Inferior Imitator

ep·i·gone n. A second-rate imitator or follower, especially of an artist or a philosopher.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

In TKD practice, we pretty much have a set routine. We start out warming up in one room, while the kids filter out of the main room. This room we start out in has wooden floors, so it's a little less foot-friendly than the main room, which has some pretty nice mats. If you haven't worked up callouses on your feet, or the callouses have worn away, the wooden floor is pretty rough on the feet.

I like to keep my feet nice (who doesn't?), and I generally have a tough time with working out on the wooden floor when I don't wear my martial arts shoes (which are kinda like wrestling shoes, with soft soles). I didn't bring my bag to class on Monday, which has my shoes in it, so I warmed up on the wooden floor without shoes. So with all the kicks we were doing, and all the pivoting, which basically grinds your feet against the floor), I ended up with blood blisters on my big toes.

Back in the main room, we started working on forms, since testing is next week (1). Halfway through Palgwe Two, I must have burst one, because when the form was done, there was blood everywhere. We had to stop class to get me bandaged up and clean up the blood. And since Palgwe Two involves kicks, there was blood up the wall, which is still there because we couldn't reach that high. It was gross, but also kinda funny.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Oh dear. What a long time away. This is the last day of my vacation, and boy, I do feel much better! Highlights:

1) Not being at work!

2) GSP (my pretend boyfriend, see below) beating Matt Hughes for the title

3) Spending two days with my brother, watching Buffy. We're halfway through season seven now. It really is much better watching it all the way through without a week in between.

4) Almost finishing Calvin's flame blanket. I've about four inches to go at the top, and then the edging, and then I'll be done. I'll be sure to post a picture. Next project will be something for the generic family gift exchange. I picked up some of Yarnbee's new Soft Delight yarn, and I think it will make for a cute hat and scarf set.

5) Seeing Emily. They were in Iowa for about a day before taking off for Disneyworld for Thanksgiving. They'll be back this week and spending some more time here before heading back to Alaska.

6) Two Thanksgivings! I got a call at about 11:45 on Tuesday from Em: "Where are you?" "In Iowa City." "Well, dinner's ready." "Go ahead and eat without me." "Mom says no, we'll wait." When I get there half an hour later, there's Thanksgiving dinner on the table. Seems someone had forgotten to tell me we were going to celebrate while Matt and Em where there, and since Dad had to work on Thursday. I reminded them all of the year they forgot to tell me where Thanksgiving was.

7) Playing with Calvin and Malea during Malea's birthday party (4!) Friday. There was hide and seek, and playing horsie with Malea while chasing Calvin in circles around the kitchen island. That boy sure does love to be chased, but my arms were so sore the next day from holding Malea on my back.

8) Running into high school classmate Mary and her family at Pizza Hut. We sat down next to them, and we all ended up talking to them almost as much as we did within our own party.

9) Somewhat bittersweet, but: picking out some of Grandma's glassware to take home. They haven't hardly even started settling her estate, and since Aunt Carol is still living in her house as she always did, there's no pressure to get the house cleaned out, either. They've started trying to give away some of her things, starting with the breakables. She had some really great things, and it was hard trying to decide on what I would like and what would make me remember her. I picked out a glass lemonade pitcher and bowl, a Bavarian plate, a glass cream and sugar set shaped like pears, a small crystal decantur and a green glass goblet. They were also going through pictures, dividing those up into ones that people could just take and those that we needed to get copied. There was one I'd never even seen before, taken of my dad when he was in Vietnam. I'd like to have that.

10) Hanging out with the family. I don't know how I lucked out having such a great group of people to be related to. More to come this week! Em and Matt will be back, and I volunteered to be a chaperone for Calvin's field trip on Friday to see Narnia at the Galvin Fine Arts Center in the Quad Cities.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

I had a little altercation this morning with some fellow fans. Doug and I were standing at the end of my driveway, talking, and all of a sudden a beer can lands at my feet. I look up at a truck that's waiting on the street to get into the lot at the end of the street. So I yell at him, "There's a trash can right there!" )And it really was right there, Doug's set up trash cans all up and down the street in hopes our neighborhood will be less trashed after football games.) "Pick that up!" He just looks at me with this shit-eating grin and doesn't do anything. So I march up, pick up the can and throw it back into his open window. I think I hit him or something, because the back door opens up and this blonde starts yelling at me, calling me a bitch. I reply, "I am. What are you going to do about it?" She's yelling at me all the way down the street, and I'm just like, "Sue me."

