I busted my butt!

Well, actually, I only bruised it (I think). Don't ask me how, but I managed to fall off of the seat of a rowing machine today and land coccyx-first on the metal track part of the rowing machine. Needless to say, it hurt. A lot. Thank goodness for ice and a trainer who knows when to push me to keep going and when to let me hold a bag of frozen corn to my butt and cry like a little girl.

I usually do great with rowing, too, and I've never had anything like that happen before. As I was lying on the ground gasping for air, I saw a biog blob of string on the track, and it didn't look like anything that would have come off of me, so I suspect that it was something that got caught up in the machine and caused the wheels to slow or skip while my body kept moving.

And that was my day. How was yours?

(PS: Green and teal bracelet is coming along great)

Random

I'm finding it hard to blog lately, don't know why. I guess that's what I get for taking so many days off for the holidays, now it's not a daily habit anymore. Got to get back to it!

So, recent goings-on... Last night we went and saw a movie called Red Cliff, which was based on a famous battle from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At times it was very good, and at times it was not, and at times I was like "Huh, what just happened?" Then I looked at IMDB and saw that it had been two movies, which they spliced together into one for Western audiences. I for one feel shorted.

Our gym started a new schedule, where you have a "home class" on certain days at a certain time, and that's when you go to the gym. No more 2:30 one day, 5pm another. On the other hand, no more having to keep each and every trainer in the loop as to just how bad I am at squats, so I guess that's good. Plus the trainer for the class I chose is the same one who has been doing Chris's personal training while his thumb heals, and he said that Chris could just come to the same class as me.

Speaking of the broken thumb, tomorrow the doctor will have another look at it and see if it's healed yet. If not, Chris may be able to just have a soft cast, instead of the ugly, smelly hard one that gets in the way of everything.

I haven't beaded or danced yet this year, and I definitely need to change that.

Well, that's about all for now...

Aww man

I was really excited for Sunday, because I was going to take a 4-hour workshop called "Fire For Bellydancers." It was going to cover fire fans and palm torches. What could be more awesome than adding fire props to my dancing?* Unfortunately, I got an e-mail this morning saying that the class was canceled due to lack of interest. Lack of interest? Seriously Tucson, what is wrong with you? How could there not be enough interest in Fire For Bellydancers.

Apparently they're going to try again in January. I may have to find random people and convince them to sign up for the class.

Anyway, today I went back to the gym for the first time since Monday, and I did a really hard workout. I even learned some new things. Hopefully I won't be too sore tomorrow, since I want to go to the Saturday afternoon workout.

*Actually getting good at the moves I already know, which is what I'll do instead.

A good day

Today was a fun day. Chris and I went to the gym, where he managed the workout despite only having one usable arm. This impressed quite a few people there. I just hope that he didn't over-do it with his right arm. We'll see how he feels tomorrow!

Then after we cleaned up, he dropped me off at Margaret Zinser's open house. You may already know that Margaret is one of my favorite lampworkers, which makes it even more awesome that she lives just 5 minutes from my house, and has open houses a couple of times a year. This time she also had the lovely and talented Anne Mitchell there displaying her beautiful fine silver jewelry. I spent an enjoyable couple of hours chatting with them and the other bead and jewelry people who came in and out of the house while I was there. And of course I bought a few pretty things, which I'll take pictures of tomorrow.

Chris left his usual Saturday game long enough to pick me up, say Hi to Anne and Margaret and tell his broken thumb story, then he took me for a quick deli dinner, ooohed and aaahed over my goodies, and dropped me off here at home, where my puppies were happy to have me home.

Now I'm going to kick back with a bead magazine and a mug of tea, and maybe get my zillage on in a bit.

Day = Derailed

I had plans to get some work done today, beading and housework and setting things up on my new computer. And I was going to get some dance practice -- smoothing out my gahwazee, and trying to get that darned beledi zill rhythm memorized.

What did I do instead? I spent 4 hours at Urgent Care with Chris. Back when I injured my ankle, he injured his wrist. He thought it was nothing and ignored it, but it kept hurting after the gym. Finally yesterday he really hurt himself at the gym, and the trainer, his best friend and I all told him he had to go see a doctor. So he did, and the doctor ordered X-Rays, and the X-Rays found a broken bone in his hand. So tomorrow he has to go to an orthopedist. Hopefully he won't need surgery, but it is a possibility.

And while I would like to now relax a bit and then catch up on all I had to do today, instead I'm off to the gym. Hooray.

Trees in the Wind

I snapped this picture a week ago at the Bead Retreat, as the wind was blowing in the clouds that would later dump snow on us. Those yellow and orange trees in the middle were the only ones I saw that were changing color. Of course, the mountains themselves were covered in evergreen pines, but all of those trees look like the sort that should have been colorful.

