#96: Go to a wine tasting.

The first thing to check off my list... go to a wine tasting. Last Friday, while in California, Farrah and Brian took me to "A Taste of Monterey," a local wine bar that has wine tastings daily. Farrah and Brian are members of the wine club, so they are able to go each week and taste six local wines, that vary week to week. They were delicious! Of course, I definitely favored the white wines, but I enjoyed a couple of the reds, too. One of my favorites was the Ventana Riesling-- cool and crisp, so yummy.

I have pictures of my "official tasting" that I will put up when I get back to Omaha. I'm just happy to only have 100 items left to go... AND, I will get to check off #78: Shop at a farmer's market, later on today.

O! What a Duck Race!

This past Saturday, the 1st Annual Omaha Food Bank "O! What a Duck Race!" took place at Heartland of America Park and it was such a success! When I first volunteered to help out at the Food Bank I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Jewell, my boss, stuck me right in with everyone and for the three weeks prior to the duck race I was doing everything from selling duck adoptions to writing thank you notes to creating the duck olympics (medals and all).

24,500 rubber ducks were sold, raising over $100,000 for the Food Bank! The day was a blast and everyone in attendance had a fabulous FREE family day... I can't say enough good things about the Food Bank OR the duck race!

I'm leaving for California for a few days this afternoon because Jason is in Japan for a few days... I am so excited to see Farrah and Brian, and Kristen and Scott, too! They're old friends from the working days at Cottage Chic and I am excited to visit them in Monterey.
I just wanted to get some pics up for the duck race before leaving. Enjoy!

Wondeful (busy) weekend.

This weekend could not have been much better! It was jam packed full of excitement and fun times with Jason and other friends that I have met this summer.

Friday:
Jason and I went golfing and I played nine holes for my first time. I shot a -hold your breath- 75. Yes, for nine holes. However, I didn't cheat at all. I had NO mulligans, well, maybe one, and I counted all of my strokes. I even counted the ones when I swung and totally missed the ball. Jason was an amazing teacher and he was so patient, even when I was so bad.

After we played we went to Dick's sporting goods to see if they had any golf gloves on sale and they did. They also had their golf bags on sale, so I got an amazing pink golf bag and Jason bought head covers for me.

Oh, and I found a great deal on Craig's List earlier in the week and bought barely used clubs for 100 bucks. I LOVE THEM:) The bad was really ugly. So ugly that it was really a necessity to buy a new one. It smelled really bad too.

After golfing we cooked a very yummy dinner (shrimp alfredo) and every time I cook these days, I enjoy it more and more. I am looking forward to a cooking class that I'm going to take to mark off my 101 list.

We ended the night playing tennis at the gym on base. It was super hot in the gym and Jason definitely kicked my butt. I thought I played pretty decently. I lost 5-1, but we had a good time. It makes me excited to get back and play with Betsy on the SoPines courts:)

Saturday:
I am not someone to enjoy shooting a gun; however, I will say that there is a big feeling of empowerment and accomplishment after shooting a gun. Bob (Jason's roommate) took us to a gun range and it was awesome. We were shooting a 40 (I think that would be caliber) and it had a little kick back each time the trigger was pulled. It was incredible just to think that as I was standing there, pointing this gun at a target, I realized that I was basically holding the power of death in my hand. WOW. I didn't grow up around guns and every time I see one I think about seeing a gun for the first time...

Lindsay W. and I were at her family's beach home at Sunset beach. We were in 4th grade. Lew had to get something out of her parent's room before bed and when we walked into their bedroom, I saw her dad's pistol on the nightstand. I seriously thought he was going to kill someone, just because of the gun that he owned. Lew still picks on me to this day...
I am not sure what I believe on the gun control laws and all of that mess, but no matter what, I felt like a really big deal when I was hitting that target.

After we went to the range, we went flying. Bob recently got his private pilot's license and Jason is working on his. I had never flown in a plane that small, but it was beautiful flying over Nebraska on a sunny Saturday. We flew over some of Iowa and saw some of the flooding, too.

The plane
tight squeeze




We had plans to go to the Riverfest on Saturday evening, where the Nebraska state bbq championship is held. When we went down there, it was not what we expected. I think Jason, Brynn and I were all expecting something like the Springfest atmosphere but there were only about 12 total tents/vendors. They had given the awards, but the food wasn't being sold. I was definitely disappointed.


We went to the casino on Saturday night and won $80, so it was definitely a fantastic ending to a great day.


Sunday:
Both of my roommates are engaged and that is the ONLY reason that I would do what I will next talk about... we went to the Omaha Bridal Showcase. It was like 2,000 bridezilla's all in one area unconsciously spending tons of money on all sorts of crap. Yes, there was some really cute stuff there, but-HOLY COW, money was being thrown all over the place to these crazy vendors. It was great to hang out with Brynn and Brooke though. Brooke also brought Megan, another engaged friend... the best part, they had a photo booth that Brynn and I took silly photos in:) Always makes me smile!


