One scraped up ankle later...

...and I have a red belt! Which will look absolutely terrible with the new blue doboks, so I have added incentive to get my black belt soon! The new logos on the back are much cooler, though. (Sir recommended getting a heavy weight, although the lazy part of me is going "I already get hot enough in my medium weight uniform!" He pointed out, though, that after training in a heavy weight dobok, everything else will feel like pajamas. Also, the black instructors' doboks are only available in heavy weight. And those still aren't as heavy as Sir's ATA dobok. That thing is like iron.) The belts are actually a different style, too - the gold leadership stripes are much thinner (yay!), and the belts themselves are long enough to double-wrap. Just when I finally get able to properly tie a single-wrap belt consistently, they go and change it up! Geez, people! Anyway, I am hoping to get my new uniform on Monday, and will try to get pics up soon. (I realized I'd scraped my ankle - most likely on my board break - when I noticed blood stains on the hem of my white dobok. Sigh.) They do already have some of the new t-shirts in, a basic white with Haganah*Taekwondo*Fitness Kickboxing across the front and the new logo on the back. I told Sir it was nice of them to finally get a shirt that had all my classes on it. He just laughed. Anyway, we are having class on Monday now (normally, they don't have class on the Monday after testings), which is awesome, because it means I won't miss two full weeks of class and will get to start learning the new forms and stuff along with everyone else. I was able to do kickboxing yesterday, and am teaching it tomorrow, so at least I'm getting some work in this week.

And I desperately need to punch things this week. Double rehearsals every day except today (only evening rehearsal tonight, which is why I could test this afternoon) plus meetings and paperwork make for a Very Long Week. It doesn't help that we are moving so slowly through the show that I am starting to get worried that we will not get the show staged before tech. I'm sure we will, but yikes! Life x3 opens this weekend to run in rep with Art. I won't get to see it until after Godspell opens, but it sounds like fun.

Happy Easter!

(Yes, I'm a sucker for cheezburger.)

We get today AND tomorrow off, so I'm spending Easter cleaning, how exciting and fun is that?! Very necessary, though, I've been a bit of a slob since rehearsals started. Time to get that remedied. And I desperately need to clean my car out. I had to take my bike in to get the tires refilled last week, and it's still sitting in the back of my car, plus my sparring gear, my hard hat for work, and a bunch of the other junk and trash cars accumulate when you practically live in them. My new heavy bag should be coming in this week and I want to be able to pick it up ASAP!

Almost done with the first HSS3 sock - I know, it's taking forever. I'm planning on finishing the sock and starting the second this weekend. I've also been working on the Mountain Colors drop stitch scarf in the evenings after rehearsal, and am almost through the first skein of yarn for that. It's already almost four feet - after finishing this skein, knitting the second, and blocking it, I'll be really interested to see how long it turns out to be!

Dojahng stuff (including black belt testing dates!) behind the cut.
I had my final pre-testing lesson on Thursday and set up a time for my red belt test (Thursday, March 27, so this coming week - new uniforms after this test!). Sir did things a little differently with me this week, though. Usually he has me focus on my form technique during the private classes. This time, we focused on sparring and strategy - putting combinations together and how to figure out what works for my body and style. It was awesome. It's hard for me to practice some of the things we discussed when we spar with the kids, just because of height/strength/mental differences (I don't have to worry about kicks to the head very often in sparring class, for example, only a few of the adults have a chance for that, and kids just don't think about sparring the same way adults do), so it was really great for me to be able to just drill over and over with someone approximately my size and strength. He'd give me a combination, have me work it, then add distractions or fake-outs or height changes to it. SO helpful! Of course, the real test will be Thursday to see if I can retain any of this without actually being able to practice it. Sparring is my weakest area simply because I can't practice it as often as I can everything else. Sir said that when I get my bag, he'll give me some footwork drills for it, but it's not the same and he knows it. Luckily, I actually should be able to hit a bunch of sparring classes around midsummer, which will be nice!

Speaking of summer and martial arts, I got the potential dates for my black belt test!! It will either be Saturday, July 26 or Monday, July 28. They are going to try to do testings on Mondays over the summer, to get around vacations and other summer sports that happen on weekends, but if that doesn't work out, they will move the testings back to Saturdays. Black belts MUST test for rank on an official testing day - you can't do a private test for dan (black belt) rankings, only gup (color belt) rankings - and they just happened to pick a.)a day I ALWAYS have off (Monday) or b.)one of the few Saturdays all year that I have completely off! How's that for fate? (And it's the weekend Godspell closes, so potentially lots to celebrate that weekend. Or lots to cry about, one of the two! =) ) I have a LOT of work to do between now and then!

And I've been invited, as part of the instructor class, to help out with a martial arts demo at the local YMCA on April 12. Normally, I wouldn't be able to do a Saturday afternoon because of rehearsal or matinees, but that one just happens to be Opening Night for Godspell, so as long as nothing tragic happens during the preview the night before, I should have it off. Someone up there is allowing these schedules to blend far better than they really should, and I much appreciate it!

Godspell is going a little slower than the directing team (director, musical director, choreographer) was planning on, I think, but the cast continues to pick things up quickly and have fun with the material. (I'd be happier if they'd stop singing the songs in the halls between classes, though. I really really love this soundtrack, but I'm kind of over having all the songs stuck in my head all day. I don't like the arrangement of "We Beseech Thee" we're doing, though. It feels too pick-up-your-hymnals-and-turn-t0-page-343-Baptist-churchy, and I like the more rock version of it on the 2001 soundtrack much better. Maybe it will sound different with the full band.) There's just so much of it! We have double rehearsals almost all week this coming week, and we move into the theater and start tech a week from this coming Friday! Time is flying by! This week is going to be a long week - we had Friday night off to see Art (it's fabulous, btw, anyone in the area should really go see it), did a double rehearsal yesterday, have today and tomorrow off, then go back into double rehearsals for most of the week. It's almost a summer schedule and no one is used to that during the school year. I'm going to have no idea what day of the week it is!

I've been on a Bones kick lately - watching episodes when I get home from rehearsal at night. I might have to go up to SLO tomorrow to hit Barnes and Noble and pick up some of Kathy Reich's books (the author whose books and life the show is based on). I need a new series, as my usual ones are either all caught up or still in hardcover. I'm too hard on books to pay for hardcovers. Only if I get stuff clean here first, though.

And one of the best puns I've heard in a while:

My Cast Rocks!

Just wanted to say that.

Delayed Pics and Opposite Actions

A few pics stolen from the guy in the bottom photo from the Othello opening party.

I don't wear that necklace very often, as it kind of requires just the right neckline and style, but I always get tons of compliments on it. I love it!

I don't get to go to Art's opening party tonight (Say it with me, "I can't, I have rehearsal..."), but I do get to see it next week and I'm very excited about it. I've seen that show once in New York with Judd Hirsch (front row seats, it was FANTASTIC!), and we did it at Purdue my senior year (I didn't work on it, though. I'm pretty sure it was AF Guy's show while I worked on...whatever show I was working on at the time.). It's SUCH a good show, and knowing the guys in it will make it that much better. I actually get to see the understudy rehearsal tomorrow night before I get to see the actual cast, so that will be really interesting.

Now for the opposite actions. I forgot how much time it takes to wind down at night after rehearsal, and have been forced to rework my sleep schedule. The good thing, is that this has also meant that I have had no time to work out at all since Monday. This is good because my elbow has been bothering me all week, to the point where I finally called the doctor back on Thursday night and he sent me in to get it x-rayed Friday. (Nurse Lady, who has been...nagging isn't the right word, she's awfully nice about it, but you get the idea....me about it every time she sees me in the dojahng, gave me the "Finally!" look when I walked in the doctors' office.) I'm a little confused, since everyone seems to think it's a muscle or tendon problem, not a bone problem, but maybe the x-ray is to rule out bone problems? This is why I do not get paid the big bucks. They're supposed to call me back and let me know the results within 24-48 hours, but as it's a weekend, I'll be happy if I hear from them on Monday. It seems to be triggered not by stretching it, like when you punch, but more often by carrying things. It doesn't like doing pushups and the plank (a pilates move I picked up in kickboxing), either.

