Dichroic Reflections

a toast to the alt jahr

We're at home for New Year's Eve; we rarely end up going out in the traditional
sense. We do have a semi-tradition of spending New Year's Eve in dumpy motels in
the middle of nowhere, for various reasons -- everywhere from Pensacola Beach,
FLorida, to Chirstchurch, New Zealand. (Though to be fair, that hotel was far from
dumpy. But we were jet-lagged and bleary-eyed enough that it wouldn't have
mattered.) My favorite to date was New Year's Eve 2000, when we camped out in the
Chiricahua Mountains (that's Chee-ri-CAH-wa, kids). We took a bottle of Dom and
some very good steaks and shared some Jiffy-Pop and an impromptu champagne tasting
with the like-minded folks in the next campsite. They'd brought Pol
Roger.

This year our champagne tasting is on a somewhat lower scale;
we've got two bottles of our usual Freixenet (having determined that yes, Dom
Perignon does taste better, but not enough to justify $100 instead of $10)
and decided to determine once and for all if we prefer Brut or Extra Dry. The
latter came out ahead in the popular opinion polls. All two of us, that is; we
haven't asked the cats to vote, though given the aount of champagne present we may
well do so.

In other news, yesterday we did some ambitious four-
wheeling, checked out a remote climbing area and ruined the side steps on Orange
Crush, Rudder's new Hummer. Oops. Silly design, anyway. We finished the painting,
cleanup and unmasking and now have a yellow entry hall with spandy white woodwork.
And my new Handspring arrived today, so I've been setting that up and figuring it
out.

2002 has been an interesting year and one bringing
opportunities and choices, for me and for others. It will be interesting to see
what we do with those in the next year.

why was that?

Remind me again, why did I ever think painting was fun?

still tired

Well. This vacation is not being nearly as expected. I am writing this on Day Two
of what's turning out to be a three day painting project, even though we're only
painting a laundry room, a hall, and one wall of the family room. The problem is
that because the dryer vent is way too long, to actually have the machine dry out
clothing we have to vent it indoors to a little box with a screen on top. This
works about as well as you'd expect, which is why the first step of cleaning the
laundry room was to vacuum and scrub the walls and get mummified lint off
everything.

Then of course there was the usual masking fun, followed
by painting trim and then realizing it will need a second coat -- that's today's
project. Yes, we decided to paint the trim first. It seemed to make more sense due
to the logistics of masking, and because the yellow walls will be darker than the
white trim and thus their paint will cover smudges of the white better than vice
versa. Or something.

Menawhile one sinus is chock-full and my head
hurts. Either I've become allergic to paint or we're due for another weather
front.

And on the non-relaxation front, I haven't yet made it out to
use the Borders gift certificate I found in my stocking or the ones to the bead
place I got for Chanukah. Dammit. I've already had one minor hissy fit (an amusing
one, I hope, not a nasty one) to convince Rudder I needed more relaxation time
but unfortunately there's just too much to be done for that to have had much
effect. I married the wrong man for relaxation, or else it's just that Real Life
doesn't support that sort of thing.

consumer complaint

Consumer complaint ahead: Fucking Handspring
still has my cool new Treo organizer/mobile phone listed as "awaiting shipment" --
since the 23rd. Now, I know Christmas was in there, but the other days were
workdays, especially for the automated warehousing robots I'm guessing they use. I
ordered on the 23rd, the phone plan was approved the same day, and the thing was
moved to the warehouse to await shipment, according to their tracking page.

I finally called to see what the deal was, and the customer care rep
said, "Oh, we're having a delay on the Treo 180, and they won't ship until the
31st." WHAT?? I asked, "And when were they planning to notify me of this? It's not
on the shipping page or in any of the three emails I got from you about the
purchase." (Note: Thank-you-for-ordering, order confirmation, plan approved).

She claimed it was on the web page when I ordered but I didn't see
it -- the info about the product and the service plans and special offers for it
were sort of haphazardly scattered over several pages, and several of them still
claimed express shipping was free, an offer which had expired the day before. I
suggested that perhaps the pages hadn't been updated at that point, and she said,
"Well, it's possible."

