We’ve been housecleaning all day today in anticipation of the arrival of some beloved guests tomorrow evening. Nothing motivates me to clean my house like having house guests and I only wish we had them more often! My dad, stepmom, and niece Elise are arriving tomorrow from NH and I’m looking forward to spending some time with them as we don’t see them nearly enough!

In derby news, there is no news. I haven’t skated at all in 2 weeks. My knee has taken a sudden and inexplicable turn for the worse and I don’t get it. I just know it’s hurting more than ever and now my lower leg is swollen and stiff like it had never been before. It’s kinda mysterious considering I’d quit all forms of exercise 2 weeks earlier. What gives?! So I’m wearing my knee brace all the time now and trying to be extra careful. *sigh* I’m not very good at inactivity.

Clearly the universe is determined that I learn to be patient. Resistance is futile. Like I’m always telling Rio, if don’t learn the lesson then you’ll just keep suffering it. Here I am, suffering it again!

Gosh, it’s been an awful long time, eh? Here’s the lowdown:

• We went to Kansas, as usual, for the 4th of July. This photo was taken on the road. More to come!
• I tore a ligament in my knee and had to sit out the last home bout. My team was also missing our star jammer - Whiskey broke her ankle and will be out for the rest of the season and that’s going to hurt the travel team as well. In any case, my team lost but it was a much closer score than our last bout. Our rookies performed magnificently, especially our newest jammer, Biohazard Betty, who received MVP!
• My knee is healing well and I should be back in action before too long. I’m forcing myself to follow the doctor’s orders and avoid straining it. It was torture watching my team skate from the sidelines on Saturday night, but I have to think about the big picture. It will be worth missing 1 or 2 bouts if it means my knee can recover fully without surgery and I can enjoy a long and spectacular derby career;) So really, 1 or 2 bouts isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. I can do it!
• Steve just took a job as a sexton. Get your mind out of the gutter!
• Life is pretty damn great all around. Being too busy to blog isn’t really a bad thing.

Rio played in a chess tournament on Saturday and he befriended the boy shown here, who brought a Pirates of the Caribbean set. They played in between rounds for fun. Rio didn’t win any of his matches, but he was a really good sport about it and that was a relief. We had a discussion about sportsmanship before the tournament, because this has been a problem area for him lately. I told him that I would be proud of him if he won, but I would be even more proud if he lost graciously. And he did!

It was a humbling experience for him. My dear Rio is one cocky little dude and I tried to warn him that he would be playing against chess fanatics who eat, sleep, and breathe chess. Sure enough, he was beaten in the first round by some kindergarten prodigy. But he took it all in stride and I honestly think that it was an excellent experience for him. He needs to learn to cope with disappointment because it’s a big part of life, like it or not.

Rio’s no slouch, and he can play a decent game of chess. But he doesn’t take the time to plot out a strategy. He’s impulsive so planning isn’t one of his strong points. The kids in that tournament were mostly all chess club regulars and devote quite a bit of their free time to playing and thinking about chess. Rio was a bit of their league but he played well enough. And like I told him, the only way to get better is to play against people who are better than you.

I can’t be sure but judging by the subdued atmosphere, I’d bet that Rio was the only ADHD kid there. I’d also bet that he’s the first kid at a chess tournament to have his Harry Potter book confiscated because he was being “too rambunctious” with it.

That’s MY boy! I sure am proud of him:)

I finally got to try out this old Polaroid and it works! I’m quite tickled with it.

I’ve been intermittently sick for the last week and instead of getting better I’m feeling worse and I’m pissed. I had my heart set on skating tonight and I really NEED to, dammit. What I’d really like to do is crawl into bed and knock myself out with some heavy meds. I haven’t been sleeping well because I’ve been waking up with my head all full of phlegm and a nasty cough. I would so love to sleep for a very long time. I really just want to feel NORMAL again so I can get on with my life.

I finished a roll of film! It was unseasonably warm last weekend so we all went to the skate park and I took a bunch of shots of Tyle skating. After that I tried out my new outdoor wheels in the Roller Hockey rink and that was lots of fun.

I haven’t skated since then, though, because I had surgery on Wednesday: Operation Lump Exorcism. I guess it went well, although it remains to be seen whether or not they got all of it. Right now it’s still tender and sore but hopefully the swelling will go down and everything will be back to normal.

I underestimated my recovery time drastically. I expected the incision to be sore of course, but I wasn’t prepared for the more general after effects. I was feverish and woozy the last couple of nights but I’m feeling better now, just tired. I didn’t even take any pain meds, thank goodness.

So I will try to be patient and give my body time to recover before I start beating up on it again. Meanwhile, I will post more pictures for you. Hasta luego!

This is a well-known catfish restaurant in Sedalia, MO.

[Find it on the Flickr map]

There’s a vicious monkey on the loose, folks. Hide your children!

“One of the things we have found out through all this is there are a lot more monkeys than we thought in the area.”

And that’s just one more reason to love this town. Here’s another good line:

“He said of monkey owners, in general: ‘They’re a wary bunch.’”

As a matter of fact, this is not the first time a monkey has eluded authorities in Columbia MO. See for yourself (You gotta scroll down to see the monkey stories).

[That's Steve and the 6 boys we brought to the Arts Festival last weekend]

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. I didn’t shoot as much as I hoped to at the party since it got dark pretty quick. I’ve been working on the same roll of film in my XA for weeks now and I’m not even sure any of them will turn out well. That camera has been having issues. I might just give in and wind up the roll and get it processed before I get to the end. Besides, I’ve got some new old cameras to play with and I need to spend some time with them, too. More on my new cameras later.

