Archive for November, 2005
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A very Canadian Saturday.
By Karen | Sunday, November 27th, 2005 | No Comments »
Yesterday’s goings-on were as pro-Canada as you can get. The morning started with a rude awakening, full of yells, band music, and cheers. When we looked outside, we realized that our block was the prep area for the Grey Cup parade. After enjoying the scenery like good locals do, we then met up with Jay for an afternoon of curling fun at the Richmond Curling Club. Kurt is an experienced curler but most were new to the game, so we as Team Blue had a great afternoon schooling Team Red, 9-2. Mostly thanks to Kurt’s terrific throws and Louisa’s spot-on aim.
Anyhow, I will let the photos speak for themselves.
Curling for Charity 2005
Salsa ramblings and a bit of homework.
By Karen | Thursday, November 24th, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Tonight was the first of my second series of advanced salsa lessons with Roger. My friends Jason and Danny are in the class this time, and it is great to see them there, because that means we can all practice in one big happy dancing family. In pairs, of course. No dancing circles…dear god, no dancing circles!!
Anyway. I have this thing about getting complimented on my dancing during a dance class. In a social or open practice setting, it’s fine, but in a class I really don’t like it. It feels like a pickup line plus it strokes my overly healthy “dance skillz” ego when what I’m really looking for is feedback on what to improve. It doesn’t matter what I can do well already because those movements are probably already automatic. So tonight was fantastic because I got totally criticized by a few people. Yippee!
So the first was my teacher, Roger. He is one of the best dancers in the city and a pretty good teacher for form (great for styling!). He usually reserves his criticisms of my frame and connection one-on-one but this time he has given me homework: keep my elbow bent in an L at all times when doing on-the-spot turns, and ONLY pivot on the right foot during these turns. I guess I have been spinning with alternate feet or spreading my weight on both toes when doing multiple spins. if I master these, I should be able to continue to spin until my partner gets bored of turning his wrist and lets me go. If only he told me how not to get dizzy…
The next reviewer was a new person, Tony. He wasn’t a student in the class but he was on the sidelines for the whole thing. After dancing with him a few times, he started to give me tips on how to improve my handholds and tension. Apparently I am closing my thumb into the rest of my hand, almost on top of the pointer finger’s knuckle. This blocks the lead’s attempts to do certain turning motions. I also should be conscious of how much tension I give horizontally (do) and vertically (don’t!). As salsa lessons typically don’t go over the minutae of connection dynamics, I didn’t understand or notice many of the slight corrections he was attempting to convey. I will try, however, to practice the stuff I did manage to understand. Baby steps, I guess!
So….who wants to practice with me?!
Random ramblings.
By Karen | Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Due to my renewed interest in knitting, I’ve been paying attention to any knitwear and inadvertently sizing up the craftsmanship of the piece. During the Harry Potter 4 movie, I actually counted the number of rows required to duplicate the movie’s House scarves (thanks to several close-up shots of Hermione and Harry). The Gryffindor one is: *40 rows of maroon; 4 rows of gold; 8 rows of maroon; 4 rows of gold; repeat from * until scarf-y.
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Sure, Christmas is closing in now, but I don’t like how stores shifted into Christmas mode before the Thanksgiving season was over. It’s as if they all conspired to work a graveyard shift on Halloween so that start-of-day, November 1st has erased all traces of spooky and turkeyish things from our collective consumer memory. And it’s not just the stores get a jump-start on the holidays. I came home yesterday afternoon to find a Christmas tree in our lobby. It’s not even December, for God’s sake!
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On the way to lunch, I passed by a construction site where a tank-like digging machine was sitting on top of a semi-truck-like bed, while doing it’s digging business. It would probably not have been anything of interest if it wasn’t for the fact that the digger was not completely square on the bed. It’s not every day you see a giant machine teetering dangerously into a construction pit at a 15 degree angle. Should’ve snapped a photo…I don’t think I’m doing the situation justice. (shiver) I hate being around construction!
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I am inexplicably afraid of the elevator at home. Not of the ones at work or the ones I was in today to go to the 22nd floor of the very high Province/Sun building. Just the one to and from my 16th floor apartment. Every time I step into it, for an instant my mind envisions an earthquake hitting the city, causing the elevator cables to snap, but not immediately–with enough warning that I will know that I’ll be plummeting to my doom after the last of the wires give. Silly imagination.
First post after upgrade.
By Karen | Monday, November 14th, 2005 | 1 Comment »
I’ve been having trouble upgrading to Movable Type 3.2 so I hope this post works! Testing, testing.
Salsa practice with Danny.
By Karen | Thursday, November 3rd, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Jason took this great video of me and Danny at tonight’s open salsa practice. Danny is a very stylish dancer so he looks good. I have not seen a video of myself dancing before so I see a lot of flubs and places to improve. Here’s an edited copy for your viewing pleasure.
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