Last evening after work some of Christopher’s co-workers (and his boss) got together to go skating on the outdoor rink set up about a block from their office downtown. The rink is set up by the local NBC affiliate, right outside their studio and in front of Horton Plaza with the proceeds going to charity. C knew that I had been meaning to go skate there, just to ice skate outside in San Diego (it just seemed so “wrong”), so he invited me to participate. I was happy to join in.

Christopher didn’t skate as he doesn’t know how and thought that the risk of injury was too great. Probably a wise thing what with his previously shattered ankle and wonky back, though it would have been fun to teach him. But the conditions of the ice were not great for the beginner–post-Zamboni the surface was VERY wet with a large puddle in the middle. I felt sorry for the parents with the rapidly soaked kids. The drive home must have been nasty. Of course, at least they didn’t freeze like they would have back home if soaked to the skin.

I did help one of C’s co-workers learn to skate, though. He’s from (I think) Mexico and was hanging on the rails. He was very impressed when I grabbed him and led him around, first at his side then in front of him, skating backwards. Of course, lots of the folk were impressed I could skate as well as I did, though I think all of the non-Californians did very well.

It was all fun except the rental skates were torture devices. Made of plastic and snapping like ski-boots (no laces), they had no give at all and you could hear everyone complaining about them as they made their constant left turns. When I took them off, having to stop much sooner than I would have wanted otherwise, I had rubbed so badly I bled in one skate. Ew. Lots of band-aids today.

Here and here are two shots of me (sorry for the graininess of the one–had to seriously lighten it in Photoshop) looking like a non-Californian–in other words, being vertical and successfully skating. Unfortunately the batteries were dying so there aren’t any other shots of me with Jose (the co-worker).

Afterwards, the group went back to the office to have food and drinks on their roof terrace. It’s usually a lovely view but the fog had come in so things were murky. Still, it was pretty warm (relatively) and people seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

The other day I saw a reference on some site that Neil Bush was traveling with the crazy Reverend Moon. The site wasn’t too reliable so I decided to do some independent research before believing it. Of course, I immediately Googled (or is that “googled” when used as a verb?), using the terms “neil,” “bush,” “moon,” and “families” (because the tour was called something with families in the title).This is what Google returned.

As if that wasn’t funny enough, turns out it was true that Neil Bush showed up at a few stops on the tour…the ones in Bangkok and the Philippines. Not that they have any prostitutes there or anything…