Congratulations USA Gymnastic Team!

The 2012 Olympic Women Gymnastic Team (dubbed the "Fab Five") won gold in the team all arounds tonight, July 31st!  CONGRATS!!!

McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross, Jordyn Wieber, and Aly Raisman are the first women's team to medal in the team championships since 1996, in Atlanta. They came in ahead of Russia, who settled for silver, and Romania came in bronze. China, in fourth place, did not metal.

         It is kind of irksome to me how American-centric NBC is in the gymnastic coverage. Like, I want to see all the stuff that the American team does... but really last night I only saw Russia and USA...and one Chinese person... and one Romanian person. But it's so frustrating, because your person will be doing their routine and they run and do a tumbling thing - and you SEE someone flail and fall of the balance beam! And they never come back to that! Like, it's not like I especially enjoy that, of course. 

But it's interesting, and I want to see what's going on.

Russia was not very happy last night. (Meaning the gymnastic team). They had nearly edged up to the USA on several spectacular uneven bar routines, but then there were some major goofs on balance beam and floor. Even though they still ended up medaling with silver, the gymnasts were all in tears at the end of the trials.

To me, I would think that that's probably more due to the humiliation and shame and annoyance with themselves scoring so low when they know they can do so much better, then piled on top of the disappointment. They seemed happy enough at the medal ceremony, and will continue to compete throughout the ceremony.

My day was nearly shattered when their win was announced... on the radio... before I could watch the NBC coverage at 8! Cuz we don't have cable. We never had extended cable. So I was just SO UPSET. It ruined the suspense. Like, sometimes it's really stressful, but it's kind of the point of watching these things!

So, about the team....

Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman are going on to the individual all-arounds. And Jordyn Wieber isn't. Which sucks. Because not only was Jordyn 3rd place from the USA, she was FOURTH place out of everyone going to the finals. So why isn't she??? Because you can only send two people per country.

It used to be three. It should be three. No, there SHOULDN'T BE A LIMIT. It's an olympic final. There are 24 people who make it. Those 24 - SHOULD BE THE BEST 24 GYMNASTICS AT THE OLYMPICS. It's that simple, to me. Jordyn is reining world champion, and this was probably the once-in-a-lifetime shot she would get at the individual all-arounds. Grr! And I really bet that she would have medaled had she been aloud to move on. It's just not fair. She was one of the very best!

GRR.

Kyla Ross did not do vault or floor for the team qualifications. McKayla is ONLY doing vault, which is a little unusual, but her vaults are amazingly incredible, with unusual height, intricacy, and perfect landings. She is a valuable asset to the team, and will also be competing in the individual vault trials.

(I should add that both Kyla and McKayla competed in all four apparatuses to secure their place in the olympic team, and thus purely capable of other routines as well)

After all this, I should probably post the different gymnasts and their pictures, just in case you don't know....

Jordyn Wieber (2011 World Champion):

 

Gabby Douglas (nicknamed "Flying Squirrel"):

Aly Raisman (Who does her floor routine to Hava Nagila!):

McKayla Maroney:

And last but not least, Kyla Ross:

 Together they make only the second USA gymnastic team to win olympic gold in the team final!

So yeah... I'm not sure if any of this matters to you guys at all, as most of you probably know it, but now you have a blog post about it... so, woop....

~Julia

Cookie Cats

Thin mint

Samoa

Savannah smiles

Tagalong

Okay, so, recently I've been really really really thinking about our kittens and their relatives. I want to know their new names. I want to know what they look like now. I want to know who adopted them. I want to have better pictures of their sisters, and any pictures of their brothers :(. I want to know what their father looked like, but there isn't any way that that could happen, so I'm not really focusing on that.

I have found their brothers names though (through tedious investigation).

Trefoil and Do-si-do. Also girl scout cookies. I only really saw their pictures once anyways. Mom and I were like "Awwww!" and we checked how old they were, and they had the same birthday as the previous two sets of kittens and we figured that was a random estimation and sort of dismissed it. The boys were bright orang-y gold, really super fluffy. Mom and Benjamin actually saw them being taken away in a cat carrier just as they arrived to meet our kittens for the first time.

