#55 - Attend a Sporting Event in Another Country

Here I am, pre-game, in my new FB Barcelona scarf at Camp Nou.

We are back from Spain. Two wonderful weeks exploring Madrid, Cordoba, Granada and Barcelona. I'll have more blog posts coming about our time there, but one of the things I am excited about is that I was able to check off another item from my life list; attend a sporting event in another country.

We figured out that FC Barcelona would be playing Valencia during our trip, so we scheduled our time in Barcelona to match the game day. We started looking for tickets before we left California, but would only find single seats, none next to each other. We left for Spain with the hope that more would be released while we were on our trip. If it happened we could pick up a pair of tickets seated next to each other, we would attend the game. If not, no big deal. We knew there would be plenty of other awesome things to see and do in Barcelona.

I am happy to report that a few days before the game we were finally able to get tickets. Hooray. We were sitting really high up above one of the goals in Camp Nou, which is the largest stadium in Europe. It seats nearly 100,000 people!

Inside Camp Nou. The Club's slogan is "more than a club."

Bob also got a scarf. Probably the only matching things we own.

The game was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed watching the players as much as the spectators. The game attendees took the play very seriously. I was amazed how quiet everyone was during the game play. I am used to baseball games where it seems the audience is more chatting with each other than watching the game. Any time there was a good play, the crowd would clap very politely. However, once there was a goal, the stadium went off! That happened quite a few times, as the final score was 5 to 1, with Barcelona winning.

Exuberant flag waving across the stadium.

Team group hug after a goal. Messi (#10) scored four of the five goals that night.

Final score, with Barcelona winning.

Overall, a fun evening and great way to get a taste of the local culture. I highly recommend checking out a sporting event when you travel. If you go to Camp Nou in the winter, be sure to dress warm and bring a little blanket. Sunflower seeds are the nibble snack of choice and can be bought from one of the many vendors on the walk to the stadium.  During the half time, everyone whips out their pre-made sandwiches and has an impromptu picnic. We grabbed a few potato sandwiches from a bar on the walk from the metro to the stadium and ate right along with everyone else at half time.

Finally, we listened to the team's fight song a few times on YouTube before we went so we could sing along. We only managed to get the "Barca, Barca, Baaaarrrrca" part down. Here is a little video clip from the stadium when the team came in. It gives a sense of the crowds and the enthusiasm ... and you can hear me chant "Barca" at the end.

#51 - Make a Two-Tier Cake + Frosting From Scratch

OK. I have a confession. I am approaching 40 years old (rather quickly!) and I have never made a cake from scratch. Don't get me wrong, I've made cakes before, but was always helped by my good friends Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines. So, when I was putting my life list together last year, one of the things I added was making a two-tier chocolate cake and frosting from scratch. See, life lists are not just all about sky diving and wrestling bears and stuff like that.

This past weekend I decided it was time to roll up the sleeves and give it a whirl. I figured I would start with a classic recipe for cake, so I went with this Hershey's recipe at this link. The only substitution I made was using Ghirardelli cocoa powder instead of Hershey's.

Directions were easy and the batter came together just fine.The two-tier aspect of it was a little stressful, as there was some sticking to the pans when the cakes came out of the oven. Fortunately, it was not anything that the frosting could not cover up. Yes, frosting covers a multitude of sins. The finished product was a little "rustic" in appearance, but tasted great.

With that, I am checking this off the list!

#39 - Attend a Rodeo

I did not have any cowboy boots or hat to wear, but I did manage to attend the rodeo this past weekend. Let's check that off the life list, thank you.

The California Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association (CCPRA) was having a two-day event in Boonville as part of the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Festival. We made the 1.5 hour drive inland via Highway 1 and Mountain View Road. Boonville is a small town and the rodeo was on the football field at the fair grounds.

