Tourneys, trips, musings.

I've got a few things to report, such as the Houston International Martial Arts Tournament, my recent trip to Pharr, TX, and other stuff that I'm sure will come to me as I write. Let's get to it!

Last weekend, August 3-5, 3 members of JMMA competed in the Houston International Martial Arts Tourney in Stafford, TX. Amy J. competed in Women's Beg. Staff, and Women's Beg. Mantis, Mark D. competed in Men's Beg. Staff and Men's Beg. Mantis, and little Jillian B. competed in Girls Beg. Mantis (age 4-6). Gold medalists all! The main thing I wanted to see in their performances was authority in their movements, as well as decent technique, speed, and power, and I was not disappointed in the least. I was extremely proud of all of them.

We had one more fellow who competed the next day, Charlie B. He gave a great account of himself in the Continuous Sparring, and came away with a Silver medal. He's been working his tail off during the last couple of weeks to prepare, and now he's looking forward to our next tourney in Septemeber.

Sifu Flores rolled in with his crew on Friday morning at about 7am. That man is crazy! They left the Valley at around 1am Friday, and drove all night. I met them at my school, where they rested for a couple of hours before heading off to Chinatown to see the sights. I'm not sure how Israel survived without crashing, but I figure he was on his third or fourth wind by that time. When they returned, I showed them to my mother-in-law's house, where they were staying for the weekend. I reminded them that we had our meeting at 6pm, and we were going to go to Pho Mai afterwards for dinner.

6pm...no Israel. 6:30pm...no Israel. 7pm...we ended our meeting early and went to eat since our stomachs were all grumbling, and no Israel. They finally did show up at around 8pm, having passed out at Mom-in-law's. I think one of them had even fallen asleep on the floor. We had a rousing good time at Pho Mai's, so much so that I think we annoyed some of the other patrons (sorry about that!). Then we all said goodnight and planned to meet up again in the morning.

Saturday morning, a handful of us met up at IHOP for breakfast. Jokes were flying, as usual, and we had a grand old time. Afterwards, we met up at my school and practiced, joked, and waited for a few others to join us before heading to the tournament. We skipped the Master's Demo and waited to get there until they were checking everyone in at 1pm or so. Everything was running a bit late, so we found some seats and watched all the kung fu folks around us.

I had forgotten until recently how much I enjoyed these tournaments. This time was even more fun because we had such a huge crew from our school and Israel's school in attendance. It made the waiting bearable, even enjoyable.

Some of the highlights from the tournament:

Larry having Jonathan "demonstrate" a wristlock...that ended up by a pretty girl that Jonathan had his eye on.

Charlie not quite understanding where to stand for the sparring picture.

5 words that struck terror in all our hearts: Lime-Green Leopard-Print Thong.

Judo Dog conversation that kept turning up at odd times:
"You've got a gun."
"What? This?"
"Yeah. That!"
"Well, I'm not gonna use it."

That kid's drunken form...impressive!

The empty hand vs. spear form. Most impressive!

Jonathan B. fulfilling his Green Belt requirement by asking a pretty girl for her email address...and getting it.

There was much more fun and hilarity, but my memory banks are full.

It was a fabulous weekend, and I'm already looking forward to the next tourney in Austin.

More recently, I drove down to Pharr to do a little groundwork with Israel's students. His kung fu is quite strong, but they are still new to grappling and groundwork, so that's where I come in. I actually managed to leave on time for once, since I had packed the night before, and I enjoyed a leisurely drive down to South Texas. It was me, Kelly Clarkson, Cathy Dennis, and a few other gorgeous ladies who all want me to spank them. Again, it was a nice drive.

After watching Israel's Junior Class, we got right to work and I went over several fundamentals of grappling, including shrimping, reversals, getting up from the ground, and a couple of submissions. I rolled around with a couple of his tough guys afterwards, and it was fun. Then it was off to Taqueria del Tio for dinner. (He's everybody's uncle!)

The next day, Israel and I got up early and traded forms for a bit. I swear, he earned the nickname Flash Drive this weekend...he may be young, but his mind is like a hard drive...it stores friggin' everything! I was happy to be able to help him with a few things, and he did the same for me. Lunch quickly followed, and then I was on my way home. Honestly, it was the most relaxing trip I've taken down there, and I look forward to doing it again soon. And on the way back, it was me and the girls again!

Today, I'm back on track, eating right and working out. I've decided to start my days with a jog to the park and some tai chi at least three times a week. I feel a need to be more active and practice my kung fu more often so that I keep those routines in order, in addition to the other training I'm already doing.

While I was at the park, sitting on one of the picnic tables and enjoying a quiet moment, I watched a navy blue van slowly circle a far parking lot, then pull out into the main drive of the park, drive to one end, turn around, and go back to the parking lot. Suspicious. I watched it for awhile, wondering what mischeif was afoot, and then I noticed that a young teenager was behind the wheel and a larger person was in the passenger seat. I also noticed that turn signals were used at every change of direction in the totally empty parking lot. This was nothing suspicious...it was a driving lesson! A huge grin split my face when I realized what was going on, and I remembered my Mom taking me to the Brazoria County Fairgrounds in her blue Mustang. A girl that I had a crush on happened to live across the street, and I recall how thrilled I was to be driving, and how I hoped that she might peek out a window and see me. Wow, I hadn't thought of that in a very, very long while.

I looked down at my hands then, and I saw the rough callouses that my recent training had provided me. Over the years, they had become calloused, then smoothed out as my training had changed...calloused again...then smooth again. I wondered how many times that process had occurred. I thought about my nearly 40 years on earth and how much I had experienced, and how much I have not. It seemed like an awfully long time.

As I watched that 15 or 16 year old kid carefully driving that van around, I realized that I can still feel those same emotions of excitement, anticipation, hope, and optimism as I did back then. I train almost every day. I watch what I eat, I'm healthy as a horse, I love my job, and I have a fabulous, wonderful family. Life is good...but it's not even close to being over! There are things to do, places to go, books to read, movies to see, skills to learn....wow!

The clear blue sky spread out above me, beautiful, and I felt ridiculously happy to be me. I'm loving my life today.

Quick Update...tourneys and such.

The trip to Ft. Worth and Plano last weekend (July 20-22) was really great! I got to visit with the one and only Brian Briscoe (seldom known as Alice these days due to an increase in butt-kicking ability), I enjoyed a workout at his Krav Maga school, we had a blast at the Taiji Legacy tourney in Plano...fun, fun, fun!

I've noticed that I tend to put off blogging because I want to write a really great entry each time. However, that usually means that weeks go by without an update, and they're really not that great anyway. So I'll be brief.

Amy won 2 gold medals, Renee won 3 gold as well. We had a bit of a moment before Amy's staff competition when her staff was judged 'too thin', even though the woman next to her had a slender staff as well, and wasn't told this. I ran out to see Nelson of Beijing Imports, and he only had a handful of sticks available, none suitable. "Oh, wait, maybe this one..." he walked over to a corner and took his coat off of a stick that ended up being perfect, if a bit thick. He saved the day! The new staff was so huge that we immediately dubbed it "The Log", and Amy won her second gold medal with it. Yay!

I watched some of the Shuai-Jiao events while I was there, and with all due respect, I just wasn't all that impressed. I've had training in Judo and BJJ, and I've been thrown by Theo (Godzilla in human form), and watching these guys just wasn't what I had hoped it would be. I thought about entering this competition at the upcoming tourney, but I have several students competing, and I don't want to miss any of their events...my responsibility is to them, not to seeing if I can beat the Shuai-Jiao guys at their own game. However, I might hang around and see if I can have a friendly bout or two. ;-)

The san shou fights were lots of fun to watch, and Westside's guys all took gold. The importance of conditioning was highlighted in almost every match, and there was one guy who apparently thought he was Jet Li, based on the stances he was using. He lost the fight...go figure.

The Houston tourney is fast approaching, and I'm looking forward to visits from Sifu Israel Flores from Pharr, Tx and the incomparable Larry Escher from Corpus Christi, and man, we're going to have a grand old time!!

There's other stuff, but I'll post more tomorrow. Have a good night.

Flip that House, Plano, and Fun with Burpees

It's Sunday night, and my darling wife is on an overnight babysitting gig for a friend. She just returned a week ago from her 'Project Boot Camp', and just as I'd gotten used to having her around again, she's gone. (SIGH) Ah, well. Her absence has left me with some time on my hands tonight...what to do, what to do?

Our home has basically been somewhat shabby ever since we moved in. It was simple to start with, and we kept it that way, except that we managed to fill every nook and cranny with STUFF. Some of it is important stuff, and lots of it is actually junk. The problem is that it takes a moment or two of examination of each item to determine which is which, and we just haven't made the time to do that.

Since my darling wife has been away, she's been watching Flip That House, a show that depicts folks who buy a run-down home, then rapidly fix it up, and sell it for a profit. I know...it sounds way easier than it actually is. She's not interested in flipping houses, but she IS interested in watching all the renovations that turn formerly shabby houses into fabulous little homes. And so our home's shabby days appear to be numbered. She's fired up, and ready to get started with some big changes just as soon as her paycheck starts coming in.

Since she's gone for tonight, I decided to start straightening up the garage. The garage used to be kept extremely clean, because I taught all of my students in there. No laundry all over the floor, no junk, no boxes, no (exactly what is that thing?) in the corner. However, the day I opened my school, I recall chucking my first piece of junk into the garage with the intention of 'taking care of it later'. My friends, later is here!

I figure I'll get the whole thing cleaned out and ready for whatever my wife has planned by around...say...November. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it'll take far longer than that to tame the whole house. I'll keep you posted.

In other news, a couple of my students are competing this weekend at the Taiji Legacy tournament in Plano. I'm really looking forward to it for many reasons, one of which is that I get to spend the weekend with my dear friend Brian. There will probably be pho and Tex-Mex somewhere along the way, so I'm thrilled.

One last comment...it rained again today, so I decided not to do my interval sprints outdoors, and opted for the 100 Burpee Challenge as a replacement. My first go at the 100 B's took me 7 minutes 20 seconds a couple of weeks ago. The next time, I must have been inspired, 'cause it only took me 6 minutes and 20 seconds. Today, I just didn't bring my A-game...7 minutes and 9 seconds. Dang. That's OK, I'll do it again soon.

Oh, did I mention that we now have tires and a sledgehammer at my school? Great for stress relief, I tell you!

Sean Sherk is one tough dude...

