Hot today--by noon it was 91F in Redwood City and 93F in Palo Alto. Aikido wiped us all out pretty well, whereupon I went home and had frozen Eggo-style waffles for the first time in forever. (I don't remember ever buying them in the time since high school, but I've had this real Vermont maple syrup sitting around for years, and my experience of making pancakes has been that I'm not very good at it, because I don't do it very often, and I don't do it very often because it's inevitably more food than I want to eat, but I try to eat it all anyway...all told, it's a lot simpler to just buy the little frozen things.)

For some reason, I chatted with some of the dojo folks about home-buying in the area. Their belief matches my suspicion that the Bay Area housing market will not, in fact, crash; so I thought hey, what the hell, let's see if anything's showing today. I went and took a look at a couple of condos in the same complex, either of which I think I could be happy with, and I'm thinking I'll put an offer down on one or (heh) both.

Now is one of those times where we want to be careful about the intentions and hopes we carry with us into an enterprise. The universe responds to us, and buying a condo here with the wrong attitude could be inviting both a housing crash and losing my job. *grin* Though I'm lucky and clever and would be better prepared for that sort of thing now. I have a pretty good feeling about it, though, for no discernible reason. One thing is that both condos feel like places I could actually enjoy living in, even if they're farther south and nearly in what we call "baby-eating country" (the South Bay--they eat babies there. Also, you should realize that "East Bay" is Pig Latin for "Beast"_). Still in Palo Alto, though, and walking/biking distance to work and other good stuff.

Being already in the area, I went to the Ultimate Frisbee pickup game at the Stanford Oval that I'd been invited to by the hot girl at Google who I thought had asked me to lunch on a date but turns out to be "anti-dating" (I believe her--I think what I initially took for shyness is a very strong wall she has to keep the world out). Why did I do this, when I don't actually like sports or things that seem like exercise? To get out of the house; to hang out with random people; and while aikido is the most wonderful thing ever, it does tend to work a lot of muscles and joints in the same way, and I learned from sailing a few weeks ago that doing something besides aikido now and again keeps everything in balance.

Did I mention it was really hot out today? And Ultimate Frisbee involves running? Bit of a flashback, since I used to be pretty good with a frisbee back when I was ten or twelve (I could arc it around a tree, regular throw or side throw, with either hand). Besides feeling the burn of running around in the heat, I got something like two goals and two assists, which I think is the best I've ever done at any team sport. Teamwork comes a lot easier to me now that I'm more myself and I know how to move my body around. (Running around was a whole lot easier when I was half this weight.) There's a nice comraderie to it, when you're actually just working towards the goal and there's no social element that leads to the mob behavior I usually associate with sports teams (heavy drinking, bullying, date rape--good old-fashioned American stuff). I'm reminded especially of how different aikido is, which isn't a game, but life-and-death with a smile. And how sports don't have the constant body contact and physical communication of aikido...sports being far from my mind, I don't suppose it really struck me when I started aikido, how we're constantly touching and moving with each other, but I guess if your expectation has something to do with, say, baseball or soccer, it might take some getting used to.

Tired.