She did credit me for the express shipping
since obviously this is far from express service, but I'm still irked. I wanted to
play with my new toy before going back to work. This thing better be wicked cool
when I get it, because right now I'm still pissed.

boxing day

Yesterday:

As I was about to start this entry, I got called out to be Safety
Monitor as Rudder lowered the first turkey into the boiling oil. Yes, I
said "first"; we are having not one, not two but three turkeys. Two deep fried,
into which Rudder injected seasonings two days ago, and one smoked, a birthday
present to Rudder from his brother. Why yes, my husband does tend to excess, as
just witness the behemoth in the garage. This is the view upon opening the door
form the house to our garage: .

So now I'm
just wondering. Dinner will consist of slices from the smoked trkey and one of the
fried ones. (Deep fried turkey is juicy and not at all greasy) as well as French
bread, salad, and asparagus and new potatoes tossed with lemon butter, followed by
cheesecake-browsing for dessert -- we bought six slices of six different kinds.
The question is: if I do up a bit of New Orleans Shrimp for as appetizer, would
that be overkill, or just part of the theme?

Merry Christmas, y'all.
Peace on Earth, to all humankind.

Today: We did have two kinds of
turkey as well as shrimp hors d'oeuvres. However the computer was being crotchety
so I couldn't put up my entry. Today's plan is to do absolutely nothing: nibble
snacks and leftovers, nibble on each other, play with our new gifts and toys.
Happy Boxing Day.

tapes

I was cleaning out some drawers in the china cabinet yesterday, in order to make
room for the entire set of china Rudder's grandparents gave us last May -- and
which have been sitting in boxes next to the cabinet ever since. In the process, I
also went through my old tapes and reunited some empty cases and orphaned tapes
sitting around.

Tapes .... I had forgotten how much I loved some of
the music on those. I don't buy or make tapes anymore; these days I mostly get
commercial CDs. The tapes are mostly from college and just after, and I think on
balance I love them more than the music I have on CDs. There are three reasons:
first, I had much less money then so I only bought something or went to the effort
of taping it if I did really love it. Second they're from a time in my life when
maybe music had more impact on me. And third, they're from when I was still
discovering the folk music I still love. I had a boyfriend with a great album
collection and a local folk club where I volunteered to introduce me to the best
older and newer music. I don't have that kind of music community in Phoenix --
there's an Irish music club out here that also turns out for bands like Great Big
Sea, but that's about it. Really the only new artists I've found since that I love
as much as GBS and Gordon Bok.

And maybe I love them more because you
only get to hear something for the first time once. Then again, rediscovery is
almost as thrilling, plus it has the sweetness of nostalgia added in. And
listening to Cindy Kallet is still like laying back into a sunbeam and having warm
honey poured all over your body. Mmmm.

And a pot of chili is
simmering in the crock pot. Mmmmm again.

what's that watery stuff falling from the sky?

Rudder's birthday today, so while he's out flying (assuming he is -- the weather
isn't cooperating) I have to go out in the rain (!) and get a card for him,
then come back and wrap all those presents I never managed to give him for
Chanukah. They'll be stocking stuffers instead. I should also go and get him a
Dilbert daily calendar because I haven't gotten one and we've exchanged them for
about 5 years straight now, but I really don't feel like it. Oh, Amazon....no, I
suppose it's too late for that.

And I'm still vacillating over
ordering a new Handspring organizer/phone for me. I waited a day too long and now
their shipping isn't free anymore, dagnabbit. (I've have ordered yesterday, had I
realized.)

Off to get rained on.

how to wrap

How to wrap a large wheeled suitcase: don't bother closing the bottom. Just wrap
the rest of it, leaving the bottom open so the wrapping is sort of like a large
slipcover.

How to wrap an IOU for airfare to Ireland (an IOU so we
can pick the date together: write it on a shamrock cut out of green paper, then
tuck that into a tourbook on Dublin. (Or two, if you can't decide between them.
TIP: try to make the shamrock small enough to fit inside one of the books.
(Oops.)

The aboe has been brought to you by the voice of
experience.

Damn it, I forgot to get a card for Rudder's birthday
tomorrow.

real trust

Been an interesting couple of days. Not that I needed any proof that my husband
loves and trusts me, but if I ever did, I have it now.

