Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
The spotlit shop this week is On Pens and Needles, a husband and wife team.
Here are a couple of their pieces that I like:
I think that's the name of the joint. Out front it just says Taqueria. This one's on El Camino Real near the Sunny's convenience store.
I attempted to order the fajitas, but the lady at the counter kept responding back with "Tacos?" I ended up with beef fajita tacos in corn tortillas. Next time I'll ask for the mixed fajitas and see if I get what I want.
The tacos weren't bad. The meat had some flavor, the onions and the pico de gallo were decent. The salsa they provided was ok, tangy but not hot.
This might be the site of a return visit.
We played Passing Out and lost all three. We were competitive, but they are the stronger team.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
I'm the featured shop in my guild this week. I'm thinking about running a special little promotion in addition to the Father's Day Sale (10% off of everything).
I do take custom orders. If you see a pen style you like, but I don't have one in the type of wood you're looking for, let me know. Something can be arranged. The same can be said for the bottle stoppers. Some of the wood can be difficult to get in a size appropriate for bottle stoppers, but don't hesitate to ask.
If you want to commission a stained glass piece, great! I'd recommend that only if you're in the triangle of the 3 Texas metroplexes (Houston/DFW/Austin-San Antonio) as I'd prefer to be able to hand deliver them.
Here are a couple of the items I want to showcase this week:
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Brad. We also had a visitor and potential future student watching from the sidelines.
Ukemi: Full warm-up, no big falls.
The Walk: Twice.
Releases: With Brad and Trey. Trey uked on the right side and I uked on the left side for Brad.
Techniques:
We attempted to have Brad do 1 through 7 of Ju Nana Hon Kata on both sides, with just one shot each. He did well. We did end up doing some tweaking on all of the techniques. We need to go back to left-sided Ushiro-ate, and we need to give him more time with Oshi-taoshi and Ude-gaeshi.
Aftermath: None of note.
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Dan.
Ukemi: Partial warm-up. I actually hit my head on one of my warm-up falls. I don't think I've ever done that before. No harm done, though. I spent a good bit of time with Don, teaching him how to fall again.
The Walk: Twice.
Releases: None
Techniques:
Trey and I spent the evening working on Shihonage and Ushiro-ate from O Waza Ju Pon. Introducing Trey to the separating centers of these two throws.
We also had a discussion on re-working the teaching and approach to Ushiro-ate in Ju Nana Hon Kata. We're going to go back to the more difficult approach for Ju Nana Hon Kata.
Aftermath: None of note.
Friday
Aikido
Saturday
I didn't get going until time for me to leave for Aikido
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's
D&D
Sunday
Another late start to the day
3 hours of yard work in 90 degree heat with 65% humidity. I did reclaim a bit of the yard that had been claimed by some ground cover. It was previously the home to a wisteria bush, as well.
Dinner at Joe's
Prompted by my darling wife, K.: I did forget to mention seeing Iron Man 2 between the yard work and dinner at Joe's. I'll post my mini-review later today, but I'll give it 3 out of 4 stars.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
This is a little mom and pop place on NASA 1 in Seabrook. It looked like they have a regular clientele, but they weren't very busy. the waitress had to go call the cook in from out back when I ordered.
They push their hamburgers, so that's what I tried. I ordered the guacamole cheeseburger with fries. I received the plain cheeseburger with fries. In fairness, she might not have heard the guacamole, and the order she took down didn't *look* right, so I'll give them a pass on this).
The burger was pretty good. The cheese was melted onto the patty while it was still on the grill. Just how I prepare them at home. The patty looked too uniform to have been made by hand.
The fries were a battered variety, probably Sysco supplied. Still, not bad.
It took quite a while for the waitress to drop off my check. The waitress did miss the opportunity to sell me a slice of pecan pie by not checking back with me while I was eating. That may be a good thing as far as they're concerned. If it had been bad, I wouldn't be returning. As it is, I might return to try the guacamole burger and a slice of pecan pie.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
I finally managed some time on the shop to do productive work on the entertainment center. I don't know why, but rough cutting the lumber a week ago doesn't feel "productive." I managed to get one of the middle vertical panels glued up for recutting at a later time. I had to search through my stack of rough cut wood to find the properly labelled pieces, pick the good sides to glue up, put in biscuits and then glue and clamp em up.
I did one of these at the time so I didn't get the pieces confused and mismatched. I should have worked on through to the other middle vertical panel, but I was sweating and it was getting near to time for "Castle".
As a side note, I need to make certain my shop clock is keeping time. I replaced the battery a couple of weeks ago, but I think there was a time warp walking from the shop to the house.
I hope to get back into the shop tonight for more glue-up. Maybe the other vertical panel and some of the shelves.
Friday:
Aikido
Saturday:
Laze around the house
Aikido
Pasadena Strawberry Festival with K.and K. - this is the first time I've ever gone to this festival, and it's been going on for quite some time. I went to see what it's like and to see if it's appropriate for me to get a booth at. I don't think it is. To break even, I'd have to sell around 10 pens or so. Given the folks at the festival, I don't think I'd manage that. Mayeb I'll feel better after a couple of cheaper shows are under my belt.
Dinner at Durango's with K. and K.
Sunday:
Laze around the house
Grill out for dinner
Bake a cheesecake (collapsed, as usual, but I now have a plan to remedy this issue)
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
10% off everything in my shop. Here's the item I'm featuring this week, a Cubano style pen in Tiger Narra:
Aikidokas: Tim, Brad, Sal, Troy and Don.
