1. I thought it was pretty funny when Chris pointed out that I had written in my last post that Hilary Duff was in The Black Dahlia, rather than Hillary Swank. It might actually have been a casting improvement, so I let it stand. 2. The fact that I got some sweet new Merrell Polartech fancy-ass weatherproof snow boots for Christmas and there has been not a drop of snow seems terribly unfair. Yes, I love irony as much as the next person, but usually only when I'm in control of it or, at the very least, not the victim of it. It's like giving a yo-yo to a child with no hands. Or something.
3. On a positive footwear note, I'm old enough now to believe in sensible footwear and I just replaced my aging workout shoes with a pair of Brooks. Miraculously, it's made a huge difference with my knee pain. I update you on this because I know you've been wondering, "How are Julia's knees?" Now you know.
4. I just took my first Nia class this afternoon at the beautiful Ann Arbor YMCA which may be the nicest YMCA of all time ever. What is Nia, you may ask? I still have no idea. I just know that I'm ADD when it comes to exercise and need as many options as possible, so when my friend Margaret claimed to enjoy a Nia class, I signed up for a one-time intro. Turns out it's a blend of yoga, Aikido, Tai Chi, jazz dance and about 800 other things. It's fun, in as much as anything not involving sitting on one's ass can be classified as such, but MAN it's a tougher workout than I thought. Despite which, I may sign up for a class. It's important for me to have a variety of classes and activities to skip.
5. Here is some Ann Arbor math. Chris and I were at a post-workout visit to Zingerman's, just to make sure that we didn't actually net any total caloric deficit. We were about to order up a couple of particular baked goods when we realized that if we killed 20 minutes, they'd go on sale at 1/2 price after 5 pm. So we ordered up a couple of lattes while we waited. Thus, we spent $7 on coffees so that we could save $5 on buns. That's precisely the kind of economics this town depends on!
6. A quick update on the knitting goods for the little girls in Tibet. It is neither quick nor cheap to get goods to Tibet but the boxes of goodies donated by generous knitters (from St. Louis and Ann Arbor) have both arrived in China and are in my friend Stephanie's possession. She'll be traveling to Tibet to deliver them in short order. Thank you, thank you, all you generous souls for providing a little warmth and the delight of hand-knit goods to these little girls! Yay, knitters!
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