Day 305 progress

I have 2 more completions, and progress in 3 other items, with one of them not progressing exactly as I had thought.

 

17. Hike all 8 trails at the Cedar Ridge Preserve: On 12/23/07, Claudia, my father, my sister, my sister's boyfriend, and I all hiked the Cedar Brake trail, one of the more difficult trails in the park.  Even though the entire route was only 2 miles in length, it was much more difficult than my previous trip.

The most significant things that I took away from this outing are the facts that my lower body strength and cardiovascular endurance are sorely lacking.  While hiking flat areas is not a problem, inclines are problematic and take a lot out of me.

Based on this experience, I'm going to start my cycling items (13, 14, 15, and 18) in March when the warmer weather sets in in order to remedy these negatives in my physical conditioning.

As for pictures, I failed to take my camera along, and did not document any of the trip.

 

34. Don't eat red meat or poultry for two weeks (COMPLETED): I made it the required 14 days without eating red meat or poultry.  I did eat a lot more seafood than I normally do, but I was pretty happy with the entire experience.

In the future, I'd like to limit myself to no more than one serving a week each of poultry or red meat, and preferably from free-range, organic sources (for poultry) or grass-fed sources (for red meat).

I'd also like to incorporate more game and lamb into my diet, along with the seafood that I'm currently enjoying.

 

51. Save $1 cash each day for 1001 days: I finally got around to depositing my $338 into my savings account.  I have not added any more money to my pool, and will probably do so near the end of January.

 

82. Visit maternal grandparents: It looks like I'll be traveling to Mississippi to visit my mother's parents in the next week or so.  My grandmother, who has been ill for quite a while, had a heart attack and is currently on a respirator.  Based on the prognosis, things are not looking well, and will likely result in her death sooner than later.

These are not the circumstances that I had expected to make a visit under, but oftentimes we have little choice when it comes to the progress of human events.

 

101. Try 10 wines I have not had before (COMPLETED): This evening I had a couple of glasses of 2002 Gunderloch Red Stone Riesling.  I had used some of the wine in a sauce for some scallops that I prepared, and had accompanying glasses with dinner.

The wine was very nice, and a little different for the Reislings that I tried up to this point.  Many of my previous experiences had apple or pear notes in them, while this one was a bit more grassy with faint hints of fenugreek or fennel.  Very nice.

This being my 10th new wine, this item has been completed.