Getting Humidified

Upon finding a Target gift card in a punch bowl we had gotten for Christmas, John and I allocated the moolah to getting two humidifiers for the house to offset some of the dry air. We set one up in the bedroom to make sleeping more comfortable, and we have the other one running (as our guinea pig before firing up the bedroom one) in the living room. Not only is it the room where we spend the most time, but it's also the only carpeted room downstairs, and when you combine socks, carpet, microfiber couch, and faux-sherpa blankets...let me put it to you this way: Hammy almost always looks like a Halloween decoration cuz his fur is all standy-uppy from the dry air.

Anyway, that's our current experiment. We have a few other things on the projects list, from the small side of hanging a sculptural mirror over my bureau in the bedroom to the larger-scale finally furnishing our office. IKEA will find us departing with two bookcases and a secretary desk to make a wall of built-ins. If you listen closely, you could hear my heart sighing with delight.

But here, finally, is the update on my ice skating adventure! Last week was intersession at the U (Princeton finally caught up with the rest of the academic world and has begun its spring semester). With the beginning of intersession came the announcement that the stretch of cold weather had frozen Lake Carnegie so solid that it would be open for ice skating for the first time since 1999! Knowing I had some vacation days ahead of me, I decided to seize the opportunity since I didn't know when I'd have it come around again. I was visiting a good friend and her newborn son in Princeton one day, and I swung by Dick's Sporting Goods on my way and snagged a pair of figure skates for $50 on clearance.

Since the decision was kind of last minute, the only pitfall was that I didn't have on good shoes to get me to the lake--I was wearing my Ked-style canvas shoes (aka not waterproof at all!), but once I got down onto the lake, where there were about 20 other folks, I just did as they did and left my sneaks (and skate box) off to the side and headed out. There were a few small patches that had been cleared to form mini "rinks," where quite a few guys were playing hockey. Everyone else was enjoying the surprisingly smooth surface of the lake. It was amazing, and I'm so glad I followed through with what was a kind of crazy instinct. I was out there for about 2 solid hours, and I tell you--it felt like I did a hundred crunches! Who knew it'd be such a great ab workout...maybe that could be my winter conditioning when I can't get out to run. I'm hoping conditions will be favorable to get out there again so I can bring John.

Here are just a few pics from the adventure.