If you're wondering what a cenote is . . .

They are huge sinkholes that form when the ceiling of limestone caves collapse, exposing underground water. They are like the inverse of Karst topography, which is also on the list. This is one we visited near Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula:

They can be hundreds of feet deep and they tell you to wear a life vest because they will make no attempt to rescue you. Don't you want to swim in one, too?

This has almost nothing to do with the house

Feel free to skip reading this one.

Much of my life has been spent being cautious. I'm a worrier, I'm clumsy, I'm broke, I'm afraid to fly, I always have a lot of reasons for not doing stuff. I've had people tell me I'm boring (which is so rude! and not true!). At some point about five years ago I decided to stop being afraid of stupid stuff. It's okay to be afraid of flying because that shit can actually kill you. But being afraid of karaoke? Unless there's a freak gasoline fight accident at the karaoke bar, you're not going to die. So I finally sang at karaoke and, indeed, I didn't die. Not even of embarrassment! I did other stuff like eating dinner at a restaurant by myself and buying a house. I may be boring but it takes guts to buy a fixer. I've established that here, right?

Then last fall the boy took me to Hawaii with his parents and I flew over the ocean, something I was really nervous about. At the time I joked that if he took me to the all-you-can-eat fried shrimp buffet at The Sizzler, he would have officially fulfilled all of my childhood dreams. But I lied. I'd also need tap dancing lessons. Hawaii, fried shrimp, and tap dancing. This little girl dreamed big.

Maggie over at Mighty Girl created a Mighty List of 100 things to do before she dies, which is a familiar riff on the bucket list. Lots of people make lists (you should in particular check out Jess' 30-while-she's-30 and Amy's life list) but Maggie's is fun to follow because she has corporate sponsorship so she goes amazing places and tells you what she wore.

I started thinking about what would be on my list and looking at other people's lists. It's fun because I've already done some of the stuff that other people want to do. I've done a night swim with manta rays (terrifying and awesome). I've run a 5K and learned sign language. I've grown my own vegetables and made my own limoncello and held adult dinner parties. I've rewired a lamp, seen the Northern Lights, bought a house, and taken hip hop classes. Reading these lists makes me feel way better about my life, which has made me pretty happy so far but still seems boring to other people. I'm not a thrill seeker, so sky diving or bungee jumping won't make my list, though I highly recommend going ziplining to anyone who hasn't tried it. I had to consciously avoid putting things on the list that I thought I *should* do, like hang gliding. That doesn't mean I won't do it at some point, but I don't need to do it before I die to feel content. Also, I love having toenails so running a marathon will never make this list. And why would I run when I can take Zumba classes?

A lot of this is aspirational stuff I've always dreamed about (Italy, manatees) and other stuff is more banal but somehow it hasn't happened yet.

So here's my Mighty List, in no particular order and still in progress:

1. Go to Hawaii (done 10/10!)
2. Unlimited fried shrimp at The Sizzler
3. Take tap dancing lessons
4. Spend an entire day making bolognese and homemade pasta, drinking wine, and watching The Godfather 1&2 with friends (I did something similar once and it was awesome).
5. Go to Italy (just done 09/11! ohmygod!)
6. Visit New York City
7. Refinish the floors in the house
8. Road trip of the States
9. Learn how to can food
10. Successfully make a boule of bread (mine are always flat)
11. Bike to a picnic in the park
12. Vacation on Isla Mujeres
13. Learn to walk naturally in heels
14. See Glacier National Park before all the glaciers melt
15. Learn to salsa dance confidently
16. Make a pie for someone else, which means not eating a single bite myself
17. Vacation with my mom
18. Pay off my credit card debt
19. Roast my own coffee beans
20. Learn to crochet
21. See the manatees in Florida (sea cows, how I love you!)
22. Learn to type without looking
23. Take piano lessons
24. See Machu Picchu
25. Set foot in seven continents
26. Croissants in Paris. Remember it fondly afterward with some International Coffee.
    
