chessandlena.com

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. Ooooh yeah. We celebrated yesterday by going down to Indy for dinner with Salah (it was his birthday, too) at La Jolla Cantina, then a little dancing at Vogue, both in Broadripple. We're celebrating today by having severe bloating in our abdomens, along with the constant feeling that we have to dump our guts. Thanks, dubiously-sanitary restaurant!

We've gotten down to business in the former kittenry, former junk room, pending guest room. The walls now bear a coat of white primer and a coat of barely-noticeably-bluish-off-white (or, as I like to call it, "white") paint; the molding is stripped from the base of the walls, and the disturbing crack in the concrete slab has two applications of sealing pseudo-concrete, with probably two more needed. After the sealant is done, it's a coat (maybe two) of de-odorizing primer for the floor, then on to laminate flooring.

Cut the back grass today, which was attaining lush-jungle-growth status. It's also cottonwood nuclear winter in our neighborhood, which means that at any given moment for the next week or so, you will see large puffy flakes of cottonwood puff all through the air. It collects on certain lawns and in wind-dead-ends. Looks kind of pretty in a grumbly, bet-this-shit-sticks-to-my-car kind of way.

Also went shopping to Meijer, where they finally had sparkling water 2 liters (interesting, btw, that the 2-liter bottle is about the only remnant of the metric system we see commonly in the US anymore...), so I picked up a bunch. A lady standing in front of the bottled water and reading all the labels on everything asked me about them, so we talked about trying to detox from aspartame, soda, etc.

Gotta go. Dinner's ready. Chicken and potatoes. Po-ta-toes? Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew...?

So Lena and I headed up to ski again at Timber Ridge. This time, I was armed... er, make that "legged" with a pair o' me own ski boots. A world of difference it makes, let me tell you. So now, there's no bruised fat-guy calves problem... but everything else hurts. Had a good wipeout resulting from a ski not being fully locked in, and on that fall I wrenched my shoulder very nicely. Each muscle in each leg aches, back hurts too... had a great time.

My left arm, however, doesn't hurt at all. Awesome!

Back after one long week crammed into a lab somewhere in Alabama. I was surprised to see this morning, briefly, a great fiery orb hanging in the sky! And even though it was soon obscured by a thick cloud layer, how it lit up everything outside! It was astonishing. I hadn't heard of such a thing, and certainly hadn't noticed anything like that the entire week in the lab.

In other words, glad to be back home.

So we took a trip up north today to Timber Ridge ski resort... er... "area", per the website, near Freakencold, Michigan, about 20 minutes from Kalamazoo. Nice drive, nice li'l ski place.

I was somewhat apprehensive about what I would retain from mu last ski trip (about 2 years ago), but it only took a few runs down the bunny slope before Lena and I were ready to hit the grown-up easy slope. It was quite fun-- we managed to egg each other on into trying progressively more difficult slopes as we went.

The only real problem I had was fat-guy calves. Was damn hard to find any boots that were manageable, and finally ended up with boots two sizes too big for my feet, two sizes too small for my calves. Calves were seriously killing me by the end of the day... I am sure I'm going to have bruise rings around my calves tomorrow.

Aside from that, skiing was freaking awesome. I can see how people get into it a lot... Lena and I had about ten "just one mores" before I finally packed it in (more from calf pain than tiredness, although there was some of that too)... then Lena had about 3 more runs on her own.

Here's hoping we go skiing sooner than two years from now. And toward that end, tonight begins my Quest for Suitable Fat-Guy Calf Ski Boots.