jay | oooh, shiny...

New skate blades, in this case. =) Still no word on the proposal.

dawnd was tired and still sick and so we postponed our lunch date... given the time window, I opted to follow my skating coach's suggestion and call the Harlick factory store in San Carlos.

I have had a set of new boots for two years, but no blades. So I took the boots out of their packaging and drove up 101 for a 1:30pm fitting. I bought Wilson Coronation Ace blades, a good general-purpose freestyle blade that is comparable to my Risport Cristallo mid-level boots. I also noticed the framed photo in Harlick's reception, celebrating one of their clients' recent success in ice dancing, a couple of days ago ( incidentally, the Russian pairs who won the gold and bronze in ice dancing were both wearing Risport boots, so I have my bases covered... ;) Then I went home and dressed the soles of my boots with waterproofing, before heading back to work.

I was wearing a NASA turtleneck... the Harlick receptionist noticed, asked me if I worked there, then called in one of their custom boot designers. They have an (unnamed) male competitive client who is preparing a program memorializing the Columbia and Challenger disasters... they wanted a shuttle and red, white and blue exhaust plumes on the sides of their custom boots for that program. The designer had tried stencils and laminated drawings, with no success. They asked me for any ideas -- I told them that the Ames gift shop sold cloth triangular shuttle patches in exactly the size they needed, for $4, all they had to do was cut off the bottom and seal it. Just like the flag on Brian Boitano's skates (they pulled out one of his to demonstrate how they could sew in patches). This idea brightened their day, and meant that I got really friendly service on my fitting (grin)... so if I see some male skater at the next Worlds doing a Shuttle commemorative program, I'll look closely at his skates ;-).