I caught the show on Sean Sherk a few days back, and was duly impressed. That is one tough little man! Here's a vid of his 'Caveman Training'. Enjoy!

Sean Sherk Vid

The cards were evil, I tell you!!!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I'm proud to be an American...just love it here. It's not perfect, but I feel extremely fortunate to be here, and I'm grateful to live in such a free society. Ok, that's what I have to say about that. :-)

It seems that I'm always working out while doing laundry. It takes our ancient dryer quite awhile to finish a load, so I generally have to wait around before I can switch things around. Apparently, this is prime workout time for me.

My agenda originally included a bunch of intervals on the track, but it's been raining for days, and I don't enjoy doing battle with mosquitos the size of rats, so I stayed indoors. Instead, I decided to try the Deck of Cards workout. Here's how it goes...

Each card requires a set of burpees (red cards) or a set of pushups (black cards), face cards count as 10, and aces count as 11. If you pull a 9 of hearts, then you're doing 9 burpees. Ace of spades, and it's 11 pushups. The goal is to get through the deck as fast as possible. My goal for today was to survive the entire deck without killing myself. I cleared a space among the piles of laundry, placed the cards close by and got to work.

I now hate the cards. All of them. They all suck, and I should just set them all on fire. But I won't...I don't want them to think that they've beaten me.

I completed the entire workout, yes I did. And now, I'm slack-jawed with exhaustion. See, when I started, I didn't realize that I was about to do 190 burpees and 190 pushups in all.

In other news, my darling wife will be moving home soon! She's nearing the end of her Project Boot Camp (and she misses us greatly), and should be returning home by the end of the week. This is good news, because I've been missing her as well, and so has the Monkey. She's made great progress in her quest to improve her health and fitness, and we plan to continue supporting her training once she returns home.

And that's about all I have the strength to type for now. Enjoy the holiday!

Trip, lots o' burpees

Just got back from a pretty fabulous weekend up near Greenville, TX. I haven't seen Dad's side of the family for nearly 10 years, and it was absolutely wonderful to see them again. It was an easy trip up there, except that our little Monkey had to pee just about every mile or so, and we wanted to encourage him to 'listen to his body', so we took waaaaaay longer to get there than is usually required. Even so, it was a pleasant trip up, an easy ride back, and lots of laughter and family fun in between.

Ever thrown a cast net? I have, but it was many, many years ago. One of the family projects during our trip involved heading out to Uncle John's pond to catch some catfish. These were to be relocated into Aunt Sissy's pond. Seems like everyone has a pond out there. After a mud-drenched hike to get to the first pond (and taking time to push Uncle John's golf cart through the mud near the river) we threw food on the water in the hopes of attracting the huge fish. They handed me a cast net and told me to get to work.

Apparently, these fish are fairly smart. The silhouette of a dude on shore with a cast net in hand did nothing to reassure them, and they studiously ignored us for the rest of the day. I managed a few decent casts, but came up with nothing but some small fish that we threw back. Next time, I'm going in with a wetsuit, snorkel, and a ballpeen hammer, and I'm coming out with some danged fish.

Family time always means funny stories, and I've heard most of my Dad's tales many times. I usually know the end of them before he gets ten words into the story. But I still find them hilarious, and occasionally have to translate them for my wife, who can't understand him once he starts laughing at his own humor. The old man has a great sense of comedic timing, even if he doesn't know it.

He mentioned the last trip to Texas in which he drove my late Granny to see her family. Apparently, there was an issue with the opening of a package of brownies during the drive, and PING! one of his eyeteeth popped out of his dentures. He said he looked for it in the floorboards, but never found it. He went to the dentist in Angleton soon after, and the dentist asked Dad about the missing tooth.

"So, do you have the tooth, Mr. McClendon?"

"Naw."

"Any idea where it might be?"

"I think it's in the defroster somewhere."

And for some reason, that was the funniest thing I'd heard in quite awhile. I'm still chuckling about it.

Hats off to Mom for driving them all the way down from Indiana. After a 4 hour delay due to some car trouble, and another 1.5 hour delay because of construction, Mom and Dad came easing down the road to Aunt Sissy's at about 12:30am Saturday night. They'd been on the road for over 24 hours, and poor Mom had been pouring water on her head to stay awake for the last few hundred miles. They were asleep almost before they made it down the hall to their room, but they were safe and sound.

Anyway, it was a great visit, and I'll probably write more about it later. I was really wonderful to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins after being away so long.

And now, one last little pat on the back for me...

It was late Friday night, and I knew I wasn't getting another workout in until today because of the trip. I was waiting for the laundry to finish drying so I could switch loads, and I decided to do a quick 100 burpees to pass the time. My best time so far had been 7:20.

Amazingly, I did them in 6:20, and yes, I did count them correctly. I sounded very much like a wheezing hippo that needed to be put out of its misery, but other than that, I was quite pleased with my performance. Next time, I'm shooting for 6 minutes.

510 Squats

Oh, the humanity!

In my junior class, I challenged the kids to a contest...a prize will be awarded to the student who does the most pushups and squats. I issued this challenge a month ago, and reminded everyone during each class. Last Thursday, I started the testing. To my surprise, the first kid did 200 squats. Next kid, 212 squats. Next, 224 squats. Next, 402. Yes, that's four hundred and two.

Wow.

I had no idea that the kids were capable of that much. Of course, they're smaller than we are. They use less energy to move less mass around. And they are filled with the boundless energy of youth, so I should have been better prepared for these results, but I was astounded.

You see, my personal record was only 268, and that was several years ago.

Of course, I decided to go home that night, and see what I could do. I've been training pretty consistently lately, so I warned my wife that I was going to do some squats and then would be useless for the rest of the day.

100. No problem. Just starting to feel it.
150. OK, what was I thinking? No, no, don't quit... just keep going.
225. Wow, I'm getting close to my old record! But why can't I feel my feet?
275. Yay! Beat my old record! But I've still got a ways to go.
350. Endorphins are supposed to kick in sometime, right? Right?
400. Only a few more to beat my juniors record. I wonder how many more I can do? And who let those purple elephants in here?
450. I think I'm dying. But I'm so close to the fabled 500 squats, I can't quite now! Gotta keep going...
500. Holy crap! I did it! I think I can bust out 10 more, just to be safe!

Now, do recall that I'm in fairly good shape. I'm not superhuman (that's painfully obvious), but my job as a martial arts instructor keeps me very active, and I enjoy my training. But I will tell you that my legs have been useless since last Thursday night. That means Friday. Saturday. And Sunday. Useless. Oh, I could walk, I mean, more or less. But I admit to being a somewhat comical sight this past weekend. The funniest thing about having legs that are completely shot is that you can be standing perfectly well and then have them give out from under you for no reason whatsoever, and then you look like a buffoon while you try to catch yourself.

Usually, I schedule a massage after this sort of thing, but it's been busy, so I just suffered through it. I worked out again today, and I'm starting to feel normal. Well, kind of. Here's what I did:

12 burpees
24 pushups
36 squats
400 meter 'run'.
repeat two more times.

Usually, I'll do this workout with 4 sets instead of three, but it was all I could do to hustle my big bodonky around the track each time with my legs still feeling a bit shot. That first run was funny, let me tell you! I looked like a drunken hippo that got Tasered in the butt, but I got around. That 400 meter interval should be a full-out sprint, but at this point, a funky shuffle is about all I can muster. I'll keep working at it.

Anyway, I should resume regular workouts this week, and since Monkey is now in summer Montessori school, I can beef up my training by going to the track, the practice field, or even work the wall with my lacrosse stick. I'm not planning to compete any time soon, but I like to be in good shape.

So it's back to the full training grid for me. Forms, sparring, taiji, meditation, grappling, the whole bit. I know it seems an odd blend, but it works for me.

And I still don't know who's going to win that contest. On Friday, one of the kids did 503 squats. I think he's the frontrunner at the moment!

Just Checking In

It's been awhile since I've posted, so I'll be brief in an attempt to catch everyone (both of you) up on what's going on.

Congrats to my Mom!!! Here's an article on her...she won Nurse of the Year out of 15,000 other nurses. Way to go, Mom! I'm really proud of her.

My darling wife has survived her first year as a lead teacher. I'm glad to see her finish up...starting in August, she's got a fabulous job at a fabulous school here in Katy, and she's really looking forward to not driving an hour and a half each way to work. And I'm looking forward to seeing her a bit more often. I get lonely without her around...(sniff).

Lacrosse season is over. At least I get to watch all the college semifinal and final games this weekend. I'm not much of a couch potato, but I do love to watch me some lacrosse. Watch out next year, guys...I'm already practicing! I plan to earn the nickname of 'the Ninja Hitman' or something of that nature. Wish me luck!

After many, many months, I've finally updated our website www.jademountain.org . Take a look, and tell me what you think! I'm still working on it, and some pages aren't up yet, but I should have pages for everything up in a week or so.

In other news, I've decided to start posting my workouts occasionally in an attempt to keep myself honest. I figure I'd better be doing something impressive, if I'm going to actually post it. Here's what I did today:

1oo Burpees. 8 sets of pushups. 8 sets of squats. 8 sets of ab exercises.

I should explain...my eight sets involve doing as many reps as possible of an exercises for 20 seconds, and then resting for 10 seconds, and then doing another set, and so on. The 100 burpees were absolutely awful, but I enjoy. Kind of. What's a burpee? Here's a clip...by the way, it's not me in the vid.

Class time approaches, so I'd better be off. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!

Lacrosse, hits, and stuff.

Lacrosse season is over for my team, Bayou City Lacrosse Club, and I’m already looking forward to next year. The GCLA playoffs were tons of fun, and although we could have used a few more bodies out there, we played pretty well. Metro beat us in our first game on Saturday, and then we got beat by Southside in the consolation game. We lost a couple of players during the second game for various reasons, so we had to play nearly ‘Ironman’ for the whole time. Let me tell you, that’s not quite as easy now as it was when I was in my 20’s!

I felt pretty good about my performance overall. I scooped the ball well, made decent passes, and even managed to score a goal in the second game. Oh, did I mention that I tried to hit nearly everyone on the field? And I almost succeeded!