The opposite action to the fact that my elbow hurts enough that I had to go get it x-rayed and am a little glad that I haven't worked out at all is that I went in yesterday and put in an order for a standing heavy bag (the same kind we use at the dojahng) to put in my garage. My garage isn't huge, and I don't have mirrors for formwork or mats/partners for self-defense, but I should have more than enough room to do the kickboxing workouts, and I can push the bag to the side to give me some room for forms. I can always snag a rehearsal room if I need the mirrors, but it will be good to get used to working without them. The bag should get here in about two weeks - probably just after testing and that should give my elbow some quality time off. If I can get away with not moving too much furniture in rehearsal.

Tidbits

There has been knitting, but mostly on my HSS3 socks, so I'm not posting pictures. I had the foot of the first sock almost completely done, then decided the pattern really wasn't working for me, so frogged back to the toe and started in a different pattern. Thanks to a Bones marathon on Sunday (tv shows on dvd are the best idea ever!), I'm through the heel and have about an inch done so far on the leg. And frankly, I'm jealous - I've finally gotten this pattern to work for me, and I'll have to give the socks away! (And pray that they fit my pal!) I still have to do the second sleeve of the BB Sweater, but the socks are on a deadline. I should have deadlines for all my projects, that seems to be the only way I actually get them done!

Friday was very fun. Got stuck at work, so only got to do about half of kickboxing class, then sparring, then Klondikes for beer, pizza, and cake! I got a few decent pics (the lighting in Klondikes is pretty dim, so the flashes kind of made things a little difficult). We have the birthday boy (Baby S) and dad (Sir). This was taken pre-cake serving. You can tell because there is no blue icing on anything. (Sound familiar, Mom?) Post-cake, Baby S, Sir, Mrs. S, and I were all very blue. (One of the hazards of being loved, I guess.) There was only blue icing on the very edge of the cake, too - it's amazing how it spreads!

We didn't open a lot of presents at the party (because, really, squishing cake between fingers and getting icing all over creation is far more important when you're one!), but Ma'am really wanted to see the Hedgehog:
She wants one, now, too! Her birthday is in December, though, so she's gonna have to wait! Mrs. S also thought it was adorable and the perfect size for Baby S to carry around. She's actually a little worried it will get loved to death, but I assured her that I could make a new one if that happened. (I didn't get a good pic of Mrs. S - I tried to get one of her with Sir and Baby, but it was too dark from where I was sitting.)

And, of course, what is a party without a lot of goofing around, creating chaos, and generally setting bad examples for the kids? Not that Mel and I would do anything like that, of course:
Can't you see the halos over our heads? For some reason, we weren't allowed to sit at the big kids' table (mostly because we arrived with Baby S, so all the other seats were taken), but I'd like to point out that we got hit by peanut shells before we started throwing them back. We were just defending ourselves (and the beer - I was splitting pitchers with Ma'am, Sir, and Mrs. S - Mel's too young).

Our innocence is proven - TKD grandson, me, and Mel hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Which we could have pulled off better if Mel hadn't been elbowing me in the ribs the whole time.

At any rate, a fun time was had by all, and I'm not looking forward to missing Friday nights again. I started the private lesson thing back up again yesterday - Monday was the only day Sir could fit me in this week - which means that yes, I did FOUR classes yesterday. I got drilled on reverse hook kicks and reverse side kicks in the afternoon, then went and started taping out my set at work, which involves lots of squatting and getting up and down, then went back to the dojahng and did kickboxing, tkd, and instructor class. My legs are still tired! I'm really really liking double bahng mahng ees, though. I think we're going to start forms with them next week. I'm also definitely going to get a 12-pound medicine ball for home, and I'm thinking about investing in a heavy bag. That way I can at least get some kicking and punching drills in. I'm thinking about keeping it in the garage. I'll have to see how finances trickle out, though.

And, as much as I will miss class and the dojahng (and trust me, I will. Last night as we were packing up, Mr. R did the "See you on Wednesday!" thing. When I said that I wasn't going to be back until Monday, he accused me of abandoning them. Sigh!), I am very much looking forward to this:
(photo credited to Luis Escobar and Reflections Photography studio). It's so rare that we get a real cast photo for shows, but Godspell (more pics on the site) is such a truly ensemble piece that it was really the only option for our publicity photos. It's also unusual for us to have so many students (second AND first years!) taking the prominent roles in the show. We only have three RAs involved in it, and only one of them is Equity. It will be a great experience for the students, and they already have such a good energy and are so excited about this show. It will be awesome to work on this with them!

Last moments of freedom...

Only a few more days until I go into rehearsals again. On the one hand, it will be nice to be back in a show again. I haven't had my own show since last summer, and Godspell is going to be high-energy, tech heavy, lots of fun. On the other hand, I'll have significantly less time do work on things like this:
Finished the baby blanket tonight. It's about 32"x32", although my blocking board is only 30" wide, so it's blocking at those measurements. A trip through the washer and dryer and some use will stretch it out some, I'm sure. The colors aren't showing up quite as well in the photos, sadly.

I did get to meet Amie from Ravelry and her two charming children the other day when she needed a ball winder and swift. I volunteered mine, so she stopped by before class on Monday. Her little girl brought me these:

that she picked all by herself! (They bloomed yesterday.) And apparently, balance exercise balls are THE coolest toys ever to three-year-olds. I must remember this. While Amie and I had a nice chat, got the yarn wound, and giggled at the kids, Teddie, sadly, did not enjoy the company. This is the first time since he's lived here that children have been around, and apparently small humans are beneath his dignity to deal with. (However, toys and blankets for small humans are apparently fair game, as he's already curled up on the drying baby blanket - it is being covered with another blanket to prevent too much cat hair transfer.)

Tonight was my last FIGHT class for six weeks. Sigh! The guys didn't find out until afterwards, and threatened to give me a sendoff (a two- to five-minute drill of just fending off attackers over and over and over) like they gave Ian when he left for the Coast Guard, but Sir wouldn't let them, since I am coming back eventually. Of course, if his threats for that first class back are any indication, I might want to stock up on some ibuprofen and icepacks beforehand.

Tomorrow is Baby S's birthday party (Mrs. S will be happy to see that I did not get Baby S the set of pots and pans and metal spoons to bang them with that I threatened to - I have a private lesson next week, I'm not stupid!), and I'll try to get some pics. It's also my last night of sparring for a while. I'm going to try to get some of my interns together for mini-golf or something this weekend, too, if the weather is nice. Gotta take advantage of this last weekend of freedom!

I'd also like to point out that, while I may be insane, during this time period last year (end of January - beginning of March), I was bored out of my skull and suffering from a mild insomnia. I was doing one class one night a week, watching too much television (okay, I always watch too much television), and really had no one to do birthday parties and weekends and whatnot with. This year, I've pretty consistently done seven to ten classes per week, not to mention the socialness of being around the people at the dojahng, knitting group, and the fact that our office at work was moved to CBC, which makes it a hot spot for people to drop in for chats. I've been dropping off by midnight or 1:00a pretty consistently. I'm hoping I can get away with not changing my sleep schedule too much with rehearsals - I'm probably going to have to start working out in the mornings. Sigh...

Mutterings

I wish my elbow would just make up it's mind whether or not it's going to hurt. I've kept up on the medicine, but have only been icing it when it hurts. It hadn't bothered me all day on Friday, so I did both kickboxing and sparring, and my arm got really tired and sore by about halfway through sparring. (Nurse checked up on me during class because she could see that I wasn't using the arm much. She wants me to get it checked out.) I figured I would have to ice it when I got home that night, but it didn't really hurt as much as it was just uncomfortable. By the time we all left Klondikes, it actually didn't hurt at all! It didn't bother me much yesterday, either, except for a few small twinges, but today I was writing out my grocery list and it started hurting again! Argh! At least have some kind of consistency with what triggers it to hurt! Mrph!