    
    
27. Kayak a major body of water
28. Complete the 3 day Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure
29. See the Grand Canyon
30. Get a role in a musical
31. Attend a seder
32. Catch a fish
33. Attend a Dia de los Muertos celebration in Mexico
34. See the Karst topography in China




Photo yanked from here

35. Swim in a cenote
36. Go backpacking again
37. Take one of my nieces or nephews on an awesome trip
38. Make my own mozzarella cheese
39. Have a dinner party and not feel disappointed about how some of the food came out.
40. Happy hour oysters at Cafe Nell
41. Camp on the southern Oregon coast
42. Take a painting class
43. Learn how to swim, for reals (I *love* being in the water but I do this sad mashup between the breast stroke and doggie paddle and I'd be screwed if I ever needed to get somewhere quickly.)
44. Get my yard prettified enough to be featured on a garden tour . . .
45. . . . and then invite LeAnn over for cocktails
46. Float in the Dead Sea
47. Sew a sundress
48. Visit my family in Scotland
49. Go to Japan
50. Helicopter ride in Hawaii
51. Have a ladies-only tea party in the garden where we all wear dresses and eat little sandwiches.
52. Curry at HA & VL
53. Take a vacation with Bill
54. Make pizza on the barbecue
55. Host a board game night
56. Find the perfect jeans
57. Learn how to hit a baseball/softball
58. Play craps (it's look like so much fun in the movies . . . until something TERRIBLE happens)
59. Tea in the Chinese garden
60. Indian food at Vij's in Vancouver

Just a heads up: If you have "take a road trip to all the Sizzlers in the US" on your life list, there's a trip planner on their site. Nothing is stopping you now!

Anybody else have a mighty/bucket list?

Hey! There's our house!

IFC has posted a sneak preview for season 2 of Portlandia and you can see our house!

Specifically, you can see them talking in our kitchen (including the window trim with a thousand different test paint strips:

In the front of our house:

And in our laundry room:

My water heater straps are finally getting their 15 minutes!

Also: Greg's couch and our rotting front window!

I love this.

Gigantic pots in the garden, spotted at the Bardini gardens in
Florence. I want. While we're wanting, I also want marble statues and
a water feature depicting a lion vomiting water that forms a river.
That's all I want. And all of those things are possible because I saw
them here.

I heart Florence

We're thinking a little something like this for the dining room ceiling.
Ha ha, just kidding. I'm never coming back! I'm going to live in the
Duomo and you can't stop me!

I'm not sure why I was worried.

Cookies abound in Amsterdam! Every time you order coffee they give you
a little one.
I love Amsterdam.

File under: good to know

I'm preparing to leave for our trip to Europe so instead of learning how to say, "Yes, I'd love mayonnaise on that" in Dutch I've been doing stupid things like cleaning out the garage in 96 degree heat. For unknown reasons I decided to take all the random wood and building supplies we have in the garage to The Rebuilding Center. I guess I thought they'd get up to no good while we were gone? Then I vacuumed the garage because home improvement isn't fun unless vacuuming is involved. And you know what? That garage doesn't look any better. It's still cluttered and full of boxes. And I still don't know how to say "cookies" in Dutch. WHAT IF WE NEED TO FIND COOKIES IN AMSTERDAM?

Because my day hadn't been awful enough, I headed to Ikea to scope out a new desk for the office. And I figured if I had to contend with slow-moving crowds I might as well go when I'm really dirty and sweaty. Maybe people would stay out of my way then? (They didn't.) I made my way home with a Micke desk and proceeded to sweat and swear my way through assembling it. This desk almost bested me.

More like BESTÅ'd me, amiright?

Also: I forgot how bad Ikea furniture smells and how long it off-gasses. Keep this in mind because I'm going to blame what happened next on glue fumes.

I wanted to clean the house before leaving so we could relax when we get home from our trip. The bathroom sink drain has been a little bit smelly and a tiny bit slow lately. At this point I'd like to remind you of the last time I decided to meddle with a drain that was a little bit slow. I ended up with a completely backed up drain and a sink dripping Drano everywhere. Because I never learn I decided to try a trick I read about on the Internet: vinegar and boiling water down the drain. Easy peasy!

As I poured boiling water down the drain I heard a deafening CRACK! but I couldn't figure out what it was. The pipe looked fine, the sink looked fine . . . except for the hairline crack that was slowly growing across the bottom. Yup, I cracked my sink. My sink, it turns out, is made of vitreous china and vitreous china cracks under high heat.

Fuck. Me. And fuck you, Internet. You're doing me wrong lately.

On the plus side, now the drain looks like it wants to huuuuugggg you!

So now I have a caulked sink (which looks AWESOME) and the possibility of hiring a refinisher to repair this thing correctly. Or I might get to replace the sink completely.

So. Scream it from the mountaintops:

1. Don't use Drano.
2. Don't pour hot water down your drains unless you're positive your sink isn't made of vitreous china.
3. Don't dye your favorite jeans purple.
4. Choose a desk other than the Micke if you don't believe in swearing.
5. Cookies = koekjes. Don't ask me how to pronounce it, though.

Be ye not so stupid!