The girls, Minty and Tagalong, were adopted the saturday after the tuesday when we adopted.

Here's the list of cats adopted in April:

12067-Marian, 12004-Lorna, 12034-Robbie, 12035-Sebastian, 11536-Gian, 12111-Patty, 11556-Baker, 12024-Ollie, 11722-Lyric, 12087-Two Socks, 12042-Dosido, 12041-Trefoil, (Those are the brothers)11707-Chevre, 11708-Mimolette, (Those were the first set of kittens we thought we would be adopting...) 11706-Camembert, 11705-Gasperon, 11228-Fuzzy, 11695-Harry Truman, 11710-Jeeves, 12061-Jinx, 12109-Smiley, 12023-Dolly, 11574-Dosie, 11573-Garth, 11715-Hamlet, 12025-Polly, 12164-Autumn, 9485-Alvin, 12110-Macaroni, 12123-Rosalie, 11576-Carrie, 11539-Pumpkin #2, 11373-Almond Joy, 11703-Callie #1, 11534-Lilith, 12054-Loki, 12046-Samoa, 12045-Savannah, (That's Sasha and Maya) 11604-Grayson #2, 12179-Daffodil, 11101-Bubby, 11102-Peter, 12137-Nuggett, 12183-Mushka, 12028-Mulan, 12043-Tagalong, 12044-Thin Mint, (And there are the sisters)11641-Dana, 12172-Oscar, 11138-Candice, 12126-Jenny, 11651-Rosella, 12030-Kai, 12029-Tai, 12125-Puff Daddy, 12129-Rachel, 12127-Larry, 7753-Elrod, 12079-Nellie, 12097-Nick Saban, 12124-Mocha

I actually got to work with their mother, Cammie, in the Petsmart adoption center for several weeks afterwards. She was very sweet - I actually checked the furkids website the other day and she had been adopted! Aaaah!

Now I need to find out what happened to her too!

One of the things I did to try to find out more, was go to the Furkids website - under "Adopt a Cat" or something like that there was a little drop down menu with an option for "Happy Beginnings". In happy beginnings, cat adopters email furkids with pictures of their cats and talk about how happy they are together or whatever. Mom did send in a picture of Sasha and Maya in a fur ball, but apparently that wasn't really registered as a story/update thing.

I scanned through all the list, but none of the other Girl Scout Cookie Kittens had updates either. I considered sending in a thing with pictures and saying something like how sweet they are and what their new names are and how grateful I am and then sort of begging the other families to contact me. But a) that would sound kind of weird after having the kittens for four months and b) how likely is it that the other families would see that? I mean, they might wander across it in a few months like I did, but... it just doesn't seem that productive.

Mom and I have been talking about emailing our adoption agent to try to get the emails of the other families, but we're not sure if that's against some Furkids privacy policy or whatever. I mean, it can't hurt to ask, right? So far no progress on that front.

I really do want to know all about everyone! I wish that we could find the father, but that seems highly unlikely. Cammie and her kittens were found abandoned in a supply closet. The father was probably a stray. If he was found and taken to Furkids more recently, we wouldn't know it. There are such a large range of coloration in the kittens and their tabico mom, that he really could be anything. Any length of fur, any color, any face shape. Except probably not pure white. Not sure about eye color. Probably ranging between green and amber somewhere. Grr, so frustrating!

Anyways, at first I was just going to post the little portraits of each cookie-cats that I made together as just a little portfolio, but I felt I owed you guys more than that. Plus I wanted to explain why their brothers didn't have pictures.

So now you know.

Hopefully I can find out more!

