I'm going to hate Sensei in the morning.

Sensei has set up a training space in his basement. Today I went over for a little under two hours to go over my katas. Plus a little heavy bag training, mostly to see if I get faster when I'm tired (answer: no - but I don't get slower either). I feel like we accomplished a lot, but I am completely wrung. There's a huge difference between two hours in the dojo with all the other students, usually with some teaching intersperced, and two hours directly under Sensei.

Overall both I and Sensei are reasonably pleased. My kicks seem to have achieved a good speed (I was getting audible snap from my yoga pants, which seems a fair accomplishment). My hands are still lagging. They seem to move faster in combinations, but still not fast enough even then. Outside of that, most of the corrections are minor - improvements rather than corrections per se. The only kata he really panned was Kusanku Sai, panned for lack of energy (it was the very last kata we worked on). It suffered for it's position, but also just for sheer lack of confidence in it. I know the kata, but my gut doesn't believe that I know the kata, so I hesitate, and it shows.

Tomorrow we head off for the family reunion. I'm bringing my weaponry, and I'm afraid my various relations are just going to have to put up with me doing my practice. It's looking like the end of August (somewhere between the 21st and the 30th) is it, and I can't afford to miss the days.

Unfortunately the reunion does not come with available organ. My teacher (and our church organist) will be out of town the Sunday following the reunion (I.e. in two weeks). Since neither of us reserve organists is quite up to the job right now, we're splitting duties. The other guy is playing the hymns and service music, and I'm playing prelude, offertory, and postlude. Which is great, except that only one of those (the prelude) is in decent shape to play right now. The offertory is rough and slow, though coming along. The postlude is in lousy shape (Hey, I've only been working on it for a week!), fortunately, it's only got three measures that are truly problematical. If I had the full two weeks to practice, I'd be pretty confidant. Unfortunately, I'm only going to get six days from now, and that's much less confidence-inspiring.

Deep breath. For the reunion itself, I'm going to try not to worry - or at least only worry about karate, since I can do something about that. I'll just have to practice my fingers off once I'm back. It's only four pages of music. I can perfect four pages of music in a week, right?

I'll see everyone (in a manner of speaking) in a week!

'til Friday

A and her husband arrived yesterday. I was somewhat hopeful that having her here would mean a less break-neck pace than when I visit her, but unless the first 24 hours was a quirk, no such luck. Don't expect to hear much from me until they leave on Friday - and possibly for a couple days after that, since hanging out with A is usually followed by a couple of days of falling over.

A is being really good about the state of the house (pretty good by my standards, cruddy by hers). Her husband, on the other hand, has named it "Cindy's Chemical Spill" on the GPS, and made some (mostly) good natured comments about people who don't know where everything they own is. Though if he makes any comments about it going downhill over the next few days (as they keep me running around 16 hours out of every 24), he's going to have to duck.

Home Again, Home Again Jiggety-Jog

We're back home again, having driven down from the reunion (in Minnesota, about 2 1/2 hours north of Minneapolis) yesterday - yes, all in one day. We hit the road at 6:30am which was a rude shock for the boys, who had been getting up between 9 and 10 all week. It backfired on us a little, as Aaron had some motion-sickness due to the discombobulation. He used to be prone when he was tiny, but hadn't thrown up in a car in years - until yesterday. Fortunately once he dropped off back to sleep he was fine.

The reunion was lovely. The reunion was at a lake. We had a protected swimming area (about 4' deep), with two water trampolines and a slide, a playground area, and a ping-pong table. There were boats and golfing available, but we never availed ourselves of them. We spent late afternoons swimming pretty much every day. Robbie is turning into a proper fish - I got lots of practice with throws by tossing him for a dunking every time he would splash me. Aaron is only just getting comfortable with deeper water, but made lots of progress. I think by next summer he'll have it down. We didn't get to spend as much time with my eldest brother and his family as we would have liked. Their eldest has autism and reacts badly to having his schedule mangled, so they only came up for one night (and the surrounding days). He's a sweetheart, though, much more affectionate and willing to have bodily contact than I'm used to with autistic kids. We gave him a Neopets dragon (talking, interactive toy) for his birthday, and it drew a smile out of him. We also got to meet his PCA, who is delightful herself. Apparently he took to her immediately when my SIL interviwed her, after hiding from all the other candidates.

