9 posts tagged “kicking and screaming”

Most of today was spent in a seminar. A choi kwang do seminar. Grandmaster Choi was all of half an hour from my house and we had hundreds of people there to train with him and hear him speak. The first couple of hours had everyone, including kids, so there was some speaking time and some active time, in roughly equal measure. We had lots of instructors taking turns to lead everybody . I started off the round of kicks, and heard afterward from several people that I was easier to hear and understand than any of the others.

Kinda makes up for the short and stumpy.

Good stuff, seeing a school gym just packed with all kind of people at all ranks, and all fired up doing the same stuff.

Some of the kids were tiny too, with some that looked about four or five years old, and remarkably patient given that Sahjanim is Korean and can be really hard to understand and was speaking mostly in medical terminology and biomechanical theory. Lots of good info, but there was so much that I have to wonder how much got absorbed. Still, the best part for me was that here were lots of people who do what I do, because they like it. I didn't have to explain it, or have people mishear it as tae kwon do, or just drive myself to do it. Here there were people who'd come from Wisconsin, and Georgia, and further afield as well, coming from Australia and England.

Some people have families who train together, but I was the only one until Wolfman Dilbert started. He's been away at school for long enough that it's just me, and it's hard enough to do without support from my family. Today I saw my family support, and they all wear the uniform, and we all say "pil sung!" and help each other through.

Aaaaahhhhhh.

Took my evaluation for my next test, the dreaded second degree black belt. I did far better than I expected, and the comments were highly favorable. I thought I'd be in trouble with either underestimating my stamina (since I'd be demonstrating all my patterns and all black belt speed drills for the eval) or just with the generally spastic nature of my spinning double kicks (which are my highest kicks at the moment).

Seems most people need breaks during this and I didn't, and the speed drills were still sharp even though I was getting tired by then. Also? I was able to demo all that in full uniform even though the dojang was kinda steamy from the really huge kid's class just before, and I felt no soreness afterwards. I was able to train again this morning and did just fine, which tells me that stamina won't be an issue. Given that my physical shape is "John Deere tractor running low to the ground" I'm damned if I'll test and be obviously dying in front of an audience. I want to make sure this looks good, not just good...for a fattie.

Go, me.

Girlzilla's just learned some basic crochet and wanted me to look at how she's doing so far on a scarf project. It's her first thing crocheted ever, and it's surprisingly good. She's got even tension (and lots of experienced crafters have problems with that) and a good sense of how everything goes together with no split yarn or weird stitches from poking in wrong holes or going the wrong way. She's even faster than I'd expected, what with not knowing how to hold the yarn really, or how to pull the hook easily yet. She's soooooo going to do the textile design route. I just hope she uses the "E" from The Incredibles (read: Anna Sui") model for doing exactly what she wants whenever she wants and being brilliant.

Go, Girlzilla.

So now, we've been hanging out and had a most excellent slothful Saturday, filled with napping and crafting and snacking and season one of Charmed.

Ahhhhh.

And in the spirit of slacking, I had to find a good timesuck on teh Internets. Since I can't always waste my time with the merely visual, I present the writings on the stall. My personal favorite:

Hastings College
Music Building
Hastings, Nebraska USA 37076
Men's restroom, main floor

Written on tank next to handle:

Please wiggle Handel

Written below it:

If I do, will it wiggle Bach?

An oldie but a goodie. Rediscovered following lotsa other links that got me to grow a brain, which unfortunately is shutting down but is still right up there with mental floss for allowing me to justify wasting my precious time.

Great way to remember it's not just for porn.

BTW, please, everybody wish me luck on my test!

Wolfman Dilbert came home Thursday evening and I noodged him into coming with me to train at choi kwang do. Color belt test is today (hey, I've got a few hours...) and he got himself qualified to test for his brown belt.

Took lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth to get him there, what with his acknowledging that he did want to train but didn't "deserve" to test. Never mind that he's always mondo focussed and the people who run the school expressed how disappointed they were that he didn't get another test in before going back to school.

So now he'll be getting his brown belt and opening up the wonderful world of spinning kicks. The powers that be are hoping he'll be able to test for his first degree black belt in May. Meanwhile, the next test I qualify for is my second degree black belt and I'm finally feeling comfortable with the idea.

So I celebrate with this:

6xYJY7HhLLgd

Should all the martial arts flavor be confusing, consider the following two pics to represent me and dear old Wolfie. I'm the cat.

All three images are, of course, from pizdaus, increasingly my favorite timewaster.

5MFUxpjvp2VV

LNsaGDqe7yZH

So today (meaning Saturday) I've got my inlaws coming up to bring up a van for Wolfman Dilbert's big back to school haul, but that comes after the big video game night at choi kwang do, the big getting done of loads of errands, the getting stuff for the big neighborhood picnic tomorrow, the flat tire that I got just as I came home, and the eleven hour day I did at work last night.