The girls (Megan, Brooke, me and Brynn).

Adopt-A-Duck

For all of the curious minds... here are pictures of a day at work. Now, of course, not all of the days are as exciting as these; but everyday, somewhere around Omaha, this 12' duck is being blown up. There is a "Quacky" the mascot walking around luring people into adopt a duck and the lovely citizens of Nebraska are donating their money to help feed the homeless through the Omaha Food Bank.

On this day, we worked at Panera to take up duck adoption papers...

My 101

Back in December, after completing the Reindeer Run 5k, I was hanging out with Jenn K. and she was telling me about her 101 list and her blog. She was really the one who spurred me to start a blog and she definitely gave me the idea to do my 101 list. So Jenn, thanks for your inspiration and thanks for letting me steal some of your ideas;)

The purpose of my 101 list is to make a list of 101 goals to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. I think that this was started by bloggers on a website and it's grown into something HUGE! There are thousands of 101 list on the internet. Today, I will add mine.

Most of the goals on my list are things that I've always wanted to complete. Some of them are definitely going to be easy to accomplish while some of them might take a little more time. I am definitely up for the challenge and I can't wait to have a big fiesta on Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

My new "job"

It's not really a job, I'm volunteering. Don't get too excited. Actually, about a week ago I decided that I was really tired of just going to the pool and doing nothing all day, so I began thinking of ways to volunteer. Of course, the first thing that pops into my head is the food bank. I did my research and emailed Joyce at the Omaha Food Bank, letting her know that I was interested in volunteering and to see if I could help out with anything. She was more than thrilled to get my email, and she asked if I could give three or four mornings or afternoons per week. I told her that I could do three mornings a week and last Tuesday was my first day on the job.

The food bank is hosting it's 1st Annual "O! What a Duck Race" that will take place on July 26th at Heartland of America Park, where ConAgra foods headquarters are located. At 1pm that afternoon, the food bank will release 20,000 rubber duckies into the lake and the first duck to cross the finish line will win a brand new car! One duck is $5 and you can buy them in "packs" from there. For example, you can buy a "6 quack" for $25 or a "Max Quack Pack" for $100. How flipping cute!?!?!

Also, each duck has a chance of winning ONE MILLION dollars... if your duck number matches the lucky number AND is the seventh duck to cross the finish line, you win!!! Yes, I realize those chances are slim, but how exciting is that chance!!!???!!! WOW!

Back to volunteering... I am doing odds and ends to make sure that things are going smoothly with the Duck Race. To go along with the duck race, the food bank is doing the "Duck Olympics" where teams of four do mini-relay races to compete for the grand prize and the Duck Trophy! One of my tasks was to create the trophy, so I really love it--- it's a big trophy with a HUGE rubber duckie on top! I'll take pictures and be sure to post soon. I helped organize some of the olympic activities and today I did quite a bit of data entry, making sure all of the adopted ducks will have numbers for our tagging party next week. Yep, that's right... we will HAND number all 20,000 ducks!

I love what I am doing and I really feel like I have been called to this organization. It's a great cause with great people to be surrounded with... if you're interested in adopting a duck (it's only five bucks), let me know!

Idiots.

The video below is a prime example of why fireworks are illegal in so many states. Obviously, they're totally LEGAL in Omaha, Nebraska. Yes, you MIGHT watch this video once and think it's really cool; however, this guy thought it was neccessary to do time after time after time. It was lame the first time, but it got old after the 10th time he blew the thing up. Another reason it's probably not the brightest idea to mix alcohol, fireworks and cars passing by...

Other than the bright people across the street from where we parked who probably wasted their entire pay check on these fireworks (I mean, seriously, they were lighting off fireworks that were big time professional fireworks!), the 4th of July fireworks over Rosenblatt stadium were great. I think if we're here next year we'll go ahead and actually go to the game so that we can sit on the field and watch them go up, but the construction site that we parked on was a great view! Not only did we see the Omaha fireworks, but we were up on a hill a bit so we were able to see fireworks across the plains... they were going off everywhere. Lucky for us, we were able to sit on top of Jason's Pathfinder and watch them all go off! They were beautiful and it was a gorgeous night.

Of course, every July 4th I always think of the "good ole' days" of mom's bbq ribs and having the Barbee's over for dinner and walking to Aberdeen lake, and then the more recent days of the 4th of July at the beach. The Tarte, cheeseburgers, Fat Harolds and fireworks on the beach... they're all good memories, but I had a great time in Omaha as well! Like I've heard my mom say a million times, "you're always making memories somewhere." I definitely love July 4th though... and I am definitely proud to be an American:)