jockette

Very icky Toronto weather.

With no more bike rides, I've had to rely more on the health club for exercise. No way am I slacking off over the winter...Dave will cream me by the spring otherwise. Also, Jeff and I are going on a ten-day canoe trip to the Nahanni (in the Yukon) next September, and I want to make sure I'm ready.

Anyway, learned how to use the rowing machine today. Lucy The Health Club Jockette showed me the ropes, how to choose the correct settings, the proper technique, and so on. Sounded pretty simple (and hey, who can't row a boat?) but when I actually sat down to try it, I felt massively uncoordinated. She suggested just doing ten minutes at first; I felt like laughing at her....only 10 minutes? By the ten minutes were over, though, my shoulder and back muscles were screaming for mercy. Went back to my usual stationery bike for the rest of my cardio workout, push-ups (I'm up to 17 girly (from the knees) push-ups, woohoo! i know, not much, but I started out by only being able to do three :)), about a hundred curls (abdominal curls are sort of like sit-ups, except you don't go up all the way). Sometimes I do weights as well, but today my arms were all wobbly from my rowing machine introduction.

I've never been a "social" workout person. Y'know, the type that chats merrily to a companion throughout the workout. It would be fun to have a workout companion, but I tend to go at odd hours when it's less crowded. Also, I go to work out, not to socialize. I have to be amused at the women who PUT ON MAKEUP in the locker room just before they work out. Sheesh.

Congrats on the new job, Gary!

Officemusic: Adrian Belew, VERY LOUD.

xmas shopping

Site of the day: RSI and Musicians - tips on avoiding repetitive stress syndrome.

Had dinner with David last night (John's Italian on Baldwin), then we went CD shopping at HMV. I bought a Stan Rogers CD (Northwest Passage) and an Adrian Belew CD (Desire of the Rhino King). Went pillow shopping for Dave at Eaton's after that. The choice of pillows was a bit overwhelming; I had no idea there were so many different types! Saw a pillow priced at about $130 (!!). It had a nice blue cover, but didn't look particularly extraordinary. If I had that pillow, I definitely wouldn't let anyone sleep on it. Maybe I'd put it in a glass case and have people just LOOK at it ("Ooo, can you BELIEVE that pillow cost $130?"). I tried to get Dave to buy a pillow with a teddy bear on it, but he flatly refused. Ok, enough about pillows.

Four days until Allison's housefilk!!

I have utterly no idea what to get Jeff for Christmas; he's one of those impossible people to buy for. Have any of you started your Christmas shopping? Please say no. And what's your opinion on early/late Christmas shopping? The advantage of doing it early is, of course, avoiding the crowds and having the luxury of time. The advantage of doing it late is because you can complain about it to everyone (the crowds, the lack of time, etc.), and also because there IS something more exciting about having to do it all at once, under enormous pressure, or at least that's what I tell myself.

As of this Thursday, I'm allowed to take out my ear "training studs" and try out "real" earrings since my 6-week waiting period (after having my ears stabbed) is over then. I tried cheating yesterday (to try out the Apple earrings that Andrew gave me, which are currently my sole pair of earrings), however, but was horrified to find that I didn't know how to take off my training studs! How utterly humiliating!! I'm going to ask Allison and Jodi to help me out tomorrow night. They're going to laugh at me.

Officemusic: Stan!

annie phone conversation

Figured out how to get those studs out, and put in my Apple earrings (Andrew brought them from California). I was a bit grossed out at the idea of poking something THROUGH my ear MYSELF, ugh. It might take me a while to get used to this.

Getting lots of work done.

My site was mentioned in Internet Tourbus and WebScout today (both are electronic newsletters surveying the web) and am getting lots of new traffic and new subscribers as a result, yay! :-)

Talked to Lloyd Landa today...his and Karen's album is coming along wonderfully. They're planning to make it to Allison's housefilk this Saturday.

I got a call from Annie today (1 1/2). The phone rang, I said hello, Ruth said that Annie wanted to talk to me. Followed by silence.

ME: Hello? Annie?

ANNIE: Hi.

ME: How are you doing today?

ANNIE: Hi.

ME: (starting to sing a song for her, a song too silly for me to mention here)

ANNIE (interrupting): Bye.

She calls me Beebee. (Jeff is Deff). I bought a "Build Your Own Gingerbread House" for when I babysit the girls tomorrow. I'm not going to phone Ruth for permission first because I know she'll say no. (I love being an Aunt)

gingerbread house

The gingerbread house project with Sara and Annie was fun! Both of them helped me tremendously, especially in making sure the utensils used to mix the icing were kept clean. :-) The kit was supposed to come with an icing decorator tip, but it didn't! We ended up putting the icing on with our hands instead...very messy but lots of fun!! I managed to clean up most of the mess before Ruth came home so she wouldn't freak.

Later that night (Wed), I met up with Allison and Jodi. We had dinner at The Keg in Sheppard Center, abandoning all pretense of a practice and just gabbing for hours over boozy coffees. :-)

Went to the ballet (Manon) last night with Cathy. Love the costumes, the music, of live ballet. I used to do work as a pianist for a ballet school in Toronto...that was kinda fun. Whenever the teacher was explaining a new move to the students, I'd be surreptitiously practising the footwork under the piano bench. :-)

Hung out at Cathy's place tonight. We rented a Japanese movie (dubbed) called SHALL WE DANCE? that both of us really enjoyed. Cathy got more of the dancing jokes than I did because she takes lessons. I'd love to take lessons sometime, but unfortunately (1) I am hopelessly uncoordinated, and (2) Jeff doesn't do the "formal" dancing thing.

Allison's filk is tomorrow! I'm sleeping over afterwards.

allison housefilk

Allison's housefilk was loads of fun! Allison will post something about it later. We played some of our newer songs, including Monday (Allison wrote this in the midst of her post-con blues after Filkontario earlier this year, and it's now one of my very favourite UT songs) and
Marvin (a silly song by me).

Worked in the afternoon, went to my sister's place for dinner. Jeff worked all weekend, still haven't seen him yet!