Some Sad News

So sadly I'm going to have to end this. I wish I could continue because its been so much fun but I just reached a point where I'm struggling to do everything I need to do, let alone fitting challenges on top of it. I had to cancel my concert tonight that I've had planned for months because I am just so overwhelmed with stuff over the next few weeks.

It was great and it would be great to continue but I guess what I don't need right now is added things to do. I made up the challenges as a way to keep my occupied and motivated when my life was stagnant earlier this year, but now I have a job, I have a new house, I have a visit coming up, I have forum responsibilities, and I guess its served its purpose. I would recommend something like it to anyone feeling in a rut, it worked wonders.

I suppose there's nothing stopping me from doing those things now, but I won't be able to do them daily any more. Maybe I'll just put it on hiatus and resume it when things calm down. Right now its just too much.

But I did get 166 challenges done, so I suppose that's a positive! I made it far longer than I thought I would!

I'll still keep this and maybe just put it on pause for now. Later readers, I hope you're all doing great

Watch a kids movie I've never seen

So I rented a movie a while ago but I've been putting off watching it forever. Finally got to it today!

Watch a kids movie I've never seen
So I wanted to watch one of the Studio Ghibli movies I'd heard so much about. Sadly, my first two choices didn't pan out. But I did end up getting Howl's Moving Castle.

It was an okay movie. A bit weird and hard to follow at times. But it was certainly theatrical. I enjoyed it enough to watch once but I don't think I'd watch it again.

Attempt to play an instrument

Alrighty, so I don't have any instruments, but that hasn't stopped me before! So not qute the same but I did find some online help for this challenge!

Attempt to play an instrument
I found this cool online piano that is very easy to use:
http://virtualpiano.net/

And it even has sheets for you
http://virtualpiano.net/tag/easy/

Press the letter on your keyboard marked in the sheets and it will play the notes on the piano! I had a lot of fun and tried out a bunch of different songs!

Some I was definitely better at than others!

Write 10 pages in one day

Alrighty so this one was originally intended for a book I plan to maybe some day write, but I ended up using it for something else.

Write 10 pages in one day
I came up with a new story idea and thought maybe about writing that instead, but in the end, I decided to instead use it to help me with one of my future challenges! One of my challenges is to write a top games list, so I wrote 8 game reviews, 10 pages worth, for that future challenge!

What games were they? I guess you'll have to wait and see!

Send out 20 resumes

So not exactly what the challenge was but I suppose I should count this for this here.

Send out 20 resumes
I got a job! A friend of my boyfriend's said he could put in a word for me and that started the application process. I head back on Tuesday but they wanted to do a background check and I wanted to be 100% sure before doing this one, but there you go!

I suppose no need to send out another 19 resumes since I now have a job!

Educate myself on an opinion I disagree with

So I came upon a discussion of an article that was basically critiquing arguments from youtube videos, so I decided this would be good for this challenge.

Educate myself on an opinion I disagree with
I read an article about a woman who was being harassed for her opinions on sexism in video games and general media. So I started watching her videos to see what they were about. There were some things I agreed with and some I did not.

Today I found this article:
http://nastythingssaidabout.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/the-terrible-misogyny-in-the-games-industry/
Basically critiquing her arguments about sexism in video games.

Now while I do think sexism is present in video games, I also didn't agree with how much the woman mentioned. So I was interested in reading what this writer had to say. I agree with his points that there should be no harassment of people in general, I did find his arguments lacking.

In my opinion, instead of taking the points the woman he is complaining about made and arguing them in a well presented and thought provoking way, he seems instead to just be rather upset at the state  of current affairs and using her as an outlet. Some of his arguments I downright disagree with. I do think sexism is very viewable in video games and as a huge video game player, I see it quite often.

Overall I was disappointed. Not necessarily at his opinion, but at the way it was presented. He had the opportunity to give a voice to the other side, to examine and critique what was being said, and to make us think. Instead it felt more like he was hurt and being defensive.

So I am sad to say I learned nothing from that article, but I did learn an entirely different lesson from this challenge. I had been thinking about what opinion to educate myself on for a while until this came along and it made me realize something important. Thinking about learning of opposing opinions made me very uncomfortable. It made me realize that I would sometimes rather stick my fingers in my ears and go LA LA LA instead of opening my mind and learning new things. This is something I see present in myself and others and this challenge has helped me to keep this in mind for the future. Overall I would say it was a positive!

Play Bingo

This one I happily stumbled upon by chance when we went to dinner at a pizza place not too far from here.

Play Bingo
Coincidentally, Mellow Mushroom Pizza has a Thursday night Bingo, which explains why it was busier than we had seen it before!

We stayed for three out of six of the games and got close to winning two, but no dice! I still had fun anyways and it was a happy coincidence!

Yell I'm Captain Basch in public

Well we had to go over to Lowe's to order some carpet for the new house, so this was a good opportunity for this challenge!

