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June 22, 2007
All in the family
Where does the time go? Recently, the time has gone to hosting visiting family, and getting twice-weekly chiropractic treatment and rehab for a back injury. (I will not be doing flip turns in the pool for a long time, if ever again.)
Dave's parents spent a very long weekend with us. We ate a ton of awesome food... SO much food... the highlight of which was more farmstand strawberries. I seriously ate myself sick on fresh, sweet, juice-dripping-down-your-chin strawberries. We made a special trip an hour down the coast just to get them.
Much of the weekend was spent compiling genealogical info. Dave recently discovered a very cool family tree site and over the course of several days they scoured North Carolina cemetery records, adding a couple hundred family members to the site. Dave dug up many fascinating family stories in the process. It's strange to think about my husband's ancestors owning slaves. (Yikes.) And fighting in the Confederate Army. Or the fact that women essentially could not own or inherit property until fairly recently.
Also fascinating to this Yankee is the list of names. So many Southern-sounding names. Dave has female ancestors named Cliffie, Effie, Fannie, Elsie, Ellie, Nellie, Lessie, Lettie, Bessie Lee and Lillie Mae. And there are two women named Tryphena, a Novella, a Muzette, and a Challice. And of course Ora, Luvina, and his great-great-great-great-grandmother Honour. They traced a few ancestors as far back as the 16th century.
The men's names aren't nearly so interesting. Except for great-great-great-grandfather America. And Lucius Crymes (a great aunt's late husband's father), who sounds to me like a character from a Harry Potter book.
One other exciting thing has happened lately. We had something stolen. This something is probably the single most valuable object we own. (Nope, not our car.) Any guesses?
June 8, 2007
The icy dip
When I was a kid, being a fan of truly refined comedy, I got a talking Ed Grimley doll. (I still have it somewhere.) You could pull a string on his back and he'd burst out with "Gee that's a pain that's gonna linger!" or "I'm as doomed as doomed can be, you know" or "I'm going completely mental, I must say."
Spending 20 minutes in a tub of ice water is one of those things to file under "If you had told me 10 years ago I'd be doing this, I'd have told you were going completely mental." Of course, so is going out for a 2-hour run, which is the behavior that necessitates the ice bath.
I'm getting older. I used to save the ice or cold-water bath for the really, really long or hot workouts. But now, at the ripe old age of (almost) 32, it feels good after any longish run. My knees feel a little more beaten up post-run than they used to.
The cold water seems unbearable for the first few minutes (and that has nothing to do with the shrimp-colored tile in our bathroom), but after that it's downright pleasant. I wear a fleece top to keep my torso warm. And this water was only about 59 degrees (not that I measured the temperature with a meat thermometer, noooo, I'd never do that). That's about the same temperature as the Bay right now. (And, come to think of it, the air outside.) Colder would be better, but I didn't have much ice to spare.
What seemingly mental things to do your hobbies drive you to do?
June 1, 2007
Paying the bills
Whoah, it's June! Already! June is one of my favorite months, up there with September and December and October. June is my birthday month. Isn't June great?
It's certainly better than July, which usually brings the worst weather of the year to San Francisco.
To kick off the month, here's a guessing game. What is the total value the coins shown above? The Gladware container still had a couple of inches of unsorted coins in it, if that helps. And there were only 3 or 4 quarters in the whole pile, since we pick those out for parking meters. Another hint: the total amount will be enough to pay one of the following bills for the month of June:
a) my cell phone
b) the gas and electricity in our apartment
c) our digital cable/internet
The prize is the glory of winning. Or a 2-pound vat of mandarin-flavored HEED electrolyte drink mix, if you want it. (Actually, if anyone does want it, I'm more than willing to part with it, correct guess or no.)
