Football, Swimming and St Valentine's Day - Lots to Talk About

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my friends and readers. It's been quite the year between last V-Day and today, lots of bad times, lots of good one. This year sees me with a new refrigerator, wall oven, toilet and sink faucet - so at least those stresses are out of my way for a while - LOL. All in all, life is progressing, this year is much better than last year, and despite the Bengals having lost last night, what I saw of the game was highly entertaining and truly a battle, not a runaway, as has so often been the case in the past. You should be very proud of your team, Cincinnati. They did VERY well. I absolutely LOVED the half-time show. All of these musicians who populate my play lists and who I listen to often while working in the kitchen on my days off. I was bouncing throughout the musical interlude. 

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my friends 
and readers. I hope you have a good day and 
allow yourself a treat or two to celebrate one 
of the less obnoxious holidays. 

I have alarms set on my phone to remind me to set up my swimming reservations for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Today was the first day I could reserve Thursday, so when the alarm went off, I dutifully went onto the website, which said that some locations were having a problem with their reservations system for some classes. Sure enough, mine was having an issue. It suggested trying the phone app, so I tried that without success. Then it suggested I phone the YMCA directly. 

I already had my Tuesday and Wednesday 
reservations for swimming, but needed my 
Thursday 5:00 am slot. Ed noted my name 
down and will slot me in. I feel for him, 
he'll get a lot of phone calls for our 5 and 
6 am groups. 

Although I felt very sorry to call Ed - he's usually pretty busy first thing in the morning with checking people into the gym when the doors are unlocked - I needed my reservation. I waited for a bit, though, letting the first wave of people check in first. Then I called my friendly "Gate Gargoyle". Fortunately Ed knew exactly who I was when I called, and after making sure we were talking about Thursday, he said he'd make the reservation for me - no problem. So ... hopefully that will be the case. I'm quite sure a balky reservation system isn't something Ed really needs on a Monday morning. 

Ed is our Gate Gargoyle, guarding the gates to 
our YMCA. He's been there for quite a while 
now, and gives us some latitude such as allowing 
us to wait in the vestibule on really cold days 
instead of having to stand outdoors in sub-zero 
wind chills. We're pretty lucky with our Gate 
Gargoyles, in general. Brian, who worked before 
Ed started, was also a total sweetheart. 

As I stated in the first paragraph, it's St Valentine's Day. As I recall, sainthood was actually stripped from Valentine a few Popes ago, and it's probably just as well. The holiday itself has been taken over with sappy hearts and little overweight cupids with non-aerodynamic wings and horrible aim, shooting arrows at unsuspecting victims. In any other scenario, Cupid would be declared a public nuisance at the minimum, a public danger at the most, and would certainly be scrutinized and possibly prosecuted as a public menace. I guess he got a lot of slack since he was the son of a Goddess. It doesn't pay to anger Deities. 

The couple I expected to win Gold at the Olympics in 
Ice Dancing, did. I can't wait to see their routine while 
I catch up on Peacock today. Papadakis and Cizeron 
from France have been the front-runners, for really 
good reasons. They're breathtaking and ground-breaking 
in their routines. Sorry if I gave you a spoiler, but 
their victory really wasn't unexpected. 

I've had a lovely time watching the Olympics so far. The curling has been awesome, I loved the Ice Dancing finals last night, although I'll be watching the better competitors on Peacock today because I had to go to sleep long before the top contenders were on the ice. We're into the final week of the Winter Olympics now, and I'll be sorry to see them come to an end. I adore the Olympics, and having things available to me on streaming has made them so much more convenient. 

Not everyone celebrates Valentine's Day, with 
good reason. For those who don't, have a 
lovely February 14th. 

So, I'm out of here. My pool reservation has been made, and I have two valentines sitting on my desk waiting to be addressed to DH. I got a lot done on my photographs yesterday, but have to figure out the next step today, so I'll be playing with the computer and seeing what will work. Ideally I'd like to get my Etsy pages live this week - I'm really behind on my schedule and that's not making me happy. Have a glorious Monday and a very happy Valentine's Day. I'll be back tomorrow.