The morning started off with me ham-handedly dropping two ibuprofen gel caps on the floor, thinking I’d only dropped one and quickly snatching it up, but not being able to stop Egon before he ate the second, unnoticed capsule. Twelve hours later and he seems fine, so I’m not worried. Then, on the way home from the grocery store just an hour ago, I accidentally stepped on (or almost stepped on?) Oliver, who then hit his head on the botom of the heavy bag of food (wine bottles! Pints of ice cream!) while trying to get away from my big, clumsy feet. Sorry, dogs!

They seem generally unfazed, however, and have forgiven and forgotten. As dogs do. Which is why we love them.

In other news, I have been on total rest this week, trying to let my strained/inflamed hip flexors heal so I can get back to working out. I’ve had problems with this injury off and on for quite a while now, so I’m also thinking about seeing a physical therapist, but for now I just need it to heal. I severely cut back on running throughout January (fifteen miles total the entire month!), trying to stick to things I thought would be easier on the hip. One RPM/spinning class and one circuit class (surprise, lots of kickboxing intervals!) were attempted, and each one left my hip also feeling worse for the wear. By the end of the month, even yoga and weight lifting were both too taxing on the hip, so I put myself on the DL for seven days.

It has not been fun. For one reason, I put on a few holiday pounds and am feeling a bit tubby. I am, objectively speaking, not tubby. Even at my current weight I am still at a BMI of about 21.x, for whatever that’s worth, but I was also already 5 lbs up from my normal weight before the holidays, so there’s that, too. So being without recourse to exercise is unpleasant and frustrating right now.

For another reason, it has also been my Special Ladies Time for Ladies this week, which makes everything that is already hard even harder, and everyone who is already feeling tubby feel even tubbier. These “emotions” you normal people experience on a regular basis? They are difficult. For reference, imagine me sobbing at a Budweiser commercial about hockey. BUDWEISER. HOCKEY. TEARS. Sweet Christ on a cracker. (Go watch that ad, though. Seriously.)

Most of all, though, exercise — significant exercise — is my best mental health regimen. It helps me fight off anxiety and depression and makes me feel positive and confident like few other things can. To be without access to that, well. I have been a treat this week, let me tell you.

Anyway, things are not all bad! I plan to return to the gym next week for some light workouts (yoga, weights, swimming with a pull buoy) and see how it goes. Mid month I plan to get fitted for new running shoes. It’s that time anyway, and it couldn’t really hurt anything (one hopes). Maybe I can try a few miles then and hopefully make a careful return to the roads.

Currently I am sitting on the couch with a glass of communist wine, three snuggly dogs, and my laptop. Beside me, my gentleman friend is playing Fallout: New Vegas. I have no interest in video games, but this one has a charming soundtrack and fun, creepy creatures and settings, making it almost entertaining to have on in the background. The rain is pouring right now just outside the open patio door and things are generally cozy.

I hope you are all having a pleasant weekend of it!

W had read about the meteor shower and posted a link to Facebook. After reading the article, which described the shower as being highly active and one of the year’s best, I decided we had to try to see it. Why not? How often do I actually take action on ideas like this, after all? I am much more likely to forget about it or to determine that it would take too much effort to follow through.

But with my partner in crime (and two of the three dogs), I had no excuses! We drove out of town looking for a place with no streetlights and a clear view of the northern sky. We finally pulled off the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, with the big, dark, starry night sky opened up right in front of us. As soon as we stopped the car and got situated, we let out simultaneous gasps as we both chanced to see the first big meteor at the same time — amazing.

(image source)

From then on, we mostly watched and waited, trying to determine if we were seeing faint, distant sparkles (what most meteors look like to the naked eye), or if we were just imagining it with our tired-but-hopeful eyes. (The camera and lens turned out not to be super helpful.) As the time went by, we each saw a handful more very distinct meteors, each beautiful and separate, but not a big storm of falling stars like you might envision. Nonetheless, it was beautiful, and an adventure completely out of the ordinary.

Once we were home again we fell asleep listening to Space Weather Radio, a service that uses radar to scan the skies and creates a pinging noise every time a meteor is detected. Amidst the static, there were quick, quiet pings, and longer, more sustained noises as bigger bodies were detected. Incredible, isn’t it, to be able to listen to space?

In all other respects, though, I am ready to Initiate Holiday Action Sequence. I’ve got gifts for my family all figured out and bought and wrapped. Oh yes indeed! I spent last night wrapping gifts and drinking some (wait for it) pink champagne. It was doing business as “sparkling rosé,” but come on now. I was feeling silly and festive and that just happened to be what went down at Kroger as I was faced with the selection of sparkling wines. That pink bottle made its merry way into my basket. Don’t judge.

Anyway, I have the guy’s present worked out, too — despite the cruel fact that some certain retailers to remain nameless had a great sale going on and then ENDED the sale the week before Christmas just to prey upon the desperate last minute shoppers who’d be willing to pay full price. Well, they didn’t get me! I found a competitor stocking a similar product at a much better price. Look, I’d tell you all about it but he 1) hasn’t opened the gift yet, and 2) knows about this blog, so you’ll just have to remain ignorant for now.

