Mortaine’s Blog

Bikram yoga tonight. First class. Wish me luck.

Also: I have $100 in donations so far. YAY! I have the best friends and husband!

I dropped Kirei off this morning for her 15,000 mile service. Granted, she has 17,500 miles on her, and they seem to think she’ll need a servicing at 18,500…. but I digress. Honda dealer even gave me a free loaner car for overnight, which was kind of cool and unexpected. It certainly makes things more convenient, though– I was getting worried about how I’d get down there after 4 PM but before 6:30 to pick up my car, and still make it to yoga (back up on this end of town) by 6. Now I don’t have to worry about it– just drop the loaner car off tomorrow morning after taking John and Hammer to work. I will need to put some gas into it, though. They only gave me 1/8 tank, and said “it should be fine if you’re only going 10 miles.” Um. I drive 70 miles a day even when I’m not running errands.

Hammer is doing much better. He’s putting on some weight, and he now takes his vitamins and glucosamine without complaint. He’s such a good, sweetie dog. I love him so much. *virtual dogsnuggle*

Um, yeah. Sorry for that little interruption there. Um. Back to “serious” things.

I am rewriting my letter, hopefully for the last time, today, and will send it out Real Soon Now. John and I are planning an event in Scotts Valley that might be a good fundraiser. Ideally, we should do one event per month, so I’m trying to think of a good event that could be a low-key fundraiser for June.

Schedule this week:
Tuesday: writing at lunch, yoga at 6:30 (be there by 6 to sign up, learn stuff). John: shopping
Wednesday: AM: drop John and Hammer off at work, pickup Kirei before work. UCSC Coach workout, 6-7:30. John: pick up Jeep after work
Thursday: writing at lunch?, WW walk at 5:30, WW meeting 6-7. STC meeting at 6:30, or writing at CS from 7:30-9.
Friday: Leave work early to get to the airport by 4(?) Arrive in MO at about 11, weather permitting (and weather doesn’t look like it’s going to permit much this weekend).

Packing checklist for MO:
Clothes for 3 days, including camping skirt and top for Saturday afternoon.
Fluxx cards and signs
LLS can to leave with Mom.
Jen’s wedding present
Fast Food Nation (to read on the plane)
Laptop, iPod, chargers and cables
GPS and batteries
Camera and batteries

So much of my life is battery driven.

Saw The Sopranos last night. Wow. No spoilers, because some asshat DJ spoiled it for me yesterday in the car (shouldn’t there be a law?) But wow.

We had a fairly relaxed weekend for a change. I finished my sister’s wedding present (still have to mount/frame it, so it might not be ready by this weekend– boo). Got my fundraising letter completed– will send those out in tomorrow’s mail. I got my first donation via the website (yay!) and worked out on Saturday night at about 7 PM. Unfortunately, our coached workout on Sunday morning was at 8 AM. Ugh. I spent most of that workout with a couple of ladies who walked the majority of it, and I didn’t feel too badly about it. Sorry, but I did a good, solid workout 12 hours earlier. I’m not going to feel bad about taking it easy and not injuring myself. I got some suggestions from Coach Jeff for the calf pain, which he says can be shin splints or achilles problems.

Speaking of injuries– my back is wholly foobar’d. John gave me a light backrub yesterday that made me realize that I have at least 2, possibly 3 muscles in my back that are actually *hurt*, not just sore or crunchy. I’m going to get a massage this week to see which muscles, and if massage might help it heal.

I figured out this weekend why the fish’s name was so damned important to me. See, I’m not having kids. The last pet I owned that didn’t come pre-named was a kitten at my mother’s campground (Pocket). In my whole life, I’ve probably gotten to name 3, maybe 4 living things. Sure, I name characters all the time, but they’re not alive. I know the fish isn’t sentient and doesn’t feel one way or another about his name. But it’s still special to be able to name something, and a fairly potent responsibility as well.

Our SCUBA classes are now officially over. We’re going to take most of June off, maybe dive one day, so my back can heal and so John can lift his Jeep and practice with the new lift before going on the Rubicon. There was a parts problem this weekend, so he’s going to end up being very pressed for time in terms of getting this thing lifted and done in time for the trip.

Which means that I now have to find a different cross-training activity for the month. I’m going to go to the bikram class tomorrow after work ( or wanna come?) and see what it’s about, whether I can do it, etc.

Working out and taking vitamins has drastically reduced my menstrual symptoms. Last month and this month, I’ve had very slight discomfort that don’t even feel like cramps. And then whoosh, my period starts with almost no warning (except that I know it’s coming cause I can use a calendar and all). Still, it’s very strange to not have the regular symproms that I’m so familiar with.

Yesterday was a total relax day. I mean, after I got back from the workout, I dropped the film off for developing and lazed heavily around the house for the rest of the afternoon, picking at my fundraising letter periodically, watching Minority Report (I’d never seen it), and eventually falling asleep while reading a book. It was lovely. I even did some dishes. We had a lot of organic veggies this weekend, and I made organic cauliflower and carrot soup for dinner Saturday night, which made good leftovers on Sunday for lunch. Last night, I even got John to enjoy summer squash (because if you sautee anything in butter and garlic, it will taste good, right?) We had that with small organic potatoes and grilled steak for him, swordfish for me. Delightful.

The night dive was a good skills exercise.

We dove at the Santa Cruz Wharf, where the biggest hazard is fishing line and adult male sea lions.

Visibility was about 2 feet. Even if it had been daylight. We descended and lost Allan, our 3rd buddy, immediately. We waited a minute and then ascended, finding him at the surface. We descended again, this time holding onto each other. If we hadn’t been holding hands, we would have lost each other. The water was very surgey with high swell– Allan called the dive after 12 minutes, and we didn’t have and conflict with that at all.

Well, my betta finally ate a pellet today, 1 week after I got him. Boy, did he resist those quite a lot after the bloodworms! 4 days without eating, basically. Ah, well. He seems to spit them out, then take them back and try again– perhaps he wants them to be more waterlogged/soggy before he finally eats them?

No final decision on a name yet. I’m almost decided on “Zoot” after the Muppet (he’s the saxophone player who never speaks). Upturned mouth and all. But there’s an antiquated pejorative of “zoot” (as in Zoot Suit) for a Mexican dandy, and I don’t want to insult anyone with my fish.

We’ve been having fun with flaring at mirrors lately. I bought a mirror to keep on my desk, and I periodically put it next to his tank to flare at, get some excitement, before moving it back to the other side of the desk. He then spends a good portion of the rest of the day swimming back and forth in front of where the mirror was as if to say “Hey! Come back here! I’ll show you!” He also flares and darts away when I point a finger at him. Sometimes he flares when I dip some paper into the tank to scoop out uneaten food near the top of the water.

Have had some small bubbles at the top of the tank, but nothing “nest” like yet. I’m not surprised– he’s still settling in.

I did a full water change today, so his water is especially clear right now. I also changed the plant he has in there– he had the dark purple plant this week. Today I put the pink one in. Next week I might put the green/turquoise one in. I don’t know if he will be happier with the same plant arrangement week after week or not; right now I’m trying out different things for both aesthetics and to see which ones give him happier hiding places. Right now, I lean towards the dark purple one, just because it fits in the corner really well and is aesthetically pleasing to me personally.

Oh, and he’s definitely affecting productivity today– I keep watching to see if he’ll eat, how he’s eating, etc.