On my way home from the game, my neighbor Erika, the one who just had the baby waves me over, and proceeds to tell me about this band of hooligans (the people from earlier - who are like in their forties, at least, so you'd think they'd be, you know, adults - but what do I know, I retaliated too) who tried to trash my house by throwing beer and Big Ass Turkey Legs at my front door. This pisses Erika off, so she follows them, yelling at them, and they're yelling back, calling her a bitch, too, and saying they'll beat her down and stuff, so when they get to the lot at the end of the street, Erika gets the attention of the people who run the lot, who have no patience for surly drunks, and gets them thrown out. So they got kicked out of town. I like a happy ending.

And by the way, these little hand warmer things are about the best thing since sliced bread.

Friday, November 10, 2006

So weird! We're having a severe thunderstorm, and I can hear the thunder outside. In November! Supposedly, it's going to turn into sleet and snow later this afternoon. Yesterday it was sunny and 75. That saying really is true: "If you don't like the weather in Iowa, wait an hour." Update: Hail!

I'm going to have to break down and find myself a masseuse. Anymore, if I'm not sore for one thing, it's another, and I'm tired of being all tied up in knots. My chiro has one that works out of their office, but I'm a little wary, since I knew her from TKD. That's would be too weird for me, I think. Update: Just got an email reminding me that there's a ribbon cutting today for Peaceful Nature Massage. Maybe I can win the door prize there, too.

I'm am absolutely in love with this coffee-maker. What with fresh ground coffee and pretty much figuring out the steamer (and learning half and half doesn't work so well - shoot!), I'm well on my way to re-addicting myself to caffeine. Which kinda sucks, I can get the addiction, but not the staying-awake benefits. No update here, unless I can scrape together enough change to go downstairs and get something. $3.60 should do it, but I should wait until I'm hungry again.

Otherwise, same ol' same ol'. I'm living for vacation now!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Yes. Turns out I somehow disabled the wireless. I went back to my orignial set up instructions (never throw anything away!), and refollowed the instructions, and I at least got Explorer to work. Firefox doesn't work, and some scripts on some websites don't work, so I couldn't resize any pictures in Photobucket and I couldn't upload to Kodak. So you just get a picture of me:

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The holsters left paint everywhere. If I ever use the costume again, there will definitely be different holsters. Maybe I'll have time to make some. We had a good time, lots of food, drink, and watching of the Hellboy Animated Movie.

I just had one trick or treater, but Jamie was extra cute, so that made up for it. He was an elephant, but he didn't like the hat, so he was basically wearing a gray jumpsuit. Doug was indignant about the number of trick or treaters, "Next year we're doing something about this!" Life will never be dull with a neighbor like Doug.

Friday, November 03, 2006

I still haven't even turned on my home computer to try and fix my internet. Jenn's comment helped, though. I hooked up my laptop directly to my modem, and it worked fine, so it's definitely the wireless.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for pictures of me, I'm going to introduce you to my new Pretend Boyfriend:

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

This is Georges St. Pierre. I have become a rather big fan of the UFC this year, and GSP has completely won me over. And this picture doesn't even show his backside. :) Add his smile (not pictured) to his completely adorable French Canadian accent, and I squee every time he's on screen.

I do enjoy watching the fighting, though. Might be an extension of having martial arts training: I enjoy discussing strategy and who's likely to win matchups. We've got a group that goes in together to buy the PPV fights, and we gather religously to watch the TUF series on SpikeTV. Last night was the last night of the regular series, with the finale being next Saturday night. "What are we going to do next week?!" we said. We might have to go back to the Vine. I sure do miss their wings.