And Sunday looks like another really long day.

I sent off some pecan buttercrunch and s'mores bars with Wolfie for the video game night he was helping with, although he insists nobody (meaning he, personally, doesn't) likes pecans. Feh. Like I impugn his religion! Pecans are one of the healthier things I happen to love, and certainly go in practically anything. Besides, more of the buttercrunch got narfed up than the s'mores bars, which are always wildly popular. (There's one kid at choi who always asks when he sees me, "Did you bring any s'mores bars?" in a touchingly hopeful voice. Like I carry them in my pocket just for such occasions.)

By request (from a couple of people, which makes me wonder if it's coming back in, after the great cupcake and now ice cream waves of fashion), a recipe for tiramisu. Now, last place I worked I did a version that I really didn't care for, because that sucker had to be more sturdy than tasty, and able to sit out at room temp without dying horribly(as well as not really having decent ingredients).  Really I like my tiramisu to be more like a glorified moussy layered thing, and I have no objections to serving it in ways that don't necessarily mean nice neat slices.

So.

Normally I'd make ladyfingers, or you could buy them, but a better way reall is to set the whole thing up as a tiramisu tart using a 9 inch springform pan. Spray the springform lightly. You'll be doing a dough for the pastry layer, then a chocolate layer, and a coffee mascarpone filling. For the dough, heat together:

1/2 cup (one stick) butter
1 tablespoon coffee liqueur (I use Kahlua) or water

until the butter is melted. Remove from heat, stir in:

1 teaspoon vanilla

and set aside. In a small bowl sift together:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt

and gradually add in the liquid stuff until a soft dough forms. Knead this lightly until it's smooth, but be careful not to work it much. Press this onto the bottom of the springform and up the sides to about 3/4 inch away from the top. Prick this throughly, and chill it for about half an hour. During that time, preheat the oven to 375. Bake the shell for about ten minutes or until done, as this is the only baking involved. If it puffs up during baking, just press it back and bake more if needed. When it's hot from the oven the dough can be shoved into place before it sets, if it needs it. Let cool.

For the chocolate layer heat together:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

in the microwave until the cream's just about boiling, and add:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons Kahlua

and whisk till smooth.Pour this into the shell and chill. Now the moussy filling.

In one bowl whip:

1 cup heavy cream

to soft peaks. In another bowl whip:

12 ounces mascarpone
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 tablespoons Kahlua
3 tablespoons espresso or strong coffee (or be lazy and just use more Kahlua. I love that stuff)

until smooth and fluffy and creamy. Fold in the whipped cream and add in:

3 1/2 ounces grated chocolate (I usually use bittersweet, but this is a big personal preference thing) and spread the whole thing onto the chocolate layer in the springform. Level this, and sprinkle on more finely grated/ground chocolate or even cocoa on top for garnish. Chill thoroughly, run a knife along the edge to loosen and serve.

While not a classic tiramisu, quite, a think I like this one better than anything made with store-bought ladyfingers which are a good deal harder and drier than homemade ones. If you'd like a more classic version, get ladyfingers and dip them into espresso for each "cake" layer, make the same moussy stuff for the filling and layer them as much as you'd like, finishing with whipped cream and ground chocolate on top. Also, adding creme de cacao to the espresso dipping sauce is a nice touch.

Enjoy!

So I trained today with Wolfman Dilbert and we had a good hard class in anticipation of his last week home before going to college. (Junior year already! Can you believe it?!)

Directly afterwards I took Girlzilla to a meet-and-greet thing for fourth through eighth graders. One of the families hosted this as a potluck at their house, which I'd never been to before even though I know the family reasonably well from school. Their house was a cozy refuge, largish but without any spots that feel unused or unloved. They have a pool, and while it was a bit cool for me to like the idea of swimming and then stepping out into cold air the kids all had a blast.

Girlzilla was in the pool almost the entire time we were there, and Host Dad was grilling burgers and hotdogs of various stripes, and there was lots of stuff that people brought. There was sliced watermelon and grapes and macaroni salad and chips as well as the aforementioned hotdogs and burgers, and I brought a couple of pies- tollhouse and chess pie.

It was wonderfully relaxing to just veg out and ignore the running to-do list that I'm always falling behind on. I was even too lazy to actually stand. I grabbed a chair early and generally held forth on matters sundry and complex, like things I like, and people who're evil, and the great goodness that is borne of sugar. (All with a generous dose of snark, sprinkled heavily with nostalgia. Love me, love the eighties, dude.)

Girlzilla was most put out upon realizing she'd missed out on both pies and so now I'm setting up a pie crust to make another tollhouse pie for us at home. Enough people asked me about the recipes that finally I decided I'd blog them and give them the recipes in question there, rather than try to remember both recipes off the top of my head.

So.

For tollhouse pie, you'll want a 9" pie crust, unbaked, and an oven that gets to 350 in less than an afternoon. (Mine's been acting up, if you wonder why the caution. I hope it's not contagious.)

