Well, okay, so Kris and I aren't travelling for Thanksgiving specifically. I am, however, travelling. In particular, back to Indiana (shock there, eh?) for a lifelong friend's wedding. I've known Jessi Klein since she was born, having been friends with Jenny, her older sister, for a year or so by the time she was born. Not that I remember that far back, since that friendship started when I was three and Jenny was one.

You know, if Jenny and Jessi are able to switch to calling me Kitt, the least I can do is call them by their preferred names of Jenn and Jessica. Gah. It's like calling Mark's brother Matt 'Matty' because he's been Matty so long that it's hard not to. Time to learn to switch!

So, off I flew today, the day after Thanksgiving, back to the Midwest, where it's cold, and blustery, and unpleasant. But a wedding is happening, so it can't be all that bad, right? Right?

What I didn't realize when I boarded my flight, however, was that I was flying down to Los Angeles first, then on to Midway. I really wish I could keep my flights straight.

When I booked this too long flight, I decided that I was going to skip renting a car. I'm not sure why I decided that public transportation in a city I'm mostly unfamiliar with was a good idea. However, checking Google maps which now has the "public transporation directions" gave me confidence that renting a car only to drive for 30 minutes then park it for three days, paying for both renting it and parking it, was a dumb idea. Public transportation and $2.50 was the way to go. I printed up my Google directions, tucked them into my bag with a billion magazines and a couple books to read, and didn't think much more of them until I arrived in Chicago.

I actually had packed light this time, and rolled straight out of the plane, down the jet way, out the gate, along the terminal, through the security check point, down the escalator and out the hall to the trains. I pulled out my instructions, verified I wanted on the orange line, tucked page two back into my bag, went through the airport out door which doubles as the station in door, and realized I forgot to pull out my wallet.

So, out came the wallet, and $10 later, I had a ticket. I took enough time trying to figure out how to get through the turnstiles to show that I was, indeed, a visitor to the area, but eventually managed to feed my ticket through the slot and wander down to the trains. I recalled I wanted the orange line, and knew there was only one direction for the trains to go from the airport station, so wandered through the open train doors.

Only to realize I had lost my directions.

I was in Chicago with the directions out for no more than 15 minutes, and had already lost my directions.

CRAP!

I quickly tried to figure out my options. The passenger a few rows away said the trains came every 10-15 minutes or so, so I wouldn't have long to wait for the next one. My cell phones had web access, but it wasn't very google map friendly. Crap! Think! Think!

Kris to rescue.

In a panic, I called him up and had him relook up the train directions. I had my destination still, because page 2 was still tucked into my bag. The rest, Kris had to look up and recite to me, which he did without hestitation.

Well, without MUCH hesitation. There was that WoW battle that needed to be completed before he brought his web browser up.

Or something like that. Here's hoping I don't lose my current directions, too!

This holiday season, Kris and I have pretty much made no plans. No, that's not quite right, we've made some plans. In particular, we've planned NOT to travel for the holidays. This is a big break from my family's usual plans of gathering for Thanksgiving, which typically leaves Christmas open for Kris' family gatherings in December. However, with all of my travel this year, and finances being as iffy as they are, we've decided not to join the mass migration to other parts of the country.

Besides, how would Kris be able to play World of Warcraft from his mother's computer? I mean, really?

So, when Megan let us invite ourselves, er, invited us over for Thanksgiving, we jumped at the chance. I enjoy big family gatherings, and the Smith family qualifies for both big and family. Besides, the new house needed proper family christening, and what fun would that be?

LOTS!

Since we were heading over hill and over dale to the Smiths' house, and hills crush Kris' car's gas milage, I drove us up to the house. When I arrived, I noticed that the parking pad next to the house was empty. After checking that the other easy parking spots were full, I circled back around to part on the parking pad. That was when Kris spoke up.

"You're not going to part here, are you?"

"Yeh, I was planning on it."

"Can't we park back up there?"

"No. Look, there are four parking spots here. Dinner is in like an hour, we're probably the last people here. I'll just park here. Besides, Megan said they put in an extra spot."

"Why aren't you parking on the side?"

"Because the tenant parks on the left."

"Eh?"

Take that, gravity!

Megan later confirmed that EVERYONE avoided parking on the new parking pad, so I had better have parked there! I made sure Kris heard her, complete with a confirmation that he had.

So, you know that Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin is just walking along in one panel, and in the next there's this blur with a tail on one side? Yeah, the one where both Calvin and Hobbes are in a heap in the third panel? Yes, that one.

That was us, when we approached the front door of the house. Together, Kris and I were Calvin. The part of Hobbes was played by Kevin, who came rushing us from the side of the house and tackled the two of us, to much merriment and greetings.

The tackle just set the tone for the whole evening, which was marvellously spectacular. I managed another bear hug from Matty, and lots of chatting with Kevin, and Mark, and Mark's parents, and Megan's parents, and TWO grandmothers (which is crazy! Mirabelle and Meter have a good chance at long lives). I wanted to help Megan out with the dinner, but, well, she was done.

The meal, holy moly, I swear must have taken Megan all day plus two, even though she denies it. She made the entire meal a Smitten Kitchen recipe meal (which could have ended disastrously when SK's monthly bandwidth quota was exceeded this morning and everyone was locked out of the site, except that Megan is resourceful and used the Google cache to retrieve the recipe details she was missing), which meant it was completely Kris friendly.

Think lobster, and you're close to how wonderful the meal was.

The house is looking fabulous. I really like the design choices they've made with the house. I need to ask about the flooring. Thinking of putting it in at the Indiana house.