Don’t get me wrong…I know that it’s not a good thing to ALWAYS look for the hit. However, I’ve been working hard all season, increasing my speed and endurance, improving my stick skills, and I’ve been applying myself much more on defense in recent weeks. And so I became a wrecking machine of sorts this weekend. I’m not sure just how many solid hits I threw out there on Saturday, but it felt gooooooood! I think I put 6 or 7 folks on their backs at one point or another, including one player with whom I played at TX A&M. He’s awesome…fast, great stick skills, and a fabulous dodger, but I got lucky and caught him just right while he was going for a ground ball. BOOM. I’m betting that won’t happen again! Oh, one other poor fellow had to leave the game after I hit him. It was a perfectly clean hit, and I felt like Conan the Barbarian after watching that guy fly up in the air and land flat on his back. I do hope he's OK.

And so, after being off the field for several years, it seems that I have regained some of my old confidence and skill. Woo hoooo!!! It was a really great feeling to have the guys pat me on the back as I’d come off the field, and saying ‘Wow, great hit!’ ‘Geez, we should call you SifuNinja!’ and the like. One fellow mentioned that I’d done a complete 180° from the beginning of the season. I thought about that comment, and realized that I had done just that.

When I first stepped on the field this year, I was still thinking thoughts like “Man, I hope I don’t drop the ball out there!” and “Geez, where the heck am I supposed to be?!” I was tentative and a bit nervous on offense, and didn’t really get aggressive when going after the ground balls. I messed up on the field far more than I did well. But I focused on improving where I could…sprint drills and burpee workouts helped me gain some confidence in being able to run fast and hard out there, and scoop drills helped me get comfortable in going for the ground balls. I got a cheap stick that worked a ton better than my old one, and that helped lots. As my stamina and speed improved, I noticed that my defense improved with it, because I could keep myself in position much better than before. And since I was in good position, I starting hitting folks when the time was right. And it worked! By the time I stepped on the field on Saturday, all those nagging doubts had disappeared. I was there to tear…them…up, and I couldn’t wait for the whistle to blow.

I am not a superior lacrosse player. Far from it. I’d like to think that I’m a wee bit above average, but that may be wishful thinking. Every team has folks that their opponents keep their eyes on. “Hey, watch number 2…he’s got a killer shot!” We all remind each other at the start of each game about which players we need to be cautious. I want to be one of those guys next year. I want to hear those other players saying, “Hey, watch out for number 13…he’s fast, he’s a shooter, and he’ll put you on your ass!”

I've got several months to prepare for next season...I’ll keep you posted. ;-)

Good, Bad, and Painful.

Well, interesting things happening here. I’ve been approached by a local business owner who runs an after-school pickup program and martial arts school that has a really nice location near my home. He’s interested in pulling out of that location, and it’s possible that I might be the one to take over. There’s at least one other instructor they are leaning towards for this project, so I won’t be crying if it’s not me, but it has been quite exciting to think about expanding the school and moving. I’ll keep you posted.

In other news, my dear old Dad may have had a minor stroke. Suddenly hit with acute dizziness, projectile vomiting, and the like, Mom took him to the ER. Once there, he lay on a gurney for a couple of hours before deciding that he’d had about enough of that. Tough old coot, that one. He’s home now, recuperating just fine. Last I heard, he was fixing the toilet or something.

You know, I realize that ER’s are busy places. I know that the doctors are often exhausted, and are doing their best to help everyone as best they can. My mom was an ER nurse for years, so I know a little something about it. However, I still get pissed when my 79 year old father has a stroke and no one can find the time to help him. I think the system should be changed somehow, but I admit to having little idea as to how to do it. I do know that it’s not a good idea to run a short-staffed ER with doctors running on no sleep. That’s always been a recipe for disaster. Anyway, he’s apparently OK, no thanks to the ER.

Played another lacrosse game on Sunday, and did fairly well defensively. The other team was a bunch of young, fast guns from Corpus Christi, and they liked to hit. Fine by me! I enjoyed getting in there and knocking them around here and there, but I should have focused on my offense a bit more. I was happy to block a shot early on in the game, although now I have a deep bruise on my thigh. Hey, at least that’s one shot that didn’t score!

I don’t know if I’ll make the next game, but I may try. I’ll be in Pharr for the weekend doing some training with Israel and our Sifu, Arthur D’Agostino. He leaves on Saturday night, so I may hustle home in time for the game on Sunday afternoon.

We just started our Assistant Instructor training program at JMMA, and I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the response. This will be the first time that I’ve gone away for training that all the classes will be held in my absence. Yay! Special thanks to those who have stepped up to become a bigger part of our school.

That’s about it. I’m thinking lunch should be happening about now. Later.

Back on Track

Honestly, I’d totally forgotten it was St. Patrick’s Day until I was walking around Wal-Mart and wondered why everyone was all greened up. Someone passed me with green hair, and I finally figured it out. What a week!

After my leg injury I spent all of last weekend hobbling around, and got almost no training done when my Sifu came to town. On that Friday, we did a little bit of tai chi, and he said that at least it looked better than it had looked last time he saw me perform that set. Not exactly high praise, but better than ‘wow, that sucks.’ My grimaces gave me away, however, and he spent a few minutes working on my calf before saying that, yes, it’s jacked up, and that our training time was pretty much over for the weekend. I had a choice to either rest it and allow it to recover or work on it, and have it really mess up. So, I sat on my duff during the entire fan seminar and allowed my friend and colleague Sifu Israel Flores to assist Art Laoshi while they taught my students the fan form. Argh. Very frustrating, that was. There was still a lot of good in the weekend, though. We did all manage to go see the movie ‘300’. Twice! It was even better the second time. Awesome, awesome show. Worth the wait. And we did some push hands work that will be quite helpful in addition to the other networking, business plans, and goal setting we did. Which reminds me, I need to get to work on our organizational mission statement ASAP.

So all of last week was spent with no lower body workouts. That was hard to take, especially since I’ve been working out far more consistently of late. I did work on some pushups, ab stuff, and pull-ups, but very little actual martial arts stuff that would inevitably stress my injured calf. I finally met up with Amy last Wednesday for a memorable and painful session, and then continued to stay off of it for the next couple of days. Then came Saturday, which was my first chance to really test my leg at one of our lacrosse games. I showed up late since I couldn’t leave until my classes were done, and I had trouble finding the field. I managed to roll into the parking lot just before halftime, so I was ready to start the second half.

I did worry about the leg…I mean, I need to be able to walk around to teach effectively, and pulling it on the lacrosse field would not be a good idea. I jogged around on it, did some juke moves and sideways shuffles, and everything felt pretty much like it always had. And it stayed that way throughout the rest of the game. My sprint wasn’t what it was a few weeks ago, but I did well overall. I felt good about a few spearing checks that made the opposing midfielders drop the ball a couple of times. My defense was good, but I still need some work on my offense. Our next game is this Sunday, so I plan to be ready to give ‘em hell out there.

Monkey is now with me during the daytime. He was having some trouble assimilating in his classroom at his last school, and we decided to pull him out for awhile. It’s been a great bonding time for us, and I’ve enjoyed it, although I’m still getting used to including him in all of my plans. I used to be able to get out and run the streets as part of my training, but now I’ll have to run on the treadmill at the Y so he can have a place to play nearby. No problem. Minor adjustments, really.

So all is well, life is good, and I’m looking forward to the week. Train hard, everyone. And maybe have some fun while you’re at it.

Aaahhhhh, CRAP!!!

Dang it!!! I decided to go for a timed run this morning, just to see if I’ve made any progress in that area. I’ve been running quite a bit lately, so I was hoping to see some improvement. I used to run 2 miles in about 13 minutes, so I decided to run just one and see if I could keep it under 7 minutes today. Well, I should have known something was up when my mp3 player suddenly went out as I started my run. Dang. I kept going, thinking that I was used to running without musical assistance anyway. My breathing became labored and my legs started to get a bit heavy as I went. Traces of the old asthma were still around. Double dang. I continued on my course, settled into a pace I could handle, and hoped for the best. As I turned down the last, long straightway that leads back to my house, I felt like I’d make it just fine. I refused to look at my watch out of principle, and kept going. With maybe 4 blocks to go, POP! goes something in my left calf. I had an instant of ‘DANG IT!’ before it started to hurt.

I’ve got it all strapped down now, with Nikken supermini magnets applied to the affected area. I’m hoping against hope for a cancellation at precisely 3:30pm today at Massage Envy because that’s the only time this weekend I can make it in for therapeutic massage.

Ah, well. Working out and being a martial artist brings dents and dings. It’ll be fine before too long, and I’ll add it to the list of long-forgotten injuries that have since healed up completely. I’m just complaining because I can.

Busted the Bag and Dave Ramsey

It’s been a pretty decent week so far. Workouts have been good, wife is feeling much better, Monkey’s fine…all’s well. I was in my school earlier this week and have added bagwork back into my workout routine. I must say that tracking my workouts has made a huge difference, and I’m feeling better than ever at this point. I’ve been truly inspired since my last Shang Wu Association meeting, and I’ve seen dramatic improvement in my productivity in all areas of my life. I’m managing my time better, my business is improving, I’m keeping up with household chores better, and I’m in the process of using Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover to get a handle on our cash flow issues. More on that later.

But first, a word on Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia. GO RANDY!!! What a fight! We had a group at my home watching the UFC last weekend, and WOW…there were some good fights on. Rich Franklin is back on the winning track, as is Matt Hughes, but the fight of the night was Randy vs Tim. With his first punch, Randy put Tim on the mat! Is was all downhill from there for the bigger man as Randy proceeded to bully and manhandle him for the rest of the fight. Tim’s left eye resembled an eggplant by night’s end. Now, THAT was a FIGHT!

OK, back to the money stuff. You know, it really is amazing to me that we’re not taught more about how to handle our money. My Mom and Dad are actually pretty solid in that area, but I know they’ve had their share of tough times and used to carry far more debt than they probably should have. Like most of us. And I didn’t really learn that much about handling money at school or at home. It’s odd, but our culture is not about doing the right things to build true wealth…it’s usually about ‘Bigger, better, faster, more…’ and keeping up with the Joneses.

Now that I’m running my own business, I really feel like I need to do more than that. I need to provide for my family in a much more concrete and reliable way. That means no debt, making and using a budget, and slowly building a financial foundation that will allow us to build a new school on our own land, buy a house with some land around it, send Monkey to the Rodeo Clown school of his choice, and retire well.

DR’s plan isn’t rocket science. It’s just about being disciplined, diligent, and patient. Here’s a nutshell version:

1. Get current with your bills. You’ll have to make an honest, detailed budget. Ouch.
2. Put away $1000 for your Emergency Fund.
3. Use the Debt Snowball concept to eliminate your outstanding debt.
4. Finish your Emergency Fund (3 – 6 months of living expenses).
5. Get busy putting money away for retirement!

