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It's been a really fun weekend for me... on Wednesday hub, Bob and I went to Hamilton Pool again (see 4/28 entry). I think everyone was humoring me at first, but when we got there and got in the water, it was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time at the big rock where one of the waterfalls pounds down, Bob sitting on top and me just putting my hands on the slick sides of the stone, feeling the water cascade down my hands. Hub and I sat on another rock that is submerged just a couple of feet below the surface, and made out for a long time, probably to the annoyance of others there. It was a lot busier than it was last time we went about a month ago, probably because school's out for the summer. *shrug* Again, I was Aquaman... I swam my ass off without feeling worn out at all, then the death march up to the car from the pool almost killed me. Damn gravity!

I love that place. They finally dragged me home around 4, and we went to La Morada and had yummy Mexican food. I went to elder's pad to put some final touches on the Litha working, and she was really happy about it. Go, me!

Thursday I ended up at La Morada again with Cathy, who has been working this horrible job that's worn her ragged. It was with a school so she finally was able to quit when it let out- she could've quit earlier, but since she had promised them she'd stick it out for the semester, she didn't want to leave them hanging. She's like that. It was good to catch up with her, and hopefully we'll be able to see more of each other now.

Hub is talking to these people that need a web guy for their business, which will be to set up communities that are self-sustaining, green, vaguely socialist and rather tribal sounding. Too bad the one they want to build in Round Rock is for senior citizens; it sounds cool. I hope it takes off, and with hub getting in at the very beginning it would be good for us directly too.

They finally fixed our internet connection Thursday too, though it screwed up the cable TV. Hub was able to jiggle some wires and get it back up though... but honestly, I was worse off without internet that I think I would've been without TV (though it was still OK upstairs). Still, it's nice to be online again! That night Gordon came over for home-cooked meal since he arranged for us to have a van to live in at Flipside. He wanted tuna casserole, which has fish and is therefore an abomination unto Mielikki so I had leftover paella. We ended up watching Zoolander, which amused Gordon greatly.

Friday was nothing much day... I taught the final class of the 13-week series, and of the 5 that I offered the class to, 3 made it to now. They all say they want to take Dedication and continue studies- I'm looking forward to it. I haven't taught Dedicant classes in awhile. I also hope I can teach them on a night other than Saturday- that sucked! Maybe Thursdays- that would be very not sucky. Oh! There was that brief cloudburst that I mentioned. It was fun to run around in it and get soaked.

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Saturday was fucked-up house day. I'd noticed a wet spot near a closet downstairs, and thought maybe it was a cat accident but kept forgetting about it. Finally hub stepped in it, and asked about it... it didn't smell like a cat byproduct. Then we noticed a weird, stale-water smell in the laundry room, and a place on the concrete outside that was wet, even though it's sheltered... so we called the guy who inspected our house when we bought it, and he gave us some ideas. When we looked in the closet, the floor in there was totally soaked and the pad and carpet were ruined. It was mostly a wrapping paper and miscellaneous camping stuff closet, so I ended throwing out a lot of pretty wrapping paper. We're drying the room out now, and I guess we'll call the insurance dudes Monday. I'm gunning for plumbing as opposed to foundation. Yikes! Maybe we can get a new floor out of the deal; hub was wanting to get rid of the carpet anyway.

Later we went to see 'Sum of All Fears', another grovemate's idea for a New Moon activity. It wasn't a terribly popular idea, there was just that person and me and our respective spouses at the movie. It wasn't a bad movie, I guess, though I would've liked to have seen more gore and blood and guts with regards to the chemical and nuclear warfare- it seemed awfully remote in a lot of ways. War is hell; if you're expecting us to be disturbed by it don't make it seem like a sterile clean little chess game. Meh. Two stars.

We screwed around and went home, but I was feeling antsy and wanted to go do something outside. It was around sunset and hub and I decided to explore a park nearby (Balcones something or other). It's huge and there are a lot of wooded areas, so we quickly struck out on a path. There was a bit of climbing, but not too much. It was quite green, although a lot of the green was ragweed and (I think) poison ivy. It was fun- when I was a wee bairn in Kerrville and San Antonio I used to explore the woods nearby all the time by myself. As we wandered it got darker and we realized that we were a long way from the park- suddenly we were standing in front of Mopac across from the North Austin Medical Center. So we walked on the side of the road, stopping at a convenience store for water (what a sight we must have been, covered with sweat and burrs) and looped back to the park, then home. I was exhausted and quickly stripped down and surfed the net for a bit while hub played Pro-Skater with Bob (Bob is at his house- they're doing this online. Bob's over a bunch, but I'm not walking around the house in the buff in front of him). After I cooled off, I thought it would be nice to get in the pool.

I haven't been in our pool much; it seems like something to fuss with, with the cleaning and the chemicals and the wa-hey... rather than something to have fun in. I need to get past that false dichotomy because it's a pool for gods' sake, and I dreamed of having a pool of my own for as long as I can remember. Even if it's a smallish above ground pool. After getting used to the water, I started thrashing around. I though again about how much I love swimming, and it's the only activity that has elements of exercise in it that I really thoroughly enjoy. Hiking is nice, but being covered in sweat and burrs and achy sucks. I also feel big and stompy and clumsy. But when I'm in the water, I feel graceful and wonderful. I swam back and forth, sometimes on my back so I could look up at the stars, for at least 1/2 hour until hub came out to see what I was up to. I thought, if I did this every day, or even every other day, I might actually start to loose some weight and get some wind back. And enjoy doing it. Imagine that!

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Here's a shocker- nature is good for you: "Happy by Nature: Fondness for Plants And Animals May Be Hard-wired, Healthy."

I've added 'biophilia' to my interests, and the one other person with that interest as a friend. Biophilia. *nod* It explains a lot about my personality- I want to have the blinds open if the windows look out on trees. My aquarium. Wicca. Plants in my office. Nature! Gimme more!

( here's the article in case it goes away )