BRRR!

We woke up this morning to probably the coldest morning yet this year--27' and a thick layer of frost on the ground. And of all days for Cody to leave his coat at school! I let him borrow mine, but first I told him he had to go without because it would be a good lesson in responsibility.

Speaking of cold, this has got to be one of the funniest commercials I've ever seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=ahjobwNhTOA

Last night in karate, sensei finally laid down some rules. First rule is throw you own trash away. The sensei shouldn't be cleaning up after his students. Actually, in the adult class, there is only one student who leaves his trash everywhere. But in the kid's classes there are some who never pick up after themselves. The second rule, one that should have been in place long ago, is that no one is to teach unless sensei specifically appoints him to. I had spoken to sensei privately and told him what was going on. Sensei's rule had always been that no one under brown belt could teach anyway, except under sensei's supervision. That was before these two troublemaking students joined. They don't seem to think the rules apply to them, even though they've been told. As soon as sensei turns his back, they'll be trying to teach again, because they want the attention.

Anyway, I learned a little more of kusanku kata, and sensei went over the last part of Agena no sai with me. It is so frustrating that the higher in rank I get, the less sensei seems to want to teach me. It's like once you make brown belt, your training just stops. It's not just me that feels that way, too. Mr T and James have both agreed with me on that. They are the only two higher ranks than I am in the dojo. I have to practically BEG sensei to teach me anything. I had to come home and watched the most recent shodan grading on my VCR to finally get the sai kata. Sensei would go over it like twice, then sit down, whether I had it or not. Well, I learned the moves, now I just have to learn to control the sais better.

I haven't done much of anything today. I finished cleaning up Cody's bathroom, did two loads of laundry, and knitted a little on a baby afghan I started years ago. Well, I started over not too long ago. I had started on it, but didn't have the right size needles. I thought I'd just adjust my stitch count so as to get the right size, but after doing only about 4 inches, I realized the afghan would be stiff as a board. So I ripped it out, bought the correct size needles and started over. I haven't done any 5 minute sketches in a couple of days because I'm trying to get my snow scene finished. It is almost done, I'm just tweaking the details.