Summer pool party and other things

This morning I had Hula at 9:30 and Kung Fu at eleven, but fortunately found a quicker route to the school than I took last time, and made good time. Tristan taught class and we did sparring with those handheld punching bags. I sparred with Tracy and Tracy does not pull punches. My hands always shake after sparring, but from holding the bags against someone else's punches, not from actually punching. Today the shaking was so bad that I could hardly drive home. I'm trying to make a music video for Lao Shir, and I was trying to record Tristan and Chris doing some cool moves, but I could hardly hold the tiny camera, and the footage is all shaky and blurred.

We had a huge thunderstorm and torrential rain last night, which did nothing to cool the air off. Today, supposedly, it hit 100 degrees a few places in NY. It has been hot as a crotch here, hotter I think than last year. Not a day has gone by this week when the thermometers haven't been above 90. The humidity is incredible, the air so dense that it seems to cling under your clothes. This is the way summer should be, though. Today the air even smelled hot, it actually smelled like Florida air. I love that smell.

Tonight (or last night, by the time I post this,) was the annual summer pool party at Bossman's incredible house. Michelle catered the entire thing and I brought over an exotic fruit torte. In the beginning of the evening, I bit into a cherry tomato and it completely exploded... all over the beautiful, faux finished wall. Bossman's daughter was making friendship bracelets and a few of us bought them from her. Two dollars, the little mercenary, but I gave her four. Michelle had made a dish called "pulled pork" and Jenn J. and I spent a good ten minutes giggling over that and making various comments ("no one pulls pork like Michelle," etc.) and basically running the joke into the ground. At one point, Bossman even purposely pointed the dish out to someone just to watch Jenn and I snicker in the corner like ten year old brats. Casse and Brittany played pool basketball, and Matt threw Dan into the pool. On his flailing way in, Dan grabbed onto Gabi and pulled her in, too. I missed that entire scene, but a few moments later, Gabi pushed me into the pool. A few minutes after that, someone--I couldn't see who it was because I didn't have my contacts in--pushed Jenn J. into the pool. Then Dan threw Jenn W. in.

I guess I should go to bed now, but I somehow feel like I haven't done enough yet. I wonder why that is.

Summer pool party and other things

This morning I had Hula at 9:30 and Kung Fu at eleven, but fortunately found a quicker route to the school than I took last time, and made good time. Tristan taught class and we did sparring with those handheld punching bags. I sparred with Tracy and Tracy does not pull punches. My hands always shake after sparring, but from holding the bags against someone else's punches, not from actually punching. Today the shaking was so bad that I could hardly drive home. I'm trying to make a music video for Lao Shir, and I was trying to record Tristan and Chris doing some cool moves, but I could hardly hold the tiny camera, and the footage is all shaky and blurred.

We had a huge thunderstorm and torrential rain last night, which did nothing to cool the air off. Today, supposedly, it hit 100 degrees a few places in NY. It has been hot as a crotch here, hotter I think than last year. Not a day has gone by this week when the thermometers haven't been above 90. The humidity is incredible, the air so dense that it seems to cling under your clothes. This is the way summer should be, though. Today the air even smelled hot, it actually smelled like Florida air. I love that smell.

Tonight (or last night, by the time I post this,) was the annual summer pool party at Bossman's incredible house. Michelle catered the entire thing and I brought over an exotic fruit torte. In the beginning of the evening, I bit into a cherry tomato and it completely exploded... all over the beautiful, faux finished wall. Bossman's daughter was making friendship bracelets and a few of us bought them from her. Two dollars, the little mercenary, but I gave her four. Michelle had made a dish called "pulled pork" and Jenn J. and I spent a good ten minutes giggling over that and making various comments ("no one pulls pork like Michelle," etc.) and basically running the joke into the ground. At one point, Bossman even purposely pointed the dish out to someone just to watch Jenn and I snicker in the corner like ten year old brats. Casse and Brittany played pool basketball, and Matt threw Dan into the pool. On his flailing way in, Dan grabbed onto Gabi and pulled her in, too. I missed that entire scene, but a few moments later, Gabi pushed me into the pool. A few minutes after that, someone--I couldn't see who it was because I didn't have my contacts in--pushed Jenn J. into the pool. Then Dan threw Jenn W. in.

I guess I should go to bed now, but I somehow feel like I haven't done enough yet. I wonder why that is.

