much time on the floor, but it was on par with non-Vegas casinos I've seen in Tunica and other somewhat small cities. The poker room had seven PokerPro tables and I was really impressed with how they work. They are completely automated and computerized, with every step of the game being run on the touch screen, from buy-in to cash out. You deposit funds at the casino's cashier and after that everything can be done at the table. I found the interface to be quite user friendly, which is good, since this is clearly the direction poker will head in the future. Purists will cling to cards and chips, but eventually it is going to be difficult to argue with the prospects of faster games, lower casino overhead due to no dealers, and lower player costs without having to tip.

I played $1-$2 No Limit for a while and then entered a qualifying tournament that Oaklawn was running--40 players, with the top four getting paid and the top three advancing to a freeroll in February that will include 30 players vying for $5,000 in payouts to the top three. The quality of the opponents was all over the place--some solid younger guys, some old timers, and some drunks that had clearly been betting on the ponies all day. I played my pretty standard game and managed to cash in third place, meaning I've got a seat in the big freeroll in a few weeks. I look forward to coming back with a shot to take down a nice chunk of change.

The List - #145 completed

145. Sing in public.

This was one from the Esquire list, and honestly, one I never really gave a thought to, for reasons that are pretty simple: I don't sing. But a perfect storm of circumstances took place on October 3, at The Foundry, in Boulder, Colorado. The ingredients were, in no particular order: about six hours of drinking at an open bar, the natural mood enhancement that comes from a dear friend's wedding, an accommodating, super-cool cover band backing me, and perhaps the one and only chance to release my inner James Hetfield in front of a friendly crowd.

So yes. At the end of the night, at the culmination of a wedding reception that was a party at a bar, I took the mic and rocked "Enter Sandman." And I loved every minute of it. And apparently, I didn't even suck. Now, there's no telling if my friends would actually tell me if I did. But I think I really pulled it off.

That was amazingly fun.

The List - #111 completed

111. Watch a Red Sox game from the Green Monster seats at Fenway Park.

Okay, this one was kind of a fish-in-a-barrel choice for the list because I already had the tickets in hand. But still. First off, I had never been up there. These tickets are ridiculously tough to get a hold of and the Red Sox hold an annual lottery simply for the right to purchase them. I got lucky in the drawing a couple of years ago but we weren't around at the time, so those standing room tickets went to my brother instead. He had a blast and it sounded like I would too, so I continued to take yearly shots at the drawing.

This year I lucked out yet again. Even better, I was able to get second row seats for a game during a time frame in which I knew we would be back in Massachusetts. The seats completely lived up to my lofty expectations. The view is unique, of course, and fantastic. But I was also pleasantly surprised at the relative comfort. As anyone who has been to Fenway knows, these seats were not designed with the proportions of a 21st century human being in mind. And since I fall, umm...well to the far end of that spectrum, suffice it to say that I have a rough time sitting in just about any seat in the house. But the Monster seats are stools, with enough room that I was not banging my knees on anything. There is also a little shelf-like table perfect for holding food, drinks, cameras, and the like. There are a pair of little concession stands up there solely for the Monster seats, and a nearby bathroom tucked away behind a corner as well. All things considered, these are probably my favorite Fenway seats I've ever had.

The List - #133 completed

133. Build a sandcastle with A.J.

Long time, no blog. We had a great family vacation to the Cape and we've just been getting situated since we got back last weekend. I thought that A.J. would have fun building sandcastles on the beach, and he definitely did. It was even his idea, one he picked up from an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when they do just that on the moon. He already knew which tools were required, and he began listing these off for me before we even left on the trip. "I need a bucket," he told me. "And a shovel." No problem.

Since this was his first time, we went with the basic castle architecture--four corner turrets each the size of the bucket on hand. This worked very well the first time, and it would have as well on sand castle day number two unless Little Miss Helpful came along to give us a hand. You know the type--somebody else's random kid that just shows up and starts playing. It was fine, although I always find this a little bit odd considering I have literally know idea who this girl was or where her parents might have been. But she did bring a bigger bucket, which helped.

