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I hope you're sitting down, because I'm about to say something I don’t think I've ever said before. This week, I participated in two races.

You can stop laughing, I'm serious. On Wednesday afternoon, I was asked if I would be interested in representing 225 in a media race promoting the Pennington Balloon Championships. Of course I would. I love flying, so I had to jump at this opportunity. I made plans to go to the field at 5:45 a.m. sharp Thursday to take flight with fellow blogger Marissa Frayer, and Business Report staff writer Steve Clark. Our pilot was short a crew member so I also got to help set up and pack up after the flight. I can honestly say it was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had. You just haven't seen Baton Rouge until you've looked down on it from above the trees. Luckily for me, it ended up not being a traditional race, since Steve's balloon would have won and I would have regretted any trash talking. You can see our photos here.

Special thanks to Leo Honeycutt for organizing, pilot Tom Mackie for the safe flight and landing, chase team captain Jesse Bourgeois for managing to find us when we lost our direction, homeowner Bill Babin for serving coffee after we landed in his yard and Sally Fowler for discussing balloon disasters AFTER we landed.

On Friday night I attended the first annual Art, Ready, Go!, an art scavenger hunt put on by the Young Professionals of the LSU Museum of Art. Being a part of that group, I had the option to work on the committee. I figured since I have an art history degree, I'd have this competition in the bag – I just had to participate.

Turns out my degree didn’t give me any advantage.

The event fanned out to three museums: LASM, LSU Museum of Art and the Louisiana State Museum. You could use any non-motorized transportation between the museums. Our scores were based on times and correct answers to a series of questions about each museum's exhibits. You could even get extra points for dressing up, as one team did, dressing as one of my favorite art gurus, Sister Wendy.

Marissa and I formed a team – the Van Gogh Nowheres. We chose to ride bikes, meaning we would have to ride from our houses to the Shaw Center, compete in the race, then ride back home. Note to self: make friends with the bike prior to a long trek across mid-city and downtown Baton Rouge. I woke up the next morning with some very angry, severely out of shape thighs, and hobbled around most of the weekend. Despite my ill-prepared body, the event was a blast, with a great turnout of about 18 teams of 2 to 3 people each. In the end, the Van Gogh Nowheres did go somewhere – we came in 3rd, and didn't even have to cheat to do it.

So there you have it. Two great events that I didn't even have to leave the city limits to participate in. And I learned two things. One, I want to trade my car in for a hot air balloon. Two, I need to get in shape, or make someone buy a bicycle sidecar before next year's race.