From the ground, it looked so cool to see people rappelling face first from the 17th floor. Looking at the ground from the 17th floor; not so cool. But I didn’t want to be ‘that person’ who didn’t go so I did it. It was absolutely out of my comfort zone! 2 days ago

This one is a direct result of the last thing I’ve never done – but it made me :-D

The rental agency that provided me a car to use while my car is worked on gave me a Dodge Charger :-D I’ve never driven one before and I must say I’m enjoying the experience! They really don’t need to rush the repairs…LOL. The picture I’ve added is exactly what it looks like – black and everything! :-D 1 month ago

I really could have gone a long time quite happily without doing this: deal with insurance companies on a claim. I was in an accident this afternoon, after having a medical test performed. Quite the day, all in all. I’m fine, the other person is fine…the two cars? Not so much. Sigh. And now the rounds and rounds of phone calls begin…

EDIT: Added a picture. You can’t tell from this one, but she managed to damage both side doors. Sigh. 1 month ago

Hiked down to Indiana’s largest waterfall and went behind the waterfall!! SO COOL. First time being behind a waterfall. 1 month ago

I made a small journal from a bright yellow paper and four sheets of plain paper. It has a hand-sewn center seam for the spine. I figure either my son will enjoy it or I can use it for coloring or a story or something similar. 1 month ago

Going to Paris with wife. 2 months ago

This happened a couple of months ago, and I forgot to write about it! I’m not really much of a wine drinker, I’ve never disliked it but never found myself developing a liking to it. I’m not a big drinker in general, and have only tried in the last year to acquire the taste for it since my boyfriend’s family are all big wine drinkers and have wine with almost every meal.

My boyfriend’s brother is getting married this year, and his fiancee and him are trying to pick their red and white wines to serve at their wedding. So we all got together with a bunch of their close friends and his fiance’s family to taste-test 5 different white and 5 different red wines. They wrapped the bottles in plastic bags so we couldn’t see which wines were which, and took turns rating each one, cleansing our palette in-between, starting with the red wines and then having a second tasting to see which order we wanted to put our individual votes in.

Then we broke for dinner…. ohhhh, dinner! How freakin YUMMY!! Two of the brother’s fiance’s best friends had just come back from Thailand from a 2 month long vacation there, and they had taken a bunch of cooking classes in Thailand in order to learn how to make authentic dishes. They came back and had decided to prepare the night before with a bunch of dishes and also made a few others while they were busy in the kitchen at the house during the day. There were so many kinds of dishes, probably about 8 or 10 different dishes, and they were all SO good!! Mmmm… :)

After dinner and dessert, we went back to wine tasting but tested out the whites instead, doing a second tasting to re-order our choices. Thankfully, both of the top red and white wines were highly rated by all and ended up being the same brand for both of them.

We ended the night with some more snacky desserts and played the singing & dancing Michael Jackson game on the Playstation 3 Move… hahaha. It was great to see everyone dancing around, even the more timid members of the group! The night ended up being a GREAT night, so much fun!!

While I may still not classify myself as being a wine drinker, I’m slowly opening up more to the taste of it… I think for now, I prefer white wines however I don’t mind having red once in awhile either. I’ll still often opt for just water instead of wines for meals though ;) I’m not there just yet!! haha :) 2 months ago

I went this past Sunday with T and his family up to the ski hill. I’ve never snowboarded nor downhill skied before, so it was definitely a new experience.

It was really fun, a little frustrating at times but for the most part I was able to giggle through it and recognize the silliness behind mistakes :) Plus, I had great company and a great instructor (T, my boyfriend), who made all the tumbles and falls even more tolerable. Thankfully I was able to borrow all of my equipment, and I just had to pay for my ski lift pass (which was also 50% off that day! It only ended up costing $16 for my whole trip there – definitely affordable!!). We went up and down the bunny hill a few times at first just to learn the very basics and to get used to the feeling of the board and my balance on it. It was pretty funny though – the bunny hill had a treadmill track that you could get on with your board or skis and it would take you up the hill… haha I definitely fell onto it when I lost my balance. I laughed pretty hard, as I was on my back and I couldn’t really grab onto the railing at the sides since that was stationary and the track was still moving. Pretty funny, a little embarrassing, but I took it all in great stride I think lol. I think I actually did pretty well for my first time! After the bunny hill, we ended up going up the ski lift and I tried out a green hill for the first time – it was a decent sized hill length-wise, but it took me the rest of the night to get down it with T. The majority of my falls were on purpose because I was afraid of going too fast and not having faith that I would know how to keep control. That being said, definitely quite a lot of bumps and bangs on the way down ;)

Holy geez though >..< lol, but I’m pretty sure that’s because of how much I wind-milled with my arms for balance and also because of the amount that I fell and had to both brace myself and then lift myself back up.

The hardest part of the whole thing for me is getting back up. Falling isn’t even the worst part, it’s really not that bad. But it takes so much energy each time you try to get up – since your feet are in the board you can’t just easily get up normally. I’d flip over sometimes so I could get up from my knees, which was a lot easier, but often I would fall back onto my back again… which would result in me either flipping back over a second time, or attempting to get up the harder way. Definitely exhausting, the only thing I really didn’t like about it. But thankfully, I liked everything else – and the falling, like I said, was acceptable. So… if I get better at snowboarding, then I’ll probably fall less… and that means I’ll have to get up less too ^. It’s a WIN-WIN! Haha :)

Lots of fun, I’m glad I tried it… I love trying new things!! I’ve found that it’s one of the major links to maintaining my overall happiness.. even from the smallest thing of trying a new food, or to a big thing like snowboarding… I love feeling adventurous and expanding my life! :) 3 months ago

This isn’t a big deal for some, but it was for me – I drove myself to the beach on Saturday and spent some time walking on the beach and boardwalk alone. It is a big deal because I tend to fear being too far from home alone – or at least in that wide open a space. I don’t know why – I’ve had bad things happen to be, but NEVER in a wide open space. I have no idea why it has bothered me so much.

