Loriville Gazette
2001 Nov 28 back in the grind

I finally returned to ballet last night, after my two month long forced hiatus. Back in late September, I told myself that I wouldn't go back until after Thanksgiving. I was burnt out.

Last night was tough, even though I moved myself back one year. I have deep-muscle soreness today in my quads, hamstrings, and gluteus. Ouch.

I came back from my 4-day Thanksgiving holiday 4 lbs. heavier! Needless to say, my strict and fruitful pre-Thanksgiving weight loss efforts went down the drain. I'm exactly even now.

I stepped on the scale on Monday morning, shocked, and immediately began my weight-loss/getting healthy efforts. I resumed my healthful eating habits and Monday night even did 35 minutes of kick boxing followed by an upper body free-weight routine. Last night, of course, was ballet. This morning, I was down 1 lb! Yahooo! I can lose weight fairly easily when I get strict... but I also gain really easily.

The stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, candied yams, and persimmon pudding were the death of me.

Speaking of which, Thanksgiving was great! M and I actually celebrated THREE Thanksgivings this year: one with my dad and relatives, one with my mom, and one with Maurice's family. (Not all on the same day, thank heavens.)

The day after Thanksgiving found me, Buzzer, and M traipsing through two auto wrecker yards. I'm so white trash!

The point was to find some rear seat belts that would work on my front seats. My front seats don't have a point of connection for a shoulder harness... which means that I can't purchase new seat belts because all currently-sold seat belts require a shoulder harness.

So we finally found some from the back seat of a VW Scirocco that might work. We haven't actually installed them yet.

I hope they do work. I'm getting mighty tired of the hokey way the current ones are installed. I have to keep the door open while I fasten the belt. Plus, they aren't retractable. I've knotted the belt in a few places and it still doesn't fit snug.

First, we tried a special BMW auto wrecker. They were all fancy, with lighted counters. And they wouldn't let just anyone go walking through their yard; apparently, they have everything catalogued in a computer database. You just tell them what you want and they tell you if they have it or not.

When I told them what kind of car I had, they went crazy, saying stuff like, "Those cars are worth their weight in gold." They also told us that we were not going to be able to find original seat belts for my car... not in a salvage yard, at least. Buzzer said, "I was in here not too long ago and saw a car like hers sitting across the street. What happened to that one?" The guy behind the counter explained to us that it was probably taken away within a couple of days because unless those particular cars are smashed flat, they are always restored.

So we left and found ourselves trudging through mud in large salvage yards. M was impressed at the sheer size of the Sacramento county area salvage yards. He's used to the dinky bay area yards.

Salvage yards are really interesting and a little spooky. It's a graveyard for destroyed vehicles, after all... and you begin to wonder if driver and/or passengers died in the accident. In fact, in one razor-wired sectioned-off area, where the cars were stacked on top of each other, I spotted a wrecked Porsche 928 (my dream car when I was 9) and there, written on the door with spray paint, was "Blood and guts in floorboard." I asked Buzzer if that could be true; he said yes. Um, yikes. He explained that they will write special situations right on the car so that people won't go rummaging through there, probably due to legal requirements.

Buzzer and M were making a game of finding spare change in the vehicles. M almost collected enough for a soda (he was 5 cents short).

Later, over burgers, I mused, "So, if my car is worth its weight in gold and my car weighs about a ton...." Hahahahahaha!

We had M's family Thanksgiving at his house last Sunday afternoon. We were going to be supplying the salad. Around 11, I reminded M that we should go to the store to get the stuff for a salad and he said, "No, let's wait until Ma gets here so that we can pick up anything for her that she might have forgotten." I suggested he just call her then to ask her if she needed anything. So he did, and she'd already left. I forgot to mention that the house was also a mess.

Then he became slightly interested, at least enough to take out the trash and install the expansion leaf in the dining table. I suggested making the house a little "homier" with candles... and that a nice touch would be to put a scented candle in the bathroom. He found a scented candle laying around his house (a miracle!) and a crystal dish to put it in. (Nevermind that his nephews kept blowing out the candle.)

I suggested he clean the bathroom sink and he said, "No, it's clean enough. This is my family." I was exasperated.

Then the doorbell rang and everyone arrived and we had to go down to the grocer while everyone was there (which I find unacceptable, but he is fine with) to get the fixings for a spinach salad.

Even more irritating is that I found myself washing each and every painstaking leaf off two heads of spinach (great spinach washing tip: put a couple capfuls of white vinegar in the washing bowl and dirt will come right off! There wasn't a single incident of someone biting into dirty grit) while M demonstrated his digital photo retouching prowess to his brother. After about 15 minutes of this, I gently reminded him that we needed to make the salad and could he please slice the apples and cube the tomatoes? He was readily compliant (it appears he just gets carried away and distracted when there's so many people around).

In the end, the salad was a success. We started off with a huge bowl and had no leftovers! (Ingredients: thoroughly washed spinach, thinly sliced green apples, cubed tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese, chopped walnuts, and blush wine vinaigrette)

So that's what I've been up to since my last update. Thank you and have a good day.

back & forth
recently...

quick recap - 2007 July 13
Happy August! - 2006 Aug 01
I dream of Albuquerque - 2006 Jul 08
mindstorm - 2006 Jun 30
Pomegranate scale - 2006 Jun 24