46. Go to at least 10 different museums

Last weekend I hit number 9. I went to the grand re-opening of the Museum of Nature.

I have been working at the Canadian Museums Association for the past few months and early in the month we received a mystery package from the Museum of Nature. We received a few guess passes for the museum, but by the time they came to my department there was only one left which sparked off an intense thumb-wrestling tournament, after which, of course, I lost. Actually, it was a little more barbaric than that, we picked names out of a hat.

I was very disappointed when I did not win the guest-pass, but then a week later we got another package in the mail, and as it turns out, the Museum was handing out passes as if they were bread and butter. So in the end, I got to check out the museum, plus I got escorted to the front of the line (which had an hour-long wait). It was decent. And then I left.

64. Give successful directions to somewhere in Ottawa 6 times

E: "How do I get to the Post Office?"
Z: "Walk outside of the building, and walk down Gilmour until you get to Bank Street. It is inside the Quickie"
E: "Oh, Z, what would I do without you?"
Z: under my breath - "Mua ha ha ha haaaaa..."

15. Read one book every 2 weeks for 6 months

For those of you who don't know me that well, and even those that do, I will say this proudly - I am a book worm. In fact, I am convinced that the reason that I have to wear glasses is because I used to read Nancy Drew novels in the dark in the back seat of the car while my parents drove us to Toronto. I love to read and now that I am out of school, I actually have time to read for fun.
I've actually probably read more than one book every 2 weeks. I've read alot of murder mysteries, and a work buddy actually got me to start reading Agatha Christie who, up until last week I was convinced I hated. I've also read some of the popular books like The Time Traveller's Wife and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The one problem that I have is actually trying to find a book to read, so if anyone has suggestions for reading material, please let me know.

To be honest, this task was actually a freebie for me. As T once said to me, I could finish this faster than a pop tart in front of a fat camp kid. Not really PC, but totally easy.

65. Try out the Giovani's in Little Italy

There is this restaurant in Little Italy that I always see when I am going to Absolute Comedy, it has cute little twinkle lights and looks hard-core Italian. I always say to myself that I want to eat there, but I never do. Well, 2 weeks ago I decided that enough is enough. So me, Lucy and my sister decided to go early before the comedy show to test it out.

Well, we get into the restaurant and you know the stereotypical Italian mother? That is the hostess. Inside the restaurant is just as cute as the outside and when we get to the table, they give us our bread, with olives and jalepeno's on the side, as well as olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And then, the waiter comes to us and starts talking to us in Italian.

I ordered a Manicoti, which is spinach and cheese inside a big piece of pasta. Lucy ordered something that we couldn't pronounce, and the waiter tried to teach us to say it properly. Fatima ordered salmon with Alfredo sauce.

All in all, it was very delicious, and I am glad that I finally made the time to try it out.

102. Grow a lemon tree from a seed

Now, officially, this is not a part of my list, but over the past few days I have become obsessed with this. The idea came to me on Friday as I watering the plants in my house and I thought to myself.. I would really like to grow something from scratch.. something edible maybe. So I ran over to the refridgerator and took a peek, just for some inspiration of course, and not to eat the last slice of apple pie sitting on the second shelf from the top. Purely an informative mission.

Suddenly, it hit me. Lemon! Most definetly, of all the citruses that I could grow, I wanted lemon. Or maybe lime? I deliberated the two momentarally, thinking that lime is better in lime-ade form, but lemons are so bright that they always put me in a good mood. "Lemons it is," I said to myself.

The next logical step was google. I typed in "how to grow" and scrolled through my options. Weed.. taller.. garlic? I had to be more specific so I looked for my specific query and said "how to grow lemons" and lo! One of the options that came up was lemons grown from seed, and immediately I thought that this option is much better than buying a pre-grown lemon tree.

As it turns out, lemon seeds are a very finicky bunch, and they can't dry out at all or else they wont sprout. So, conveniently my mother has just purchased a lemon. I took it out, with every intention of just potting my lemon seed right then and there! How dissapointed I was to find that my lemon had no seeds in it, an uncanny hybrid mix of what I can only assume to be regular lemon and seedless watermelon.