At any rate, I faced a fear, and did something on my own – and had a beautiful (if cold) time! 3 months ago

Go skiing with my son without the ladies in the family. 3 months ago

I tried a mixed tandoori grill at a local Indian restaurant tonight. It had lamb, shrimp, salmon, and beef and it was fantastic. 3 months ago

Ate alligator at Buffalo Jack’s in Covington Ohio. It was pretty good! 4 months ago

So this isn’t anything super exciting, but I’ve never done it before. I made a pint of ice cream last 3 days :) 4 months ago

For New Year’s Eve, a friend and I planned and prepared a 7-course meal that started at 6:30 and went until after midnight. It was a lot of fun – I’ve gotten to be a much more confident cook since we moved into a house with a fabulous open kitchen. We planned very small courses and prepped them so the courses would go smoothly. Everything went well and everyone had a nice time. It was fun to treat our partners and friends and it was nice to get out the good linens and crystal stemware.

Figs with Gorgonzola and Walnuts | Acorn Squash Puree | Grillled Ceasar Salad | Seared Tuna with Wasabi and Basmati Rice | Bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon | Nutroll | Cheeses 4 months ago

I submitted my daughter’s picture for a calendar for “Faces of LGS” – and they accepted her! She’s going to appear for the month of May :-D 4 months ago

So I’ve been eying this craft on Pinterest for months now and finally got around to it. I put my own spin on it, but got the general idea from Pinterest. In case you can’t tell, that’s music sheet scrapbook paper underneath. 5 months ago

I was too lazy to go buy sugar cubes, but I have the whole rest of the bottle to get it right. 5 months ago

Yesterday, my guy and I took my nephew and a friend of his to New York for the day. Friend of nephew is from another country so my sister and mother want him to see some of the USA. My guy and I were elected to show them NYC, so we took them for the day. The weather was crappy but we saw a lot – Central Park, Fifth Ave, Rockafeller Plaza and the tree, NYC Public Library, Grand Central Station, Empire State building, NYC pizzaria. I was very nervous that we would lose them but we all got back safe and sound. Phew! 5 months ago

I saw someone else’s similar goal and thought it would be nice if I could keep it in the back of my mind. I’m adventurous and think it would be good to be aware when I do things I’ve never done before. So, I’ll start my list off BIG! 5 months ago

So I have to admit…these weren’t really high platform shoes, but there still is a platform here!! I’m not a heel person, but somehow I managed to wear 4 inch heels for about 4-5 hrs. No comment on how my feet felt afterward ;) 5 months ago

I removed my cat’s eye boogers. Subtle magic. 5 months ago

Well, had catfish last night for dinner, and I really didn’t like it. BUT, that being said, it was a store-bought kind that had seasoning on it already… so I’m thinking it was pretty possible that it was the seasoning that I didn’t like, but it was hard to tell.

I haven’t completely crossed it off my edible list, I’ll want to try it again sometime either without any seasoning, or at least seasoning that I choose to put on. 5 months ago

I went to a tea festival that was being hosted in my city, with my friend J. Ohhh myyyy godddd, it was so good! LOTS of teas to sample!! I bought a good number of teas from there, and was happy to learn about a lot of tea places in my city that I didn’t know existed!! There were presentations in the back as well, at one point I stopped and watched a traditional Japanese tea ceremony that they were showing. I had a really great time, and really enjoyed myself. I can’t wait until next year!!

My only complaints were that it was pretty strong smelling in there, and by the third last table me and J were getting a headache and just kind of wanted to finish the last 3 tables for the sake of finishing up. But the pros definitely outweighed the cons for me, I LOVE tea!! :D 5 months ago

This experience was pretty cool, actually! I went with T’s family, as they go every year since its a tradition they’ve been doing since the boys were young.

We went to a Christmas tree farm, where there were SO many trees! We actually picked ours pretty quickly and were really happy with our choice. T’s brother took it and was dragging it down the road while all of us followed. There were horse-drawn sleighs that people could jump on for free, so me and T ran and hopped on while it was moving… it was a pretty fun ride, even if it was short. Then we went down to get the dead pine needles shaken off on this funny looking machine – it shook the tree really hard for a bit, and it was pretty funny looking… looked like the tree was dancing, haha :) They then netted it and we took it to the car to tie it up to the roof.

Before we left, we stopped by and got some free hot chocolate and cookies that the farm was offering, and sat by a campfire for a bit to warm up and enjoy the sights and smells.

It’s not that I was expecting to not enjoy this experience, but I think I was surprised by how much I did! Lots of good fun for the family. :) 5 months ago

Today I went on quite a long adventure, starting with buying lights and pearl garland and ending with the purchase of my very first Christmas tree. I decided, what the heck, go big or go home and bough a real one. Now my whole apartment smells like a pine forest :) Delicious. 5 months ago

I think I finally got the hang of it. 5 months ago

This new (to me) bike has a bell. When I came upon a nitwit walking in the bike path, all I had to do was ring the bell & my path was magically cleared. No more old yeller, which I love, because I hate yelling. Amazing what a little tinkly bell can do. 5 months ago