Swimming

Jeff swam yesterday! This may not seem like any huge thing, but *he doesn’t swim* (or at least didn’t!). Now, I’m probably half dolphin, or maybe puffin, or some other water-loving creature, as I love swimming ok, not so much swimming (in the back-and-forth-across-the-pool sense) as gamboling about, turning flips and gliding underwater. And he couldn’t swim at all!

Given how much I love all water-related things, I wanted to show Jeff the beauty of floatiness. So I bought goggles, a noseclip, a raft and a kickboard (and a pool bag to carry them in) and yesterday we went to the pool. It’s been so long since I learned how to swim (I was probably 3 or 4 when I leaned) that I wasn’t sure exactly what the process should be. But we worked using the kickboard, and practiced holding breath under water and worked on arm strokes and – low-and-behold! – Jeff was swimming. Still need to work on the breath timing thing, but it was a really impressive start. (And ignoring completely my love of water, it’s still a good thing to know from a safety POV…)

YAH!

Grrrrr.

Project stress.

Tax Free madness

Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a sale. And Targets. And a tax-free weekend in North Carolina combined with the Grand Opening (woo-hoo!) of a new Target (say “tar-jay”) meant sure disaster for me. Why must the Swell line be so very Swell? And why do they have to have so many things I… need? Like new hair bobbles? And pretty tissue paper (which will be infinitely craft-able). Much shopping. (We even had to take a snack break (mmmmmmm.. cheddarwurst) to sustain ourselves!)

Victory!

Check out the new section in my website called Manipulated Polaroids (in left nav, under Arts & Crafts). I’m quite pleased with myself.

Friday (and finally)

I could’ve slept until noon today, but alas, there’s always that work thing. And those emails to deal with. Sigh. Meghan, Jeff and I are supposed to go see Star Wars tonight at the Museum of Art in Raleigh, but Yahoo’s saying it might rain. I don’t know what the backup plan is, but it probably involves some food and some movie. (Maybe Shabu-Shabu again?)

Hiccups

I used to love them.

Now I hate them.

And I have them.

GRRRRR.

Yet another reason why I don’t care for GW Bush:

He apparently has some very limited ideas of what a marriage should be. I know that many people will disagree with me, but AFAIC, if two people are willing to swear before a judge, their peers and/or a clergy-person-of-choice that they intend on loving each other, supporting each other and being good to each other until the end of their days, then I think they should be able to marry (and through marriage obtain rights such as benefits and a voice in end-of-life decisions, etc.).

Bad Bush. :(

My Yard Guy’s Mother

Backstory:
I have a yard guy because I’m violently allergic to the outdoors. And I don’t like it much either, it turrns out. And my house has a front yard that’s extremely …
vegetatively able:

My current yard guy (having been through a couple not-so-good ones) is James Lewis, for anyone who’s in the RTP area and who wants a good one — email me for a phone number).

Frontstory:
I called James’ house today to schedule my next yard service and spoke with someone who I think was his mom. She was just about the sweetest person I’ve had a random conversation with in a great long while. I think she must’ve called me “honey,” “sweetie,” and “angel” all during this one little 3 minute conversation. And she said “Bless you and you have a great afternoon.” And she meant it.

This has thoroughly cheered my afternoon!

:)

More owies!

Last night at yoga I did a dumb thing. I wanted to challenge myself more in my handstand so I tried it with my back pointing into the room rather than towards the wall, as I normally do. When I do a handstand with my back towards the wall, I can really only fall in one direction, and that’s the direction my feet would come down anyway. With my back facing into the room there’s a whole new possibility; going too far and ending up in a backbend, which is exactly what happened. And though I can do a backbend (called a “wheel” in our style of yoga) easily starting on my back on the floor, coming into a backbend from a handstand is an entirely different thing in terms of where the stress is.

In this case the stress was felt fully by my left elbow, which hyperextended a little bit, I’m afraid. Ow. I Alleved and Icy-Hotted last night, and have done so again this morning (which means I smell like a great big Wintergreen Lifesaver), but I’m still bending that arm gingerly. Silly girl.

Oh well, now I know. Handstands should always be done with back towards wall. Fewer degrees of freedom is a Good Thing where I’m concerned.

OWIE!

I forgot to say earlier that I fell down and went BOOM this morning. I was stepping into the shower and my leading foot slipppppppped, pullling my trailing foot across the shower door jam *and* putting most of my weight on it. Having most of my weight suddenly shift onto a foot that was on top of two metal, skinny, somewhat sharp rods was a Bad Thing. A big egg-shaped swelling developed immediately, and I suspect it’ll be turning all shades of purple and green in upcoming days.

I hope it’s ok for yoga tonight.