My knowledge of rodeo was limited to what I had seen on TV or in the movies, angry horses and bulls trying to roust off the person on their back. The event started with a grand entry of the flags as well as the cowboys and cowgirls. After that, events got underway. We ended up seeing the following: bareback bronc riding, calf roping, break away roping (women), barrel racing (women), steer wrestling, team roping (mens and womens) and then the bull riding. Here are some photos from the rodeo.

Bronc riding.

Bronc riding.

Team roping.

Barrel racing.

Bull riding.

Bull riding.

Bull riding ... or in this case, cowboy falling from the bull.

Thinking back to the events that I saw, I enjoyed the events where the rider had to show skill with their horse, for example the barrel racing and the roping. The roping is particularly impressive, because not only does the cowboy have to control their horse, they also need to be coordinated enough to rope a calf. It just seemed more elegant than the rest of the activities.

I am not sure what motivates someone to try to stay on top of a 2,000 pound bull for eight seconds (sometimes called the most dangerous eight seconds in sports), but it does make for quite a spectacle to watch.

#13 - Start My Own Small Business

Well folks, I have undertaken what is probably one of the scariest and most exciting things I have done in a while. I have left the comfort of my very secure consulting job (read: nice pay, nice benefits, nice vacations, nice colleagues) with a large national firm to hang my shingle out and do it on my own!

I am proud to announce the opening of Sophia Mitchell & Associates, LLC.

I've been wanting to try consulting on my own for a while and one day I said to myself "if not now, when?" Initial response from my clients have been positive and I am confident that I can be competitive from a cost perspective due to my low overhead. I also have a great network of other consultants that I can collaborate with.

It took a lot to get to this point, and much of the thanks go to my fantastic mentors and colleagues who I have had along the way. I am thankful for my mentors who have been generous in sharing their knowledge, helping build my confidence and regularly pushing me outside my comfort zone to grow professionally.

I am also thankful to Bob who has been supportive of this undertaking We are both now self-employed ... which provides a lot of freedom and flexibility, as well as certain level of uncertainty! However, we are up for the challenge and it's sure to be a fun ride.

So, if you know anyone who needs some environmental impact analysis completed for their project, please send them my way!

And, I guess this means I can now check #13 off the life list!

#45 - Walk Across the Golden Gate Bridge

I grew up just an hour or so away from the bridge and never had an opportunity to walk across it. When my friend Gary mentioned riding his bike across the bridge,  I knew I needed to finally go and walk across it, so I added it to my life list.

Now I can say "Done." Last Sunday Bob and I drove down to San Francisco and met up with friends and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge ... and back again.

We parked on the north side, walked south, enjoying some nice views to the City, took a little break and then walked back. It's pretty congested on the bridge, as pedestrians and cyclists both have to share the sidewalk on the eastern edge. The seismic retrofit, which happens to be a project of the company I work for, has shut down the sidewalks on the western side.

A few things surprised me about the experience. First, it was pretty overwhelming how loud it was on the bridge. Of course, there are cars whizzing by at 45+ mph, so it will be loud, but it just seemed so much louder than I expected. Honestly, I thought it was going to be kind of peaceful up there. Not.  Another surprising things was feeling the bridge deck bounce from passing cars... cool and weird. The other thing that I hadn't really thought about was how much would be going on in the water beneath the bridge. Here is a little of what we saw:

Dolphins!

Crazy kite surfers ... they went FAST!

We were fortunate to have sunny skies, but the wind was blowing pretty good. Overall, a fun trip and I was happy that the timing worked out so that Melyssa and Jeff were up from San Diego and Meghan and Aaron could drive up from the Penninsula.

Melyssa and I, holding on in the wind.

We came, we saw, we walked!

If you want to walk across the bridge, there are some good resources here at this link. It's about 1.7 miles each way, with a little incline on each end. If you don't want to walk it, you can rent a bike, and if you only want to walk one-way, going south is best, as you'll get nice City views. You can then catch the bus back over the bridge.

#20 - Help Someone Check Something Off Their Life List (1 out of 5)

Or, why I sent an ice cream maker to a stranger.

