Little Things

First off, please excuse any typos. The tip of my right pointer finger is extremely tender after being sliced on a piece of glass that I did not know was the item stuck in the garbage disposal making a horrendous ruckus. Ick! I have many things in life that I don't like at all. Slugs on the kitchen floor is a recently added item for that list. Reaching down into the dangers and disgusting muck of the garbage disposal is definitely high on that list! With the added treachery of a shattered egg cup, that fear was made even worse.

But I digress ... before I even got started.

Seeing as this blog is pretty much so family and friends can keep tabs on our exciting lives, I am not going to preempt this with a warning that it will be long and potentially very boring. But consider yourself forewarned, nonetheless.

This past week I (Tara) attended the gym's Strictly Strength class in my meager attempt to get back in shape. I was barely able to get through the arm work in the second half of the class, because my legs were so shaky from all the evil lunges and squats in the first half. (I did finish the class, though, so bonus points to me for not passing out and/or vomiting and being carted off in an ambulance.) Friday a.m. I woke up "early" and dragged myself off to a yoga class, with the goal of doing some good stretching for all those muscles that felt as if they had been beaten with a bag of oranges. (This may not sound painful, but it's a scene from The Grifters that has stuck with me, and Angelica Huston looked pretty beat up. I don't recommend the movie, by the way.) Unfortunately the yoga was a Yoga for Fitness class, with many planks and triceps pushups, or shadarangas, or whatever they're called. So not so much with the stretching, though there was more strength work. Yippee.

When I got home, I tidied up the house, paid some bills, caught up on emails, ate a sandwich, and then began to crash. I felt as if I'd put in a nearly full day, and it was Friday, after all, so I decided to kick back, read a book, and even sip a little wine. It wasn't until after I sat down that I realized it was only 12:30 p.m. Oops! An hour later, I could not figure out why I was so incredibly tired. I couldn't even focus on the words in the book. When I woke up on the couch hours later, I remembered that I had taken an Aleve for the muscle aches. That plus the wine equaled a very pleasant afternoon nap. Oops, again! But I was incredibly rested afterward, and by the time Mark got home, I had a yummy dinner of chicken-tortilla soup and smokey-almond salad ready. How domestic!

Saturday we woke up to fog and cold outside and a bad sore throat for Mark. So we sat around all day, watching the few stations we get with our little rabbit ears and eating whatever we could scrounge up from the kitchen. Our big event for the day was venturing out into the world to see the latest Bond flick (thanks, Mom and Dad). Perfect mindless excitement, with lots of Daniel Craig eye candy, for a gray day in Dallas. But even with that outing, by the end of the day, we felt as if we'd completely wasted our Saturday. So before we went to bed, we agreed that first thing Sunday morning, no matter what, we would take a walk with poor, neglected Kai.

And that's just what we did ... for 7 miles! Yay for us! Once we got home, we felt fully justified in chowing down on some scrambled eggs with feta and green onions and a little bacon on the side. We even felt justified in sitting around watching football playoff games all afternoon. Go Eagles (sorry Darling family!)! Then we finished it all off with a delicious dinner of chicken-paprikash-topped potatoes. I will definitely be making that one again!!

And now, here we sit, rooting for an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl, just cuz, and contemplating another trip to the gym. And you are all caught up. Lucky you! Don't worry. These long detailed stories of our life will be few and far between. Just wanted you to know you aren't missing much at all, though we are missing all of you!