Derby practice went pretty well on Saturday. My wrists are sore again but not quite as much as last weekend. I need to practice falling more. And skate more, mostly. Rio and I will go to the public skate on Wednesday to further that effort.

I also have a big nasty bruise on my left hip that might become a permanent fixture;)

OK, here’s a fun one from our Kansas trip last month. I’m hoping to shoot some film at a party this weekend, so I should finally have some new stuff for the blog soon.

Otherwise, life is humming right along. I’m going to get back on my skates tomorrow for another roller derby practice, so wish me luck. I’m a little concerned that my wrist problems are going to complicate my derby dreams. Last week I fell hard on my hands, once at home and then lots more at the rink, and I’ve been nursing the pain in my hands ever since. I’ve had tendonitis for years, thanks to my stint as a factory worker, so my wrists aren’t very forgiving. I’ve been accustomed to the chronic ache of tendonitis from typing and mouse-clicking, but lately the pain has been much more acute than usual.

But I’m hoping that I can teach myself to fall without putting all my weight on my hands. Because falling/crashing/wiping out is all part of the game, so there’s no hope for avoiding that. Although it will be easier NOT to fall when I’m able to skate with more skill!

I’m not ready to give up yet. I wanna be a derby girl, dammit!

UPDATE: See this photo on the Flickr map!

I hope to be using this feature more often. I am a professional mapper, after all, and it’s fun to keep track of where my shots were taken.

Today is our third anniversary:) Isn’t he irresistible?

Rio and I went to see Pirates 3 tonight. I’m now convinced that seeing that movie with an 8-year old boy provides the optimum experience. What fun!

Rio and Dizzy at Bear Creek enjoying the summertime. This photo has a very nostalgic feel to it, I think.

I know, it pales in comparison to the master, but we had fun shooting these:) I’ll be taking in all the hip-ness that is the True/False Film Festival for the weekend, and I plan to have at least one, if not three, cameras on hand at all times. I may not have as speedy a turnaround as all the pixel-pushing digital shooters, but I’ll be posting on the T/F Flickr group as well. One lesson I learned while shooting today’s photo is that shooting without a flash in low light (none of my film cameras have a working flash) means I get that icky yellow-tint. So I’ll be shooting b&w and then my only problem will be focusing;) Luckily, though, my XA is particularly adept at low-light shots, and it’s so small and portable that I can carry it in my pocket or purse. But I hope to make us of the OM2 as well. Tonight, I’m biking in the March March parade featuring Mucca Pazza, and I plan to put the Holga to use for that event. Big fun!

It’s snowing again in MO today. It’s been a helluva winter. But if it’s gonna be wicked cold, then I’m more than happy to take the snow with that! Bring it on! So long as it’s all gone next month. I’ll be very happy to see spring:) NOTE: Apologies to commenters - I’m not getting my email notifications for some reason, so they may take a while to appear.

I’m back! I’m sorry. I’ve been a very bad blogger. I know! Luckily, I just got 2 rolls of film back, so I’m back in business.

We’ve been safely snuggled in here in our little house amidst the snowdrifts. I’m very thankful that we don’t have to drive anywhere for a while. I went for a walk around town early this morning and it was pretty deserted. I had to walk in the street because the sidewalks were buried, which wasn’t a problem because there few cars on the road. I took a lot of pictures because I thought I should make a record of the Blizzard of ‘06. I’ll try to finish up the roll this weekend so I can get them developed soon. Wherever you are, be warm:)

Submitted to Mama Says Om: Time.

Gotta run, it’s trick or treat time for Rio, oops! I mean Harry Potter!

Steve and Big Sandy, of Big Sandy and the Flyrite Boys. And look - they were wearing the same shirt.

Sorry for the lack of posts. Again. I meant to pre-load some images before my mini-vacation, but time (that elusive fiend) got away from me, as usual. Which is also why I didn’t warn you that I would be away for a short while. But here I am, and although I’m exhausted, it was well worth it. We took a little float trip down the Nianga River and camped out for 3 days. We brought 7 kids and 1 dog, plus some more family that met up with us at the campground, and we were one rowdy crowd. We swam, we paddled down the river all morning, we fished (Aubrey caught 3 sunfish), we roasted weiners and marshmallows, we sang and played music, we made mischief. And of course, I took photographs. Not as many as I would have liked, unfortunately, because I was unable to bring them on the canoe with any assurance they would stay dry in a worst case scenario. Our canoe (Rio and my dog, Chico as crew, Me as Captain) ended up being one of three that didn’t get dumped all day, out of the 7 canoes in our party. But I’m no gambler, so I left the cameras behind. I’m going to finish up this series on the Cooper County Fair before I post any from our trip. Because these are full of fun, too.

Those are our boys in the far seats, having a blast.

I just got this roll back from our camping trip over the past weekend, and it’s a bit disappointing overall - lots of shots were overexposed. I’ll see what I can salvage. This shot here is the best one from the roll, I think. That’s Aubrey on his bicycle. We camped out at Cooper’s Landing and did lots of biking. Fun was had by all!

I’m running out of pictures. I’ve been busy painting my house and not taking enough photos. I hope to remedy that soon.

Third in a series of photos I took while exploring the ruins of an old brewery in Boonville, MO.

If you followed me here from my old site, you might remember this photo. That was taken just over a year ago, and you can see how much Rio has grown in the last year. Amazing.