life is holistic

Everything totally ties to everything else! It can be so cool to realize that every new skill can be applied to everything else one does. The analogy of looking up at a crashing wave but knowing you have the skills to paddle through it so helped me the other day when I "looked" up at a crashing wave of work about to fall on my head, knowing that I'd be able to cope with it with the skills I've learned earlier. Then there are all the aikido analogies that have _really_ helped me in management (no, I have not actually thrown anyone while at the office). The fact that, in aikido, if you push someone, they automatically push back, thus making things a contest, has exact parallels in dealing with people who try to push someone into a way of thinking only to find that, since it's a push and not a joint redirection of energy, the other person will resist automatically.

That was my revelation of the week last week. It made me smile.

lessons learned

When kayaking for 4 hours, one has time to really think about things. Things like "was that a harbor seal?" or "is my paddling technique good?" or even "what does it take to get a comfortable sports bra???" (that last one was particularly of interest). Yesterday my sweetheart and I managed over 11 miles through a marshy marine preserve. We didn't see another person for hours, but we did see an array of sea birds, many basking seals, and we got to play a bit in the bay. We both did a roll, just to say we could. The new boats handled beautifully! That's been our longest paddle yet.

Another thing I had time to contemplate was the concept of food-as-fuel. I've been getting pretty darn tired in the afternoons lately, and after due consideration I'm thinking I'm not eating enough. This whole eating thing really gets boring, particularly since I do NOT like to cook and so the food is always bland. I am just going to have to get over that, however, and start treating food as necessary fuel and not worry about the tastiness of it. It's hard to work up enthusiasm to another batch of stir-fried veggies, tho', lemme tell ya. I may see about going to a nutritionist so I can do this most efficiently - have you ever noticed that the advice out on the 'net can be somewhat contradictory?

I like being out on the water with my sweetie, watching the marine life, thinking about whatever pops in to my head. I wouldn't say it's a zen experience, precisely. It's more just settling in to a new routing. Yay for moving out to California and taking advantage of what's here!

They're here, they're here!

The kayaks are finally here! Yay! My sweetheart's boss (officially known as Sweetie-boss) sent my sweetie off to go get them when he heard they were in. I owe sweetie-boss a beer! Or some sake. Or a bottle of wine. :-)

Now for the really hard part - how to wait patiently through the afternoon before I can pet my own boat?!

You know, I haven't actually updated my blog much, since I figured folks would eventually get bored hearing about kayaking all the time. But since last I posted, my sweetheart and I have successfully completed two days of Surf Zone classes, found we could do rolls on both sides the first night we tried (which is apparently amazingly rare - our instructors were rather taken aback. It was fun!), and got through a perfecting the forward stroke clinic. From here, it's just lots of practice!

We will celebrate this weekend by going to paddle in Half Moon Bay and catching dinner and a movie (Airplane 2) with a friend.

Life _is_ good.

A short word to the wise

This post is not about kayaks. It's not about my cats. It's not even about the wonders of living in California.

No, this is a short post reminding people that Names Are Not Unique. I mean that. No, really. In an online world, you must remember that the "Judy" you're getting an IM from may not be your buddy "Judy" from down the street.

Yesterday I got an IM confession from a coworker who had just confused another person with the same name in the organization with me. He was horribly embarassed. She had started the conversation totally expecting a work conversation, only to be greeted with "Hello My Little Pagan Minx!"

When I saw this, I cried I was laughing so hard. But you know, he's darn lucky she has a sense of humor too. That could have been grounds for harassment.

So, the moral of this story - which is not about kayaks, cats, or California - be _sure_ you know who your IM's are from, who your emails are going to, and what your audience might let out.

Signed,

the Little Pagan Minx

The Kayak Choice

After yet another fantastic weekend of kayaking, this time just inside the Golden Gate Bridge, my sweetheart and I have found The Kayaks. We didn't exactly expect to, but we tried a new place to rent from and voila! we were amazed and astounded. Since we started back in early May, we've tried around 10 different makes and models of kayak. There are certainly more to try, but these will do nicely.

