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8 days a week
Mar. 19th, 2007 01:26 amToday I rode Stjarni, aka Golden Lord Fuzzy, aka Ponykins. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lyonesse ran away to join see the circus, and my horse just had his teeth floated, like this morning, so she suggested I ride him. Pushed me on him, really.
He shed approximately enough to knit both of the new barn kittens (who haven't arrived yet). And it's not even shedding season yet. Shylo (may he rest in peace) used to be a champion shedder, but Golden Lord Fuzzy looks to be a contender.
We spent a while walking around the ring, breaking the ice. It was abundantly clear that no one had been riding in the previous 48 hours (since the snow began).
I don't get the trot/tolt thing. I asked for each one exactly as Lyo instructed, and he moved, but I'm still not sure a) if I got the right gait, and b) how to tell the difference. But we had fun playing in the snow.
Yesterday morning, while we were shoveling the driveway (by hand, because the snowblower clogs up instantly with that heavy wet crap), Kylie took it upon herself to make muffins. We came in to find her portioning the batter into the muffin tin, and trying to figure out the oven controls. And this is a recipe that involves creaming the butter and sugar together, then alternately mixing in the dry and wet ingredients, in about six separate additions. I can't tell you how proud I am of her.
Friday I received my hakama in the mail. Now I have to figure out exactly how to put it on, move in it without tripping, and fold it in the approved kokikai way. Woot!
Thursday I took Kylie and her friend Izzy climbing at the rock gym, and signed K up for Youth Clinic, starting next week. Then took the kids home, fed them quickly, and rushed them back to school for Bring A Parent To School Night. Really, that's what it's called. It's a chance to see what the kids are working on, how it gets logged, get a chance to talk to the teachers, etc. A chance conversation with a teacher about some nautical maps led to my saying that the only US map we have at home is a water resource regions map, with no roads and very few cities; now they want to borrow it for an upcoming unit on rivers and oceans.
Wednesdaylyonesse and wereterrier went Beach Riding. I had work that I couldn't really put off, and I've been once already this season (December maybe). But glad they got to go.
I went to aikido, and received my black belt. Now I can unequivocally say that I have a Black Belt in Aikido, because now I have this belt, and it's black...
Tuesday, I don't remember, stuff happened.
Monday, I'm the world's newest black belt, and I don't even have the belt or the hakama, and I'm asked to lead class, because our regular Monday instructor has family obligations of some sort. So there are 5 "students" there, 3 of whom rank me - our 4th dan senior instructor, a 2nd dan, and someone who got 1st dan two years ago. I taught a number of techniques we practiced at camp, or techniques I'd used in testing at camp. The one time I invited commentary from our senior instructor, he showed how Sensei was doing it these days, and all I could think of to say was "Well, now we have a number of options; please practice in pairs."
Sunday afternoon,iabervon and I tested for black belt at aikido Winter Camp. All brown and black belt testing is done at camp, under the personal supervision of Shuji Maruyama Sensei, but history has shown that he likes to do most of the black belt testing on Sunday. There was some shodan testing on Saturday, but it was some of the most uniformly flaccid testing I've seen in a while; I mean, not one of the six in that group was equal to the brown belt tests that preceded them.
iabervon posted extensively about testing here. For me, it's not exactly that it was a big blur - I was very focused at the moment, but all the mental rehearsal, all the techniques I'd planned to do but hadn't practiced endlessly, went out the window. The technique part of testing is attack after attack, and you're expected to do a different technique for each attack, cleanly and calmly. I did a lot of sankyo and kotegaeshi, which is funny because I remember my last two tests being mostly about the ikkyo.
I didn't do many unusual or flashy techniques, but the one that came off cleanly was the ushiro katatori (shoulder grab from behind) that we call the "airplane technique" - lead forward in a large circle, duck back with your head and arm between your uke's arms, take the slack out, and throw him sayo-undo. Okay, that didn't make any sense, but it's fun to do.
The other one that didn't come off so well was intended to be a tsuki leg-lift. Having run up to uke on other people's tests, I can say that uke will generally follow whatever technique you're doing without undue resistance, but you have to be clear in your technique - you have to put them where you want them to be. And I was over-excited and under-precise. My bad, that one didn't work, no time to think about it, move on to the next one.
For knife techniques, the only notable thing I did was for ushiro kubishime (choke from behind, this time with the knife at your throat). The usual technique for this would give the attacker too much opportunity to slit your throat, so I opted for the sankyo variation, which in this case involves driving the knife right back into the attacker's stomach.
Freestyle against 5 attackers went about as well as could be expected, considering that we never practice this in the dojo. It's all about throwing, avoiding, lining up the attackers, and doing this one peculiar big throw when you get 3 or more hanging onto you. It's not very Jackie Chan at all. Sensei says it tests your heart.
Usually we go to camp in a group, at least 3 oflyonesse, iabervon, loravarnion, and me. This time it was just the two of us (and we probably wouldn't have gone either if we weren't testing). We took my car, which meant I did all the driving (about 300 miles each way, plus to-ing and fro-ing down there), because iabervon doesn't drive stick.
Neither of us are big talkers, so most of the trip was filled with radio or mp3. The whole NYC metro area, about two hours from about Newark to New Haven, was taken up with a single Indian rag - something I might find insanely monotonous under other circumstances (say during the drive down, when we hit the same area during Friday rush hour), but which I found meditative and soothing at 9pm on a Sunday.
We had our big celebratory sushi dinner (followed by homemade ice cream next door) the night before testing. The celebratory meal after testing was at the Montvale rest stop on the Garden State Parkway - mmm, Burger King.
