Day 295 progress

I had some sudden developments occur in a few of the items on my list, all of them in a positive direction.  A few of these items (72, 73, and 80) were slated to occur in later 2008, but with a little on-the-fly planning it looks like I'll be completing these items much earlier, making my other travel plans easier to complete later on.

 

29. Record 3 original songs: I recorded two takes of the bass part a couple of nights ago.  I'm really impressed with how the raw recording of the song is sounding, and after mixing and producing, the finished product should be really nice.

I would have done a few more takes, but a couple of other bands in the building showed up and made it hard to focus.  We're going to try and be more flexible with our recording sessions to avoid distractions such as these.

 

34. Don't eat red meat or poultry for two weeks: I'm on day 5 of 14, and have been successful so far.  I'm consuming a lot more seafood, which is nice because I can pick up fresh fish or shrimp from work and then fix them as soon as I get home.

Claudia and I had snapper the other night and it was great.  I just threw a few things together, and it worked out well.  We had broiled snapper with Nantucket herb rub, quinoa, and a mustard green salad with cranberries and pine nuts.

Last night I made some Thai style shrimp with slivered almonds, ginger, garlic, shallots, honey, and Thai chili paste.  After stir-frying everything in red palm oil, I dumped everything over steamed white rice.  It was a bit on the spicy side, but very good.

 

50. Pay off credit cards: Claudia and I made another payment to cut down our debt.  We did charge some of our trip expenses, but overall we did more good than harm.

 

I'm going to address items 72 (See the Declaration of Independence), 73 (See the Liberty Bell), and 80 (Travel to Philadelphia) at the same time:

Claudia is traveling to Virginia in January to participate in a Tai Chi event, and she asked me to go along for company, navigation, and to help me achieve some of my 101 goals.

Last night we bought our plane tickets, reserved our car, and made hotel reservations.  We're going to fly in to Philadelphia (80) on the 17th, and spend the day there seeing the Liberty Bell (73), Independence Hall, the Edgar Allan Poe house, and finally eating at Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant, before driving to Washington D.C.

We'll spend the night in D.C. near the Smithsonian, and see what we can of the museums on the 18th, including the National Archives where the Declaration of Independence (72) is kept along side the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

After that we'll go to Charlottesville where we'll spend a couple of days.  Claudia will do Tai Chi, and I'll visit some of the local Civil War battle sites on the 19th.  Finally, on the 20th, we'll see Monticello, and drive to Baltimore, where we'll eat on the waterfront before flying home.