Rain, music, yoga and a doorknob

Hello there all.  It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  Those of you who don’t see us in real time are no doubt feeling parched for news of our doings and well-being.  (However do you pass the time between riveting blog posts?  Poor things.)  Allow me to catch you up a trifle on the first two weeks of ’09.  (Bottom line: all is well.)

An assortment of recent things we have done (singly or together):

• Attended a rollicking music party where Val’s stand-up bass was one of two in the room and the intermission entertainment was a skit put on by two small girls and various audience members, possibly concerning shy dragons.

• Both leapt back into the work force.

• Organized the increasingly archaic cd collection with personal categories including “current favorites,” “mixes,” “people neither of us has ever heard of” and “empty cases for cds we are not ready to pronounce conclusively lost.”

• Taken to yoga as a family activity, something Tuley quite enjoys because she can lick the face of whomever is most defenselessly tangled up.

• Sung in (me) and attended (Val) a choir holiday concert which was canceled for snow not once but twice, with the lucky result that the concert ended up held on December 28.  Which was technically after all relevant holidays (unless you go by the 12 days of Christmas), but as it was the night we returned from Montana, stinky and cross-eyed after two grueling days crossing four states of snow, I was able to stagger across town (dinner in my pockets) and sing Adeste Fideles in four-part harmony with the rest of them.

• Braved the ice cold bucketing rain to accomplish our traditional New Year’s Day hike (with Amy and the little dogs) in the Gorge, where we were awed by the raging winter waterfalls at Latourell, slalomed over miles of slick, snowy paths and finally squelched home muddy, shivering and triumphant.

• Attended various sessions of acupuncture, therapy, meditation, yoga, and chiropractic care.

• Participated in the second quarterly interview for the Family Living with Lung Cancer study.

• Eaten good meals with good friends.

• Learned how to use PhotoShop (Val taught me) and made a new photo collage for the blog header.  Did you notice?  (However, and most irritatingly, the blog feature allowing me to upload photos to the posts has ceased working on my computer, which is why I haven’t put up the Montana pictures after all.)

• Survived: the breakdown of the heater, the loss of my second favorite hat in as many months, Tuley’s ingestion of a chicken bone found on the sidewalk, budget reports, overdue fines, a flat tire, the slow demise of my cell phone, and the collapse of the ancient front doorknob, which regularly comes off in people’s hands, leaving them stranded on the porch.

• Till Valerie heroically fixed the doorknob today.

So those are some of the silly particulars.  I think I’ll write a separate post for the moody underpinnings.

Jeckyll-and-Hydishly,

Deborah