Sud Su Ming

Maria thought long and hard about what to name her cat. Names were listed, voting was done, names were eliminated, lists were reconstructed. It was a lengthy process. She finally settled on Sud Su Ming. It means Ghost of a Tiger. She read about it in a book.

Her cat is all grey, so the ghost part fits nicely. I was thinking that it would mean we would hardly notice the cat. She would slink around the house and just when you thought you saw her, you would turn your head, and she wouldn't be there.

Unfortunately, that's isn't the case. She loves to cuddle and she demands it by meowing rather loudly that she needs attention.

It's kind of cute. Kind of.


Until she starts climbing into every nook and cranny. She sits in the sink, runs across the kitchen table no matter how many times we yell at her, jumps up on the edge of the washing machine as soon as I turn on the water (and immediately throws her arm under the water), jumps into the dryer as soon as it opens (even if I am putting wet clothes IN), and basically gets on my nerves.

After a few hours of chasing her around as if we have a rogue toddler, her energy wanes and

napping commences.
I thought cats were supposed to be easy. I want a new ghost!

Part Two: Road Trip

I saved my favorite photos for you today. In between belting out this song over and over:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2j279pZxTY we took loads of pictures.

We listen to Adele, because of course, my 11 year old is well versed in heartache.

NOT.

We managed to stare at the sky in awe. Maria is tired of me saying "Oh Oh, get that- but try to block this, and don't get that there, tilt it just so..." while I was cruising down the highway.

I think I am going to quit my job, pull Maria out of school and travel cross country so we can do more of this!

Road Trip!

I like road trips.

I like to sit in the passenger seat and enjoy the scenery. This trip though, I had to be the driver and my 11 year old side kick got to relax and be the photographer most of the time.



We saw lots of clouds, and took lots of pictures of them. They were awesome.

After a long day of driving and playing soccer and driving some more, we rolled into our next town about 9:00pm and jumped right into bed.

The next day we drove some more, played soccer some more and enjoyed the scenery...and cleaned the windshield 7 times because I couldn't see through the 3,000 bugs that left their guts all over it. We had to resort to rolling down the window and one point just to get a clear picture.

We also sang Adele at the top of our lungs. Music can really make a road trip!

Having a good side kick doesn't hurt either.

Did I mention that we were loving the clouds?

Giving the clouds a run for their money were the wind turbines. Simply put, they were amazing and we might have a hundred pictures of them. Maybe more.

We actually stopped to get the last light of the day here:

I told her not to get to close to the edge, but this girl like to push the envelope.

Oops...looks like we might have pushed the envelope a little too much!

Why does she insist on giving me these heart attacks??