I was inspired to look over this material last year by a dear friend who has used it to become totally debt free and financially SOLID. I admire him greatly, and started to work with this concept. For one reason or another (OK, I just messed it up and didn’t follow through with it), it didn’t work that well for me at the time. Well, as the samurai said, ‘Fall down 7 times, get up 8.’ So I’m attacking this plan again with renewed vigor. For more info, you can hit www.daveramsey.com.

In other news, I had a big macho moment this week…I kicked one of my school punching bags hard enough to bust it open. I didn’t realize what I had done at first, but I was working front kicks, and after a couple of shots, the bag rotated around so I could see the opposite side…it had split open like a wide grin back there. Don’t worry…I’m not getting a big head about it. Every student in my school has beaten the crap out of that bag, and I just happened to catch it the right way, I guess. Even so, it did make me chuckle at myself.

My Sifu and a fellow instructor are coming to town tomorrow, so we’re planning to get a ton of work done. Physical training, goal setting, business planning, as well as the fun camaraderie that we share, are all things that I really enjoy when we meet. Sifu is doing a fan seminar this weekend, in addition to the intensive training that Izzy and I will receive. I don’t know what the ‘theme’ for the weekend will be, but I’ll be sure and jot it down. On Sunday, we’re planning a group trip to watch the movie 300, and there’s a chance that I might have a lacrosse game right afterwards. Man, I feel badly for the opposing team members…I’m most likely going to be HUGELY fired up from the movie, and I’m gonna hit some folks!

OK, I’ve got work to do! More later!

50 Questions

1. Height?
5'-8 1/4"

2. Have you ever smoked heroin?
Do I look that stupid?

3. Do you own a gun?
yes, one pistol-grip shotgun. DO NOT break into my house.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
No, not at all.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
Eyeech! Well, maybe if it’s covered in chili and cheese and onions.

7. What's your favorite Christmas song?
Little Drummer Boy…play that thing like you mean it!

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Water. Orange Juice. An occasional Monster KHAOS.

9. Can you do push ups?
Duh. It’s part of my job.

10. Is your bathroom clean?
Um…define ‘clean’.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry?
My wedding band. I hardly wear it, but I adore it.

12. Do you like painkillers?
Only if I have a killer headache.

13. Oregon or Maine?
Do what now?

14. Do you have A.D.D.?
I don’t think so….hey, look at the kitty!

15. Whats your favorite State?
Texas!

16. Middle Name?
Whitsitt. And stop that laughing.

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?
Man, I should have started my housework two hours ago!
I need to wash the car so I can sell it.
Can’t wait to work out today!

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought?
Franklin Planner refill, a workout book, and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu book.

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:
Water, Orange Juice, and the occasional Monster.

20. Favorite food?
Usually, it’s pho. But I’m a bit uncertain today. I’ll get back to you.

21. Favorite way to unwind?
Honestly, I love conking out on the couch after a horrific workout. Not much unwinding there, just instant oblivion.

22. Current worry?
No worries…just opportunities for growth.

23. Current hate?
The huge charge for “Operating Costs” for my lease space.

24. Favorite place to be?
Anywhere with my wife and son, but also on the lacrosse field in springtime.

25. How did you bring in the New Year?
Dancing with family at ‘The Katy House’

26. Where would you like to go?
Scotland…och!

27. Do you own slippers?
Yowza.

28. What shirt are you wearing?
gray tshirt

29. Do you tan or burn?
Tan like a Mexican, baby. Oh wait…I’m part Mexican! That explains it!

30. Favorite color(s)?
Green, blue, purple.

31. Would you be a pirate?
Only if I could be a nice pirate.

33. What songs do you sing in the shower?
Tons of songs! None of them terribly well.

34. What did you fear that was going to get you at night as a child?
The IRS.35.

What's in your pockets right now?
Amazingly, nothing.

36. Last thing that made you laugh?
Shoot, I laugh at almost everything…let’s see…someone said something really funny in class last night, and I actually had to sit down, but I don’t recall what it was.

37. Best bed sheets?
Those t-shirt sheets are awesome!

38.Worst injury you've ever had?
Broken toes, stretched tendons in my knees.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house?
Two, but only one is in use.

41. Who is your loudest friend?
Dunno.

42. Who is your most silent friend?
Again, dunno.

43. Does someone have a crush on you?
If so, I’m in the dark about it.

44. Do u wish on shooting stars?
Every single time.

45. What is your favorite book?
Far too many to list. Dennis L. McKiernan is always a favorite author, as is David Gemmell, Simon R. Green, and Stephen R. Donaldson.

47. What song do/did you want played at your wedding?
We made a CD with the themes from Braveheart and Rob Roy. Cool!

48. What song do you want played at your funeral?
Smack My Bitch Up by Prodigy. No, that’s a joke. How about “If I Only Had a Brain” by Harry Connick Junior? That’s more like me.

49. What were you doing @ 12 AM last night?
Sleeping.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
What?! Morning? Oh, I hope my darling wife’s knee is feeling better!

Hotel Indigo, Beat by the Maroon Team

It was a great weekend with a bit of a crappy ending. Every so often, my darling bride and I disappear for a little weekend getaway. Her wonderful sister and brother-in-law are nice enough to watch our Monkey while we’re away…at this point, we owe them a ton of babysitting when they have their own kids, and we’ll be happy to do it. We made reservations at Hotel Indigo (we’ve never been there) and after a pretty cool Graduation ceremony at my school, we were off!

The place was pretty different from many of the other hotels we’ve visited. The colors were green, blue, and purple, and it had the feel of a hotel on the beach, in spite of the fact that it was nestled firmly behind the Galleria. And the elevators were BIG. We’ve been to several hotels in Houston, and honestly, they all seem alike to me. But this one stood out. Now, the Room Service menu was crappy, and we had to move out of our first room because the A/C didn’t work, but aside from that, it was a pretty sweet place. They had really big showers. Cool. We slept a lot, visited House of Pies for breakfast and dinner, wandered around Barnes and Noble…generally, just enjoyed our time together. There was some necking, but I’m not going to get into that here.

So Sunday rolls around, and we pack up, go get the Monkey, and head home. Thankfully, I had cleaned up the house before we left so that we wouldn’t come home to a mess, and I had time to bring in our stuff before changing clothes to play lacrosse. The weather was beautiful…perfect lacrosse weather. Blue skies, cool breezes, niiiiiiiice. The opposing team had what our coach refers to as ‘a bunch of young flatbellies’. Yes, the other team did seem a bit young by our standards. Many of them were just barely out of high school, while our youngest guy is 31. We also had heard that this was literally the second game ever for some of these guys. We looked forward to a win.

We started out well, leading by a couple of points at the half, but we had started to notice something…our shots were starting to bounce off the goalie with alarming regularity. I mean, the little guy started heaving himself in front of our shots, and they just stopped going in the goal. Dang. Sure, the other team had a ton of guys, and they were running all over the field with their youthful exuberance, but we handled the ball better, and should have been able to run the score up a bit. Not so, according to the maroon goalie. He had come out there to stop our shots, and was taking his job seriously.

Personally, I was feeling pretty good. I had already given permission to my teammates to rag me if I scooped one-handed (a sure way to get the ball knocked out of your stick because you’re too damn lazy to stoop over and pick it up safely) and so I was coming up with ground balls here and there. And I was hitting well. I recall going for a loose ball and seeing one of their guys coming in at the same time. “I got man!” BANG. Down he went. Good for me! Another time, I played defense on #14, and when I came off the field, someone asked me if he had insulted my mother. So it was a good day for me. I did take one lousy shot and totally missed a pass that I was apparently supposed to catch and immediately shoot, but I’ll do better on offense next time.

In the end, we lost. We just couldn’t make a goal to save our lives, in spite of the vast number of shots we took. They pressured us just enough, and got enough trash goals to beat us. Argh. I hate being their first win. Ah, well. Hopefully, we’ll do better next time.

And so, I’m preparing for another fabulous day of workouts, classes, and housework. Have fun, everyone.

300 Spartans and Colon Blow

Ah, beautiful weather again! Spring has apparently arrived, bringing pretty, blooming flowers, the chirping of birds in the air, beautiful blue skies…and loads of horse pucky. I had decided to go run some sprints this morning at my usual park, but when I got there, I noticed that there were tons of horse trailers parked in every possible spot. I didn’t see any horses, but I did notice that the road that runs down the middle of the park (which is usually an asphalt black color) had taken on a very decidedly brownish tint. And it smelled. I turned around and left immediately, trying to stay upwind of the gathering as I went. I’ve been told that the trailride is planned for this weekend, and I have apparently discovered it’s starting line.

So what else is new? Well, we’ve been enjoying a combination of frosted mini-wheats and raisin bran in the mornings. And let me tell you, that stuff should just be nicknamed ‘Colon Blow’. Wow. My pipes have never been so clean. Our little Monkey has been taking piano lessons from our lovely sis-in-law, and has been doing fairly well. When he’s not climbing the walls, that is.

My darling wife has been sick, I’m sad to say. This past weekend was a bit of a mess. She rallied on Saturday afternoon enough for us all to go see Bridge to Terabithia after my lacrosse game that day, but it was downhill from there. Poor thing spent Sunday on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket. No sleep was had by anyone that night, so Monday was a haze of sleep-deprived grogginess and crankiness. She is feeling better now, and I’m extremely grateful to Dr. A. for helping her out. Things are much happier in the household at this point.

Workouts have been going well. Taiji, kung fu, strength training, all going just fine, thanks. I’ve decided that King Leonidas’ abs would look much better on me, so I’m working daily on that little project. I’ve gotta say, I can hardly wait for the movie 300 to come out. If the trailers are any indication, this movie looks like an awesome, testosterone-filled action flick, and I am just counting the days until it hits the theatres. I mean what kind of stones do you have to have to not only fight a quarter-million angry Persians to the death, but to then inspire your 299 buddies to face them with you! Du-u-u-de. That’s a tough bunch of guys right there, and one kick-ass king. “OK, boys…yeah, they outnumber us, but if we divide it up, each of us has only got eight hundred and thirty-three Persians to kill. And wound one more for good measure. Let’s get to work!” My understanding is that, although the Spartans were killed to a man, they did so much damage to the Persian army that they had to pack up and go home. Whoa. That’s an ass-whupping of monumental proportions right there. Go Spartans! I’m sure that quite a bit of artistic license was taken, but the essentials of a free people fighting against an encroaching autocracy are still there. And I’m all about that kind of thing. I’d much prefer dying on my feet to living on my knees.

