Getting Into Some Kind of Shape... Trapezoid?

You know the tired old joke: "I'm in shape - round's a shape!" Why not get into a more interesting shape, like say rhombus? Or trapezoid? Seriously, though, I am once again on a quest to "get fit," which never seems to actually happen even though I think about it now and then. So Monday night I went over to Hardingfele's house, bought a pink visor from Rockstar Tailor's Random Queen Girls business, and then hit the weights and the elliptical machine at the club. The machine was a bit of a disappointment, since it said my target heart rate was so low I would practically be dead. It kept telling me to slow down, already, and I was barely breaking a sweat. When I told Richard Bonomo about it, he said those things are always set too cautiously, and he tells it he is 35 so that he can get a reasonable target heart rate. In that case, for purposes of working out, consider me 19.

Yesterday I walked partway home but otherwise did nothing athletic, being too busy with a side project for one of the doctors I work for. He asked me to do some dictation, but it was about a fighter pilot from World War II and his fascinating exploits. I don't know if I should say too much more about this, since I don't want to scoop his article (which will appear in some aviation magazine), but I will say this: never have I laughed so hard while doing dictation! A biplane buzzing various people is way more entertaining than medical terminology, for some odd reason. This is yet another endeavor of mine that I fell into which will net me tens of dollars, right up there with the occasional paying gig and the children's story illustrations I am doing for our church organist. She liked my first set of drawings so well that she gave me a 20% raise for the next batch! If only freelancing actually made me enough money to live on...

Then today I boke to work and then over to Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety. It was very difficult, and I wasn't sure if the problem were my bike Eusebius, or me, but it is probably both of us. Hardingfele helped me pump up E's tires with a bike pump that she says sometimes takes more air than it gives, and Rich thinks one of the brakes is rubbing. Still, I cannot deny my own part in this drama; if I am in shape, it is currently not a bike-friendly one! Also, at work we have been having/will have a round of parties all week for people getting new jobs, getting new husbands, or retiring, so I REALLY need the exercise. Then I came over to Rich's house and planted the "money tree" (which is probably bee balm, but nobody is really sure) and a leftover Easter lily from Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety in what passes for his garden. After that I mowed maybe two-third's of the knee-high grass in his backyard, and now I am blogging on Aquinas. Why didn't I mow his whole lawn? It was getting dark, the mosquitoes were really bad, and I am feeling exercised-out for today. Maybe tomorrow I will finish the job. (If I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll tackle the front yard too!)

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