Yell I'm Captain Basch in public
For those who don't know, this is from the game Final Fantasy XII, where a character yells I'm Captain Basch Von Ronsenburg from Dalmasca! So today while waiting for someone to show up at the counter, that's what I yelled. Three people looked at me, including one who turned out to help us with our carpet.

It was fun enough!

Translate sentences in to many languages and back to English to see the end results

Okay so I had a big day and I'm still pooped from the long weekend, so this is a fun easy challenge I'm going to try!

Translate sentences in to many languages and back to English to see the end results
Here is my starting sentence:
I love cheese and I live in a cabin in the woods with my bear friend who eats a lot of ice cream.

English to Italian:
Amo il formaggio e vivo in una capanna nei boschi con il mio amico orso che mangia un sacco di gelato.

Italian to Polish:
Miłość ser i mieszkam w domku w lesie z mój przyjaciel Miś, że zjada dużo lodów.

Polish to Swahili:
Upendo jibini na kuishi katika cabin katika Woods na rafiki yangu Teddy Bear kwamba anakula mengi ya barafu cream.

Swahili to Dutch:
Liefde kaas en wonen in een hut in het bos met mijn vriend Teddy Bear die veel ijs eet.

And finally Dutch to English:
Love cheese and living in a cabin in the woods with my friend Teddy Bear that eat a lot of ice.

See, it can be a lot of fun, especially if you find the right sentence to translate too. Give it a try if you're ever bored and want some laughs

Learn how to tie a tie

So I packed up a good chunk of closet today which reminded me to give this challenge a go!

Learn how to tie a tie
My boyfriend helped me with this but he was a bit frustrated because he felt he wasn't getting it absolutely perfect. But I thought it looked great so I was happy with the results! I don't know how much I'll remember without practice, but it was fun to learn!

Go 24 hours without Internet

Well I spent a lot of yesterday watching my boyfriend race, packing up a trailer, and driving for about 6 hours, so this was a good day for this challenge!

Go 24 hours without Internet
I didn't have Internet access until I got home late last night so this one was a breeze. I was pretty occupied all day anyway. It did feel good to not have to stress about doing my regular online stuff and just focusing on other things!

Also Saturday's challenge is posted up, you can find it in the index!

High five a stranger

I am back from my weekend away. It was quite a long hot weekend, but it was for my boyfriend and he had fun so I am happy for him!

High five a stranger
We went out to dinner on Saturday night and had a very friendly waitress. So my boyfriend, myself, and my boyfriend's father all decided to give her a high five! His father is a pretty high maintenance customer so we figured doing something positive (plus a big tip of course) could do something to perk her up a bit!

These was one of the challenges I've been having the most trouble with so I'm glad I finally accomplished it!

Go for an early morning walk

Alrighty so some news first, I will be gone this weekend so updates won't come until either Sunday or Monday!

Go for an early morning walk
I'm heading to the race track with my boyfriend and we are at his work getting ready, so since I was up early anyway, I brought alone my iPod, some water, and went for a nice little morning walk around the area. I'm glad I did it before it got too hot!

Join a forum specializing in depression

Okay so lately with my problems sleeping and feeling so exhausted, I've been more emotionally drained as well, so I figured it would be a good time for this challenge

Join a forum specializing in depression
As some of you may already know, depression is something I struggle with. I wouldn't say its been at its worst lately, but it will still be nice to have a resource available when I do need it.

I found a depression forum called depressionforums.org. It seemed to be fairly active, which is a positive if I ever need some responses to something. Hopefully it will be a good resource for the future!

Watch the sunrise

Another one that didn't go quite as planned, but I guess that's how life works sometimes!

Watch the sunrise
So this one wasn't a magical picnic in the park. In truth, I have been feeling pretty weak and exhausted all the time. I've also had a lot of trouble sleeping. So I did watch the sunrise this morning, but it was through my windows because I couldn't sleep last night.

There was still something pretty about it. Seeing it slowly become less and less dark and more and more light. I usually see the opposite because I'm not often awake at sunrise, so it was still an interesting experience!

Watch a kids show I haven't seen since I was little

Okay so I'm not feeling on top of my game, so this was a more easygoing challenge for me.

Watch a kids show I haven't seen since I was little
The show I watched was called Jackie Chan adventures and I used to watch it when I was little. It was basically a cartoon about Jackie Chan as an archaeologist and him and his uncle and niece.

It was pretty nostalgic, but other than that, I don't think I would watch it again. I think I've outgrown it.

Draw Monica from Dark Cloud 2 in all of her outfits

So this was a difficult one and took up a good portion of the day. I guess I have mixed feelings about the results, but at least it did encourage me to do some drawing!

Draw Monica from Dark Cloud 2 in all of her outfits
One of these I had already done so I just counted that one

And the rest of these I did today, trying out different drawing techniques to see the different results

So I'm not super happy with the results and I probably need more practice. I don't think I'll keep any of them except maybe the last one.

