Life list, continued

Continued from here:

26. Go to China.

27. Spend a night sleeping under the stars.

28. Sing a karaoke song all by myself.

29. Find a signature dish I cook better than anyone.

30. Let my kids stay home from school on a rainy day we'll spend in pajamas watching movies.

31. Spend another Christmas in Santa Fe.

32. Take a trip on a wine train.

33. Do a full-on spa day, with mani, pedi, facial, massage, champagne and fine cheese and chocolates.

34. Visit a New England fishing village.

35. Do yoga in a real studio.

36. Have dinner at the French Laundry.

37. Host an insanely fabulous brunch.

38. Dance till sunrise with my husband in Mexico.

39. Learn to use loose tea.

40. Hang family photographs in pretty frames.

41. Learn to make three cocktails very well.

42. See really, really big ocean waves.

43. Compile a complete, room-to-room wish list for house projects/items/improvements.

44. Mail a secret to Postsecret.

45. Fly a kite with my kids.

46. Send Valentines.

47. Learn more about my favorite cheeses.

48. Hang a wooden birdhouse in a tree.

49. See the Himalayas.

50. Go vegetarian for a month.

Not a blog for people who hate lists

Today ends my six-year run in the Mercury News sports department. Starting next week I'll be working in features as Food+Wine and Home+Garden editor. Let's toast the occasion with a list, shall we? (List now, vodka later!)

10 cool things at my desk that may or may not survive the move:

1. Faded blue and green streamers, hung up by my friend Tball, who decorated my entire desk to celebrate my wedding engagement.

2. Page from The Onion day-by-day calendar, with photo of a somber, uniformed feline standing at a podium above this headline: "War on String may be Unwinnable, says Cat General."

3. Bobblehead doll of "Crusher," mascot of the Bakersfield Blitz, which is the arena football team I covered when I first began working in sports.

4. Baseball ticket signed by Oakland A's shortstop Bobby Crosby, whom I met (stalked, tackled, whatever) in 2005 when Sal and I attended FanFest.

5. Signed photograph of the Sharks' Patrick Marleau, who joined me in reading to a class of schoolchildren a few years ago.

6. Now-deflated SJSU Spartan "Thunder Stix," once banged loudly above my head by the joker who sits in the cube next to mine, as I sat here typing furiously and sweating bullets to make Friday night football deadline.

7. 2007 calendar with images of Maui, purchased on the honeymoon.

8. A book, left on my desk as a joke, called "The Only Boy in Ballet Class."

9. Dilbert cartoon, in which Dilbert goes "I think we have snails in the office. There's a slime trail on everything." Thought bubble above Tina the Tech Writer reads "That might be the second sign that I'm addicted to hand lotion," as she pushes down on a lotion pump that's as big as her head.

10. Four mostly empty bottles of lotion.

Life list

The almighty Mighty Girl did a really cool thing on her blog, and I was so inspired that I'm stealing the idea for my very own! Maggie calls it "100 things to do before I go." I'm not sure I'll get to 100, but I did bang out 1-25, and I'm working on 26-50. You should totally do this, too. Putting form to your goals and wishes is a splendid way to pass the time in boring meetings or when you're trying to fall asleep at night. I think everyone should spend more time dreaming of things they want to accomplish!

1. Make homemade pasta.

2. Own decorations for each holiday.

3. Plant a garden.

4. Finish my wedding album.

5. Put together an emergency survival kit for the home.

6. Learn to swim properly.

7. Take a cooking class.

8. See the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids.

9. Run a marathon.

10. Make homemade tortillas.

11. Go on a real picnic.

12. Stay at a bed and breakfast.

13. See a Broadway show.

14. Swim with dolphins.

15. Completely finish one room in my house.

16. Teach Chickenbone "Come"and "Drop it."

17. Take my kids camping.

18. Make homemade tamales.

19. Go on an African Safari.

20. Complete my china set.

21. See a rain forest.

22. Become a member of a church.

23. Be able to do 10 real push-ups.

24. Stand in a sunny meadow or a green valley, with no roads, no power lines, no people, no signs of civilization in sight.

25. Eat a proper English breakfast.

10 things, seemingly unrelated

1. My new deodorant has caused a scorching red rash on both my armpits. Sorry, Mitchum Smart Solid Anti-Perspirant. My little black dress may approve of you, but I do not.

2. While trimming the lavender bush in my front yard, I saw a weed sticking out. So I reached over and gave it a firm yank. When thorns sank into my skin, I realized it was not a weed at all, but in fact it was a miniature rose bush, living back there in a thicket of darkness, where nobody even knew it existed. So I cut the lavender way back, tied the little guy to a thin green pole, and waited. Three weeks later, there are six or seven bright red blooms, and I swear to god it's six inches taller. I ask you, how often in life does one find a rosebush one never knew one had?

