First non Mr. beer brew

Here is the story of my first brew, aside from the mr. beer kit, and my attempt at blackberry wheat in the mr beer kit (which still taste cidery after being bottled for 2.5 weeks and gets really bad chill haze) Please recomend what i can do better, or anything i should have done.
I went to lhbs sunday, picked up a kit,and the malt extracts and the hops the owner recomended for a straight wheat beer.

2 lbs dry wheat malt extract
3.3 lbs liquid wheat malt extract
1 oz pearle hops
1 oz liberty hops
1 smack pack wyeast labs german wheat yeast
I got reading the yeast pack and made the starter following the directions. Heres the kicker, i stuck my finger in the starter wort i made, like 4 times over the cooling period... I'm in bed sunday night, and it clicks, i more then likely put some kinda bacteria in the starter wort by not using a sanitized thermometer. i tossed it, didn't want to take the chance.
Monday i went back to lbhs (28 mile drive) pick up a thermometer, a smack pack of barv. wheat yeast . a pkg of safbrew t-58 yeast just in case i screw something up. and another lb. of dry wheat malt extract.

warm the smack pack to room temp , and start it (didn't make a starter for this one i couldn't wait any longer), start sanitzing tools, and boiling 3 gallons of water. did the pearle hops for 60 min. th liberty for about 10 as the lhbs owner had recommended.
Cooling took a while, got it down to 95 degrees f in about an hour maybe a little longer. put it in the fermentor and added the water to top it off to 5 gallons and go it cooled to 74 degrees, (gotta love vermont winters, cold air is easy to get to) og was about 1.045 the air lock has been bubbling away for 2 days now, pitched the yeast and now is the waiting game.

What i learned. The thermometer for checking wort temps should come in basic kits, at 72 degrees room temp is too high for proper fermentation temps. SWMBO has been kind enough to keep room temp low enough for 70 degrees on fermometer on the fermentor. And always have a little more then you need for ingreadiants, some extra malt and yeast would have saved me a 28 mile drive, i could have walked to the local kitchen untensil specality store.

Sorry its long, but please recomend things i could have done better, and i figured id give my noob mistakes, so others could learn from them.

Sounds like you're making beer.

First off, I'd recommend picking up John Palmer's "How to Brew". It's a great starting point. He's got a website with most of the book online, Howtobrew.com. I'm not saying you need to read a book before you brew again, just pointing out a terrific resource, aside from this forum. D)

After that, only two things strike me,
1. try and cool quicker. putting your pot in the sink with cold water, then running more cold water and adding ice as it cools will help. (Add ice to the water, not the wort)

2. Can you get your fermentation temps down? Most ales would be better in the mid to low 60's. Maybe a closet in a side room? Basement?

Other than that, don't wait too long to brew another, nothing worse than running out of homebrew!

Brew on.

+1 for everything JPicasso said and Congrats on your batches. Welcome to the addiction

Next time you accidentally stick a finger in a starter just wait it out. There are so many yeast in a starter that not many organisms have a fighting chance. Sanitation is VERY important but at the same time there are much worse things you can do other than accidentally dipping a finger in a time or two or i guess 4 ;p . Could have saved the trip to the LHBS and 7 bucks for the smack pack.

Wheat beer is supposed to be hazy.

I've only brewed 3 batches but here's what I do to cool faster. When I pick up my water at the store I buy 4 gallons, 1 pint and 1 7lbs. bag of ice(equals about 5 gallons total). I usually use 3 of the gallons to boil. the pint and extra gallon in the fridge and the ice in the freezer (naturally). Then when I go from pot to bucket I put the remaining water and the bag of ice in the bucket first then pour the boil through my strainers into the bucket.

It cools very quickly.

I wouldn't have tossed it. On my first batch I stuck my whole arm in the wort just before adding the yeast. I dropped a strainer into it and couldn't really decide how else to retrieve it, so I just said what the hell. I did at least wash up first. Beer turned out fine anyway.

You did fine...except that whole pitching the yeast over a simple finger insertion.

As has been mentioned, cooling the wort more quickly will reduce off flavors and give you a cleaner tasting beer.

When I did extracts, here was my routine to get to 75 degrees every time.

• Take 3 gallon jugs of water and place them in the freezer at the beginning of your brew session.
  
• When you've finished the boil, place your pot in a sink filled with cold water. Stir (gently) both the wort and the sink water to speed the heat transfer.
  
• Once the sink water begins to warm, replenish with cold water again. If you have a double sink, just switch from sink to sink.
  
• Continue this routine until your wort is around 100-105.
  
• Take the jugs out of the freezer. They should have begun to crystallize at this point.
  
• Pour 2 of the gallons of icy water into the fermenter, add all your wort.
  
• Top off with the last gallon of icy water and you'll hit that 70-75 degree sweet spot every time.

Thanx for the input every one, The LBHS put the joy of hombrewing on my kit, so i bought that when i started, and i did read most of John Palmers website, when i tried to make blackberry wheat, i spent two weeks reading this site and anything else i could find online, the guys / girls here seemed to be the most reliable for help and info.
BierMuncher, im gonna try your cooling method , I am hopeing to be brewing the day after botteling.
I thought that the starter might have been okay, but i think i really screwed up my last attempt, and didn't want to take any chances this time. I did use a wooden spoon to stir my cooling wort... which from what i read in the joy of homebrewing, isn't a good thing, but right now im realaxing, not worrying, and drinking a Harpoon UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen mmmmmm. Thanx again everyone

I just popped open the fermentor, took a gravity reading, 1.014, tasted a bit spicey but good, alot better then the smell. Monday night will be about 7 days into fermentation, still bubbling the airlock every couple of min. so im expecting to get to around 1.011 which will be about 75% attenuation. look like the karsuen <- no spell check here... got pretty high. hopeing the flavor don't change too much, i wanted more after that taste. kinda a peppery taste.

I am going to be waiting 13 days to bottle, id wait 14, but sunday is open, 14 days would be monday and thats not easy to do with work