Bored?

A very wise friend once said:

It's a funny thing about boredom. You know the way to get un-bored is to get up and do something, yet being bored makes you not want to do anything. The more bored you are, the less you want to do stuff.

Yes, I was getting bored watching TV this afternoon. I was actually watching movies on DVD since the only thing on regular TV was golf, basketball, and infomercials. But I was getting bored anyway, and I remembered what my friend had said. So I got up and cleaned house a bit. I cleaned up my kitchen, vacuumed, and did laundry. When I got done, not only was I less bored, but I had a cleaner house to show for it.

Speaking of laundry, the allergist told me that I needed to wash all my bedding at least once a week. I did that yesterday and it took all day long. Literally. I put the first load in at 7:30 AM and got the last load out of the dryer at 8:00 PM. The problem is my el cheapo dryer. It doesn't have a high heat setting, so I have to dry everything for two or three cycles to get it done.

I also put my allergy pad on my bed yesterday. I'm supposed to have one on my mattress and one on my box spring, but one of them is going to have to wait. Those dumb things cost nearly $40 each. I was kind of dreading sleeping on it, since I had to sleep on one when I was a kid. It was just a vinyl bag that zipped up around my mattress. Nothing but a thin cotton sheet between me and the vinyl. I hated it. It crackled every time I moved. It reflected my body heat back on to me, so that I spent the entire night sweating on my bottom side while my top side froze. Then, of course, the sweat made my sheets all wet...

Needless to say, I did not have good memories of allergy pads. But I must say, they have improved a lot in the last 30 some-odd years. I couldn't even tell I had one on the bed last night.


The first prayer shawl is coming along just fine. I'm about halfway through with it. I'm also doing the mid-month dishcloth, but I haven't been taking pictures of it. I spent a bit of time this weekend knitting some bookmarks with scraps of yarn.


Thursday night's karate class was a good one. There were only 4 students, besides the black belts. Sensei let us have an open workout, and he would work with anyone who asked. We went over all our kata, then sensei worked with me on kusanku sai. James went over all his kata, then guess what he did?


He sat. He just sat.


He and Brian sat and talked most of the class. Josh, Cody and I were going over kata, and even the white belt was doing drills. But James and Brian were just sitting. And he wonders why he didn't get his full black belt...I hate to sound shrewish, but he's really getting on my nerves about this, especially since he found out that Josh and Barrett are testing sometime this spring/summer. He thinks sensei ought to make them stay brown belts for some 3 years like he made James. I don't think so. Both of them have been training about 3 years, which is the average time it takes to get to black belt in our association. Both are serious, hardworking, and dedicated. They don't whine or complain or stomp their little feet at sensei when things don't go their way. They don't quit. They don't throw the bo on the ground in a huff breaking it when they forget part of a bo kata. They don't quit in the middle of two man basics during their rank test and stand there with their hands on their hips with an attitude, then wonder why they didn't get promoted.


I worked with Josh a bit on two man basics. It was so nice to have a partner who was serious and focused, and didn't stink. If you ask me, James has some serious growing up to do before he even thinks about getting his black belt.


To end on a lighter note, I bring you a

Katie peeking in at me while I blog.