Friday night,
Rudder told me he had "something" he had to pick up -- it hadn't been ready when
he'd originally bought it, and he'd thought he'd have to get it Saturday, but it
was ready for Friday. He'd made an appointment to get it at 7:30. Given the timing
and the fact that he's not usually mysterious, of course I thought it was
something for me -- jewelry or something that could be custom ordered. While he
went to get that, I went off to Michael's to see if I could find some way to wrap
his presents, one very large and one more an idea than an actual present.
(Actually, chatting before I left, I figured out how to wrap the one; printed on
an appropriate shape and tucked in an appropriate guidebook. (He's in the room as
I type this.) In case anyone needed to know this (SwooP, you there?) 7:30 on a
Friday night is an ideal time to visit Michael's. The place was deserted (amazing,
since it's opposite our local mall) and all the wrapping paper and ornaments were
on sale, 50% off. I ended up spending way too much on paper, candles, and a few
more icicle ornaments there and at the Pier 1 next door. I suppose that means
their sales had the intended effects. Just doing my bit for the local
economy.

Then I got home and there was a dark orange BEHEMOTH in the
middle of my driveway! Turned out the "something" Rudder had to go get was the href="http://www.hummer.com/hummerjsp/h2/index.jsp">Hummer H2 he's been
planning to buy. (NOTE: For himself, not for me!) I had wondered about that; he'd
been planning to purchase in a month or so, but then it turned out the price will
be going up by then and then the dealer called -- they had one in stock with all
the options he wanted. I figured he needed to decide on that soon, but he hadn't
mentioned it -- in retrospect I should have been suspicious.

He'd
parked it out front because the Behemoth, henceforth to be known as the Orange
Crush because it is the coppery color the dealer refers to as Sunset Orange
Metallic, is so big that he wanted to have me spotting when he drove it into the
garage the first time. There was some doubt as to whether the rack on top would
fit under the open garage door. I told him that before we did that, it was
necessary to take the new car for a joyride. So we went out and looked at some of
the Christmas lights before affirming that the Crush does, indeed, fit in our
garage. Barely.

He spent last night cleaning some other stuff out of
the way so now we can park it next to Zippy the Honda and even get the doors of
either vehicle open. Now when you open the door of our garage, you are greeted
with an in-your-face ferociously glowering grill. I need to post a
picture.

Yesterday we drove up to the town of Show Low, about three
hours away, just to buy a live Christmas tree reared at the proper altitude for
planting on our airpark proprety. We took my truck so we could stash the tree in
the pickup's bed. As it turned out, the biggest live trees they had were about 3'
tall, so we could have taken the Orange Crush. Given the size we were also glad we
had bought a regular cut tree, since that one is much bigger. We ended up buying
two, an Austrian Pine and a Colorado Blue Spruce. This is a Good Thing; we
checked the property on the way back and found that someone had completely
uprooted and tossed aside one of the biggest of the young trees we planted last
spring. At this time, the prime suspect is described as being about 7' tall, with
broad antlers and a taste for tree bark. Yes, there are elk in the
area.

After we got back, Rudder did the aforementioned garage-
clearing. I headed out to do some more food-shopping. My truck is not a good
shopping vehicle -- groceries left in the bed tumble and spill. The Civic works
well, but there are Special Things in the trunk I didn't want Rudder to see when
he helped me unload. Options: 1) don't let him help me unload, or at least get
everything out of the trunk myself. 2) Take the Crush. Rudder urged me to do the
latter, to take his new baby to the land of careering carts. (As he pointed out,
the Crush has brush guards, bumpers, and steps all aorund so at least a cart
couldn't scratch it.) And that, my friends, is how I know my husband loves me: He
let me drive his brand new truck. Without even having him along. Is that sweet or
what?

slow day

Last day before a 12-day holiday and I am NOT having a productive
day.

Big surprise there.

I slept in this morning
(clarification: until about 5AM) and didn't erg, because the alternative was to
get up at 4 to get on the rowing machine before Rudder. Sadly, I can't say I feel
any more energetic for the extra sleep and lack of exercise -- oh no! don't tell
me my body has become erg-dependent!! AAAUUUUGHHHH! Does Betty Ford have a program
for this?

Having, finished (FINISHED!) the challenge, I only would
have done about a half-hour's time on the erg, so I still may do it
tonight.

I am such a waste of an occupied chair today. I keep trying
to at least do some reading, but it's not working. Maybe I'll clean my desk. That
will serve the dual purposes of keeping me busy doing somethign sort of
productive, and ensuring that I don't forget anything I need to take home -- which
reminds me. Hang on. [Carefully makes sure the last sip of tea is finished and
throws mug into backpack.] The mug I use for making my tea has tea-crud on the
bottom, and it's one of those tall insulated ones -- too narrow to reach the
bottom. I keep forgetting to take it home so I can get it cleaned out with a
brush.