Yesterday was rather nice, actually. It was a little grey and not quite so warm as it has been this week, so I had an excellent day doing most of my cleaning (I actually put laundry away!), then curled up with the NCIS marathon on USA and worked on the baby blanket.
It's three-quarters done now. My initial plan was to increase to 126 sts, but that just wasn't big enough, so I decided to go with two skeins increasing and two skeins decreasing. (Very precise measurements, huh?) It's still a bit smaller than I would normally expect, but that's all the yarn I bought for this, so that's all I'm going to use. I think it will stretch and block out to a little bigger, too. I am hoping to finish it tonight or tomorrow.

I also finally got around to working with this:
My HSS3 yarn. I'm a terrible pal, I'm finally getting started almost a month into the swap! Yikes! I'm going to do a simple pattern, though, and once the baby blanket is done, these will get my full attention, so hopefully they will go quickly.
(And that's all the peeking you're going to get, sneaky HSS3 pal! =) )

I'm having a serious Coldstone Cremery craving this weekend, and I'm still looking for a nice cheerful yellow for another Hedgehog, so I might have to trek up to SLO again. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. None of the LYSs are open on Mondays, sadly, and I'm not sure if any are open on Sundays, either, so other than getting out of the house, I don't know how successful of a trip it will be, but honestly, just getting out of the house is enough.

Kitty does not agree, though, and feels the need to snooze. He NEVER sleeps in his bed, which is why I've gotten sloppy and let so many cables (phone and camera chargers) fall near it, but it doesn't seem to phase him at all...
Silly kitty!

Scientists on the Discovery Channel are working on bringing dinosaurs back via genetic manipulation. While the whole idea is kind of cool, with human beings' current track record of introducing new animals into new eco-systems, what makes bringing large creatures that we really know little about (because they DIED OUT 65 million years ago, you think that might be a clue?) into our world seem like a good idea?? Vegitarian or carnivore, how are you going to feed the things??? And is it really a "dinosaur" ("thunder lizard") if it's the same size or smaller than our current lizards?? Or just a new (redone?) species of lizard? I get the importance of genetic research and think it's fascinating, but this one kind of has me going "Umm...you really think this is a good idea?"

Now THAT Makes Sense...

In the process of taking some measurements for a possible sweater design for myself, I thought it might be interesting to find out things like my BMI and whatnot. So I go to this website that Inky recommended and plug in the numbers. BMI ends up as 20.09, which is smack dab in the middle of the normal/healthy range. Fantastic. Out of curiosity, I plug in the numbers for their Body Fat Calculator and come up with 32.18%, which is in the obese range. But in fact, when I plug the numbers into their formula to "figure" how much weight loss would put me at the upper end of the "average/healthy" range, I'd have to gain five pounds. Huh? I think I'll stick with the BMI and making sure I continue eating decently and working out...

The arm is doing better, although I doubt I've been babying it as much as the medical profession would like. But hey, I've only done five classes this week, and four of them were tkd where Sir let me adapt some of the arm drills. I really really wanted to do knife sparring tonight at FIGHT, but decided against it. I want to do sparring class tomorrow more, since I haven't done it for two weeks now, and that means babying the arm for the rest of the night and probably skipping kickboxing tomorrow, too. I'm also not completely sure that knitting isn't aggravating it either, which really it irritating as we're trying to get Miss A's package put together next week.

On the plus side, Sir is going to work with me one-on-one when I go back into rehearsals so I can keep up with classwork, and he said I've been doing really well in instructor class, too. It's really difficult for me sometimes, not because the material is hard, but I still have a hard time shaking the feeling that I should already know all of the forms that I've done. He said that it's easier for the black belts to go back and learn the color belt material because they only have one form of their own to focus on for a year or two, whereas I'm learning a new form of my own every two months, plus working through the old ones, but that I'm still keeping up pretty well. Sparring is still my weakest area, though, he said mostly because I don't get to do it on a regular basis and really train with it. We'll work on that in the private lessons, yikes.

And I've gotten my mom playing with yarn again, muha!

They have what?!

I was brave and didn't go to FIGHT tonight, are you proud of me? I even set up a time to talk to Sir about training tomorrow during kickboxing, so I won't be able to be in class for that, either. Skipping TWO classes, here, see? I am taking it easy! (No guarantees that I will sit out of tkd tomorrow night, though. That's asking an awful lot.)

Thanks for all of the kind words about Huggy! He is pretty adorable. I brought him in to work (my tissue paper for wrapping things was still in my desk from some gifting or other) and everyone is now asking me if I can make one for them. In all ranges of colors, from lime green (Mom) to black and grey (an "execution hedgehog" - an inside joke from The Pillowman) to pink (Chrissy) to yellow (Miss A/Kara) to red (my friend Carl) to purple (me! I want one too!) to any other color of the rainbow. Very fun - they are a quick knit and gift idea, but I'm definitely not making them all at once! I might have to go up to SLO this weekend to hit a decent yarn shop - a little cheerful yellow toy might be just the thing to go with Miss A's baby blanket.

The coolest thing, though? They have PENGUINS!! Dudes!! I must get my hands on this pattern!

Dojahng news behind the cut.

So, the deal is, Sir and Mrs. S have gotten pretty fed up with ATA's politics and business practices. Sir isn't sure what parent organization we'll switch to yet, but he's been talking a lot with his instructors who are also leaving or have left the ATA, and is deciding between two. Both of those systems are more of a mixture of martial art styles, not just taekwondo. Sir will still teach taekwondo as the primary style, but there can be more guest instructors come in to add different flavors to the mix. I'm not completely sure about what changes will happen to formwork yet, but I do know that he will be adding a physical fitness requirement to black belt testing, intensifying the self-defense almost to FIGHT-level (he's always been big on the idea that martial arts are completely useless if you cannot defend yourself), delaying announcing testing results, holding to a higher and more even testing standard, dropping people in rank who have not trained on a consistent basis, and a few other things. Uniforms will be changing after the next testing date (March 29) - regular students will wear white, leadership students (like me) will wear blue, and instructors will wear black. We will have both a taekwondo patch and a FIGHT patch. They are also going to changeover all the tshirts and things to different, "more fitness looking" style gear (they better not get rid of FIGHT pants, though, those are the most comfortable things EVER!), and phase out the ones with the ATA logos. The dojahng has already been repainted and the old Songham Star and other ATA logos have been covered over or taken down, and the red parts of the mats will be changed out soon. They will still teach FIGHT to 18+ and kickboxing (I want a kickboxing patch, too!), so the general format of what they offer will stay the same. It will be really interesting to see what changes and how! I'm so excited to see the way the school is growing and adapting to what the owners actually want it to be and to be a (very) small part of it!

The new male in my life...

At least until he goes to the other cutest male in my life, Baby S, in two weeks.

Today did not go the way I had anticipated it. What I planned on doing was getting up, going to knitting, finishing the hedgehog, working on the baby blanket, and doing a triple class. What I ended up doing was waking up with my elbow REALLY hurting and spending most of the morning trying to talk to a human being in the health care system that actually could make a decision as to whether or not I should see my doctor or go to urgent care. However, once I finally got through to the doctor's office, I had another reminder about how small the world is.

Me: I hurt my elbow at taekwondo class on Valentine's Day, and it's still bothering me quite a bit. (Actually, it was FIGHT class, but I figured I'd have a harder time explaining that one!)

Nurse: Taekwondo? [Sir]'s?

Me: Yeah, actually...

Nurse: Who is this?

Me: This is Katie...

Nurse: Oh hi, Katie! This is [one of the little kids in my sparring class' mom]. I saw you icing it the other night at sparring. Your right elbow, right? Did you hurt it in class or while you were working there?

I don't work there, but I suppose it probably looks like it sometimes. Honestly, I have never spoken face to face with the lady to my knowledge. No particular reason I haven't, just never really had a reason to. I was rather surprised that she not only knew my name, but remembered the fact that I was there on Friday, icing my right elbow. Yikes! I hope that if I'm better known at the school that I had thought, I'm reflecting well on it!

