Old Rag Mountain

To celebrate Zach's birthday yesterday, Rob, Lisa, Joe, Zach, and I hiked Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoah National Park. It's nothing compared to Longs Peak elevation-wise, but it was good preparation. The 7.5 miles and 2200' of elevation climb are just about half of the total distance and elevation gain we'll do at the end of the month. Both this and Longs Peak are "Class III" scrambles, so that was good practice. You can see some pictures that Rob and I took here. I'm not as sore today as I expected to be. Mostly, it's just the sides of my glutes. I guess I don't use them much! It sure was hot and humid yesterday; we were pouring sweat pretty much the whole time. But the post-hike hamburger and fries (and for me at least, margaritas) were that much better, having been hard-earned!

In other news, I took an oral exam on Friday to see how my French has progressed. I was rated a "2" in speaking ability and "2" in reading comprehension on a scale of 0-5, with 0 being about my ability in, say, Chinese and 5 being my ability in English. 3 is considered fluent, so this means I'm pretty functional, but still somewhat limited in terms of overall vocabulary and understanding of colloquialisms. For example, I think my boss is a 2/2 in English. Frankly, I think I'm more of a 2+ (they give +'s to people who are in-between levels) in speaking ability, but I'm borderline and it's a subjective test. Also one of my testers was a bit rude to me (and no, she wasn't from France!)--maybe that influenced my score. At any rate, I plan to keep reading a French news/opinion article every day on the train to work and listen to the Radio France International Podcast on my ride home every night. I think I'm also going to make it a goal to attend a French conversation event at least once a month. Fortunately, I have some friends and colleagues who are also in various states of learning French, so I won't have to go it alone.

Long Time No See!

I haven't posted in so long that by now I'm sure I've lost even my dad as a reader! Things have been pretty busy, naturally, so I have plenty of excuses for not maintaining my blog. Here are my excuses in order of precedence:

1. Zach's sister's wedding. Being the wedding coordinator was, um, stressful. That's what happens when the mother of the bride is Martha Stewart and not only insists on doing the flowers for the church, but also hosts the rehearsal dinner at her house and also a mini-reception at the church before the real reception. Frankly, I'm going to need a couple Tums just thinking about it. The highlight of the evening was when I got to the reception and my work was officially over. My friend red wine and I spent the evening together, culminating in me no longer possessing my usual verbal filter and stage whispering that one guest's hair was "OUT OF CONTROL" (within earshot of the subject). Seriously, he looked like Donald Trump might if the Donald were 20 and had long blond hair. Also, I found out that a (former) member of the extended family once got a little stabby and attempted to kill another member of the family (whom she was married to at the time). Can't beat that kind of family gossip with a stick!

2. Work's been busy. The end (of the fiscal year) is nigh.

3. I'm running again. Thankfully, my wounds have healed, and I'm even running without an ankle brace. I credit my new "special kid shoes" that keep me from overpronating.

4. We got a Wii. As expected, I suck at most games, but that doesn't prevent me from trying not to suck.

In other news, it's AFI SilverDocs time! Yay! I've been going since we moved here and, Lisa Simpson-style, I won free passes on NPR. Wednesday was Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma and tonight is Bulletproof Salesman. Next week I'm going to see The Toadies at The Black Cat (for $15, how can you go wrong?). The last time I saw them in concert (Dallas, 1996), my friend Bobby tried to protect me from the mosh pit with his own 140 pound body (so sweet, yet questionably effective). Being so close to the stage made the bruises and ringing ears worth it.