First Ever Zumba Class

Recently, I joined a gym.  I'm not really a 'gym person,' but the gap between the fit an unfit in the household has been getting unbearable lately.  With my current work, I don't need to move around much, or even put on shoes every day.  I've noticed that takes a toll on a lot when we go hiking, I'm the slowest, and I get absurd blisters. In the past, I was never able to justify the cost of a membership to somewhere close to home, given that I could go to the student gym across campus for free; I usually compromised by not working out at all. But even then I had to walk places sometimes. Anyway, this new fancy LA Fitness opened up in our neighborhood, and I joined at a discount thinking with my schedule the way it is, I may as well get the perk of being able to work out where there isn't another soul around.

I decided I should try to get to some different fitness classes and just generally shop the place around for a while.  This morning, despite the autumn crisp, I jumped in the car and run down for my first ever Zumba class.  I knew Zumba is some kind of loud music, energetic dance thing.  I've been told by everyone who has tried it you can't take yourself too seriously, and just have fun.  This is a good attitude for someone who doesn't learn choreography well, and is not in peak condition.

The girl teaching was super glad to see me, since I was the only student. So much for hiding in the back; looks like there is a downside to daytime workouts. I opted to stand to the right of the instructor so I could watch her in the mirror without tripping myself, but this also put me in front of the door, with its giant windows into the weight room.  I tried not to notice that we were clearly "on the tour" as trainers introduced new members to gym.  I like to imagine they would breeze past, saying, "And if showing off your lack of coordination is the easiest way for you to work out, it looks like we've got a friend for you."  Strangely, no one joined us for a dose of bad latin dance moves.

The instructor gamely showed me the 4 basic steps (salsa, cha-cha, reggaeton and bouncing around like a Sounders fan) and then we got started.  The music was turned up loud enough she couldn't hear my chorus of mumbling "1 2 double 4... no... one two cha cha ...3 ?"  That turned out to be a real advantage.  And as the class went on, and we were warmed up, or getting the feel of it, or whatever you call it, the class started to seem a lot less like dancing, and a lot more like bouncing around with my arms up like a crazy person. I'm not going to say I was good at it, but it was a really good workout.  Sometimes those classes aren't so good if you can't keep up, but as long as I kept cheerfully bouncing around the instructor was encouraging.  I actually wonder if it would be as good a workout if I could follow along better, and didn't substitute High Knees or something exhausting for every merengue step I couldn't keep track of. By the end, I was plumb tuckered and ready to get back to my mercifully sedentary job.

On my way to the gym, I briefly pondered that I might lift some weights or something if the class was short or easy, but fortunately, I just turned around and headed home instantly.  Thanks Zumba Instructor, I'm gonna go melt at my house now.  Now, I live about 5 min from this big gym, and like I said, I'm not in great shape, or generally familiar with what that might be like.  In fact, when I was about 2 minutes down the road, all my skin started to feel VERY HOT.  Unnaturally so.  Is this heat stroke?  Don't you usually pass out from too much exercise while you are doing it?  Omigosh, I only thought I ironically felt like I could die, am I ok? Should I be driving right now??  And then I noticed that the vents in the car were finally pumping in hot air.  Just past the nick of time.

Clearly, I survived my drive home, and even my first Zumba class.  There are some spin classes, and yoga and pilates and stuff that I'm hoping to go back to the gym and try.  Maybe once I am not too stiff to leave my office chair again.

NW Adventures

When we left Nana's house on Sunday afternoon, she loaded us down with chocolate bars and homemade cupcakes.  Why? Presumably this is payment for spending the day being such good grandkids.  What did we do that was so special?  Well, we took Nana up to see Anne Cox's beautiful boat and go for a ride in the San Juan Islands.  Yeah, we take really good care of Nana.

It was a pretty perfect expedition, in fact.  We've had unseasonable clear October weather, so Matt and I feel like it's the summer that never ends.  Going to spend a few hours toodling around the San Juans is a pretty fantastic way to pass the day.  We had amazing view of Mount Baker, of the for rolling in around Anacortes and the islands themselves.  Couldn't have been a better day, really.

