Michele, Marcus and I recently attempted and passed a grading at Budokan Academy for the various arts we were eligible to grade for. Michele passed her Gokyu in Iaido and Nikyu in Jodo, Marcus passed his Nidan in Jodo (woohoo! well done!), and Marcus and I both passed our Ikkyu in Iaido.

Yay us!

Michele will be able to grade again in three months, but Marcus and I have to wait until the nationals in January before we can go again - except for Jodo - Marcus has to wait two years for that.

Saw Pirates of the Carribean on Saturday. I wasn't really all that enthusiastic about going to see it, however I wasn't that enthusiastic about seeing the first one either, and it turned out I loved it. Sadly, I walked away from this one feeling a little let down. The majority of the movie was good, however it ended leaving you with that "Uh" feeling (to quote Eddie Izzard). I just felt the movie could have ended with something a little better had it not been set up for the third.

A good ending would have been if they all sat down for a couple of pizza's at Little Caesars like we did. This place is divine. Well worth the drive out for it, the wait for a seat (in case you're unlucky enough and have to wait), and the price is definately reasonable (we stuffed ourselves silly for around $14 each!). If you haven't been, I suggest you go.

I can count the number of times I've been to live music events on two hands. The number of good music events can be counted on one hand. I'm not one of those people that heads out to some concert every other week at all. But of all the music events that I've been to, none have been as good as FourPlay at the Fly by Night last night. To people who saw me, I'm sure I must have looked positively bored, but I was sitting there totally entranced by the sounds these guys belted out on two violas, a violin, and a cello.

I first heard of these guys only a mere 18 months ago, from Michele's sister after we saw another string quartet called "Odyssey" at BeatleMania. Turns out they've only been around forever. I instantly fell in love with all their tracks on their "Catgut Yer Tongue?" album, but in particular - actually I can't narrow it down past there - they're all fucking great - even if they are mostly (all?) covers.

So even though I don't usually go to live music and have to get dragged along, I jumped when these guys came up. So we went. And we bought their cd's (woe: not enough cash on hand to get more than one - only 1 to go!), and we lined up like dutiful little fan-boys and fan-girls to get them all signed (mine illegibly signed "for Susan" by Shenzo). It was great to sit there totally immersed in the sounds pouring out from them, and even better was to see them totally immersed in it as well.

They said they're coming back in a couple of months. I'm keeping an eye out. I can't wait - I've had their cd's on rotation non-stop since then.