To Do 261-270

261 - become a Big Sister to a child who needs one
262 - see a meteor crater
263 - bird-watch for sandhill cranes along the Platte River in Nebraska
264 - stand in the center of the Roman Colosseum (done)
265 - find an extra $1,000 in my bank account
266 - ride aboard the Goodyear blimp
267 - have lunch in the restaurant atop Seattle's Space Needle
268 - swing on a trapeze
269 - share a small tent in the wilderness with the one I love
270 - prepare a salad using 20 different ingredients

To Do 231-240

231 - learn to tie a perfect bowline knot
232 - watch the sun set over Machu Picchu
233 - gather the neighbors and plant a community garden
234 - get the amaryllis on my windowsill to bloom in winter
235 - master the internet (done)
236 - take a course in sculpture
237 - swim with dolphins
238 - on a long airplane ride, sit next to someone who really doesn't want to talk (done)
239 - watch the lava flowing out of Kilauea
240 - pay off my mortgage and throw a party to celebrate

To Do 221-230

221 - sail the inland waterway down the Eastern Seaboard
222 - give away everything I havent worn in three years
223 - take a pack trip on horseback through Yellowstone National Park
224 - learn to speak French
225 - spend a day as a citizen of Pompeii
226 - get so good at poker I really know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em
227 - shop at the 24-hour L.L. Bean store in Freeport, ME at 3:00 in the morning
228 - make a perfect souffle
229 - sing with a band in a night club (done)
230 - snorkel Australia's Great Barrier Reef

To Do 211-220

211 - buy a sail boat and sail for a year
212 - travel with no destination (done)
213 - ride out a hurricane on North Carolina's Outer Banks
214 - taste raw sugarcane on a Caribbean island
215 - be part of a human pyramid - preferably the apex (done)
216 - learn to rock climb (done)
217 - see a moose in the wild
218 - bicycle across my home state, and if I like it well enough...
219 - ...bicycle across the country
220 - see the cacti bloom in the Mojave Desert

To Do 201-210

201 - work the phones at a charity telethon
202 - learn Arabic so I can write it's beautiful alphabet
203 - canoe the Boundary Waters
204 - hear zydeco music in the bayou country
205 - come home to find dinner ready on the table
206 - hug a redwood
207 - visit Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa
208 - shop along Rodeo Drive
209 - program my VCR with ease (done)
210 - ride horseback through Ireland

To Do 191-200

191 - motorcycle across Nevada's desert flats
192 - spend a summer and fall eating only what I've grown in my own garden
193 - learn to draw
194 - observe an American bald eagle in the wild (done)
195 - build a room of my own
196 - eat Oregon apple pie in Portland, then drive north for Washington peach pie in Seattle
197 - be able to help my teenage son with his homework
198 - overcome my shyness (done)
199 - take a bubble bath in Raffles Hotel in Singapore
200 - have an astrologer cast my chart

Complete #85 - Bid at an auction

I first started going to auctions when I was a kid. I'd go with my mom and aunts to one which had nice overstock merchandise. My first purchases were a walkman (yeah, it was that long ago) and a leather jacked. I loved the live bidding. It was so much fun. The last live auction I went to was 4 years ago on a cruise ship. It was an art auction and I ended up purchasing 3 pieces of art that I got for a steal.

These day I use ebay for my auction activities. I've gotten some great deals on that site on everything from concert tickets to books. I love ebay!

To Do 181-190

181 - see Haleakala Crater on Maui
182 - stand at the foot of K-2 in the Karakoram Mountains of northern India, the world's second-highest peak
183 - have lunch with my best friend from elementary school (done)
184 - visit the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio
185 - sleep till noon every day for a week (done)
186 - spend a stormy night in a lighthouse on a rocky coast
187 - visit every one of the national parks (in progress)
188 - dog-sled across Alaska
189 - visit all 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (in progress)
190 - start every new year with a clean house, an uncluttered desk, and a new date book

Complete #77 - Live without television

I'm really not a fan of TV in general but I find myself watching anyway which annoys me to no end. I used to be a TV addict. I would come home from work, flip on the TV and be a veg for the next 5 hours.

Then I moved to Europe. We had a TV but it was pretty much hidden away and anyway, it was only in French, Italian or German. On Mondays they would show English movies so that's the only time I'd watch. I loved it.

For my first year back I didn't have a TV and it was great. Then I got one to watch movies and eventually it got attached to the cable and eventually I got addicted again. I'm moving soon though and I'm hoping to break the habit again. I'm going to leave my TV in storage for a while which should help.

So, while I have already done this, it's something I'm going to do again.