We paired this Sunday activity with a good Saturday as well.  Our friends wanted to hike up Mt Pilchuk, a well loved nearby peak.  The bulk of the hike is skree and epic granite, which makes for some truly stunning vistas.  The very peak is covered in a jumble granite boulders, as if the whole mountain is just a pile of oversized gravel.  There is a lookout tower strapped across some of these boulders.  On a clear day, you can probably see into Canada from there.  We managed to see mysterious views of the inside of a cloud.  This did make the hike seem quite dramatic though.  After a nice hike, we went to play 19 holes of disc golf in Lake Stevens. Have I mentioned I am terrible at disc golf?  Typically, a sport that requires eye-hand coordination, throwing and trees was not going to go well for me.  Fortunately, there were enough trees that we all had a good laugh at each other.  There is something really hysterical about watching some one hurl a frisbee at a million miles and hour into a tree 10 feet in front of them (pro tip: this is not a good technique to "win" at disc golf either).  Or maybe we were just worn out.  Anyway, we wrapped up the day by meeting Shaoshu for Taiwanese food.

Taiwanese food has become the new concession to my new eating habits, since Szechuan cuisine is right out.  As far as the eating goes, I'm back on most food groups, but still avoiding citrus, spicy and alcohol, since these all appear to be solvents for the lining of my stomach.  Ouch.  Back to taiwanese food, it turned out to be auspicious since the Moon Festival was starting over the weekend.  We got to have some fresh moon cakes for dessert in addition to the already delicious foods.

In other news, we are starting to think more seriously about the possibility of someday preparing to shop for a house, you know, as a preliminary exercise to owning one.  There still seem too many other unknowns up in the air to make any actual decisions (will we be able to afford much of a house? where might this house be? Are there things we need a house to do in the future?  This last one is a thinly veiled way of saying "three car garage?" which leads to a lot of other talking that isn't much about a house, but a lot about a budget).  This is fine with me.  It seems like a big decision that a person should not make while being as remarkably ignorant as I am about all things on the spectrum of mortgages and property taxes to home ownership and maintenance.  Lots of learning to do.  As I told Mom, we'll probably be financially ready to buy a house before we are emotionally ready, and both are in the future yet.

Busy Getting Stuff done

Just in case you're wondering why I don't blog more, its because I'm still spending all my time doing awesome stuff. I am, yes, still practicing the piano. I got myself a couple of songbooks for myself for my birthday. So I'm currently learning how to play the theme music from Super Mario Brothers. Yes, you should be impressed, it is very impressive. I can physically play about half of it, for now, but a little less than that with both hands at the same time, and essentially just the intro at the proper speed. So there's still work to do, but I'm really enjoying working on this song. I also got a book of radiohead songs, and I just have to figure out which one I want to learn to play first. And another book of exercise and basic songs to learn, to further expand my skills at a basic level. I'm still just playing on my keyboard, which is just wide enough for Super Mario brothers, though It doesn't use the lowest octave. Of course, I can just push a button and then it won't use the highest octave if I want. Electronics are great like that.

Also, paining miniatures. I've showed off a few of them to some of you over Skype, but I have yet to put up any pictures. They're pretty cool looking, if a little basic, but the process is very time consuming and cannot be rushed, which is part of what I like about it. You have to take your time, consider the process, decide what you want to paint on what surface...you know, ART. I find the whole thing pretty relaxing, and so I decided to invest a little more into our painting gear. I went out yesterday and picked up a bunch of random paint brushes (different kinds, so I can see what I like) some porcelain paint palettes (much easier to clean), and a few other odds-and-ends like slo-dry (for easier paint blending) and some finishing spray to keep the paint well set on the mini's when I'm done. I really like just going out and considering all the options and making decisions and...I don't know even going out to buy brushes yesterday was fun. Maybe because Jess was at home taking care of Tyler for me and, as it turns out, taking down all our blinds.

We're getting new windows put in in the near future. The nice fancy ones that the guy came to our house and punched through for us. Jess got down all the blinds, but we'll wait for a little bit before doing the curtains. We do need some privacy.

