Today's post is here for levity. No Rainman-like calculations. No grueling workouts. No recipes to follow (although this recipe is yummy!) Think of this post as Cotton Candy for the brain. And c'mon now, who in their right mind doesn't like Cotton Candy? I suppose I must really love Cotton Candy as I seem to be Capitalizing all of the C's in Cotton Candy. Now I'll have about 10 of you tell me you hate Cotton Candy. I love blogging.
So sit back and let me share a few (hopefully) (somewhat) entertaining photos with you. Most of them are from the past few months when we were blessed to be able to travel a bit after a pretty rough first-half of the year.
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Gyms:
I love to explore new gyms. I've even been called a Gym Trollop! (Thanks Susan, that's my favorite term EVER!) When I travel, I see it as my wanderlusty (I made that up) duty to explore all local/hotel/cruise ship gyms at my disposal and offset the inevitable calorie surplus in my belly.
Here's a cruise ship gym:
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| Awesome! Charts and graphs! And Signs... |
Let's take a closer look at this sign:
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| Apparently you can order a martini, but don't even THINK about eating the olives. |
This was a hotel gym: More signs and rules. Bla bla bla...
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| Bla bla don't sue us bla bla bla... |
But wait! Let's read the fine print...
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| NO HORSEPLAY?! Is that term even USED anymore?! |
I decided that I couldn't sit idly by and let a fabulous-if-out-dated term such as 'Horseplay' go unappreciated. So in order to do that, I had to engage in some innocent 'horseplay' with any props that I could find in the immediate vicinity (and before I got caught)...
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| World-wide symbol for 'horseplay' by doing bunny-ears on my new medicine ball friend |
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| Now he's working up a sweat. It is a gym after all. |
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| Rockin' out |
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| Too-cool medicine ball man |
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| Now he's really bad: smoking a 'cigar' |
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| Mr. Medicine ball man forgot to get his flu jab...achoo! |
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| Mr. Medicine ball man revisiting his Dutch roots (if you've ever been on a Holland America Line cruise, this would be utterly hilarious. The rest of you can just sit there and not laugh.) |
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At the chocolatier:
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| People crowding to look at the goods in the local Chocolate Shop |
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| Hubby, Derek having a look |
What is all the fuss about? Apparently 'award-winning' chocolate...
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| I call this "Choc- Marten" (feel free to groan) |
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| Apparently chocolate footware is all the rage these days. |
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| As are spooky-wind-blown-woman-wearing-a-burka sculptures |
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| And somewhat cute, but kinda creepy humanoid trains |
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So childish:
We have some very dear friends in Derek's homeland (that would be England) who have some really fun kids. We've known them since they were zygotes (the kids, not the parents.)
You might remember this photo from a few years ago when we warned you about our babysitting techniques...
Well, nothing has changed:
Lara (not to be confused with the other world famous Lara from Thinspired) was my strength-training buddy a few years ago:
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| Beginning of a split lunge |
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| Split-Lunge finish position |
Now she's all grown up and is a bee-keeper (hobby, not a job- she's only 11)
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| "Take me to your leader" |
She even enjoys the occasional lager...
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| Don't call Child-Services...it's an iphone App |
FYI: when you google that app (you know you will), be sure to google the Fart app also. It's pee-in-your-pants funny. Trust us.
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Back home:
Meetups! Not one but TWO in the matter of three days!
The first was at Real Food Daily- a place where even the heartiest meat-lovers could be vegan for the rest of their lives if RFD provided breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had all sorts of fake bacon, ham and goodness knows what else and my tastebuds and belly were pleased as punch.
It was a really nice group of bloggers- some runners, some food bloggers, some healthy-fitness bloggers or 'this is my life' bloggers...all of them were cool.
Jenn from Girl Heroes; Katie from A Joy in Class, Monica from Yellow Brick Beauty, Me, Brittany from Pretty Fit, Pretty Healthy, Pretty Happy, Kaitlin from Kaitlin with Honey, Katherine from Left Coast Contessa and Amanda and Andy from Two Boos Who Eat. Ameena from Fancy That...Fancy This and Erika from Health and Happiness in LA were also present but left before we got these photos.
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| Kaitlin, Katherine, Amanda and Andy (The Boos) |
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| Jenn, Katie (Ameena in paper form) and Monica |
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| The Boos are so cute |
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| I love this photo-check Andy's face- I think he's scurrred being the only boy :-) |
Then came a much-anticipated meetup with 4 gals who have been in e-contact for a good while now.
We went to Native Foods...another place where you can forget that you ever loved meat. More deliciousness ensued with the Rockin' Moroccan...per their menu...
"Our grilled, savory Native Chicken with spicy ginger Moroccan marinade, grilled veggies and quinoa. Topped with currants and tasty toasted almonds. $9.95" (a deal compared to my $13.75 club wrap the other day.) Where's the food photo you ask? Well, um, it's like...by the time I thought to whip out my camera, the food was divided between my belly and a take-out box. Bad blogger. But GREAT company:
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| Me, Lynn from The Actor's Diet, Ameena from Fancy That...Fancy This, and Katie from A Joy in Class |
We had been planning/talking about this meetup for quite some time and it was really great to finally make it happen!
