My Bucket List...

Several of my blogging friends have recently posted their “Bucket List,” which is essentially a list of things you’d like to do before you die.  I’ve never written mine down, and it changes sometimes…here’s what it is today:

1. Go to Tuscany, Italy.  See the art/architecture, drink the wine, and eat the food!

Tuscan Countryside...

2. See the following musicians live: Elton John, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Simon and Garfunkel.  I finally got to see Neil Young in concert last year – it was amazing!

JT...Still Sexy at 62...

3. Finish my collection of “Lucile” books by Owen Meredith (Lord Bulwer Lytton).  Between 1860 and 1938, it came out in some 2000 different bindings – I have about 45.

This one's nice...I don't have it...yet...

4. Work in the bookstore full-time without having to have a “real job” to eat.

Our fireplace at the bookstore...

5. Buy the house we live in and fill it with books and antiques (after the kids are gone, of course!).

"Our" House...

6. Write a book and have it published, probably something historical.  I edited a book for a friend a few years ago – I didn’t get the see the final proof, and they spelled my last name wrong in the front of the book (Matherson instead of “Matheson”)!

7. Take a summer off and do nothing but read, write, cook, garden, and listen to music.

Relaxing last fall in Grand Manan...

8. Visit Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the only two provinces I haven’t been to yet.

A canola field out west...

9. Learn to make edible piecrust.

My piecrust never looks like this...

10. Go to Germany and see where my ancestors came from (I’m about 3/4 German and the rest is English).  Dad’s family came to the States in the 1750’s, and Mom’s German ancestors came about a century later.  Here are my German family names: Shoots (originally Schutz, we think), Braun, Schmidt, and Auer.

My Mamma, Marie (Auer) Taylor...