And then, of course, there's Judo. I've been doing more Shiai (sparring) recently, which still isn't a lot, but it's more than the 'none' that I've done before. I'm getting a little better, bit by bit, which is encouraging, though I'm still pretty far below most of my peers. I is encouraging, however, that whenever we get new students in that Sensei usually has them work with me. I like to think I'm a pretty patient teacher.

Anything else? Any other activities taking up my time? OH, that's right, my son.

Last weekend we went to Houston for Jessie's great-uncle-in-law's 90^th birthday. We learned that 1) Driving during Tyler's nap is a great idea. 2) Driving while he's supposed to be asleep is not. I also managed to pick up whatever upper-resperitory cough-fest Tyler happened to pick up from day care last, which is still making my voice a little croupy. But other than that, the trip was a pretty great success. Everyone was all excited to see Jess, and Tyler got to play with a couple of twin girls a little younger than he was. He was a little scared of them. I'll tease him about that when he gets older. We also brought back Jessie's Grandmother to stay with us for a while. Tyler eventually got used to her and even gave her some kisses on the last day she was here.

The comprehensive Tyler-dictionary is going to have to come to a close. He's learning a new word or two every day now. It would be difficult to keep up. He's using his words a lot more often now. Here are some highlights.

Nana: What he says every time we tell him we are going to Skype. He knows about grandmothers.

Areyou?: What he says when he is looking for things. Either Waldo in the waldo books or Daddy.

Doo-Doo!: This is the sound a train makes, and a lot of things are enough like trains (cars, rocks, pretty much anything he can push around) that they also make this sound too.

Yikes!: Luckly, this was what Jessie said when her antibiotic ointments took hold on her latest road rash. He's also picked up “Whoah” and “Oh no!” Nothing R-rated yet.

TeeBee: We let him watch TV when he's feeling bad and needs to relax, but he's also figured out that you can watch it at other times as well. He'll ask for it a lot. We generally just tell him no.

Ninite: Certain kinds of clothes are ninite clothes. They are the kinds you put on before it is bedtime.

We took Tyler out to a neighborhood festival this weekend where they had some pancakes, a hot air balloon, and plenty of booths selling arts and crafts. They also had a bounce house that Tyler was really into, even though he was the smallest one there. He was having fun getting bounced around by all the kids...and then the fan kicked off and the whole thing deflated. Which is scary, if you are small and don't know what's going on, and also potentially dangerous. Jess got to work pulling out some kids while other people (myself included) did their best to try and keep the thing from falling over too much. Tyler wasn't at the exit, though, so eventually Jess just dove in after him. She found him in a very unhappy mood, but having mama nearby definitely helped. Still spooky. He's been in two bounce houses in his life. Both deflated while he was inside. I'm not sure if he'll want to go into any more.

Tyler also got a haircut yesterday. His third. The second went just fine. The third was NOT fun. He didn't want the little cape thing on, and he did not like the clippers one little bit. There were many tears, but eventually we got through it with bubbles and patience. There's been a lot of trauma in his life this weekend. I'm surprised he's still this well adjusted.

Other Micro-news:

-Jess has had to go through her polygraph test. It was a horrible experience and she has to go back.

-Jess also is traveling in October for work. I'll have Tyler for the week. Planning to get him a tattoo.

-With all these activities, I barely have any time at all for Video games. Crazy, I know.

-Tyler, for those keeping track, will be 18 months old (1.5 years) at the end of this month.

-Also, Tyler sits in a Big-boy car seat now.

I'll probably write again in another two months when I have some time. :)

-N

P.S.: I have some pictures to share, too.  But photo upload seems to be wonky, so I'll try again later.  

The Story of the Bat-Eating Spider

WARNING: If graphic stories about spiders freak you out, stop reading now.  Seriously, Dad.

Our house is by the woods.  I presume this is why we cohabitate with SO many spiders.  The backyard is basically uninhabitable, and you shouldn't approach our front door without something in front of your face.  There are so many spiders here, I am surprised there are bugs.  And not only the small garden spiders, but really colorful spiders, long spindly, and Spock spiders (you know, that make you think they only have 4 legs?), and really BIG spiders.  Perhaps not Texas big, but certainly too big to even entertain the idea of finding one in the bathtub.  Ehhh....