Weekend update

Man, I’m really digging this mp3 player! After culling some annoying songs from my playlist, I’m finally rocking and rolling when I’m running, doing pushups, weights, even when I do taiji. Chen taiji done to Prodigy is quite an interesting experience! I even wear it when I do housework…makes the chores go by faster, that’s for sure.

My good friend Larry came up for a Stick Fighting seminar this weekend, and we always end up having fun, and getting very little ‘work’ done. We did discuss some updates for the website over lunch, but that’s about it. That doesn’t really matter though, ‘cause we had a kick-ass seminar on Saturday! Attacks and blocks with the single stick, as well as some trapping, self-defense, and even a few nasty takedowns. ‘Twas way cool.

On Sunday, I had another lacrosse game, this time against last year’s league champs. They won. Go figure. The good news is that I felt pretty good…I ran well, appeared to be in the right place at more or less the right time, and didn’t have any massive mistakes. The bad news was that I’m in the process of breaking in a couple of new sticks, and my aim is a bit shaky. And I got totally run over by some big dude from the other team. We were fighting for a ground ball and I managed to look up to see a huge number headed my way. I didn’t even have time to register exactly what number it was…I recall taking an instant inventory of my situation and realizing that I was off balance and about to go for a ride…OOF…I hit the ground, rolled, and came up laughing. Whew! No injuries! Just a well-timed hit. Good job, whoever you were.

I had decided to take Connor with me again, but I was disappointed to see that he wasn’t nearly as interested in the game this time, so I had to split my attention between the game and making sure that he wasn’t neck-deep in the nearest ditch. Still, he’s a great kid…if a bit on the noisy side. I enjoy spending the time with him…he does come up with some interesting topics of conversation.

Today, it’s back to business as usual. I made some calls, chatted with my buddy Paul for awhile. Then it was off to the Y for a change of scenery and a workout. It’s raining today, so I passed on my usual run, forms practice, and run. I hit the treadmill and did a couple of miles with intervals at a pace that felt a bit faster than I’m used to. I worked on some taiji for awhile, but then the gym I was using was opened up for a class. I tried finishing up my taiji in another gym, but the ‘after school kids’ were in there, and balls of all types were flying everywhere. Not good for taiji.

I finished up by hitting a round of pushups, divebomber pushups, crunches, v-tucks, pull-ups, and medicine ball situps. Happily, I’m feeling rather drained. I’m going to make a sandwich, doze on the couch, then finish my housework before heading back to the school for the evening’s classes.

It’s not really that exciting. But I dig it! Oh, and congratulations to my buddy BB for passing his most recent Krav Maga test! Those things are grueling affairs, I hear. He’s apparently quite sore. So if you get the chance, poke him and see if he yelps.

Nice weather...at last!

Ahhh….the weather is absolutely gorgeous! It’s a welcome break from the cold and rainy nonsense that’s been going on out here lately. I don’t much like running in the rain, and I prefer running outdoors to the treadmill, so when the weather’s bad, I end up making a choice between getting cold and wet, or letting another run pass me by. Neither prospect thrills me, but today, I hit the road with my mp3 player blaring.

I’ve discovered that my jogging track at the nearby park is just about 2 miles from my home, so now I run out there to practice taiji and forms in the morning and then run back. I know I look a little bit odd out there doing Chen taiji or mantis kung fu, but no one bothers me, and the police seem used to me by now. Today, I had a great workout, and I’m looking forward to doing a bit more when I get to the school later this afternoon.

Last week was kind of rough. Although my visit to Florida had energized me and I was ready to teach, some new tenants had just started painting the space downstairs, and the fumes found their way into our school. WOW, that was bad! After awhile, all of our kung fu was ‘drunken’ kung fu! We cancelled the later classes on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the smell, but the place started to air out towards the end of the week, so we were able to get back to work. Saturday’s open class was FULL, and I was really happy to see so many people training.

Saturday, I had my 5-year-old son with me, since his gorgeous Momma had her monthly training session to attend in Houston, and I took him and a friend of ours to one of our lacrosse games. You know, I haven’t had Monkey out at a game in a long time, and the last time, he was so young that he really didn’t know what was going on. Things have changed. I set him up with some toys and lunch, made sure his coat and hat were on firmly, and pointed out where I would be playing before donning my gear and green-and-white jersey. When I was ready, and standing in the line of substitutes about to go in and play, I heard him walk up and say, ‘Daddy! Good luck!’ When I turned to see his little gap-toothed grin looking up at me, I’m not ashamed to say that my vision blurred more than a little. Later, when I was running with the ball at some point, I could hear him yelling, ‘Go, Daddy!! Go!’ And that’s how he earned a season ticket to our lacrosse games. Well, that and the fact that he talked to each of the players when they came off the field to rest, and somehow managed to include himself in the end-of-game handshake with the opposing team. He’s a good kid…I’m lucky to have him.

The UFC fights were on this weekend, and I was pleased to see everyone stocking up on chips and snacks on Saturday to get ready for the fights. Then someone reminded me that it was Superbowl weekend. Ah, well. Anyway, the fights were lots of fun, we had a dozen or so folks come out to see them with us, and I’m already looking forward to the next UFC. We did have a big laugh when Scott Smith did the Karate Kid crane stance during his fight with Patrick Cote…it didn’t help him win the fight, but he did get some style points.

I get lots of email (don’t we all), but I get a quote of the day each morning. Some are more useful to me than others, but this one resonates with me lately.
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." Mark Twain 1835-1910 writer

I’ve been applying this principle since I returned from Florida, and it’s helping a ton! Have a great day, everyone!

Back from the Florida Trip

Well, I’m back from my big Florida trip. Lots of good stuff.

After packing, making notes, laying out my clothes, and making sure of my flight information, I finally staggered to bed last Wednesday night at about 1:30am. 4:55am came not long after, let me tell you! I managed to give my wife and son quiet kisses and then made it out the door with little trouble. The traffic at that time of day isn’t bad at all, so I made great time to the Park-n-Fly, and checked in at the airport on time. I waited for my friend and colleague, Israel, to show up from his connecting flight, and I worried that he wouldn’t make it. But he hustled down the terminal just in time, and we even managed to sit together on the way out to Tampa.

This weekend was an instructor’s conference. I am one of the founding members of the Shang Wu Association, dedicated to passing on a blend of Master Art D’Agostino’s Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Hong Style Chen Taijiquan, and we were getting together to see how we were doing, to train and talk, and to discuss goals for the coming year.

I had looked forward to this small gathering, and I was not disappointed in the least. We had a fabulous guest instructor, Paul, who spends months at a time in China or in Canada training with Masters Li Enjiu and Joseph Chen. He gave us some great insights into our Chen Taiji training and pushhands, and also some fabulous exercises to improve our taiji. In addition, Master Arthur went over some of our Kung Fu curriculum and cleaned up some things for us.

The main thing that I got from the weekend was a great sense of community, of camaraderie with the other Shang Wu instructors. We also discussed business strategies, and I’m so glad that I have a group that shares my business ethics. It’s not uncommon to see martial arts schools that are making money hand-over-fist, and churning out black belts by the dozen…but one might also notice that the skill levels of those black belts is not really that high, and they are somewhat sneaky in their sales pitches. Other schools turn out fabulous students of extremely high levels of skill and athleticism and fighting ability…but one might also notice that these schools have the fewest students, and are just getting by each month. We believe that one can run a high level martial arts school, and turn out great students, while making a decent living…without ‘screwing’ our students financially. I won’t get into the politics of the whole concept, but I’ll just say that I’m really excited about the coming year, and I’m looking forward to teaching Shang Wu martial arts to my students!

One thing that inevitably happens when we get together is that there ends up being a theme for the weekend. Someone makes a funny comment early on, and it’s repeated in various situations throughout our gathering, to the laughter of everyone involved. This time, we didn’t really end up with one theme but several funny topics of conversation.

Past themes for Shang Wu gatherings (and no, you’re probably not going to understand any of them):

Tombstone. (“Excuse me, but I believe you’re sittin’ in my chair.”)
Cow Tipping. (thanks, Mr. Lawler)
“(Spanish curse here), Barbacoa!”
“You’re gonna make me look at this @!#$?”
Rakka-takka-tak-takka-tat. (It makes it come out easier, I swear!)

And my personal favorite from past gatherings…

“I didn’t think you were gonna kick me!”

This weekend, we covered the following new topics of conversation:

Raheem’s date. (“Did you have anything to drink?” “Yeah…a hiene.”)
“I got my SWEET LEGS!!”
YOOP! SLAP!! YOOP!! SLAP!!
“How’s you’re pimp hand, Joseph?” “Strong, baby…strong!”
The deadly Chi Log.
“That only a .22. I kung fu master! I kill you with my last breath!”

And so it goes. I’m proud to be a part of a group that shares a vision of helping others, teaching solid kung fu…and has a pretty good sense of humor.

On Sunday, I just managed to get through security at the airport in time to make my flight, and I sat next to a thoroughly wonderful woman named Gwen, who had the sweetest Louisiana drawl. After a pleasant flight, I made it back to the car and headed for our first lacrosse game of the season. I was still changing clothes in the parking lot when the first whistle went off, but I didn’t miss much. We were playing Metro, a solid team that gives us trouble if we’re off our game. OK, I’ll say it…we were off our game. First game of the season, and we barely had 14 guys out there. I know that it’ll get better as we go, and I plan to do some damage on the field every chance I get.

I had only managed to lay one fellow out by the end of the third quarter, and I was exhausted! I had just recovered from my half-marathon and a whole weekend of Chen taiji will really take it out of your legs! I recall sitting on my portable stool with my helmet and gloves off, thinking that maybe I should hang it up for the day. I was beyond running at that point, and I felt like I might blow chunks at any moment.

As I considered leaving early, I suddenly became embarrassed. I mean, what kind of example was I setting? What would my students say? “Never quit!”, that’s what they’d say. So I strapped on my helmet, picked up my gloves and stick, and ambled back to the line to go back on the field. My turn came soon enough, and I’m happy to say that I caused some trouble out there. I’m not much on offense right now, but I can still play some decent defense. ;-)

So now I’m home, classes have resumed, and life is generally good. Aside from taxes that were due today and some paint fumes coming from the place downstairs from the school, everything’s cool.

Here’s another little survey. My Mom says she likes them.