Mid-August thoughts

Today continues to be hot as balls. There seems to be the taste of thunder on the air, though. I love living in a place where you can taste the freshness of the air, where you can feel weather coming, and where you can usually smell the ocean. Yes, we've got the biggest cancer cluster in the nation, but damnit, the air smells good.

I always start to feel witchy around the middle of August, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's something about the waning of summer that tells me "be prepared by any means for the coming months," although I'm never sure what I'm preparing for, or why I feel like I need magic to prepare for it. But most of my spells are done in these hot, wet days.

I put three grackles and three starlings (including the famous Mitchell) in the aviary today. I was going to release the two starlies that are still in there (and have been since June, I think,) but like I said, something is telling me "thunderstorms" so I held them back. I hate the thought of these birds spending their first night out of the aviary afraid and searching for shelter. Even though the ones I put in there today are going to be confused, the aviary's only 8X8X4, and they're sure to find the dry spots in there. Especially since one side is covered with corrugated plastic now.

Then I worked in the yard and cleaned the house. Boy, did I ever. My Sephiroth T shirt (the one I made, with Amano's original character design and the words "Gloriosa Generosa" underneath it,) was soaked through with sweat.

This is what I call lizard weather. Pendragon loves it, and it's perfect for him. Speaking of The Beast, it looks like he's getting to the beginning of his Bad Season already. He's been hurking up big logs of his food, which says to me that he's been wolfing down more than he can swallow. I think this might indicate that he feels like something is going to come along and steal his food, which means that he's feeling territorial. Then yesterday he crapped by his food dish (always the first sign,) and then he came running at me when I passed his cage. Then, later, I found him on the floor of the cage. Another bad sign that clearly says, "I'm antsy and acting up." By next month he'll be crapping three times a day and "fingerpainting" as I call it, diving down to the bottom of the cage (checking for intruders, no doubt,) and launching at me. Then he'll launch at me while he's at the bottom of the cage or the side that doesn't have plastic to shield him (it can't--the sun has to get through unfiltered,) and he'll cut up his chin that has healed so beautifully over the summer. That means six months of watching him rip his chin up and trying to patch it up while making sure he doesn't eat any bandaids I may have to put on him.

*sigh*

Maybe tonight I'll rent The Life Aquatic or something.

Mid-August thoughts

Today continues to be hot as balls. There seems to be the taste of thunder on the air, though. I love living in a place where you can taste the freshness of the air, where you can feel weather coming, and where you can usually smell the ocean. Yes, we've got the biggest cancer cluster in the nation, but damnit, the air smells good.

I always start to feel witchy around the middle of August, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's something about the waning of summer that tells me "be prepared by any means for the coming months," although I'm never sure what I'm preparing for, or why I feel like I need magic to prepare for it. But most of my spells are done in these hot, wet days.

I put three grackles and three starlings (including the famous Mitchell) in the aviary today. I was going to release the two starlies that are still in there (and have been since June, I think,) but like I said, something is telling me "thunderstorms" so I held them back. I hate the thought of these birds spending their first night out of the aviary afraid and searching for shelter. Even though the ones I put in there today are going to be confused, the aviary's only 8X8X4, and they're sure to find the dry spots in there. Especially since one side is covered with corrugated plastic now.

Then I worked in the yard and cleaned the house. Boy, did I ever. My Sephiroth T shirt (the one I made, with Amano's original character design and the words "Gloriosa Generosa" underneath it,) was soaked through with sweat.

This is what I call lizard weather. Pendragon loves it, and it's perfect for him. Speaking of The Beast, it looks like he's getting to the beginning of his Bad Season already. He's been hurking up big logs of his food, which says to me that he's been wolfing down more than he can swallow. I think this might indicate that he feels like something is going to come along and steal his food, which means that he's feeling territorial. Then yesterday he crapped by his food dish (always the first sign,) and then he came running at me when I passed his cage. Then, later, I found him on the floor of the cage. Another bad sign that clearly says, "I'm antsy and acting up." By next month he'll be crapping three times a day and "fingerpainting" as I call it, diving down to the bottom of the cage (checking for intruders, no doubt,) and launching at me. Then he'll launch at me while he's at the bottom of the cage or the side that doesn't have plastic to shield him (it can't--the sun has to get through unfiltered,) and he'll cut up his chin that has healed so beautifully over the summer. That means six months of watching him rip his chin up and trying to patch it up while making sure he doesn't eat any bandaids I may have to put on him.

*sigh*

Maybe tonight I'll rent The Life Aquatic or something.