~Julia

Feline Fiesta

Hooray! As of this monday, our kittens are now 6 MONTHS OLD!!!
(That's one year on a cat-to-schubert ratio!)
(Actually, it would technically be a schubert-to-cat ratio. But whatever.)
(Just wanted to point out how I edited out the initial flashy cat-to-mozart tangent for more accuracy!
Yay! We have had them for over 4 months. It feels like a very long time. Although I am very happy that my little muffins are maturing well, it's a bit tainted for two reasons. One, of course, is nostalgia. I get nostalgic easily, and even though Sasha and Maya are still just as frisky and playful and fun as they were two months ago, it's still sad that they are already half way through their official kitten-hood. The second reason is that it was also the birthday of my kittens' sisters and brothers.
This is sad because I know NOTHING ABOUT THEM. Not their new home, not their new names, not how they look at six months rather than two. I'm hopeful that I will eventually be able to contact their new families through Furkids.
Anyways, monday was our day of celebration! We presented the kittens with their first taste of wet food, some lactose free milk, a birthday ribbon and paper hat to destroy, and a new toy. The lactose free milk thing was weird. So, as I said in my electrons, most kittens (and cats) are lactose intolerant. We had given them lfm only one other time.
At first they were both very interested. When Maya lost the vibe, Sasha plowed on. I tried to get a cute picture, but no matter how fast I pressed the button, nor how many shots I would snap consecutively, I could never catch Sasha's tongue. It moved to fast. I did get a couple of this weird ghost tongue though, which I suppose was a shadow of where her tongue had been before it moved.

You can see her little tongue shadow...

While Maya played with a rug nearby, Sasha continued her guzzling until, randomly, something changed. She abruptly switched opinions, and immediately dove into a complex, orderly dance of scraping the floor by the bowl (an instinct cats have when they smell something bad - the motion intending to bury the stench with dirt). Sasha was bizarrely thorough, rotating calmly as she obsessively turned on her most recent treat. I have a chunk of this episode on camera.

Sorry for the bad camera skills.

Luckily, the wet food was met with a much more passionate reaction. Sasha and Maya devoured half a can of each of two flavors. "Salmon Surprise" and "Chef's Seafood Palate" or something. We have to more cans ready for the next couple Shabbots as a treat.

Sasha and Maya were very pleased with their new toy. Sasha got so worked up that she started panting! Cats are not supposed to pant. It means that they are overheated or overworked. Or stressed. I was taken aback. 

Benjamin: Mom, Sasha's panting.

Mom: Really? I didn't know cats could pant... (typing on email or facebook or work or whatever)

Me: I don't think they're supposed to (typing on skype or something)

Benjamin: Well she is. I think she's excited.

Mom: That's weird.

Me: Well, Sasha does sort of huff her breath a bit when she gets worked up. Maybe that's what he's hearing.

Benjamin: Do cats pant?

Mom: I am googling that right now!

(pause)

Mom: No, cats are not supposed to pant. 'If a cat pants, it means they are overheating or feeling stressed. Panting can also be a sign of liver problems blah blah blah..." Hmm. If a cat is panting, that's probably not good.

Me: She's probably just huffing a bit

Benjamin: Can you hear that?

Me: No.

Benjamin: It's pretty loud...

Me: *sigh* Fine (Logs off skype)

(walks to the living room)

Me: Benj, she's probably not really-

!

Sasha: PANTPANTPANTPANTPANT

Me: !!!

Sasha: GASPGASPGASPGASP

Me: OHMYGOD SHE"S PANTING OMG MOOOM AAAAAAAAH!!!!

Sasha: HUFFHUFFHUFFHUFFHUFF

It was scary. Like, she didn't seem in danger or blown out or anything. But her jaw was pumping and her sides were heaving and it's just like, not something cats do.

Then Sasha had to have some isolation to cool off.

I spent most of my morning at home following them around and paparazzing them, just because it's so hard to get good pictures of them when they move so fast, and often the lighting isn't good. I'm hoping to try to get a lot more better pictures before school starts.

Here are some of my better pictures....

So yeah. Pretty cute.

I wanted to post on their actual birthday, but I started feeling really sick, so didn't get around to starting it till today. Hopefully you can all enjoy it at you leisure later this week.

Now that our kittens are half a year old, they will probably get spayed around the beginning of August... I hope it goes okay! Furkids kitten season is still in full swing... Clarissa and I found the CUTEST pair! I think Clarissa should adopt them, cuz they are UNBELIEVABLY cute!

The one on the left is Lizzie and the one on the right is Lula. Lula has the cutest eyes! Huge and blue and adorable! They look and sound really fun.

That's all for now. I hope you guys can still appreciate this post, even if it's late!

I will see you arooooooooound....

~Julia