The List - #96 completed

96. Paint AJ's room.

I have never painted a room before. The only thing even close was helping my mom take down some old wallpaper in our former house in Chatham, and that was nearly twenty years ago, and honestly the only thing the two have in common is that they both involve bedroom walls. When we moved into our current house, we had professionals paint several rooms and they did a great job. But it seemed like we could handle doing one room ourselves. So we had at it.

My brother was in town a month ago and he helped me with the primer. Reverse that--I helped him. He was a machine and he actually did most of it. I didn't anticipate that it would tire me out so quickly, going from the high spots to the low, climbing up and down on the ladder, straining to reach the corners, mashing the roller to get every drop of paint out--it was kind of a workout. Anyway, we got it primed and I just didn't want to commit to jumping in for the final painting job, until I was feeling it this weekend. I think it came out pretty well, and now that I know I am capable of it, I'm sure that I'll get drafted to do the same thing in the nursery before the little girl arrives in November. And that's fine. Painting rooms for the kids makes me feel especially dad-like, even if I am still picking the paint flecks off my skin two days later.

The List - #19 completed

#19. Watch a Lord of the Rings marathon.

Admittedly, this is not a big, life-altering item from The List. But it sounded like a lot of fun, and as a movie fan it is definitely something I should do at least once. I didn't know when I would get around to this one, since I have found that the older A.J. gets, the tougher it is to sit down and watch a single flick uninterrupted, let alone an epic trilogy. And I certainly didn't think it would take place this past weekend. But that's exactly what happened.

My brother's wife and kids are on the Cape right now, so since he was home alone he came down to visit for the weekend. We grilled up some burgers and dogs for the 4th and settled in to watch the Red Sox. Except that didn't happen, as we were screwed yet again by the ridiculous FOX Saturday blackout rules, despite paying pretty big bucks for the Extra Innings package. Thus, without baseball, we had to do something else. Somehow the possibility of doing this came up, and before we could talk ourselves out of it I grabbed the extended edition DVDs and loaded them into the player. Total running time: 681 minutes. We started shortly after 2 PM. It also warrants mentioning that we started drinking immediately.

The first crisis came before we even began when we realized we were low on ice. I don't want to throw all the blame on the wife, but I don't know anyone else in the house that fixes 64 ounce cups of ice water. Anway, she later rectified the situation by running out to the store. Not only did she get ice, but she completely loaded us up with mixers, snacks, and even a cooler so we could keep everything within arm's reach. This was huge.

Early on during Fellowship I decided I had to update our progress somehow, so I made a Facebook post announcing that we were embarking on the trilogy, and then I followed that up with Twitter updates. This was a much bigger hit with some friends than I anticipated, as nearly immediately a couple of buddies chimed in, excited by what they thought was a great idea. They also insisted on running commentary via Twitter, and I was all too happy to oblige. Overall, the trilogy viewing was a lot of fun, although it was also more grueling than I imagined. I hit the wall about halfway through ROTK but I battled through to the end.

I don't know if doing this with all six Star Wars movies will be easier or harder, but I will definitely try that too at some point.

The List - #50 completed

#50. Make a pizza from scratch, including the dough.

I've never made pizza at home. I'm sure we did it a few times when I was a kid, but as an adult (or whatever I am now), I've just never seen the point in expending so much effort when you can just get someone to literally bring some right to your door. At least, that's how I felt before. But as I have learned more about cooking and have grown to appreciate the stuff I make myself, this seemed like a natural way to go. I got a pizza stone and a great trio of pizza-themed cookbooks for Father's Day so this was a great chance to put it all together and give it a shot.

