What would I do...

with unlimited money? My new blogging pal over at Such Simple Pleasures posed this question to me. It's a meme of sorts, and I'm discovering I have a meme addiction. I can just see it in a couple years, me showing up at an MA (Meme-ers Anonymous) meeting..."Hi, my name is Jim, and I'm a meme-er..."

Anyway, the question is what 5 things would I do if I had unlimited money? So, here goes--just off the top of my head:

1. Fund the annual research efforts of the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and the American Cancer Society.
2. Underwrite the annual budget and provide new, updated facilities for every local humane society, no-kill animal shelter, and animal rescue program in the world. The only string attached would be that there'd have to be a very active spay/neuter program, as I believe a lot of the stray animal problem could be prevented by spaying/neutering...
3. Buy two brand-spankin' new airplanes--a Boeing 787 for short hops, and an Airbus A380 for longer hauls. Of course, I'd have three complete air crews on standby--one for each of the planes, and a third in reserve just in case.
4. Provide funding to allow everyone in the world to get clean water. According to a 2004 report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF, more than one billion people around the world don't have clean water which leads to unnecessary disease and death.
5. Indulge all my current hobbies (travel, photography, running, woodworking, cooking) plus those I'd like to get into (play an instrument, oil painting, and anything else I think of) with the best equipment, lessons, etc., that money can buy for each. Oh and I guess I'd have to buy a huge house somewhere out in the country to hold all the stuff (uh, I need a ruling...did I just add #6 to the list?).

Man, that was harder than I thought. When you only get 5 choices, you have to prioritize. I wonder what it'd be like to do the same list and have unlimited choices of what I could do, but a limited amount of money (something like "What would you do with $10 billion?")...

More later...