Have a conversation in Spanish

Okay, I still haven't been practicing as much as I should and I should kick myself in the butt. I suppose I've been busy with the challenges and house work and moving and stuff. But enough excuses!

Have a conversation in Spanish
To hopefully help kickstart my practicing again, I had a very small, very basic conversation in Spanish with my boyfriend. He speaks about as much as I do so we made a good team!

We just did basic "hi how are you" type of thing, but hopefully this will put it fresh in my mind to get back to my lessons for my all day Spanish challenge!

Have chocolate fondue

I need to remember to start checking these more because I got another one wrong! Oh well, after a long day it was still enjoyable!

Have chocolate fondue
So I misunderstood this one as chocolate fountain and not chocolate fondue. So we went to Golden Coral buffet and for dessert, I had marshmallows from the pretty chocolate fountain!

I wish they'd had more options, all they had was strawberries, marshmallows, and rice crispie squares for dipping, but it was yummy nonetheless!

Try a new craft

Alrighty so thanks to having my back a bit iffy, I have been ordered by the boyfriend to take it easy as to not further aggravate it. So I figured this was a good challenge to try!

Try a new craft
So I decided to try origami! Of course, I didn't have the necessary special paper I needed, or even square paper for that matter, but I tried my best with what I have!

So I tried to make a cat and a piggy.

Not the greatest, but I guess not terrible for a first try!

 http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-cat.html
 http://www.origami-instructions.com/easy-origami-piggy.html

I found some instructions here if anyone wants to give it a go! I think it's beautiful some of the stuff people can make with paper and I admire the skill it takes to be good at it!

Overall it was pretty fun!

Find 5 vegan recipes for Michael

Okay, so my mom currently has my son on a vegan diet with some supplements, so I decided to try and find some things to add to his menu!

Find 5 vegan recipes for Michael
Here are 5 dishes I found and a link to them for the ingredients, directions, and images.

Baked vegetables
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Vegetables-I/Detail.aspx?evt19=1
Nothing wrong with some veggies!


Spanish Rice
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spanish-Rice-II/Detail.aspx?evt19=1
He does quite enjoy rice, so maybe he will like this!

Brownies:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vegan-Brownies/Detail.aspx?evt19=1
He has a big sweet tooth, so why not try some vegan brownies?

Quinoa Tabouleh:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quinoa-Tabbouleh/Detail.aspx?evt19=1
He is a huge fan of Quinoa, so this could be a hit.

Lasagna:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vegan-Lasagna-I/Detail.aspx?evt19=1
he already has a vegan lasagna he likes, but this might change it up and get him some different veggies and vitamins.

So I will print these out and bring them with me on my next visit and maybe he will have some new dishes he likes!

Take a bubble bath

Alrighty so this one had a few bumps, but in the end it worked out! We did this one after we went over to the new house to do some painting!

Take a bubble bath
So we found out we have a bit of a bath leak and we also didn't have a plug! So we made a makeshift plug. And I forgot bubble bath, so we used dish soap!

But it was still nice and relaxing. I haven't taken a bath in who knows how long, so it was refreshing and relaxing after a long day!

Draw with something other than a pencil

This challenge was picked out by my boyfriend! Hopefully it will encourage me to keep up my drawing that I keep forgetting to practice!

Draw with something other than a pencil
So for this challenge, I decided to draw with some gel pens. I tried to pick something simpler because I wouldn't be able to erase, and so I drew Carbuncle, the summon from Final Fantasy!

Overall, I'm okay with how it turned out, especially considering I couldn't erase and fix details!

Learn how to tie different knots

So my boyfriend was a big help with this challenge and I had a lot of fun! I'm not sure how much I'll remember but hopefully I can retain some of it!

Learn how to tie different knots
So these are the knots I was taught how to do!

Bowline
One Armed Bowline
Clove Hitch
Taught Line Hitch
Sheep Shank

I can't remember them well enough to explain them, so I recommend maybe YouTube videos if you are interested in any of them. It can be pretty fun to learn!

Join a Suikoden forum

I feel a bit bad about this one because I put off doing a challenge until just earlier because I was busy with house painting and housework. But I did get a challenge done!

Join a Suikoden forum
I joined a Suikoden forum on a site called Suikosource.com. It's always been a great resource for the games, the site is well maintained and taken care of, and it is always the first place I look for Suikoden related things. So hopefully the forum can be a good source of discussion and help!

Also, remember that I did two updates tonight, so check the index for yesterday's challenge!

Stay up all night watching horror movies

Alrighty, I'm sorry I didn't update the night this happened, but I was tired and it was late and I was busy actually doing the challenge!

Stay up all night watching horror movies
So I get easily scared at horror movies and due to some prior commitments, this one got put off until really late. Because of that, I only watched two horror movies. We watched the Skeleton Key and Nightmare on Elm Street 2! Both were entertaining movies and it was fun to watch them with my boyfriend!

Ride around a race track in a race car

Okay so our plans for the weekend did not work out and were postponed for a few weeks. But I was able to accomplish some of this challenge!

