me and, me and, me and mr. pole, mr. pole ...

(The title is a take on Me and Mrs. Jones by Billy Paul.)

Today the female members of my family had a date with Mr. Pole. Some bagged out at the last minute including the birthday girl.

We warmed up with sexy walking. Then we learned one routine using a chair, and finally played with Mr. Pole.

The chair routine was easy. I was just starting to break a sweat when we took a long break. I would have like to have done more. Maybe she should have showed us all the various moves and then let us follow and do what we could.  I kept walking around the studio to keep warmed up but we then went to the pole.

When we moved to the pole, I think we learned four moves on the pole. I couldn't do any of them. I spent lots of time on my butt on the floor. The picture is of me trying to look sexy falling. Lydia is in white and my niece is in the halter top.

I can see how it might be a good workout, but we didn't work out enough to make that determination.

bernheim forest

Friday I drove to Kentucky for the weekend. It's my sister's 75th birthday.  Last year at this time she was gravely ill—a party was in order.

Lucky for me it's fall break at I had off from the community college. However, I still have my online class and a 16 page catalog to do. And the exhibit opens Wednesday!

My sister calls every Friday and I told her I was in a design conference in NYC. Of course I was driving south. Saturday morning when I called her I told her we were going walking in the forest. Just not which one. Lydia played along and made believe she was coming in the front door. She really was coming from the hotel bathroom.

So fun. She was surprised several times.

The walk in the forest was Bernheim Forest. A beautiful place with tons of hiking trails. We met Bob and Carol from the Derby City Walkers, a Volkssport group. Bob and Carol are also volunteers at the forest, so they knew a lot about the flora and fauna.

We all walked the first 5K. Part paved, part gravel, part dirt trail in the forest. Flat and small hills. It turns out that Bob and Carol also mapped out the trail at Bernheim!

We were at the last section of the 5K and there was steps to a memorial. They headed back to the visitor center. Bob, Lyd and I finished the 5K and then Bob and I did the second 5K.

We bid goodbye to Bob and Carol and went up the street to Jim Beam's Distillery. We did the self-tour and saved ourselves $8. The best part was the tasting. The look on Lyd's face when she tasted it was priceless.

Our final stop before the party was the Louisville Slugger factory/museum. I wore my Iron Pigs Diamond Diva shirt for the occasion.

The poor guy who was trying to do repair work on the bat. He was getting nothing done!

Today we are going to my niece's studio Polesque dance inspired fitness. We'll try pole , Vegas stelittos fitness, and burlesque strut. Then finish the morning with mimosa's and croissants. Totally negating any calories we burned!

hooping

My niece Maria makes and teaches people hula hoop. Soon she'll be opening a fitness studio called Polesque Fitness in Louisville, Kentucky. She'll be teaching fitness pole dancing, hula hoops, stiletto fitness and some other stuff. If you're in the ’hood and in need of a different kind of workout, check out her studio.

Anyway, she sent custom made hula hoops up for Bonnie, me, Lyd, my niece Eryn and her daughter Lil Bug. We picked them up yesterday after the stair climb and tried them out at my house last night and today.

I could get mind around maybe twice before it fell.

Lydia got hers around 5 or 6 times and actually had some good form.

Sharon tried and failed horribly. I think she had Bugs.

Eryn stopped for hers today and hooped for over a minute several times outside. She was very good. (Of course she's half my weight and age.) Then when we came in, she added Lil Bugs and kept going. Even using three different sized hoops she could make it go round four or five times. She said she learned watching youtube videos.

If I knew what I was doing, I might get a good workout with it. To bad I'm not closer to Louisville. I could stop at Polesque!