coming home, 2013

 It's that time of year again, homecoming or reunion weekend at our alma mater.

We started the day with a Papa and Pup 1.0 running in the annual fun run.  Apparently, I didn't run it fast enough last year (odd considering the finish time this year was pretty much the same as last year...picture above is all the runners participating in the fun run...picture below is final dash towards finish line).

Papa celebrated a big anniversary, and got to see some classmates that he hasn't seen in quite some time.

It was a good day of catching up with old friends, and watching the Bears smash Maine Maritime Academy.

Go Bears!

ar! here's wishin' ye a happy halloween, matey.

A commercial costume isn't how I planned to outfit Seal Pup 1.o this year; but, that's just how the cards landed, and sometimes, I like to play. Besided, it was pretty much what I would have made for him (albeit in lower quality fabric, but one can not argue with the construction). And he was such a fierce pirate captain, really.

And he got a lot of treats both at the school Halloween parade on the CGA grounds and in our neighborhood (we go to five houses belonging to people I work with, get excited!).

People were pretty impressed by the pirate gear, which, I have to say, pleased me because we got it at Disney World, so you know, the compliments made the costume worth every penny, I won't lie.

On the evening of Halloween Eve, Papa and the Pups (mostly 1.0, 2.0 ate dinner and watched)carved a jack-o-lantern. I can't get involved in that carving and de-gutting business, so that is, decidedly, their thing.

My thing is more, "hey, leaves are on the ground, let's go sit in them and take pictures."

We spent this morning at the park, no one else was there (which was odd, as it was the perfect fall day), thus lending itself to be the perfect stage for leaf-throwing shenanigans, which we are fans of. Clearly.

I spent a few minutes as a zombie (Papa has no problem admitting that Halloween just isn't his thing, I am willing to fake it--rather convincingly, if I do say so myself, and I do). SP 1.0 kept asking me about my costume, so I felt compelled to come up with something. Zombie Mommy. The prep process for this was hilarious. It really was.

I hope your Halloween's were ghoulishly giddy too. There are more pictures in flickr, because, you know, that's our thing. I will update our mousecapades and northern New England wanderings next week, it seemed like the Halloween post should actually happen on Halloween. Happy Halloween, y'all!

of reunions and homecomings

I know I am a bit behind, bear with me, it's the story of my life right now. We have been busy with weekend and weekday wanderings; it seemed like a good idea to take a breather and catch things up a bit here or Papa may never remember the fun things we did in the month of October 2009.

During the Columbus Day weekend, the Wandering Seals headed to the USCGA (did you see the rankings?) for my ten year reunion. It was fun seeing all my classmates (that were able to come, almost 50% of the class, actually).

Papa Seal and the pups did a fun run on Saturday morning, we don't have any pictures of that, you will have use your imagination, I am pretty sure it was cute. SP 1.0 is all about running now. It's cute.

My class marched on the football field in true slacker style. We showed up 2 minutes before march on and were stunning in our neat and orderly formation.

I think, maybe, you start caring about neat and orderly formations again when you hit 20 years out, because '89 seemed to have their act together, kind of.

But the other classes were actually quite impressive with their march on bits, most of them anyways. There was one class doing rifle drills with umbrellas, which I am sure had them all rolling on the floor when they were planning it; but, the excecution could have been better.

We stayed for a little bit of the football game, long enough to get a family portrait at least.

And then later in the evening I had dinner with the "girls" of '99 who could make the "Girls Night Out."

Between all of us, we were able to piece together what all of the women of 1999 were up to (those that graduated with us and those that left early). I think it's pretty neat how people have kept in touch. And, quite frankly, my "girls" are doing some pretty awesome things with their lives, whether they stayed in the service or got out. It was a great reunion.

There are some fun shots in flickr, of course. Stay tuned for mad-capped mouse adventures.

like a whirlwind into october

Things have been a little crazy around here. Since we have more craziness coming up, I figured I should do an update now before things get too ridiculous.

First thing: at the end of September, I ran a 5K (I know some of you are more shocked than I am about this; but, it's true). It was my first 5K in 17 years. I did okay, I won't be winning any prizes anytime soon; but, I ran the whole thing, so that's something.

It was cold.

After my 5K race, we went to CGA for a football game (yes, it's that time of the year).

It was SP2.0's first football game. We arent' sure what his feelings are about the sport as of yet, we will let you know.

After that, we spent a ridiculous amount of time prepping our house for new windows.

They are supposed to be energy efficient.