So, when people ask us what we're thankful for, I'll say with no hesitation that having friends like the Smiths is one of the biggest blessings in our lives and we're incredibly happy for their presence in our lives. I'm glad I don't need a big holiday to know or remember this.

This morning's velocity had all of the characters from Monday with one switch, we swapped out Jennifer for a quick Asian dude I've seen at various classes. Oh, and I learned the name of the guy whose name I couldn't remember on Monday. It's Greg, not David. I have no idea where David came from. Maybe Pickett.

As we were all rolling away on the foam rollers or with the roller sticks, a beefy guy I'd never seen before came up in full Velocity gear. "Are you here to workout?" Sandie asked him. "No," he replied, "I'm here to watch." Huh?

Turns out, he was the sports something or other director, and at class today to watch Breanne. Presumably to watch us, too. When I know someone is around to watch, I know my behaviour alters. I tried to detect changes in Breanne's behavious, since this was the first time this director person was around to watch.

You know, watching someone do something day after day after day for years and years does not make you an expert on doing that thing yourself. Not that I would have said it would if you had asked me.

Now, if I had asked ME, I have to wonder if my answer would have been different.

I hope it would be.

Mike dropped Rossi off Sunday night for the Thanksgiving holiday. The family is heading off to the east coast (good thing I'm posting this so far after the fact that not only is he back from the trip, but TWO holidays have passed since this trip) for Thanksgiving and he found out just yesterday that the doggie day-care he normally goes to won't accept Roz any longer because she requires shots.

Requires shots?

Uh...

Roz is confortable enough at our house that she fits in with our routine. She has a few quirks, but nothing that would become aggravating in under a week, so we agreed to watch her over the holiday for Mike and Kate. She's here, and look, I have insulin to give her in the morning and the evening.

Now, I watched my dad or my brother give my brother insulin shots for years, over a decade. I know to roll the bottle to mix the insulin. I know to tip the bottle upside down and draw the syringe slowly so as to not introduce air. I recall now to inject the same amount of air into the bottle before removing the insulin. I know to snap the syringe to dislodge any air bubbles, and I certainly know to remove said air bubbles before injecting the insulin.

Knowing all of this and actually DOING all of this are two (mostly) different things.

Good thing Rossi is more patient than my brother was when he was her age. I'd be in a heap of hurting if she weren't.

Kris and I went to Velocity this morning. I haven't been in over a week and a half. I think Kris went maybe twice last week, one of his absenses being completely my fault. Not that he wasn't happy to return to bed and sleep for another hour or so.

This morning there were 7 paying customers for a full house of people warming up. Aside from the usual suspects of Breanne, Sandie, Kris, Bill and me, we also had Darlynn, who is becoming a regular, Jennifer, whom I met just today, Joe, Kris' coworker who is good natured about my unsubtle hecking and a 7:30 regular whose name I've forgotten - maybe David?

After jumping jacks and armcircles and squat warmups, I was tempted to line up so that I was warming up in Jennifer's line. She reminded me of a high school softball or volleyball player, the way she carried herself, and I was tempted to race her in the warmups.

For about 2 seconds.

They're warmups for a reason, to warm up, not to go all out and pull a muscle so that you're out for the offseason and out for the Speed Camp coming up that you really, really want to go to.

Besides, I warm up slowly, usually taking about 30% longer than everyone else to complete the length of the track in my warmups, and prefer to be in the last line so that I don't block anyone else behind me on the warmups. Since Jennifer lined up in the second lane, my racing morning was over.

Sorta.

Today's workout was:

10 runs 50m
10 reps push press
10 reps overhead squats

8 runs 50m
15 reps push press
15 reps overhead squats

6 runs 50m
20 reps push press
20 reps overhead squats

4 runs 50m
25 reps push press
25 reps overhead squats

The runs were done on the track, running down and back.

The push presses and the overhead squats were done with the same weight, for me the beginner barbell. We practiced with dowel rods before actually starting the workout, to make sure we had good form.

Because I was sharing a bar with Darlynn, I opted to run after my push presses and squats. So, while she and the rest of the group ran their ten lengths, I was pushing and squating by myself in front of Breanne.

Can you say "one-on-one training?"

Can you say "requires perfect form?"

Yeah.

Fortunately, my squat form was pretty good ("That's the best I've seen this morning, Kitt!"), so I was only self-conscious, not self-conscious and squating poorly. The trick to good squats, I've recently realized, is to keep your heels on the ground. Tipping forward is a lot harder when your heels are firmly planted on the ground. ("Good form, Kitt! You're getting stronger. Good depth. Good squat!")

I managed the first two rounds without difficulty, but was running out of time before Darlynn returned on the third set. I cut the push presses short, doing only 10 in the 20 round, and doing two sets of 10 for the squats instead of one set of 20. I did make up the missing 10 push presses in the last round, though.

Since I was running last in each round, I was usually running by myself. Except for one point in the eight lengths running, I ran my lengths very strong. I kept my knees up, my stride long, and my starts quick. My knees were tweaking funny when I jogged, but running was fine, so I kept up the pace.

My last round of four lengths happened to coincide with Kris' running of four lengths, as he was out for a good 10 minutes in the early rounds. I was about 15 meters down the track on my first length when he started his first length, and managed to stay in front of him the whole time. I have to say that today was the strongest I've run at Velocity, with that ending proving that I stayed strong. "Just couldn't catch you," Kris muttered under his breath as he walked by me back to his bar.

Yep, much more satisfying than racing Jennifer.

I finished up my missing pushpresses and put the bar back, just in time for the three rounds of two sets each of 20 crunches on swiss balls. I managed two sets (so 80 crunches) in the time it took everyone else to do the three sets, so I stopped.

Though slower through the exercises than everyone else, I was actually very happy with how I did in this morning's workout.