Ride around a race track in a race car
So I found out when we do go racing, I won't be allowed on the race track in the race car. But I was able to take a ride around the garage and down the street with my boyfriend in his race car, Raoul, today!

It was silly fun, but race cars are not built for comfort! Still, I was glad to at least partly partake in my boyfriend's hobby!

Print off and organize all of my articles

Okay so this one is a bit of a sour note, but I suppose these things can happen! I'm going to try not to let it get me down and push forward regardless!

Print off and organize all of my articles
So I was supposed to print these off regularly to avoid using up too much paper and ink. Sadly, I didn't do that and I'm up to a lot more of them and and well... its too much all at once. And I'll just have more and more to catch up on. So I am abandoning this challenge. Sorry everyone!

On the bright side, I'll have several more challenges complete this weekend as I am going out of town with the boyfriend for a race event! So I'll have some exciting stuff going on!

With that, I won't be updating this again until Sunday or Monday and I'll make seperate blog posts with each of the challenges. Looking forward to it! See you guys then!

Only watch Spanish TV for a whole day

So I had planned for this one yesterday but didn't end up completing it. So I tried it again today!

Only watch Spanish TV for a whole day
I went to the YouTubes and watched an episode of a show and a movie in Spanish. The show had Spanish subtitles and the movie had English subtitles. I kind of understood what was going on in the show. And that was the only TV I watched today! Have to remember to keep practicing my Spanish for the harder challenges!

Buy a new stuffed animal

Okay so today we went to the Michael's craft store to check up on a few different things required for a few challenges. But due to funds, most of them had to be held off. We did get this one done though!

Buy a new stuffed animal
We got a cute little stuffed Octopus at the register! My boyfriend took to it pretty quickly. The name on its tag said Legs!

Welcome to the family, Legs!

Try a new show

Okay so I fudged on this one a little. I have a challenge to watch a kids movie I've never seen and to watch a kids show I haven't watched since I was young, and I ended up mixing them up in my head and I thought my challenge was "Watch a kids show I'd never seen". Oops!

Try a new show
So I ended up watching a kids show as my new show! It's kind of funny, but oh well! What I ended up watching was the 2010 remake of Strawberry Shortcake. I liked it more than I thought I would! It was pretty cute and sweet. Campy, but what kids show isn't?

I've never seen the original so I can't compare, but I am a fan of the new character designs and their cute clothes!

Try a dish I've never tried before

This was another one that wasn't planned, but the one I had planned fell through so we were able to make up for it with this!

Try a dish I've never tried before
We went to a place I've never been before called Shlotzky's and I ordered a roasted red pepper soup! I had never tried one before!

It was pretty yummy and I had it with a ham and cheese sandwich! I might order it again sometime!

Go to thrift stores/garage sales and don't purchase anything over $5

Well this one did not go as expected, but I guess there are always some successes and some failures!

Go to thrift stores/garage sales and don't purchase anything over $5
I guess part of it was a success because I didn't purchase anything over $5. Or anything at all! The garage sales we went to were not really that great and being such a small town there wasn't much going on. Oh well! Maybe we will try the flea market in a few weekends!

Do a giant house cleaning

This one wasn't a huge house "cleaning" but it did end up sorting and organizing some things, and it certainly took a long time!

Do a giant house cleaning
We are moving soon so it is time to pack things up and get ready! I started by cleaning out the fridge because we will soon be moving stuff to a little fridge to let this one thaw before we move. Then I packed up a whole bunch of stuff and now we have a house full of boxes!

I'm so excited to move and get things sorted and organized now that we'll have extra space for everything! Things won't be so cramped anymore!

Jump rope

Sorry for the late update. I got sidetracked! But don't worry, I still got my challenge done! It's been one I've been wanting to do for a while but haven't quite gotten around to.

Jump rope
So I got myself a nice sparky purple and pink jump rope and I had a lot of fun! I didn't jump for very long though because I forgot to wear a bra and also because it's a lot more exercise than you would expect.

I encourage you to try it! It's inexpensive, it's fun, and it's a great workout!

Go to a store I've never been to and window shop

Sorry a bit late on this update. Still feeling a bit under the weather. But we did get some stuff done and I did complete another challenge!

Go to a store I've never been to and window shop
While not exactly what I was expecting, we went to Academy Sports or something and looked at some things for future challenges! We got some prices on bikes and badminton gear and the like!

So it wasn't a special pretty store but it did help with future goals, which is something positive!

Have a picnic somewhere new

Okay so it wasn't somewhere new, but we have very rarely been there before and we couldn't resist after finding out it was near our new house!

Have a picnic somewhere new
So we got some chips and sandwiches and pizza and drinks and headed on down to enjoy ourselves at the picnic tables in this park with the fountain! We also took this opportunity to sail our paper boats from yesterday!

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we went!

Make a paper boat

I was feeling pretty under the weather today so I picked a more lighthearted challenge. I had surprisingly never done this before, so it was some nice silly little fun!

