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Not necessarily in that order....

I guess if I'm to cover these topics in chronological order, the bruise has to come first. So last Wednesday when we had the snow storm, it also happened to be Valentines Day, which as previously mentioned is sad for us because it's when we lost Oskie. So seeing as that chocolate is the cure for practically everything (and thanks to Mark London Williams for sending an article with yet another scientific study proving this is true)I'd ordered a big heart shaped box of Jacques Torres chocolates (http://mrchocolate.com) which are totally the best chocolates in the world and believe me, I've tried a *lot* of chocolate. Well, of course the Fedex truck couldn't get up my long, steep driveway, and I saw him leave the box down by the mailbox.

Having been waiting all day for the chocolates to arrive, I wasn't about to let them get ruined or stolen, so I traipsed down the driveway in the snow, ice and biting wind to retreive them. Managed to make it both down and up driving unscathed, and kids were rapturous. However, then I decided to go throw the packing box away in the garage, with its newly painted floor. Which had snowmelt on it. And was, unbeknownst to me, extremely slippery. I haven't done a cartwheeling fall like that since I fell down a flight of stairs three years ago and damaged my shoulder. This time, however, I was fortunate not to break anything, but here's the lovely bruise on my thigh, which bore the brunt of the fall, almost a week later:



Let me tell you, it looks really lovely with my bikini.

"What?" you might exclaim. "Bikini in the snow? I knew you were crazy but..."

Let me reassure you, faithful blogfriends, that I'm not *that* crazy. I'm in Mexico, Cancun to be specific, with the Webmeister, while my kids are with their dad. TWM found this great package deal at this all-inclusive, adults only (!) resort called the Sun Palace, recently re-opened and after its post-Hurricane Wilma renovations.

It's gorgeous. Here's the view from the window:



And here's what the hotel looks like:



It's awesome. It's warm. And this afternoon, after my water aerobics session, the clouds burned away leaving a wondrous blue sky. I managed to loose my prescription goggles in the ocean while bodysurfing (they got washed away in a good wave, but I guess I should be grateful it was the goggles and not my bikini, but still...) but to console myself I had a tattoo done on my back in henna. The guy was amazing - he did it by hand without stencils.

This is what it looked like while he was doing it:



And here's the final result, which I totally love!:



Needless to say, it's temporary, as we Nice Jewish Girls aren't allowed real tattoos. (Do you hear that, Daughter of Mine?) I sent a picture to my mother, who looked at the picture before she read the part about it being henna and nearly had a heart failure. I guess even at 43 with kids of my own, I still haven't lost the ability to shock my *own* mother :>)

More pics of the extremely cool room and other stuff tomorrow!