Mom was also not much seen, as she came down with a nasty cold the day after we arrived. Mostly she stayed in and slept, showing up in late afternoon and then taking off again after dinner. She was still coughing and sniffling on the last day, but plainly feeling somewhat better. Fortunately we get another shot on Tuesday when she and Dad drive by here on their way back home.

We did get to see a good deal of my brother Bill and his wife and daughter, as well as my Dad. Bill and Kathryn (my niece), and I undertook to teach Robbie ping-pong. He did pretty well, moving from a 19 handicap to a 17 handicap over the course of about three days. By his last day, he was ready for me to drop his handicap against me to a 15. By contrast, when I was taught by my brothers, albeit at 6 not 10, I spent a couple of years playing with a 20 handicap. Bill is a ferocious player, and Kathryn is no slouch. Dad isn't as vigorous, but he's got plenty of experience and as a lefty with a deft touch with spin, he's dangerous himself. I play with a 10 handicap against Bill and 5 against both Kathryn and Dad - which I don't think is too shabby when the last time I played ping-pong was 11 years ago.

Rob got lots of lounging time, which he desperately needed. He actually spent the first three days reading and sleeping, which is almost unheard of for him. Usually he's itching to go do something after about one day of lounging.

I brought my tonfas and sais and managed to get in several sessions of kata practice. Apparently the people in the cabin next door found this very amusing. They spent mornings sunning out on the dock, and generally by the time I had gotten through one or two katas, they would have all turned around and started providing commentary on what I was doing. The more I use the tonfas Rob made me, the better I'm liking them - it's just such a treat to have something that's made to my exact measure.

My main project for this trip has been penguin socks - visible in the book cover in the photo at the top of the page. The first sock is almost done and it's coming out really cute. The directions aren't terribly good though. They're close enough to figure it out if you're an experienced sock knitter, but I woudn't recommend them otherwise. They've named the main color "M", and then don't differentiate it in the directions from the "M" of "make 1", their charts aren't well proofed (at least two errors in the penguin chart), and they just generally aren't as clear as they should be. There are several cute patterns in the book though, and I'm already planning on making their ladybug socks for my youngest niece.

So - home again, home again. Sensei has already called to say we're a go at the Jazzercise place, so starting Tuesday we're back on a regular schedule at a regular location. Go us!

Ai-Yi-Yi

Okay. We're supposed to be leaving tomorrow. We hope. Given how today is going, I am somewhat less confident of this than I was this morning.

It's currently 11 at night, and Rob just left to go trade in our current rental car for another. This will be our fourth (4th!) rental car of the day.

First off, if you value your sanity, I would give Thrifty a pass. The last time I rented from them, the service stank, but they did rent me the car I asked for at the price quoted, so I went there again since their quote was again lowest. Big mistake. It was like buying a cow and being told the legs are extra, as are the udder, horns, spots and moo.

Follow this up with a second rental car (specifically requested to have cruise control), which got a flat tire 500 yards from home. Which they chose to exchange for a third rental car - which after we had gotten it packed, turned out to not have cruise control. So we had to unpack it, and then when Rob gets back, repack into the new car (which by this point may very well be car #2 again with a fixed tire).

This is beginning to feel like Groundhog Day.

Off-Line

As of Sunday, me and mine are headed off to Minnesota for a family reunion. A minor family reunion this time. Only my parents and their descendants (and spouses) will be along, for a total of thirteen people, plus the possible wanderer from my sil's family. The more usual form of family reunion has my father's parents' descendants, which runs to considerably more people - five pairs in my father's generations, each with multiple children, most married with children of their own, it's quite the gathering. This one should be much quieter. It will be the first time I've seen my eldest brother and his family in three years, and I'm really looking forward to it. Kids change so much when they're little; my neice and nephew at 4 and 6 aren't going to bear much resemblence to the baby and toddler I remember.

