Things I want to do before I die, in no particular order.

1. Dive the Great Barrier Reef

2. See a penguin at the south pole

3. Drive an Indy car

5. Take the last train to Clarksville

6. Get my picture taken on the Abbey Road crosswalk

8. Be a New York Giants season ticket holder

9. Play with a monkey in it's natural environment

10. Design an award-winning piece of jewelry

13. Whitewater kayak

14. Do an eskimo roll in a kayak

15. See a space shuttle launch in person

16. Walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge

17. Dive with great white sharks

18. Catch a sailfish

19. Eat a Hodad's Bacon Double Cheeseburger

20. Swing on a trapeze

21. Summit Mount Kilimanjaro

22. Summit Mount Fuji

23. Walk the Bay to Breakers race

23. Go to Mardi Gras

24. Find 100 Geocaches

THINGS I CAN CHECK OFF THE LIST:

11. Dive a wreck

12. Do a night dive

4. See Brett Favre play at Lambeau Field

7. Skydive

Ouch, my kidney.

I had my lithotripsy last week.

I have been laying on the couch, pulled out as a bed, almost every day since then. I just started getting up and around Friday night, but I'm still not feeling 100% better.

The shock waves that blasted apart the kidney stone also tore a small section of the skin on my back open. Pleasant.

I have been peeing sand all week, also. It really looks like sand. I know it looks like sand because I have had the delightful job of "collecting" it all week. Like stamps, or coins. Only, instead, shards of kidney stone. Joe keeps asking me what beach I went to to get the pretty sand. Joe is lucky I couldn't really get up to hit him all week.

I think i am going to take one more day off from work and then try to head back. I think all of the upper body movement I do at work and all of the walking around I do might be a little difficult. We shall see.

Even considering all of the pain and soreness I've had all week, I think the surgery was TOTALLY worth it. I am really really excited that this stone is finally out of my system, over a year after we "discovered" it was there. It means I will be able to fully enjoy the summer and all of the outdoor activities that come along with it. :)

Yay!

Strolling of the Heifers

That's right, I said HEIFERS! Woo hoo!

On Saturday, June 2, Brattleboro, VT hosted their sixth annual Strolling of the Heifers Parade. It's actually a three day festival, but I only went to watch the parade. According to strollingoftheheifers.com, the parade and festival have been named one of the Green Mountain State’s Top Ten Summer Events for five years in a row by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce!

It was a blast! There were about 30,000 people in attendance, and every one of them was hootin' and hollerin' for all of the critters on parade! And people really get into it...



Miss Annie and I were "udderly smooth"! (The cow puns abounded all day...)



Even Officer Penny got into the spirit.



The Dairy Fairy warmed up the crowd before the parade rolled by.



Does this logo seem familiar???



Each cow was bedecked with a flower necklace and a name plate!



Some of the cows needed a little...encouragement...to get going.



Some of the names seemed a tad ominous...



But all of the cows were so cute!



And some were quite vocal.



The cows were leaving "gifts" in the street, but not to fear! Wonder Woman's here! I guess even super heroes like cows.



Where there are cows, there are tractors.



And more tractors.



Wait a second... That tractor is run on manpower!



Cows weren't the only critters at the parade!





And of course, party animals! You can take the boy out of the city...



By the end of the day we were all tuckered out.



I can't wait to go again next year. MOO!

Tucked in makes it worse.

Boxers again today.

Same boxers as yesterday.

Only today, his plain white t-shirt was tucked INTO his boxers.

This is much, MUCH worse.

He seriously looked like he was about to crawl into bed.

Monday I will wear boxers to work to make a joke of him; also to see if I get in trouble, since I am one of the few people in my department who ever gets into trouble over stupid stuff like that.