Make a paper boat
I have made paper airplanes before, and paper hats, but never a paper boat! So my boyfriend and I each made one and tomorrow we will bring it for the next challenge and see how quickly they sink!

Here were some very helpful directions for anyone else who wants to give it a try!
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-Boat

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I tried it!

Try roller skating

So this is one we have had planned for quite a while, but it never seemed to pan out! But finally we were able to get out there and do it!

Try roller skating
So we headed to the roller skating rink and I put on some roller skates for the first time ever! I've ice skated before, but never roller skated. Because of that, I wasn't very good.

We went once around the big rink and I fell and hurt myself. So then we went to the little practice rink! It was much more fun that way. My boyfriend seemed to really enjoy it and wants to do it more often! It was fun to try something new!

Try a new Chinese buffet

Chinese food has never been my top pic in cuisine, but this is about trying new things and challenging myself, so that is exactly what I did!

Try a new Chinese buffet
We went to a place called Hibachi Grill which did many different sorts of foods, one of which was chinese. It was also a buffet. So in we went!

So I tried some new foods and some old ones! Overall it wasn't too bad. The potatoes, chicken balls, chicken broccoli, and rice were my favourites. Might eat there again sometime!

Play tennis

So we had a nice cool summer day and we were in town anyways to check out our new house, so we decided why not get out there and give this challenge a shot!

Play tennis
Today we played better than we ever have before! We weren't keeping score, we were actually mostly focusing on getting the ball to the other person because we are not skilled tennis players. But we had a lot of fun and a lot of back and forth going for us, so I'm glad we did it! Probably got some good exercise too!

Listen to classical music

I was playing a game today that included a lot of classical music, which brought about this prompt! My boyfriend listens to a lot, so he linked me to some!

Listen to classical music
Warning: Some of it is quite long!

Hopefully you can find a song you enjoy and appreciate! There are some great songs!

Try a new visual novel

This one actually did prove to be quite a challenge as things did not want to cooperate with me at all! But we did finally get it settled!

Try a new visual novel
I already had a new visual novel to try but the system I was supposed to try it on was not working! So then I tried a few more and sure enough after hours of waiting, they didn't work either! Eventually things sorted themselves out and I was once again able to use the original one I had planned.

I played a visual novel called Suikogaiden Vol 1, based off of the Suikoden series that I like. I manged to find a copy translated in to English! I didn't play that much of it because I was low on time by the time things got going, but it was pretty fun and I would like to play more!

Go for a long walk in the woods

Well this one wasn't exactly what it was supposed to be, but it accomplished a lot of the same things so I'm going to go with it anyways!

Go for a long walk in the woods
We got a house! The same one in my go to an open house challenge! I love it! So today we went over and took a walk around the neighbourhood to get acquainted with the area before we move. It's in a pretty great location!

We also saw some trees I had never seen before called Palmetto trees! They looked like Palm trees and the bark was a lot like a fuzzy coconut!

Anyways I had a lot of fun, I saw some new trees, I got some exercise, and it was very exciting! Very happy with this!

Play a card game I've never tried

Slightly late on the update, I apologize! I did have some fun with this challenge so I am happy I did it! Played for a few hours.

Play a card game I've never tried
I tried a game called gin rummy for the first time! We played 3 games and I won 2, although my boyfriend got gin his first ever time playing. That was pretty impressive!

The game is basically you have 10 cards and with those 10 cards you try to match stuff. Either you have at least 3 cards in a row of the same suit or at least 3 of the same card (3 5's for example).

After that we played other card games like Go Fish, Crazy 8s, and Egyptian War. It was a lot of fun!

Go bowling

Today we had planned again to go roller skating, but we went at the wrong hours. Instead of coming back later, we decided to go to the bowling alley right next door!

Go bowling
I had a lot of fun! The boyfriend won both games and then we had another silly little game while we waited for our food. But the second round was the best I had ever bowled! I scored a 45 the first round and a 102 the second. I'm not a good bowler at all!

But I had fun and that's what matters!

Try a new kind of pancake

Today we decided to go out and have a breakfast at IHOP. IHOP, being a pancake place, was the perfect place for this challenge.

Try a new kind of pancake
I've tried a good few kinds of pancakes, so I wasn't sure if I would find something I hadn't tried but would also like. Sure enough there were plenty of strawberry pancakes, but seeing as how I don't like strawberry, it wouldn't have been my first choice.

But then I found the Jelly Doughnut pancakes. 4 stacked pancakes with raspberry jam between them.

I didn't need 4 pancakes and I couldn't finish it all, but it was pretty yummy!

Write a letter to myself in 10 years

This is definitely a more personal blog entry, but still an important challenge all the same. It helps to look forward and reflect on the future.

Write a letter to myself in 10 years
The letter I wrote:

Dear 32 year old Ashton,

This is you at 22. How's it going? It's hard to write a letter to the future. I don't know where you'll be or what you'll be doing.

