Notable recent happenings in our household:

1. John joined an ice hockey league at Peaks Ice Arena. He played on the Ice Cats before his mission (back in the dinosaur age). Since it’s been a few years since he’s actively skated and played his body is gradually resurrecting muscles it had forgotten it has. I go watch when I can, decked out in thermal pants, sweatshirt, and fleece blanket (ice arenas are cold!). John’s pretty good, and his team’s not bad. But, it turns out, the other teams are better. Even the high school team they played last week. Last night the final score was 12-2. (John’s team wasn’t the 12.) But it’s all fun, and fun to watch.

2. We’re working on revitalizing our living room. For starters, we bought a leather sofa set from a wholesale dealer in Salt Lake. It’s being shipped to us at the end of April, from China. One minor point of nervousness is that we ordered the set based on a 2 x 2 inch picture on the Internet, and we’ve never actually sat on any of the pieces from the collection. Crossing fingers that it won’t be hard as rock or ugly as all get out. But hey, the price was good!

3. I finally got my car fixed. For the last eight months or so it’s made this rumbly noise and the steering wheel has been shaky. I took it into Johnson Tire on Wednesday, and they said the front left wheel hub needed replacement. They said it was metal grinding on metal. Today I took it in and now my car is like a dream! I guess I had forgotten what it’s like to drive a normal, functioning vehicle, one that doesn’t rumble or shake. If I listen really carefully I can tell the car is running, but most of the time I don’t hear a thing. It. Is. Wonderful.

4. I got my hair cut and re-highlighted. From my previous highlighting experiences I’ve learned that when you tell a beautician that you don’t want blonde highlights, in her head that translates to “I don’t want super platinum blonde highlights, but any other shade of the blonde variety will do quite nicely.” So I’ve ended up with caramel-colored hair that, frankly, was just too light for my taste. I let it grow out, and was going to let it grow out all the way, except that it turns out two-tone hair isn’t the greatest look since it’s not the 80’s anymore. So today, whilst my car was being revived at Johnson Tire, I went to Jim’s Hair Emporium and got it taken care of. I went with a neutral brown color, somewhat close to my real color, and brown-n-copper accents. So now my hair is dark again. The copper didn’t stick especially well, but I think it’s there if the sun is shining and you squint hard enough.

So. A time of renewal: John’s renewing his hockey skills, we’re updating our living room, the car works, and my hair is dark again. Hurrah for these good things. And, we’re expecting a baby.