We had pretty much assumed with all the rain today that the lunar eclipse would not be visible, but when Angie asked if it was we decided we would take a peek outside and much to our surprise it was not only visible but in a great spot for viewing from our front yard.  We then spent far too long swatting mosquitos and talking with various passing neighbours as we waited for the moon to march slowly across the sky. It was pretty neat and the camera actually gave us a better view than what you could see with the naked eye. We finally packed it in just after the peak not really wanting to stay up until 3am when it would return to being completely normal.

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Double points today.  Elizabeth managed to drop her bo for the first time in competition (likely due to the humidity in the room making her hands sticky).  All the same she came away with 1st in hard style forms, 2nd in classical forms, 1st in traditional weapons, 2nd in extreme weapons and 1st in creative weapons.

Erika came along as well and placed 4th in hard style forms and 5th in classical forms.

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Karate season is in full swing now with the WKC provincial qualifiers happening this weekend.  Elizabeth and Erika both went this year.  Daddy, Elizabeth, Erika and Yukiko all drove down to stay with Muriel the night before and then headed off bright and early to the competition in the morning.

They decided to do this one as a no parents in the competition area (not that many of the parents listened to this guidance...).  This annoyed daddy as he would have brought a different lens for the camera if he had known this in advance.  Anyway it all worked out and Erika was able to manage the music and fetching of weapons for Elizabeth as they were not competing at the same time.

Elizabeth was using a new traditional bo as she had just outgrown her old one and had not had a chance to really practice with the new one so her traditional weapons score likely suffered a bit as a result.

Overall she still did amazingly well with medals in all her divisions. Gold in extreme and creative weapons. Silver in hard style and classical forms as well as in sparring.  She very nearly pulled off the gold in sparring but lost her second fight by two points.  Probably her best two fights ever.  To round things out she got a bronze in traditional weapons.  As the top 8 qualify for nationals she will be advancing in all six divisions.

Erika failed to advance in hard style forms but when the judges were deliberating who to cut for classical Elizabeth and Master John conspired to send the whole group of 10 through and the judges agreed.  So Erika will also be competing at nationals.

The girls are also planning to compete in team forms at nationals which should be fun but sadly had no qualifier division at provincials to practice in.  Now the girls have much practicing to do to prepare for nationals in May.

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Another virtual world qualifier today.  This time hosted by Guatemala.  Elizabeth swept her 5 divisions taking gold in all of them (Hard style forms, classical forms, traditional weapons, extreme weapons and creative weapons).

Erika also came along this time and took a surprise 1st in hard style forms (15-17) and 5th in classical forms.

Both girls were absolutely amazing.

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First in-person tournament since worlds. Felt a bit strange after such a long break but was nice to see some familiar faces and to get to compete in sparring. Elizabeth and Erika got to attend a few seminars with some big names in karate and picked up some nice tips. Elizabeth came away with 2 golds, 3 silver and 1 bronze. Gold in extreme and creative weapons. Silver in individual point sparring, traditional forms and traditional weapons. Bronze in team point sparring.

As the competition is still a bit on the small side Elizabeth got to compete against Caleb for extreme weapons and despite muttering about how she didn't stand a chance she ended up beating him. She also tried team fighting again (fighting up an age bracket with an ex-Douvris student who had moved to Calgary as her teammate).

Erika didn't place but has clearly improved a lot and didn't look totally out of place like she did the time she accidentally competed against the black belts.

The girls both enjoyed the opportunity to cheer on their teammates.

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