#1: It's not on my goals list, for the first time in a number of years, but this April I finally went for a regular checkup with a new G.P.

Now: ( Actual Goals )

Yesterday, I was a grown-up and actually went to the doctors for a regular visit for the first time in ... ummm... something like 10 years?

I now have a friendly new GP and a perscription for the generic version of Flonase, which will hopefully mean fewer headaches.

Today, I'm partying with the first day of HPHC term and going to Craft morning and celebrating the first day of Farm Market at the farm show. Later, I'll be back with a recap of April.

We had lunch at the Hershey Grill, celebrating Restaurant Week in Hershey.
We ate:
Spring Vegetable Soup: Wild Mushrooms, Ramps, Peas and Rice in a Fresh Vegetable Broth
Wild Mushroom and Ramp Frittata
Cocoa-Chili Crusted Ahi Tuna: Pico de Gallo, Avocado Cream, BBQ Onion Tamale Cake
Honey Lavender Crème Brule

It was delicious. The Tuna was amazing. The creme brule was very heavy on the lavender.

Also, I sold another teacup hat on etsy. This one went to Hawaii.

It's 1/3 of the way through the year and I have discovered some issues with the 101 goals. So, here is the edited list. Major edits: In several places there have been edits to remove the phrase "once a month". That phrase is asking for failure. Also, the Date Night section (#91-100) has been completely changed to a Hershey section. In retrospect, "Date Night" is an applause light phrase and really not necessary in my life (we've never gone on "dates" and we hang out together all the time).

Also, this list has Strikes through items that I have already completed.

( New Master List )

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Create!

4. Fill a sketchbook - added a few more drawings.
5. Carve 5 new stamps. - Carved 1 new Game stamp for mao. Carved 3 stamps for BardQuest boxes.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: HPHC
11. Make/buy Badge displaying Project Bag. - CHECK! Found one on sale at Boscovs.
12. Submit one project to HPHC each term - Over achieved again. 6 and 1/2 classes and 5 hats for quiddich.
15. Potins Owl: Compeleted!

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Owl Post
19. Owl Post! Send something to an HPHC member each term. - Check! Sent butterflies to Rav member for her wedding and finally sent library donations to Tx.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Active!
21. Take 1 million steps: Total steps to Mar 31, 2012 = 303,873.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Games!
30. Gamers Guild nights: Hosted Second Saturday!
32. Update boardgamegeek account to reflect current collection. Check! Done.
35. Letterboxing: At 172 Finds

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Learn!

37. Beer tasting! Visited Troegs on March 5 and Lancaster Brewing on the 19th. Preferred Lancaster brewing.



GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Visit it!
48. Earn Tour the Area Patch (Visit 10 PA museums/factory tours) Troegs had a brewery tour!
49. Earn Local Music Patch (Attend 5 local concerts) Attended Susq Folk Music Jam with Kith and his new drum.

57. Visit the Auto Museum in Hershey - Check! April 1st.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Clean House!

78. Replace crockpot : Check! $18 at Boscovs.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Read the Library
82. Read 1 book from each '00 in JNF: 2/10 finished.
83. Read 1 book by an author from each letter of the alphabet in JP 15/26 finished.
84. Read 9 JE books: 1/9 finished.
85. Read 9 jfic books 4/9 finished.
86. read 9 YA books- fic and Non-fiction 2/9 finished.
87. Read 1 book from each of 9 different genres of adult fiction 3/9 finished.
88. Read/Hear 9 adult non-fiction books (preference for 1 from each '00) 3/9 finished.
90. Displays at work: March is Craft Month done!

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: DATE NIGHT
92. Date night out, once a month.
93. Date night at a new restaurant, every other month: Ate lunch at Lancaster Brewing.

We packed this weekend FULL of STUFF.

Saturday was game night. Stamps were discovered. Fun was had. Mao rules were violated.

Sunday was the Susquehanna Folk Music Jam and Kith took his Bongo Cajon for the first time. And got to play a drum solo. And I sang. And joyous music was made. And really delicious Birch Beer was drunk (Frozen Run Black Bear Mountain Birch Beer, if you want to hunt it up).

Monday we letterboxed and picnicked in the morning and made new friends while making Pysanki in the evening. (A local on Ravelry mentioned that a nearby library was having a class but she couldn't go. I said that I had all the stuff and if she could find a place we could get it all together. She invited me over.) We had pizza and Flan and played with her cat. New friends are good. Excuses to break out the Pysanki stuff is good. Flan is tasty and it's always good to have a reason to make it.

I learned that it is REALLY easy to dye hardboiled eggs with koolaid. I used cool tap water and recently boiled eggs. It took less than 5 minutes. They came out a lovely shade of green and the eggs don't taste like lemon-lime. (And the whole process cost me eggs that we ate anyway and 10 cents for the dye.) Why did no one tell me of this before??

