Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/28/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did the usual warm-up no air falls. Led Trey through some air falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Uked for Tom

Techniques:

We tried to work Tom through 1-5 of Ju Nana. We made through number 3. Trey and I would alternate serving as uke. I think he made some great strides.

Treay and I then did some work on Owaza Ju Pon.

Kubi-garumu - this went fairly well

Kata-otoshi - we spent a lot of time on this with Trey. It is the most sensitive of the techniques of Owaza Ju Pon.

Aiki-nage - You must keep uke close and in an arm bar.

Shiho-nage - I can never remember the footwork for this one. I *may* have it down now though. Left back, right back, pivot, forward.

Ushiro-ate - No violence is needed: move your center

Kote-gaeshi - uke should end up pretty much on his original line of attack.

Ushiro-kubi-gatame - off hand must participate in making a beach ball out of uke, otherwise the choke does not sneak up on uke.

Aftermath: General soreness in the knees. I have no idea why.

We ran the session for about 2.5 hours, about 45 minutes longer than normal.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/27/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom..

Ukemi: Full warm-up with self-induced air falls. Those were a bit rough.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None

Techniques:

We spent the evening on aigamae-ate. It is currently the technique that drives Trey and me nuts. Tim wasn't very happy with our performance either.

I don't know why we do it so poorly so often. Possibly because we're too late or not late enough. You can do this only on a body rise, really, and if you are late on the first one you have to wait for the second one.

Aftermath: None of note.

Thanksgiving

Living in the same town with my mother and one of my sisters, Thanksgiving is always a family affair. We generally rotate duties from house to house. This year's Turkey was at my sister's and Christmas will be at my house.

I was up kind of early making pies and other desserts. I made a chocolate pecan and a pumpkin pie and then the first batch of pecan pralines of the holiday season.

The feast at my sister's was huge, plenty of food for everyone. My brother-in-law is a professor, so he invited several of his graduate students to join us as they were away from their families.

Good food, good fun.

Lunching out: Gabacho's

Lunching out on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving Week, I turned to Gabacho's. It's a small Mexican restaurant that has had severl a occupants over the years, but it looks like they're going to make it. They're doing some construction to expand.

I had no idea what I was interested in, but the specials on the whiteboard looked interesting. I tried the stuffed avacados. Two avacadoes, halved and stuffed with mushrooms and chicken, reassembled and lightly fried. Very good. The rice and charro beans as sides were quite good too. The chips were boring but the green salsa was ok. I did not try the red salsa.

I'd be willing to go back.

Strider update

Strider is continuing to improve. He is still breathing with a little difficulty, but less than previously. He is eating well, almost as much as his big brother Vlad.

We are continuing to pill him with antibiotics (3 pills a day), which he does not enjoy too much. We are also applying ointment for his ringworm.

I think he's turned a corner, but we're keeping an eye on his health.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Up to take Strider to the vet to get pilled and get the catheter taken out.
BAGS Christmass gathering to take pictures
JEMCO to get another set of Lindstrom pliers
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's with K and K

Sunday

Football
Keep an eye on Strider
Pecan pie
Grilled out for dinner

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/21/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad and Will.

Ukemi: I did a condensed warm-up and watched Will.

The Walk: Twice as usual.

Releases: Brad and I did some intensive work on the releases. We made it through number 6.

Techniques:

Brad and I did some work on Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate, really working on the initial off-balance. Tim had me change up my attack a bit for the afternoon.

At the very end, I had Brad try the initial off-balance for Oshi Taoshi. We need to get him onto his next set of techniques.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/20/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Sal, and Will. Will's a new student.

Ukemi: I did a condensed warm-up as I was watching Will.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Trey and I worked with Sal on his releases while Tim worked with Will on the Walk.

Techniques:

At the end of the evening, I uked for Trey on 1-17. He did a good job. There were a few minor stumbles, mainly in the usual places, but nothing major.

Aftermath: None of note.

Lunching out: Alamo Tamale and Taco

This report is a bit late, but at least it's being made.

Alamo is located within spitting distance of where my company's new offices will be, so I thought I'd give them a try. It's a small joint with no tables, but it does have some bar stools arranged around the outer wall. I got my meal to go, so I could get back to the office.