1. What is your occupation? Martial Arts Instructor!!
2. What color are your socks right now? White.
3. What are you listening to right now? The rain outside.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Turkey sandwich.
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Quite well, yes.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green.
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Izzy.
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I borrowed it from a friend on Myspace…don’t know her well, but she’s cute.
9. How old are you today? 37. All day long.
10. Favorite drink? Ashamed to say that I do enjoy a good Coca-Cola belch.
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? MMA fights.
12. Have you ever colored your hair? Nope.
13. Pets? One beta fish named Willie.
14. Favorite food? Pho Tai with Gui Cuon. Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup with fresh Spring Rolls. Mmmmmmm!!! Honestly, I could have that for lunch every day.
15. What was the last movie you watched? Yellow River Fighter…a classic old Kung Fu movie.
16. What was the last book you read? Probably one of David Gemmell’s books.
17. What do you do, to vent anger? Work out. Breathe. Run. Or head back for more pho.
18. Favorite toy as a child? Star Wars figures….man, those were cool!
19. What is your favorite fall or spring? Fall. It’s such a relief after the scorching hot summer, and I love the deep blue of the sky in October.
20. Hugs or kisses? Both, as often as possible.
21. Cherries or blueberries? Blueberries
22. Do you want your friends to post this? Why not?
23. Who is most likely to respond? Dunno.
24. Who is least likely to respond? Not a clue.
25. Living arrangements? Married, in a house.
26. When was the last time you cried? I’m such a sap, probably during some movie or other.
27. What is on the floor of your closet? Let’s not get into that…
28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Not sending to anyone in particular.
29. What did you do last night? Came home early from class, watched shows with my darling wife and went to bed. Nothing fancy.
30. Favorite smells? Usually food related smells are my favorite.
31. What inspires you? Folks who follow a dream, push through adversity to make it happen.
32. What are you afraid of? Nothing comes to mind. I’m sure there’s something.
33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Spicy cheeseburgers. I’ll take two, please.
34. Favorite dog breed? I miss our pugs.
35. Number of keys on your key ring? Less than a dozen, I’d guess.
36. How many years at your current job? I opened our school in December, 2003, but I’ve been a teacher for a long time.
37. Favorite day of the week? Sunday…family day!
38. How many states have you lived? 1

Be good, everyone!

Just a little survey.

1. Who is the next person you'll hold hands with?
Probably Connor, especially if we have to walk across a parking lot or street.

2. Do you sleep with the TV on?
Sleep? No. Nap? Oh, yes.

3. Have you ever drank milk straight out of the carton?
No

4. What did you do today?
So far, I’ve only had breakfast and I’m checking my messages.

5. How fast can you type?
Not sure. But I competed in typing in High School, so I’m still pretty fast.

6. Eye color?
Hazel.

7. Do you like your life right now?
Oh, yes…it’s pretty darned cool!

8. When's the last time you chose a bath over a shower?
Wow, I don’t remember. I know that I have, but it must have been long ago.

9. Do you knock on wood?
Occasionally.

10. Are you drinking anything right now?
No

11. Do you have good vision?
One eye is fine, the other’s a bit off.

12. Can you hula hoop?
Surprisingly, not very well.

13. Could you ever forgive a cheater?
Maybe. Maybe not. Depends.

14. What are you thinking about right now?
My plans for the day.

15. A movie you watched when you were little
The Muppet Movie.

16. What song's in your head right now?
Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man.”

17. What are you doing next week?
Similar to this week. Work out, teach class, fight with the housework.

18. Plans for today?
Visit my sis-in-law to help her with Ebay.

19. what color are ur underwear?
Blue.

20. Name some places you've gone.
Mostly Texas cities…I don’t get out much.

21. When was the last time you told someone "I love you"?
Earlier this morning.

22. Last stupid thing you did drunk?
I have never been drunk.

23. How are you feeling today?
Happy.

24. Are you black?
Not to my knowledge.

25. Have you ever been suspended or expelled from school?
No.

26. Have you ever crawled through a window?
Not lately, but yes.

27. What's for lunch?
Depends on where sis-in-law wants to go.

28. Have you ever eaten dog food?
No. Geez, that’s gross!

29. Can you handle the truth?
Generally speaking, yes.

30. What did you do last night?
Watched ‘Heroes’ after teaching class.

31. Buy anything lately?
No.

32. Any cool scars?
Nothing too interesting.

33. Name an old school song you like?
’I Can Dream About You’ by Dan Hartman

34. How many kids do you plan on having?
1, maybe 2.

35. Do you want to get married?
Already married

36. How often do you talk on the phone?
Often.

37. Do you talk to yourself?
Yes.

38. Is there something you want that you can't have?
More sleep would be nice.

39. Name five things about the opposite sex that you first notice...
1. The way they move.
2. Smile
3. Eyes
4. Shape
5. Smell

40. How do you feel about the word wawa?
Um…do what now?

41. Name a fault?
Always fighting procrastination.

42. What was the last thing you ate?
Cereal.

43. Something pretty you've seen lately?
My darling wife smiled at me last night.

44. Last movie watched?
Arthur and the Invisibles

45. What do you want to hear?
The wind in the trees.

46. What do you want most?
A home on the edge of town with enough land around it that I can feel like I finally have some elbow room.

Finished the Race!!

Well, I achieved two goals yesterday. (1) I finished another Half-Marathon. (2) I did better than I did last year. It was only by one minute, but it was still better! Here’s how the whole thing went…

My good friend Brian showed up on Saturday. We had originally planned to run this race together as we did last year, but a nagging calf injury kept him out of it this time. Even so, he braved the oncoming bad weather just to come out and support me. True friend, that one. Anyway, we drove out to the George R. Brown Convention Center to pick up my race packet. That’s the thing that has my race number, timing chip, last minute race info, all that stuff. I had received an official confirmation card recently that was necessary for me to pick up my packet, and after I grabbed it from the house, we were off to the GRB.

Now, it’s been awhile since I’ve been in downtown Houston, but normally, my navigational skills are pretty good. I said “normally.” This time, we ended up driving around Rice University and the zoo for awhile before I bought a map and plotted a new course to our destination. My wife is still laughing at me for that one. In spite of this minor foul-up, we found a parking spot and I looked around for the confirmation card…no luck. I checked the glove compartment and around the seats. No card. We got out of the card and started digging around my car (which is not the best organized on the road) and came up with nothing. I was certain that I had brought it, but it was nowhere to be found. There wasn’t enough time to head home and print a new one from my email and come back before registration would close.

I was somewhat peeved at this point, more about the fact that I just knew that I had brought the card, but couldn’t find it at all. Brian suggested that this had certainly happened before, and that they probably had provisions for such in the convention center. So we headed towards the GRB. As we got closer, we saw a patrol officer ticketing cars, so Brian offered to go back and watch the car and move it if necessary so I could get my situation handled.

Sure enough, they had a large sign at one corner of the Expo that said REPLACEMENT CONFIRMATION CARDS. Problem solved. I picked up my packet, met up with Brian (who said our car was fine), and wandered around the booths for awhile. Since it was the end of the two day Expo, there were some really good deals to be had on shoes, running gear, and such, but we just browsed around before heading home. And we didn’t get lost this time.

Wanna hear the funny part? When we got back to the car, and I sat in the driver’s seat and pulled on my seat belt, I happened to glance up…and found that I had stuck the confirmation card into my sun visor. So I wouldn’t lose it. We laughed until our stomachs hurt.

Then began the search for an mp3 player. My fabulous Mom bought me a doozie of one for Christmas, but neither of us knew that my computer system wouldn’t support it without an upgrade (and that’s a whole other story). So, I was searching for a cheap player that had certain features. (1) Cheap. (2) Must hold at least 2.5 hours of songs (3) Cheap. (4) A shuffle feature. And (5) It had to work with my freakin’ computer. I mentioned the plan to my wife, and she’s now inheriting the player as soon as I get my machine fixed so I can use the one Mom gave me. Anyway, back to the story…

We tried Best Buy…Sam’s Club…Wal Mart…and found exactly what I needed at, of all places, Academy. There was some discussion of finding an armband, but I figured that I had an ordinary sweatband at home that would work just fine. (It did.) So we went home for a big pasta dinner, and early to bed…well, almost. I went to bed at around 1am after loading my new mp3 player, making sure that my clothes were laid out, my bag was packed, and that my race stuff was all set to go.

I carefully set the alarm to go off at 5am…or so I thought. It went off at 4am. Ouch. I reset it, dozed for a bit, and then up again and tearing around the house getting ready to go. This time, we drove straight to one of the designated parking garages, walked to the GRB, and I readied myself for the race, with Brian taking some pics and video.

Here’s a tip for all you marathon runners out there…if you use one of the available port-a-potties at the race site, make sure and shut the latch. I surprised some poor guy as he was taking his pre-race wee-wee. We did not catch this part on video. The weather was warmer than last year, but damp, and we were hoping the knock the race out before the really nasty weather came in.

So I stretched out, got all my stuff ready, waved to the camera, and entered the corral that would funnel me out at the starting gate. I walked with the other runners for awhile and realized that my shoes were tied a bit looser than I’d like. I stooped to tie them, and heard the starting cannon BOOM somewhere up ahead of me. Not a very auspicious start to the race. But then, it’s timed by the special chip that was tied into my shoelaces, not by the gun. So I got my shoes fixed up, and then started jogging with the others to the starting line.

SO MANY PEOPLE! This year, both the full marathon and the half- were at full capacity, so there were 15,000 people on the road with me. Wow. And most of them were wearing mp3 players. So there! Many folks run for fun, some to test themselves, some for more special reasons…I saw many shirts that displayed those reasons…loved ones, charities, organizations. It was all way cool. Seeing the vast, bobbing sea of runners as we ran over the Elysian Viaduct is always a moving experience.

The first few miles were fine. Breathing…check. Legs…check. Feet…uh, oh. My left foot was already starting to get that burning feeling that means something’s up. By mile 5, it was starting to get ugly. At that point, I felt like I had to make a choice: do I keep running on this thing, knowing that I’m probably going to blister the hooey out of my foot, or do I quit?

I didn’t quit.

I decided, with the help of the heavy metal blaring in my ears, that I could fix my foot later. But the race was going on right at that moment, and I wouldn’t have another chance at it ‘til next year. So I ignored it and pushed on. Eventually, that pain faded into all the other general noise and feedback that I was receiving, so it wasn’t a big deal.

