Spinny spinny spinny

This evening was another first for Kenji and me - we took a spinning class. Not the kind where they teach you how to make yarn. The spinning class was at the JCC fitness center, and it was in a cool, dark room full of stationary bikes, and we rode those bikes harder than I ever rode a bike before, and it was only for 45 minutes. Of course I've ridden a bike for much longer than 45 minutes. But going for a bike ride, I get to take breaks, like when going down hill, and I certainly don't push myself as hard as Howie the spinning instructor pushed us (and I'm pretty sure he went easy on us since this was the first spinning class we ever took). Twenty minutes into it I felt like I was crying but really it was just sweat running down my face. Anyway my legs hurt now, but I guess it's good for me. Kenji says he's all sore too. The End.

Choppers...

For the last ten minutes there has been a helicopter circling over our neighborhood shining a spotlight. I wonder who they are looking for. Police scanner says something about a car-jacking. The news says something about a search going on and a deadly shooting and car-jacking in the Bronx. But it doesn't sound like the two are related. Hmmm...

In case you are wondering, yes, that's what a helicopter using a spotlight in the dark of night looks like taken with a five-year-old Minolta DiMage X digital camera. :)

Fake Rock Climbing!

Yesterday, Kenji and I took an introductory rock climbing lesson at NJ Rock Gym, an indoor climbing facility in Fairfield, NJ. I call this post fake rock climbing because the walls at the gym aren't really rock.

This was a first time for both of us. The instructor at the gym, Margo, taught us how to tie the appropriate knots and how to belay. The belayer is the person who holds the other end of the rope that the climber is tied to, and makes sure that the climber won't get killed if he or she should fall off the wall.

It was fun - we each did probably around six or eight climbs during and after the lesson. The gym walls were probably only 25 or 30 feet tall - tall enough to give us an idea of what it's like. The walls we climbed were not especially difficult, but there were some walls at the gym that I'm sure we'll needs lots of practice before being able to tackle them. I think I have more upper body strength than I expected I would, but I still got tired pretty quickly. As the belayer, when you are ready to let the climber come down, you have to let the rope slip through your "brake" hand - this was the part I liked least, as my right hand are very wimpy and began to feel raw after belaying only few climbs for Kenji. I wonder if wearing little half gloves to rock climbing is a wussie thing to do. After all, I didn't notice any of the other climbers there wearing anything on their hands.

The Fit is Go

As of Thursday, we have a new car. Here it is:

It's a 2007 Honda Fit, and it's still shiny. And it's blue. We didn't think we'd be able to get a blue one, because the dealership called to tell us that no blue ones were available. Orange was the other color we wanted, and they also were not available. So we said we'd take the red one, if they sweetened the deal a little. They took $400 off and also said they'd install the Honda Music Link, so that I can hook my iPod up to it and use the radio's controls to flip through songs and stuff. Then it turned out that they got a blue one after all, so we got the color we wanted, as well as the discount. Yippee.

I already drove it to Washington DC and back to go visit Kenji. It was fun to drive, much nicer than my old civic. Whee!

1st New Jersey Hike

Yesterday I met up with a whole bunch of people I don't know for my very first hike in New Jersey. We went to a place called Ringwood State Park, which is somewhere along the NJ/NY border, maybe about 40-45 minutes drive from our house. The weather was beautiful, very much on the warm side for this time of year, but considerably cooler than what I've hiked in for the last several years. We were expecting to hike about eight miles. However, the end of the hike, our fearless leader, Jason, said it was probably more like ten or eleven.

(And in case Daniel reads this, the "Dave-count" was probably about six.)


So to say the least, it was a good workout. Just enough uphill to make me work up a pretty good sweat. Soon after starting out, it was apparent to me how out of shape I am, as I found it very difficult to keep pace and hold a conversation at the same time.

Oh yeah, and everyone thought I was weird because I brought spam musubi to eat (no, not the cats!) for lunch. And it was hard to get anyone to make shaka signs for photos. Silly east coast people. ;)

Bye-bye Hawaii... Hello east coast!

Yesterday we moved away from Hawaii, where I've lived for the last five years and 14 days. My husband has a new job in New Jersey, so we're en route, staying the night in a hotel just off I-95 in Maryland.

Why are we staying in Maryland if we are moving from Hawaii to New Jersey? Well, that's because our car was staying at Dulles International Airport of course!

And to make things more interesting, our car happened to run out of gas as my husband backed it half way out of the parking space it inhabited during the last six days. Oh well, that hurdle cost only a couple hours of our time and a rental car to sort things out.

I miss Hawaii very much, of course. The year-round beautiful weather, the view from our lanai of the big pink hospital nestled at the foot of the Ko'olaus, and fun adventures with all of our friends. I can't wait till we can go back and visit!