Ukemi: Full warm-up, no big falls. I spent a good bit of time with Don, teaching how to fall again. I moved him from the kneeling falls to the crouched falls. I think we need to go back to kneeling for a bit.
The Walk: Twice.
Releases: With Sal. Occasional bouts of too much rigidity.
Techniques:
We did a Blum line today for techniques. We worked on shomen-ate and aigamae-ate Don got involved as well. He did extremely well for the amount of instruction he had in these techniques.
Aftermath: None of note.
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Troy and Don.
Ukemi: Partial warm-up. I spent a good bit of time with Don, teaching him how to fall again.
The Walk: Twice. And then I spent a good part of the evening working with Don on the parts of the Walk he wanted to spend some time on.
Releases: With Troy. We worked on 5 through 8.
Techniques:
At the very end of class Trey wanted to throw me around a bit, so he did some work on aigamae-ate and shomen-ate.
Aftermath: None of note.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Out guild leader is the spotlight shop of the week. She's got some fabulous quilts:
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Last week's volleyball night was a double-header. We played well, just not well enough to win. A couple of the points went on so long that I was eligible for Social Security at the end of them.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
K. and I went out to lunch on Friday. We were hoping to do some shopping while we were down in Kemah, but the bike shop was closed on our way out of T-Bone's.
K. had the sliced sausage sandwich and I had the "Pig Sandwich". K.'s was the better choice, by far. T-Bone's sausage is the second best sausage I've ever tried (K. gave me a slice from her sandwich). It trails only the sausage from Granger. It's a nice spicy, coarse grind. Heaven.
My "Pig Sandwich" was a little dry, and I was not a big fan of their barbecue sauce. The onions and jalapenos that came on the sandwich did provide a little spice for the meal.
The buns for both of the sandwiches were fabulous! A nice texture and flavor.
I will be going back soon. I'm going to have a sausage sandwich all to myself!
At here a week ago. I had the lunch Chicken Parmigiana and iced tea. The chicken was ok. It seemed the breading was mostly cheese instead of a flour/breadcrumb concoction. It was presented on a bed of pasta with a marinara sauce with a side of cheese bread. I think the cheese bread was the best, followed by the chicken and then the pasta.
I think I got out of there for about $14. Other places are preferred.
Friday
Aikido
Saturday
Mowed a couple of ditches
Took a couple of pictures of sunflowers.
Bank transactions
Mailed out some books
AikidoDinner at Durango's
D&D
Sunday
Baked a peach pie
Baked a SoNo Chocolate Ganache Cake
Mother's Day dinner at our place with mom , sis and in-laws
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, Sal, Troy and Don.
Ukemi: Not quite a full warm-up. We got started before I had a chance to go through my usual and I was watching over Don learn how to fall.
The Walk: None, formally. I worked with Troy and Don quite a bit to get Don all of the way through the Walk learning it.
Releases: None.
Techniques:
This was a very unusual class session. After the ukemi, Tim had me work with Brad. Brad attacked with punches and attempted to behave as he thought he would outside of the dojo. I had a very difficult time dealing with this. Some of it might be because Brad just stood there after I took him off-balance. He did nothing and I felt safe, so we just stood there. There were some times when things flowed better and I would get Ushiro-ate. I also managed a variation from Koryu Di Yon No Kata, that was neat (I did need some prompting). I never managed a Kote-gaeshi.
Brad would often get inside both of my arms. I was stymied in those situations. Trey provided some insight for me at the end of class. Trey and I also thought about trying Mune Tori Kata Gatam. It didn't work, but at least we thought about it.
Aftermath: None of note. A very humbling and enlightening afternoon.
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Sal, Troy and Don.
Ukemi: Full warm-up, no big falls. I spent a good bit of time with Don, teaching how to fall again. He was a Sankyu about 20 years ago, but has forgotten everything.
The Walk: Twice.
Releases: With Troy. We made it through all of the releases. Next time we'll work backwards so he gets more work on the latter ones.
Techniques:
I can't remember what we did after working with Troy on the releases. Maybe I did some work with Don on the Walk?
Aftermath: None of note.
I'm having a Father's Day sale in my shop on art fire. 10% off of everything until June 13th.
Here's the pen I'd like everyone to look at this week.
Sherry's got some nice, handmade jewelry in her shop. Drop on by.
Here are some items I like from her shop:
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Kaotic Krafter does a bunch of work with recycled fabric. There are a bunch of neat items in her shop:
Friday
Aikido
Saturday
Bank transactions
Early voting
Friendswood Fine Art Institute's first annual Art in the Park
Bamboo harvest
Sunday
Keels and Wheels in Seabrook
Rough cutting lumber for the entertainment center
Grilling out pork ribs, chicken, and burgers
Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Sal, Troy and Don.
Ukemi: Full warm-up, no big falls.
The Walk: Twice.
Releases: With Troy. We made it through the sixth release.
Techniques:
I worked with Sal on Aigamae-ate, Gyakugamae-ate, and Gedan-ate. Emphasized the importance of breaking me down to be in his playground. Sal made some good progress. There's still plenty of room for smoothing out the rough edges, but doing very well
At the end of regular class, Tim was going to have Trey and me do some work together. We ended up doing some more demonstration work on 1-5 for the other 3 guys. They stuck around and got some additional benefit, I hope.
Aftermath: None of note. ARMA had a seminar on Saturday, so we had no class.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