3. My favorite new drink: Grey Goose on the rocks, with a splash of pineapple juice. Try it. It's perfect. Not too boozy, not too sugary, the perfect sipping cocktail.

4. The big diet began this week (evidently training for a half-marathon doesn't help you lose even one puny little ounce of weight), so when someone handed me a fun-size bag of peanut M&Ms yesterday, I looked up the nutritional value on my favorite weight-loss web site. Six M&Ms = 110 calories, 5 grams of fat. FOR SIX M&MS.

5. Seems Ugg boots are trying to make a comeback. Can that really be? They were awful the first time. GODawful. Get back to your ugly arctic ice cave, Uggs!

6. I toy with the idea of buying http://www.chickenbonejones.com/. Except I don't know how. And I wouldn't know what to do next. I don't know how to transfer content from this blog to another one. And also, I want my own logo at the top of my page. And a clever little blurb to put under the title. And how can I get my stupid e-mail address over on the left to show up as a link instead of plain text? I'm also sick of looking at the Blogger templates I use, so I want a new one of those, too.

7. When you are too tired for real cooking: Mix two cans of Rotel tomatoes and peppers, one can of corn, one can of fat-free refried beans, one can of chicken broth, and one package of precooked chicken breast, broken into chunks. Heat for 30 minutes, then serve, with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese. Hearty and nutritious.

8. My husband and I are on vacation next week. Big plans include cleaning the gutters, organizing the garage and office, figuring out how to use the fireplace, painting the bathroom, visiting the Body Worlds exhibit at the Tech Museum, and having a fabulously extravagant meal at a four-star restaurant.

9. Last night, Chickenbone jumped up into my lap and barfed all over my pajamas. I'm not even sure it's possible for a dog to look mortified, but I'm telling you, he did.

10. A Halloween joke I learned as a kid:
Q: Why couldn't the witch have babies?
A: Because of popcorn balls and hollow weenies.

Booooo!

Productive

This Saturday I:

• Took Chickenbone to a dog park.
• Went to Target to purchase dog food, boxed cereal, a flat of bottled waters, a box of thank-you notes, and assorted cleaning supplies.
• Then headed to Trader Joe's for red and green bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, yellow squash, zucchini and fresh baby spinach; frozen salmon, dover sole and marinated mahi-mahi; organic free-range boneless/skinless chicken breasts; bananas, raspberries, strawberries and plums; and a carton of milk.
• Stopped at PetSmart to buy a box of stuffed squeaker squirrels and a 10-pack of poop bags.
• Ate a grilled bratwurst at Top Dog.
• Accompanied husband on long-planned "date night," which began at the Tapestry Arts Festival in downtown San Jose. Purchased delicious-smelling homemade soaps in mint, bay rum and california citrus (from a fellow who looked a little organic and free-range himself, if you know what I mean.)
• Beat the heat with a couple late-afternoon cocktails at the Caravan Lounge, a grimy dive bar with just enough questionable clientele to keep things exciting.
• Ate dinner on the outdoor patio of the Poor House Bistro, where we tapped our toes to the music of a live blues band while feasting on barbecue shrimp, sausage bread with dijon mustard, and a pitcher of cold PBR.
• Headed to the local theater to get our pants scared off by "Halloween," then took the bus home at around 11 p.m. Realized with horror (har, har) that to get to our house from the bus stop, we had to walk past a hospital. An abandoned hospital. Abandoned, except for a hunched-over half-naked homeless man on a bench who was so thin you could see his teeny spine bones dotting the skin on his back. Not making this crap up.

And on Sunday I:

• Stripped the bed, flipped the mattress, then made up the bed with crisp, clean sheets.
• Sorted the laundry and started a load up in the washer.
• Went for a rather grueling eight-mile run in the Los Gatos Creek Trail.
• Ate lunch, an avo-turkey on dutch crunch bread at Togo's.
• Cut back the six Dusty Miller plants in my front yard.
• Picked cigarette butts and other tiny pieces of garbage out from the bed of tan bark where the flowers live.
• Trimmed the rose and lavender bushes.
• Pulled the rosebush straight with a piece of string tied to the house.
• Edged both the front and back lawns while Sal mowed.
• Swept 14 or 15 pounds of peppercorn-tree droppings off the driveway.
• Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Scrubbed the kitchen sink.
• Went to Safeway to buy a six-pack of root beer, vanilla ice cream, pink plastic tumblers and neon-colored bendy-straws.
• Headed to a barbecue at the home of friends, where we ate grilled chicken and vegetables, salad, corn on the cob, with those frosty root beer floats for dessert.
• Came home and folded and put away six loads of laundry.
• Watched the season finale of "Entourage."
• Collapsed.