So this is why our Blog Off entry was posted so late today. Lise and I were giving blood at the Family and Friends blood drive this morning, and it took quite a while since both of us have veins that need some extra special attention. We chronicled the experience in photos, and boy was it an adventure!

As soon as we walked into the donation area we ran into Steve Stegeman, Blood Services CEO, giving blood himself! Really cool to see a CEO leading by example. We also got to meet our coworker Julie’s friend who wore his Greg Biffle t-shirt just for the occasion.

Then, while standing in line to donate we made a new friend! His name is Joe, and he works in Hospital Services. It’s his job to ship out the blood to hospitals around the country – and here’s the exciting part…. while telling us about his job, he mentioned that he once shipped his own blood! We asked how he knew it was his own. He said that he looked up his whole blood donation ID number (that number on the piece of paper they hand you when you’re done donating) to see where it was to be shipped.

And of course, then Lise had a brilliant idea….could he look up our blood donations to see where they go? The answer was yes (probably). So we’re hoping that in under a week we’ll be able to tell you if our blood went to a local hospital, to Washington, or maybe even to somewhere on the East Coast!

This is the next best thing to knowing exactly whose lives we helped save. Too cool!