Monday, February 22, 2010

Winter Hibernation...

Just call me "Bear". I'm really getting into this hibernation idea. Get up in the morning, have some coffee, let the dog out, settle in to read a little, then watch afternoon at the Olymics - Curling is my favorite for a relaxing afternoon. Slide into the 5:00 news, have a quiet little dinner, do only what you have to until 8:00 p.m. when you settle in with the remote and a dog on your lap and watch the evening Olympics until midnight. Your options for the end of the day are: wait until the news is over (preferably with a Law and Order re-run) and watch the Olympic review, watch the shows I DVD'd or go quietly and sleepily to bed, having been lulled by your daily hibernation routine - now complete. Wake up the next day and repeat...

Yep, just call me "Bear".

I've pretty much been an Olympic junkie since last Friday. I do make a few exceptions like "Jack" (24) on Mondays, but I pretty much will tape anything else I normally watch. Outside of that it's been pretty much me and puppy. Alexa is back to school after the week off. She went shopping, had two sleepovers, went ice skating and managed to collaborate with a friend on a frightfully creative cell project - complete with midocondria and protozoa in a colorful 3-D display.

My equally intelligent husband is leaving for Taiwan on Wednesday with his boss to finalize an agreement with a university there. He's already looking forward to the warm temperatures. His "Silly Game" season gets underway shortly as the cards from Strat-O-Matic came in the mail last week. For those of you who have never heard of Strat-O-Matic sports games - BE THANKFUL!!!! This game is one of my DH's very few vices. Every year since he was in high school (we're talking 40 years!) he sends away for a new set of cards that reflect the statistics of every major league baseball player from the season before. Norm sits down with all these cards and an atlas (yes, ATLAS) to create his own teams and name them after cities, and towns all the country. Then he divides his teams into two leagues (American and National) and starts playing.

Now, this will give you an idea why my DH is so techno challenged. This game has no batteries, no lights, no fancy spinners or game board, no automatic scoring and uses no electricity! You have scorepage, you roll the dice, match the numbers on the dice with what it says on the card and somehow get a full nine inning game of baseball out of it - not counting games that might go extra innings...Norm starts playing in March and plays until he has played an entire schedule of games, post season and World Series. He usually finishes around July or August with a stack of scorecards of each fame about three inches tall (because you score by hand)!

This is Norman's idea of relaxation, excitement and just down right fun. The only thing that would make him happier would be to be in Italy, in a Tuscan villa, playing this "Silly Game". Me I'd rather be on Lake Como with George Clooney - but hey, I always have scrapbooking in Buffalo!