Any bets on how long it will take me to bring it back in?

PS. Forgot to mention a local news item today. Apparently, some guy in town who
wrote a book on "dirty divorce tricks", a few years ago, specializing in advice on
how to get out of paying child support. I can understand being upset enough to
want to get back at an ex-spouse, but what sort of subhuman takes it out on
children? Apparently, the sort who just got arrested for --- you got it --
nonpayment of his child support. Karma in action, or a God(dess) with a sense of
humor, you choose. Either way, it sure as hell brightened my morning commute.

DONE, 2002

I'm done, I'm done, I'm DONE href="http://www.concept2.com/rowing/motivate/holchalfaq.asp">Two hundred thousand
meters are done, over, and href="http://www.concept2.com/sranking/challenge/holiday_2002.asp">accomplished >! [Dichroic does the happy rower dance -- but stiffly.]

And then
after I showered and dressed, I decided to drive my truck into work, which is kept
outside (I mostly commute in Zippy the Honda, who lives in the garage. And I had
to scrape ice off the windshield! What an indignity! No one who has to deal
with Arizona summers should also have to scrape ice off her windshield. We don't
even keeo scrapers in our cars down here, or own winter jackets. But though our
winter days usually get up to 65-70 degrees, this being a desert, our lows can be
30 or 40 degrees cooler. And I live in one of the cold parts of this valley.
So....ice. Good thing I had a nice useful no-longer-valid credit card
handy.

Today, I am thankful for: Duh. I'm DONE!

woman with a ravell'd sleave

I'm not entirely sure why, but I think I'm as excited about Christmas and New Year
this year as I have ever been. We're not doing anything special at all; in fact,
here's the list:

• sleep late every damn
  day
• not erg 10K every day (I'm vacillating between trying to
  hit 250000m by New Years, less than 5K/day average, or not touching it at
  all)
• Head up to Show Low and buy a live Christmas tree we can later
  plant on the property (we're buying it there because we need one adapted to that
  altitude, about 5000' higher than here)
• drink lots of wine. And
  some beer, and champagne on the holidays
• cook some good meals --
  deep-fried turkey for Christmas, chili for Christmas Eve, not sure what
  else
• paint one hallway and a wall of the family
  room
• read and read and read
• spend at least one whole
  day in bed. With Rudder, of course. And the box from href="http://www.blowfish.com">Blowfish that's under my tree this
  minute.
• And read some more
• finish rejuvenating an
  old necklace my mom asked me to fix about a year ago (Venetian glass beads,
  actually bought in Venice, circa 1967)
• Minor household
  chores
• Go out rowing, for fun, not training, in actual daylight. My
  boat is dusty.
• Hang out with the kitties, who clearly don't think
  we're spending enough time with them.
• Buy myself a library table
  (Rudder is not fully aware this will be happening this soon.)
• Plan
  our spring trip to Ireland (He doesn't have full details of this,
  either)
• Stay up late -- like, at least through prime
  time.
• Spend a few small gift cards I got for Chanukah -- books and
  beads

And really, that's about it. If we get bored we might
go camping at Death Valley for a couple of days. So I don't know why I'm so
thoroughly psyched. Since no one is staying with us, we won't even get as many
presents as usual. I think it may all come back to activity #1, way up at the
start of this page.

mixed grill

Another one of those mixed days here.

Good: I just found out I will
be able to take off from 12/22 all the way through New Year's Day, and won't have
to borrow vacation ahead or take more than a few unpaid hours.

Bad:
Rudder keeps making noises about how much we have to do over the
break.

Good: I think it won't be that bad. He always finds lots of
work for himself, but I think I'll only have to work with him on some painting,
which I enjoy, and a few other things like backflushing the
pool.

Bad: I lost my PalmPilot yesterday, complete with credit card
number`, all my financial numbers, and my passwords to all the 10 million work
applications that all need separate ones.

Good: The important
passwords, like for my credit card's website aren't there, just little hints to
remind me what they are.

Bad: But I can't get into any site or
application whose password I don't remember.

Good: I was thinking
about getting a new cell phone anyway, and this Palm was two years old. For
$100 less than this one cost, I can get a Handspring Treo that's a phone and
organizer, that's as small as the one I lost. And I can get a phone plan for it
that's only a couple dollars a month more than the prepaid one I
had.

