#14 See all of the academy-award-nominated movies for the year before the awards.

In order (as best I can remember...): "Inception:" with Nicki Proulx in July 2010. We had a little girl date in Skokie and ended up sitting behind Tim, one of my former students, and his wife. It was a trippy movie and we both liked it. I'm not sure it's Oscar worthy though. "The Social Network:" with Nicole Devin in... early fall 2010? Sorry, buddy, I don't remember exactly when but it was our first man date together. We had a lovely dinner at The Daily and skipped over to the Davis. This movie was really witty and quick paced. The acting was good. Again, worth watching, but not quite Oscar worthy. "The Fighter:" December 2010 with my parents, Jerry & Kathy Krone. We tried to go see "The King's Speech," but it was sold out. I'm glad. I loved it. Marky Mark and Christian Bale were incredible. And I LOVED the sisters. Hilarious. Really well done. Christian Bale deserves that Supporting Actor Oscar. "Black Swan:" with JennaLee Sanok in February 2011 in Skokie after a lovely dinner at Whole Foods with Beth Spitelli. It was not what I was expecting. This is my favorite to win so far, as is Natalie Portman for Best Actress. It's complex but everything flows and it's really beautiful. I don't understand why Mila Kunis was not nominated. She was lovely and played her role beautifully. "Winter's Bone:" February 2011. Thanks to Clint, I learned it was On Demand. It was a really interesting movie, well cast and well acted. I really didn't like the ending though. It was a really tough story and didn't end tough enough. "The King's Speech:" in February 2011, alone. I went to the Landmark in the middle of the afternoon on one of the snow days (just before dinner & "Les Mis"). This movie was superbly acted and just a great story. I found it most interesting because I had just finished reading a book of famous speeches and several of those speeches were in the movie. It was nice to have context and learn just how powerful and meaningful those speeches were in history. Colin Firth was amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if he won Best Actor. While I think the acting and story were great, I don't think it was as good of a film as "Black Swan." "The Kids Are All Right:" in February 2011 in my office (during Liga; it's cool.) The acting was great. The story was intriguing. It wrapped up strangely. I'm not sure I either got or agreed with the message. I'm not sure. It felt more like a politcal piece than a film. "True Grit:" in February 2011, again with Nicole Devin at the Davis. I really didn't want to go to this one. I don't like westerns. It was great. Great story. Fast paced. Really funny at parts. I was concerned about all 3 characters all the time. Jeff Bridges could win. I like Hailee Steinfield to win Best Supporting Actress, mostly because I thought she was the lead actress. I cared about her most. She's in most of the scenes. I don't get it. All of the other supporting actresses were great in their supporting roles, but Hailee really carried this film. "Toy Story 3:" in February 2011... alone in my apartment. Beth Spitelli and Edmund Cruz watched the first half of "Toy Story 2" with me after some mac and cheese and soup. Thanks, guys. I swore I wasn't going to cry like everyone said I was for "3." I even found myself at several moments thinking, this is where those suckers cried... Not me. But the end got me. How could it not? I was skeptical that it was nominated but it was a really, really great movie. "127 Hours:" in February 2011 with Beth Spitelli and Mark Mocarski at Piper's Alley. I had wanted to get the NEIU Adventure Program together for awhile to see this and failed. But I got at least Beth and Mark. It was really interesting. I feel like Colin Firth is going to win but James Franco should. He was great. He is the only character in 90% of the movie and it doesn't ever get boring just watching him stuck in a canyon. He plays the role well, being a little unlikeable, annoying, and arrogant, but yet you want him to be okay. You really see him struggle, not only during the gruesome 3 minutes of arm carving. He was great. Thank you SO much to everyone who helped me accomplish this goal! I had fun doing it and I'm excited to see the Oscars tomorrow. I'll leave a few comments if they don't go along exactly with my opinions :)

#52 Join a Euchre League

Cross that one off the list. I won't write much because... well, there's a reason you don't see Euchre highlights along with poker on ESPN.

