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so as soon as I list through my injuries, my knee starts bugging me.  The right one. It's a sharpish pain right behind the center of my kneecap.  Sigh argh bleh dammit. 

I went through the lamest workout on Friday and didn't even go yesterday.  A SLACKER IS I.

So yeah. My grandmother died on Saturday. It wasn't a complete surprise; she was 92 and hadn't been doing that well lately, but it still really sucks. I've been making myself cry by thinking about how she's finally back together in the wherever hereafter with my grandfather, who died in 1995. They probably have a *lot* to catch up on.


In other, non-depressing news.....


Did I ever mention how old I am?  I'm 36 (insert involuntary shudder here).  The youngest member of our league was born THE YEAR I GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL.  Sigh. 

Someone is going to let me borrow her black Heartless wheels tonight (I am helping out with the Fresh Meat practice).  Hopefully she'll remember to bring 'em. 

(If you're asking yourself "What's all this about different colored wheels?  Is she that fashion conscious that she needs to color-coordinate her wheels?", read the next few paragraphs.   Otherwise, you can just skip 'em.)

Many skaters will mix their wheels - put softer, grippier wheels on the left side of each skate [the inside] and harder, slicker wheels on the right side.  It helps you on the turns.   "But Queen!" I hear you ask.  "How do you tell the grippiness of a wheel?"

That's the durometer.  It's a number, followed by an "a".  The lower the number, the softer and grippier the wheel.  Most wheel companies will assign a different color to different wheel hardnesses. My outdoor wheels, which need to be soft so they can go over twigs and random gravel bits and not send you flying, are 78a.  My current wheels are 92a (yellow) on the inside and 96a (white) on the outside, which is just too damn slick for me.  The black wheels I'm looking at are 88a.  I'm thinking if I do 88a inside and 96a outside, that might work.  We'll see. 

The surface upon which you skate also makes a difference as to which wheel you want to use.  Our practice space right now is a typical wood skate rink floor.  But, we don't have any of our bouts there.  Our bouts are on pretty dirty sport court and/or polished dirty concrete.  I won't get to try out the sport court until April (right now it's an ice rink), but I will get to try out the concrete next Monday.  We shall see what happens.