Happy Opening Day!

I swear traffic was lighter going in to work this morning, and I'll chalk it up to so many people being out in the woods with their rifles. Mitch, unfortuately, won't get to hunt until Saturday afternoon, but I hope he has more luck this year than he's had since I met him. I really like venison and would love to see our freezer stocked with meat for the rest of the winter.

This weekend was nice and long. Mitch had Friday off because it was Veteran's Day so I took the day off, too. We spent the morning putting up shelves and unpacking our china and crystal, running errands and finishing off Tim's new workout regime. Then we had Gabe and Andrea over for a spaghetti dinner (yes, we used the china and crystal!) before heading down to Alma for the dance show. I loved seeing Jen, Michaela and Caleb onstage, but I hated the first act. The anti-war message made no sense at all. I've heard some very good anti-war arguments, so I'm not saying this just because I do happen to believe we should currently be in Iraq, but when you're going to put your opinions in a public forum like a dance show, they should really have more substance than simply showing battle footage and having your students chant something about the poor children of Iraq (who, by the way, will now not have to grow up under Saddam's oppressive and dangerous regime). Oh, and there was barely any dancing! Even if the message confounded me, I could still enjoy true artistic impression, but there was just a lot of walking around on stage and setting up chairs. The second and third acts, though, were great. Jen made a super Swanilda, Michaela was so graceful and Caleb was a stud in his tuxedo, never dropping Jen or tripping anyone. If any of you guys are reading this, congrats on a great performance!

On Saturday we headed down to Grand Rapids for an ABS climbing comp. Joe and his little brother, Tyler, met us there and I was very impressed by Tyler's climbing. He's only been a few times, but he was keeping up with the guys pretty well. The point values on the routes went from 1,000 to over 50,000, and I was climbing mostly in the teens and low twenties. One route was very frustrating. It was worth 21,000 and I should have been able to climb it no problem, but I didn't start working on it 'til the end of the afternoon and after three tries, I simply could not hold on any more. Grrr. But I got second in the beginner category. Joe got second or third in men's beginner and Mitch got bumped up to intermediate. I think you can check out how Mitch and I are doing in the standings by visiting www.rockcomps.com. The stats from Saturdya may not be up yet, though.

After the comp, we satisfied our craving for McDonald's fries and went to Dave and Mariah's for dinner. It was so fun to hang out with them...we haven't seem them since the summer, when we stayed with them at the Silver Lake Sand Dunes. After pizza, we played five games of Sequence (boys won 3, girls won 2) and three more games of Euchre (girls won 2, boys won 1). Mariah promised to teach me how to play poker next time. Apparently, even though she can't bluff in Euchre, she's a pretty darn good poker player.

We left Dave and Mariah's around 9 pm and were supposed to meet up with Adrienne and Lindsay, but it was too late for us to drive into Rochester, or wherever they were. We crashed hard at my parents' house...they were out in Rhode Island watching our old neighbor, Jamie, play his last home football game for Brown University. Sometime in the middle of the night, there was a big crash downstairs and it scared the living daylights out of me! In my half-asleep stupor, I was sure someone was breaking into our house, but it was just one of my mom's wreaths falling off the door. I think watching so many episodes of Rescue 911 as a kid must have scarred me a bit.

Sunday was a nice day of rest, mostly. We straightened out a mistake with some of our wedding crystal at Marshall Fields, did our laundry (the dryers are STILL broken in our apartment complex!) and played Scrabble. I love Scrabble. If anyone ever wants to play, I'm all for it. We also made dinner so that when my family got home, they could just relax and enjoy some awesome ribs. Mmm, ribs.

We stayed with my parents again on Sunday night so we could be in Southfield for Mitch's 7:15 am appointment with a new orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Anderson. The basic consensus is that Mitch needs to get an MRI so Dr. Anderson can see whether or not the microfracture performed in Mitch's last operation has been successful. He would also like to determine if there is anything structurally that can be fixed with surgery or if there is another way to help Mitch. For the moment, he has Mitch taking glucosamine chondriton (I think I spelled that wrong), which is supposed to help promote cartilage growth and "promote healthy joints."

I took the whole day off on Monday, which was nice because after the appointment, we drove back to Mt. Pleasant and I actually got to relax instead of rushing back to work like Mitch. I did some grocery shopping and picked up a few other things, worked on my scrapbook and spent some quality time with my kitty-cat. That evening, Mitch and I were both studying - he for a work-related exam he's taking this morning and me for the GMAT, which I hope to take this winter.

So now it's back to work. I've had a great morning so far...the student who visited me was great and had just as many questions as when I met her at her high school. Now it's time for lunch...it's tomato and fresh mozzerella (did I spell that wrong, too?) day!