sara skates

1.  Toby funny from a few days ago:  He typically crawls down to my bed for a good-morning cuddle when he wakes up.  A few days ago, he slept in later than usual, so I was up and downstairs when he did – though I heard him so I went upstairs.  I popped him up onto the bed and jumped up myself – though, we were sorta sideways on the mattress rather than stretched out with our heads on the pillows.

Toby’s quiet for a minute and then I hear:  “Mama, how come we are in landscape mode?”

The kid entirely cracks me up!

2.  Skating competition season is upon us – I’m off to Eastern Adult Sectionals tomorrow.  I skate in one of the first events on Saturday morning – which has the bonus of being relaxed through the rest of the competition!  I only signed up for Freestyle at Sectionals – I don’t have an interp program this year, and I’ll do Solo Dance too at Adult Nationals.

Skating is going pretty well all things considered.  I have some boot issues that continue to plague me, with the added bonus of my blade “chassis” breaking a week or two ago (story on that below).  My annual winter cold-air-induced (after a cold virus) asthma has been pretty fierce this year although a new round of meds seems to be helping (Advair plus a rescue inhaler).  I’m pretty happy with where my program is at – it needs improvements but it’s getting there.

3.  My blades.  I have Jackson Ultima Matrix blades – which were recently discontinued.  In short, they have a “chassis” (part that screws to the boot, and into which you bolt the runner of hte blade), and a “runner” – the part you skate on.  I have two sets of runners as I swap them out and mail them off to be sharpened.  I noticed about a week ago – while drying my blades off – that the chassis of one skate had snapped – right in the middle, if I were to take the chassis off the boot without the runner attached?  it’d come off in two pieces.  Since this model of blades was just discontinued – Jackson scrambled a bit to find a pair to send me (they have no more, my skate shop dealt with them and they got a pair from another skate shop), they’re on their way.  The alternative would have been to wait for the new Matrix II blades – which will be on the market in a few months – BUT they’re a very different model as they don’t have the interchangable runners and I’d lose my mail-to-sharpen plan.  I am thrilled to have a new pair of chassis coming my way – Kudos to Jackson and the Figure Skating Boutique for such excellent customer service.

4.  My blog.  I think I finally decided that really?  If I only blog once a month?  That’s ok.  It’s really not worth feeling guilty about yanno?

5.  Hannah is awesome.  She has recently discovered social computing for the pre-teen set – Warriors roleplay forums.  Cats and social stuff – what’s not to like?

She has also really picked up the ball and started doing some household chores – folding laundry and doing the dishwasher – without a lot of complaining. I thank her daily – it’s entirely awesome.

6.  Knitting.  I have about a sleeve and a half left on a sweater, I have started 3 or 4 new pairs of socks, I’m working on a pair of mittens (I think rather than socks this summer?  I’m knitting mittens.  It gets cold here in the winter), and a scarf.  NO doubt there are other hibernating projects around the house.

7. That concludes this random edition!