McCall’s 2950: Nightshirt

One of my first goals for 2019 was to make a garment from a commercial pattern. For some reason, I was developing a mental block against actually digging into the stash of easy patterns I’ve purchased from Goodwill and garage sales. I’ve made clothes for my son from PDF patterns online, and I’ve drafted my own patterns (with guidance from Melly), but I hadn’t yet taken my scissors to the antique tissue paper that is ’80’s-era sewing patterns.

As I suspected, I really had nothing to fear.

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Karate

We signed Connor up for karate class today, at the suggestion of his pediatrician.

He got a one-on-one lesson with his teacher, culminating in Connor successfully breaking a board with a palm strike.

Breaking a board

We’re hoping that karate class will help Connor develop his self-control, as well as help him with his coordination and control over his body. This first lesson was promising, as he successfully sat cross-legged with his hands on his knees for some five minutes, perfectly still, as his “first test.”

He also seemed to have fun, and was seriously stoked to get his white belt, his uniform, and a pair of boxing gloves of his very own. His next one-on-one lesson is next week, then he’ll get to join the Youth Basics class when it starts back up in the new year.

Party Animals

Today was our department holiday lunch, and I’d say it was one of the more memorable ones we’ve had.

Our boss gave us all gift boxes from Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor MI, including cherry jam, cherry salsa, chocolate-covered cherries, and gummy cherries. We gave her some hard cider, a handmade U of M zipper pouch, and gift cards to a couple downtown restaurants and Amazon.

For lunch, we convened at a local gastropub / arcade. Our boss bought us all lunch — including adult beverages if we were so inclined, since we weren’t going back to the office — then we played video games and pinball for over an hour. Honestly, if the arcade games hadn’t been free-play, I would have felt ripped off, since there wasn’t anything terribly awesome. I played Street Fighter II, Galaga, Pac-Man, a racing game I’d never played before, Burgertime, pinball (which did cost money)… and that’s about it. It’s a modest barcade, but it’s more cabinets than lots of people have probably ever seen — since the mid-90s, anyway.

That was a seriously fun time with coworkers. A+ would do again.