Bad: This plan doesn't have as good coverage as my current
one.

Good (well, less bad): But it's a newer system that my current
provider is also moving toward, so coverage should improve.

Bad:
Because of the lost Palm, I cancelled my credit card and won't get the new one for
5-7 days.

Good: But I can call on Saturday to get the number of the
new one, so I can use it online or over the phone. Say, to buy the new Treo. And I
can use my debit card for all in-store purchase -- don't think I had that number
in the old Palm.

Bad: Yet more money to spend, on top of all the
holiday and birthday presents.

Good: But the days I don't have to
take unpaid just about cover it.

Good: And I get wonderful, blessed,
free time to spend at home with my Rudder (and I mean those two words in the
metaphoric as well as the more literal sense) so who cares what minor irritants I
have to deal with?

P.S. The Palm has been found, though naturally it's too late to uncancel the
credit card. As a fervent believer in Murphy's Law, I knew this would happen. I'm
not sure whether to be relived or disappointed that now I have no excuse to buy a
new one.

Today I am thankful that: the Goods are outpacing the Bads. And that
tomorrow I will be done the erg holiday challenge!!!

the decline and fall...again

I read this article by Linda
Hall with a strong sense that I had seen it before. People have been compleining
about the decline of the English language since well before the Norman Conquest.
They've been right since then, too, but only if you assume that change is
necessarily change for the worse. If there were any learned writers who were
paying attention to English in the first two centuries of the milennium, rather
than writing in Latin to impress religious colleagues or speaking in French to get
on at court, they would have had a very good case for the decline of the language.
It was changing quickly, acquiring a simplified grammar and borrowing new
vocabulary with the speed of a pidgin language, so that grandparents would
literally not have been able to understand their grandchildren, had their own
language remain unchanged. By the time of Caxton's ubiquitous "egges/eyren" story,
English was again the national tongue, but was so fragmented that a dialect from
one district could not be understood in another. And yet it was the result of that
"decline" that became the instrument played by maestros from Chaucer to
Shakespeare on up to Wharton and James, whom Hall holds up as exemplars of correct
English.

It's also interesting that James's work always seems to be
cited as a paragon of good English. There's no doubt that he was the master of an
idiosyncratic style, and none that his weighty sentences are always grammatically
correct. But would it really be a good thing if everyone wrote in James' ponderous
style? Reading James requires plenty of time, and a patient mind. There's still a
place (and there always was) for things that are easy to read at a surface level -
- more so if, like Jane Austen, they also repay a bit of deeper
attention.

And what, precisely, is wrong with hanging out? What else
were Shakespeare and Jonson and Marlowe doing in all those Elizabethan pubs?
(Well, besides tupping barmaids or lads, as appropriate.) What else was Boswell
doing with Johnson? (Besides the hero-worship and puppyish flattery, both of which
is still visible in any junior high -- or Senate office.) What were Chaucer's
didn't equate to, "Dude!! Road trip!"? Except that, according to Hall, the Wife of
Bath was somehow morally superior because she didn't say "Dude!"

Yes, some people get annoyed by youngsters who think they've
discovered sex, or safety pins through facial piercings, or the joys of slang
their elders don't understand. Me? I get annoyed by those who profess to have a
knowledge of history who yet repeat thousand-year-old complaints about the decline
of civilzation and the language.

Today I am thankful for: a
sense of history, and a sketchy but working knowledge of same.

I think that's it

It's been too long since I updated. I can tell because now I want to write about
the boat parade and the guaranteed-seedless oranges, the half-marathon, the tree,
the local climate, getting back to work, and holiday presents. And probably other
stuff I've forgotten. And e-cards. And good cheese. I don't know how to write
about all that coherently without creating The Entry That Ate My Day, so I'm
afraid coherence will have to suffer.

The boat parade went fairly
well. We had an eight, decked out with white lights along both gunwales, white and
colored lights crusting bow and stern decking, glowsticks along the oars, and
battery lights -- red bulbs and multi-colored stars -- pinned along the rowers'
arms. Rudder was the main planners, and he does tend to excess, which of course is
the right thing to do anyhow in this sort of situation. Unfortunately, I can't
find any pictures of the parade at al online, much less of our boat. But I'm told
we looked good, and rumor has it we won the human-powered division. (Since we
launch on one side of the lake, and the awards were announced on the other side,
we weren't there for them.) It wasn't nearly as much fun as last year, probably
because instead of T2 and Egret we had a bunch of people whom we don't know well,
only a few of whom were willing to help with all the necessary planning and set-
up.