And the rest of the race went by without incident. The weather turned out to be perfect for running. Even so, I discovered that my legs are not as conditioned as I had hoped, and I had to walk a few times, but I kept moving forward. “Run, walk, stagger, or crawl” is my motto, and I kept it to the first two. The weather was great, the fans were yelling, and I had music to listen to as I made the turn just before mile 9…that’s where the Half-marathoners start to head back to the finish line and the Full-marathoners just keep….on….going. My hat’s off to them…I think I’ll stick with the shorter race.

I continued my run, run, run, walk, run, run, run, walk, pace until somewhere between mile 11 and 12, just as we headed back into the downtown area. I decided at that point that I would not walk again, no matter what. I was going to finish those last 2+ miles at a run. OK, so it was a slow run, but it was still a run, dang it! And so I plodded on.

Folks around me started to pick up speed as we started running between the skyscrapers and we could hear the huge crowd roaring for us in the distance. I did not pick up speed. I do recall my left hamstring saying something like “Dude…what’s up? Um…we’re having an issue here…could you stop for a minute? Please? No? Hmm…well, OK, I’ll just talk to you later, then. Be cool.” I recall being thankful that I’d made my post-race massage appointment over two months ago, and I just kept running.

In talking with my students, I had joked that, if I had the strength at the end of the race, I would do a race-finish-dance that would be worthy of Youtube. Sorry, folks. No disco here. No running man, no MC Hammer, nothing. I simply raised my arms after I crossed the line, and then I did manage to throw a few punches. Amazingly, my darling wife caught me on TV behind the commentators. Cool!

The walk from the finish line to the GRB is a slow one, worthy of any zombie movie of your choice. Some folks are on the verge of passing out, some are exultant, and then there are folks like me who just amble slowly along. Inside, I received my finisher’s medal (destined for my son’s neck), picked up my bag, and stood in line for my finisher’s shirt. I noticed a little girl standing next to me…maybe ten years old. She had also finished the Half-Marathon. And I think she beat me. Wow. Good for her!

Got my shirt, found my friend Brian, and collapsed on the floor where no one would step on me. It took awhile for me to get my shoes off and see the blister…no, that doesn’t do it justice. The THUNDEROUS BLISTER OF DOOM that had actually doubled the size of my pinky toe. I changed into some dry clothes, slowly packed up, and we walked back to the parking garage. OK, Brian walked, I hobbled/limped. Crossing the street was fun, as I had to stop in the middle of it to rest. I heard some folks laughing, but they were hobbling too, so we all just laughed and waved.

From there, we went and had pho at my favorite local restaurant, Pho Mai. That’s at Westgreen and I-10 in Katy, next to Slick Willies. I ate just about double what I usually get, and it was great. After a shower back at the house, we went for the post-race massage.

Amy is my favorite massage therapist. She’s a good friend of ours, and a friend of Jade Mountain. She’s used to me, and knows how to keep me functional. And this time, she absolutely tore me up. I got more of a workout from squirming around on her table as she dug her elbows into my calves and hamstrings than I had during the race! Yeowch!!! But I know the drill, and after surviving that ordeal, I’m feeling much, much better today. The blister of doom is already almost healed, I’m sore, but not dead, and all is right with the world. I’m ready for next year.

Things I learned during this experience:

1. When choosing music for your race, certain songs should be omitted. Honestly.

2. Hindu squats are necessary for next year’s race. I haven’t been training them as hard as I should, and I could tell the difference. Breathing was fine, but the legs gave out.

3. It’s time for a new race outfit. I looked like a dork.

4. It is more fun to run with someone than alone. So I’m looking for someone who could maintain a ten-minute mile pace with me next year.

5. It’s also time for new socks. Blisters suck.

6. I love this race. Absolutely. It is a total blast, the energy is amazing, and it’s a fabulous experience. Next year, I will sponsor at least two other runners to run this race, no matter their pace or experience. More on that later.

7. I already knew this, but my buddy, Brian, is a true friend. He drove all the way down here just to support me. Thanks, man.

So that’s it. My tale of the race. There’s more, of course, but I’ve got to get some lunch for my son, and there are things to do around here on the cold, rainy MLK Day. Have fun, everybody!

Running Strawberries and such...

Just got in from a shorter run…3 miles at an easy 9 minute pace. My calves have been barking at me for the last few weeks, so I’ll probably go in for a massage between now and the weekend. The race is almost here! I’m pretty excited about it. I don’t know that I’ll be able to beat my first time of 2:10:46. Holy crap, how did I do that? The next year was considerably slower due to the onset of my asthma…2:24:13. If I can keep it at or under a 10 minute per mile pace this year, I’ll meet my best time. Or not. Just depends on whether I pass out on the road or manage to keep my feet moving.

They are officially discouraging the use of headphones and portable music devices this year, but have stated that they won’t yank runners off the course for wearing them. Considering that I’ve seen folks running this race dressed up as giant strawberries, I figure my mp3 player won’t cause too much of a fuss, and that’s only if I can get the thing working in time for the race. The first two times I ran, I was adamant that I wanted to explore my mind/body connection, to feel every breath and footstep during the race, to truly experience the grueling challenge of running such a long distance. This year, I just want to hear the theme from Rocky as I roll towards the finish line. And Cameo’s ‘Word Up’ at some point along the course, just to make me smile instead of holding that runner’s scowl that I’m so prone to wearing. By the way, my bib number is 22999, in case you want to track my progress.

In other news, I surprised my wife yesterday by cleaning out the clutter in our bedroom. It still needs some work, but I’m pleased with the progress I made in there. She got home with our monkey well after dark, and I guessed correctly that she’d have plopped down on the couch with him to recover from the day without ever going back to the bedroom. So during one of our phone conversations, I casually asked her to go and pick up a set of spare keys that I had left in there…she was thrilled! Ah, happy day.

I’ll be heading out to Florida to train with my Sifu, Art D’Agostino at the end of the month. I’m looking forward to it, since I need some work on a few things, and since our meetings always leave me energized and ready to implement some new technique at our school. The day I get back, I also have a lacrosse game, so I’ll basically go straight from the plane to the field. I’ve been waiting for our season to start ever since the playoffs ended last spring, so look out!

Have a happy day, all.

Big, Honkin' Survey

Well, my Mom complained that I don't update my blog enough. So here's a little something:

Big Honkin' Survey

What do you wanna be when you grow up? I’m already a martial arts instructor. To me, that’s way cool.

Is 30 old? Man, I’m just getting started, and 40 is closing fast. So, no.

What's your major? Martial Arts.

Do you have a crush on anyone? Nope.

What's the prettiest part of your body? My wife says she loves my hands and butt.

What celebrity would you shag? Let me get back to you on that…

Have you shagged any celebrities? No.

Have you met any celebrities? Olivia Newton-John. What a cutie!

Do you think you'll ever get married? Twice. Second time’s the charm.

What do you want your wedding song to be? We walked to our wedding site to the theme from Braveheart.

If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? I’ve always wanted to visit Scotland, but it’s awfully cold there just now. Maybe the Grand Canyon.

If you were stranded on a desert island,what 2 things would you take with you? A Cold Steel Trailmaster knife, and a satellite phone.

What is your favorite club? I kind of like the big wooden ones that have nails on the business end and a good grip on the other end.

Movie you wished you had starred in? The Matrix trilogy or any of the Star Wars movies.

Any other celebrities you would shag? Still working on that. Most of them are just too slender for me.

Who is the coolest person you know? That’d be my wife. Honestly.

Who do you know of that you wanna meet, but you've never met? I’d enjoy meeting Randy Couture.

Whats the best class you ever took? I really enjoyed Tumbling in college. Lots of cute girls.

What's the best job you've ever had? I’m in it right now. Martial arts instructor.

Is there someone that you can’t stop thinking about that doesn’t know it? Nope.

What song is in your head right now? Hang on while I listen….OK, it’s apparently ‘Ain’t No Other Man’ by Christina Aguilera. No, I don’t know why.

What did you eat for breakfast this morning? Eggs with cheese on toast.

Do you love your mom? Do you love your dad? Do you love your siblings? Yes, to all three.

Do you get along better with men or women? Usually women. I don’t have much in common with most guys.

Plain or peanut? Plain

Smooth or crunchy? Crunchy

White or wheat? Wheat

Coldplay or Nivana? Do what now?

Purple or Chartruese? Definitely Purple

Aliens or Ghosts? Both

Do you believe in ghosts? Yes, of course.

Favorite movie? Just one?

Favorite drink? That’s bad for me…coke.

Favorite alchoholic drink? I almost never drink alcohol.

Favorite mixed drink? See above.

Favorite city? I’m pretty partial to Katy.

Favorite store? Half.com

Favorite sport? Lacrosse and MMA fighting.

Vices? Chocolate and sodas.

Addictions? None, really.

Favorite food? Pho tai with goi cuon.

Favorite animal? I like pugs.

Best friends name(s)? I talk to Brian and Larry almost every day. I’m always amazed at their tolerance of my foibles.

Have you ever thrown up on someone really hot? Uh…no.

Has anyone really hot ever thrown up on you? No. I don’t go to parties much.

Have you ever been to Mexico? Yes, twice.

Do you obsess over little things? Occasionally.

Do you have any tattoos? Not unless you count the happy face my son drew on me once.

Do you have any piercings? Nope.

What is your ethnic background? Vaguely Scottish and Mexican. Go figure.

Name three sexy people's myspace names. Trouble here…

Have you ever broken anyones heart? Unfortunately, yes.

Has anyone ever broken your heart? Yes, of course.

Do you refer to anyone as "the one that got away"? No, not really. Although there was that gorgeous young lady from Tumbling that was interested in me…and I didn’t realize it until years later. Man, what an idiot!

Have you slept with anyone that is on myspace? My wife’s on there, so yes.

Did you think that that question was a little too personal? Probably, but it’s no biggie.

Republican or democrat? Actually, I’d like to slap almost every politician I’ve ever heard of.

Liberal or conservative? Probably more liberal.

What's your favorite word? Monkey. It’s just a funny sounding word.

Who is the hottest woman/man in the world? I’m still working on the whole celebrity thing, so I’ll get back to you.

Who would you kill if your morals would allow? Amazingly, my hit list has vanished.

What's your favorite restaurant? Pho Mai in Katy on Westgreen and I-10. I’d be there right now, if I could.

What color are your underwear right now? Let’s see…looks like blue.

If you could join one band, what would it be? If you could resurrect one band, who would it be? Easy…I’d be a roadie for the Go-Go’s back in the 80’s.

Favorite male vocalist? Chris Daughtry’s been impressive lately.

Favorite female vocalist? Amy Lee from Evanescence.