Anyway, the upshot is that the doctor apparently decided my symptoms weren't severe enough to actually be seen, but had someone call me back and tell me to ice it three times a day, pick up a prescription for a stronger anti-inflammatory, and "stop the activity" until it stops hurting. A few days, at best, a week or more at worst. That did not sit too well with me, so they tuned it down to just "take it easy this week." I helped out some new people with kickboxing, which kept me from working my arm very hard, did tkd (when did that become my easiest class??) where we mostly worked forms and kicks, and instructor class where we also worked forms. Sir asked if I was going to be there tomorrow night, but it will depend on how the arm is feeling

Oh, and we're not going to be an ATA school much longer! Yay!

While I was waiting for the doctor's office to call me back, I went to the park to soak up some warm sunshine. I did a little bit too good of a job at that...my face and chest (I was wearing a scoop neck top) are now bright red. Whoops! But the baby blanket got some good California sun to send back to Indiana when it's finished!

I learned some things this week...

1. That not posting for a week will prompt emails and phone calls verifying that I am, in fact, alive.

2. Bernat CottonTots is actually a pretty darn good yarn. It's surprisingly soft and easy to work with, given the fact that it's a worsted weight 100% cotton. I've always been reluctant to use cotton for baby blankets, thinking it wouldn't be warm or soft enough, but I didn't find a superwash wool in the colorway I was looking for, and I've always felt a little guilty using acrylic for baby blankets because of the whole "in case there's a fire, acrylic will melt onto skin" thing. But this stuff is good. Yay! I'm doing a simple, quick dishcloth baby blanket for Miss Adelaide. It has a 5-stitch border and I'm going to increase until I have 126 stitches between the borders before starting the second half. I'm at a little over 80sts right now, so I still have a bit, but I think it will done pretty quickly.

3. It is damn near impossible to find non-googly and non-stick-on animal eyes and noses in these parts. I went to the local Michaels, the Beverly's up in SLO, Betty's Fabrics, and the Beverly's here before finally finding both the eyes AND the nose. But the mission was eventually successful, and Huggy got felted (twice!) today. Now he has his prelim stuffing in while he dries, but he's blind and noseless. I'm hoping to get him completely finished tomorrow. He's already pretty darn cute, though. I found a baby book about a group of monsters celebrating another monster's birthday, and that seemed appropriate enough to go with it.
4. As a result of the search for various facial features, I learned that while Betty's still is not the ideal LYS, and probably won't be until they both act like they know what they're talking about and stop acting like I must not know anything about knitting since I'm not over 60, they are currently carrying three or four different colorways of this:
Kureyon Sock. I got a skein just because I could, frankly. It's terribly rough and course in the skein, it's not superwash, and I don't really like Noro that much anyway, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this, but it's pretty. It's actually a very similar colorway to Mom's Booga Bag made several years ago, but seems to be sans the magenta.

5. It takes forever and a day (okay, a little over 16 hours) to burn a video DVD.

6. Helen Mirren wore the only really stunning-in-a-good-way gown to the Oscars tonight. The current "in" colors of pale metallics are not flattering on anyone, particularly when they wear pale lipstick as well. 90% of the women looked deathly pale and colorless. Very sad. (And we approve of Chrissy's new bf.)

7. The dojahng got repainted this weekend. I can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow! (Me, Mel, and Mr. R knew painters were coming over the weekend, but didn't expect to see them already there, set up, and working when we walked back to our cars from Klondikes' Friday night!) On a related note, I also learned exactly why it takes three judges to score a sparring round in a tournament. I taught kickboxing on Friday, but sat out of sparring because my arm was bothering me again and I had to ice it. Mel and I had our own gimp-section at the desk during sparring, but Mr. R called me out and asked me to judge the adults during a King of the Mat drill. (I don't know quite why - there were at least two other higher-ranking belts in the class - I guess he wanted them to spar and not have to sit out to judge.) There is no way one judge can see every hit or block - yikes! I tried to be as fair and accurate as possible, but I'm sure I missed some!

8. My elbow is bothering me again and I didn't do anything with it All Weekend! =( TKD doesn't seem to bother it very much, but kickboxing seems to. I hate to even think it, but I might have to take it easier than usual this week and sit out of a few classes. I only have two more weeks that I can do this! I don't want to give this time up while I have it!

Huggable!

Look! He's starting to get hair!

I knitted a furry blob!

Oh, THAT'S what it's supposed to look like! (Unfelted and unstuffed)
He's sitting on my ball winder, which can't be comfortable! Anyway, the knitting is finished, I just have to felt him, stuff him, and get him sewn up. I think I'll go up to SLO tonight (because I, for once, have nothing better to do on a Saturday night) and hit Barnes and Noble to find a cute baby-sized book to go with it. Preferably a story about a blue hedgehog, but I'm not picky...any animal will do. It's so nice to have a gift pretty much finished two weeks early! And other than looking and feeling (I imagine) like Muppet pelt, the fun fur wasn't TOO terrible to work with, although I can't imagine a new knitter trying to use it!

I also got my Ravenclaw yarn yesterday in the mail, but since I was finishing the Huggy up, I haven't done anything with it. It looks pretty and feels soft, though. I might try the Elodea socks with it, using the striping pattern by itself instead of the two colors. We'll see how it works.

My arm is feeling better today, but I did end up sitting out of both kickboxing and sparring last night. I went in during kickboxing to talk to Sir, but apparently Baby S was sick, so Sir stayed home with him. Ma'am and I both sat and watched sparring, though. We thought maybe between the two of us we could spar someone - I could kick and she could punch - but Mrs. S thought there were already too many people on the mat and we might scare someone if we teamed up. Sigh. Small crowd at Klondikes, just me, Ma'am, Mr. C, and TKD Grandma w/ her grandson. Mrs. S goes next week to test for her fourth degree, so next week will be a little different than usual (including me teaching again!), but it will be fun to hear about the test when she gets back. She won't know if she passed or not until the next week.

No class on Monday because of Presidents' Day, but I have to work auditions anyway. The days off will be good for my arm, and I can still work on my forms for Wednesday. Maybe Tuesday Sir and I can work on my training schedule.

(Oh, and I updated my 100 Things About Me. A lot has happened in two years, wow!)

Licking My Wounds

I broke myself in FIGHT tonight =( Morgan and Sir think I might have hyper-extended my right elbow during defense. It twinged once early in class, then really yelled when I was working with Craig, a new guy. I was able to shake it off and come back into class that time. Then we did knife sparring. I can knife fight left-handed against most of the guys, but not against Morgan. He got me really good across my right wrist, which hurt like hell. Luckily, I could do the rest of the drills with just my left hand, although my elbow started twinging again and Sir said it looked a little swollen. He made me take an ice pack on my way out, and I'm continuing to ice it tonight. Both the wrist and the elbow still really hurt, and I'm really hoping it's just tired from over work this week and will be okay for tomorrow. Even if it isn't, I'm going in to talk to Sir tomorrow and come up with a plan to keep me working when I go back into rehearsal. And I'm definitely getting pizza!

On a much more pleasant note, my expectant friend had her baby today! Adelaide Grace entered the world seven weeks early, but everyone is doing fine and she's a beauty! We just weren't ready for her yet! None of us have our gifts ready, so she'll just get her California luvin' when she's a bit older and hopefully settled at home in Indiana. But yay, a healthy baby!

We had a single-ladies' ice-cream bash this afternoon for Valentine's Day at one of the acting interns' houses. It was very fun! I think AJ might have pics soon!

Ha Ha!

Q: How do you make a fifth degree black belt absolutely cringe in horror?
A: Tell him you're buying bright pink boxing gloves for FIGHT class!

Sir's response, "Please, no! It's not even like you at all!"
Mr. R, "They wouldn't match anyway. You need a pair of black and blue gloves!"

