Cheese lovers, prepare to salivate.

my intro to athletics.

gym class

swimming lessons - with swim teachers that talked about the octopus in the lake ( which I knew wasn't there, but...!). Seriously, the reason I can swim is because I couldn't stay out of the water - adn my mom doesn't swim well. so she made me take lessons until I could really swim well. I think if I had slightly better insturcters that didn't scare me quite so much I could have gotten into doing it compettively. Some day I''d love a a lap pool .

ice skateing and bicycling - both of which my dad taught me until I could do it . It felt like it took me 10,000x as long to learn it than anyone else. but I still like both - even though learning was tramatic at the time. ( tears, crying, sobbing)

my father getting the whole family up at dawn to go hiking " comeon , its good for you - it grows hair on your chest" that was the rallying cry. For the record, the man had 3 daughters.

today- I like to bike, swim, ice skate, and walk. some hiking, but not to strenuous. I will go to the gym - because I recognizes how much good it does. Sadly, I am still trying to convince dh that saying " let's go work out" does not inspire me. " let's go for a fun bike ride" or "let's go for a walk on the trail" are good. Never mention the word workout. My hangup - but it is easy to work around.

mmm... cheese

I saw that article on Wednesday. It confused me that they talked almost nonstop about Artisanal, but didn't mention Picholine at all, since they share both a cheese cave and Maître Fromager.

did you really play rounders?

It's a fairly standard part of the English educational influence (hand in hand with cricket, netball, etc.)

What is it like, as a game?

I'd always figured it was like softball, but I've never played softball. Loosely baseballesque with underarm pitching. You can score full or half rounders, and also be penalised rounders.

I loved having the ball and running hard right through the potential tacklers.

I was always pretty good at reversing direction on a dime and making myself small - people would go right past you before they could process what was happening. On the other side of the ball, I was also really good at going down low and taking people's legs out from under them. This also proved useful when dealing with persistantly inappropriate moshers. My biggest problem when I had the ball was that while I could manouver, I didn't have the endurance to keep it up for long, so inevitably my reversal ability kept slowing down.

Just today?

Well, I'm not exactly in a bad mood, but I'm in pain, so I'll be polite and civil as long as you leave me alone and don't make things difficult. As Frank Pembleton says, "Please don't be an idiot. Thank you."

Smear the queer is the worst name, ever. I don't think I've ever heard that before today. I'm still cringing every time I read it.

We played a similar game, but it was called Kill the Man with the Ball.

It confused me that they talked almost nonstop about Artisanal, but didn't mention Picholine at all,

I think it got referred to once, in passing, in an "oh, by the way" sense.

since they share both a cheese cave and Maître Fromager.

I love that Cheese Master is a real job!

I am the Cheese Master....are you the Gatekeeper?

Hey, my Ex-DH is a college professor now. [link]

Yesterday would have been our 23rd anniversary, so it got me in a googling mood. Glad he's doing well. Even more glad we're not together anymore.