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?
