Field of Diamonds in the Sky

Friday photos on Saturday.  Welcome to the dry weather after the half-marathon deluge.  I knew I'd stay with my pacer when she asked me about the last two books I read.

Hope you are having a great Saturday!

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days

It's a month packed full of birthdays including one of our very own GBC tomorrow.  A Wednesday mantra with good wishes for a year of blessings:

Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love

- Rumi 

The Bike is Right

Matt* seemed like a really nice person.  He grabbed the bike beside you in spin and you guessed that during the winter he would occasionally be mistaken for Santa.  Gentle white beard and hair, jolly posture, and a smile.  You were a bit tired; you had given up some sleep this weekend for more play.  He said something about being there because of the bad things he ate over the weekend; you mentioned a cheeseburger.  You both laughed.

The spin instructor is a substitute.  She's wearing a West Point sweatshirt.

The music started.

It was a short warm-up today but you were okay with that because your legs felt like lead.  (You would later change your mind as you moved into the three-minutes "on" and three minutes "off" section of the class.  Hello, West Point?!)

A song plays during the three minute break.  Matt asks you about the band; you say "Santana" and you think as the younger, you're educating him a bit.  He says "That is correct," and your stomach drops for no particular reason.

Work set.  "Do you feel that cheeseburger now?", he asked.

Work set.  "Never let them see you sweat."

Work set.  A series of "Who is this band?" and you don't know anymore if the sweat is from the bike or the barrage of questions which is starting to feel like an oral exam.  (You have a flashback to Materials class.)

You start glancing at the clock a little more often and wonder if you will make it.

You waver on The Beatles to close things out but you manage a smile and back slowly away on the stretches.

Today's Spin lesson:  Don't judge a book by its cover (unless they are in fact wearing West Point, because you will hurt a little.)

*Matt is not his real name but it rhymes with bike.  

Man, I Feel Like A(n Old) Woman

I still have yet to start the next book.  I had a block of time this morning but used it to maniacally finish a baby blanket.  I can't describe the feeling I had when I finished the pattern only to read I needed to CROCHET the edges.  I had one crocheting lesson about five years ago and I had my mom's old crochet hook.  Not much in the way of assets but paired with a few you tube videos, it happened.

[It is at this point that I would like to apologize to my mother for all the clothing patterns I selected and asked her to make for me when I was younger, saying "This looks easy. I'm sure you could do that."]

The baby blanket looked easy but I'm now having a glass of reading water as a reward.  It was a brutal last hour and let's just say the pattern was tweaked a wee bit in order to reduce the amount of hand-cramping from crochet.  Egads.

Hope you have had a great weekend!  I am happy that I got to spend time with GBC P@1ge.  There's no one else in the world with whom you'd rather prep last minute for a party.

Ring in Spring

This week I have said "yes" to every opportunity.  It's made me exhausted, but wow, what a fun week it's been.

Happy Spring!

Try new things.

Play, Paws

If you'd like to read a story about a cat, a man who recovered from addition, or just need a pick me up for Tuesday, you should read about A Street Cat Named Bob in the Guardian.  Sophia Evans' lead photo is beautiful.

Amazon readers (alleged avid cat fans) give the work a 4.7/5.0.

a Run, a Drive, a Dance, a Twist, and a Song

I wish I were a better writer so I could adequately capture the emotions around weekend events and convey them with sequenced letters to assemble words into pictures so that you could see them too.

A hill that was steep but you managed it.  The woman, your mentor, who said she heard your breath "rattle" which you normally associate with death in the South so your mind drifted early to the memorial hours before you would attend.

The woman who wore red instead of black and you thought it was a much better sentiment and that if the moment comes and you should wear black, perhaps you would want to wear red because that is her favorite color:  the color of nails, toasters, cars and who knows how many dresses.

The elderly woman listening to Irish music who kept tapping her feet while she sat beside her friend.  You suggested that she had a dance in her and she told you she was busy dancing with ghosts.

The teacher who moved your spine into a twist of epic proportions while you held your foot with one hand.  

The collections of voices raised into song that makes your list of unexpected beauty in a town not known more for rockets than music.  

No books.  Five stories.  

1 in 942,642 will be a winner, baby

It's Pi day so I'm posting cake.  It's round.

King Cake - Seaside, FL
February 2014

Because we like math and are slightly geeky, two of us in the group. tried to calculate the odds of cutting into the King Cake baby on the first cut.  After a nice discussion about surface area, volume and pi, we had cake.

She found the baby with the first cut.

Have My Cake and Eat it Two

The day seems to whiz by in three hour blocks.  Awake and at the gym, mid-morning call, late lunch, the afternoon hurdle when the office is so warm you want to nap, post-exercise laundry, and then the time when I should be sleeping but I'm warming up dessert instead.  (Let's be clear:  the only reason to exercise twice in one day is cake. Some might argue that it's triathlons, but it's really cake.)

Books are creeping by in 10-20 page segments.

Knitting is stalled.

Reading water glass two.

Though only Wednesday, it has been a week of endings, but I've had news today of one special beginning.  The Universe always manages to find its balance.

Here's hoping you do too.

Swing Spring

I'm slowly making it through The Wolf and anticipate the story is soon approaching its end as the arrests have begun.  

We're only just over a week or so away from the March GBC and Nashville city-wide read We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Fowler.  I know GBC P@1ge is making good progress and I hope to manage a good chunk after all the indictments are handed out above.  

My current challenge is the weather.  These warm days with hints of spring have me wanting to run or bike and sit in the backyard with a warm* G&T wondering how exactly I could engineer a hammock.  

Hope you have a great week ahead!  

*Time to start making ice again.

EmergenC

After more than a week of excessive Vitamin C dosing, it is clear that the cold is winning.

On the upside, zero chance of scurvy.

After a long day, I've postponed workout plans until tomorrow morning so I could don my moose pajama hot-pants* and read before retiring at the hour of most 80 year old women.  In case you've missed this news, there's a limited edition print run of I Could Have Painted That by Miriam Elia which has been in the news.  It's irreverent satire so fits along well beside the Wolf.  Here's a link to a visual on the book and the related news about an unhappy Penguin.  If you remember the Ladybird books, you might especially find a smile; it was hard for me to pick a favorite of the pages.

*Special nod to Mel for the gift of amazing PJ couture.  

Lude-acris

The Wolf of Wall Street.  I'm over the half-way mark and we've moved our domestic money, prostitution, drugs and NASDAQ to the international markets.  When I first starting the work, I thought the book was a bit too far-fetched to hold my interest.  As it turns out, I have continued reading in pursuit of some noble aspect to our main character, Jordon Belfort. (I haven't found one yet.)  Thus far, one of my favorite characters is the limo driver, who only nods and does not speak to Belfort.  I'm also convinced his assistant was under-compensated for her efforts.  While the book is long, the vocabulary is not varied.  Expect the frequent interjections of expletives and the word "luscious."

And despite the above, I will keep reading.  I find the book to be a bit like Kitchen Confidential  We know that bad things are happening in areas we don't want to contemplate, and these guys are bringing it forward.

Coast-ing

Book. 

Beach. 

Run.

Nap.

Nails.

Fun.

Pool.

Perch.

Sun.

Sunset.

Sunrise.

Won.