Happy Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras, and yesterday was President's Day (which is, apparently, really supposed to be JUST Washington's day!) and does it seem like this week has an awful lot of holidays packed into it?

people who are born in the Year of the Rabbit are gentle, straightforward, diplomatic, and well-liked by their seniors and peers? They are also regarded as good marriage partners for people born in a sheep or pig year. But they're incompatible with rat, horse, dragon, and rooster people

A week ago Sunday, when I was getting ready to go on a walk with Sailor, I got my hiking boots out of the car, and lo and behold, one of them had a roll of film in it! I had packed them in the shoes from Pittsburgh, and missed this one! I was relieved, since I was certain I had taken some shots on the submarine. It also has a lot more dinosaur pictures in it, oddly enough.

Wednesday I felt pretty good, and the shoulder didn't remind me of its existence at all. Then things began to fall apart. I guess it's two baby steps forward and one giant step back, and sometimes that's forward, and sometimes it's not. I had a couple of Really Bad Days with the shoulder, as well as some, uh, intestinal troubles. I'm assuming this is an unpleasant side effect of the pills, as I have no fever, and Rich isn't bothered. I'd wake at night and it hurt all day. Also, my mobility with it wasn't as good as just the previous week.

Thursday:
We were to lead a Solemates walk. It was rather grim out, so only two people (both fast walkers, and here Rich has a sore foot and I'm a slowpoke!) came. We saw red-shouldered hawks and Milt identified phoebes (a small black-headed bird) on our 4-mile walk along the river.
Sac State replaced its Athletic Director, since none of the teams are winning games. What they SHOULD do is drop back to Division 2, where they belong and where they might win a few games.

Friday:
I went to see My Favorite Martian though I have no idea why. Mostly I didn't hate it. I spent the time trying to ignore my shoulder. (Yes, I know I whine a lot about this, when there are people who have Real Diseases and Real Pain, but it DOES hurt!)
I decided maybe my bod was too used to the meds after 6 weeks, so that night I didn't take the pill, but had two glasses of wine instead. I slept like a baby, painfree.
I got confirmation from Kaiser that I don't have cancer, and went to tell Rich but he was in a major sulk about his computer. Grumble.
He had a working dinner to attend that night so he got a decent meal.
My page is, once again, an extra-credit point for a geology class at Laredo Community College, so it had 80 hits on Friday, and 94 today. I love it.

Saturday:
We went down for the Scout Awards at the Cathedral. Afterwards we wandered around the Downtown Plaza. I saw some things that interested me in the Nature Center, which I later picked up on Monday: a book on rockhounding in California, an illustrated Tai Chi that follows the form I was learning, and a CD of "Grunt", Sandra Boynton's parody of "Chant." (The pigs speak pig-latin, of course.)
The YMCA mock government was in town and all these nicely-dressed kids were wandering around. I especially got a kick out of one girl in a black suit with black stockings and HUGE white athletic shoes. Rich was paying attention to the Ally McBealish skirt length, and as we were walking behind one group, we both saw a teen ogler leaning on a lamppost. His double-take was clear motive for dressing that way.
I surprised myself by noticing a non-Y girl with short orange hair and actually thinking it looked nice. Next I'll like cheek piercings if I don't watch out.
We had lunch at Tacone Wrap, which is a small chain. I had a barbeque chicken wrap and Rich had something like a thanksgiving dinner one. GOOD stuff.
In all the shops, people were paying a lot of attention to Tinky Winky. I can only assume that Falwell got a large donation from the Teletubbies to badmouth him.
Back home, I turned on CBS news and then ignored the real people segment I was interested in, but Rich enjoyed it.

Sunday: Valentines' Day
I got Valentines from Justine, Roni, and Vicki Jean and later in the day Wowbagger came by with three white roses and a book about Wyoming history. In fact, it was the 8th grade textbook when I was there, and it was such a delight to see it again.
I was just coming out of the fog I put myself in then by accidently double-dosing on the pill at lunch. Tsk. That's really not good for one.
Before I did that, I went to the store and got four items, which they wanted to bag in three bags. Nonono.

Monday:
We went to see Rushmore and again I'm really not sure why. I didn't hate it a little less, but it didn't live up to the hype. I was disappointed.
The Tai Chi book reminded me about breathing exercises, and sure enough, if I breathe before doing the stretching with the shoulder, I do a lot better. I'm also back to doing the rubber-band exercises, which I've been lazy about.
The nostalgia of writing about my first date led me to doing some searches, and I found one of my best elementary-through-high-school buddies. He wrote a nice letter back, and I'll tell something about him another day.

I still wake up with shoulder pain and there's a lot during the day, but I think it's getting better again. Or I'm getting used to it, whatever. One of the things I got on the one-bag-per-item day was some yogurt to try to settle my tummy. So far I don't see much improvement. I will probably have to cut down on coffee. It wouldn't surprise me if the caffeine was messing up the anti-inflammatory, but did they tell me that? Noooo.