March 25, 2006 - I had to get up just before 8 AM and jump in the shower so that by the time Lauren got to the house I would be ready to go. She got there at 8:15, which made my sister angry, but bought me enough time to shower and read my email. We drove together with Anna and Chuck to Sarasota for a day of activities. First up was breakfast at First Watch. I had the Trifecta, which has become my standard meal at First Watch. Next up we toured the art festival and farmers market going on. Rounding out the activities was a baseball game. We saw the Reds play the Twins in spring training. This was the first spring training game I have ever been to. It was weird not being in a stadium that seats 35,000+. Instead, there were probably about 5,000 people in the stadium watching the game. It was cold outside and our seat was in the shade. On top of that, I was tired from a late night yesterday, so I wasn't much fun. Lauren had fun, though, especially when she did the speed pitch. I gladly paid $1 to watch her throw 3 baseballs at a target and see how fast she could throw. Her initial claim was "at least 75 MPH". I said I doubted she could break 50. After we walked over to get in line, she saw some people throwing and revised her number down to 45. I won't publish the actual results, but it was definitely not 75 MPH. We went home after the game, and I cooked dinner with Lauren. I made a chicken salad, and she made garlic bread. We're the perfect cooking combination. My salad was awesome. Romaine lettuce, two cheeses grated (I think colby and white cheddar), red onion, croutons, Italian vinagarette dressing, and chicken. I concocted my own blend of spices for the chicken by randomly choosing things on the spice rack that looked like they would work well with chicken. It was a huge success. I will definitely do this one again.