Startitis (For Good Reason)

I finished the first sleeve on BBS the other day. I haven't started the second sleeve yet, though, as I've given in to a case of startitis and started this:
What? You can't tell what it is? Why, it's the body of the Huggable Hedgehog I bought at Stitches West last year! I've been casting around trying to think of what to get for Baby S for his birthday, and thought this would be perfect. It's a quick knit - not nearly as time consuming, the body would have been done in less than an evening if I'd properly read the instructions, or obviously labor-intensive as a blanket - cheap, since the whole kit was already in my stash, and they are so darn CUTE when they're done! I'm going to work on the back tonight and hopefully felt it later this week. The only thing I'm disappointed about is the size - the body is only about eight inches from head to toe right now. I'm a little afraid how much it will shrink when felted. I think I'm going to buy and sew on the eyes and nose, though. My embroidery just isn't that good!

Other than that, not much is going on. Thanks to my HSS3 pal for tipping me onto a Spanish-learning podcast! The Opening party for Othello was a lot of fun. (I'm telling you, gotta make friends with the bartender! No, I do not get plastered at work parties. Yes, I do get service faster than anyone else. What can I say? It's a talent. It certainly doesn't hurt that he's awfully cute...I didn't get any pics, but some of my friends did. I'll share when I get them.)

Sir had us work double bahng mahng ees again at instructor class last night. It was only me and Mr. R there, though, and Mr. R drilled me through the first four forms while Sir watched. I had trouble with the round kick/reverse side kick combo in Songham 4 the first time I learned that form - this second time is better, but not much. I'm going to ask Mrs. S if I can work reverse side kicks instead of the #3 side kicks during kickboxing, as I obviously need the practice! That's assuming I can walk tomorrow - my thigh and shoulder are hurting tonight after FIGHT. Of course, I got taken down over and over by Sir and a new kid, that might have something to do with it. Shower and television for the rest of the night!

A Few Good Things...

1. I have my pals for HSS3! The person I am knitting for is another Ravenclaw (good thing I like blue, as I always get Ravenclaw pals), but has no preference between the book and movie colors. Since I did the movie colors (blue and silver) for the last Ravenclaw pal I had, I'm going to do the book colors (blue and bronze) for this one. I ordered some self-striping Ravenclaw yarn from Cosmic Fibers and I hope it comes in soon! I'm thinking about doing Broad Ripple Socks, Tropicana Socks, or Elodea Socks with it. It will depend on how thick the stripes are, I think. I don't know what house the person knitting for me is in, but she's been in touch via email already and seems nice. I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

2. I've rededicated myself to learning Spanish. I took a few years of it in high school, and a few semesters in college, but it's actually useful here. My brother brought me his books from when he took it in college when he stayed with me last year, and I've been going through them and doing the workbook exercises and whatnot. It surprises me how much of the grammar I remember, although my vocab is really rusty! Between that and joining a Spanish-speaking(typing?) group on Ravelry, I'm getting a lot better at reading and writing it already, and I can generally speak it pretty well given time to think through what I need to say. My downfall is, and has always been, hearing it. I have a really hard time picking out words and translating them in conversation. I have a couple of CDs to work with, and TKD Grandma said she would help me, too. There are a couple other people at the dojahng who I'm sure would help me out as well, but I haven't asked them yet. This is mostly coming from several recent encounters in kickboxing and just out in public in general where people have asked questions and I didn't know how to answer them. I really doubt "right hook punch" is going to be in too many primers, though ;)

3. I've gotten this much done on the sweater so far:
I'm in the plain old stockinette for four inches portion, so I'm hoping to get a good movie or tv marathon or audio book going and crank it out. The sleeves are knit flat and seamed for some reason, and I forgot to check my gauge for flat knitting, so I'm hoping they'll be okay length-wise. I'll have to try it on again before I do the cuff.

4. I'm realizing as I work on projects like MS3, the sweater and Wendelin that when it comes to projects, I'm not really a monochromatic kind of knitter. Unfortunately, I love wearing monochromatic shirts - I really keep patterns down to a minimum in my wardrobe. I like varigated yarns and switching colors. I have one friend who is expecting next month, maybe it's time for another colorful baby blanket! And Baby S has a birthday next month (wow! really? no way!) so maybe I'll find something colorful for him, too.

5. I was oddly pleased to know that Sir's neck was sore after Thursday night's class, too. We did a drill at the end where we had to do situps keeping our hands in guard/protective positions while our partners hit us with tombstones. It wasn't bad, for the most part, except for the whiplash when P caught the back of my head with one hit. Sir said his partner caught him, too. Misery loves company, I guess. The bruises from knife sparring that night are starting to appear, too, just in time for me to have to dress up for opening. How come the guys don't get nearly the bruises I do?? It probably doesn't help that those are also the exact places that I use to block in sparring, too, so they kind of get hit two days in a row. Large bruises on the shoulders, forearms, and legs while wearing a dress. So sexy and attractive!

6. Speaking of sexy and attractive, Ma'am and I agreed last night at Klondikes that if guys get to watch Victoria's Secret commercials during the Super Bowl, we should, at the very least, get an Abercrombie & Fitch commercial. Preferably Chippendale, but an A&F guy without his shirt will do. Seriously, it's only fair. We'll start the revolution!

7. I started a group for knitting stage managers on Ravelry. It's called The Ghostlighters (an obscure nickname for SMs, since they are usually the first ones in and last ones out and have to deal with the ghost lights usually). It's kind of an addendum to the Theatrical Crafters group. Some of the other SMs on that group and I have been PM'ing back and forth about various issues we deal with in our specific jobs and companies, and we decided it would be easier to get more input from more people and not bother the rest of the TC group if we had a separate SM group. It's no slight on any of the other theatrical departments! This is the first time I've started a group, and it's been interesting so far!

Words, words, words...

Suffice to say, the audition trip was interesting and it was nice to get to know the two guys I went with better (800+ miles of driving will do that), but I would rather have been home. Still, I did get to meet up with some old friends, which was nice. We also caught the last approximately two minutes of the Super Bowl at a sports bar full of Giants fans, which was fun. The TeddieCat also apparently found a new girlfriend while I was away. Although he's ran and hid from every other cat sitter I've had, he likes Chrissy. She's the only person I've ever heard use the terms "snuggly" and "lovebug" to describe my cat. Weird animal.

I didn't get much knitting done, in fact, I ended up frogging the toe of the second Wendelin sock after I realized that I'd somehow ended up with several stitches on the wrong needle and had been happily increasing about five stitches from where I should have been. I did get several more repeats done on the Drop Stitch Scarf, even though it's kind of gotten into that weird twilight zone of scarves where you can do five million pattern repeats and the scarf only grows about half an inch. I'm going to try to at least finish the first sleeve of the sweater this weekend and hopefully get a decent start on the second one as well.

Class stuff behind the cut. Man, I miss three days of class and I get "Oh good, are you back for a while now?" Most people don't even come to class two days in a week. I miss three days and it's assumed that I've abandoned the school. Luckily, Ma'am was kind enough to work with me on my new form after tkd Wednesday night. I need it. I always say that when I start learning a new form, and actually this one isn't too bad. Nothing too tricksy or difficult in it. I just don't have the memorization down yet. I will have to work on it over the weekend so I can start working on cleaning it next week.

I have gotten a lot of comments and cracks lately about how many classes I take, or how tough or aggressive I am/must be. I get it from lots of people online and irl, and even the instructors. I'm not trying to be tough or aggressive or show off. I just enjoy being there, I want to learn as much as I can, and I know that in a few weeks, just when my training is going to intensify for black belt, I'll only be able to come once a week. At this point in my life, I'm physically capable of handling the classload. So what's the big deal? And what's the point of training if you're going to half-ass it while you're there? I think Sir kind of gets my frustration. Whenever he hears those comments, he catches my eye, smiles and shakes his head. Of course, he and his wife both make their living doing all of these classes and more every day, so I'm sure they've gotten those comments most of their training lives, too. I was rather grateful when Ma'am said that if Sir really thought Weapons class would help me, he would tell me to get my butt out there, though, since I'm really not interested in weapons much (ssahng naghts are the weapon of choice this unit, ugh!) and technically don't have to deal with them until after I get my black belt.

