{"id":901,"date":"2005-05-22T22:35:36","date_gmt":"2005-05-23T06:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2005\/05\/22\/new-improved\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:23:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:23:49","slug":"new-improved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2005\/05\/22\/new-improved\/","title":{"rendered":"New, Improved"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past three days have provided much relief, and rather a lot of enjoyment.<\/p>\n

Friday was productive in terms of resolving the tension that cropped up at work. My students were rambunctious yet endearing as only fourth and fifth-graders can be. Friday evening my husband and I treated ourselves to a meal at Juicy Burger<\/a> and then to a viewing of The Incredibles<\/a>. That, by the way, is a fun little movie, and it’s worth watching the second DVD to learn about the technical aspects of animation. <\/p>\n

Saturday I gardened and dug into Bill Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself<\/cite>. In the evening we met up with friends for dinner at House of Siam<\/a> (delicious!), followed by drinks, jazz, and conversation at The Fairmont Hotel<\/a>. We had a lovely time. <\/p>\n

Today was another gorgeous, sunny, breezy day. Upon recommendation of a friend, we hiked in Alum Rock Park<\/a>, a little jewel nestled just 12 miles from our home. It was heavily used today in some parts, but we hiked up the creek past grottos of mineral springs, thus entering a more peaceful scene accompanied by birdsong, rushing water, and little else. I will definitely return to explore more. Hiking in California poses an extreme challenge to those who are out-of-shape and\/or overweight (extra weight does not cause as much of a problem as weak muscles and poor aerobic capacity). Trails have virtually a vertical ascent from their starting points. But we managed well enough. Following our hike we treated ourselves to Slurpees, and then grabbed a few groceries prior to settling in at home.<\/p>\n

I am now doing laundry and have watered the flowers. Tomorrow is a full day. I’m taking Sophie, my cat with the heart murmur and mammary tumors, to the vet for surgery tomorrow to remove the cysts. I am hoping she survives the operation and the tumors are benign. While I’m concerned, I’m also at peace. It’s out of my hands. Here’s a photo of Ms. Sophie — she is diminutive but fierce. I hope her spirit pulls her through.<\/p>\n

\n\"at<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past three days have provided much relief, and rather a lot of enjoyment. Friday was productive in terms of resolving the tension that cropped up at work. My students were rambunctious yet endearing as only fourth and fifth-graders can be. Friday evening my husband and I treated ourselves to a meal at Juicy Burger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16,27,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","category-nature","category-recreation","category-regional"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10854,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions\/10854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}