Lots to say

There is a cold that we are all taking turns dealing with. Logan is on the down side of it, but he also just finished taking amoxicillin for a week. The baby has been coughing pretty bad with chest congestion, and a runny nose. I've had a stuffy head, but now it's progressed to really bad chest congestion. We've all kept warm when we go out, but I guess even so, if the weather is wacky, you're bound to catch something.


I attended a martial arts seminar this weekend in Northern Virginia. Besides the iaido class I co-taught (samurai sword forms), other instructors covered bo staff forms, Okinawan kata, practical application (extracting real life stuff from practice forms), and a few other things. It was a 4 hour drive to the north, but well worth the trip.

Strange thing happened though - I've trained in various weapons (bo, jo, handbo, sai, tonfa, weighted chain, nunchuks, bla bla bla), but most of my recent study has been sword. Either what to do with it when it's in your hands, or how to disarm someone else with one. At the seminar, when I participated in a weapons class, I knew what I was doing, but it felt like speaking in a non-fluent foreign language. I knew it, but hadn't practiced it lately. But when I got a sword in my hands, it felt gooooood. It flowed. I can fight or do flashy moves with other weapons, but don't think I've ever hit the big 3---- 1. I can fight with it 2. I can defend against it and 3. I can take yours away. As much as feel resentment at how shitty I was treated at my Aikido class in Norfolk, I have to admit that I can't keep the art out of my head. It works.


ABOUT BEING LATE:

Ok - maybe I shoulda put this one first. Before I left for the seminar, I made sure I packed things and pretty much knew where everything was. I had lots to do. Had to pick up 2 other people, had to travel 250 miles, had to practice, had to make sure my house was in order. All things that required time precision. I did not want to be late on any task. Not late to pick peopl up - not late to arrive at the seminar. The night before the trip I was informed by the wife that no matter how early my departure was going to be, we were already late. Then she told me a one liner that proved it.

PARENT TEACHER CONFRENCE
We had our first parent teacher conference this mourning. The principal occupied the boys in another room while we sat down with his teacher. As expected, he got rave reviews. Plays well with others, is very friendly, artistic - everything a dad always hopes to hear. We really made the right move switching him to this preschool. If you are reading this, and your children are attending Chesapeake Christian Academy, I implore you to take a day off of work and sit on on the school for the day. If you are happy with grumpy people and militaristic styled compliance methods - by all means, leave your precious little flower there to wilt.

SNOW!!!
Yesterday, we had snow. For about 5 minutes. At first it was small. Then the size of the flurries got HUGE!! Big Big BIG flakes! Then it stopped, and upon returning it was very small - like hail instead of snow. Logan got to see it, but Lance woke up (from his nap) right after it had stopped. Fortunately, I've been very lazy about taking down the exterior X-mas lights on the house, so when it started to snow, I ran out and fired them up! We were the only house in our hood so nicely lit during that 5 minute snow "storm".


Let see - I guess that's about it for now. I've been busy using my computer time to scoure the web for martial art pictures for the kids at the dojo to have as color sheets. At first, I just wanted them to color them for fun, but then I started using them to reinforce whatever I taught that night. If I taught front kicks, I found color sheets showing proper form. Same with strikes, stances and blocks. I've also developed an attendance contest, with prize levels
- but I need to make the actual "put it on the wall" sheet.

Oh, and Logan got to see dad's sewing skills and artsy side today. I had bought some white material , and red fabric paint, and started working on headbands for the dojo kids today (Hachimaki). Very simple design. White cloth, big red circle. I'm going to put the names of each person in black, written in katakana. Should be a nice suprize for them when I'm done.