New Thing #24 Put Me In Coach

                                        Boudreaux D. Nutria 

                           Caitlin and her "catfish boat"

 
Happy Birthday Caitlin! As seen on the score board at Zephyr Field :)

It is surprising with my affection for baseball and the number of games I have attended that I have never been to an Opening Day. Well I fixed that tonight, complete with $1 beers, a catfish boat, and fireworks to end the night. It was a fabulous time and I hope we go again!

P.S. The cupcakes turned out tasty and delightful 

New Thing #23 Organic is as Organic Does

So Caitlin's birthday is tomorrow and I decided to make cupcakes. This evening again, turned out to be a "If you give a mouse a cookie..." situation. I seem to have a lot of these.

I needed to go to a grocery store close to my house. I chose Whole Foods. I enter whole foods only to realize that they have cake mix, but no frosting in a can, apparently they don't make an organic version. So I have this internal debate on the baked goods aisle about making icing from scratch, is it worth it? Should I just go to Winn-Dixie? So I decided to jump in. I purchased organic cake mix, and organic ingredients to mix in with it. I also bought organic powdered sugar, heavy cream, and butter for the icing. To make it chocolate I also purchased all natural cocoa (which was $8.99!). Then to top it off I wanted sprinkles. Sprinkles do not exist in the organic world, here they are called "party decoratifs". Who knew. Also I even used 100% natural, biodegradable cupcake liners. The name of the company was "If You Care", how patronizing and guilt causing is that?

Needless to say it was a fun experience and the icing is amazing if I do say so my self. I will let you all know what my critics say tomorrow. I am proud of myself for proving that it is is possible to make 100% organic cupcakes, vanilla with chocolate frosting, AND sprinkles (I mean decoratifs) if you put your mind to it. 

New Thing #22 April Fools Lulu Had Kittens

No really, she did! Much to my delight when I got home from work on Tuesday there were kittens!!! Not one, not two, not three...okay I will stop...but FIVE! Yes, our sweet, precious, stray Lulu that we adopted was pregnant. We were waiting and waiting and waiting for days for those kittens. I came in just after the last one was born. I was sad that I missed the births but I did get to see the whole placenta, after-birth goodness, the process of biting off the umbilical cord and all that birth experience stuff. I witnessed the afterbirth experience and held newborn kittens! This is the first time I have seen anytime of newborn animal, besides a human of course. All of the kittens are different, much to my mom's disbelief, but they are! I have been waiting for this new thing FOREVER and I'm so glad it came!

New Thing #21 A Green Thumb in a Green Room

Monday I was sequestered in my room all day studying for my Physics test. Literally, I was in my room studying all day for around 10 hours coming out for breaks and distractions. I decided that after I finished studying half of the chapters I would pot my new purple shamrock plant that Caitlin gave me for my birthday. Well this, like many things in my life, turned into what I like to call a "If you give a mouse a cookie..." situation. If you haven't read that book you should.

Anyway, the plant was on my desk. That past weekend my aunt bought me a beautiful green pot, to match my green room, and some potting soil. Which in my messy dysfunctional way kept in my bedroom. So I decided I was going to pot my plant. I was going to go outside but it was raining. Inside, okay, well I didn't have a shovel or trowel. Also I would have to drag everything out of my room so for some reason I thought it was more logical to stay put. So, I potted a plant in the middle of my bedroom. There was dirt everywhere. When I finally got the plant potted I decided to water it in my room which also created a mess. All of these said messes I cleaned up afterward but I realized just how ridiculous I can be. In trying to simply things I make them very complicated and most of the time amusing, at least to me :)

New Thing #20 November Echo Whiskey

Sunday I used one of the suggestions from another person who did this whole "new thing everyday" thing. I memorized the military alphabet! Food for thought, it is also known as the NATO alphabet and is used in all languages, in all countries to send information to sent information to the cockpit crew with fewer mistakes. I think before looking you should try to guess what all the letters stand for!

Alpha

Bravo

Charlie

Delta

Echo

Foxtrot

Golf

Hotel

India

Juliet

Kilo

Lima

Mike

November

Oscar

Papa

Quebec

Romeo

Sierra

Tango

Uniform

Victor

Whiskey

X-Ray

Yankee

Zulu

Yes I typed this without looking, and yay for the New Orleans Zulu shout out :)

New Thing #19 Telephone the New Fashioned Way

Saturday I had the privilege of using Skype for the first time. I talked to my precious friend Jenn Price all the way in Niger! Wow, technology is awesome. I was able to hear her sweet voice thanks to the built in microphone in my Mac. Now she needs to get one so we can video chat! I think that Skype might be the greatest invention yet. She is doing well and I can't wait to hear more updates. 

my dear friend that I miss

jenn in Niger

"This Day is Bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!"

That evening I also attended the History of Medicine Society banquet. This took place in some fancy schmancy room in the World Trade Center in New Orleans overlooking the Mississippi River. Very good food, and my first time having Bananas Foster. I know how can I be a true New Orleanian without having had this fabulous dessert? To this question I answer I don't know and thank goodness I have been indoctrinated. 

New Thing #18 Babies Don't Eat Cell Phones

Conversation at approximately 11:00 p.m. last Friday night, March 28

Lauren: "Oh no! I haven't done anything new today!"

Nick: "Yes you have, you fed a baby a cell phone."

Although Jonathan posted on my facebook wall "Babies don't eat cell phones. That is nonsense." my Razor, may it rest in peace, would woefully disagree. While trying to calm one screaming child, the aforementioned baby decided that my phone was a teething ring. I thought this was okay because it kept him occupied. Little did I know that at the exact moment I would need to get the parents number out to call them to console their crying child that my phone would no longer turn on. My great idea of letting the baby play with my cell phone turned into a disaster. In fact, I think you could say it was mangled. The phone was so wet that the keys made buzzing noises and the SIM card was bending because of the slobber. I tried to dry it out to no avail. I did need a new cell phone, maybe this was the motivation I needed.