Tonight's FIGHT class was interesting. We've had a bunch of new people join class lately, but tonight we had a guy who is teaching English in Taiwan join us as he was passing through town. Afterwards, he took a picture of the dojahng and the class to show his students when he goes back to Taiwan. Ma'am and Mrs. S stayed for a while and talked to a new girl who seemed to be interested in the class. They warned her that many girls don't like FIGHT because it gets too rough and it's mostly guys, but that I came whenever I could, and the only reasons the two of them weren't doing it were injury (Ma'am's knee is still messed up) and Baby S. The regular guys know how and when to dial it back if they need to. F clipped me with an uppercut elbow to the chin tonight, and he is a big guy, about my height and probably twice my width and I'm sure has a good hundred pounds on me (trying to move him is like trying to move a brick wall). It honestly did not hurt at all, although he was absolutely horrified that he hit a girl. It earned both of us a good five minutes of teasing from the rest of the guys and from the peanut gallery. I don't know if that helped make up the girl's mind one way or the other, but we had fun =) The guys take care of me, but also respect that I'm there to learn to take care of myself. Oh, and I learned two things tonight: P, an older guy who's been doing FIGHT for quite a while, takes no prisoners during knife sparring - he goes straight for the throat and I'd be dead about fifty times if we used real knives - and S, the tall guy who's been coming for about two months now, has a degree in archaeology. How random is that?

A little bit of work, kickboxing, sparring, and pizza tomorrow, then Othello opens Saturday night! I've seen bits and pieces of it this week as they continue into dress rehearsals, but it will be interesting to see the whole thing put together. I think it will be over three hours long with intermission, though! (Is it weird that I can watch Othello break Desdemona's neck and think, "I know they're doing it that way for stage combat/safety reasons, but you'd never break someone's neck like that!"? I think it might be, a little.)

And, Mr. R during a round kick/side kick drill at the very end of tkd class Wednesday (we were supposed to be alternating mid-range round kicks with low side kicks):
"Aw, ma'am, the workout comes from changing the height of the kicks!"
"Um, at this point, I'm not really sure I need more of a workout."
"Sure you do. You're addicted, admit it."
"Addicted, maybe. Not sadistic." (Which, I realized later is the wrong word, should have said masochistic, but the assonance and trying to concentrate on the drill got to me. Although I'm not sadistic either.)
[To my partner]"Don't believe her!"

Feelin Like An Idiot

I leave on this audition tour tomorrow late morning. A normal, sane, sensible person would be all packed and have her apartment clean so that the person checking on her kitty will not be horrified to walk into the room. I'm definitely not normal, my sanity has been questioned several times, but I'm usually fairly sensible. Two out of three ain't bad. I was planning on doing that tonight, once I got home from class. Tonight was an unexpected triple class, though, plus staying a little longer talking with Sir and Mr. R, and I'm freakin' tired. So now I'm pondering if I want to do it all tonight like I should or crash now and get up early. Or maybe I'll clean tonight and pack in the morning. Something like that.

On the plus side, I'm on the last third of the first Boatneck Bluebell sleeve. I'm not going to take it, though. I'm going to take the second Wendelin sock, Tumbling Blocks, and the Drop Stitch scarf. I'll try to get progress pics up soon. I'm going to need something to do while I'm gone - the hotel has wifi, and a gym, pool, and spa, but even I can only work out so much...

The Road to Black Belt behind the cut.

So I talked to Mrs. S, Mr. R, and Sir tonight about what I'll be doing the next several testing cycles. The only recommended belt the adults do is first dan recommended, so I have three belts left. I'll do Choong Jung 2 (which I started learning tonight) for my red belt, In Wha 2 (the blue belt form that I skipped) for my first dan recommended, then do Choong Jung 2 again and a random color belt form for first dan decided. Apparently, the random form is usually either Songham 1, 2, or 3, but Mr. R warned me that since I'm in instructor class and by that point in time we'll have gone through all the color belt forms in class, it could be anything from Songham 1 clear through Choong Jung 1 (the brown belt form I just tested on). And I may or may not get warned in advance which one it will be. Of course, all sparring, breaking, and conditioning tests also apply. My next break will be a reverse side kick, which is awesome, not sure what the recommended belt break will be, and then Sir wants me to do a round kick and reverse side kick combo for my black belt breaks. Honestly, it doesn't sound like its going to be too bad. Just a LOT of poomsae work and memorization and cleaning and re-memorization and re-cleaning! For this weekend while I'm gone, I'm supposed to work on hook kicks (regular, reverse, and spin), memorizing what I learned tonight of Choong Jung 2, and working on some of the color belt forms and one-steps.
The most encouraging and most nerve-wracking comment I got tonight was from Mr. R. "Just remember, your black belt is [Sir]'s before it's yours, and he has it already. Oh yeah, it's here, embroidered with your name and everything already. He's just waiting for you to earn it."

Three Classes = Three Beers, right?

Testing and tkd stuff behind the cut. No pics, though, sadly. Camera battery died on me.

The FIGHT guys and I have taken to hanging out for a while after class, and on Thursday, Sir was teasing me about my schedule for the next day. I told him I was thinking about ducking out of kickboxing to make sure I would be good for sparring, but it would depend on how hard he worked me during testing. He replied with "Hmm, good point. Skip kickboxing!" which was not exactly the most comforting thing I've ever heard.

Yesterday was indeed testing, then kickboxing, then sparring, all back-to-back. (Mrs. S threatened to have me test after sparring, which would have been insane!) It was HARD. I tested with one other kid, and Sir worked us. Form demonstration, full contact sparring against each other, board break (got it on my second try, sigh), self-defense, no contact sparring against Sir, then four conditioning drills. I offered to be a cheerleader for kickboxing class after that, but Mrs. S would have none of it. (She's asked me to teach again next month when she goes to Vegas to test during Spring Nationals.) Sparring was insane; the kids were all hopped up about testing the next day and not really paying a lot of attention, and I was actually starting to get tired by that point for some strange reason. My ankle was pretty weak by the end of the day. Sir did brag about me a little, though - one of the new kickboxing ladies was teasing me about doing sparring on the same day, and he told her all the other classes I do when I can. I thought she was gonna fall over.

Afterwards, I helped Sir, Mrs. S, Ma'am, Mr. M, and Mr. R set up the dojahng for Saturday's testing (Baby S tried to help, too), and then we crashed at Klondike's for a while. While *I* think a salad, peanuts, three slices of pizza and a couple glasses of beer is more than enough, Sir and Mr. M threatened to attach a calorie meter on me to see how many calories I burn on a regular day with classes, and kept putting extra slices of pizza on my plate and refilling my beer glass (hence the post title). Mrs. S took Baby S home early, but the rest of us closed out the place.

The rest of the classes tested this morning. Although we had auditions today, I promised some of the kids I've gotten to know that I would try to come over on my lunch break to watch them. I didn't get to see any of the testing, but I did get to see them get their new belts, rescue Sasha (a lady from kickboxing class) from babysitting duty so she could go give her kids who were testing a hug (she had been watching Baby S during most of the testing, and he decided that the organic shake Aunt Katie was drinking for lunch was YUMMY!), and help clean up. I also got a lot of teasing because apparently I "look like a girl!" with non-sweaty makeup and non-workout clothes on. Smart alecks.

I do, however, have pics of a finished body on the Boatneck Bluebell!
I've got the next two days off work, plus Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and it would really be awesome to wear it during the SoCal audition tour I've gotten dragged into next week (Thursday through Tuesday). I love auditions, I really do, but the audition tour is NOT part of my job, I'm not getting paid any extra for it, and it's forcing me to miss four days of class AND a Super Bowl party. But they've decided that having an SM go out with them helps things stay organized (shocking), and it's Chrissy's tech weekend, so I'm the only experienced one left. I even offered to tech Othello for Chrissy, because she actually wants to go on the tour and hates tech, but they won't let us. But anyway, having a new sweater might help make it easier. So far, the only change I'd make is to do more rows between the bust and the waist ribbing to make the bodice just a little longer.

I'm going to have to talk to Sir about what to work on while I'm gone, though. In fact, I need to talk to him about what the rest of the road to black belt in general is going to look like. All I really know is that there are probably four more belts (red recommended - this one may or may not be required, red decided, first dan/degree recommended - a 1/2 red, 1/2 black belt, and first dan/degree decided - the actual black belt), but I've heard various conflicting things about time spans and requirements so I want to get that figured out so I have a clear mental path. I am thinking maybe this time next year I will get it!