I started with the sauce. I'm currently trying to eat really healthy food and drop a few more pounds, and obviously this is not a lifestyle that meshes well with pizza consumption. But I figured I would do what I could, so I opted to use a sauce recipe from The Biggest Loser family cookbook. I have made this once before and I really liked the taste, healthy or not. I made it again, although I didn't have the crushed red pepper that the recipe called for so I substituted ground cayenne pepper, which added a little extra spice that I enjoyed.Next up was the dough, and this was the only part of the equation that I was worried about. I'm not a baker. This makes no sense, because I love pretty much any baked good that I can get my paws on. But I have never learned how to do it, aside from following a pre-packaged mix or something similarly easy. But I picked a basic dough recipe from one of the pizza cook books and got down to it. It rose just like it was supposed to. I've worked in pizza places before, yet my dough-working skills are still a bit lacking. I did the best I could, or at least gave it a good shot as a total rookie. Pie number one was basically a simple margherita, with sauce, good mozzarella cheese, and basil. I don't think I got the dough pounded thin enough. It was very tasty, but the bottom crust was not at all crusty.For pizza number two, I went for pepperoni and shredded mozz. I intentionally wanted to keep things pretty simple this first time out and I was happy with the results. I think I got the dough in better shape on this second pie, and it was also really delicious. The outside crust was great, but the bottom was still not as crisp as I would like. I think I can get this better in future attempts. Overall, I give the experience a big thumbs up. It was fun to do, and the resulting pies were definitely better than any pizza delivery chain stuff. I will keep at this.

The List - #13 completed

#13 (from Esquire). Get a deep tissue massage.

Before this year I had never gotten a massage. My wife loves them, and we went to Las Vegas in January and she thought it would be a great idea to get a couples massage. I wasn't at all opposed to the idea, just generally I can find something else I would rather do with my time and/or my money, especially in Vegas. But we got one and it was great. My back has been bothering me off and on a lot lately, and I've noticed that when I get a massage, it actually makes it a little worse at first, and then it feels great a day or two later. I have no idea if this is standard for everyone.

I was back in Vegas in April and since I arrived before the other guys coming in, I got another one. Another winner. But I had never had a deep tissue massage until a couple of weeks ago, at the Bliss spa at the W Hotel in Scottsdale. My masseuse recommended it and said it would be great for the back issues. I ended up with a big sore spot the next morning, but shortly after that it felt really great and loose. I even sprung for the ridiculously overpriced minty exfoliating stuff she suggested--bag pictured in photo. I tried that at home and it was very tingly, invigorating, and refreshing.

That last sentence is probably the gayest thing I have ever written in this blog.

The List - #103 completed

103. Hang the big mirror by the front door.

Okay, so this isn't a really earth-shattering item from The List, but it was a good one to knock out. We've had this mirror for a long time--at least as long as we've lived here, I think, which is just over a year now. But I never hung it up. The main reason (aside from simple laziness) was the need to not only find proper and secure mounting stuff for the wall, but that the mirror itself also needed special mounting pieces added to the back of it. But within the first week of starting The List, I decided this would be an easy one to do, even for a not-so-handy guy like myself. I mounted two brackets on the back with a screwdriver, which was a piece of cake because there was a nice, solid piece of wood on there, as if placed exactly for such a task. The other bonus was that there were two studs in the wall located pretty much exactly where we wanted the mirror to hang. So up it went. One item down, 150 to go.

The List

Last year Esquire magazine published a piece called 75 Things Every Man Should Do Before He Dies. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff, so re-reading it recently sent me searching the web for similar ideas, where I came across a site called Day Zero, where people post lists of 101 specific things they want to do over the course of 1,001 days. Both of these things are very cool, so I combined them into my own master list: the 75 from Esquire, plus 76 of my own, resulting in a list of 151 things to do over the next 1,001 days. I started on June 3. It also warrants mentioning that the Esquire list has some items that I have already done, and others that are fairly unattainable. I don't see myself going to Paris for two weeks, for instance. That would be great, but it just isn't happening any time over the next three years. There are a few other items on the list that just aren't going to happen, either.

But when paired with my own additions, I have lots of items on The List that I can do. I'm off to a good start. I've already knocked out a few things and several others are in various stages of progress. Since I'm often at a loss for things to blog about, The List will provide some great ideas. I'll try to get pictures when I take care of cool items on there, and I will update my progress here.