What do a monkey, ram, and an ox have in common?

Put a monkey and a ram on a remote island, combined with 3+ years of marriage bliss, and nine months later you get an ox.

So the newest addition to the V-Team in slated to be an Ox, according to the 2008 Chinese zodiac calendar. "People born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. They tend, however, to be eccentric, and bigoted, and they anger easily. They have fierce tempers and although they speak little, when they do they are quite eloquent. Ox people are mentally and physically alert. Generally easy-going, they can be remarkably stubborn, and they hate to fail or be opposed. They are most compatible with Snake, Rooster, and Rat people." If anyone has any experience reining in an ox, please pass it on. This baby obviously has some strong-willed German genes.

So what else have I been up to now that the Olympics are over...
1. Not watching one of the greatest soccer games of all time (USA v. Brasil, Women's Gold Medal match) after my bedtime.
2. Actually opening up the P.E. preparation manual to formulate a study plan to take the exam in April 2009.
3. Playing "uno" with some other gentlemen from around the island. Reminded me of playing poker, I mean uno, with the Fab Five at Damon's Mom's house when we were all at least or almost 21. Except now we don't have a pool to jump into, and we played at a friend's house that is only 10 minutes from us. As you can see, my luck changed from the first time I played (I started out with the two rolls on the left).
4. Getting ready to spend Uncle Sam's money that comes our way at the end of the fiscal year to build, replace, and repair facitlities. Ask any government contracting officer, the end of the FY is crazy all the way up until 11:59pm on 31 September.

Please check back as we continue to pray for our Twins and Cubbies to make the playoffs. I think being at the top of the AL Central makes the Twins feel awkward, which is fine with me. As long as they don't wait for the last day of the season to get back on top like they did in 2006. Looks as though the AL wildcard will not be in the AL Central this year, so I kindly request that the Twins go ahead and get comfortable leading the division for the rest of the year.

Benny's birthday celebration in Hawaii

Guess how much I paid these lovely and talented ladies to sing "Happy Birthday" to Benny at Duke's in Honolulu .....

Living my dream

This afternoon, I, Michelle Marie Volkmann, was a judge in a Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Hold your applause please. Try not to be too jealous. It was chance, luck and volunteerism that gave me this grand opportunity.

Since I work for the Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) in the marketing department, I have a variety of job duties. Mostly my daily routine in the consumer relations office involves fielding inquires, answering complaints, compliments and suggestions and conducting surveys. It isn't my first calling, but it's a foot in the door. Plus I'm learning something new and adding diversity to my resume.

Consumer relations is a very small part of the marketing department. The rest of the department is made up of writers, graphic artists, sponsorships representatives and account executives. They all get more of a hands-on approach to promoting the programs and facilities managed by MCCS. They have their faces out there. I'm more in the office. I'm more of the background.

One of the events that MCCS Marketing helps organize in a Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest during a Marine Corps base's fair open to the public. When the account executive asked for volunteers to be judges, I was the first to respond "yes." I was probably the only one to say "yes."

And why was I so excited? Because I love hot dogs and I love watching people eating hot dogs (made of 100% beef) in a competitive process. It's truly American.

Being a judge was easy. Since we were shorthanded, Benny even got to help out. I had three contestants to watch to make sure that they didn't cheat or throw up. As they ate a dog, I put their hot dog sleeve in a pile to be counted at the end. And one of my three contestants was the winner! 12 hot dogs in 12 minutes. His prize? Two round trip airline to anywhere in the United States. Pretty sweet, huh.

Only one person puked and luckily I didn't see that. If I did, I'm not sure how long I would have lasted as a judge.

My prize for volunteering? A T-shirt and a Nathan's hot dog.

Isn't life grand?

Bad blogger

To put my readers' concerns to rest:

Yes, Benny, I and baby are fine. Everyone is healthy and well. We've just been planted here since the Olympics started:

It's called a Cuddler and it's the best piece of furniture they sell at the Exchange. It replaced our sofa we sold in California and it's small enough to fit in our Japanese house. Plus as you can see from the photo it reclines. Benny often falls asleep in it while watching soccer, volleyball, track, softball and every other Olympic sport that is on late after his bedtime.

I've been exhausted with active Baby Volkmann growing inside of me. Apparently having a baby sucks all my energy. I prefer to go to bed at 8:30 p.m., which is really depressing, but my friends who are mothers say this time will past. I hope my tired phase of pregnancy is almost over. This is my second excuse I haven't been blogging.

The third excuse is that our Internet and laptop hasn't been functioning at peak performance since Hawaii. Why? I have no idea. But it's working today, so I'm happy I can type this and post it on the Web site.

The fourth excuse is that we haven't done anything except watch the Olympics. But that's only partly true. I have lots to write about: our trip home, our trip to Hawaii, starting my new job, attending a Japanese tea ceremony and Japanese festivals. I'm hoping you'll travel back in time with me as I plan to catch up over the next couple of days. Please bear with me.

Thanks to everyone who posted words of engagement on Benny's birthday post announcing the baby. Even though we are located half a world away we feel your love and support. Keep it coming.

Bestest Birthday Present Ever!

Stop cringing lovers of the English language, I meant bestest.

So the bestest birthday present does not jump out of an angel food cake singing "Happy Birthday Mr. President" served with ice cream. Close, but that would be the second bestest birthday present.

The bestest birthday present is only 4.39cm long right now, and has a little flutter of a heartbeat. It has the Olympic Spirit of Shawn Johnson, doing somersaults and back flips so fast that tracking the little bugger was difficult with the ultrasound. The newest member of the V-Team also stretches out its arms and screams (we pretend it screams) in jubilation with the same intensity as Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak (USA Gold Medal Men's 4x100m freestyle relay team) after defeating the cocky turned crestfallen French. After watching all this unfold on an 8inch x 8inch screen over the course of 8 minutes, I counted 10 front flips, 2 with twists, and 3 backflips. We're already a little bit nervous about keeping up with the energetic little Benny-gene dominated character.

So it's kind of like putting a present under the Christmas tree that says "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS". Torturous I say, especially since this Christmas will not come until the stork delivers the newest member of the V-Team on or about March 1. And who knows if that date will change with the price of gas these days.

So my Baby's Momma (Michelle's new nickname) has already sealed wife of the year for this year. She can do no wrong, as long as she sticks to the list of "can't do's" in the pregnancy books we've been reading. She enjoys napping, and I enjoy taking sympathy naps with her. Besides sleeping, she is an avid Jelly Beaner, and enjoys blueberry Dunkin Donuts, ice cream, gummy bears, peanut anything, fruit, and caffeine-free tea.

My Baby's Momma is feeling great, and hasn't experienced any morning sickness. In fact, she feels so well she almost forgets that she is pregant. There was a point where she reached in the fridge for a cold one, but thankfully I had already taken care of them all. All joking aside, we're just praying for a healthy baby. And now that we're through the first trimester, we wanted to share the great news with our family and friends. Now back to baby-proofing the house.