We Miss The Olympics - Baltimore, MD. - August 2012

I know the Olympics are long gone but I have to say, I REALLY miss having them to watch. I finally deleted the final gymnastics performance I had saved on our DVR, (Yep it was winning gymnnastics gold) and I feel a bit sad that we'll have to wait another 4 years to see more.

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The last time I blogged about the Olympics I made fun of the more "questionable" Olympic events, and although this time there are some that definitely fall into that category, I'm going to take the high road.

In an effort to cope with our Olympic withdrawl the Wandering family has been working on a few events of our own and I thought I'd share.

MJ is a natural at gymnastics with her specialty apparatus being the "crib exercise".  Much like the floor exercise, one must demonstrate flexibility...

(Notice her foot is IN her mouth)

Travel the entire length of the apparatus ...

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Must make eye contact with the judges...

And at the end of the routine the athlete must scream at the top of her lungs...

(the redder the bar the higher the scores)

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Moving to the pool. We continue to be impressed at the Monkey's comfort in the water and all joking aside we think that water sports are in her future if she so desires. For now though her Olympic event is "Father Daughter Synchronized Swimming".

Her entry into the water is flawless...

She and Daddy prepare for the big stunt... Up... Up...

The jump... Look at the height she gets out of the water!!!

And hardly any splash upon entry!

The judges deliberate...

What will it be?  The head judge delivers the scores 

 and I think they're happy with the results!

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Finally, we bring you to our coverage of Rocking Horse Equestrianism.  Over the summer we discovered we have a budding Equestrian in our midst. We first discovered her talents at the beginning of the summer at the playground on these fun spring loaded ride on animals.

According to our little monkey, this is a "Gog"...

This is a "Fog"...

And thanks to our friend Tong and the loan of this fun ride on toy she has pretty much perfected the talent.

Meet the"hurse" named "See-buh"

The intensity of a girl in training...

In our tiny living room we had to move furniture during training sessions because, as you can see from the photos, she actually gets so into it so much that she moves across the floor.

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She even learned how to say "yee haw!!!"  So much fun!!!

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Some other sports we've been working on for Rio - 2016 are:

Power napping...

Speed diaper changing...

&

competitive laundry folding...

(Are those really such a far stretch from speed walking, dirt biking, & canoe racing)

I know I said I'd take the high road but I couldn't resist!  See you in Rio!

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

Fun with Bubble Wrap and Minnie Mouse - Baltimore, MD. - January 2012

So we spent a lot of time in our PJ's over the Christmas and New Years holidays for a couple of reasons. 

ONE - We were all sick so were therefore entitled.

TWO - PJ's are so much more fun!

I'll spare you the adults in there PJ's but isn't that the cutest PJ'ed fanny you've ever seen?!

It was great to have the Hub home for a few days before he started a pretty crazy rotation. We played with all our new toys from Santa. El and Mini Mouse became fast friends and you can see her new kitchen in the back ground of some of these pictures.

But as always the packing materials proved to be the most amusing occupiers of our time.

Introducing Bubble Wrap Wings!

What will we come up with next?!

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

Mater Strikes Again!!! - Baltimore, MD - September 2011

Mater Strikes Again! 

Yeah, I know, you thought her name was Kitty Sticks, but she has an alter ego.  She's a Super Villain... 

(Doesn't she look like s super villain?)

"Mader" is the destroyer of all things tomato!

LOOK OUT!!! She'll strike in the still of the night, 

or the broad daylight of the afternoon.

Roma's or vine ripe, cherry or giant stake tomatoes she isn't picky. 

No tomato is safe!

Till next  time,

Bon Voyage!

Kitty in the Cabinet - Baltimore, MD - January 2011

Every afternoon the sun shines through our sliding glass door and causes the doors of our Television cabinet to be like a mirror. Well a few days ago the Hub and I were in the other room and we heard a bang noise like a door slamming. Once in the living room we found this.

She's standing guard!

Since that afternoon I’ve caught her closing the TV cabinet door two other times and sitting in front of it till the sun goes behind the trees and the reflection disappears. We’re taking this as a sign that she doesn’t want any other kitties in the house so she’s locking them all in the TV cabinet. Those Poor kitties!

Till Next time,
Bon Voyage!

Backwards - Baltimore, MD - October 2009

I have a confession...

Tonight when I returned home from work, I was changing out of my uniform and discovered that my t-shirt was backwards. YES! backwards, neck all high, tagless print right there in the front! Who doesn't notice this sort of thing!?

Till next time,
Bon Voyage!

Adventures in Grocery Shopping - Baltimore, MD - August 2009

So I have to preface this blog entry by saying that The Hub and I really LOVE sushi! On a couple of occasions The Hub has actually attempted to make it at home., so when a couple of The Hub’s new friends from work told him about H Mart, an Asian Grocery store that had sushi grade fish, trying again was only a matter of time till he tried again.

Today we made our way to the Catonsville, MD H Mart to check it out. We were a little worried when we got to the entrance and found this sign… In case you can’t read it it says “We are not responsible for sandal accidents”, but after a brief family conference we decided that we could handle any sort of sandal obstacles that the H Mart could throw at us, so in we went. I kid you not; it felt like we stepped directly into China.

Note to Reader: I’ve never been to China, but have had friends go there and the inside of this grocery store is exactly how I imagine it when they tell me stories. There were people EVERYWHERE!

There were men with hand trucks scooting through the crowds replenishing everything from produce to 80 lb bags of rice. There were kids running around eating samples of Asian candies and there were some of the most amazingly interesting foods I’ve ever seen. There was Kimchi, Stinky Tofu, Beef Tongue, Blood Sausage, whole entire fish with heads and eyeballs and every other fish body part still attached.

Additional Note to Reader: There’s something you should know about the hub. He secretly covets Andrew Zimmerman’s job. He is the host of the Food Network show Bizarre Foods. So he actually wants to eat all of the crazy foods listed above.

There were also live crabs that we affectionately called Chinese fighting crabs or Crabby Crabs(see video).

After wandering as much of the store as we could with all the people there, we returned with a bag of sushi rice, a bottle of rice vinegar, low sodium soy sauce, seaweed salad, two handmade wooden bowls, and sushi grade tuna and octopus.

After 50 minutes of tedious rice preparation, The Hub created THIS!!!

(Tuna and octopus sashimi, sushi rice, and seaweed salad)
So so so so Yummy!!!

Till next time,
Bon Voyage!

Allergies – Baltimore, MD – July 2009

Meet Kitty Sticks!

Expert in all things that involve napping…

Supervisor of our move…

Vice President of our household…

Note to Reader. In case you were wondering, I hold the title of "First Lady".

Owner of the fattest belly in our house (proportionately that is)…
And due to her allergies, she’s now the proud owner of this fancy new anti itch cone!Note from Kitty Sticks: Look at this face, and listen and listen carefully. I promise I will not, except when no one is looking, scratch my ears or lick the anti itch cream from the places I have already itched, but could someone PLEEEEEEESE remove this lamp shade from my head!!!Till next time,
Bon Voyage!