Circus of the Sun

We went and saw this in Cedar Rapids today. It was fantastic! We all really enjoyed it, Andy and I both said we were getting nervous at some parts and had sweaty palms during some of the high wire parts. I'm so glad we went! (Sorry for the lack of photos, no cameras allowed.)

Dumb Dares For the Office - April

1. Randomly pair and staple together pieces of paper on a colleague's desk.
2. Convince peers to listen to a radio in a shared space, and then obnoxiously play air guitar.
3. Get people to guess what color your underwear is.
4. Wink at someone in the elevator and then tap your nose knowingly.
5. List your colleagues and a phony "star rating" next to each name. Hang the list next to your computer and refuse to elaborate.
6. Pretend to have a phone conversation in a foreign language.
7. Ignore the first five people who say "good morning" to you.

Dumb Dares For the Office - March

A little bit late.....

1. The next time the phone rings answer it with the words "Oh now what?" no matter who it is.
2. Put in a request that your boss double the number of fire drills.
3. Print and hand out certificates for negative awards, like "Rudest Phone Action" and "Least Improved."
4. Start a petition to keep a hamster in the office to "boost morale" and campaign relentlessly for one day.
5. Hang a two-foot long piece of toilet paper from the back of your pants and act genuinely surprised when someone points it out.
6. Ask someone you don't know very well for a photograph. Offer one of your own in exchange.
7. Suggest at the beginning of a meeting that it might be more productive to have the meeting in a pub or bar.

From Saturdays Paper

Museum announces 'poisonous' exhibit

'Venom' will feature everything from jelly fish to scorpions

By TH staff

Photo: Kori Newby
National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium employee Abby Urban drops crushed coral into a tank that will house anemones for a new exibit on venomous creatures coming to the museum in May.

With all apologies to comedian and musician Jim Stafford, the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium really likes spiders and snakes -- especially the biting kind.

On Friday, the museum announced plans for its latest feature exhibit, replacing the popular Catfish Planet.

"Venom," as it is billed, is slated to open May 10 and is expected to feature plenty of "Spiders and Snakes," the critters the love interest in Stafford's 1970s hit song despises. The exhibit will display all sorts of other intriguing and venomous creatures, too, from poison dart frogs and jelly fish to insects and scorpions.

But the exhibit appears to be much more ambitious. "Venom" will explain the difference between poison and venom, educate visitors on the poisons in their home and give a brief history of poison and uses of poison in the world.

Highlights include the use of manipulative cameras that allow visitors to zoom in on the exhibit's animals, and a crawl-through rattlesnake exhibit allowing a "prey's-eye view" of the reptile. A mock kitchen cabinet, garage shelf and

medicine cabinet will display some of the harmful and sometimes deadly poisons in the home.

Also, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the Amphibian Ark have designated 2008 as the Year of the Frog. The main goal of the campaign, organizers say, is to generate public awareness of the amphibian extinction crisis, which represents the greatest species conservation challenge in the history of humanity.

To help raise awareness, the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium has added five new amphibian exhibits. The enclosures will exhibit some of the frogs displayed in the 2005 Toadally Frogs exhibit.

The Year of the Frog exhibit is now on display.

Time to Eat!

So, Adrien and I budgeted our meals while in OKC and splurged for a trip to The Melting Pot on the last night. It was awesome, course #1 was tortilla chips, bread, veggies, and apples which we dipped into Cheddar Cheese fondue w/herbs, spices, peppers and salsa. After salads course #3 was filet mignon, shrimp, teriyaki-sirloin, chicken and salmon in a wine-mushroom marinade and dessert was a milk chocolate fondue with Bailey's Irish Cream. In that we dipped strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, chocolate marshmallows, pound cake, and brownies. I wish we had one closer then Madison, it's really fun and delicious. Three of us ate the dinner for two and we didn't finish it all. The last picture was dinner out at Champps back home. I thought the picture should be included in this "extreme eating" post. Mile High Ice Cream Pie....also delicious, but should have at least 5 or 6 people to work on it. The four of us were unable to finish......