May 2012

I know very few people read this, but it's good for me to keep blogging about what I've done.

1. Go to the Grand Canyon and watch the sunrise.
We're planning on this one - I've already requested the time off from work for the end of June, and we're going to go camp at Grand Canyon National Park (kill two birds with one stone - going camping). Due to some reliable sources, we're going to go to the North Rim (which is a least visited). I'm pretty excited - I'm going to call Monday and see if I can get a campsite reserved. :)

8. Visit the Hollywood sign in California.
We went to California this last month to visit Kristen's brother and sister-in-law. It was a lot of fun, and one of the things we did was drive up to the observatory in Griffin Park. Apparently, you can't actually hike all the way up to the sign, unless you climb a fence. I don't like doing that kind of stuff myself. But we got a good look at the sign.

24. Write in my journal at least once a week for a year. [8/52]
I've been doing really well at this. I missed last week because of a bunch of craziness on Sunday morning, but I think that still counts, because I'm still going.

55. Learn how to use my smoker (and charcoal) well, and make delicious ribs. 
I seriously spent a couple hours reading all kinds of things about how to use charcoal in a smoker like I have, and I think I can do it. I just need an oven thermometer, a rack of ribs, and some charcoal (non easy light stuff), and I think I'm good to go. You have to make sure you remove the membrane from the back of the ribs, don't use too much smoke (make sure there's good airflow), and maintain a steady low (about 200-220 degree) temperature. And you have to use the right charcoal, of course - I think I used the wrong stuff last time.

60. Create and use a budget.
We've been using this software for a while, called You Need a Budget (YNAB), but only really using it for tracking spending. Our friend Anne works for this company, and she invited us to a seminar on it last month. After the seminar, we decided we really need to get going on the budget portion of it. So we created one for the month of May. We're doing pretty good sticking with it (mostly). We're going to have to be really good once school starts, so we need to start now. Speaking of, I should go work on June's budget.