When I attended the World Domination Summit last month, I heard the lovely Karen Walrond speak about the things she learned when she was working on her book, The Beauty of Different. Karen also talked about her life list during her talk and about curating an exciting life. One of the items on her list is to make old-fashioned hand-crank ice cream with her daughter.

As many of you know, I have my own life list that I am working through. One of the items on my list (#20) is to help five other people achieve something on their life list. After Karen’s talk (which rocked, by the way), I approached her to ask if I could send her an ice cream maker so that her and I could BOTH work towards something on our life list. I was actually a bit nervous to ask her if she would be game for this, as she's a "famous blogger" in my mind. Upon introducing myself, she was instantly kind and friendly and after a quick consideration she graciously said yes (!!!). 

I found a vintage Montgomery Wards hand crank ice cream maker that was in good shape. Bob and I gave it a test run and then I packed it up and sent it off to Karen. I loved the fact is was from Montgomery Wards, because it reminded me of my grandpa, who was a die hard Wards fan. If Wards didn't sell it, he didn't need it: garden hose, tools, underwear, polyester pants and shirts, towels, you name it.

Anyway, the ice cream maker safely arrived in Texas and Karen gave it a run over the holiday weekend. She did a great blog post about it and made a cool stop-motion video documenting the experience. Check out the video on the blog post, or see it below. Hooray for ice cream, hooray for life lists.

Now, I'll be keeping my eye open for others who have life lists that I could help support in a small way.  Happy 4th of July, everyone.

#16 - See a Space Shuttle Launch

We did it. After several reschedules, a last minute scrub and more rescheduling, I can now check off #16 off my life list, see a space shuttle launch.

On May 16 at 8:56 AM (EST), the shuttle Endeavour lifted from Kennedy Space Center. Coincidentally, today was the 19th anniversary of Endeavour's inaugural flight ... to the day!

The whole experience was overwhelming, really. I cried, I cheered and I was surrounded by hundreds of others who had made the same trek.

Pictures will never do this experience justice. If you want to see what the pros captures, chcek out the NASA page. Otherwise, here are the photos that Bob took while I was too busy clapping, cheering and sobbing!

We arrived at the Causeway before sunrise.
The shuttle was still lit with flood lights.

Shuttle after sunrise.

Shuttle after arm has been lifted.

At this point, we felt a wave of heat wash over us.
The sound had not reached us at this point.

I was surprised how bright it was.
A night launch must be spectacular.



There was a low cloud cover, so no high-in-the sky shots.
Still, totally worth it!



This gives a sense of the people density on the NASA Causeway.



During the launch. Yes, I'm crying.

Post-launch and all smiles!

So glad that Bob and I could have this adventure together.



#16 - See a Space Shuttle Launch (On Hold)

We are back from Orlando. We were there trying to get #16 checked off my life list. Due to timing issues, we decided to come back home. The good news is we are committed to making a return trip once NASA identifies the next scheduled launch date on the STS-134 Endeavour mission.

On our return trip to the Kennedy Space Center we did the bus tour which took us fairly close to the launch pad. Here is the Endeavor on the launch pad.

... and this is about as close as I got to being an astronaut:

# 16 - See a Space Shuttle Launch (Almost There!)

We are in Orlando trying to get #16 checked off my life list. STS-134 will be the final launch of the shuttle Endeavour. The launch was first targeted for March, then April 19. However, the April 19 date was moved to April 29 due to an anticipated traffic jam at the International Space Station. The Russians astronaut team would be docked at the same time Endeavour needed to be there, and due to the timely nature of the science work that the Russians needed to do, Endeavour got bumped.

We arrived late on the 27th and made our way to the condo we are renting downtown. It's in a nice, walkable location, a few blocks from Lake Eola and a cute commercial district. I found it on AirBnb. We spent the 28th getting our "provisions" for launch day, including tracking down collapsible chairs and picnic stuff.