Another FO!

Okay, so not exactly earth-shattering, but these finally got finished!

(playing with the timing feature on my camera. It didn't work out so well.)
(Forgive the sweatshirt. It's my "I'm hanging out at home/wear when I'm sick/need to just curl up in" sweatshirt. I stole it fair and square, and yes, it will be old enough to drive in June!) The second pic shows the colors better, but it's not a very good pic of the gloves. Anyway, they're Broad Street Mittens (sans the mitten flaps, I just don't like them) in STR Mediumweight, Seal Rock colorway. Anyway, I had these almost finished until my KP needle broke. I got a replacement this past Monday when I met up with Sam at knitting and got my part of the KnitPicks order. I finally got around to finishing them today. I have more than half of the skein leftover, so I might make a matching tam to wear in Solvang for the summer.

I've also been working more on this:

the start of the Boatneck Bluebell sweater. I took the pic around halftime of the first game today and worked on it for the rest of the games (until I got so excited by the end of the Giants/Packers game that I had to put knitting down for fear of accidentally stabbing myself). I'm almost halfway through the 27 rows of 2x2 rib now. It's going pretty well, if I do say so myself. I may go stark raving mad from the ribbing, though.

Other than that, my nose still hurts, but at least the Super Bowl will not be an eyesore. It's hard to complain about watching a game pitting Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady. (But Eli Manning is still cuter, Mom! Even if Tom Brady did cut his hair!)

Lessons Learned

Kickboxing went great. I got there pretty early and hung out with Mr. R for a while before class. My legs were too tired from last night to work on my jump kick, though. We only had about five ladies for class tonight, which is kind of a small group, but it was fun.

Sparring was good, too, except for Miss F doing a decent attempt at breaking my nose with a round kick. Luckily, she just caught my upper lip/lower nose instead of smashing the whole thing. Of course, it started bleeding, though, which got all the kids' attention. My immediate thought, sadly, was "I have an excuse to get out of class now," as the initial blow did a pretty good job of dropping me to my knees. My second thought was, "These kids are not going to see me quit because of a bloody nose. I have to get back out there." Most of them have seen me in kickboxing and just saw me teach kickboxing. They see me in sparring every week and some of them are scared of sparring. They're not going to learn from me that a bloody nose is something to be scared of. They are going to see that you can take a hit, clean yourself up, and go back to the fight. Even if I never teach another class of any kind, I am not going to teach anyone fear.

I am not too proud, however, to put ice on it and take some pain relievers when I get home ;) It's not broken, but it does hurt!

Success and Failure

Thank you everyone for your kind words on the afghan! (Mom, it's NOT for you! He needs the decor more than you do - you'll just have to visit him AND the afghan! =) ) Now I have to figure out what to do with the leftover yarn from it.

The rest of the knitting is kind of in various states. Most of my projects are mindless, and I'm so close on some of my projects. The fingerless gloves are almost done - I just need to pick up the stitches and knit the thumb. Ten rounds left, and yet it sits in its bag. I've been working more on MS3, the Drop Stitch Scarf, and another Chunky Diagonal Afghan that I started over the summer. I finished the raglan increases for my size for the Boatneck Bluebell sweater, but I don't think the yoke is long enough. I might have to do a few more. It's on scrap yarn right now from trying it on.

I once again failed to break my board with the jump side kick tonight. Argh! It's mostly a mental block. I KNOW it's a mental block. But it's still a problem. I'm going to go in early tomorrow and see if I can sweettalk Mr. R into helping me with it before I teach (gulp!) kickboxing. Despite my apparently woeful board breaking ability, Sir had me start working with double bahng mahng ees last night in instructor training. It was obviously review for the rest of the class, but the first time I'd done any weaponwork for a tkd class. ("Um, Sir, I've never done these." "I know. You're starting now." He says it's in case someone has to take a class on short notice, which makes sense, but doesn't make me feel any more comfortable.) I like the bahng mahng ees, a lot more than I thought I would. We just did basic warmups and drills with them, though. I'm not looking forward to the ssahng jeol bahngs, though.

Morgan, Zach's brother, taught FIGHT tonight, and it was a lot of fun. We did knife sparring, a knife defense, and a gun defense. Quote of the night (after me disarming Shane - a newer guy): "Dude, she won. You're dead." It's always fun to be the only girl ;)

First FO of 2008

Rambling Rows is done! Well, it would have been done on my lazy Sunday, except I got this far:
and ran out of yarn. At 9:12p, twelve minutes after the local Michaels closed. Can we say, "Grrr!"? So I had to wait until yesterday to get the yarn and finish the knitting, then last night I finished weaving in the ends and washed it. I'm still not guaranteeing that I got all the cat hair off of it - Teddie is still madly in love with the thing - but it turned out a heck of a lot better than I thought it would.

Pattern specs:
Name: Ramblng Rows Afghan
Designer: Carol Anderson of Cottage Creations (can't find a direct link)
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick 10 skeins Fisherman, 6 skeins each of Navy, Claret, and Pine, and 5 skeins of Butterscotch.
Needles: US 17 (KnitPicks Options)
Finished size: I have no idea what the actual final measurements are - my tape measure is currently in the office from helping tape out a floor - but that's a queen-sized bed it's draped on in the finished photo, so I'm going to go with size Pretty Darn Big.
Notes: I did the baby blanket size stitch counts with the Thick & Quick and large needles, and it turned out smashingly huge. Perfect for a 6'5" guy (we're all petite flowers in my family - it's those delicate Scandinavian genes, you know). Picking up the stitches along the knitted edges was easy as pie, but picking up stitches along the cast-on edges didn't always work out so well and puckered sometimes. I tried a couple different COs when I started, and had the same problem with all of them. I'm not quite sure how to deal with it. I also decided not to put a border on it; I don't think it needs one.

Anyway, that's going to the post office tomorrow. Other than that, not a lot going so far this week, thank goodness. I did actually get to go to knitting Monday morning. If the world ends soon, it's because Kim and I actually were able to come to the same knitting morning! It was so nice to see everyone again! Work is back down to just regular office stuff and meetings, with possibly an audition tour in a few weeks, until Godspell starts rehearsal in March. We're still trying to figure out intern assignments, but that's really our only major conundrum right now.

I rolled my ankle again on that $%^@ jump side kick board break. Mrs. S and Ma'am taught class last night, and Mrs. S wouldn't let me try the break again, even though my ankle didn't hurt. She told me it wasn't worth it, and made me do the break with just a regular #3 side kick, which I can do in my sleep. The bruise on my palm heel from holding the boards for everyone else hurts more (bad enough that I couldn't do the medicine ball pushups in FIGHT tonight, which sucked). What hurts the most, actually, is that once again, I couldn't do the board break correctly. I did it Just Fine last week with Sir and Mr. R. This is SO frustrating! I didn't get a chance to talk to Sir about it tonight but I'm definitely going to try to talk to him tomorrow. I'm already going in early to talk to Mrs. S about kickboxing, since she's asked me to cover class on Friday for her.

So tomorrow is all meetings, paperwork, learning to teach, and most likely a lot of jump side kick drills. And I wouldn't want it any other way =)

Nothing Like Hitting the Ground Running...

This week in review:

Monday
Last blissful day of vacation. Finally succeed in completely cleaning the apartment and getting everything organized and put away. Two classes. Work on Rambling Rows, MS3, and the Dropped Lace Stitch Scarf kit that I finally broke down and cast on over the weekend. I'm simply in love with Mountain Colors Twizzle right now - it's sooo wonderful to work with!

Tuesday
PCPA starts back up. 8:15a meeting with Chrissy to decide how on earth we're going to handle the day. 9:00a company meeting and meet new interns. 10:00a-4:30p student auditions. 6:00p-11:00p callbacks. No class. No knitting.

