Nice, Quiet Weekend

I hardly did much of anything over the long weekend, and it was wonderful.  Saturday was a complete rest day.  Sunday was church, ultimate Frisbee, and hanging out with some friends that night – my normal Sunday activities.  Monday, I wound up playing ultimate again in the morning and then headed back to the condo to relax again.

Got lots of TV on DVD watching done and plenty of reading done as well.  I additionally worked on my new pet project, copying oldish reviews from my blog to Amazon.  I got quite a few posted, too, so I’m making headway in that project.

But really, it was nice to just relax.  I wasn’t out of bed before 9 Saturday or Monday.  And boy did I need the down time.  Even though I didn’t sleep super well last night, I am still feeling so much better today.  Here’s hoping for a bit more sleep this week.  And with little TV on this week, that shouldn’t be a huge issue.

Cozy Author Dinner

I’ve discovered one of my co-workers at my new job loves cozy mysteries as much as I do, so we talk books whenever we run into each other.  She was the first one to mention a cozy mystery author dinner one of the libraries in town was having last Saturday night.  Sue Ann Jaffarian was one of the authors, so I was immediately interested.  I thought about saving the money, but I decided to go, and I had a blast.

I spent most of the evening with Heide, a friend who is also friends with Sue Ann.  They had set up tables in the library itself and brought in a catered dinner that was delicious.  I went back for seconds, which I definitely did not need.  But it was so good!  It was fun talking with the others at our table, although they were fairly new to all the authors.

After dinner was the panel discussion.  It was Sue Ann, Diane Vallere, and two other authors I don’t read.  One I hadn’t heard of except from the co-worker who first told me about the dinner.  Sadly, that co-worker couldn’t make the event.  Anyway, they all talked about their various series.  The questions were fairly usual, but the panel was lively and fun with interesting answers.  I really enjoyed it.

All around, it was a very fun evening, and I was very glad I went.

Word Association for May 21st

Let's slip in this week's word association.

1. Waste :: Garbage
2. Excess :: Drowning
3. Play :: Theater
4. Heartbreak :: Break up
5. Purchase :: Price
6. Fear :: Heart Pounding
7. Ages 2+ :: Toy
8. Conform :: Boring
9. Reduced :: Sentence
10. Change :: Cash

Hot an Dirty Mud Run

I’m still on track for doing a mud run a month between March and October.  I still really need to find out for August.  The only one I know about is the one that takes place on the same day as the Summer League tournament this year, and I’m not missing that for a mud run.

Anyway, Saturday, I did the Hot an Dirty Mud Run just up the road from me with a friend from ultimate Frisbee and church.  It still seems to be more of a local event, but the crowds do seem to get bigger each time I do it.  They definitely need to work on signage since my friend got routed to do part of it twice as if he were on the 10K and I got lost at one point.  But we both finished and got very, very muddy.  Seriously, I wasn’t trying that hard, and I was filthy at the end.  That’s the sign of a good mud run in my book.

They do seem to like their crawling items very low down to the ground.  Seriously, I was getting claustrophobic in the tube, and I barely made it out of the mud pit it was so low to the ground.  But I did it!

Weather has been cool for May all month, and Saturday was no exception.  A cold wind started to blow as I was heading back to my car.  Fortunately, I was almost done, so I was able to get in my car and drive home.  If it had been blowing earlier, I would have been miserable because it was strong and cold.

Graduation Weekend

Last Friday night, I did something I haven’t done for a couple of years – I went to graduation at Master’s College.  I went because my roommate was graduating, but it turned out I had some other friends graduating as well.  I think I caught up with all of them but my roommate afterward, too.

But the party really happened on Saturday.  My roommate’s parents took a bunch of people out to lunch, which was nice.  And I got to meet some of his family and friends.

Then that night, I had dinner with my friends Konrad and Carol and a bunch of their friends.  They were part of the game nights I was part of almost a decade ago (yikes!), before they moved to Colorado.  It was wonderful to catch up with them and some other friends.  Carol was in town because she had graduated Friday night as well with a graduate degree.

It was nice to be part of things beyond just attending the ceremony this year.  And I’ll be back next year since my other roommate will graduate then.

Word Association for May 13th

What do you say we get some word association done?

1. Relief :: Safe
2. Flutter :: Heart
3. Match :: Couple
4. Viewed :: Movie
5. Soul :: God
6. Recognize :: Long Lost Friend
7. Ambitious :: Plan
8. Dancing :: with the Stars
9. Paths :: Hiking
10. Joke :: Laugh

Beach League Tournament

My beach league team went into the tournament with a 5-5 record, which apparently placed us in second place.  I really don’t know the standings.  Unfortunately, we didn’t do that well during the actual tournament.

We start out with a close win when we let our first opponents come back from a wide margin at half time.  We then lost our next two games.  I think that left us in last place.  It’s where my beach league teams always wind up (all three years), but at least we got some wins this year.  Lots of wins, in fact.

However, the worst part for me came during the second game when I lost my temper with someone and stormed away from the game for a while.  I calmed down pretty quickly, but then I was just embarrassed about how I’d behaved.  I had to stick around since my ride was playing, but that made me go and apologize, which was a good thing.

And I was glad my friend was planning to drive that day since I’d found a leak in my car the day before.  I dropped my car off at my mechanics and they fixed a leaking hose while I was playing ultimate, so everything worked out car wise.

Word Association for May 7th

I missed it last week, but here's this week's word association.

1. Button :: Hole
2. Mindset :: World View
3. Tart :: Pucker
4. Very unique :: Original
5. Hologram :: Technology
6. Comedy :: Laugh
7. Smartly :: Dressed
8. Posted! :: Review
9. Surge :: Electrical
10. Introduction :: Nice to Meet You

Parent's Visit

I was doing so well.  I was on track to catch up on my life last week.  And then I stopped.

Which is worse than you might realize because that last post was really a To Be Continued and you didn’t even realize it.  Or at least a to be expanded on.

See, that last weekend of April, my parents were in town visiting.  Normally, I would have skipped my beach league game, but they decided to come down and watch us play.  They got there late – about the time the wind really picked up.  Yep, their first time watching me play ultimate Frisbee and they pick a day where it is so windy we can’t really play.  We were going to spend more time around Santa Monica after the game was over, but it didn’t happen.  We were so sick of the wind we ate lunch in the car and left.

However, instead of just heading straight home, we drove up the 1 along the coast.  I’d actually never taken the drive, and it was fun and pretty.

Sunday, after church, we checked out a temporary museum in Santa Clarita.  Passages is a museum focusing on the Bible, and it was actually quite expansive.  We spent all afternoon there.  What was really fun was running into a friend of mine who is working there that I hadn’t seen in a while.

Both evenings, we spent time at their trailer playing games, which we always enjoy.

The wind Saturday in Santa Monica was very disappointing, but overall, it was a very fun visit.