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With the kitties (you KNEW it would go here eventually)...
It was several weeks since their last Mani-Pedi, so we had to get down & dirty right away:
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| Baby Ellie's first-with-us Mani-Pedi. Such a good girl! |
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| Although she IS looking at me for an explanation for the inconvenience-bordering-on-torture. I call this the "Mummy, how COULD you??" look. |
After fifteen years, you would think that Samantha would be used to this procedure by now. That would be a negative...
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| Notice me shhhhushing her while she screams in my face. Oh the drama of it all. Not to mention setting a very poor example for her little sister. |
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| But all's well that ends well. |
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Reading!
Finally...Look what Samantha and I have been reading!! Confession: She's a much faster reader than I am, but I have the advantage of opposable thumbs for page-turning- ha!
Finally...Look what Samantha and I have been reading!! Confession: She's a much faster reader than I am, but I have the advantage of opposable thumbs for page-turning- ha!
The Great Fitness Experiment - One Year of Trying Everything...by fellow blogger and fitness-junkie Charlotte Hilton Anderson.
Keep your eyes peeled next week for a book review. I am LOVING this book. I love it so much that as soon as I publish this post, I'm going to wrestle it out of Sam's grubby little paws. One of my favorite lines from the book describes the location of Charlotte's YMCA's weight room directly above the child care..."There have been reports of pants wetting. And that was just the staff." Great stuff.
Q: What have you done just for fun? Anything funny or amusing happened to you now or in the past?
19 comments:
You are amazingly hilarious! I love it.
It was so great to meet you, I just wish we had time to talk more! Next time for sure. :)
Choc-marten! LOL
It was nice to meet you on Saturday! I wish we had gotten to actually talk to each other!
Aw this post makes me smile. I love old outdated signs!
Amanda- yes next time we'll talk more. We can also consider a mini meetup in the North Valley?
Erika- Yes! NExt time we'll talk! Bummer about being on complete opposite sides of a huge table!!
I have the giggles over your medicine ball man. You would have been just fine as a castaway. heelarious! I bet you cracked yourself (the use of Tampon is genius!).
I love this post, Debs!!! Ha ha ha!!!!! The horseplay with the ball kills me!! Of course, I love the look on Sam and Ellie's faces! You mean mommy!!!
love this post - am seriously craving some fancy chocolate now! another meetup soon, please!
Katherine- nice to meet you- more time to chat next time!
Lynn- thanks and yes, some dark rich chocolate would fit the bill now :-)
Tiff- I must admit I squealed with delight when i saw the tampon in the free-sanitary items basket in the bathroom :-D
Jenn- you of all people know what a super mean dictatorial mommy I am!
I loved this! However, I must say that I'm a bit concerned that your cats have had considerably more mani-pedis than I have in the past couple years (concerned for me, not them.)
Deb. I am one of those 10. I don't like cotton candy. Then again, I am not usually considered to be in my right mind.
Moving on. Please type posts like this more often. As in, at least 3 times a week. It is comic relief for me as I think you may be the funniest person I know. I literally spit when I read the horseplay part. I don't know why, but I did. It struck a funny bone. As did most of this post.
The meetup looked fun. I love those boos. Met them last year. And I am meeting a few of those other girls next weekend. Wish YOU were going to be there.
ELLIE! And of course, Sam. mani/pedi photos are to DIE for. Love those little faces.
Loved this post, Deb. And love you.
Abby! Hi sister! Yes, sigh. My cats have nicer nails than I do.
Janetha- you always make my day :-) Thank you <3
Your so funny! I love the medicine ball - LOL!
You crack me up Deb...love the medicine ball photos. Seriously, I had to show them to Maya and she loved them. You can babysit my kid anytime! I don't care what she's climbing on, as long as it isn't me.
I loved meeting up with you twice in a weekend. I hope we can do it soon. I swear, I won't engage in any horseplay. :)
Ameena...I can baby sit Maya and Ali any time you want- just say when ;-)
hahahahahaha no horseplay. listen i'm kind of wondering what the hotel security would have done had they seen you horseplaying around with that ball..
...they may have suspended you from all future continental breakfasts..
So much awesomeness is one post! You are hilarious, I totally laughed a few times reading this. And the meetup looks like it was a lot of fun!
My, my, you have been busy! :)
First off, will you babysit ME?! The other Lara would like some time to goof off with D&D!
Oh, the pet manipedi. I have yet to do it, but plan to be taught by our groomer later this month. Poor Lulu has already gotten used to be poking and prodding her all the time to brush, clean, and pretty her up :)
Fun bloggie meetup! I wish you were coming to Foodbuzz this weekend, but hopefully we'll get to meet up down south! <3
I LOVE the horseplay medicine ball man pictures!! I'm still cracking up. You know I love kitty pictures, too so I'm especially fond of this post. Definitely not fond of clipping my own cats' toenails though! :)
Erm, I actually don't like cotton candy! I think it's because my mom never let us it eat growing up (she had this irrational fear of food dyes - still does).
My favourite thing to do when travelling is checking out new gyms and fitness centres as well. I love exploring and playing around with all the different kinds of equipment! Gym trollop indeed ;)
SO many fun meet-ups in this post. And I didn't know Charlotte's book was out already, I must pick it up!
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