Wednesday
11:00a-9:00p more callbacks. 9:00p-11:00p casting meeting. Find out I'm supposed to go to Long Beach with a recruiting tour on Saturday. No class (and it was supposed to be a triple day for me =( ). No knitting.

Thursday
Get up early for a 10:00a meeting that gets cancelled just as I get ready to walk out the door. 12:00p help Chrissy teach her ASMs how to set up a rehearsal room in time for Othello's first rehearsal. Attend design presentations. General office work, meetings, and more teaching of non-Othello interns. Two classes, get teased by Mr. R for having such a light week, and curse Zach to hell and back during Haganah for making us do three sets of thirty medicine ball tricep dips. (Yes, that would be NINETY dips. And I don't even want to count how many pushups I did that night between tkd and FIGHT. Despite this torture, he and Mr. R did a great job covering for Sir, who was out of town for a FIGHT conference in Florida. And in all fairness, Zach did give me the choice between the 12-lb ball and the 10-lb ball and it was my stubbornness that had me going for the heavier one.), then back to PCPA to help Chrissy's ASMs finish taping out their second rehearsal room until 11:30p or so. Get asked to come to Outreach rehearsal in the morning again. No knitting.

Friday
Get up early again for a 9:00a Outreach rehearsal. Wake up to discover my eyes are puffy, nose is stopped up, sinuses just plain hurt, and the only allergy meds I have left in my medicine cabinet will knock me out within about thirty minutes of taking them. Allergies suck. This is going to be a perfect day. 9:00a-12:00p Outreach rehearsal (very interesting). 1:00p-5:30p more office work, meetings, prepping for the recruiting tour, and more teaching of interns. Two classes: kickboxing and sparring back to back. Curse Zach again for the Thursday night tricep dips during our kickboxing dips and curse Mrs. S for a really nasty squat/side kick drill at the end of sparring class. (I swear, my shoulders and legs have not burned like that in a LONG time!) Am dragging by the end but revive a bit over pizza and beer with Ma'am, Mrs. S and baby, Knitting TKD Grandma, her grandson, and Ma'am's son. (Ma'am's son, who did FIGHT with me, shipped out last night for the Coast Guard. Please keep her son and her daughter, who is in the Navy, in your thoughts and prayers, please! And send peaceful thoughts Ma'am's way, as well!) Small crowd, and yet we still managed to be one of the last groups in the place. Get home, pack for recruiting tour and crash around 10:00p. (Which tells you how worn out I was, between work, allergies, and class!) No knitting.

Saturday
Wake up at 3:30a (3:30a is usually a "I REALLY should start thinking about going to bed" time for me!) to get ready for recruiting tour. Meet the other three tech faculty members (oh, btw, I'm now faculty for some reason) at CBC at 5:00a and leave for Long Beach. Get to Long Beach around 9:00a and start to have some inkling about how small the theater world really is. I've only been working professionally for five years now, yet I knew, at least by reputation if not by actually having worked with, a decent number of other recruiters/employers/representatives there, and...they knew me! I was asked to sit on a question-and-answer panel with people like the president of the regional USITT chapter, the dean of CalArts, a Disney representative, and a couple noteworthy designers. In other words, people who have been doing their stuff and teaching their stuff for years and have made their marks in the field. Immediately after the panel session, we went into interviews and portfolio reviews. It was a little intimidating, actually, but apparently I didn't embarrass PCPA too much. I felt a little bit like a fraud, though. I mean, these students are asking me questions and taking notes of my answers like I actually know what I'm talking about and my advice and opinions are actually valuable to them! I wanted to shout "I'm only twenty six! I never went to grad school! I'm still learning!" several times that day. What if one of them actually listened to me?? It was a bit surreal. We got done a lot earlier than we had expected, though, so instead of spending the night in Long Beach, we decided to head home and blew the hotel money on a fantastic dinner at the Brewery instead. (And yes, Mom, we will have to go there next time you guys come out!) Got home around 7:30p, crashed on the couch, and woke up around 10:30p - just in time to go to bed. No knitting, despite the fact that I did bring the start of the second Wendelin sock to work on during the drive. I just couldn't get to my bag while in the van!

Sunday
Finally, finally get to sleep in, and of course, wake up at 8:00a instead. Lazing around in pjs and watching the Colts/Chargers game (ETA: watched, past tense, the Chargers just won) until I have to get dressed to run some office errands and go to snag one of the rehearsal rooms to do some form work. I have one more rectangle and one more large square to do on the afghan, and I'd love to get that done tonight. I'm reconsidering putting a border on it - once it's spread out, it looks pretty good without one. Still having to take allergy meds, so lacework may not be the best option right now. Possibly more sleeping, too, mostly because of the meds, so I'm not looking to be particularly productive today. Thank goodness!

Cotton...Wool...Kitty?

I actually did get all my yarn sorted and stored yesterday. I bought three of those under-the-bed-style storage containers, and put worsted weight acrylics in one, bulky weight acrylics in another, and then dk/sport/worsted weight cottons and wools in the third. I didn't get a chance to cover them before I had to leave for class, and when I got home, this is what I found:

I didn't realize I had to store kitty fiber in there, too! And note that he even shoved some of the yarns almost out of the container to make room! The lazy bum didn't even bother to get up when I got home, although he did open one sleepy eye and yawn in my general direction. I guess he was so comfy, nestled in those wools, that he couldn't deign to acknowledge me more than that. The only real problem with the storage system, other than kicking cats out of it, is that I actually got them to fit under the futon in my living room. This way, all my yarn would be together in the same room, and be handy but still fairly discrete. A brilliant idea, until I realized that this futon (and I REALLY need a new one, or better yet, a sofa or a pair of comfy chairs) is so broken and bent that the containers don't fit underneath it. I guess they'll have to go under my bed for the time being. The containers that the dk-bulky weights outgrew now house my sock yarns and WIP bags.
(The sock yarn container is under the WIP container.) The laceweights are still in the top drawer of my Rubbermaid stackable, with cross-stitch stuff in the middle and all my needles in the bottom. We'll see how long this actually keeps things organized.

And I finally got the pic to Kiz, so I feel safe in posting it here now. I do present, The Most Awesome T-Shirt:

And off topic, but exactly one year ago today, I went to my first taekwondo class. I could go on for a while about all the physical, mental, and emotional benefits I've gotten from it, but to spare you the boredom and at the risk of sounding like an old Nike commercial, all I'll say is that working up the nerve to Just Do It was one of the best things I've ever done. Thank you so much to all of my instructors and classmates for teaching, encouraging, and supporting me through the year, and thank you to you all for your support and encouragement as well!

Mr. R teased me the other night, "Sometimes you come in all dolled up [when I come straight from work and have to change at the studio], and you look out of place. But at the end of the night, you're one of us!"

Productive Unproductivity

Sooo...

There were supposed to be lots of pretty pictures of new yarn, new shirts (I promised Kiz a pic of the shirt he got me for Christmas), properly stored and put away yarn, and maybe, possibly, a FO (all I have left on the Broad Street mittens is the thumb on the second one!). But a combination of KR, Ravelry, getting caught up on all of y'alls' blogs, paying bills (and realizing I'm broke ALREADY, stupid travelling), running errands, trying to clean the place up at least a little, and class tonight, that didn't happen. Pretend there are pretty pics up! Hopefully, there will be tomorrow!

That is, assuming I can walk or move tomorrow, since I did, um, three classes tonight after having almost two weeks off. I totally forgot that instructor class was tonight since it was the first night of classes for the week. Kickboxing, tkd, and instructor class. Oy! Now, this is actually what I am planning to normally do on Monday nights, but I really wasn't mentally prepared for it quite yet. Luckily, I just got drilled on Songham 1, 2, & 3 forms, and there was a black belt who also just recently started, so we could work together for a little bit. Tomorrow is tkd and FIGHT, Friday is kickboxing and sparring (with lots of pizza and some beer afterwards!). I do have some kind of cool bruises on the back of my hands from the backfist/knifehand/spinning backfist combinations we did in tkd tonight, though.

Now for some sleeping, since, as Mr. R was teasing me, Round Three just about did me in tonight!