To Do 171-180

171 - take charge of my own contentment
172 - explore West Africa
173 - bake scones
174 - work in flextime so I can balance career and family
175 - visit Utah's Bryce Canyon (done)
176 - store snowballs in the freezer and pull them out for a summer party
177 - overcome difficulties in a relationship
178 - redecorate my home from top to bottom
179 - walk the fabled Bund in Shanghai
180 - spend a weekend in Atlantic City

Complete #73 - Cook pasta that's perfectly al dente

I love to cook. And, as is fitting my Italian heritage, pasta is one of my favorites. I don't eat it as often as I like due to it's negative impact on my waist line, but when I do, it's always cooked perfectly. There's nothing worse than soggy pasta. It will never be as good as my grandma's pasta but it's not too bad if I do say so myself.

To Do 161-170

161 - visit the restored buildings of Colonial Williamsburg (done)
162 - drink chilled Manzanilla accompanied by olives and almonds
163 - hit the road for a year in an RV
164 - live and work in Beijing for a year
165 - spend a day watching the sun move across the sky
166 - live in a villa on the Italian Riviera
167 - mud slide in the rain
168 - watch a bud open
169 - see summer arrive in Antarctica
170 - visit Louisiana's Oak Alley plantation to imagine antebellum life

Complete #72 - Give money and muscle to Habitat for Humanity

I used to work for United Airlines and they sponsored a Habitat build. My first time working on the site was with a group from UAL. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up going to the site every Saturday. It was great. I learned a lot, did a lot of good and had a lot of fun. I even organized a group of my co-workers to go out for a day. Imagine a bunch of lawyers swinging hammers - it was entertaining. If you haven't worked with Habitat I'd highly recommend it. You'll be sore, but knowing that you helped give someone a home is worth the soreness.

To Do 151-160

151 - make love in a public place (done)
152 - kayak over the Grand Canyon's Lava Falls
153 - take a woodworking class
154 - lunch at New York's "21"
155 - split logs with a sledgehammer and wedge
156 - get elected team captain (done)
157 - run my own business (done)
158 - create a computer database for my family tree
159 - pay off my credit cards
160 - sit in the infield for the Indianapolis 500

To Do 141-150

141 - visit Valley Forge in a winter as severe as that of 1777-78
142 - get a cosmetic makeover (done)
143 - cut my own firewood with a chain saw
144 - cross the Cumberland Gap of the Appalachian Mountains, following Danial Boone's Wilderness Road to the Old West
145 - drive a four-wheeler up a mountain
146 - dig a pond on my property and stock it wth fish
147 - celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans
148 - have a shipboard romance
149 - own a portable global positioning system and never get lost
150 - snowmobile in Finland

Complete #63 - Be there for a baby's first step

From August 2001 to August 2002 I was an au pair for a family in Geneva, Switzerland. I lived in the home and helped take care of 3 boys ages 8 years, 6 years and 8 months. I spent most of my time with the baby so I was there for his first steps. It was mid-Februray, just a few days before my birthday and I was in the mountains skiing with the family for a week. It was so much fun to be there and see his first steps.

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To Do 131-140

131 - start a patchwork quilt on the day of my child's birth - and give her the finished produce on the day she graduates from college
132 - stick to my convictions even in the face of hostile opposition
133 - take a boat ride through Indiana's Wyandotte Cave
134 - see where the red salmon spawn on Lake Clark in Alaska
135 - be asked for the recipe for something I've cooked (done)
136 - pamper myself with "the works" at a luxury spa
137 - take a limo to a Broadway opening
138 - trek through Karakoram
139 - travel the coast of Turkey
140 - take a kid to the circus

Complete #50 - Eat the world's best cheesecake at Junior's in Brooklyn

Junior's is definitely one of the best. I went there in August of 2005 during a weekend trip to New York with friends. It's not exactly convenient to get to the original since it's in Brooklyn, but it was worth it. If you don't want to haul yourself out there, there are several places in the city who sell their cheesecake, including a shop in Union Station.

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To Do 121-130

121 - skydive (done)
122 - celebrate my birthday aboard a yacht in the Mediterranean
123 - Learn to roller blade (done)
124 - skinny dip under a waterfall (done)
125 - celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Dublin
126 - throw a party people will talk about for years (done)
127 - dine in a five-star restaurant in France
128 - take my family on a backpacking trip through the Grand Tetons
129 - observe an avalanche (from a safe distance)
130 - travel to Bali to hear gamelan music on its native ground

Complete #49 - Swim in a pool on a cruise ship

In early 2003 I was lucky enough to go on a cruise to Mexico with my company. It was my first and last time on a cruise ship. I'm not a big fan of cruising as there isn't enough to do to keep me interested, but swimming in a pool while in the middle of the sea was fun.

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