Sunday, November 30, 2008

Balut







This event had to have a whole blog of it's own. Today, Sunday the 30th, Andy ate a Balut. "What is a Balut?" you ask. Well this is a yummy treat in the philippines. It is basically a hard boiled egg, except with the fetus of a duck!!! It was gross. As you can see from the pictures. First you peel the shell off the top. Then there is this juicy stuff, which we were informed is the "soup." You drink the "soup" then the fetus is able to slide out of the shell. When it is out you can see the form of the duck. Sometimes they even have the beaks. This one, I did not see a beak. The fetus you eat whole. I don't know how Andy choked it down but he say it was not that bad. I guess now he can say he's had it before.

November Fall Days, well ...sort of fall







This month, it seems like we have had a lot going on. At the very beginning, we went hiking with Bill, a friend of ours and the boys got to do a little fishing. Andy was very successful that day catching 5 fish. As you can see from the picture, they were tough ones to reel in. Some how he managed :) It was nice to get out into the "mountain" air away from the city and smog.
We were also asked to take a guys boat out in order to run the gas out of the tank be fore he stored it for the winter. We gladly accepted this favor! Our good friend Matt and their son got to come along. The boys were able to do a little wake boarding while Katie was the designated flag girl. Andy caught some major air. I think at least 3 inches :) He was a little rusty. It was fun anyways. Katie got to take the boat for a little spin. It was a beautiful boat and we were lucky to be asked to take it out.
Katie painted a mural in one of the local churches here in Rancho. The wall was HUGE and a little daunting to finish in a weekend. All in all, it was fun to paint and the church really enjoyed it. Maybe the next time she is going to paint a 26'x8' wall, she will make sure they are okay with it taking more than a weekend. Another art project Katie has going is creating the design for a rubber stamp company. If you would like to check them out (or even buy some) the web site is www.whimsystamps.com. There is only one set available right now. At the end of this week, set two should be up and set three a few weeks after that. Hope you enjoy!
Last of all, we have a member of the family that has not made the blog and he is really jealous. We need to introduce the 3rd party in our home... Chongo. Chongo is a beautiful black lab. Andy got him when he was only 6 weeks old. Now he is a graying 8 years old. He is a great dog. He enjoys laying on his living room pillow, going for walks and eating the food Katie hands to him under the table.
That is about all for the November update. I will let you know when December is posted