Somewhere during the several hours we were there doing up the
decorations, I ran off to the supermarket with another woman, whom I will call
Anjou. We actually had a blast, picking up things like pizelles and eggnog and
some wonderful sweet tiny oranges (Clementines, maybe?) whose peels practically
zipped off. I can now report that a French accent can be an enormous asset in
brief interactions. Anjou got the produce guy to solemnly swear to her that the
clementines were seedless, and he was charmed; if I had tried that I would have
just sounded whiny. Even I kept having the urge to explain that yes, you can
expect American supermarkets to sell Christmas lights, unlike smaller European
markets. Fortunately I managed to suppress that urge; since she's been in this
state six years, as long as I have, it's probably safe to assume she knows what
supermarkets are like.

Yesterday, I did a half-marathon on the erg.
That's 21097 meters. I was a bit disappointed to finish a few minutes slower than
last year. I wasn't pulling hard, but I wasn't then, either. I now have only about
35000 left for the holiday challenge. (If T2 or Egret are reading this, no, I am
not going to knock it all off in one marathon row. Yes, I am a wimp.) After that
we went out and got the Christmas tree, me walking like an old woman. We've got
it set up, but only had time to put on one string of lights -- because of the boat
decorating, we have tons of them, so it will be a very well-lit tree. Next week
we're driving up north about three hours just to get yet another tree, a live one
that we'll then plant on our lot up north. It's a bit redundant, but this is the
time of year for that. Having come late to Christmas, I'm not annoyed with its
excesses, and have no desire yet to scale back. Besides, just this year we've
gotten about six more ornaments (from Korea, Alaska, the National Cathedral, and
Mount Vernon) and we may be outgrowing one tree. I don't think we'll normally be
having more than one tree, though; it's just that the live one will probably only
be three feet tall and that's just not big enough to make the whole house feel
festive. The first year we had a tree, we bought lots of plain gold and red balls,
(as well as some crystal and silver icicles and a few things we just liked) so the
plain ornaments are gradually being replaced by those that mean something to us. I
still hang at least some of the stars made from tuna-can-lids that I got before I
even met Rudder, when I had a tiny tree one year because Gymrat, a lapsed
Catholic, was visiting over the holiday. (I need to call him, come to think of
it.)

This also appears to be the time of year for cheese; at least
three times in the last few weeks, people have brought in cheeses and crackers
(Anjou's Beaujolais Nouveau party, Thursday afternoon in last week's class, and
now today at work) which have included all kinds of wonderful cheeses. Yum. Wines
and cheeses .... nothing like foods that are both tasty and able to make you feel
all sophisticated. I don't know if the cheese markets out here have suddenly
gotten good or what, but I believe I'll be hitting Trader Joe's or AJ's, our local
gourmet shops (supermarkets with delusions of grandeur) for some holiday
noshes.

The climate thing: I don't think our climate works the way
other places do -- our temperatures seem to depend only on how much sun we get.
There are hardly any clouds to seal heat in or out, so our coldest part of the
year isn't really the part called winter. Instead we always seem to get our
coldest days around now, late December into early January, when the days are
shortest.

The presents and e-cards things: Uh, need to mail the one
and compose and send the others.

I think that's
it.

Oops, one more thing:

Today I am thankful for: cool
coworkers

purely for morale purposes

Went and wasted me some dollars last night, and enjoyed it too. They let us out of
class around 11, and I (and I think most of the other locals) decided not to head
into work. I did, of course, check my work email when I got home like a good
little employee. Um, I think I did.

So I ran a bunch of errands,
traded my broken boots in for a pair that were similar but come up to the knee,
which I hope I won't regret -- I do wear them with pants, but they're made out of
stretch stuff and are tight to my enormous stud-muffaletta calves (ahem). Then I
stopped in at a local day spa to check out their survices, and cased the local
AT&T place, because my biggish and non-studly cell phone is driving me crazy as is
my prepaid calling plan. I use the plan so rarely I'm lways finding my minutes are
about to expire. However, I've been using it only due to being in class. It
doesn't drive me nuts at all when I don't use it, so I decided to wait another
month and see if I still want to change to a regular plan. If I do, though, I
could get an internet connection, which I expect mostly to use as something to
play with while waiting in line. Or checking my email while in class, if I'm ever
in training much again.

