Weekend Wrap-up

OK fellas, here’s a little tip for ya to keep peace and harmony in your relationship. When it’s
been snowing all day and you begrudgingly go outside to shovel but have only been out there for 20 minutes and shoveled only half the driveway, don’t come inside and say, “Boy, if you need some exercise, you can come out and help shovel.”

This is just wrong on so many levels. I ignored him at first. Then he said, “Honey?” and repeated the statement, this time even more jovial. He looked so pleadingly at me that I decided to help. And being the better person, I didn’t remind him that I did all the shoveling last year by myself because it always snowed while he was on shift. Hey, I know we had a mild winter, but snow is snow and shoveling is, well, shoveling. And let’s not even get into the whole implication that I NEED this exercise. He may not have meant it that way. And it doesn’t matter that I do need exercise, that’s not the point.

And here’s the kicker, it kept snowing, so there’s another few inches out there. But even though he’s supposed to have tomorrow off for MLK day, he’s going into work. So, guess who’ll have to shovel what’s left out there, including that thick pile of ice and snow that the plows left. Uh huh. I could wait until he got home, but I probably won’t. But I might call him and tell him to be sure to go to the gym since he wasn’t getting any exercise by shoveling.

Shoveling also shows another difference between us. I’m a little neater, for lack of a better word. For example, here’s Al’s side of the driveway during our last snow:



And here’s my side:




Before you talk about how much faster Al is, just know that as I got near the end and he was zooming to the sidewalks, he asked me to go back and clean up those lines.

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We went over to our friend’s house for pizza Friday night. They have two girls, but for some reason it had expanded to four. Seems 11 and 13-year-old do that—they clone on Friday nights in search of a slumber party. This family also has three dogs, two Great Danes and a chocolate Labrador, so it was a pretty full house. But we had a great time, and I got my dog fix. Here are a couple of pics of them:

Anya and Addie love the fireplace



Addie and Cocoa wait for a cookie



The girls were playing Dance Dance Revolution or DDR, that arcade game where you watch a screen and try to match the steps on the screen by stepping on the correct arrow. For some reason the girls just had to get me out there to play, too. Everyone wanted to play against Kell. Ya think that’s because I’m old and uncoordinated and they knew it would be an easy win? Yeah, me too. Actually, it was a lot of fun, and the girls had pity on me. Well, they had pity after I humiliated myself with the first song. So for the second song, they chose the “easy” one, the “slow” one, “Get Down Tonight” by KC and the Sunshine Band. Yeah! Now we’re talkin’! Bring it on, baby! And I did good, too. So good that they went back to a fast song next. Competition starts early, I see. All the songs sound like that Barbie song—“I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world.” And I’ve learned, after watching the experts, that the key is not to worry so much about getting back to center. If you’re standing on the left arrow and a back arrow is coming up fast, you don’t have to go back to center and step back, you can leave your left foot on the left arrow and step back with your right. I tell you this so that when you are in this situation, you’ll be ahead of the game. Learn from my mistakes. Plus, if you’re a rather, um, womanly woman, with rather large womanly features, you might want to wear a jogging bra. Those “jump on two arrows at the same time” moments are a little tricky.

BTW, I’m sure Al is taking bids on showing the video he took of me. Oops, that got deleted! How did that happen?

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I went to a “Foundations” class at a local Yoga/Pilates studio. I’m so bored with my workout and I think I need something to help with balance and flexibility. This is the year of balance, remember. I was there for 3 friggin’ hours! I don’t even like to do something I really enjoy for 3 hours. It was interesting and I learned a lot, but by the last 30 minutes, I was getting cranky. That may have had something to do with the fact that I hadn’t eaten since 7:30 and it was now 2:00! Cranky, definitely cranky.

However, it was fascinating. I think I’m just going to do the Yoga for now. The Pilates classes are done on these machines called “The Reformer.” Doesn’t that sound a little intimidating? First of all, I keep hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger say it, but also I keep imagining some future world where people who wear color have to go through “The Reformer” and change into an army of grayness.

They do a lot at this studio—hypnotherapy, massage, Reiki and Ayurveda, a type of ancient Indian treatment that takes into account your “dosha”, or body type. If your dosha is out of balance, you have certain ailments, so if you know your dosha, supposedly you can focus on foods and exercise to obtain and maintain that balance. You can go here to find your dosha. I’m a Pitta, BTW, I think, with quite a bit of Kapha. There are parts of me that are all 3, but that’s the way all those test things work out for me. The questions always seem to be black and white—Are you this, this or that? Well, I’m a little bit of this and that. Anyway, it seems to be all the rage here.

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So that’s how my weekend went. How was yours?