No. 4: Make Banana Flambe, Complete with Flame

I’m not quite sure why I wanted to make bananas foster before I turned 30.  Perhaps because I’ve never intentionally set anything on fire? (I’m a juvenile public defender.  I have far too many clients who do that anyway.)  So here it turns up as number four on my 30 Before 30 list.

Now, the problem with this task is that I’m actually a pretty horrible cook.  So, as usual, I teamed with Mama Judd for this task.  (And by “teamed” I mean “took pictures of her while she did it.”)

We used this recipe, which is from the restaurant that claims to have created the dish in 1951.  It was delicious!

No. 11: Perform Thriller at a Halloween party.

I love to dance. I can’t get enough of it.  So two and half years ago when I thought about 30 fun things I wanted to do before around my 30th birthday, I knew that doing Thriller at Halloween time was one of the list.  It became No. 11 on my 30 Before 30 List.

Some fun gals from work invited me to Witches Night Out this Halloween at Gardner’s Village.  Little did I know the DJ’s big finale was one big Thriller party!

It was super dark that night but if you click here you will see 11 seconds of me living the dream!

No. 6: Hike to Timpanogos Cave

Number 6 on my 30 Before 30 list was to hike to Timpanogos Cave.  I did! I couldn’t walk for two days, but I did.

No. 28: Can Something

Given the number of tomatoes Doug grows in his yard, one of my 30 Before 30 items was to can some of them. Since I don’t usually just eat tomatoes, I really hoped I could can some in a spaghetti sauce or salsa.  Lucky for me, my sister-in-law had a spaghetti sauce recipe and a lot of motivation.  It was my first time canning anything (and let’s be honest I just did as I was told) so I really don’t know what we did or why.  So here is my pictorial story of canning:

Who wants spaghetti?

No. 29: Watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s

I haven’t seen a lot of movies that people call “classics”.  Goonies?  Nope.  Top Gun? I’ll get around to it.  And, yes, I’ve never watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  (In fact, I’ve never seen any of Audrey Hepburn’s movies.)  Pop culture insists that this is one of the American classics, so I added it to my 30 Before 30 list.

I was entertained and Doug even seemed to enjoy himself.  Best movie I’ve ever watched? No.  Decent Friday night? Absolutely.

No. 13: Get a 401K or other “grown up” financial plan in place.

It’s not as exciting as some of the items on my 30 Before 30 list, but it is something I needed to accomplish.  My 401k is established.  Even as we I speak it is sitting out there somewhere in cyberspace until I figure out what to do with it.  (To its credit, Charles Scwab emails me  daily trying to get me to make it more money.)  Anyone have some good resources on where to go next?

No. 16: Win a Trial

I am proud to report that I have finally crossed number 16 off my 30 Before 30 list: I finally won a darn trial.  (In full disclosure, I had very competent co-counsel who deserves most of the credit.)  I will never forget the look on my 12 year old client’s father’s face when he hugged me, tears streaming down his face.  I hope this is the start of a long line of satisfying verdicts.

#30: Buy a Lottery Ticket

I’ve been to many states with a lottery but never bought a ticket.  And then it occurred to me – what if I was supposed to be one of those people who made million of dollars by doing nothing at all? What if I was destined to win the lottery?

So one of the things I decided to add to my 30 Before 30 list was to buy a lottery ticket.  I bought it in Colorado this month.

Unfortunately I didn’t make a dime.  But at least now I know I wasn’t destined to win!

No. 25: Sew Something with a Sewing Machine

My 25th goal on my 30 Before 30 list was to sew something with a sewing machine.  To help me accomplish this goal, one that I had failed in the past, I enrolled in an online sewing course via Whipstitch Fabrics, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia.  Deborah, our instructor, teaches us via video or photo tutorials a skill or a project every day for six weeks.  We’re on the fourth week so far and I’ve sewn a handful of projects – even if some of them did not turn out exactly perfect.

One of our first projects was a lined tote bag.  I sewed two (!!!) because I was so proud of myself.  My first was a University of Utah print (go Utes!) that looks just fine from one side.

However, if you look at the other side you’ll see that I sewed the print upside down.  Ooopsie!  Lesson learned.

I made a second tote bag to practice again.  Everything looks just fine, eh?

Not so fast! Take a gander at those straps – one is at least twice the width of the other.  This will still take some practice to remedy.

Our most recent project was designed to help us learn to sew curves.  It is an eye mask that was supposed to turn out like this:

Image courtesy of Whipstitch Fabrics.

I’m not so good at sewing curves, as you can see below.  My eye mask blends right into the straps.  Nuts.

This one I’m going to practice again tonight.

We also made a drawstring tote bag.  Mine turned out pretty good, except that I miscalculated the measurements a bit so the base of the bag is far too small for the length of fabric above it.

We’ll see if I can keep up with the last two weeks because each week is increasingly challenging.  I have skipped one project entirely – it required us to create our own continuous bias tape and use it in a project.  I tried to make bias tape twice to no avail and I even bought some bias tape just to get through the project.  Unfortunately, the tape I bought was too narrow for the project so I just skipped the whole thing.

Raise your hand if you despise bias tape!

Update: I’ve also finished an apron!

No. 19: Enjoy an Expensive Bottle of Wine

Do you believe in The Secret? It’s the idea that if you tell the universe what you want the universe will deliver it to you.

It didn’t interest me.  I heard about it but I didn’t read the book and I didn’t see the movie.

Although I hadn’t intentionally put The Secret to use, I did publish a 30 Before 30 list for the entire world wide web to see.  I suppose that must have been enough because a few months later the universe put an expensive bottle of wine in my hands so that I can check off Number 19: Enjoy an Expensive Bottle of Wine.

A friend gave Doug and I a 2006 bottle of Tignanello Antinori  without knowing that I had a 30 Before 30 list that includes the drinking of a fine wine.

(Why, yes. I did wrap the wine in a plush red blanket for this photo shoot.)

The Tignanello didn’t disappoint.  It went down much more smoothly than most red wines I’ve tasted and didn’t have a bite. Fewer tannens, perhaps?

Me, Doug, and Mama Judd preparing for our first sip.

We did the things they teach you to do at wine courses – the useless sniffing and swirling.  We also tested its fingers, which are shown below.  Although I haven’t seen too many vino fingers, these seemed impressive enough for our amateur criticism.

It was an excellent wine that I wish I could sip more often.  I drank it as slowly as possible and when it ended I didn’t want to brush my teeth.  Sigh.  At least now I’ve done what I needed to do to see what all the fuss is about.  Although it was easily better than all of the wines I’ve had in the United States, I’m more than happy to stick with my $12 bottle so long as I’m paying.

Have you ever had an expensive glass of wine?  If so, do you think they are worth the price?

As a side note, do you think The Secret really works?