Bucket List (by Mary)

My sister forwarded me this "Bucket List"- basically, things to do before you die. Rob and I coicidentally recently watched the tear-jerker movie with his parents (it was supposed to be a comedy).

BUCKET LIST
Place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not, and send it to your friends. This is for your entire life!

(X) Gone on a blind date- this is how Rob and I met!
(X) Skipped school- senior ditch day and many, too many times, during college
( ) Watched someone die
(X) Been to Canada- with Kate K to gamble our sophomore year in college
(X) Been to Mexico- Cancun for our honeymoon
(X) Been to Florida
( ) Been to Europe
( ) Been to South America
( ) Been to Central America
( ) Been to Asia
(X) Been on a plane
(X) Been on a Cruise
( ) Visited All 50 States- Definitely would love to accomplish this!(X) Been lost
(X) Been on the opposite side of the country
(X) Gone to Washington, DC- for the 8th grade trip and for a work conference in 2005
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
( ) Played cops and robbers
( ) Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sang Karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only- paid for beer with coins only, anyway (remember, Dot?)
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
( ) Made prank phone calls
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose.
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) Danced in the rain- Amanda, do you remember when we ran back to Ryan's apartment after being at a bar in downtown Champaign? Good times.
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
( ) Watched the sunrise with someone- hopefully I can check this off in New Zealand!
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Been skinny dipping outdoors- Houseboat!
(X) Gone to the movies

The Inside Scoop on the Illinois Marathon (by Mary)

In between watching Rob play Zelda (which is, admittingly, quite interesting) and reading up on New Zealand activities, I have continued my work on the Illinois Marathon Organizing Committee. It is just 3 months away now! I am so excited that many of our friends and family are going to partake in this event! If you have not registered yet, you should soon. As extra motivation, here is an image of the finisher shirt (for half and full marathoners). It is made of the "tech" material, and I am told that it looks great with jeans.
As of yesterday, over 2,500 runners have registered for the races, and they don't even know about the tech shirt yet! We have over 100 volunteers, but we still needs hundreds more. If you want to volunteer instead of run, let me know! I was on air on the four Illini Radio Group radio stations this morning. Because I had morning voice on WIXY, here's a clip of my interview on Mix 94.5 (press the play triangle on the left).


The course has been Boston certified, and a map of it is available on the marathon website.

I'm afraid our guest bedrooms are all booked for the weekend, but we do still have some comfy couches.

When I'm Not Playing Zelda (by Rob)

- We've bought tickets to visit Steph & Lance in New Zealand! We're going for two and a half weeks starting Feb 20. We have two travel books; I'm reading one, Mary the other. We're going to compare "Gotta Do" lists and whittle it down from there. Steph and Lance have some great ideas for us too.

- I've challenged myself to 100 push ups a day for 30 days - I started Jan 5th. I have all day to get all 100 done. I was so sore on the second day that I had to do push ups on my knees. I've bounced back, though. Today, I did all 100 in the span of an hour. It has gotten easier... How many are you going to do?

- For Valentine's Day, Mary and I will be participating in a half-marathon (13.1 miles) in Southern Illinois. It's on a trail in http://www.fws.gov/midwest/CrabOrchard/. We'll be staying the weekend with Ryan & Amanda in their new house!

- We're addicted to NCIS. It's a cop show that has some intrigue, some crazy impossible forensics, and some humor. New episodes are on CBS. There are 3 back-to-back episodes weekdays on USA.