Favorite athlete? Randy Couture

Favorite body part on a guy/girl? OK, I’m blushing now.

What your ideal mate should look like? Like my wife.

What your ideal mate should act like? Like my wife.

What your ideal mate should be interested in? She’s entered a career in Montessori teaching, and she’s loving it. It also helps that she’s interested in me.

How he/she should propose. I took care of that already.

What band does your ideal mate absolutely have to love? She can love whatever band she likes…that’s her prerogative.

What can your ideal mate not do? Well, she had to give up running with the bulls due to bad knees.

Give 10 initials (max) of the boys/girls first names that you want. Do what now?? 10 kids? I don’t want 10 kids!!

Do you believe in soul mates? Wholeheartedly.

Do you love yourself? Yes. Although forgiving myself is sometimes a challenge.

Do you love your friends? Yes.

Who do you love the most in the whole wide world? My wife and son.

Running, the Tooth Faerie, and the Trials of Windows

Ouch! Wow, my calves are sore! You see, I figured that since the Half-Marathon is only 9 days away, I should get out and run more often. And my calves are feeling it! The good news is that my asthma is apparently in check. No problems there (thanks Chris!!), so I don’t have to wear myself out just trying to breathe. Since my legs are generally pretty strong after years of martial arts, I can run fairly well, if not terribly fast. My calves are hurting because I generally run on the balls of my feet, rather than heel-toe, as I should. It’s a holdover from playing lacrosse, and I just never felt that comfortable running heel-toe until I actually get to the Half-Marathon. Somewhere around mile 5, I end up running heel-toe whether I like it or not! In any event, I ran around 3.5 miles yesterday with no trouble whatsoever, so I should survive the race next weekend. I don’t think that Nicodemus Malakwen, Brian Sell, and Jason Hartmann have anything to worry about this year…I’ll not be fighting them for the win. They run about twice as fast as I do.

In other news, I’ve decided to allow my assistant instructor, Sihing Shaun Lawler, to take over some classes for me a couple of times a week. That will allow him some teaching opportunities, a chance for me to do some other work, and give the students a chance of pace. Everybody wins! I can see Mr. Lawler running his own school one of these days, in spite of his inability to pick a winner in the UFC.

And our Monkey has lost his first tooth. Man, he’s cute with that gap in his lower teeth! He mentioned that it was ‘short’. So I took a look, and noticed that it wasn’t short…it was wiggling! So we discussed the idea of his tooth coming out, and mentioned the possibility of the Tooth Faerie. He was down with all that, and kept gently wiggling his tooth. It came out a day or so later, and everyone was thrilled. However, I must admit to a certain amount of sniffling and discussing how our little boy is growing up too fast…I mean, he loses his first tooth one day, and the next, he’s applying for college. Too fast. He was nothing more than a 4 pound baby just yesterday, right? Where did the last 5 years go??

By the way, did you know that you should be careful when buying software? I mean, if you go to a local electronics store and by Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade, and your machine has Windows 2000 Pro on it, you’re going to be out of luck when you try and return the XP because it doesn’t work. Go figure. Like they thought I’d copied the software or something just because I opened it already. Geez. However, the Larryman has offered to help me get my system up and running. You’re a saint, my friend. How does that sound…Saint Larry?

Today’s a rainy, cold Friday, and I’m tempted to take a short nap on the couch. I mean, it’s only 8:30am, the dishes are already done, there’s laundry thumping around in the dryer, and I don’t have anywhere to be until this afternoon, so why not? I’ve got plenty of time for my Friday workout. So a-napping, I think I’ll go. See ya.

Surviving the Holidays

Whew! We’re back. After a wonderful trip up north to visit my folks, we returned last Thursday and have been struggling with various issues ever since. Argh! Did you know that eating a left-over cheeseburger that remained in your car for a couple of hours in the afternoon is an extremely BAD idea? Well, it is. Take it from me. I haven’t thrown up that hard in quite some time, and I don’t ever want to do that again. Ever. Eeyech.

Some of the highlights from our holiday season:

Flying on yet another tiny, propeller-driven plane. And they actually told us not to sit in the back seats, “because it makes the plane tip.”

Seeing my mom and dad.

Feeling sad that their dog, Ricco, had just run away.

Feeling happy when he showed up the next day after being inadvertently locked in the shed overnight.

Visiting with my brother, who now has a Saint Bernard in his back yard. No, I don’t know why.

The Guerilla Attack Family Gathering at Aunt Linda’s house. Over and done with in 42 minutes flat.

Watching our Monkey chase my Mom around at the playground.

Waiting for our luggage at the airport for a half-hour and then spotting it laying against the wall nearby.

Christmas Eve at my in-law’s, where there was a nativity scene skit (my son was the pirate).

Spending time at my dear friend Jason’s parent’s houseboat.



There’s more, but I need to hustle out of here soon. Now that I’m fully recovered from the food poisoning issue, I’ve got lessons to teach.

Hack, Snort, Cough, Snnaaarrk.

Argh. This week has been a bit of a trial. Monkey's been sick with an ear infection, so he stayed home much of the week. Actually, we didn't know it was an ear infection until the doctor looked at his ear and said "WHOA! Does that hurt?" Monkey replied that it didn't, but he couldn't hear out of it too well. "Wow. Your son must have a high pain tolerance." He must have gotten that from his gorgeous Momma...I'm a big baby when I get sick.

So I've been sick all week. The sheer amount of mucus that has made its way through my system has been staggering. I mean, I don't think that elephants can produce this much snot. Geez! I've been basically miserable for most of the week, but I'm finally nearing the end of it. I hope. So I've lost another week of training for the Half-Marathon, and I'm about to go up to Indiana to visit my folks for several days. I wonder if they'll let me sneak off to the YMCA to hit the treadmill here and there?

We're all looking forward to the trip. My darling wife is just about to drop from the 12 hour workdays she's been putting in, and I'm pretty sure that she's ready to nap in Mom's basement for hours on end. I've been missing my family lately, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them all. Mom, Dad, and Pee Wee, my brother. Granted, I'm the only one allowed to call him that since he's 25 and at least as tall as me, but that's what I've called him his whole life. He still calls me Brother, and I have to admit that I really like that. Pee Wee's really come into his own lately...two cute kids, about to break into the home-building business, and he's got more college degrees than I, by far. Proud of that one, I am.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone up there, aunts, uncles, cousins (there must be a million of 'em), everyone. The plane rides I'm not too thrilled about. We generally take one big flight most of the way and then transfer to a puddle-jumper to get to the South Bend airport...I swear, one time we walked out to the runway to board and a mechanic was cussing at one of the propellers on our plane. That's right, propellers. I thought the pilot was going to stick his head out of the cockpit wearing one of those leather helmets with earflaps on it like Snoopy used to wear. It was not a large plane. By the way, did you know that those little barf bags will hold a fist-sized apple and a whole can of ginger ale? They will. Yessiree, they sure will.

So classes will be run by SiHing Shaun Lawler while I'm away. I understand that he's quite excited to run class...that probably means trouble for the rest of the students, but they could use a change of pace now and then. I hope nobody pukes on our mat.

Ninja Warrior!!!

After a bit of an absence, I’m finally back to the regular routine. More or less. I just got in from a 2 mile run, the first run in more than 2 weeks. Argh. I admit that I was a little less than diligent during Thanksgiving week. And the week after that, the weather turned nasty, and I didn’t bother to jump rope at my school…yes, I, too, can have my lazy moments. But now I’ve returned to my regular workout schedule, and I’m currently sitting with that slack-jawed look of exhaustion as I type. I sense a nap coming on.

Things are generally good. Our little monkey is recovering from a bug that had him feverish and puking the last few days, but he’s back in school today. Poor kid…he took it well. He just lay there on the couch, covered in blankets, just looking worn out. At one point, he looked sadly at me and then relocated to the floor just in time to throw up on himself. It was mostly water, and he actually did a pretty good job of keeping the worst of it from hitting the floor. So we cleaned him up and gave him some water. Instant repeat of the previous three sentences. But then he started to feel better, and was able to start his recovery from there. OK, so maybe this is more than you want to know on the subject, but this is my blog, so there.

He felt better in the afternoons, and since his gorgeous Momma was at work, I just took him with me to class. He stayed in the back office watching vids most of the time, but when he got tired of that, he’d come out and sit next to me while I ran the workouts. He enjoyed yelling ‘BREAK!’ for me when my timer would beep, signaling the end of a round of pushups or squats or whatever. I really enjoyed the time I spent with him this past few days. He’s grown up a lot, practicing his letters and numbers on his own, singing songs to himself, building things with his Lincoln Logs and such. It’s cool being a Dad…even with the puke.

So while we were home, vegging in front of the TV, I found this awesome new show. It’s called Ninja Warrior! It consists of four absolutely insane obstacle courses, and of course, it’s a Japanese program. WOW! These guys are put to the test, to be sure. The course is timed, and consists of some tremendously challenging obstacles with names like ‘Warped Wall’, ‘Curtain Cling’, ‘Circle Slide’, and so on. You have to jump, run, swing, climb, and some other methods of locomotion that defy description, all the way through the course before time runs out. Most of the course is 10-20 feet above large pools of muddy water (I guess that’s a cheaper way to break a fall than having expensive crash pads). Paul Hamm, gymnast from the 2004 USA Olympic team couldn’t finish the first course…that’s how tough it is. It’s got me to thinking, yes it has. Hmmmmm…..

One thing I love about the Japanese…they are all about the ‘fighting spirit’. I mean, you will see the most unlikely folks trying to make it through this course. Some of them are repeat customers who have never made it more than 3 steps, yes, you read that right, 1-2-3 steps into the course before being eliminated. Some of them are wearing their work clothes (as in the case of the sushi chef, construction workers, and bicycle racers) while competing, but they are dead serious about their effort. Dudes almost in their 60’s are out there giving it all they’ve got, and consequences be damned. So what if their chances are somewhere between slim and none? They’re gonna get out there and give it their best shot. It’s that fighting spirit that counts!!! Man, I love that. I’m gonna start my research and see what it takes to get into one of these things. I’m hoping I can make it more than 3 steps in.

Graduation is Friday night, so I’m looking forward to awarding new ranks to several of our students…they’ve earned it. And many of them are enjoying the new workouts I’ve been running lately. Especially Annie, who sent me a pleasant email that actually included the word @&%$#(*&!@#$%#$%^& in describing how sore her arms were. You go, Annie!!!

OK, that nap is calling me. Time for me to answer.