March!

Skully and I finallyfinallyfinally got well (her) and undistracted (me) enough to get back to our walks. I know we're supposed to walk no matter what's going on in our lives but it's hard when your head feels like it wants to pop off (her) or your mom dies and you have a month to empty her apartment (me) so I got back to doing something Wii-ish in the mornings, she's walking Maggie, and we're determined to walk every Tuesday and Friday even if we have to walk in the mall (ugh). And, AND, (this is so cool) she found on the Bay Area Yoga website that they have free (FREE!!) yoga basics classes on Wednesday evenings so we're going tomorrow so we don't look like total newbies when Mardi starts her Friday night class at Harmony in January. Oh, this is going to be such fun. I'm going to sew up a yoga mat bag today since Z-Dawg gave me her extra yoga mat (I will be taking that off my Christmas list for those who care about such things) when I was at her place on Sunday. There's even a pattern for one in a sewing book I have so I'm all set. Good thing I spent the weekend making room in my crafting area, eh? Well, Skully just called and we won't need our mats tomorrow, everything's provided, all we need is to wear comfortable clothes. I'll take along some lounge pants, a sports bra, and a t-shirt when I go to work tomorrow and change before I leave the store. Perfect. I can't wait to try real yoga with a real teacher instead of Wii yoga with video coach Horst on my Wii. I'm sure that I'm going to be lean and supple and about 2 inches taller in just a few weeks (or at least feel like I am). If yoga helps me feel less creaky and arthritic, I'm all for it. My knees feel tons better after just getting back to working out on Saturday. I did a lot of sitting even though I spent the last 6 weeks organizing and emptying Mom's place and that's no good for arthritic knees. It isn't logical that keeping exercising your sore knees would make them feel a lot better than sitting around babying them but it's true. When I slack off my knees hate it. Plus Skully and I plan to go kayaking next spring so we need to be able to move around. There's too many fun things to try to sit down and quit living yet. I am going to the kite festival next September too, fog or no fog, so I need to keep active. I'm not ready to be a spectator any time soon.

December 5--August Renoir, Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children. "Georgette, don't sit on Bessie." "She doesn't mind, do you, cherie?" Four year old Georgette straddled the black and white dog and scratched behind her ears. Her mother clicked her tongue. "I don't care if Bessie minds, I mind. Get off the dog." Georgette flopped forward and then rolled of the dog with a groan. "But I like to sit on Bessie. She warm and fuzzy, and she likes me." The dog's large pink tongue lapped at a dribble of jam in the corner of the child's mouth. Eugenie snatched her daughter out from under the wet tongue of the huge dog and dragged her to the basin in the corner of the salon. "Honestly, child, you can not let a dog lick your mouth. Don't you know she licks her... well, she licks anything." Georgette struggled to avoid the cold and dripping cloth her mother was roughly scrubbing across her face. "Maman, you're smothering me." "Better smothered than dead from dog germs," she muttered as she scrubbed.

I'm reluctant to leave the sunny upstairs for the sewing area in the basement. As the year ages and the winter ripens in the early months of 2012 we'll have less and less sunshine. What a waste. Bundle up today, it's a cold one.
--Barbara