Do 43 things i've never done before!

Our friend Mary Etta brought over a delicious homemade quince paste to our poker night last weekend. She sliced it and added it atop sliced Monterey Jack cheese served on a cracker. The flavor combo was delicous.

Friends hosted a Beatles Rockband party (complete with “Gouda Day Sunshine sandwiches”!) on Sunday evening. It was such a fun game with great animations and sound clips between songs. We weren’t able to play for as long as we would have liked, but we got through a lot of songs, and I made a lot of progress with my drumming, even scoring a 99% on “Get Back.” Fittingly enough, I’ve got blisters on my fingers from my mad drumming skills.

Joel McHale has been at the tops of my celebrity crush list for quite awhile now so being in the same room with him took my breath away! Our seats were pretty good, about half-way back and to the right. We weren’t close enough to make eye contact or be included in any jokes, but we were close enough to pick out all the glorious little details of his clothes, hair, etc.

I’ve seen very little stand-up comedy in my day, but I thought both Joel and his opener were great. I was laughing the entire time, especially when Joel joked about his sons who just happen to be the same ages as Audrey and Clara. The show was sold-out to a varied audience. It was Parent’s Weekend at the local college so there was quite a mix of college kids and their 50-something folks. I was hoping he’d do a signing, and I’d have the chance for a close encounter, but I was out of luck.

I have a feeling Joel McHale might be getting more and more famous now that he has a sitcom and has started working in movies so who knows, this may have been my only chance to see him do his stand-up. I’m glad I was there.

This week, Eric and I took the girls to our county’s first H1N1 clinic. We debated the decision for quite awhile, but we finally decided we’d feel safer having the girls vaccinated. The clinic was run in our sale barn and was surprisingly well-organized and efficient considering they vaccinated over 2000 people that day. We were in and out in less than an hour with very little fuss from the girls. Luckily, they’ve shown no side effects so far, and I feel much better about the decision now that it’s been made.

Audrey’s preschool marched in ISU’s Homecoming Parade this morning! It was chilly, but the sun was out, and the kids all seemed to have a great time being together and handing out candy.

I’ve always heard that Kobe beef is just out of this world so when I saw it on the menu at the Hibachi restaurant we ate at a couple of weeks ago, I had to try it. From what I’ve read, I’m guessing this was not authentic Kobe beef directly from Japan but rather Kobe-style beef raised the same way, from the same cattle they use in Japan. Either way, it was good, but not amazing.

We’ve had a Maid Rite in town for going on two years but somehow never managed to try it out until last week. We each had a traditional Maid Rite loose meat sandwich and fries. It’s not a sandwich I’ll crave on a regular basis, but it was tasty. The best part of the experience was the service. We were served by the owner, and he was such a nice guy. He went out of his way to give us a wonderful dining experience topped off with a complimentary sundae!

Last week at work I was invited to do a professional recording of some text to accompany our digital art collection! It was quite the experience. I’ve never been a fan of the way my voice sounds recorded so I was pretty nervous at first, but after a few times through it was fun. I learned a bunch of neat tricks like reading with a smile on my face to make my voice sound happier. I hope to have the opportunity to do more of these recordings in the future.

For as much as I love all things ice cream and frozen custard, I’d never managed to try Gelato until last week. We have a new authentic Italian Cafe in town which features a wide variety of homemade Gelatos. I sampled a flavor called Zuppa Inglese, but ended up going with chocolate. It was heavenly. The main difference I tasted from ice cream was how dense the Gelato was. A small dish was plenty to feel satisfied. I’ll definitely be back to try their other flavors.

A few weeks ago at work I was given the opportunity to help plan and lead a series of focus groups on the idea of shared governance. It put me out of my comfort zone at times especially the public speaking in front of my colleagues side of things, but the meetings were a success and generated a lot of great ideas.