Owoooooooooo.

So Cici did such a great job selling crap for her school fundraiser that she was rewarded with a free ticket to a Minnesota Timberwolves game. (And thanks to all of you who bought from her.) She and I went together, and it was a truly special night out with a special kid. She ate so much cotton candy that she looked like a pink-bearded Santa Claus at one point, she followed the game action throughout at least as well as I did, and by the end she was even referring to the players by their first names. (E.g., "Why are they taking Al out?"). And of course her favorite part was the howling (Wolves fans howl to psych out the other team when it's their turn to shoot a free throw.) We stayed out a bit later than her bedtime, but it's hard to imagine a better way to spend a Friday night. Thanks, Cici.

The Life Of The Playground.

Last week while Cici's baseball team was practicing, I took Ruby to the playground up the block, where she met a five-and-a-half-year-old named Jacob. The two of them really hit it off, with Jacob seeming to have a high appreciation for Ruby's brand of wit. Here's a sample of their conversation.

Jacob: I like Spongebob.

Ruby: Spongebob? How about Bungebob?

Jacob: "Bungebob"! Ha! Ha ha!

Ruby: How about Hot Dog Bungebob?

Jacob: Ha ha ha!

Don't Tell Uncle Jim...

My uncle Jim won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics, something that I've been thinking a lot about lately while watching all the amazing athletes in Beijing. It's just an incredible accomplishment, to be sure.

Unless you're Cici.

Tonight at dinner they were arguing about who won gold, silver and bronze. Cici was handing out the awards (I don't even know what "event" we had competed in) and it went something like this:

"Cici gets the gold!!"

"Mommy gets the silver!"

"Ruby gets the bronze!"

Ruby looks very satisfied until Cici follows it up with, "Ruby, bronze is the WORST!"

Body Builders

Last night we were flipping through the channels during a commercial break from the Olympics and happened to catch part of a show on women body-builders. These are women who aren't just "physically fit" but are muscular in the extreme and participate in body-building competitions. For some reason, the competitions require them to be extremely tanned and shiny which, I can only assume, is to accentuate the definition in their muscles. I have to say that I've never seen anyone achieve a natural tan quite like this, and really these women end up a horrific shade of orange.

The three of us sat there with our jaws dropped while we processed the visuals, and then Cici turned to me and said, "Mom ... she's ... not the color of people!"

And you know what? She's right.

Duluth

We recently spent the weekend in Duluth so that I (Momlissa) could participate in a triathlon on Pike Lake. It was a very nice weekend with great weather, lots of family fun, and I completed the tri without incident. On Saturday night we took the girls bowling -- it was Ruby's first time and, I must admit, she's not good. Her score for the first game was 13 (total), so we opted for the bumpers on our second game. It improved everyone's scores and that made bowling much more fun! Here are some shots from the trip...

Olympic Talk.

Dadam: Hey, tonight is the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

Cici: What's that?

Dadam: Well, it's like a big parade they have on TV when the Olympics starts. Do you know what country the Olympics are in this year?

Cici: No.

Dadam: Well, it's a big country that's far away. What would you guess?

Cici: Antarctica?

Dadam: No, but that's a good guess.

Cici: No, they'd never have it there - it's too cold! Where is it?

Dadam: In China. That's about halfway around the world.

Cici: Oh, so if it's the middle of the day here, it's the middle of the night there.

Dadam: That's right.

Cici: And when we're going to bed here, they're just getting up there.

Dadam: Yep, pretty close.

Cici [thoughtfully]: But we're all brushing our teeth at the same time, of course.

May That Be The Worst Thing You Ever Have To Worry About, Kiddo.

[Cici finds a stress ball.]

CICI: What's this?

DADAM: It's a stress ball.

CICI: What's it for?

DADAM: Well, for relieving stress.

CICI: What's stress?

DADAM: Well, stress is a feeling you get when you're too busy, or worried about something, or frustrated, and it makes you feel bad. People say if you squeeze a ball like that really hard, like, as hard as you can, you'll feel better.

CICI: Oh.

[A few minutes pass.]

CICI: Dad, I'm worried that I won't win when we play Sorry tomorrow night, and I'm squeezing the ball but I don't feel any better!

Peanuts & Cracker Jack

The four of us went to our first Twins game as a family yesterday and it was quite the outing! We took public transportation on the hottest day of this summer (so far), ate lots of crappy ballpark food, and watched the Twins rally in the 7th inning to beat Cleveland. Cici managed to eat an entire Dome Dog all by herself and Ruby enjoyed the freedom to scream in public and not be reprimanded for it: "Go Twiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiins!" To cap it all off, after the game was over the girls got to go down to the field (along with about a million other kids) and run the bases. It was all very fun until Ruby got scolded by an usher for wandering toward the Cleveland dugout. So, oops.

A memorable adventure to be sure!