Then I dropped my old boots oand a pair of
Rudder's shoes off at the cobbler. I think I'm the only person who says "cobbler"
anymore -- now they're all called "shoe repair shops". Then I went to he library
and luxuriated in having plenty of time to spend there, and plenty of time in the
near future to read any books I might get. I'll also be spending about 3 hours a
day listening to audiobooks, between erging and commuting, so needed to replenish
those.

And then....ah, bliss. After a couple of hours at home,
I went back to the day spa for a massage. Mmmmmmmmmmm. I opted to try the hot
rocks massage -- not only do they set the rocks on various body parts to impart
heat, they actually use them for massaging. These rocks are hot, about the
temperature of a hot tub, so it feels like tongues of flame moving along your arms
and legs. The table was incredibly comfortable, because they'd added a layer of
eggcrate foam, plus a heated blanket under me. It did get a bit warm by the end.
The only drawback is that it uses lighter pressure than other forms of massage. I
would recommend the hot rock massage for pure relaxation ad destressing, but
because I've always got tight muscles, I think I will opt for Swedish next
time.

I got to the spa a little early, so I wasted time in the nearby
stores. There was one home accessories place, with tchotches all over the place,
and a clothing store of the type I think of as diva clothes, complete with a
manager who calls every customer darling and gets very excited at tight-fitting
clothes. I thinks she takes her own styling cues from some designer, but I'm not
sure which one. The store carries some Versace, but she's definitely not doing
Donatella's looks -- not enough hair or cleavage. I found some clothing I liked,
but asked them to hold it while I went for the massage because it was getting
late. Went back after and did decide to buy all of it, partly against better
judgement. There was a hot pink crinkled silky top with a mandarin collar and
matching flowered chiffon skirt, pink on ivory.I might wear the top under a
sweater; or the skirt with a sweater; I won't wear the set together for 6 months,
but it was half-price and will be wonderful for work then. Thee was a vanilla
ribbed turtleneck that I expect to get a ton of wear from in the next few months,
and a pair of very-low-waited, denim-belted jeans that I will rarely wear, but
that I bought because, frankly, they make my ass look incredible. Unfortunately,
they make it look a little too good for work, though I might be able to wear them
there with a long top. Though I suppose that defeats the whole purpose. I need to
go to parties more.

Today I am thankful for: having enough
money that I can waste some. I really need to donate more to charities, though.

usual bitching

So, 123000 meters into the erg thing, which means somewhere over 125000 calories
burned, and my stomach is looking pouchy. Where, I ask you, where is the justice
in this world? I'm beginning to think rowing may actually be better exercise than
erging a comparable distance. After all, besides the actual rowing, there's the
carrying the boat to and from the water -- we have a longer haul than any other
boatyard I've seen.

Of course all these late dinners aren't helping:
chili and beer Wednesday night, sushi last night because my class went out to
celebrate the end of training. I keep trying to convince myself that the stomach-
pouching is only an ephemeral phenomenon caused by late dinners not having been
fully digested by early mornng, but I'm not entirely buying it. Of course, I'm not
trying to eat any less, either.

Today I get out early and can finally
do some errands, which is a good thing because tomorrow one of the other people
planning our entry into the annual Boat Parade told all the other rowers to show
up at 2, to decorate a boat for a 7PM parade, and by the time we found out it
would only have confused people to change it. It does not take 5 hours to put
lights on a boat, but since we're among the motivating factors of this whole
thing, we'll pretty much have to be there the whole time or people will just leave
and we won't have anyone to carry and row the eight. I'm not all that jazzed about
te actual lighting anyway, but Rudder gets off on planning this sort of thing.
(Yes, my husband is perverse in some ways.) The parade itself will be fun, if I
haven't gone stark mad by then.

Off to get out some more cards before
heading off to class.

Today I am thankful for: Only a half day
of training!

worrying

Odd. Went out with Homer and Alice to our local brewpub tonight. This also happens
to be the brewpub in the mall, and it's now December, two facts we forgot when we
arranged to meet there. (We haven't been there for a while, since our usual href="http://ziggym@diaryland.com">partners in crime deserted us for wetter
climates.) The odd thing was that parking was easy, and so was getting a table --
much easier than on a typical summer Wednesday. I'm starting to get very, very
worried about the local economy.

Today I am thankful for
Getting to see some old friends, and hear from others.