However, while I'm sure you're thrilled for us, you'd probably like to know which kayaks we chose, and, more importantly, WHAT COLOR??!! That color question was a hard one, let me tell you. To go with a complementary color for my purple dry suit and red PFD, or a bright vivid clashing color so as to be seen....

So - drumroll please!

My kayak is the Valley Avocet: http://www.valleyseakayaks.com/avocet.htm
Color choice = yellow, white trimming (similar to what's in the picture on the website; difference is that has black trimming)

** UPDATE! Turns out if we can get our kayaks a whole bunch of weeks sooner if we get red for me and yellow for my sweetie! So, yay! I like Red. Still need to figure out how to pimp it out, tho'...

My sweetheart is getting the Valley Aquanaut LV: http://www.valleyseakayaks.com/aquanautlv.htm
Color choice: Pacific Blue

His kayak was a _very_ close second choice for me, and vice versa, so we'll have fun trading kayaks now and again.

There's only one problem. These kayaks are made in England. You know, across that other big ocean on the other side of the country. Which means, since the dealer didn't have any in stock, we're looking at August for a delivery date. Bummer. We'll get free rentals out of the store while we're waiting, but it's still a bummer.

Ah, well. At least this gives me time to answer the next important question: how shall I pimp my kayak?

Wine Country

Being in the Bay area of California, it is a requirement that one goes to see the wine country north of the Bay. It's not far at all - just about 50 miles from San Francisco to Napa. I just got back, having spent the weekend there with my mother and her husband.

Believe it or not, wine country doesn't just have fantastic wineries! We also got to see one of only three "old faithful" geysers in the world. That was cool - I'd never seen an honest to goodness not-on-tv geyser before. There's also a petrified forest up there, a really old cemetery, and other historic things. But then, of course, there are the wineries. We're talking everything from warehouse to castle to chateau.

I think in terms of pure ambiance, the Castillo di Amaroso was my favorite. It's been under construction for 14 years, and has just opened 2 months ago. The wine there was some of the best we tasted, but you can't buy it in stores. Just onsite or on the Internet. There was actually a fair amount of wine in the area like that - definitely made it worth it to go explore. The Rubicon, Francis Ford Coppola's winery, was also on the "A" list. I most definitely need to increase my circle of local friends to help me drink the wine I brought back!

I did perhaps have a bit _too_ much wine on Sunday, but I maintain I would have been fine if we hadn't then on Monday decided to follow the GPS route to some of the other wineries, this time in Sonoma. That route took us through twisty windy mountain roads, with poor me in the back seat. I mean, I get a bit carsick under normal circumstances, so that was just a recipe for great discomfort. Michael, mother's husband, said I was green. I said I was fashionably pale, but they didn't go for it. Mother, as she realized how peaked I was feeling, developed a new fondness for the word "puke" and had to use it repeatedly. Witch. I told her I never liked her anyway.

I do hope to get back there again soon. We didn't actually get to tour the castle, and there's a lot more to the Rubicon that I want to see. I will, however, wait for the, um, car sickness to wear off. Couldn't be a hangover, really.

A pirate story

So there we were, cruising across the ocean (well, kayaking across a protected harbor), minding our own business (a.k.a., staring at all the boats and wondering at the names), when the pirate ship rushed in, ready to Pillage (or was it Burn? I never quite remember). We, of course, defended our ships successfully, tho' not without cost. One lucky pirate - the captain, of course - managed to get in a lucky hit, leaving me with a long cut across my forehead which bled forever and stung like the dickens.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I do have the scratch to prove it, and never mind the innocent-looking kitties over in the corner who would probably tell you that Kipling was messing with Blake at 3-in-the-frickin'-morning and when leaping to get away, Blake managed to catch me with one of his sharper claws right across my forehead.

We had to spend Sunday recovering (can you just imagine a 3" cut like that in salt water? I can, so we took a rain check on kayaking that day), and Monday we drove around the Bay area looking for other places we might want to rent kayaks.

Damn pirates. They sure can change one's plans!