Do you listen to the Joy the Baker podcast? I was never much of a podcast person, but then I discovered that they are perfect for running. Now I listen to Joy the Baker and Tracy Shutterbean (two of my favorite bloggers) talk about important unimportant things while I jog around Lake Merritt. A few weeks ago (or longer, really, I’m not quite caught up), they talked about summer bucket lists.

I’ve never really thought about lifetime bucket lists, because, geez, I am only 32. But I can totally get behind the idea of a summer bucket list. And while I’m a bit late with this homework, here’s mine.

1. Go to the County Fair. I love the fair. I especially love looking at all the winning preserves, and winning pies, and winning quilts, and winning pigs. Ok, the pigs scare me a little, but it is still a blast. I’m going this year, and I’m going to eat some terrible food while I’m there.

2. Bake my first layer cake. People often tell me that I should never bake my own birthday cake, but I totally disagree. Usually I make pie, or something simple, like a bundt cake. But this year I’m not wimping out. I’m making a big, frosted wonder of a celebration cake. I better get on that, since my birthday is this weekend.

3. Go camping at the Russian River. Our first camping adventure was so much fun, we are already planning to do it again. This time we want to go to the Russian River, where it will be warm and sunny and we can float around in the river like the lazy vacationers we are.

4. Grill. A lot. I think we’re already going strong on this one. We grilled shrimp last night. We’re going to a barbecue on Wednesday and bringing some of the sausages we got at Olivier’s. I have been dreaming about grilling up some apricots. I want our grill to get a serious workout this summer.

5. Get in the pool. Ok, we don’t have a pool, so this one is going to pose a real challenge. But I loooove swimming pools, and I want to spend as much time as I can next to and in them this summer. And I don’t mean the kind you swim laps in. I mean the kind you float around on a raft in, perhaps with a frosty beverage in hand. I want chlorine hair and a tan. Do you have a pool? Do you know where I can find one?

6. Meet my new niece! My brother and sister-in-law are having their second daughter at the end of the summer, and I can’t wait to meet her! I’m already blocking out vacation time to get myself down to San Diego when she arrives. This will also give me the bonus opportunity of giving my first niece many cuddles.

7. Drink white wine spritzers. It’s a thing. Don’t hate.

8. Discover our house salmon burger recipe. We’ve been experimenting, and by the end of August, we’ll have our favorite version of this super easy dinner down. Will it be teriyaki and ginger? Curry and lemongrass? Tomato and basil? What excellent ideas do you have for salmon burgers?

And what’s on your summer bucket list?