Two words...

Two words:
Bikram. Yoga.

My new love. Back in January, while we were celebrating Morgan and Tommy's surprise Christmas visit back from their overseas adventure, Morgan, Alex, and I sweated out a one-week trial of Bikram Yoga classes, just to get a taste of the phenomenon that has been sweeping across the states. We showed up, paid our $20, and recieved a pass for unlimited classes for the next seven days. Now, I've been doing yoga for the past couple of years - mostly in my living room with random video instructors - so I thought I'd be rather prepared for the physical challenge of this class, but man, was I surprised. Basically, you're in a room heated to 105 degrees and you're taken though a series of asenas (postures) for the duration of 90 minutes. It's the same postures every class, for every person, no matter how beginning or advanced you are, so every time you go back, you have a chance to really work on executing each asena with perfection. Not that you get anywhere near perfection in the first ten years, though. That's what makes every class a continual challenge. You are drenched in sweat afterwards, having successfully burned over 800 calories, stretched your muscles in ways they've been waiting for the past twenty five years, and built muscles you didn't even know existed. It's an incredible workout, and a proven way to heal injured areas of your body - back and neck pain from my car accident three years ago, in my case. And it's the only workout I've ever truly enjoyed sticking with, which makes it a rather appealing endeavor for me. After that first week, Alex kept going, but I only started going consistently at the end of February. In short, it's one of the best things I've ever done for myself health-wise - both mind and body, and I love, love, love it! And Isaac and Justin love that they have something new to make fun of us for when we return to our respective houses after class red faced and soaking like drowned rats. Although, I have to say I think Isaac really does like me going because it gives him more time to read and study about investing, which has become a growing interest of his for the past several months. Well, it's been an interest of his for the past several years, but in the past year he's really delved into the study of it - almost like he's in school again. It's fun to watch him in something he loves like that, and makes Bikram a double blessing for our little family.

Well, friends, it's raining again up here. Things were looking so good for an early summer up here that I think I prematurely got my hopes up that maybe we would just skip the rain this year just like we skipped the ice and snow part of this winter. Apparently we shall be having no such luck as the rain has been cascading in some shape or form nearly every day of the past week. Lucky us...