30 things before I'm 30

Original Post
Once upon a time I stumbled upon my friend Thu's 30 things before I'm 30 post, and I've been meaning to start one of my own for awhile now.  I recently found some fantastic mentors at work who've been pushing me to set more goals and really think about what I want out of my career, and I decided it's time to do the same for my life outside of work.  Also, I totally did number 19 this morning and I wanted to get credit for it.  That's not cheating too much, is it?

It's only a few weeks after my 26th birthday, which means I've got just shy of 4 years to do a lot of baking, travelling, crafting, reading and blogging.  Oh, and getting in good enough shape to rock bright red pants again.  Wish me luck!

Updated - August 8, 2016
So, I haven't been doing great about pursuing things on this list.  As of today, I've only officially checked off 7 of my 30 things.  Some of this is because I forgot, some of it is because my life and goals have changed, and some are close but not quite there.  Today, 3.5 years after making the list and 3.5 months before I'm 30, I'm renewing my vow to accomplish 30 things before the big day.  To accomplish that, I've annotated the original list with my new goals and taken credit for 7 big things that I'm proud of but never imagined myself doing at 26.  Here's to adjusting to what life throws at you, seeing failure as a learning opportunity, and continually trying to better myself and the world around me.

1. Bake a perfect cheesecake - December 31, 2013
2. Blog about at least 30 of my Grandma's old recipes - Get all the recipes here!
3. Buy a house - August 28, 2013
4. Buy another pair of red pants and wear them in public
5. [EDITED] - Learn to tailor a pattern - Design a dress pattern - I've updated this one because I remember the original intent when I set this goal.  What I really wanted to do was to be able to adjust any pattern to fit my unique body shape, and I feel like I've done that.  With the help of some pretty awesome books, including Gertie Sews Vintage Casual, Vogue Sewing Handbook, and several other sewing guides I've checked out and returned to the library, I feel really good about my tailoring and altering skills.  Therefore, it's a win.  
6. Finish a prototype for my start-up idea 
7. [EDITED] Give a technical talk - Give a career talk at the University of Minnesota - The first week I moved back to MN I gave a joint talk at CoCo on AdSense content strategies and SEO.  During my last few months at HomeSpotter, Brent Kastner and I gave a talk at MobileMN about the value of requirements and process automation in software development.  I may not have reached out to the University of ACM and gotten on the Cool Jobs, Hot Technology speaker circuit like I initially planned, but I don't know if that program even exists anymore. I also did come back and sit on a panel of Google Engineers when I was visiting for a mentorship program.  The initial goal was to give a solo talk, but given the circumstances, I feel good about checking this one off.
8. Go see at least 12 live music performances (includes both musicals and band concerts) - Progress!
9. [EDITED] Go camping - Go to Disney!  - I still haven't been to Disney, and it's just not going to happen in the next 100 days.  That said, we did invest in a pretty sweet tent and camping set up, and we went on 5 camping weekends that all told were probably less than the price of Disney admission.  They were also the kind of relaxing vacation I needed at the time, and it's an investment in gear that we'll use again and again.  
10. Go to Europe - Completed March, 2013 with a work trip to Dublin AND Nov 2015 with a trip to Munich, Bamberg, Cologne, Brussels and Amsterdam
11. [EDITED] Go to WFTDA MRDA championships - When I wrote this goal list, my life revolved around roller derby.  After moving back to Minnesota, I reset my priorities, eventually stopped skating, and started coaching for the guys.  Not only have I been to MRDA championships twice, the team I bench managed qualified for champs last year.  I call that a success.
12. Go to Yosemite - Completed February 2013
13. [EDITED] Become a parental figure - Have a baby - Biology decided we weren't going to have a baby in this time frame, and you know, that's ok.  It gave us room in our home and our hearts to take in Carl's little sister, Indigo.  Indigo is 16 and will be living with us until she graduates high school. 
14. Knit a pair of socks
15. Knit an adult-sized sweater (sweater vests and dog clothes don’t count)
16. Learn to crochet (like, really learn)
17. Make a handmade Christmas present for everyone in my immediate family and my inlaws. (Not necessarily all in one year) - Progress! plus, not blogged about, I made a hand painted sign for my mom and dad that said "live your life, not your age."  I also made hot mitts for my mom and sister. For my sister-in-law Jenni I made a baby tote bag.  I also made dad an Icelandic wool hat last Christmas.  That leaves David, James, Sid, Todd and Carl to go.  Hmm.... I better get crafting, especially because boys are hard. Find me on ravelry.com (inspire05) to check out some of my projects.
18. Make enough of my own clothes that I can wear one piece each day for an entire week (Not counting hats, scarves, and mittens) - Completed in January 2016 when I finished my polka dot skirt.
19. Participate in a flash mob - Completed December 2012
20. [EDITED] - Enroll in a dance fitness class - Participate in community theater - This would have been super fun to do, but looking at where my time and priorities lie right now, getting fit needs to be at the top of my list.  Having an outlet to shake my bootie and shed a few pounds is definitely a higher priority for the next 3 months.
21. [EDITED] - Read 8 15 of the 100 greatest software engineering books of all time - Progress!
22. Read at least 30 of the novels from Book Riot's From 0 to Well Read List - Progress!
23. [EDITED] - Learn a new programming language - Read at least 6 of these top recommended graphic design books - Not only have I gained a solid understanding of Ruby on Rails and Angular JS, I founded startups using them.  I also experimented with Node.js.  When I wrote these goals I really thought I'd be doing a lot more design work than I am now.  Now, I just do a little bit of everything.  I'd still like to go back and read a lot of these books.  Maybe I'll create a 35 before I'm 35 list and add them there.
24. Run a 5k in under 25 minutes - Friend me on MapMyRun to see my progress
25. [EDITED] See at least 100 90 150 of the top 250 movies on IMDB - Even more Progress than I first realized!  Time to re-reset this goal.
26. See the musical Wicked
27. [EDITED] - Snowboard at Jackson Hole Tahoe - I would have met this goal as originally written if I hadn't taken an (awesome) trip to Jackson Hole with my sister and royally messed up my knee on the last run I just had to do before the sun went down.  It took a few weeks for my kneecap to go back to the right place, during which the Tahoe trip was planned and Carl went without me.  :(  
28. [EDITED] - Volunteer for a political campaign / party - Snowboard at Whistler - I'm not traveling to Canada in the next 3 months.  However, this is a pretty damn important election and I can volunteer my time in meaningful ways.  I'm the webmaster for my mother-in-law's campaign, did data entry for the DNC after the caucus,  and plan to look for other ways I can be of service in local races for this November.
29. Take a cake / cookie / cupcake decorating class - Complete 8/6/2016
30. Take a knife skills class