It's no secret that I have a pretty irrational phobia of spiders.  While I recognize that there have been many occasions that I have NOT been killed gruesomely by spiders, it's hard to remember that when one sneaks up on you, or does that creepy spider walk think, or hides somewhere just out of squishing. Ick.  Matt thinks I am prone to hyperbole about this.  I have no idea what he is talking about.  Really, I have come to accept that in the out doors, spiders will be plentiful, and I try not to bug them.  They get shooed away from the BBQ and the doorway, but they are basically an unstoppable force I know I am powerless against, and they are begrudgingly tolerated welcome to be in the yard.

In evidence of my willingness to share the planet with spiders, sitting in our living room while the sunrises highlights half a dozen occupied webs, with the residents patiently licking their evil lips and sharpening their poison darts or whatever.  Every morning at sunrise I resolutely DON'T burn them to pieces.  See how tolerant I am?

This is in part because I spend most of my day in the upstairs office, which is not a popular spot to be a spider.  Until a new guy moved in.  I went back to my text messages over the last month or so to Matt while he was at work, which basically chronicles the horrors.

Ack- Spider moved in up here. Totally ruining the view

Err... its hard to focus with this many heebie jeebies.  What about a second story window is such a good spot for a web?

I had accepted that this was not a small spider, and it actually wasn't at the window all the time.  On the one hand, not so bad, I don't have to look at it all the time.  On the other hand, WHERE DID IT GO?  Worse though, it was getting bigger.

Evil Giant Spider is back.  I'm using your monitor to block it from my view.  Barely.

OMG, How do spiders even get this big? What does it eat? Bats?

I thought there was a bat caught in a web up here. NO! IT WAS THAT GIANT BAT EATING SPIDER!
There is no emoticon to contain my horror.

And really, this things had moved beyond NW spider size.  It was verging on foreign exotic spider with some engorged, freaky abdomen and shockingly angular legs.  I was pretty sure when it wasn't handing out in the window, it was just strolling around the neighborhood, kicking puppies and stealing from old ladies.  I'm telling you, this was a viscous, evil spider.  And again, it wasn't around all the time.  Don't for one second consider where else it might go, because the obvious answer is INSIDE THE HOUSE. Ack.

Matt had suggested that I could turn the hose on it when I saw it.  Again, he thinks I am prone to hyperbole, so he was surely picturing some itsy bitsy spider route.  But hello?  Remember how that rhyme ends? The itsy bitsy spider goes up the spout again.  Oh no.  It the hosing is going to work, a person (I can't type "I" in this context) would have to be prepared for armed combat when you brought the beast on level.  I'm not running outside in my work clothes (read:PJs) to go to fisticuffs with the spawn of evil on EIGHT LEGS.

And this is how things went for a while.  I would move Matt's monitor around to avoid seeing it, and he never once encountered the thing.

Until last night.

We went for a late run.  We let ourselves out the back and leave the door unlocked, and came back a few minutes later.  My office light was still on, which made the window look like a homing beacon, except instead of the bat signal up there, the light was all but blocked by this viscous monster.  Even Matt was impressed by its gruesomeness.  We sprinted through the door (what if it drops, thinking my shrieking is the sound of its favorite prey, vampire bats?) and made a game plan.  Matt would go outside, hose the thing off the window, and maybe squish it.  I would bravely watch from inside, to bear witness to what might might be Matt's final minutes on early before he is brutally murdered by a spider in the dark- because everything about this was starting to go all horror show.

The hose got it off the window, but Horror of Horrors, in the dark, Matt couldn't see it.  He gestured that he wanted to come in a get a flashlight, but I had our home barricaded at this point.  I passed him a flashlight through a crack in the door, knowing full well that the monster had to be sneaking up behind him already.  With a flashlight in hand, he was able to see the spider, which was faking an injury curled up in a ball the size of a kumquat.  Seriously, it really was big enough to found in the dark.  He washed it down onto the porch, here he picked up a box to deal the deathblow.

