kareina

I just managed to finish the new, improved, slightly smaller version of my large half-round gymnastics block/matt. While it is smaller than my first try, I was able to use the cover I had sewn for the other anyway, just pulled it tighter down to the base. It isn't quite as perfect fit as if I had made it the correct size shell to begin with, but it does, and it is usable.

The one at Gymnastics has a thick, plastic canvas cover, while mine has a cotton cover. With the one at Gymnastics, I can do a hand stand in front of it, hold it for a few seconds (or longer if I press the back of my head against it), and then roll down and over it to standing. With mine, so far, if I go directly from hand stand to roll over in one smooth motion I have enough momentum to come all the way to standing on the other side, but if I do the pause and stand, then when I roll I kinda stick to the fabric and don't wind up rolling all the way over. We will see if this changes with practice, and if not, if I choose to add a slippery-er cover later.

In just a couple of minutes I will head to the airport to fetch Linda, and we will pick up her Marcus on the way home. I am looking forward to seeing them.

When I started work on the half-round gymnastics matt/block project the goal was a finished product that stands 72 cm high, and has a base that is 90 x 60 cm. I started the work by making the side pieces 90 cm wide, 72 cm tall, and with a reasonable curve from the peak to the sides. Then I started sewing a 60 cm wide foam over the top of the curve, to make a shell. Once I had the shell together I saw that the pile of foam we had wasn't big enough, so today I went and bought 2 more cheap foam mattresses that measure 200 cm by 90 cm (I thought one might be enough, but it might not, so I grabbed the spare).

Today I managed to finish assembling the bits, measured the base and saw that I needed rectangles 90 x 55 cm to fit inside the two layers thick of the camping mat frame from which I have done the shell, so I cut them and determined that I did, in fact, need some, but not all, of the second mat. I put them into place, set the one last bit of camping matt foam over it, sewed it shut, pulled the fabric shell over all, and pinned it shut, and started sewing it shut. Then I decided to give the matt a try, and was surprised to discover that it is too big, that when I do the fall over it from the handstand I wind up perched on top, rather than having my feet come to the other side.

So I grabbed the meter stick and checked it, and discovered that I had wound up with something that was 95 x 75 x 60 cm. In other words, too big by the layer of foam I wrapped around the sides. I forgot that I would need to subtract those from the sides, since I wanted the sides sitting under the top curve, to give it better support.

Sigh. So I have started taking it back apart, so that I can make it smaller. But if it is worth doing, it is worth doing over correctly if one makes such an easily avoidable mistake. Luckily, I have also learned a few other things doing this project, and I think it will be an overall better result from having to do it over. But, darn it, I wanted to be able to play with it already, and to have the sewing mess cleaned up before house guests arrive on boxing day. Now I am not so certain I will accomplish that goal, since I plan to go visiting tomorrow, and this is not a good take-with sewing project.

But I haven't posted in days, and mom, at least, wants to hear what I am up to.

Tonight was the last gymnastics of the year, and so much fun, as always. While I am still miles from my goal (be able to roll slowly into a handstand the same way I do for headstands), I have gotten to the point where if I have my head against something and both hands on the ground in front of it I can hop both feet into the air and pull them up into a headstand. If the "something" is a wall then I can stay in the handstand against the wall. If it is the red half round mat then I can pause ever so briefly before letting my legs fall over and my body roll over the curve of the mat to a standing position.

Tonight I also practiced sitting down on that mat, then arching over it till I am doing a back bend over it, with hands on the ground on one side, feet on the other (the top of the half circle is just below my spine in that position), then I can shift my weight so that much is on my hands, but some is on the mat, lift both legs up and over till they reach the ground on the other side of me, at which point I stand up. This felt easy enough at first try that when I encouraged Ellinor to try it I was surprised to discover that it was hard for her, and I needed to help her lift the legs up and over. But on the other hand, she can do the back flips by jumping and throwing herself back (with a spotter), and I don't dare do those yet.

Had a good skype meeting with my PhD supervisor on Monday, and have revised a minor grant application (a little $500 student stipend, which would still help if I get it) based on her suggestions.

Sunday was a lovely Birthday. I was up late Saturday night preparing, and finally got to the part about starting the bread dough at 23:00. Then I did yoga and tidied up a bit more, and once the dough had doubled I kneaded it again and spread it out flat on a baking pan and set it downstairs, where it is colder, but not as cold as the fridge, to rise slowly while I slept. About five hours later I got up and popped it into the oven and while it baked I made some egg butter, starting with whipping the cream to make the butter (I had boiled the eggs the night before. When the bread came out I went back to bed for an hour or so, and then got up and cut the loaf into three layers and made a smörgåstårta that I was willing to eat:

One layer of home made hummus (starting with grinding sesame seeds in the mortar and pestle to make tahini), one layer artichoke, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower sprouts, roasted garlic, and fresh cheese, and I covered the outside of the loaf with the egg butter and decorated it with slices of carrot, cucumber, tomato, and a little tiny salad green thing I don't recall the Swedish name for (it starts with an M), and never learned the English word.