I ordered 2 pork and 1 chicken handmade tamale with a side of rice and a side of beans. The tamales were kind of bland, but not bad. the rice was okay, but the beans were the star of the meal. They tasted like they might have been cooked with bacon fat.

I think the meal cost me around $6 or $7 with a drink. Not a bad meal. If they're still in business when our office is up and running, I'll probably be dropping by often.

Strider's under the weather

Over the weekend, Strider lost some of his vim and vigor. He took to sleeping more and eating less. He was scheduled for his booster shots today, so we didn't rush a new appointment.

It turns out he has several ailments. Apparently his ringworm has not been cleared up. Sometime over the past few days he has managed to consume about 3 already used staples (no sharp pointy ends for his GI tract). And he's having issues breathing.

The breathing issue is of the most concern. The other two should pass without serious attention.

I'm waiting for the results of the bloodwork.

Weekend update

Friday

An evening out with K. - Dinner at Bira Porretti's and then Jewel in concert at the Verizon Wireless Theater

Saturday

3 craft shows in the area to check out: Webster, Kemah and Clear Lake Shores. Webster was all Christmas stuff. Kemah was a less themed and more hand crafted affair. Clear Lake Shores was a less formal, outdoor, handcrafted sale. I probably would have been most comfortable at CLS, then Kemah and finally Webster.

Aikido

Dinner with K. and the in-laws at Durango's. I wanted to try Dos Hernandos, but they've gone out of business and now La Familia is getting ready to open in its place.

Sunday

Key Lime Pie
Key Lime Cheesecake
Football
ArtFire inventory update - I think I've got all of my inventory on my artfire site now.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/14/09

Aikidokas: Tim and Trey.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up.

The Walk: Not today.

Releases: Not today.

Techniques:

Apparently it was my day for work. I worked on the first 5 kneeling of Koryu Dai San. I would have worked through all of them, but my left toe developed its usual blister after #5. I then also worked on all 8 of the standing Koryu Dai San.

I was, as usual, too tense. It can take me a while to relax if I haven't been tore for a while.

After that, Tim started to have Trey go through Ju Nan Hon Kata. We made it to #2 before Tom showed up. This was after about 2 hours of work for Trey and me, so Tim decided we were too tired and should uke from there on. So, we worked on Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate with Tom. He's a lot softer than he was just a couple of weeks ago.

Aftermath: Bandage on the toe.

Jewel, in concert

Thursday morning, I was glancing through the paper while waiting for reports to load in CCAP and I noticed a small blurb stating Jewel was in concert Friday night, downtown. I love her voice, so I was itching to go even if it meant missing aikido. K. had already mentioned that this was a week she would not be going to aikido, so we chatted and decided it would be worthwhile to check out tickets.

There were decent tickets available at reasonable prices, at least before the service charges were added, so we made it a date.

Friday evening, I got home, we fed the animals, and headed into town. Traffic was light and we made it downtown with 2 1/2 hours before the concert. We expected this and headed over to Bira Porretti's for dinner with a $10 coupon in hand. Dinner was decent. K. was disappointed in their "crepes" as they were wrapped in pasta instead of crepes.

After dinner we had about 1.5 hours until the concert, so we wandered aimlessly about downtown. We also people-watched for a while and noted the number of same-sex couples coming in for the concert were about the same as the number of mixed gender couples.

The concert started with Holly Williams, the daughter of Hank Williams, Jr. She did a short intro set that was quite nice.

After a short intermission, Jewel came out and started her set. She said she had no prepared set list, a tradition from working with her dad that she likes to keep up. I have not been able to, yet, find anyone on-line who has reported the list and I was not prepared to write it down. She opened with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and closed with her hallmark yodelling. In between, she sangs from a number of her albums and was constantly asking the crowd what she should sing next.

Jewel's set seemed a little short to me. We got out of the concert hall at 10:30 p.m. Her set ran 1.5 hours maybe less. I didn't check to see how long Holly's ran, nor how long the intermission was.