After enlightenment, the laundry. Two gi are all that will fit in my washer, so I picked the least smelly one for teaching class the next day.
That's not much of a wrap-up, but it's late.
lyonesse ran away to He shed approximately enough to knit both of the new barn kittens (who haven't arrived yet). And it's not even shedding season yet. Shylo (may he rest in peace) used to be a champion shedder, but Golden Lord Fuzzy looks to be a contender.
We spent a while walking around the ring, breaking the ice. It was abundantly clear that no one had been riding in the previous 48 hours (since the snow began).
I don't get the trot/tolt thing. I asked for each one exactly as Lyo instructed, and he moved, but I'm still not sure a) if I got the right gait, and b) how to tell the difference. But we had fun playing in the snow.
Yesterday morning, while we were shoveling the driveway (by hand, because the snowblower clogs up instantly with that heavy wet crap), Kylie took it upon herself to make muffins. We came in to find her portioning the batter into the muffin tin, and trying to figure out the oven controls. And this is a recipe that involves creaming the butter and sugar together, then alternately mixing in the dry and wet ingredients, in about six separate additions. I can't tell you how proud I am of her.
Friday I received my hakama in the mail. Now I have to figure out exactly how to put it on, move in it without tripping, and fold it in the approved kokikai way. Woot!
Thursday I took Kylie and her friend Izzy climbing at the rock gym, and signed K up for Youth Clinic, starting next week. Then took the kids home, fed them quickly, and rushed them back to school for Bring A Parent To School Night. Really, that's what it's called. It's a chance to see what the kids are working on, how it gets logged, get a chance to talk to the teachers, etc. A chance conversation with a teacher about some nautical maps led to my saying that the only US map we have at home is a water resource regions map, with no roads and very few cities; now they want to borrow it for an upcoming unit on rivers and oceans.
Wednesday
lyonesse and wereterrier went Beach Riding. I had work that I couldn't really put off, and I've been once already this season (December maybe). But glad they got to go.I went to aikido, and received my black belt. Now I can unequivocally say that I have a Black Belt in Aikido, because now I have this belt, and it's black...
Tuesday, I don't remember, stuff happened.
Monday, I'm the world's newest black belt, and I don't even have the belt or the hakama, and I'm asked to lead class, because our regular Monday instructor has family obligations of some sort. So there are 5 "students" there, 3 of whom rank me - our 4th dan senior instructor, a 2nd dan, and someone who got 1st dan two years ago. I taught a number of techniques we practiced at camp, or techniques I'd used in testing at camp. The one time I invited commentary from our senior instructor, he showed how Sensei was doing it these days, and all I could think of to say was "Well, now we have a number of options; please practice in pairs."
Sunday afternoon,
iabervon and I tested for black belt at aikido Winter Camp. All brown and black belt testing is done at camp, under the personal supervision of Shuji Maruyama Sensei, but history has shown that he likes to do most of the black belt testing on Sunday. There was some shodan testing on Saturday, but it was some of the most uniformly flaccid testing I've seen in a while; I mean, not one of the six in that group was equal to the brown belt tests that preceded them.iabervon posted extensively about testing here. For me, it's not exactly that it was a big blur - I was very focused at the moment, but all the mental rehearsal, all the techniques I'd planned to do but hadn't practiced endlessly, went out the window. The technique part of testing is attack after attack, and you're expected to do a different technique for each attack, cleanly and calmly. I did a lot of sankyo and kotegaeshi, which is funny because I remember my last two tests being mostly about the ikkyo.I didn't do many unusual or flashy techniques, but the one that came off cleanly was the ushiro katatori (shoulder grab from behind) that we call the "airplane technique" - lead forward in a large circle, duck back with your head and arm between your uke's arms, take the slack out, and throw him sayo-undo. Okay, that didn't make any sense, but it's fun to do.
The other one that didn't come off so well was intended to be a tsuki leg-lift. Having run up to uke on other people's tests, I can say that uke will generally follow whatever technique you're doing without undue resistance, but you have to be clear in your technique - you have to put them where you want them to be. And I was over-excited and under-precise. My bad, that one didn't work, no time to think about it, move on to the next one.
For knife techniques, the only notable thing I did was for ushiro kubishime (choke from behind, this time with the knife at your throat). The usual technique for this would give the attacker too much opportunity to slit your throat, so I opted for the sankyo variation, which in this case involves driving the knife right back into the attacker's stomach.
Freestyle against 5 attackers went about as well as could be expected, considering that we never practice this in the dojo. It's all about throwing, avoiding, lining up the attackers, and doing this one peculiar big throw when you get 3 or more hanging onto you. It's not very Jackie Chan at all. Sensei says it tests your heart.
Usually we go to camp in a group, at least 3 of
lyonesse, iabervon, loravarnion, and me. This time it was just the two of us (and we probably wouldn't have gone either if we weren't testing). We took my car, which meant I did all the driving (about 300 miles each way, plus to-ing and fro-ing down there), because iabervon doesn't drive stick.Neither of us are big talkers, so most of the trip was filled with radio or mp3. The whole NYC metro area, about two hours from about Newark to New Haven, was taken up with a single Indian rag - something I might find insanely monotonous under other circumstances (say during the drive down, when we hit the same area during Friday rush hour), but which I found meditative and soothing at 9pm on a Sunday.
We had our big celebratory sushi dinner (followed by homemade ice cream next door) the night before testing. The celebratory meal after testing was at the Montvale rest stop on the Garden State Parkway - mmm, Burger King.
After enlightenment, the laundry. Two gi are all that will fit in my washer, so I picked the least smelly one for teaching class the next day.
That's not much of a wrap-up, but it's late.