The result was pretty. I remembered to take a photo, but who knows how long it will be before I remember to get it from the phone onto the computer?

Then I decorated the cake. I had baked it the day before, trying a variation of my favourite pound cake recipe (1 lb each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour). This time I decided to see what happens if one also adds 1lb of milk. I also decided I didn't need a full pound cake, so I did 11 oz of each ingredient instead (that being the whole number on the scale for five eggs, which seemed a reasonable number). I also added some baking powder and baked it in three layer pans. I probably should either have used only two pans, or made a bigger batch of batter, as they were a bit thin. They didn't rise much, but I think That they should probably have gone into a hotter oven. A normal pound cake bakes slowly, but I think this one had enough extra liquid that it should bake hotter and faster. However, it was really yummy, and while dense goes really well with the raspberry-almond blend I spread between two of the layers and the blueberry-almond blend that went between the others. I frosted it with plain whipped cream (of course) and decorated it with frozen berries and segments of Clementine orange.

The cake was ready just before my apprentice Anna and her husband Gunnar arrived at noon. We chatted for a bit and then ate smörgåstårta, and then chatted more and worked on sewing projects till David arrived, at which point we ate cake. More conversation and sewing till I was hungry again around 15:30, so I got out the smörgåstårta again, just as Birger and Siv arrived, so we ate smörgåstårta, followed by more cake, and some cookies (I baked the Finnish style Christmas tarts I posted a recipe for recently, but filled them with more of the raspberry almond blend that went into the cake). Once we had eaten enough Birger, Siv, and David got out their violins and Nyckelharpa and played Swedish folk music while the rest of us enjoyed it and I did more sewing.

Then everyone save David went home around 17:30, and he and I enjoyed a bit more time together, and I did my yoga while he played the piano (I have missed that, it has been a long time since he played the piano). Then he was feeling tired and wanted to play computer games, so he went back to Caroline's apartment and I updated my logs a bit, till Ellinor arrived.

She had been to the concert that our frinds Evelia (my other apprentice) and Cajsa had performed in with their orchestra, and then took the next possible bus to my place, which got her there around 20:30. I fed her smörgåstårta and cake and we chatted till 22:00 and then I drove her home.

Then I returned to my computer to finish updating my logs and noticed that my cousin Karl had sent me a fb message suggesting that I call, so I did, and we chatted for an hour. I hadn't talked with him in ages, so it was nice to hear from him.

That brings me mostly up to date, but now I really must sleep, as I need to meet a PhD student at 07:00 (6 hours from now). We will watch the Lucia performance (first year since moving to Sweden that I haven't been part of the Choir performing, but choir conflicts with gymnastics), and then I will start training her on the laser.

My gymnastics trainer asked us to list our main goal for the training, and then sub goals we will use to get there. I replied:

"Jag har mitt huvudmål: Att kunna stå på händerna hur länge som helst, och att kom till den hållningen med att lifta båda benen (rakt och långsamt). Men jag har ingen aning vilka delmål kan ta mig från nu till målet, och inte heller vilka månader skulle ha vilket delmål. Kan ni hjälpa till med suggestioner till delmålen?"

But it occurs to me that I may have friends in other places who can help with suggestions, too. What sub-goals would you suggest for someone who wants to be able to stand on their hands for a long time, and to get there by lifting both legs at once, slowly and straight? What is a reasonable amount of time between the sub goals?

• I can already do the slow, controlled, straight legs lift into a headstand (and when in the head stand have no problems with moving my legs into splits in various directions and bringing them back up again).
• I have no problems standing on my hands for quite a while against a wall, or with a spotter lightly holding one foot.
• I can do partial hand-stand push-ups when my feet are against the wall.
• If I have a very thick mat that is tall enough to put my head on while my arms are straight and my hands are on the floor, I can do a slow, controlled roll up with bent legs to the headstand with straight arms.
• I have no problems going (kicking up, one leg at a time) into a handstand in the middle of the room and rolling out of it onto my back promptly (though I prefer to only do that on a mat), and once in a while the pause before I need to roll is actually measurable in seconds (though not so many of them).

What is the next step to achieve the right combination of strength, balance, and coordination to simply stop in the handstand and hold it?