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Anyway. I’ve got a table full of festive presents that, sadly, can’t be placed under my pretty tree because, let’s face it, that’s just dog entrapment right there. My suitcase is also packed and ready to go. What’s that? Yeah, I’m fixin’ to head out of town tomorrow morning, up to East Tennessee to visit my family. I’ll be up there until just after Christmas, and then back here in time to decompress, celebrate New Year’s Eve, and then recover in time for the new semester.

I normally look forward to snow in Tennessee at Christmas, as it happens almost every year. Last year, in fact, it started to snow while we were at Midnight Mass, and when we came out of the church it was all drifting down beautifully and magically and it was perfection, I tell you. This year, I don’t expect to get my snowy wish granted — the forecast is showing temperatures in the 50s and 60s, only slightly cooler than the 60s and 70s we’ve been seeing here in Alabama. In December. I tell you what: I do not approve of this bullshit. It is supposed to be winter, you know, and not only winter but Christmas! Well, you can’t win them all, can you?

I hope you all have just a wonderful Christmas (and/or a great weekend)! Eat good food, sleep in, hug your friends and snorgle your pets. Happy holidays!

So why not drink it all the time? I think there is some commonly held cultural assumption that champagne is for special occasions only — birthdays and job promotions and weddings and such — and is not appropriate for everyday, with dinner, less special drinking. (Not that I’d drink it literally every DAY, but you know what I mean.) Why should that be the case? If I can buy a good bottle of champagne for about the same amount of money as I’d spend on a good bottle of pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc, why shouldn’t I? Expecially if I like it approximately 40x better?

So there you have it. More champagne, less pinot grigio. Boom. Instant quality-of-life improvement.

In Other Important Commitments News, I have decided to re-attempt to learn knitting. Well, I do already know how to knit, sort of. I can cast on and knit and purl and make little rows of stitches and whatnot. I’ve never yet gotten to the point of casting off, however, as I’ve never completed a project. Once I tried to make a Gryffindor scarf, only I got started wrong (fine yarn, skinny needles, and a project that was taking far too long to complete due to the insane number of stitches required to grow it in length at all). I never finished that scarf, and I think it eventually became a casualty of my pre-cross-country-move purge.

Yesterday I started a new project. While I was stuck in the Wal-Mart waiting for my car to be finished, I found myself staring down the wall of yarn and deciding to try again. I found a very thick (“super bulky”) yarn that advertised itself as one that helped “projects come together quickly” and was “easy care.” This time I tried to get larger needles (though I think I could have gone even bigger with the gauge) and I have started once again on a scarf. This time, no ambitious stripes or anything, just solid color, easy peasy. I hope.

If this one works out well enough, though, I may have bigger projects in mind.

We’ll see. If it turns into a huge, frustrating, yarn-based debacle, however, at least I’ll still have my champagne.

I am so happy that winter break is here! It’s really become my favorite time of year since I’ve been teaching full time. It’s the only break I have from classes (I teach all summer); the weather is finally cool; my birthday and Christmas and New Year’s are all right in a jolly, festive row. What’s not to love?

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Even my Rosemary bush has gotten into the spirit.

I started the break off right with a great birthday date with the guy and then a small get-together at my house the next night. It was great knowing that all of my work-friends were done for the semester as well, and we could all relax. I do love to have a house full of people and food and happy chatter, and so much the better if there are christmas lights, cupcakes, and glasses of champagne and bourbon-spiked nog.

Today was just as festive: I spent the day buying the most luxurous, self-indulgent gift I could think of: two new tires, two new windshield wipers, an oil change, and a wheel alignment. As Donnatella and T-Mobile would say, “TREAT YO SELF.”

I apologize if I already subjected you to that joke on Facebook earlier today. To make up for repeating the same content here, I present you with the TREAT YO SELF video:

Aren’t you glad you saw that? I thought you would be. Honestly, I just completely adore Parks and Rec. It is hands down my favorite comedy right now. I often watch the episodes again during the week while I’m waiting for the new one to come out! My favorites are “The Fight” and “Pawnee Rangers” (the latter of which is the source of “TREAT YO SELF”) (yes, you have to write it in all caps).

And here’s one more little thing for you: while I was stuck in Wal-Mart waiting for them to finish working on my car, I had the time to browse around and inspect pretty much every single item available for sale. While I restrained myself and did not purchase any nail polishes, Justin Bieber posters (seriously, they had like ten versions), or cheaply made granny panties, I couldn’t pass this up:

Yes, a dog sweater for my little Eegs. His fur still hasn’t grown back yet and it’s winter, dammit. Dude needs a sweater; I’m sure you will agree.

UPDATE: As I went to publish this I made the biggest rookie blogging mistake ever! I clicked “update” on the new version of the theme without saving my custom CSS, so now my design is busted. I’d previously widened both the main content column and sidebar, and now when I tried to do that again in the new version, it bumped the sidebar down to the bottom. You can view this problem in action if you look at the main page (individual post pages don’t use the sidebar). I think it’s a margin or padding problem, but I’ve monkeyed with the numbers as much as possible and can’t fix it. I’ll take another look tomorrow, but in the meanwhile, if you have any CSS suggestions, I would be super thankful! CSS is here.

UPDATE AGAIN: I think I (mostly) fixed it! Whew. Google led me to a blog with a tutorial on widening the sidebar, which explained some of the relative width/percentages to me. I’m used to working* in pixels, so percentages threw me off.

*HAHAHAHA, as if I do this often or have any idea what I’m doing at all. So not the case.