This morning was an early start. We had to be to the mall to catch the tour bus by 5:00 AM. That meant alarms were set for 4:00 AM, not that they were needed, as I was too giddy to sleep. I woke up every 10 or 20 minutes, not wanting to miss the alarm.

When we finally arrived at Kennedy Space Center, we had a few hours there before we needed to board the buses to go out to the viewing area on the NASA Causeway.

Made it to the Kennedy Space Center!

Astronaut greeting us at the entry gate.

Part of the rocket garden at the Kennedy Space Center.

We had time to catch a wonderful 3-D IMAX movie on the Hubble Telescope. It included amazing clips of the spacewalk/work that the astronauts did to do the repairs to the Hubble. Do you remember when they finally got the Hubble in space, it had a warped lens that produced blurry photos? Well, space shuttle teams did a series of spacewalks to correct the problem. The other thing about the movie that was fantastic was the stunning images of the Earth from space. You know, every time I see a picture of the Earth from space I am reminded how tiny it really is, and how more care needs to be taken.

After the movie, we got in line to board our tour bus to the Causeway for viewing. This viewing point puts you about six miles from the launch pad, which is the closest you can be as a visitor. Well, maybe you can be closer if you know the right people or are a VIP, but it's the closest you can be as a "regular" visitor. Right about the time our bus rolls into the parking area on the Causeway we see a bunch of people packing up and heading back to their cars and buses. Hmm ... that can't be good. Bob quickly pulled up the NASA app on his iPhone (which I highly recommend) and read, to our disappointment, that the launch had been scrubbed. Apparently they found a malfunction on a component. Bummer! The current word is that it will launch no earlier than the afternoon of May 2, so we wait. We knew the potential for last minute scrubs, either due to technical or weather-related issues, so it's really not that surprising. Safety first for the crew ... being able to see the launch is a total bonus. I was able to get this photo of Endeavour on the launch pad.

So, now we wait until Monday, keeping our fingers crossed that we will get to see a launch.. I am not sure if seeing the shuttle six miles away and no launch is going to cut it for me. I am crossing my toes too, for a little extra luck.

Happy campers at the Kennedy Space Center!

#37 - Participate in a Scrabble Tournament

Last night I had an opportunity to check off another item from my life list (participate in a Scrabble tournament). Bob's parents were also in town, so the four of us made the short drive up the coast to attend.

The event was held at the library in Point Arena and included 14 tables/28 players. Each participant played three games/rounds and the overall winners were based upon who had the highest combined score from the three games. I wasn't sure what to expect, or how I would do. Bob and I like to play Scrabble and I play an on-line game called Literati (a Scrabble knockoff).

The game play was a little stressful. Each game was 25 minutes, so you needed to play pretty quickly. That had to be balanced with not playing reckless, so as to miss opportunities or set your opponent up with valuable squares. Some players were serious, others were there to have fun. I tried to blend the two.

Ready for the Scrabble fun. Can't quite contain my excitement.



Opening play. I guess Scrabble "action shots" are not very exciting, hah!



Bob waiting for his opponent. That's his unassuming "I will trounce you with a triple word score before you know it" look.

I ended up in the neighborhood of 800 points between the three games, which put me in 4th place (!!!) at the finish! Local merchants donated prizes for the top four finishers.

Folks, guess what my prize was ... it was a truck full of z'nure. Z'nure, you might ask? It's zebra manure. There is an animal preserve up here and they donated poop! Apparently it is fantastic for gardens. Unfortunately we don't have a garden. So, I'll be looking for someone to gift the poo to, so  it won't be wasted. Seriously, winning a couple rounds of golf or dinner for two sounds pretty mundane compared to a truck load full of zebra manure!

I'd be remiss if I didn't share some photos of the adorable sweet treats that the little local bakery, Franny's Cup and Saucer made. Cute shortbread cookies that looked like Scrabble tiles and cupcakes with edible tile toppers. Adorable AND delicious!



Overall a fun and well-organized evening!