I do hope you've found happiness. I imagine there's hard times ahead. Michael will be 14, a teenager. I wonder what kind of young man he's growing up to be. I wonder where you live, how you've changed. Did you lose the weight you wanted? Did you get a job that made you happy? Are you with the same person?

I guess if I want to achieve those things, it's up to me. The decisions I make will change the answers to those questions and to some degree, who you are.

I look forward to meeting you,
Ashton

Take a nice long relaxing shower

Today was a very rough day, so I was glad to find a nice and easy challenge to do. I didn't have the energy to commit to something more complicated.

Take a nice long relaxing shower
Taking showers has always been a good way to relax when I feel sad or down or sick. So it was the perfect day for this challenge. I took a nice long, relaxing hot shower and then a few hours later, I took another one!

It was a nice way to decompress and I even managed to salvage some of the evening! Could have been worse!

Go on a special date night

We got some good news today about funds and house things and some other stuff, so we decided to go out and have a special dinner to celebrate!

Go on a special date night
Our date night mostly involved a relaxing evening on the couch, but we did also go to Chili's! We got some potato skins for appetizers, which were delicious, and then I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with fries and my boyfriend ordered a trio sampler, which gave him some kind of springrolls, chicken wings, and mini burgers!

Mostly the specialness of the night was from the fact that we got such good news and we shared the night together!

Read a new Terry Pratchett Discworld book

Well I did start reading this book a little while ago, I didn't get very far and I had never read this book before. With upcoming costs, this will help us out a little bit also if I don't have to buy a new book.

Read a new Terry Pratchett Discworld book
The book I picked up is called Mort. I had heard a lot about it but had never read it myself. It's a pretty short book and I'm about 1/3 of the way done it now.

It's about a boy named Mort who becomes death's apprentice. Of course since it is a Discworld book, hilarity ensues with Mort, Death, and Death's horse, Binky.So far it is a very amusing and entertaining read! Would recommend!

Message someone I don't get along with and try to get to know them better

This was one I kind of had lined up since I was planning to be social and message a bunch of people today! Sadly, this was another failure.

Message someone I don't get along with and try to get to know them better
I messaged a lot of people today to be social and see how they were doing and decided to message someone who I've spoken to a bit in the past, but we never really became friends. Sadly, the person never responded. Maybe they were just busy and didn't get a chance. I hope so. But that's all there is to report on today.

Try a new popcorn flavor

Today we were planning to go roller skating but I threw my back out walking of all things. But we had bought this for a challenge for a different day, so I just went ahead with it!

Try a new popcorn flavor
There is a kind of cold boxed popcorn called Crunch N' Munch which as a few different flavours. I had tried the caramel before, but this time I tried the buttery toffee!

It was really yummy! Too yummy, in fact. We went through the whole box today. Oops!

Open my cookbook at a random page, close my eyes and point, and make whatever dish I point at

Since we were doing groceries today, and also making a menu for the week, I decided that today would be a good day for this challenge!

Open my cookbook at a random page, close my eyes and point, and make whatever dish I point at
The dish I pointed at is called Roast Pork Tenderloin. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 medium filets of pork, cut lengthwise
1 clove garlic
6 medium potatoes
1/2 tspn savory
salt and pepper
1 tspn soft butter
1/2 tspn dry mustard
1/4 cup hot water

Cook:
1.Rub the filets with garlic.
2.Cook the potatoes, mash and prepare them (add butter or milk or whatever you do to prepare your mashed potatoes).
3. Add savory and seasonings to potatoes.
4. When cooled, form in to a roll the same length as the filets and place them between the filets.
5. Tie the two ends in the middle without tightening.
6. Brush the top filet with butter and sprinkle with dry mustard. Add salt and pepper.
7. Place rolls in baking dish with 1/4 cup of hot water.
8. Bake 350 degrees F for 1 hour, basting a few times.

It was very yummy and I would definitely eat it again!

Read some Baby Blues comics

The topic of comic strips was brought up today, which led me to looking up some of these which of course led to completing the challenge!

Read some Baby Blues comics
Baby Blues is a comic strip about a growing family and the parents raising their children. It started out as a daughter and they now have three children! You can find the archive here: http://www.babyblues.com/archive/index.php

Here are some that I particularly liked:

I recommend you check them out! There are some really funny ones!

Walk around the park for 2 hours

This challenge was not an accomplishment, but it still feels like one in its own way! I guess that counts for something and I'll look on the positive side of things!

Walk around the park for 2 hours
We actually only made it an hour because it was hot, but we had some good conversation, we had fun, and we got some exercise! That's still an accomplishment in my books! The point was to get some exercise while having fun and we did that!

Find a joke and tell it to people

This was a fun little challenge  that can be used as a conversation starter, which is what I did! It was definitely a lot of fun!

Find a joke and tell it to people
Very simple, silly little joke that's easy to remember. I looked up jokes online but most of them were more for adults than anything. I have no problem with mature jokes, but it wasn't something I was in the mood for today, plus you never know what offends people and this wasn't a challenge to keep a joke to myself! But sure enough I found a really cute one.