Mix together:

1 cup butter, melted and fairly cool
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
as many chocolate chips as seem appropriate

and pour this into the shell. Bake until golden and set.

Now, because of the chocolate you could wimp out and use margarine instead of butter and it would be OK, but please use decent chocolate. There's also loads of sugar here, so don't be afraid of darker chocolate that has more oomph to it. Usually when I do this I just melt the butter first in a mixing bowl in the microwave and everything else after the butter has had a few minutes to cool. Lastly, I generally do about six ounces of chips to a pie, but hey, some days are rougher than others.

What you should get after the whole shebang cools is something like a pecan pie, but with chocolate that may well have formed a fudgy layer at the bottom and with no nuts. If you'd like to dress this up a bit, a rosette of whipped cream and or a drizzle of chocolate over each piece is nice, but French vanilla ice cream and Pirouline cookies are especially nice with this.

Isn't that a happy thought?

Now. For chess pie you'll need that same 350 degree oven and another pie shell. (What? I don't care how you get one, just get it! Sheesh.) This time mix together:

1/2 cup butter, melted (that's one stick, or a quarter pound)
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons flour
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk

pour that in your shell and bake till golden and set. This isn't really a pie that you dress up, being country food, but feel free to sift on some powdered sugar if you want to play up the pretty sunny gold that the inside becomes. This one I like just as it is, thanks. Really, the big thing as that the butter should be omigod real butter, as you will taste it. If you insist on substitutes you will be doing a disservice to this pie and that's just out of my hands. You've been warned.

So I sit, planning another tollhouse pie for my beloved hellspawn and Benevolent Patriarch, having made trashy Kraft mac'n'cheese for said spawn (by their demand) and I'm having leftover balsamic chicken and oniony risotto. Really, I'm just too good for them.

Ciao!

So my keyboard went kablooey when Girlzilla tackled me from behind, spilling a glass of water over everything. I waited for a few days (what? you KNEW I was a slacker) to see if things would dry out properly. They did, except for random 7's added everywhere and no space bar.

Fortunately, what with CompUSA going out of business and all, we had several spare keyboards lying around awaiting usefulness. And damned if it doesn't feel good being back.

Today was the annual Choi Kwang Do picnic that hosts several schools here. Every year we get people from four or five schols and assorted family for a bigass potluck, some pick-up frisbee or basketball games, and a watergun fight of biblical proportions. I took Wolfman Dilbert and Girlzilla with me and we brought molasses cookies (specially requested), tollhouse bars, s'mores bars, and BLT pasta salad. (One of these things just doesn't belong here, one of these things just isn't the same...ahem.) There was tortellini caesar salad, loads of chips of infinite variety, tons of desserts, fried chicken, sloppy joes...you get the idea. Nobody leaves hungry. The first round of fried chicken and the tollhouse bars went faster than pork chops dropped on Dobermans and the hard part was having the moderation to not get all sluggish before the watergun fight.

Especially as an instructor I'm pretty much expected to be in the watergun fight, but this year the adults were woefully outnumbered by the kids. We had a whole host of instructors gone on family obligations and quite a few had small children and were too wussified (or just plain sensible) to show up. This left the remaining, defending adults brutally exposed to the elements, if you visualize "the elements" as a bunch of oversugared hyper fleas eager to wreak watery vengeance. All sorts of waterguns like little cheapie pistols and Super Soakers up to these large tubes that dumped quarts of water in great honkin' gushes were represented, and these gave way to water balloons and buckets being dumped. Eventually the wet zone/dry zone designations dissolved and kids got dumped into the pool we were using to refill artillery.

We were there from just about the beginning to the last gasps of helping with cleanup, and even Wolfman Dilbert decided afterwards that a good nap was in order after the day's festivities.
 
Tell me that's not what summer's all about.

So I've got another two weeks at this dojang before I'll be taking a break from it all. We just ran a color belt test all day yesterday, and I love watching how much improvement all these people show. I've been there long enough that I remember all of them from the beginning at lowly white belt, and even a lot of the people that I still think of as "just started" are yellow or gold. Certainly I'll miss this school.

But.

I've been contacted recently by someone else who's been there for years and he was upset to hear I was leaving. However, he understood perfectly well why I'd leave and (Lord help us!) now we're seriously considering opening our own school. I love teaching, and I know I can't do it alone. But I can't help thinking that it'll be hard but certainly not impossible with his help.

And then we can form the Amish Ninja Force, a fearsome band of silent black-clad wraiths who trash bozos, kill bad guys, and leave friendship bread in their wake. Maybe a quilt. He says that we can't just become Amish but I say that they just can't door to door as effectively without cars.  Besides, I'm sure I can modify hats to be effective housing for throwing stars and bonnets to have tiny little pockets for blasting powders. No matter the carnage left behind, we'd be remembered as so very polite.