Quite frankly, we will settle for anything that stops those charming New England drafts that have graced us for our last 5 winters here.

I guess you could say that we are really ready for the winter now.

There is a great mash-up of pictures in flickr.

of kites and flying them

With the coming of spring means the flying of kites. Pup, the elder had a weird fear of flying kites last year, he might have been afraid of the kite flying away, I am not sure; but, to get him ready for his school's Kite Day, we decided to take him to our favorite park, Harkness Memorial, to fly a kite. While a kite was flown, the day could not be labeled a success by any means.

Since Papa and I wanted to see the kiddo have fun with with flying kites, we both went to Kite Day.

And even though it started out a little rocky, he soon found the fun.

Kite flying is a blast, who knew?

If you want to see more kite flying fun, you know where to look!

welcome home; or, we bleed blue and white

Last weekend was really busy, so I am going to break it into two posts. The first post (that would be the one you are reading presently) is going to cover the crazy that was homecoming weekend at CGA.

It was Papa's 10 year reunion. He somehow (I have labeled it as the "inability to say no," you can call it something else if you like) became the default chair of his class's homecoming planning committee. He was pretty busy and taxed his usually introverted self, what with all the socializing, and socializing. It was fun though. Here are some highlights (this will, admitedly be of more interest to you if you either 1) attended CGA, 2) graduated from said institution in 1998 or, 3) just want to see some cute pictures of the Seal Pup, aka Progeny 1.0).

The weekend started with cadet drill. The Pup has decided that the best part of drill is the end when the cadets clear the lawn and he can run on the parade field (running is better with friends).

Friday night there was a party at Camp Rell. We were in a cabin that had stuffed and mounted animal heads around the room.

While the decor was charming, it left parents with the need to be overly creative when explaining the decor to their impressionable, and in some cases frightened, children.

Saturday started out with a dedication ceremony at the CGA chapel for Kevin Carpenter, a classmate who passed away during his second year at the academy. The class of '98 helped to install a patio extension to the Chapel and laid a stone marker in Kevin's memory.
The ceremony was well-attended by members of the class.

After the dedication, there was a tailgate party before the football game. There was much socializing.

There was also a great deal of consumption of beverages containing alcohol. The pup was curious to know the location of the juice boxes.

There were no juice boxes but he got a fine explaination of the virtues of seasonal brews for Octoberfest. Oh, well, maybe next year when the class of '99 throws the big show.

After the tailgate, the celebrating 5 and 10 year classes did the homecoming march-on onto the football field. The class of '98 was not told that they should be in any sort of formation...so they weren't.

But they had a good time, and they looked really snazzy in the CGA homecoming gear. Papa sported some of the head gear during the football game.

We won the football game, but I had to hear about the win later (not that I minded this, of course, as being a spectator of the great American game is not high on my list of things to do--if we are being honest here). Papa had to get back to organizing and planning, and the Pup and I were tired and worn out. Also we had to prepare for a little adventure for the following day. But more on that later in the next post.

There are more pictures in flickr. Members of the class of '98 who might be interested in the rest of the pics from Friday and Saturday just e-mail us, we can send a disc to you.

we have spirit

Since we are looking forward to another weekend of CGA revelry and excitement, I figured I should hurry up and get this post up so as not to inundate the masses (um, the 5 of you who read this blog) with Coast Guard spirit.

Two weekends ago the Coast Guard Academy tried its very best to impress the parents who have entrusted that fine institution with the care, education and training of their children. I have to say, when you haven't gone through the machine, you probably find such machinations of granduer impressive.

I just like to people-watch. Papa likes to support the old alma mater, and the Pup, well, he is just facinated with cadets (I am pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that they are all in uniform and tend to have pretty shiny buttons and pins; but, what do I know?).

In any case, after getting the Pup a "regulation" haircut (it's short, isn't it? Papa=1, Mama=0), we started our day at CGA bright and early by attending drill. It was the Pup's second, so he found it less thrilling than the first time, but he had a lot of questions about the man in the skirt (or the cadet in the kilt playing the bagpipes, it was funny). Also, he really likes to do the hand salute.

Here he is with his sweetheart, L (one of many, heartbreaker) doing mutual hand salutes. It's nice to know that they respect each other.

There was a soccer game.

And then there was a football game. We lost, but we cheered on the Bears like it was our job (and I suppose for one of us, it sort of was in some way).

And then we went home because at least two of us needed naps.

Stay tuned, more Coast Guard spirit coming your way soon. It is, after all, that time of the year.

More pictures? You know where they are.