Room for Balls

Emily and I started ballroom dancing lessons in November of last year so we've been at it for about five months now.  I have to say that it's some of the most enjoyable time we have spent together and that's saying quite a bit.

We have been taking lessons at Fred Astaire Dance Studio from a married couple of instructors fresh from the Ukraine about a year ago, Dimitri and Elena.  I'm sure experiences with this kind of thing vary heavily and I'm quite certain that the instructor can play a heavy role in the enjoyment or misery of it.  Ours have been fantastic.  They are very encouraging, make it fun, and keep us on the track of always improving.  Fortunately, Emily and I seem to be on fairly common ground as far as starting level and progression rate thus far.

We've been to a few dances.  Our first was a New Year's Eve party held by a local Meetup group at a larger ballroom space, Southern Star Ballroom.

In addition to that we have been to another Meetup event at the same facility as well as a couple of practice parties at our teaching studio.  I was pretty nervous at the start of the NYE event but it didn't take long before we joined the dance floor for about half of the songs.  We didn't know some of the dance styles so we sat those out.  We have been learning rumba, foxtrot, waltz, cha cha, tango, East coast swing, salsa and a little bit of Venetian waltz.  I think rumba, foxtrot, and tango are my favorites thus far.

I originally wanted to take swing dance lessons but have really enjoyed most of them.  I'm surprised at how addicting it is.  I look forward to our next event opportunity.  We had been doing two lessons per week but have cut it down to one lesson per week and another day spent practicing what we've already learned.  I think that's going to work out quite well.

I look forward to updating as we progress and maybe share a couple of videos once we're solid enough to show off.  :)

Flumonia

I've spent the past week held prisoner at home by the flu.  Suffice it to say "that sucked".  Started feeling pretty tired and crappy at work last Friday.  After work I hit the bed and was pretty much down for the night.  I had a low fever just over 100 degrees.  I didn't even join Emily and the kids for our traditional Friday night dinner out.  Saturday morning and into afternoon I felt pretty much the same.

By Saturday night I was actually feeling pretty good as if I were exiting the Friday rundown so the family went out to dinner and we watched Spider-Man: Homecoming on DVR.  Played a little bit of Rock Band 4 after that and crashed sometime after midnight.  Sunday morning was pretty much the same and I enjoyed a lunch at Wild Wing Cafe with Emily & Rich while the boys were out with other relatives.  Once home from lunch, I played about an hour of video games before I crashed hard.  The fever was back and I felt truly wiped out.  I spent the rest of the night in bed and all of Monday morning and afternoon.  I felt bad enough that I called the doctor's office Monday morning and made an appointment for 3pm.  I dragged myself out of bed and to the doctor's office where I was eventually diagnosed as testing positive for "flu type B".

Side note:  the nurse practitioner (my primary care doctor didn't have any appointments available on Monday) had a crappy bedside manner.  I'm going to officially not recommend her (private message me for name and practice if you're interested).  At one point she recommended that I pick up an inhaler that she prescribed because the flu is "putting down people of all types this time around".  Now, she *may* have been using "putting down" as a way of describing knocking them on their butt and putting them on bed rest for days, but I'm leaning toward her using it as a way of saying "killing".  Not exactly the mindset you want from a person of healing.

Once I got home, I recommitted to bed rest along with a multi-day cocktail of Tamiflu, Flonase, cough suppressant (can't remember the name) all through the rest of that day and the following.  By Wednesday, I had enough energy to work from home for about 2/3 of a work day.  On Thursday, I got through a full workday but I still felt beat up both nights after.  As of today, Friday, I'm finally feeling about 80-85% of myself and had enough energy to get through a full work day.  I'm still going to make an easy night of it but I hate that it's managed to mess with two weekends now.

Emily took good care of me while I was down and out but she's paying for it now as she started showing symptoms on Wednesday night after work. She has been crashed out since then matching my Sunday through Tuesday experience.  On top of feeling sympathy for her discomfort I feel guilty as the source of her infection.  Our common goal at this point:  do our best to prevent spread to the kids.

Caching In on my original geocaching hide

I replaced the log in my first geocache hide. I remain enamored by the hobby and find it really neat that others have sought and discovered my tiny treasure. Here is the log that I just replaced (click for larger view).  The first find on it is actually from our wedding day.  Didn't even notice that until I was posting this picture.  The first find ever of the cache was Feb 10, 2013.  A few early pages of the log appear to be missing.  The original cache hide disappeared (along with the original log) somewhere between Oct & Dec 2014.  I replaced it in Jan 2015 and it has been holding strong so far since.

And jumping a grade to 8th...

Killian and Colin have now moved to the top of the middle school food chain.  Here is photographic evidence of their endeavor...

6th Grade Offspring

One year later, Killian and Colin in their 6th grade Spring school photos...