My cousin bought a Wii today, and I got to try it out this evening -- bowling, boxing, golf, and tennis.

It's fun, and interesting, but kinda weird. I was never really sure which motions got recognized, and which didn't.

Watching other family members try to figure it out was as much fun as playing it myself.

One of the older (48) women at krav was talking about boxing with her son on the Wii. He won the first one, and then she beat him the second time. He squeaked a win on the third try, but it sounds like that'll be their final competition. She heard him sheepishly admit to a peer that his mother had almost won the engagement.

Now I'm curious, but I have to admit the impact is a large part of why I like hitting people.

For the record, I'm assuming my swollen left calf is because I've had the left knee bandaged but insufficiently elevated for the past two days. Not anything like it was last time I posted about a swollen left calf.

Off to put on velvet and sensible shoes and venture forth where shiny people might see me.

We only played against the machine -- apparently 2nd controllers are even harder to come by than the main device itself.

The boxing was weird, but fun. Footwork doesn't help, of course, and as far as I could tell there was no way to move in or back out. You could make your figure sway side to side, and we figured out that tilting the tops of your fists toward each other let you "cover up." The vertical motions weren't well recognized -- when I tried hitting to the body, half the time my guy didn't punch at all, and some of the rest were turned into head punches.

I'm not sure if there is a tutorial, or even a handbook. What we were doing was very much learning as we went along, so I bet most of our problems came from that.

Wow. Olive hates cute puppies. A lot.

Didn't watch the ball game. I decided that reading, which lead to napping, was a less stressful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I'll be regretting the napping part later, I'm sure.

Oh good. I missed the football. (Happy for you that love it, but not so much my thing.)

t Warning: frustrated teacher rant

I think all of my brains have leaked out of my ears and are puddled somewhere on the floor. I just spent four hours tweaking a reading/assessment/writing/finals schedule from now until the end of February for my four 9th grade classes. In theory each class should be doing the same thing, but our school schedule is CRAXY and unpredictable and makes keeping my classes together impossible. I mean, seriously, I've taught under five different schedules, and this one is ridonkulous. It's a six day modified block schedule, which in this case means that one of my classes meets for 45 minutes 5 out of the 6 days and the others meet for three 45 minute periods and one 90 minute period over the six days (and not, I might add, in the same pattern). So basically there is NO WAY to make one plan; I just have to create different plans that still have the same outcome.

I am so damned glad that we're going to a new schedule next year. I don't even know what that schedule will be, but at least it will have some semblance of a pattern.

t /frustrated teacher rant

gah. Yay for new schedule next year!

Location: Bar Lubitsch, West Hollywood

Order: Vodka gimlet straight up

Received: Unnamed vodka and organic freshly squeezed lime juice with some sugar--one martini glassful and a shaker's worth (about the same volume)

Cost: $11

Verdict: Hmmm. Not sweet enough, and lacked that juicy tang. Missing the best of both worlds, really. However, there was a lot of it, and it wasn't bad. It just wasn't as good as the last few.

Is $11 a representative price for gimlets? It seems high to me, but in my head all drinks are $4 and I'm pretty sure that's not accurate at all.

It's the most expensive gimlet I've had so far (I think--I haven't paid for all of them myself), but it was two glasses' worth of drink, so I can't complain. Other people found drinks there pricey though--ones smaller than mine were also $11.