I joined a Tuesday league with 5 other lovely ladies (Laura, Missy, Beth, Theresa, & Molly) at Durkin's. Laura Masters is my partner - and is now the leader in assisting me with completed list items with 2. There seem to be around 20 teams or so.

Last night we played Molly & Theresa in our first match and won 3-2. It's only fair to say that Molly was a little out of practice - and in practice with Pinnocle - and Theresa was completely overwhelmed by the unfair number of stimuli around the bar after 9pm, which included beer, other Euchre teams, drinkers, TV's with multiple basketball games including MSU v OSU, loud music, annnnd trivia that had monitors with the questions as the DJ slowly read them aloud. It was quite overwhelming. I had to go sit in silence for a bit when I got home.

Once the season is well underway, I'll add some updates on our team status to this post.

Update on 10/17/11: Masters and I just did okay. We lost in the play offs when I was out of town. However, Chris Zann and I have joined another league at Maeve! 1 point for Zann!

#78 - Snowboard down an entire hill without falling, including the stop at the end, and not including the bunny hill.

Well, it's a good thing that I kept at it because by 6pm on Sat, Jan 29, I was ready to count the bunny hill as a huge success.

Masters, Beth, JennaLee, & I joined the legendary ski / snowboard trip organized by Chris Ogden and Brent Belt up to Devil's Head Resort in Wisconsin. It was quite an adventurous day / night / morning. I'm just going to tell the snowboard stuff here. You can ask about the water shots and roving pantless guy in the bathroom some other time.

We had some delays in getting up there. I still can't figure out why the drive up was so long, except that we had to take 94 and make a stop to drop off a certain someone's wallet. But somehow we left Beth's place before 9am and didn't arrive until after noon. It took us awhile to figure out where to go (feeling especially confused after stumbling upon a floor in the Inn that looked unmistakeably like a dorm floor, complete with decorated doors and a room with a kiddie pool). Eventually we got our boards - Masters her skis - we took some adorable pictures, and we were off.

It was terrible.

JennaLee cruised a third to a half of the bunny hill at a time while Beth and I struggled to go more than five feet without falling. It hurt. It was frustrating. After three choppy trips down the hill, I was ready to give up. Or at least switch to skis. Which I did.

Masters and I took a couple green runs that went swimmingly. That is, until they told us that it was last run of the day and we had to go back even though we were ready for bigger and better hills now that I had my footing. We found Beth and JennaLee making their way slowly down a green run themselves. I offered to take pictures now that I was confident I wouldn't bite it with the camera. My favorite part of the day came when I was zoomed in on Beth as she careened down the hill and I said to her approaching image on the digital camera, "Beth, are you going to run into me?" I looked past the camera to find that, she, indeed, was going to run into me. Slame into me, more like it. We were a pile of skis and boards and giggles. It was lovely.

We went back to the Inn to get some dinner before night skiing. We had some drinks and met the neighbors we didn't know. Then, it was time to head back out.

Masters and I were both braving snowboards now. The next trip down the bunny hill was also a big fail. But then... I got it. I went all the way down without falling. I waited at the bottom for Masters, but she couldn't get up. We later found out this was because she fractured her wrist. Ouch.

Coincidentally, Beth and JennaLee were getting ready to ride up a lift next to us, so I joined them. We struggled down the long hill but halfway, I got it again, and I went the rest of the way. I waited for them at the bottom. And waited. And waited and waited. And gave up and went back up the lift. I fell getting off the lift and then made it all the way to the last part of the hill where I saw them walking their boards. I fell once, cursing, and then made it all the way to them and even stopped.

They, however, were done. Sore and tired.

So I went one more run, trying my best not to fall. (I don't count the fall of the lift. That's really hard to do!) The rest of the run went spectacularly. There was a moment when I went toe side and momentarily panicked because I don't really know how to do that yet, but I was determined to accomplish my first list item and turned myself around. I cruised to the bottom and even stopped.

Mission accomplished.

I loved snowboarding and I'm very excited to go again. The night that followed was also pretty epic and I'll be prepared to be in 387 again next year!