Midweek is always busy. Yesterday, Karen and I met Kaitlin after school to join her in an after-school science class. Kaitlin dissected a frog. We had a great time. Kaitlin, at age nine, surprisingly had no issue with the work at hand and dug in enthusiastically. I was terribly hungry by the end of the class and the smell of the preservatives for the frogs made dinner afterwards interesting. The smell sticks with you.

Afterwards, Karen, Kaitlin and I took Tyler, our pup, to training class. Tyler got about an hour of puppy play time, while those people-who-like-to-think-of-themselves-as-owners underwent training. Tyler has been very good at training us to give him treats. All things considered, Tyler is making it easy for us to learn how to be good dog owners.

Kaitlin and I gave Tyler a bath when we arrived home. Tyler does not like bathing, but we are slowly getting better at it. The only problem we had was bribery and reward. Tyler had buckets of treats at the training class and Kaitlin hand-fed him dinner when we got home. By bath time, Tyler had no interest in being bribed into or rewarded for enduring the evils of fresh, clean water. Somehow we managed.

Tonight is Tae Kwon Do for Kaitlin and me. I help in her class then bring her home and attend my own class (as a student, not to teach). We are practicing with the Sai for the first time in about a year. It will be fun to see what I remember. Of all the weapons we practice with, the Sai puts more holes in the mat than any other. I have heavy, steal Sais and I have fortunately not dropped them on my feet – yet.