Weird, because whenever I usually use lemons, there are tons of seeds in them and they fall into my lemonade and irritate me to no end. And it takes between 3 and 5 years before a lemon tree... sprouts if you will.. any lemons, so really there isn't any time to waste.

To make a long story short, I need to buy some more lemons. And I will keep you informed on any progress.

P.S. Am I allowed to switch this item for another one on my list that I no longer want to do?

46. Go to at least 10 different museums

In Korea, I went to 6 different museums.

-National Museum of Korea

This museum was really cool, and it has the largest museum in Korea. I was there for almost 4 hours, and I didn't see everything. There was alot of stuff about the period of the 3 Kingdoms which was before there was a unified Kingdom in Korea, and this was the most interesting of the museums that I saw, but only by a small margin, because many of the other museums I visited were very cool too.

-Korean War Museum

This museum starts off with the exhibit outside, which has many tanks and airplanes and cannons and other things outside! This place is cool, and of everyone I talked to, this is the one place where everyone told me I must go. It starts off with the 3 Kingdom period and shows how the weapons evolved and it just has so much stuff in it!

-Korean Hall of Independence

They had an exhibit on torture... It was beyond awesome! Huge place, out in the boonies, but worth it.

-Museum of Art

hey had an Andy Worhol exhibit, and I secretly took a few pictures. There was also an exhibit on modern sculpture that was a little.. hinky (in the words of David Letterman)

-Museum of Korean Pilgrims

This was just as boring as the title suggests. I didn't even know Korea had pilgrims. I hightailed it out of there as quick as I could. In fact, I only went into this museum by mistake, because when I asked someone where the Museum of Art was, they pointed in the direction of this building.

-Kimchi Field Museum

Kimchi is the national food in Korea, and Koreans eat it with every meal. Including breakfast, where you can just mix it in your rice. Very tasty! This museum showed the different types of kimchi, how to make it, the beneficial properties of kimchi, and the best part - a taste test. To be honest though, only one of them was really good, another was decent, but the rest of them were nasty.

I leave you with a picture taken at the Kimchi museum.

57. Try 3 things that I would never think of eating when travelling

I cannot believe that I ate this, I have to write it down just so that I can believe it myself. While I was in Korea, I ate octopus! It wasn't alive but it was as close to being alive as you can get without it still swimming around in the fish tank.

So, me and T were invited out for sashimi by his dojo master, Master Shin. It was one of those restaurants that you sit on the floor. Suddenly, on the table appears these little arm/tentacles that have been freshly severed from an octopus, and they are still squirming and when you try to pick them up with a spoon they stick the the metal and it is so disgusting looking that I almost puked, and some of the pieces still have octo-eyeballs attached.

Everyone else was just digging in, but I took a few pieces but I waited until they stopped squirming before I ate them. The taste of them is not so bad, I actually couldn't taste them at all because I doused them in some sort of spicy sauce. It is the texture that is really what I didn't like, they are so chewy and the tentacles stick to your teeth and ughhh!

I guess as the saying goes - I tried, I conquered... but never again.

37. Watch at least 10 Cary Grant movies

I love Cary Grant. T first introduced me to him when he told me to watch The Philidelphia Experiment. After that I watched Loveboat and a few others. So, while I was in Korea I decided to watch a few more Cary Grant movies so I could get some more things on my list done. I saw North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief. I really liked both, but I think I liked North by Northwest better, maybe because I really liked the chase scene on Mount Rushmore.

Checking on IMDB, it turns out that he was in 73 movies, so I have lots of options to finish off the 10, but I think I will save the next movie for a rainy day.

39. See a shooting star and make a wish

A few months ago the Leonids were out. In Canada we didn't get the prime time for the shooting stars but I saw 4 shooting stars and was allowed to make 4 wishes. I don't remember what my wishes were, but I'm sure that they were for the betterment of mankind, and not something silly like "I wish for a million more wishes", although I do remember one of my wishes being wasted on asking for a Bahama...

Check, check and check!

I am slowly ticking things off of my list, and it feels really good