Sheep, Dogs at Baseball

The past few weeks have been easy for me as I was resting after the big relay race. I enjoyed eating a bit more to refuel but trying not to indulge too much and undo the good work I've done with losing weight. I spent a lot of time at home just doing not much of anything but still managing to fill the days.

One highlight was our trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Our gym PT trainer has become a wonderful friend and she is always giving us tips to see and do things to ensure our US experience is the best ever. She invited us to go to the festival with her husband. Her family have been many times before and it's a great day out. The weather was cold and slightly wet after a few days of rain but we dressed warmly and headed off to learn about sheep and wool. I wore my special t-shirt with sheep and a kelpie on it. Now, being from Australia, I'm familiar with sheep but I have never seen so many different type of sheep in my life. Big sheep, little sheep, horns, colours, wool...it was all there. It was a massive festival with people coming from everywhere to check out everything in sheep and wool. There was tonnes of wool for sale and people were buying bags of the stuff. I saw wool being spun on a little wooden wheel thing and saw all kinds of tools and products made with wool.

 

Of course, no show or festival is complete without food. I had myself a corndog - always wondered what it was. It's just like our dagwood dogs at home but the batter is sweet, it must have corn syrup in it. I didn't like the clash of flavours. We had lamb rolls and burgers for lunch, seemed a bit cannibalistic at a sheep festival, but it was nice. And had to have an ice-cream and we tried a funnel cake - this is a sweet donut like dough that spreads on a plate and covered in cinnamon or icing sugar. Of course it's fantastic.

Funnel Cake

 

We checked out the sheep herding displays too and it was fantastic. I've never seen this live before and they had border collies doing the herding. Wow, such amazing and clever dogs to watch. And it was great to see all women doing the work too. I was telling our friends about Babe, the little Aussie pig who thought it was a dog and they knew the movie. I would love to see how our dog Cricket would  go if he was put in the ring. I'm sure he's been exposed before as he tried to herd Macey when they first met. It's his natural instinct I guess.

We enjoyed the day there and I certainly saw and learnt a new things. We stopped in via a home brew show on the way home which was bound to be an eye opener seeing home brewers with their concoctions and designs. I just stuck with a massive hot dog and let our friend's hubby do the taste testing.

We enjoyed a visit from a friend from home for a week. It was super great to see her. Deb spent a few days in New York with her and then I kept her busy around DC for the rest of the week. She hoped to see an ice hockey game which is currently in finals playoffs - the Stanley Cup. The teams play the best of 7 games for each round. The only game that aligned with her visit was the 7th game of the round and I didn't think the Caps would make it that far. But, she was lucky and the Caps took it the 7th game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Deb had to work late that night so I went with our friend and enjoyed the full-on American hockey experience including hot dogs, ice cream and pizza. The game was excellent except the last period (3 periods played) when the Caps went to shit. It was terrible hockey and sadly, the Caps lost 2-0 and are now out of the finals. They seem to be jinxed in the second round and against the Pens. The crowd was huge, electric and huge and a complete sea of red everywhere. We had a great time and despite the shitty ending, it was great hockey to watch for the most part. I saw this picture in the paper the next day and had to laugh, especially being a batman fan - his sign says 'Batman ALWAYS beats the Penguin'.

And baseball season is in full swing. Each game has some kind of theme or event associated with it. We took the dogs on Saturday to the 'Pups in the Park' game. Deb was very keen and I had reservations about 'how' this happens practically. So, we put their scarves on the dogs and headed off to the game on Saturday night. 

A true Nats supporter

Sleeping during the game

Cricket watching the game with me

There were about 2 sections used for the dogs, not the whole stadium, and you had a seat for you and one for each dog. Many dogs were sitting on the seats while others, like ours, were laying on the ground on a blanket. It was so funny, I just couldn't believe all these dogs sitting there with their owners watching a game. They had water and grass patches in the concourse area for the dogs and people to watch your dogs if you needed to go buy food. People are so dog friendly over here and would come in to the area just to pat the dogs. It was a fun night and we had great conversation with the people around us. I kept laughing at the guy next to me with his dog, a cocker spaniel called Hershey. He was well behaved and had a bumble-bee costume on with two antennae on his head. The guy was a big fan and every now and again he would say 'Go Turner' or 'Go Harper' and look at his dog, the dog would lift his paw and give him a high 5. Oh god, I just cracked up. Apparently, they watch the game of TV a lot at home.

 

 I have a busy few weeks ahead with some cooking for the school I have been helping with. They are giving their final presentation and I am making sausage rolls for their morning tea. We also start half marathon training this weekend and summer has certainly started with temps this week hitting 34 C. 

My neighbour just popped over with a bag of Garrett Popcorn. This is a famous Chicago treat but a store has opened in New York. She was there for work yesterday and said that this is Oprah's favourite stuff and hers also. OMG - she got cheese flavoured and caramel flavoured all in the same bag. It is bloody fantastic. How on earth do I control the amount of that I eat. Thankfully it will keep in a sealed container for a while so slow and steady does it.