It Is Finished

Well, mostly. Last night was the final class for TOYH. She was scheduled for one more on December 6th, but apparently St Kates is giving the students time off for good behavior. She still has a paper to finish along with some other odds and ends, but her class requirements are over. No more Thursday evenings. No more Tuesday evenings. No more Saturdays. No more Sundays (yes Sundays, at a Catholic institution no less). What. A. Relief. Now she just has to pass the Boards, get a job, and then we can start paying back the thousands we owe. Yep that's right. As poor as we are, the only financial aid we received was the opportunity to go into hock up to our necks in student loans. God bless America. I guess I really should qualify the statement that she is finished with class. She and her classmates are going to meet on December 6th for a bit of carousing in lieu of class. Effin' a right. They are college students you know.

Now for the important news. Yesterday I was bored at work (that's a whole 'nother story for later) so I pulled out the paper and started the crossword puzzles. I'm not really good at crosswords, although I like attempting them. The local fish-wrap has two crosswords, The NY Times and one called TMS. The Times puzzle is fun because it starts the week easy, and it progressively gets harder until the super-mother-bad Times Sunday crossword. TMS is generally easier to complete than most Times puzzles. That doesn't mean I finish them. Like I said, I'm not so good at crosswords. In the past I usually gave up trying to do the Times after the Tuesday edition. I told you, I'm not really good at these. So yesterday in my boredom I sit down to the crosswords and voila! I finish both of them. Okay, okay, I admit to cheating a little bit. I looked up which Atlantic 10 conference team is nicknamed the Rams (University of Rhode Island) and I also looked up a title of a book by C David Heymann (Liz). I was so proud of myself that I cut the section out of the paper and hung it on the wall.

Speaking of words and crosswords, I have two movies to recommend, both documentaries. The first is Wordplay. It's about the national crossword championship and features Will Shortz, editor of the Times crossword and a weekly guest on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. People in that movie finish Times puzzles in 2 minutes (me 2 hours). The second movie, and probably the most entertaining documentary ever made, is "Spellbound." It's a movie about the National Spelling Bee. "An entertaining movie about spelling?" you ask. Trust me. It is poignant, funny and nerve wracking. Please do yourself a favor and rent it.

The weather dorks are predicting 6 or more inches of snow, to commence falling tomorrow morning. I am determined to get out on my winter beater bike and ride around with the club, sore back or no sore back.

Effin' a right.

Still No Biking

My back is still pretty tender, although the debilitating spasms have gone away. Tonight I'll ride a few blocks to my "Book Club" and hopefully it will feel alright. It's been really annoying to not ride because I'm withing spitting distance of 5000 miles for the year - less than a hundred to go. Also, my winter beater bike is up and running, though I'm not necessarily looking forward to putting lots of miles on that thing. I rode it to work last week and it was a chore. It felt like driving a tank compared to the SS Deathstar. It'll be good for the slow, winter-season group bike rides, but commuting will not be as much fun. It's all moot until the back feels better.

Madster and 'Nika are back kicking and punching at karate after a week layoff. Just before T-giving, they tested and received their green belts. They are now considered intermediate level and can begin sparring with other students. They carry around a big duffel bag full of protective gear, kinda like hockey players except not nearly as stinky. Madster should probably be sparring with the adults, but at this point we're not ready to start hauling kids to 6 different karate sessions a week.

TOYH will be done with classes on December 6th and gets pinned on December 7. Once she's officially graduated she'll be allowed to take the national nursing boards. December 2007 seemed like a long way off when she started school back in August of 2004, but she made it. She's trying to land a job with the MN Visiting Nurses Assn., so we're crossing our fingers about that. Normally they don't hire new grads, they want nurses with some clinical background. Hopefully she can get around that hurdle because this is what she really wants to be doing.

I'm Getting Grumpy

After Thanksgiving dinnner (well it was lunch, really, Tracy had it early which was very nice - no spending all day thinking about the food), I took the girls and the dogs up to Opa and Oma's for the night. Everything was cool until bedtime. I went upstairs to lie down and read at about 9:00 because I was tired. I couldn't go to sleep early cuz I needed make sure 'Nika and The Madster were ready for bed before I went to sleep. When I got back up at 10:00, my back was a bit stiff. I didn't think about it until the next morning when I tried to put my socks on. Spasm city. I made it through the day OK, but when we got back home and I went upstairs to read before bed, I thought I was gonna die. I was getting up to brush my teeth, and in the process of swinging my legs around and rolling out of bed, I ended up squatting next to it unable to move. Trying to straighten out and stand up was so excruciatingly painful that I was frozen there for about half a minute. Visions of my father rushed through my head. I almost yelled out, "Florence!" (all family members can close their eyes and hear that voice) but caught myself. I managed to right myself without any assistance, brush my teeth and get back into bed to get some sleep. I was supremely bummed out about these spasms because I had arranged to get home for the Saturday morning Hiawatha Cyclery ride. I missed that, obviously, and haven't been on a bike since Thursday morning when I went on my annual Ride-Around-Downtown-Minneapolis-When-There-Is-No-Traffic-Thanksgiving-Day-Ride. Saturday was to be extra special because I was to go Hiawatha Cyclery to pick up a prize I had won, a "Banana Bunker" (it's clever little thingy to carry around a banana in your backpack, briefcase, etc. without crushing it - but it looks like something you'd pick up at Sex World). I won it in a baby naming contest. It was the consolation prize so apparently my suggestion of "Thor" for a child whose last name is Thill wasn't exactly what the parents were looking for. When I told TOYH that I had won said BB in a baby naming contest she asked, "Is there something that you're not telling me about?" Well duh, I just told you. I won a Banana Bunker in a baby naming contest.

Back By Popular Demand

So we pile on over to Tracy and Jeff's for T-giving and I was asked why I haven't been blogging. I tried to explain that since I'm so clued into current cultural trends, I have determined that the latest and greatest trend in cyberspace is to quit blogging. Nobody bought it. I then reminded people that there are 4 other contributors to this piece of junk and that they haven't added anything since, oh, say, April. Nobody cared. So I tell everyone I'm lazy, uninspired and insensitive to my reading public. Bingo. Everyone understands. So I decided, for the time being, to crawl out of my self-absorbed reverie, and post something. Here it goes.

Thanksgiving was very nice.

The Last Meet And A Halloween Story

Tonight is KyKy's last swim meet. They are calling it JV sections, but what it really is is the JV City Championship. The section that Southwest is in is filled with suburban powerhouses whose JV teams would probably give SW's Varsity a run for their money. Coach would rather have the girls compete with programs of similar ability, and I agree with her on that. Minneapolis schools are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to facilities. Because South and Southwest share the same pool for practices and home meets and the divers practice in the mornings not allowing the swimmers to swim, Minneapolis teams simply can't get the yards in to field competitive teams. It's pretty sad, but that's just how it is sometimes.

TOYH and Madster and 'Nika trekked up to Vadnais Heights to Trick or Treat with their cousins. Lolls live on a circular road that has plenty of houses, so the kids make one circuit and come back with a bit of candy, but not too much. I stayed at home because KyKy was at Varsity City Championships and needed to be picked up. After I got her home, I went over to my neighbor's for our "book club." I looked across the street at the trick or treaters going up to the big house on the corner. It was lit up with Halloween lights. It also has these big cast aluminum storm doors that are meant to look like big scrolled iron gates. They are pretty stout since the idea is to prevent break ins. Anyway the trick or treaters would go up door, knock on it and the owners would come to the door. Rather than opening up the door for them, the owners would shove the candy out to the kids through the mail slot. Only in the 'hood I guess.