Cheap plug: One of my goals from a couple years ago was to volunteer once a month. Hand-On DC is one of the organizations I started volunteering with regularly. One of their biggest events of the year — the Work-a-Thon — is coming up this Saturday. If it’s anything like previous years, I’ll be painting over graffiti, putting together furniture, or planting flowers.

Donations are welcome!

More info on the organization: Hands on DC is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that organizes projects to improve the physical condition of Washington, D.C. public schools. They also raise money to support local college scholarship programs and encourage greater community involvement in the public schools. 

- Lyssa

Yea so um….I decided to take my Motorcycle permit test today without studying.  Well, you can only miss 5 and I missed 6.  The exact same thing happened to me when I took my permit test for my drivers license.  You would’ve thought I’d learned my lesson.  Oh well….there’s always another day…

-Kris

Arch and flowers. Spotted during my walk.

Trying to work toward 26: Take walking breaks during work

- Lyssa

Someone failed miserably on a goal: 31. Remain potato chip free. And by someone, I mean me.

You are looking at the empty bag of BLT potato chips I finished last night. Over a year of living the chip-free life down the drain. And what did Kris do while I was hoarfing down the salty snack? He just sat back watching me — internally evil-laughing.

Sobs. Tears. Shaking fists and looking upward.

My lowest moment came when I found a piece on the ground a half hour after I finished. Did I throw it away? Nope! I put that son’bitch in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed. 

I met three celebs in one day. Now THAT shit cray.

So, that means I’m only two more celebs away from completing #16: Get picture taken with five celebs.

Me sandwiched between gymnast Dominique Dawes and iconic figure skater Michelle Kwan.

And then there was CM Punk, WWE Champion. As a wrestling fanatic, I almost had a heart attack. He was an amazing guy.

- Kris

Completed #17: Make one new food dish a month (April edition): Mashed sweet potatoes with candied pumpkin seeds

Sure, it’s April, but I was really yearning for fall flavors. And believe it or not, I’ve never baked a sweet potato — not exactly sure how that’s possible, since I really, really love them. I mean it’s not like it takes a lot of effort to bake a sweet potato. Keep it in the oven for an hour on 400… blah blah… take off skin… blah blah… mash it with a fork… add butter, salt, and pepper.

The cherry on top of my sweet potato sundae? The candied pumpkin seeds. Even though the ingredients didn’t get all cohesive like this picture, they were still good (and something I’d never had before), so I can’t complain too much.

Link to recipe.

- Lyssa

It’s “Go Fish” time in the White House. Working toward #27: Play Cards More.

- Lyssa

This is a big one! I am so happy to cross #34: Go to New Orleans with Kris (carried over from 2011) off my 2012 goal list! (My favorite meal of all time, red beans and rice, pictured above.)

Words cannot explain how excited I was to go back to New Orleans. I used to live in the area when I was young and haven’t been back since I was a tween. It was a great trip full of alcohol, food, and old memories. Not in that order. Okay… maybe in that order.

We spent a few days being drunk and bloated tourists, but the most significant part of the trip was when we went outside of the French Quarter and visited the Hurricane Katrina-devastated 9th Ward, as well my old house in Harvey.

A few random things I learned/experienced:

1. You can drink alcohol on the streets in New Orleans?!?!?! Seriously, how did I not know this? You can even drink in the museums, well the Voodoo Museum.
2. I officially stopped being a bacon-tarian. I’ve now broadened my meat eating to chicken and some fish. So, basically, I eat meat.
3. I drank absinthe for the first time, which I enjoyed at the Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone. There is an actual carousel. In a bar. It rotates.
4. Flooding could change the course of the Mississippi River away from New Orleans. Read more.
5. There were a lot of pregnant tourists who accompanied their alcohol-drinking husbands. I found that odd and monumentally not fun for the pregnant women. 
6. There are major pockets of stink. You know those warm/cold spots in the ocean you randomly stumble upon? It’s like that, but with the air. Sometimes you get hit with funk like a brick wall.
7. The rain brought out prehistoric, mutant bugs with the power to cause volcano-sized bites.
8. Kris was asked if he was in the military. Again.
9. There’s music on every corner.
10. I must have a never-ending stomach. At one point, Kris said to me, “I don’t want to eat anymore.”
11. Sure, I’m not the biggest shellfish fan, but seriously, WTF is that monster between two perfect pieces of bread that you call a fried soft shell crab po’boy?!?!
12. I had praline-crusted bacon. Whoa there indeed.
13. It was hot, like 80 degrees. But not like a D.C. 80 degrees. It felt approximately 167 degrees.
14. The above-ground cemeteries are beautiful.
15. Finally: Louis Armstong airport has minimal food options once you pass security. FYI.

I’ll let my pictures do the rest of the talking. 

- Lyssa

Sneak peek of a completed travel goal.

Completed! 24.4 Visit the following places that I’ve never been: National Building Museum

Not only did I get to go to this building (which is beautiful), I got to do my favorite thing while I was there — EAT MY FACE OFF. Thanks, Taste of the Nation D.C.!

Me inside the building:

The Great Hall:

Me and my fellow goal rusher:

I need to go back to see LEGO® Architecture: Towering Ambition.

More on the National Building Museum

- Lyssa