He said it popped like a grape.  I think he was underestimated the size of produce involved, I am sure it much have been a small melon.  He was confident that his task was done and gestured for me to unblockade the house.  Ha!  You can't leave a spider carcass out like that!?  Too many spiders get non-squished enough, then reappear as an undead version of themselves minutes later.  You have to destroy the body to be sure.  The carcass was thrown into the yard, where I am sure a raccoon, or another hoard of spiders ate it overnight.

Ack, ack, blehhh.

Choose Your Own Adventure

This is TERRIBLE, and I promise I will do everything in my power to be sure that Tyler doesn't miss out on this important cultural and imaginative experience.  Or a few things at least.

I was looking for a metaphor for a non-linear presentation (for work- so to use with imaginary high school students), and I thought "Obvs, Choose Your Own Adventure Books."  Because this is such a touchstone for me I use the phrase regularly in conversation, I am not even going to bother to explain the glory of navigating your own way through a book, I'll just assume you know how stellar that is.  And then I thought, I wonder if kids these days have even heard of that?  I was really thinking, "I bet my parents were more in-tuned to kid lit than most parents, I wonder if these were widely distributed?"  I was not even entertaining the possibility that these books might be out of print.

Google affirms that this series went out of print in 1990!  So anyone under the age of 22 (probably older) actually has no idea what I am talking about when I say Choose Your Own Adventure.  The horror!

--UPDATE-- STOP PANICKING---

I misread that article, and the books have been wildly popular through the late 90s, and as far as I can tell are still in sporadic print.  All is right with the World.

Blackberries

Washington is overrun with the most noxious and awesome of weeds, the Himalayan blackberry.  In the summer, the thorny vines encroach on any and every untended space.  We pulled runners away from over and under our fence, as well as crawling back down the tree in our yard.  The thorns (or jaggers, as Pittsburghers have made me fond of saying) are a wicked surprise in the woods and make clean up a hassle.  But then, for several delightful weeks at the end of summer, every abandoned thicket and hedge is transformed into a fragrant, fruit bearing orchard.  Matt's house in college had a big thicket in the back that allowed us to make gallons of jam, and stacks of crisps and cobblers and pies.  You hardly need to buy fruit if you have a good spot to harvet these things.

And blackberry season is finally here again.  It seemed delayed for weeks due to the dry summer, but the air is full of that sweet fruity smell again.  On Sunday we floated along the Slough (a term meaning a 'river' so slow it's unclear which direction it might run.  Rhymes with Phew, it wasn't hard to paddle!), where the major hazard of falling in is not drowning, but be pieced to death by blackberries if you had to swim out.  And although the berries at our house are sweet and flavorful- the berries on the slough were monsterously juicy from gorging themselves on water all summer.  Himalayan Blackberries are not known for moderation.

In the spirit of summer, I've been having black berry smoothies and and have another blackberry cobbler in the oven (or possibly a mess of berries with a sweet biscuit in the middle, we'll see what comes out).

Talking to my idols

The coolest thing just happened!  I decided I wanted to talk to this Famous Blogger (in my neck of the internet) about the kinds of things this pseudonymous person is famous for (which is reporting on the state of jobs in chemistry, and generally advocating for jobs policy).  There is not a voice quite like this in biology, and the blog covers of lot of really policy centric stuff.  Like, Chemjobber gets up super early to read and report on the jobs report.

The point is, I realize this person is passionate and engaged in something that is clearly beyond the scope of their actually paid position, and I wanted to know how that works.  And if it is something that I would care to try/ fit into my own version of myself as a professional.   So even though I think of this person as incredibly important, and busy, and thoughtful and frankly, kinda famous... I sent an email saying I like what you do and I'd love to talk about how you do it.  Because, you gotta try, even if you get caught in a spam filter or weeded out by an all important secretary.

Ha.  Chemjobber wrote back in 10 minutes and was like "Sure!  You wanna Skype?"  WOW.

Moral of the story: Don't be intimidated by your heroes.