Q: What does a nosey pepper do?
A: Gets jalapeno business!

I told some people and it seems to have overall been a success! It made me chuckle anyway!

Learn a card trick

This post is coming in a bit late because I had a hectic night, but right before things got going, I did manage to complete my challenge for today!

Learn a card trick
So my boyfriend taught me a neat card trick. You shuffle the cards and casually look at the card at the bottom of the deck. Then you spread the cards and ask the person to pick one. They then put the card back on top of the deck. You ask them how many times you want them to cut the deck and the first cut, you put the card on the bottom immediately on top of the card they picked. Then you cut the deck.

When looking through the deck to find their card, it will be the one to the right of the card you saw at the bottom! You know this because you put them together earlier!

It was a neat little trick and I had fun learning it!

Play hangman in Spanish

Today I started practicing my Spanish again! I didn't learn anything new, I just did a revision of some of the old lessons as a refresher. But that motivated me to do this challenge!

Play hangman in Spanish
My boyfriend speaks a bit more Spanish than I do, but we're at a pretty good level for each other. He did beat me pretty badly though. Some words/phrases we used:

Yo soy una mujer
Lo siento
Enero
Mucho Gusto
Pesos

There was another but I've already forgotten! Still, we had fun and it was good motivation to get me back in to my Spanish lessons!

Get an ice cream cake

As usual, we needed to head for the grocery store, which led to this fun challenge! Now tomorrow I'm going to try and do a fitness one to make up for it!

Get an ice cream cake
We ended up getting ice cream cupcakes actually. Yellow with some frosting on top. I had one after playing some Mario Tennis on the Wii where I worked up quite a sweat! It was nice to have something cool and refreshing! Very yummy indeed! I don't usually go for ice cream cakes, I'll go for regular cakes or pie so this was a nice change!

Make cracker snacks

This one came last minute when we went grocery shopping and I decided to go for it! We had a late lunch, so this fit well with a small dinner since we weren't very hungry.

Make cracker snacks
Cracker snacks are something I saw on a commercial when I was about 9 years old and I decided to make them. You take a certain type of cracker, bacon, tomato, and cheese, you put it all on the cracker with the cheese on top, and you microwave them for a minute or so. And ta da, cracker snacks!

They're easy to make and very yummy, so if you want some quick and easy snacks or you have guests over, these are really great! Very yummy!

*Note: My sock puppet challenge is now updated with my burger and bunny sock puppets! Enjoy!

Dip my bread in creamy tomato soup

So this challenge came unexpectedly, but I'm glad it did! My boyfriend decided to surprise me with a nice dinner at a restaurant I really like!

Dip my bread in creamy tomato soup
The restaurant we went too serves my favourite creamy tomato soup! It is absolutely delicious and I just can't get enough of it! So I made this challenge with the intent of going there again for the soup and also the yummy bread!

As you can see, this challenge was a delicious success!

Try a new alcoholic beverage

This one didn't go exactly as planned, but it worked out anyway. We had originally intended to go to a car club meeting tonight at a restaurant, but there were some car problems, so we ended up going somewhere else. But the challenge was still a success!

Try a new alcoholic beverage
I really am not a big alcohol drinker, so this challenge was to encourage a more adventurous side. So we tried something called Georgia Peach Tea or something along those lines, which had rum and peach tea and some other stuff. I was interested because it sounds sweet and has some things I like.

It wasn't bad, really. I can't say I really liked it because I don't really like any alcohol, but for what it was it was okay. I had maybe a quarter of a glass. Not something I would be opposed to trying again!

Draw a comic strip

This is something I used to do when I was little. I had a comic strip series called The Misadventures of Melissa and Katriana. There were only about 3 people who I ever showed them to, but I had a good 20 or so of them.

Draw a comic strip
So today I decided to revive the old gals from my childhood comic strip and bring them back for another burst of fun for this challenge!

I made at least one person laugh, so I consider that a success!

Read up on a country I know little to nothing about

I'm glad I thought of this challenge. It's always a positive to expand you knowledge and learn new things and it can be a lot of fun too!

Read up on a country I know little to nothing about
The country I picked for this is Lithuania. Lithuania is a country in Europe, that has a population of approximately 3.5 million.

It is a parliamentary democracy and has a largely Catholic population. It's flag has three wide horizontal stripes, the top stripe is yellow, the middle is green, and the bottom is red. It's currancy is the Litas and its capital is Vilnius.

Here are some resources if you want to study more about its history, culture and politics. I know that isn't everyone's cup of tea and I don't want this to be school, so I'll let you all read what interests you!

http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/member-countries/lithuania//index_en.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17536867
http://www.infoplease.com/country/lithuania.html

This was a fun country to learn about and I'm glad I did! I got the idea from a kids show I used to watch called the Kids from Room 402, that had a student whose family was from Lithuania! Anyways, now I will leave you with some pictures of the beautiful country, and I encourage you to see if you can learn new things too!

