My week began with my first professional breast squashing. It wasn’t a comfortable thing, but I survived yet another hallmark of womanhood. Some female engineer seriously needs to redesign these machines though. Why do we have to stand in such awkward ways? Or at all, really? Anyway, life achievement I suppose.

My plan for the rest of the week was sword swinging on Tuesday and then backsplash during the rest of the week. I hoped to get even further on the renovation over the weekend.

Sword swinging went pretty well. I worked through the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei set of kata. I figured the seitei or foundational set was the best place to start in getting things back into my head. I was able to figure out all but one with the help of the book. For the other one, I had my sempai’s help. It was just a piece of it that is not written out the best to understand what is wanted. The funny thing is, as soon as she showed me, I remembered the other pieces about gazing as if the body is falling to the ground.

One thing I’m not happy about, but I know will take time to correct, is that I have a bit of bounce going on in my cuts. My muscles have to fully get used to doing this again since I’ve been away since the pandemic happened. It’s quite likely too much right hand. The timing on the two hands and strength levels are a part of studying this art. A katana needs very little strength to cut.

On Friday, I put a few more tile pieces up on the wall. I need a lot of half tiles and I’ve been cutting them with a scoring tool rather than dragging out the messy tile saw that had glass all over and cut my feet many times when I did the other side of the kitchen. It was a bit annoying, but much better than cut feet. I’m never doing glass tile again. I thought ceramic was annoying, but this is worse. And there are some really nice looking peel and stick options these days that would have been more than adequate. Hindsight.

Saturday was spent working on my bedroom. I reorganized some things and cleaned up a lot of the space on the bed side of the room. My small TV is now on my Kallax, which has been flipped horizontal and has nice new legs. It looks so much better. I also changed my bedding to summery sheets and did a ton of dusting. We’re having unit inspections around the 27th, so I needed to work on the state of my unit some more. The rest of my bedroom will happen soon, but I want to focus on getting my office space and living room sorted. And the kitchen, of course.

There are some cord length issues to figure out, but it’s a vast improvement compared to what was going on in this corner before. With half the room in order, I felt like I was in good shape well ahead of inspection day.

Please note that I do not own the image on the TV screen. I had Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I playing after getting it all set up.

We never used to have annual inspections, but someone decided we should. As an owner, I find it annoying. But until I have a partner and we can afford to live in another place, I have to put up with it. As my decluttering efforts get completed post reno, it won’t be so much to deal with anyway.

Someday, I’ll do something to my bedroom to make it much nicer like put up some wallpaper. Something nice, but easy. I’m tired of multiple coats of paint.

I finally completed my first watch through of The L Word. I feel like Jenny’s ending was set up to be heartfelt, but I felt more happy as I did with Joffrey in Game of Thrones.

Sunday was sword swinging day. I hadn’t fully decided I would be going. It depended on how depleted I felt after all the weekend work I had done. Having autoimmune issues is like that sometimes. But I hoped I would feel up to it. I needed a few things anyway including toilet paper. I made it and enjoyed the small class. Standing style is new to me, so I’m still figuring my footwork out. I was pretty tired afterwards.

It was also a beautiful day out finally with actually warm sunlight.

---

PWHL Playoffs

Playoff Week Two got off to a rough start when the final game between the Minnesota Frost and the Montreal Victoire had to be postponed on Monday due to a spreading gastrointestinal illness. This felt reminiscent of the Olympics. We would all have to wait for the doctors to clear them for play, and they figured they would be good to go on Tuesday. I wish I had their recovery times!

I was a little annoyed that it would be Tuesday for the game since I had martial arts, so I could only see the start of the game. But I mainly needed to know who Ottawa would be up against on the 18th and I’d know that by the time I got home anyway.

The result? The two-time champs lost. Walter will be coming home to Canada! Hopefully with the Ottawa Charge.

Something to note about the finals being Ottawa vs Montreal is that the record for the longest PWHL game ever was between these two teams. It lasted for four over-time periods.

The first game of the finals was set for Thursday evening in Montreal. Montreal took that one.

They also took the second game on Saturday afternoon.

Hopefully, the Charge would do better on home ice in the following week.

Catch you on the flip side,

Rae