It's hard to believe that I've been home for less than a week... this has been a very long week, and slightly overwhelming. I'm having a hard time catching up on everything I need to do. At least I'm getting a little beading done, as yesterday's post illustrated.

Today I finally went back to the gym. It kicked my butt, but at least I don't seem to have injured myself this time around. On Tuesday I restart the evening classes, since I missed more than half of them the first time around. I'll still miss a third due to dance class, but oh well.

Stupid ankle

Back on Tuesday, I hurt my ankle at the gym. I don't know if it was too many box jumps, or if I stretched it too far doing dead lifts, but it definitely feels like I jacked up my Achilles tendon. That tendon, by the way, is my body's main way of trying to sabotage my attempts to work out. I would have expected my lack of upper body strength to be the big hurdle, but no, it's my stupid, short Achilles tendon, which keeps me from being able to squat and which now is keeping me from doing anything more active than limping back and forth across the house.

In all fairness, my ankle would probably be fine by now if I hadn't had the brilliant idea to take my injured ankle up to Tempe and dance on it for an hour. I didn't want to miss my belly dance class, since next Thursday I'll be in Tahoe. And honestly, it was an awesome class. Something clicked and I didn't really struggle with any of the moves, and my arms never got tired, and I had fun. The four students in attendance were doing so well that Cari, our teacher, kept picking faster and faster music and changing up which moves we transitioned to and from to keep us on our toes. It was amazing. I feel like I'm really progressing in my goal to dance well enough to perform and teach, instead of stumbling my way through class. I still have a long way to go, but the forward momentum is there.

Now if this stupid ankle would just catch up with the rest of me!

Happy Daisy Dog!

I decided that since I took a bunch of pictures of the dogs, I'll use them on posts where I don't have any new Cthulhu or other bead-related pictures. So here's Daisy, being cute and happy. For some reason, she puts her ears back when she's happy. I think it makes her look kind of like a seal. This picture was taken between her bouncing up and down excitedly on the couch trying to get me to pet her (which I did) before running over to the other end of the couch to wrestle with Maggie.

Today I had another workout, and I got more advice on how to deal with my ridiculously short Achilles tendons, and I lifted 25lb bars, and I jumped around a lot, and I rowed 500m. Actually, I did that first, but whatever. I don't go back to the gym until the Tuesday after I get back from NY. I will get plenty of exercise while I'm gone though, as I'll spend at least one day walking around NYC and one day walking around a Ren Faire, and I'll probably dance a bit, and practice my squats. I will not be sedentary, that is for sure.

Just a quick post...

Having a gym class in the morning and a dance class in the evening does not leave me much time for things today! I need to leave for Tempe in 40 minutes, and I have a few things to wrap up before I do.

My gym class taught me more things that I suck at, but I also feel like I got a good workout, so I guess that's the important thing. My quads still hurt from Tuesday. Hopefully class tonight will help me loosen up. At the very least, I don't go back to the gym (not counting Sunday's yoga session) until Tuesday, so I should have time to fully recover and be able to tackle whatever they're throwing at us next. I don't like the fact that I'm already behind schedule.

In the meantime, the corgis are mostly recovered from yesterday's dental ordeal. For whatever reason, the vet wasn't done with them until 6:15 in the evening. I had to get a ride from my parents to pick them up, so Chris wouldn't be late for krav maga. Of course, my parents are bigger dog people than I am, and Mom's van already had two crates set up in the back with pads and blankets -- ha ha! The girls had a comfy ride home.

Ok, off to put a few more beads on Cthulhu's lumpy head and then get ready for class.

Busy, busy month!

Even though I'm very busy this month, I'd be more than happy to make you a Custom Crystal Bracelet, which is why they're today's Daily Special!

I guess I must have been bored, because suddenly I have a lot going on in my life. Not only do I have dance class, learning to drive, and beaded Cthulhu to work on, but next week I'm going to start going to my husband's gym, and a couple of weeks after that, I'm off for a week in NY.

The gym is partially because Chris has been nagging me to try it, and mostly because I would like better strength and stamina for dancing. My arms especially tend to get tired really fast, and I know it will be even worse if I'm trying to work with props, especially heavy ones like my sword or my fire fans. Plus, of course, more muscle tone will make me look better in my coin bra ;)

As for NY, it's my annual visit to my in-laws, and I will be putting my Etsy shop into Vacation mode during that time. I haven't decided if I'll take any of my jewelry along to NY. I usually do, because my mother-in-law likes to shop in person -- but tighter luggage restrictions mean I may have to leave my jewelry case at home in order to have enough luggage space left to bring home whatever I buy in NY. That said, if there's something you've had your eye on, you should probably buy it now just in case I take it to NY and sell it.

Anyway, right now it's back to housework and Cthulhu for me!