Dance to 6 songs in a row

This wasn't the challenge I was planning on today but it just kind of came to me, so I decided why not! It's a fun little challenge and it fits in with me doing more exercise lately!

Dance to 6 songs in a row
I was listening to the songs I posted under yesterday's challenge and some of them are very danceable! A good number in fact! More than 6! So since I was already dancing, I decided to just go for this one!

Dancing is a lot of good exercise and is one of the more fun ways to get a workout in! I was out of breath by the end, but it still felt good and I'm happy I did it!

Make a top 20 list of my favorite video game songs

This is a challenge I am using to help fight off the urge to make my top games list, because I'm not ready for that one yet! But I had fun with this one, even though it was a bit challenging to think of my top 20!

Make a top 20 list of my favorite video game songs
I won't be posting youtube videos of them all here for space, but I will link them all and I'll also link to a site that has all of the videos!

http://home.eyesonff.com/showthread.php/157964-shion-s-Top-20-Game-Musics
All the videos can be found there, but here is the list with the video links for those who would rather do it this way!

20. Corridors of Time - Chrono Trigger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNzYIEY-CcM

19. Exceeding Love - Suikoden III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUBZgLbRdL8

18. Lenna's Theme - Final Fantasy V
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WATPOPngiTc

17. Saria's Song/Lost Woods - LoZ: Ocarina of Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmB9LsIozSQ

16. Deku Palace - LoZ: Majora's Mask
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f72iBfWWqlE

15. Blue Fields - Final Fantasy VIII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np2uGeCMBwM

14. Slew of Love Letters - Final Fantasy IX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIY7TXwOnPs

13. Eternal Wind - Final Fantasy III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOQ8LRP4DZI

12. Intro Music - Dark Cloud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZKsZm-fbh0

11. Last Battle - Xenosaga Episode I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ6ufAOSUhM

10. Ukulele de Chocobo - Final Fantasy IX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCTd-OnrZCU

9. Suteki Da Ne - Final Fantasy X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mehqQhSmjUM

8. Cosmo Canyon - Final Fantasy VII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZBGmN5obkk

7. Reminiscence - Suikoden II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7CKWhNB4Es

6. Lunatic Wisdom Laboratory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=745hAPheACw

5. Song of Healing - LoZ: Majora's Mask
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDX4ZwUeOok

4. The Queen's Knights - Suikoden V
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP9uEN_v5mg

3. Overture - Final Fantasy VIII

2. Abel's Ark - Xenosaga Episode III

1. Rose of May - Final Fantasy IX

And those are my top 20 favourite video game songs! I hope you enjoyed the music!

Make sock puppets

So this one didn't work out exactly as planned, but it will be something we continue tomorrow and it was still loads of fun today!

Make sock puppets
As some of you may know, I had been looking forward to this challenge for a while! We got all of our supplies, we got all set up and ready to go, and we had some fun! The unfortunate thing is our glue was apparently garbage as it took HOURS for things to dry and it still wasn't completely dry. I think we have another kind of glue now that will hold up better, but we didn't get as many sock puppets done as we had planned, sadly.

*So when I get the other two done that I had planned, a rabbit and a hamburger, I will post them up here, so be sure to check back!

In the meantime, here is a cow I made and a dragon my boyfriend is making. His is still in progress but its off to a good start!

Overall this was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to making the other two!

Update: Here are my bunny and burger!

Play a board game I've never tried

Okay, I cheated on this one a little bit. I was so excited about getting it yesterday that I tried it out. But we didn't play by the official rules until today and it was tons of fun!

Play a board game I've never tried
This game is I think called Head's Up. It was apparently featured on the Ellen show, which made my boyfriend a bit skeptical about how good it would be, but he also had a ton of fun, so it was a good purchase!

Basically its played like this: You have 4 types of cards. One is about pairs (peanut butter and jam, Batman and Robin, etc), one is celebrities, one is humming songs, and one is charades. You pick cards and put them in your headband (without looking!) and the other person has to give you clues as to what they could be!

It's a fun little game and I really enjoyed it. I was awful at the humming part, but it was good for helping me break out of my shell a little bit and put aside my insecurities and worries about embarrassing myself. So it was nice to just let loose and have fun! I'm definitely planning on playing again!

Eat a nice, rich sundae

So today was a pretty laid back day and my boyfriend had the afternoon off, so we went out on the town for some fun indoor things because it was really hot out. We even got something for tomorrow's challenge! But today's challenge was also a treat!

Eat a nice, rich sundae
Since it was so hot, we went out for some ice cream! I usually get a milkshake or soft serve, but today I went all out and got myself a large sundae!

I got a scoop of chocolate, a scoop of banana, and a scoop of mint flavoured ice creams. It is topped with whipped cream, peanuts, and two delicious cherries! There was also some chocolate syrup! It was very very yummy but I was too full to eat it all!

I enjoyed this nice little treat as I haven't had a sundae in over 2 years!