subscribe

Wednesday 22 November 2006
	The day starts out at the Fiddler's Green, for a good Irish breakfast. The school district has decided to keep the kids out of school the day before Thanksgiving, so we have some time off. Lila is watching CNN reports of airport delays and the entire east coast awash in rainstorms. Later in the day, after a lot of food shopping, we're in the Hapkido dojang. Whatever could Rose & Lila be watching? Why, it's Isaac's Hapkido green-belt (private) test with Mr. Carlo Valero (4th-dan). Isaac got a bit out of sync with our testing schedule and was ready to test. Mr. Valero says "pretty good", and then clarifies: Isaac passes! He'll be given a green belt when they arrive. We're so proud... Another milestone: Isaac's first day of sparring. The gear arrived, and now he's on the mat (with me, mugging to the camera). Exhausted from two back-to-back Hapkido classes (I do the first one with Isaac, the second with Lila) I pile everyone into the car, by Bubbie's house, and onto the Lakeside Café; Zadie's favorite. We're here to celebrate with Auntie Pamela and her boyfriend, Alan, up from Roswell, New Mexico. Good-byes are being said. Bubbie and Isaac have a hug moment.
Sunday 19 November 2006
	Since 1993 my professional and personal web pages have been located in the same tree, on the same server. Since we now have a family domain, and the kids are getting close to making their own web pages (or at least having me upload some of their artwork) it seemed like the right time to get everything going. So, moments ago, I dropped an .htaccess file into the top level of my work domain's web server which says redirect permanent /michael http://www.Sattlers.org/mickey Visitors will be automatically redirected to the new location, bookmarks ought to be automatically updated, and search engines will retain page rankings and other information as they honor the redirect. There are a few messy corners of the site, with some links that refer to items on the work site which are now broken, but I'm working on it. If you find something please let me know. Oh, yeah, and I'm catching up with the two-month lag in posting complete photosets to this 'blog. I've been busy with work and stuff. You'll read about it shortly.
Friday 17 November 2006
	Yea! Lila and I both pass our exams. Purple belts! New pinans for Lila, new techniques for me. New muscles to exercise.
Saturday 11 November 2006
	Some Saturday mornings Isaac (and lately, with permission, Lila) head out to Martial Play with Alex (an Aikido shodan when I was starting out, oh so many years ago). At the end of the class Alex Sensei takes out some Buddhist singing bowls for the kids to roll a stick around to make that desireable chime. That being done, Isaac takes some downtime as things are cleaned up.
Friday 10 November 2006
	About ten months after we started Hapkido Lila and I take our purple belt exam. Because last month's test was crowded I thought ours would be almost empty (and quick) but it was terrifyingly well-attended. It's our pleasure to have found a dojo that daily teaches kids. Instead of full-on martial techniques against a partner, the kids are taught the forms as pinans, and they're tested on the flow and execution of these forms. Here's her high kick. Steve and I were partnered. After so many hundreds of iterations of practice the test seems to go by too quickly. Because watching Marlon practice at three-quarters speed was so much fun both of us tried to do the technique in slower motion, which gives us more time to focus on our posture and execution. A week from today the results will be posted, a week thereafter the belts will be awarded.
Tuesday 7 November 2006
	It was a late Hapkido night, and, as Rose says it, "you really needed some fruit salad, so we went shopping", and after all that the kids were hungry and fussy and I wanted to get some food into them without much ado. So we strolled across the street to Burgermeister, where the kids had onion rings for the first time. They loved 'em. (Of course, the kids have been eating tempura for years....) No, I don't know why Isaac felt it necessary to make an extreme face instead of his usual smile. If this is the one I chose you can imagine what the others looked like.
Sunday 5 November 2006
	Happy Birthday, Zadie! We start celebrating at your favorite restaurant, Joe's of Westlake. Here's Lila, cousin Jessica, and Isaac (manhandling that spaghetti). What a tasty cake it turned out to be. The kids devoured it! I couldn't believe how well-behaved the kids were during the opening of presents. Usually they "help" by ripping things to shreds. I guess we're all growing up.
Saturday 4 November 2006
	Guess who woke up early this morning? Yep, Lila. We quietly sneak out, leaving the sleepers to saw wood for a bit longer. May's Coffee Shop, in Japantown, is our favorite early-morning destination. Mid-morning, and we're at Hapkido. I was lucky to catch Lila doing this side high-kick with teacher Marco Magsaysay directing. Lila reads! Below is Rose watching the unbelievable. A few short months ago Lila couldn't write her letters - but she could read them - now's she's powering through sentences. She's so happy that she can join her big brother (and her parents) in one of our favorite pastimes. Her writing is improving hourly: a few months ago Isaac was writing the descriptons of her drawings, now she asks him how to spell things and she does her own lettering. Later in the evening we head down to Aquatic Park, to the Balclutha, in the main cabin of which National Park Service Ranger Peter Kasin leads a monthly song of sea chanteys. It's a grand time. (We first went with Isaac when he was a toddler.) I've been talking with Peter about recording some of the songs and putting them into the public domain, like I did with Mesughenissmo. We'll see. Terrible picture, but the best I was able to get with all the running around. Here are Isaac, Lila, and Serafina enjoying the apple cider and hot chocolate. One of the galley crew made a great show of sneaking baby marshmallows from the galley for the kids. They loved it.