It's Hot

We went on an outing to Nashville Shores to get cool. I felt bad for Young Man. He really wanted to go on the water slides. There are plenty, and they are all fun. Alas, he is not tall enough for most of them, except for the one called The Hippo, which is essentially a huge inflatable slide. We went down together. It was so great!







Normally, Young Man is adept at taking pictures, but I think the sun prevented him from being able to see me through the camera viewfinder.



He LOVED the mini golf. We played it twice. Most of the time, he deliberately placed his ball near the hole for a tap in.



Three hours later, sunned, tired, and hungry, we departed for pizza and gelato at Whole Foods.

Desert Debrief

I don't care that Arizona is hot without the humidity. Hot is hot. I could barely be outside for more than 10 minutes at a time without feeling completely worn out and sweaty. I'm just getting back from Scottsdale, AZ from a college friend's wedding. Having just been there for the first time ever, I would have to say certainly that most sane people would travel there during the winter and be somewhere else for the summer months. I learned this is what Frank Lloyd Wright did back in the day.



If you ever travel to the Phoenix area (Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, etc.), I would really highly recommend visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesen West. He lived in Chicago for quite some time, so there is that connection with me, having visited his home and studio in Oak Park, IL. At Taliesen West in Scottsdale, even though we spent a lot of time outside walking between buildings, it was worth it. I learned something quite interesting about Mr. Wright that I did not know before. He is known for use of geometric shapes, such as triangles and hexagons, in all of his work. That part I knew. This is drawn from what he saw in nature. This part I did not know. I instantly thought of a certain celebrated knitter Norah Gaughan is quite known for her nature inspired designs.



Trusty nikita was uber useful on my trip. The GPS in the iPhone is genius. I used it to drive all over Scottsdale and not get lost. I found my way to Whole Foods for some snacks and to a yoga studio for my practice. I tried to scope out possible areas to strike a yoga pose in front of a cactus, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort relative to the heat I have to endure. Instead, I took my yoga mat indoors to a lovely studio near my hotel At One Yoga. I wasn't supposed to get the $25 all-you-can-yoga-for-two-weeks deal for locals, but the receptionist was nice and that allowed me to avoid the $20 per class drop-in fee. $25 vs. $60 for the 3 classes I took - not bad.

Feeling Accomplished

Not sure what is with me lately. Seems like I've been participating in a lot of athletic competitions lately.

A few weeks ago, a few of my co-workers gathered together to measure our physical fitness according to Army. The test is measured on 3 dimensions: the number of pushups in 2 minutes, number of situps in 2 minutes, and time on a 2-mile run. The scoring is equalized for gender and age, meaning, I, a 35-year-old female can be compared against a male in his early 20s. I scored 269 points out of a possible 300. My nearest competitor scored 236. I pretty much smoked the competition of mainly men. I think what really helped me was my upper body strength; I did the required pushups for the max 100 points before the 2 minutes were up. My prize? Bragging rights.



And then more recently, I participated in the triathlon relay with two of the co-workers that participated in the aforementioned Army Physical Fitness Test. We all performed the legs where we were the strongest. I did the swim portion of 880 yards, being the one on our team who competitively swam through the majority of my pre-college years. I didn't really train that much. I just made sure I could swim the distance by practicing in my local pool. I wasn't worried about finishing. I have to say, I was not prepared for lake swimming. Allergens in the water caused me to wheeze. The seemingly harmless waters were much more choppy when trying to swim piled on top of each other. After trying to swim with front crawl, I switched to breaststroke, deciding that swimming with low visibility was not good for me.

After all the participants finished, they started the awards ceremony. They awarded trophies to gender/age group divisions. We won 2nd place in the coed relay division. Yay! After a several awards, they'd give out door prizes. One of them was $120 trail running shoes. The announcer said we'd have to participate in a pushup contest. (You know where this is going.) I'm in. Co-workers barely uttered, "Betty, you have to do this..." when I was already peeling off my track jacket and sprinting to the contest area. I beat out 3 other ladies. Now I gotta find some trails to run, I am thinking about running a trail race!

I'm so 2000 and late...

A new toy came into my possession a few days ago. I wasn't purposely holding back for any particular reason. I told myself a year ago that I'd upgrade to one of these babies when my current phone died. And that time arrived a few weeks ago. My trusty Motorola Razr of over 4 years met its demise when I accidentally threw it into a trash can at work. When I fished it out from the bottom, it was soaked with whatever liquid was inside. Yuck! I cleaned it as best as I could and pulled out the battery to dry. Since that day, the battery would not hold a charge for longer than half a day. It was time to get current.



Other than exuding 1000 ways awesomeness, it is quite practical. I really dig the GPS functionality. It helps with not getting lost or finding alternate routes. Many of the iPhone apps work with the GPS - weather, restaurants, and even bathrooms.

Summer

I love Las Paletas. If you live in Nashville, you know what I'm talking about. Last year for a work gathering, they brought in Las Paletas as one of the food items. It had the hugest line. We showed up today 5 minutes before opening. Young Man did the standard young child press-face-and-hands-on-window-looking-in and wondered when we get to go inside. He got distracted by the gravel area and when I said "they're opening the door," he darted inside with this other young girl about his age.

He opted for strawberry blackberry. He was down with the flavor, yo.

B.K. / A.K.

Long lines at the airport. Wait time in the doctor's office. El or bus ride into work. Before Knitting - I used to read 1-2 books a month. Sometimes it was mindless, fast-paced, formulaic fiction. Sometimes it was more intellectual. The last book I read until recently was Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.



Upon the recommendation of a friend, I started reading again. My friend actually took the time to think about what I might enjoy and procured it for me. At the time, I did feel a sense of obligation to read it, but not in bad way, of course. That book was 1984 and I am all the better for reading it. It would seem a lot of today's references relate to 1984, such as the term "Big Brother."

And since then, I've engaged myself in other titles. Even with the mindless reading, it does require the brain to work in a different way than other activities that one might spend time participating in. Before Knitting - it was just books. And then came Knitting - the period where it was just knitting, and only knitting. After Knitting - the phase where I can find a good balance between the two.

Yes, that is some recent knitting in the photo. More on that a bit later.

The Long and the Short of It

Once upon a time, there was a girl with super long hair.



Then one day, this girl was watching one of her favorite TV shows and noticed the main character chopped off her long locks in favor of a graduated bob.



Girl wondered if her face was suitable for a shorter style. Girl texted her hairstylist of 5 years: "Would Kate Walsh's bob work on me?" Super Boy Wonder Hairstylist replied: "Definitely."

A few weeks later, Super Boy Wonder Hairstylist called in a panic. "Betty, do you still want to do the bob? I would cut your hair for free. I need to videotape it for an audition." (For Bravo TV's Shear Genius reality competition!) Girl decided she would do it. Girl was nervous when she arrived at the salon for the audition haircut. Girl was very attached to her long hair and worried that she might hate it and cry, and that would certainly not be good for an audition tape.



Girl smiled at her shorter hair in the mirror after cutting and before the blow out. She already knew she loved. All smiles.



Guess I need to update my cartoon picture to reflect my sleeker, shorter hair.