Sumo Schplumo

My family has always been very creative with gifts. This year was no exception. I got an awesome deck of card - awesome because my picture is on every card. I also got a halogen-light head lamp which will blind me (or those around me) if I'm not careful. I think the most anticipated present (because of it's laugh-ability) is a sumo costume. Thank you Lisa and anyone else that provided input on this one.

The kids loved this.

By Popular Demand

Here's the rest... these are from Sep 2002.

And Happy Birthday, Dad! I didn't get you a card, but I did ask the Vikings to beat my Cowboys. Love you!

In Honor of Throwback

We've changed some, but Mom's photo concepts haven't apparently.

Ren Fest

We went to the Renaissance Festival today near Apache Junction (east of Phoenix). It was a pretty good time. My mom, sister Lisa, and niece Teagan were visiting from Minnesota. My Uncle and Aunt also went (they live over in the Catalina foothills). There was a definite "fair" feeling to it (as you can see from the Swinging Swan picture), but it was fun anyway.

The joust was probably Candi's and my favorite part. There were four riders (the dark knight, the schizophrenic knight, the brave knight, and the drunk knight (actually pirate captain). We ended up in the section cheering for Capt Boom. Each knight was mic'd so their respective crowd could hear their comments and they performed a bunch of impressive riding skills. Then they ran an obstacle course and jousted (the black knight won). The show ended with them insulting each other's honor resulting in a joust to the death (later that day, which we didn't see).

All in all, seeing the "authentic" weapons and goblets, clothing and wares, using 14th to 16th century bathrooms (plus TP), and seeing the jewelry and animals (the animals have changed a lot since the Ren times, but somehow people managed to keep a few un-evolved specimens around for the petting zoo) was fun.

And once again, I'm amazed at how the American culture has little to no regard for God's intention for sex and sexuality. It seems American women (only in general - don't leave any nasty comments. Of course, if you're offended by that comment you're probably one of the ones I'm talking about and you can leave a nasty comment.) take every opportunity to dress as revealing as possible. Honestly, I have a hard time believing the attire that women were wearing at the fair was representative of the majority of women in the Renaissance times. From the looks of it all men in those times were sword/bow brandishing brigands or heroes. Renaissance women, on the other hand, might have been able to play an instrument, but were definitely all floozies. Exactly why Americans choose to express their sexuality as we do is a whole other blog.