Today Eliot and Derek and I went hiking in Wisconsin. It was very fun; we found lots of wild raspberry patches and black raspberries and filled our tummies. We also climbed a very tall observation tower and saw all of Wisconsin. Then we went and bought fireworks from the twelve-year-olds running the warehouse, and then went to Dairy Queen. I had to go home after that to my parents' to let Peter in - he and Kim and all them drove down to Kansas City a few days ago following the Twins, and he had given his key to Sheila. So we hung out for a while; Paul was doing some riverboat thing which I think he enjoyed - going through the locks and such...now Paul, Eliot, and I are hanging out in the apartment with some beers. Sooooo hot right now.

They were talking about the upcoming Olympics - they say that Russia and China are going to pool resources (money, training facilities, drugs) in order to beat out the US next time. I thought this was really interesting in light of the fact that Uzbekistan just went back on its offer of a permanent US base there, probably due to Russia/China pressure. This is not a good sign, and means that we cannot lose our Kazhak base. The boys didnt' want to talk about this, and Sarah wouldn't answer her phone, which means I had to come here. I don't think the proper amount of attention is being paid to this sort of thing and for some reason everyone is convinced that Russia is now our friend. I think that we need to be a little more wary of them. Especially now that Putin is getting in the habit of walking off with "gifts" such as diamond-encrusted SuperBowl rings (haha!!)
I welcome any comments on the Russia/China situation, preferably NOT focused solely on the Olympics.

Paul and I saw Batman last night - one long-ass movie. I have always thought that Batman was creepy, and this only reaffirmed my opinion. Looong movie. I laughed a lot though (at places which were not meant to be funny). The people next to Paul (who came and sat next to us in the nearly-empty theater...) were talking, one on a cell-phone, and that super-pissed him off, although I couldn't hear them at all - but the movie was loud, so I'm sure they were annoying anyway.

Bridget and I went and saw O Homem Que Copiava on Thursday; good as ever. I laughed at her because she is soon to be a photocopier operator (I've always dreamed of marrying a photocopier operator!!) Tomorrow we are going running; I am taking her on Day 1 Week 1 of the Jack Daniels plan. Good luck to us!

So on Wednesday I found out that I dislocated my rib back in October. Oops. I never had time to really see a doctor about it. But now I'm in physical therapy and the guy shoved my rib partly back into place (couldn't do all the way at one go)...which has felt AMAZINGLY better. I have to do all these strengthening and stretching exercises though, and go back again next week (and probably the week after, etc). I am lucky that it is not a slipped disc; I do not want back surgery.
(How do you dislocate a rib?! He said maybe I slept funny or coughed too hard. Ummm..what?!)

I'd best rejoin the party now. It will be nice when I am once again surrounded by people who also want to discuss these issues at 11:15 on a Saturday night. Cause I am fun like that. (man it was good when sarah and I lived together. Natural gas pipelines, anyone?)