We will have a computer along, but it won't be mine, so I don't anticipate posting while I'm gone. I may check up and respond to comments if I get on-line time, but don't count on it. I doubt we'd bring it at all, but Rob may need to do work so it has to come. I'm crossing my fingers that nothing goes wrong at the plant while he's gone - it's aggravating to have him trying to fix something long-distance while he's supposed to be relaxing - but it's still shutdown month, so I wouldn't take any kind of odds that he'll actually be allowed to have a week to himself. Typically it's between four and six weeks after shutdown ends before he gets a 48-hour period without having someone call with an emergency. Thank goodness this is his last year to do shutdown!

Aaron had his eigth birthday today - he gets three parties by the time all is said and done - one today that was just cake and presents, no guests - one he shares with his cousins at the reunion (they're all summer birthdays) - and one once school starts again so that he can find his friends to invite them. Today was a nice low-key day that mostly consisted of playing with some new toys (Bakugan), and going to Panera for breakfast and Burger King for all other meals.

And I did remember to break out the icepack after lunch - go me!

I'm Baack!

Sorry to be silent for so long. I and the boys went on an extended trip to the northeast, covering Boston (Hi A!), Worcester (Hi L!), and Philadelphia (Hi B!). A good time was had by all, but we're quite done in by now and glad to be home again.

While we were up there, the boys got their first taste of a summer camp, in the form of a YMCA day camp. Generally they had fun, but the camp administration left a lot to be desired - starting with losing our paperwork a couple of times before we even got there, progressing through putting Aaron in the wrong section to start with, and culminating in not calling me when Robbie got a second-degree burn on a hot iron (the plastic-welding sort). Not only not calling me, but not even telling me about when I picked him up. I noticed the band-aid after we'd gotten back to my friend's apartment. Plus, when I checked on the accident report the next day, they had not given him appropriate first-aid. A quick splash of cold water and a band-aid is not sufficient for a deep 2nd degree burn - they're horribly prone to infections.

As a consequence I have been serially apologized to by the entire administration, will recieve a discount should I send my kids back next year, and we have a free three month family membership awaiting us, should we ever have need of it. In Boston. Heh.

After Boston, we went down to Philly, which went a bit smoother. We all trotted off to see the King Tut exhibit, which is spectacular. There was a little too much effort put in to making a mysterious ambiance for my taste, but the pieces were wonderful anyway. I do wish someone would realize that a dark exhibition hall with the exhibits in spotlights doesn't work so well in a jostling crowd - especially while trying to keep track of children. The actual historical information was also really interesting, though I wish there had been more of it. It's quite startling to realize that Tutankhamun was Robbie's age when he became king of all Egypt. Robbie was pretty startled to find that out too. The rest of the museum was also excellent - we stayed until they kicked us out at closing time. Then we went out for dinner (bison is quite good), and dessert. B took us to an Italian gelato place where the lemon ice cream is the next thing to a religious experience. Based on the noises, the boys had the same feelings about their Bing Cherry sorbetto (Aaron) and White Chocolate Kahlua (Robbie).

Lastly we went up to Worcester, where we got to be in on the arrival of some new guinea pigs. My friend L had some in her teens - her last one actually died the day of her wedding. I remember it vividly, since as Matron of Honor, my job expanded to guinea pig transport and related items. She hasn't had any in the fifteen years since then, but has now decided that rather than inflicting a new kitten on her remaining older cat, she would get some piggies instead. Cute things too. A pair of rescue brothers, one tortoiseshell and white, and one red and white. Her oldest son got to name them (Warrior and Burglar), and is supposed to be their co-owner, though he really hasn't quite got the quiet and gentle part down yet. Upon being told to be especially quiet for the first day to avoid startling the already nervous pigs, he took to pushing over Aaron & Robbie, and then reprimanding them for making too much noise. It will be interesting to see if he learns better over time.