18 Months Check-up!

Today I have to talk about Sammi, because she is just soooo cute! Really, and the fact that it was her 18 month check up. So, I can tell you that she now weighs 25 lbs, and is 32.2 inches tall.
She has started talking in little sentences, such as, “Mine this!” “Bad Mommy,” “Bad Kitty,” and today since she misses Jack she even said, “Bad Daddy.” Ok, so the sentences are all almost the same, but the doctor says she is more like a 2 year old. Wooooo – all that means is it will be harder for us. The smart ones are harder to keep occupied and interested. And what if in school she is bored and just quits? Like if her 5th grade teacher only makes them do crossword puzzles for months on end, while taking little nips of hooch out of his desk drawer? Oh well, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Now, I know I haven’t talked about our trip in July yet. Mostly because it was a trip “home.” Does that count as gallivanting? Maybe.
It was weird to be “visiting” home and I didn’t get nearly everything done I wanted. Plus, my friends are scattered all over the US so I never get to see everyone I would like, and if I am somewhere where more than one friend lives, and I don’t get to see everyone then I am in trouble.
I’ll just give the 10-second version now. The first 13 days Jack and Sammi were horribly ill. I won’t go into that, but I was basically just barfed and pooped on the entire time I was in Canada.
Then, in the States, once we got to Kansas I wasn’t feeling well. (Not the same thing.) But, like any Red Blooded American who sets foot back in the US after an absence I ate me about 500 pounds of Mexican food! Because if Mexican food isn’t American, then I don’t know what is!

The reason I had to get that in is because we are about to head out again. Jack has been in Norway the past week, and on Thursday Sammi and I are flying to see him and spend the weekend there. I can’t wait! I’ll take lots of pictures and keep you posted.

Avast Ye Mateys - 2nd Annual Pirate Run

Well, since I wrote this for the other website I figured I would go ahead and post it here, with pics. Arrrgggghhhh!!! (The Bella Napoli Hash House Harriers 2nd Annual Pirate Run.)

For those of you who did not attend run 16 there is NO WAY that words can convey how much fun this hash was, and how much fun the hashers who did attend did have. It was awesome, if I do say so myself (and, it’s not just me saying that.)

Last year on our first run we had 11 hashers. This year we had 27, with 22 actually doing the Pirate trail. (The others were getting ready for the pizza party at the on-after.) The motley crew of Pirates in various interesting Pirate costumes started out at Tommy’s Pub where beers were enjoyed before trail. Then, since it was a walking trail as running is unseemly pirate behavior, everyone took a roadie. About 5 minutes later we came to our first beer check at Just Delaine’s house. A Virgin with an awesome view and lots of Corona. She said Mr. Perky and Draggin Two Balls told her to buy the Corona. We say, if they wanted Corona they should have been at the hash instead of inflicting that on the rest of us! Many pictures were taken and we were off again. The next stop was a Café Correcto con Baileys stop at the corner café bar. We then continued on up a hill to the piazza where we had a Limoncello check. As we were in front of a giant church a rousing rendition of “Jesus Saves” was sung (the offensive hash version) and we then tried to give away shots of limoncello to the locals. We were hard pressed to find any who would accept. In the local Senior Center we found a group of old men playing cards that spoke English. They asked us what festival we were celebrating. When we told them, loudly and excitedly, “The Festival of Pirates!” they accepted our limoncello. We figure the locals thought we were gypsies, not pirates, but gypsies have accordions, not plastic swords! We still had half a bottle left, though, so we carried on to the next stop. It was just for pictures, but it turned into a limoncello check as well where the bottle was finally finished off.
Now we started on the ‘long’ part of the trail. We went down a steep hill, then back up it. A pontoon boat happened to be on the way and many pirate poses were struck for some great pictures. Once at the top we had another beer check at Platys bar. After that we were off again, up another steep hill to the last check before the on-after. This one was a wine check at La Masseria Bed & Breakfast (don’t forget the wine festival there on the 1st Sunday of October, those of you who were interested.) We all got a cup of their unfiltered white wine and it was quite tasty. We had to leave to get to the end of the trail so we could have our circle and get the pizza party started. The five pizza organizers said they could hear us “arrgghing”, and “avast ye’ing” down the street before we even got there. Down-downs were awarded and the littlest pirate of all was named. Jackson is now Surrender the Booty. He also won the award for Best Dressed Pirate (he even had the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean playing on his stroller, people) So, he now has the last XXL Hash sweatshirt. The funny thing is, we just told them about the run at 2:30. An hour and a half later they are all pirated out like they were planning on it the whole time!
Just Marshall was named Box Licker and boy, did he ever get a flour shower! There was lots of other stuff, but I can’t remember. There was pizza and fun for several hours. There were a handful of Pirates who didn’t drink the grog, and they tell the rest of us we had a great time! The visiting hasher from New Zealand, Twin Peaks, said she’s hashed all over and this was the best time she’s had. Even the hard core runners had fun walking and being pirates and sharing stories with the rest of the group.

The next day we were cleaning up, and we thought our trash can was kind of warm. The pizza over ashes had been set on top, in a box, but we figured the pizza guy knew what he was doing and left it alone. Ha ha, at 1130 our neighbor frantically buzzed our door to let us know we had a fire. HAD being the operative word. Our trash can had burned and melted. All that was left was a lump of melted plastic, ashes, and beer cans. hee hee. The 1st anniversary and 2nd annual Pirate Run was a rousing success and we are looking forward to next year’s event. This year, we want to give special thanks to Turd in Command and Del Taco, Split and Split’s Gobbler, and Just Delaine for helping make the run and on-after party go as smoothly as it did. Thank you!
We also want to recognize Genarro’s Café bar, Platys Café Bar, and La Masseria for letting us have “checks” at their establishments.

On-On!
Fatih Squared and Same Mistake Twice

Barns? Bars? What?

Oh, and another thing. At Pompeii you can rent the phone guides in whatever language you want. But the English one is NOT North American English. It is British English.

I pushed #1 and listened to the guy talking about the "baaaaaaths." I was like, "What? Barns? I guess those could be barns." (he says it again) "Oh! Bars! Yeah, they could be bars. That makes more sense." (He says it again.) "OMG, he is saying BATHS. Those are the BATHS outside of town."

Ahhh, thank goodness it is September now. August was a long, un-fun month. Now, daycare has opened back up and that will make us all happier! For the first two weeks they are only open until noon to give the kids a chance to get used to it. Today, I took Sammi down at 0800, came back and worked out, showered, and now some uninterrupted computer time. Yay!!

On another note, Sammi is officially daytime potty trained now. She has been for about a month, but the big test was on Saturday. We went to Pompeii for the day and were going to be gone for about 8 hours. We just brought along our travel potty and everything was fine. I don’t know what we would do without it, as there are never any public restrooms ANYWHERE around here. I think I will give her another month and then work on the nighttime potty training. It is good to have a potty-trained child!

(notice potty attached to my hip.)

Kindermuzik starts this week, too. This time they are offering a class closer to where we live so that is handy. And since Sammi is older that means the class starts at 1000 instead of 0900, so we can hang out and have lunch after class and play in the park. Activities make the day go by much better – next August I’ll have to find something for us to do.