wildflowersoul

Augh. On my way to kung-fu (where I learned some bad ass sword skills), some doddering old guy who I suspect may not be licensed stopped driving, in the middle of the street, and proceeded to back straight into my car (which was also stopped, and my horn was blaring in full "what are you doing you moron" style). OMG. Who does that?

Guess who's moving up to the advanced class in kung fu? This girl! I'm kind of intimidated, the advanced class is very.... advanced, and I am not nearly as good as they are. But I'm excited, too, because I have definitely been getting a little bored with my class, and could stand to learn new things and be challenged. So next Monday I move up!

I am addicted to following the news of our economic crisis. I've been reading/listening to NPR's new Planet Money program, which is fascinating, and reading everything else I can find time for. Robert Reich has an interesting blog post about the bail-out bill in Congress.

Saturday afternoon I spent 2.5 hours at kung-fu, part of which was taken up by my level 2 test. I passed! I didn't do as awesome as I had hoped, but I passed, and am now officially Level 2. Yay!

Also, Michael Clayton was a freakin' awesome movie.

Today: dim sum and more kung-fu tonight.

Weekend wrap-up:

Friday: MeFi meetup at Watch City in Waltham. Good folks, tasty food, good times! I had onion rings. They made me go NOM NOM NOM.

Saturday: After getting up for an 8 AM dentist appointment (no waiting! clean teeth!), I ran around making food and cleaning the house for aquarianna6's baby shower. Cute baby clothes! Tasty food! Good company! It was very fun. I was exhausted after, but ran down to Central Square to meet up for some dinner at a Chinese place. Mmmmm.... scallion pancake.

Sunday: Book Club meeting, then a visit with the lady counterpart of thiswakingdream. Afterward Drew & I finished watching season 1 of 30 Rock. *love* that show. I am Liz Lemon, minus the comedic genius but also minus the dreadful love life. So basically, I love food and say/do embarrassing things a lot.

Monday: To celebrate the day off, I: did groceries, did laundry, spent money at Costco and Target, and continued The Quest for something to wear to this weekend's nuptials. I finally found a reasonably cute dress at H&M and an awesome pair of shoes at Macy's. So I will be outfitted in a somewhat classy manner. Despite being completely wiped out at the end of all this, I managed to pull it together to hit kung-fu last night, and endured the twice-weekly peril of pick a partner. Let me share with you the dread that fills my heart at the end of every kung-fu class. First, we are told to pick a partner for self-defense (sometimes with the qualification of "about your height" which for me is "no one"), which makes me feel like an awkward chubby kid in fifth grade waiting to be picked for kickball. Second, it involves strangers touching me and invading my personal space. *shudder* I have not yet gotten over this. I also don't like strange guys coming too close to the girls, if you know what I mean. It's awkward. Finally, it also involves being admonished for not looking my partner in the eye. I have a major problem with making eye contact while being aggressive, and this is most difficult for me. So sometimes I deal with it and sometimes I duck out of class a few minutes early to avoid dealing with it. To be fair, sometimes I also duck out of class early because self-defense often doesn't start until 8:55, at which point I just want to go home (class supposedly ends at 8:40, but never does).

That's my story.

87 degrees and 60% humidity is not an ideal condition for kung-fu outside. But on the plus side, it feels really good when you're done!

Picked up the new Rilo Kiley and new New Pornographers albums yesterday, and they are both so good! Especially the N.P., it's a perfect summer album. So good!!! And I get to see them both play in Boston in the next couple of months! Also, note to those in Boston, on Sept. 9 Neil Hamburger and Pleaseeasaur are making an appearance at the Middle East. I must attend!

Anyone up for doing anything tonight? Not like anyone checks the LJ on the weekends, so we'll probably call around later, but you know, I'm just covering my bases.

So it turns out that when I took a preliminary stab at this year's taxes last month I must have futzed up the math, because I finally got 'em completed last night, and we're actually getting a bit of cash back from both the feds and the state. Even though I understand the idea that it's better to owe than to get a refund, since the government basically gets to earn interest off your money all year, I'd still rather get something back than owe.

Yesterday was another round of komos's excellent Iron Chef Challenge. I made up a batch of Caribbean pork chili that I hear came out tasty. I couldn't stand the sight of it after working on it for hours on Saturday, but I'm really glad it was well-received. For all that I was excited to fry up some plantains to go with it, the end result of said fried plantains was that it was too much effort for not enough taste.

Kung-fu tonight! I've been a bad girl and for all of Feb. I only made it once a week, so this week I need to step it up again.

Good lord. First, the internet is full of crazy people. Srsly.

Second, I'm not sure that it's a auspicious start to the day to look in the work bathroom mirror and realize there is a sizable button gap through which one can clearly see boob. I will now walk around all day with my little black sweatshirt on over said gappy shirt. Stupid button down shirts! They always look so cute and professional on store mannequins, but they never quite look right once my rack is situated inside them.

Third, I totally rockzorred the kung-fu last night and learned the second half of Southern Fist 1 and the first half of Southern Fist 2. All in one night! This is quite an accomplishment, as it took almost a year for me to learn to the first half of Southern Fist 1. Learning! Progress! I'm totally pleased with this. I'll also be attending a kung-fu seminar on Saturday taught by my instructor's instructor. I'm expecting that to completely kick my ass.

I have a date set for my level one kung-fu test! It was almost going to be next Friday, but I still need some time to actually get my self-defense moves down somewhat better. So it'll be mid-January. Yay! Progress! I can't believe I haven't quit this activity yet!

Christmas comes a little early in our household, and the bunnies have already given us their gifts. Hee. We are such crazy pet people. Anyway, the bunners have excellent taste in gift-giving, and I now have a pair of awesome nunchucks, Journey's greatest hits, and an OC mix cd. Life is good.

I've been really enjoying the history channel lately. They had a neat program about the Little Ice Age recently that was fascinating. And tonight they had something about tea.

Now I need to try to wind down off the exercise endorphins... there's West Wing calling to me.

I pushed myself so hard at kung-fu on Wednesday, and was so proud of myself for meeting the challenge. However, I think I pulled/strained something in the old back, because it's unbearably painful. And now I smell like old lady because I've slathered muscle rub on myself.

Can the day be over now?

I've been super bad about replying to comments lately, sorry 'bout that. I turned off comment emails when I went to Ireland and never turned them back on. I'll try to fix that today.

This weekend there will be merriment and the Borat movie, which excites me to no end.

And now... ( tv thoughts- OC spoilers )

Who has two thumbs and Mad Numchucks Skills?

This Girl!

So it's more like flailing numchucks around sort of correctly, but still, I got to play with weapons tonight in kung-fu. And that is sweet. I think I need komos to show me where I can buy some practice numchucks so I can hone said mad skills at home.

Today was a very good holiday for me. I made some fantastic challah bread, did some yoga, had a bunny-guinea pig date with Beef Wellington and tenillypo's Min, and watched a bunch of West Wing. Now I'm off to read a bit. Good times!