*I don't really like beer. Or rather, I don't like the flavor of hops.
*I do like the flavor of Malt.
*Kith does like the flavor of hops.
*Troegs is full of shiny vats and their bottling line can produce 160 bottles/minute!

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: HPHC

12. Submit one project to HPHC each term: over achieved this again. Submitted 6 classes, a quiddich challenge and four regular quiddich baby hats.
13. Host a Huff-Challenge: Helped host Hogsmeade weekend.
15. OWL - Potions: submitted 50% mark. Started work on final panel.


GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Owl Post
17. Cultivate the art of correspondence. Hand write 1 letter each month. (Year of letters patch)
AND
19. Owl Post! Send something to an HPHC member each term. (Owl Badge.): Wrote 4 notes to HPHC members (Valentines, Get well, Hogsmeade and Tea). Sent thank you valentine to Mom.

20. Swapbot: Complete 6 swaps: completed tea trade swap.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Active!
21. Take 1 million steps (1 Million steps badge): My pedometer died and I had been bad and not uploaded in a while so I lost most of this month's data. Only managed to record 30,924 steps this month, bringing the total to: 131,736

25. Go ice skating: We went to Twin Ponds Twice!!

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Games!
30. Gamers Guild nights: Host at least 3: First Gamers Guild night was on 2/11 with good turnout despite snow. Second planned for March.

35. Letterboxing: Reach 200 finds: LBox event added a bunch of new finds.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Puzzled.
41. Complete 12 different pencil&paper puzzles: downloaded logic puzzle game for Kindle!

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Visit it!
49. Earn Local Music Patch (Attend 5 local concerts): Susquehanna Folk Music Jam on 2/12. Kith purchased bongo cajon with intention of going to more Susq. Folk jams.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Clean House!
79. Replace BIG bookshelf for games: 2/26. And have reorganized games.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: Read the Library
82. Read 1 book from each '00 in JNF: 2/10 finished.
83. Read 1 book by an author from each letter of the alphabet in JP 12/26 finished.
85. Read 9 jfic books 3/9 finished.
86. read 9 YA books- fic and Non-fiction 2/9 finished.
87. Read 1 book from each of 9 different genres of adult fiction 2/9 finished.
88. Read/Hear 9 adult non-fiction books (preference for 1 from each '00) 3/9 finished.

GamerScout/Fireside girl patches: DATE NIGHT

92. Date night out, once a month.
100. Couple’s pedicure at Hershey Spa.
Couple's Pedicure and Lunch in the Oasis, 2/13. Also Ice Skating.

Hi everyone!

It looks like the last time I sent out an update was in September. Oops!
Life has a way of filling up all available time!

We had an eventful fall and winter. Lots of strange weather - hurricanes early on and then a freak snowstorm on Halloween, followed by an unseasonably warm winter. November held a big 11/11/11 birthday bash for the Dads. It was fun and involved lunch.
Thanksgiving week was spent with Nana, Grandpa and Mom in CT. Aside from my Uncle's hospital visit, it was a lovely time with good food and fun games and my new Kindle touch.
In December, there was a Cookie Party in New Hope and a visit to the Botanical gardens in DC. We spent a quiet Holidays with John's grandfather in Denver, PA (John's grandmother was moved to a nursing home specializing in Alzheimer's patients in early December) and had a visit from my Dad (who, after a fall filled with doctor's visits, was finally diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome - it appears to be under control for the moment but as there's no cure, we're just taking each day as it comes).
In January, we visited the Farm Show, where I entered a crochet table runner in the crafts competition. I didn't win but it was exciting to see my work on display! We also visited a friend in MD for a day of Chili, crafting and Monty Python watching.

We're barely halfway through February but already it's been an exciting month! John and I have been ice skating and hosted a game night at a local sandwich shop. For Valentine's day, we finally celebrated our Anniversary with pedicures and lunch at the Hershey Spa - it was lots of fun and very relaxing. (You can see my new toenail polish, as well as lots of other photos on John's shuttercal page: http://shuttercal.com/calendar/kithpendragon/ - there's a photo for almost every day since mid June 2011 - lots of neat pictures!)

I've been doing lots of crocheting! For those of you who missed it, I joined a knit and crochet challenge group on a website called Ravelry. The group is Hogwarts themed and we 'compete' for points by turning in finished projects. I've learned how to dye yarn with kool-aid and crochet with thread as well as finishing a bunch of neat projects. This winter, I'm working on baby hats for the local NICU and a big afghan.

I hope you all survived the winter and are doing well. Let us know what's up with you!
Lots of love from,
Laura and John

Progress: I has it.
All this, despite getting the usual cold mid-month (which created one stunning day that I had taken all of 72 steps, according to the DS pedometer). In addition, we visited the farm show twice (and one of the days Taru and I were farm show Detectives!) and went to MD for craft day (and Monty Python and the Holy Grail watching) at Lady A's.
( Things I did in January. )