Various and Sundry

No karate tomorrow, as the Jazzercise people are taping for TV - something they do every couple of months. The weather is pretty, so I'm going to try to break out the weaponry and do some kata practice in the front yard. Also, a morning run would be good. Actually keeping busy in general would be good as I need to go back in the afternoon and have them redo the mammogram on one side with the radiologist present, and I'd rather not think about it until after I have something more concrete to worry about (or not) than I currently do.

Rob made it home safely, if with somewhat more excitement than necessary. He opines (and I thoroughly agree) that he could have lived very happily without finding out what a jumbo jet sounds like when being flown without engines. Fortunately after having an engine overheat and die, the pilots attempt to shut everything down and restart worked as intended and the plane landed safely back in Edinburgh under power. He got home about 18 hours later than intended, but all in one piece, which is how I like him. He brought birthday presents with him - a tartan shawl with brooch, a pair of gorgeous dragon-wing earrings, a butterfly pin from the Royal Botanical Gardens, a Hunting Ross tartan sash, and an assortment of lovely cheeses. The boys got Nessy stuff, which they're all excited about. Two books have also arrived from Bill (Thank you, Bill!), a book on designing knitwear, and a biography of Madeleine L'Engle. I'm already making inroads on both.

The other things I'm reading are a pair of books I found while down with my parents. They're quite similar in concept - study books on karate from an older well-regarded Japanese instructor. One is based in Shotokan, and one in Gojo-ryu, so neither is completely applicable to Isshinryu, but I'm finding a lot of useful exercises and technique tips. After all, just because we punch differently doesn't mean that I can't learn more about a roundhouse kick from a Shotokan instructor. Part of the difficulty of being in such a small and isolated dojo is that comparative to Isshinryu students in areas with several dojos, we end up with a much less broad range of experience. Sensei TJ tries to travel to outside seminars and broaden his experience as much as possible, but most of the time I can't do that, so I'm aiming for the written word. (Shocking, I know)

Boys and dogs are all doing well, as is Aoi (the lizard), but I managed to kill off most of the population of Rob's smaller salt-water tank, by not figuring out that there was a short in the filter on the tank next door that kept throwing the breaker. There are half-a dozen survivors, but one of the puffers and the beautiful giant batfish both died, along with a bunch of other fish. Fortunately I did manage to keep the freshwater tank oxygenated enough for all the fish to survive until the electrics got sorted out, even if they weren't exactly happy.

Body Talk

The Turbokick class at the Y has developed a small group of women who all hang together at the back left. It's my preferred spot, but I've never really made friends with anybody in the class until now. (Yoga and Core, being quieter classes, have more comraderie) However, about a month ago, a group of newbies clustered back by me, and when I took some time to walk them through the more complicated moves (Turbokick moves fast), they sort of adopted me in. They're a nice group of ladies.

Anyway, today after class we hung out for a little while in the sauna (which turned out to be a mistake, but more on that later), and after two of the group had left, the last two women started talking bodies. The smaller (a tiny woman) started complaining that she had gained some weight while the taller was reassuring her that she was still skinny. She then appealed to me for backup - we will note that both of these women are far thinner than I am (or would be even if I became anorexic), and when I said so, then both of them started telling me all the things that they envied about my body. Which is when I realized that among the three of us, none of us could see anything good about our own bodies, but had no trouble at all seeing the good points of the others. The tall drink of water feels like a rake, the little, petite one, hates her curvy hips and butt. I, of course, am not fond of my top-heavy figure. It was a rather new experience for me to have anyone envying any parts of my body, but these women who have lovely figures (that they can't see) do. It felt very strange.

In other news, I finally got tired of having my back hurt every night, which it has ever since December when I took a kick in the low ribs, so I wandered off to a chiropractor. The news is all good. Apparently I've got some residual (and now habitual) irritation and spasming around the site (I probably had a mild sprain). So a week or so of icing and some other therapy, and not staying long in the positions that irritate it (like sitting at the computer), and it should be good to go. However, I'm to avoid heat (even long, hot showers). Of course I found this out about 90 minutes after the stint in the sauna - oops!

School is winding down for the year - about three weeks left to go. I will try to do a little better about keeping things updated here. Ernie, I haven't forgotten your meme - I'll get to it, I promise!