Nutcracker market

K. and I went to the Nutcracker Market at the Reliant Center in Houston. This is a money raising venture for the Houston Ballet and we'd never been.

I'd glanced through the paper yesterday morning, saw it was running yesterday and that we could get in for half price after 5 p.m. Given the fact that There was no way we could get there before 5, that was perfect. I thought it would be a good outing for us and her parents, but the parents declined.

We got there about 5:30 and shopped for a couple of hours.

Paul Michael took up about one third of the space used for imported Christmas decorations. There were a bunch of places with jellies, jams, and sauces. We bought 5 jars of marinara sauce made by a local Italian ladies' group. It's annually praised by a write for the Houston Chronicle, so I had to give it a try. Most of the jars are for gifts.

We bought a few other things and stumbled across some Tupelo Honey. After listening to the Van Morrison song over the years, I had to try some. It was great! We ended up getting the vendors small bottle. It's a very light colored honey with a mild flavor. I'm looking forward to a breakfast in which I can use it.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

I went to a couple of craft shows in the area. Shopping on the surface, for gifts, but really for places for me to sell my stuff in the future.

Aikido

Dinner at Durango's by myself.
Dungeons & Dragons at the usual spot.

Sunday:

Football.
Prepping for the arrival of the in-laws back from Colorado.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/07/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, with a big fall.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Watching Tom and Brad.

Techniques:

Tim gave me a light day after the intense Friday Garuma evening. I worked in from time-to-time while Brad and Tom were working on getting Aigamae-ate from the 4th release. I'd give a couple of initial attacks to tweak what I was feeling and then let the other guy in to take most of the falls.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/06/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Kim, Tom, and Sal.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, with a big fall.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None

Techniques:

I the evening working with Trey. We spent most of the evening working on the garuma throws from Owaza Ju Pon: Kube Garuma, Ude Garuma, and Hiji Garuma. We worked on the off-balances at first and once I got confident with his approach on the techniques, I was ready to take the big fall if he got everything right. We did about 5 big falls on each of the throws worked in around 30 to 40 of the off-balance falls.

Trey was then my uke to work on Kata Otoshi. My key points on this are the timing and getting far enough off-line that my arm will not collapse.


Aftermath: None, immediately, of note. I was sore Sunday from all of the falls.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Aikido

Dinner at Durango's with K. and K.

Sunday:

Yard work, shoveling sand, mowing, weed whacking

Trey's wedding

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 10/31/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, Tom, and Sal.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, with a big fall.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None

Techniques:

I spent the afternoon working with Brad. We were playing with a variation of the 4th release. I would trap Brad's hand on the release entry, and he would then move in while extending my balance. He worked on that quite a bit, playing with the off balance, finding it, losing it and seeing the results.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 10/30/09

Aikidokas: Just me.


Ukemi: None.


The Walk: Somewhere between 15 and 20 times.


Releases: None.


Techniques: None.


Aftermath: None of note.

Lunching out: Charley's Sandwiches

A very late lunch (3 p.m.) had me find something very close. Charley's fits the bill.

They're a small sandwich chain with a focus on cheese steaks. And they do a good job. I got there during a lull ;), so I got a fresh batch of fries to go with my made-to-order sandwich. The bill was about $12 for a large, deluxe cheese steak with fries and a drink.

I'd be happy to go back again when I'm looking for that meal.

Strider

Pictures of the newest addition to our family

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

I went looking to adopt a new kitten and came home with Strider (nee Traveler) from League City Animal Control.

Aikido

We ordered pizza in so we could spend time with the new resident

Sunday:

More time with the new resident

Grilling out with K. and my mom.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 10/24/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Round robin.

Techniques:

We played with a variation of the 4th release to generate a garuma fall.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 10/23/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Kim, and Sal. We had a visitor watching and considering joining us.


Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.


The Walk: Twice, as usual.


Releases: Watched Kim and Sal.


Techniques:

I don't remember what we worked with Sal on.

Kim worked on Kote hineri and tenkai kote hineri

I think I worked on kneeling kote gaeshi

Aftermath: None of note, except our visitor ran into my pickup when he was pulling into the parking lot. Luckily, there was no serious damage, just some paint transfer that should come out fairly easily.