flexagon | A party and a long weekend, etc

Party: yeah, so the bug's and my joint birthday party out at Giant Entertainment Venue actually happened! In the end, following a great deal of coordination, I invited 33 people for a 30-person-max private room, and 32 of them showed up but I didn't get in trouble. We successfully ordered and transported a cake. I brought some small wooden 3D puzzles/kits like this one for the tables, and those went over enormously well so I need to remember that trick. Most people appeared willing to mix with others they didn't know, and it helped that everyone associated with the event got a light-blue wrist band of the same color so that they could be spotted when out on the floor. We went early (borrowing the squirrel's car) and stayed late, and I still didn't get to play all the rooms/challenges I would have enjoyed. So I'd say I am not tapped out on the place yet and that, overall, it was a success. My one-shoulder black tank top even mostly stayed in place... heh.

Houses and Cottages, oh my: rental cottage plans are still coming together. There's a finalized kitchen design now, and a plan for the contractors to make that design happen. The co-landlords had a conversation on Sunday morning that I think annoyed all 3 of us briefly, but we're making better decisions together than any of us would apart, and it's healthy. I've gotta follow up on stuff with the broker, and order a range hood, next. In the meantime, the folks downstairs from me are now having open houses, and we got in touch with their broker (she knows us, she was our broker last time) to trade some details. Sounds like we have a pretty good chance of owner-occupant neighbors, and a pretty good chance that these new neighbors will want to paint the exterior. All of which I'd be fine with. Fingers crossed.

Ropes Course: there was a day of relaxing. I may have relaxed the squirrel with some force, by dint of THC/CBD seltzers and putting it into a hammock (the family just got 2 hammocks for their back yard) with a comic book I knew it would like. And then on Sunday I scurried off for another round of outdoor ropes course in the treetops with randysmith and friends! I got a few people to come on to the "black diamond" course with me this time, including the bug. And although they all bailed at the halfway bail-out point, they've now faced down the beast and will probably try again another time. I view it as progress. It was nice to be out in nature, and I got to re-meet a woman who I apparently interviewed for Zillian 6.5 years ago! She remembered my interview fairly positively.

Overall, the long weekend was nice and wrapping up the party was even better, in terms of feeling done with projects. I also finished up an 8-week program of workouts for my coach -- he's agreed that for the next program I can rest my hip and hopefully get it feeling better -- so I'm basically in full catch-up mode now. I have 4 days to catch up on open tabs, emails etc at work, before taking a break from work and catching up more on life.

Speaking of being embodied, I haven't talked much here about my back hurting (just a mention on April 2). That's basically better again. Along with hanging from a bar, it needed pushups, and I felt dumb for letting my workout get overspecialized to the point where I wasn't doing freaking pushups. It doesn't escape me, either, that a lot of this hip stuff started after I stopped doing backbends... sigh. I really can't let a coach, any coach, dictate all my workouts at this point. I've lived in this body for too long, and I know there are balances that should be kept.