40 B4 40: Two Month Progress

Two months gone on my year-long 40 before 40 project. This is my progress so far:

2. Skydive or hanglide - Beefy gave me a skydiving gift certificate for Christmas. I plan to go in May.

6. Snowshoe - I snowshoed and picnicked with my sister and REI. It was awesome! Details to follow.

10. Renew my passport - I continue to have trouble establishing my identity. I finally got my California Driver License, but the clerk entered the wrong birth date. I’m currently 3 days younger than I used to be! But now I have two different birthdays on record and no valid photo identification. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage to get on multiple flights this month.

14. Teach Jasper to walk nicely on a leash - we’ve started practicing this during the walk portions of our morning runs. At this point, the behavior is still very treat-dependent.

15. Do a 365 Photo project - I’ve probably taken way too many pictures of my dogs, but, hey, it’s a picture! Find my photos here.

17. Take a sewing class - I’ve signed up (and paid) for a class in February. (I mistakenly reported that the class was in January in the last 40B440 update.)

18. Meditate - the Meditation Oasis podcasts still work like a charm to put me to sleep, but is that really meditation?

21. Learn to 2-finger whistle - done! I use this to call the dogs. It’s very effective.

22. Do the splits - I finally found a splits routine that I like and it’s only 12 minutes long! I practice my flexibility after my morning runs.

24. Finish making all the burgers in Veggie Burgers Every Which Way - I made Butternut Squash, Black Bean, and Chestnut Burgers and Corn Burgers with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese in December. Next up: Curried Eggplant and Tomato Burgers. After that, we have about 12 more burger recipes to go to finish the book. (We started over three years ago and I’m a little fuzzy on which burgers we’ve already made.)

25. Write one special content blog post per month - completed for November and December.

28. Participate in Toastmasters - I attended one regular meeting and the club’s holiday party. I officially join this month.

32. Practice ambidexterity - I asked Beefy for poetry books for Christmas so that I could copy the poems with my left hand. So far, I’ve just read the poems.

33. Learn a new piano song - I chose the song (Tori Amos’ Happy Phantom, much to Beefy’s dismay) and ran through it a couple of times. It needs a lot more practice!

35. See a drive-in movie - done!

39. Send out holiday cards - done!

I’ve got plans to get my photo with Mickey and appear on a podcast this month. And maybe I'll make some real progress on the passport.