The musings of a weary mind. Conversations on aikido, gardening, cooking, travel and, maybe, woodworking.
Aikido players: Brad, and Sal
Ukemi:
None tonight.
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Sal and Brad worked on 1-4. We spent the most time on Gedan-ate. The primary issues are trying to complete the throw with the back muscles instead of the center and not forcing uke to avoid the eye flash and giving up the pressure on the arm.
Aftermath:
None of note.
I got to the courts a full hours before I needed to because of the change in schedule due to last week's rain out. One of the rec league teams needed an extra player, so I played with them for the first match.
Then it was on to the regular league. We played decently, but did not manage to win. We almost bet the top team in the league in the second match in the first game. I think we lost 14-12, or some similar score.
Next week is an off week due to the 4th of July.
Another night where we won more than we lost, but we should have won all three games instead of just the last two. I had a pretty bad headache, probably a consequence of the ApolloCon weekend, but managed to play half decent.
There's not going to be much to report for my time at ApolloCon. I spent 99% of my time helping my wife run the Con Suite. I did put my stuff in the Art Show, and I did buy a couple of pieces in the Art Show but, other than that, I was in the Con Suite.
Thursday
Picked up the U-Haul trailer and loaded it with stuff that been taking up room in our house for months along with food we'd been cooking and freezing for the past six weeks. Drove up to the con, unloaded, and started assembling the Con Suite.
Friday
Up early, start prepping meals. Up late waiting for late nighters to go to bed.
Saturday
Up early, start prepping meals. We got caught unprepared for Saturday lunch crowd and were out of bread around 3 p.m. Up late waiting for late nighters to go to bed.
Sunday
Up early, start prepping meals. Disassembled the Con Suite, managed to get 80% of cleaning done.
Monday
Up early, to finish cleaning and load the trailer. Breakfast at the hotel restaurant, unload the U-Haul at the storage locker, drive home, drop off the U-Haul at U-Haul. Nap. Wake up. Go back to bed.
The days of June 14-17, I was traveling for SoonerCon in Oklahoma City, Ok. I had some stuff in the Art Show and was also a panelist.
Thursday
Up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport, dropped off by my darling wife. The flight was relatively uneventful, but had far more clear air turbulence than usual.
Landed and caught the airport shuttle to the Sheraton hotel downtown. Where the NBA had made its headquarters for the Finals between Oklahoma City and Miami. This was going to alter the convention's ability to get their function space and some of the guests' ability to get their rooms. So, I stored my luggage at the front desk until my room was ready. I walked around downtown for a bit as I'd arrived with too much spare time.
I then caught a cab to go to Nick Lowery's aikido dojo. Google said it should take about 15 minutes by cab, so I caught the cab with 30 minutes to spare, just to be safe. I gave the driver the address and off we went. And we drove around, and around, and around the city. The driver knew not where she was going. I finally got out my iPhone and brought up a map for her. We arrived at my destination shortly thereafter, but it'd taken us 40 minutes to get there, so class had already been in session for 10 minutes or so.
I joined in on the class where we worked on releases for the entire class. It appears that they are something this dojo does not spend a lot of time on as the black belt I worked with was not terribly familiar with them. I hung around a bit after class to chat, and then caught a cab back into town. This trip went much better.
I got to the hotel and checked into the room.
I'd hoped to help the con set up the Art show that evening, but we weren't to get the space until Friday morning, so I just idled around until the pre-con dinner in the Con Suite where we ate bar-b-q and watched the NBA Finals.
Friday
Breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then off to help set up the Art Show. Sometime during set-up, I got my packet and checked my panel schedule: no panels on Friday, 4 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. So, I was able to spend all day helping with the Art Show.
Dinner time came around and I went off to a restaurant I tried last year that had a wide variety of beers available. I tried the Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti and the Duchesse de Bourgogne while having the fish and chips and cheesecake.
Saturday
Breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then off to the Con Suite for my first panel: a Kaffeeklatsch. Back to the Art Show until time for my 3 panels. One was the annual "Monster in an Hour" which was a bunch of fun, even if I'm a horrible artist. Another was "Why We Love Joss" where I moderated on a panel about all things Joss Whedon. My third panel was "The State of the Art" with Peri Charlifu moderating. I felt most comfortable on the "The State of the Art" panel, the Monster panel was an opportunity to goof around, and the Whedon panel I just hope people enjoyed. I felt out of my depth on that one.
I helped set up and runner the Art Auction, but could not make it through the charity auction as I was too hungry. Dinner on Saturday was back to the same restaurant. This time I had Trappiste Rochefort 10, another good beer. I don't remember what my meal was.
Sunday
Breakfast in the hotel restaurant and back to the Art Show to help tear down. I had another panel, but did not want to leave Matthew Alfred alone, so I skipped it with one of the ConCom's permission.
I ended up selling two pieces in the Art Show, not much at all.
Off to the airport, a Schlotzky sandwich for dinner, and then home.
A fun, frantic weekend. Maybe my schedule will let me do it again next year.
We played a team with a record as poor as our own last night. We managed to win the first two games. The staged a comeback and took a fairly close third game. the other team had some former teammates of my from when I was on a team in the competitive league.
Another decent week in sand volleyball. I remembered my sunglasses this time so I could see. We split with a team we are very close in ability to and we lost to a powerhouse team. So, we got the results I expected we'd get.
We'd had a couple of weeks off for the indoor league and were back in play last night. We were up against an undefeated team, while we had not won any games. We won the last game, fairly handily. I suggested a slight rotation change so that I would end up serving first for our team. After my serve, we were up about 7-0.
We've still gto a ways to go as a team.
Friday:
Lunch at Frenchie's
Aikido
Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Mmmmmm. Tasty!
Saturday
Blueberry muffins
Artfire work
Off to Ace Mart restaurant supply for some shopping
Aikido
Roast for dinner with the in-laws
Sunday
Mow the yard
Off to see the Avenger's
Nap
Chicago WorldCon Skype meeting
Blueberry Buttermilk coffee cake
SoonerCon prep
Walk the dogs
Help K. with some pralines for ApolloCon ConSuite.
Aikido players: Tim, Brad, Dan, Charles, and Liz
Ukemi:
Partial set.
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
I worked with Liz and Charles on their sets.
Techniques:
I spent most of the afternoon working with Liz and Charles on Gyakugamae-ate. Toward the end of the afternoon my muscles were starting to burn and I changed places with Tim and worked on Shomen-ate with Brad and Dan. They were having troubles letting uke rock back to on-balance.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Tim, Charles, and Liz
Ukemi:
Partial set. Watched over Liz.
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
Worked with Charles on his set.
Techniques:
I worked with both Liz and Charles on Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate. We briefly introduced them to Gyakugamae-ate.
Aftermath:
None of note.
We played the powerhouse team of the league in the first match and we summarily smashed.
In the second match, we got handled in the first game. In the second game, we were up 8-0 and they won the next 9 points. I'm not certain how the final points went, but we ended up losing.
I was gasping for air at points. I don't know if the heat or the couple of weeks off are to blame.
Aikido players: Brad, and Sal
Ukemi:
A couple of warm-up falls.
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Sal and I worked our way up through no. 8. Brad then arrived, delayed by a train, and he and Sal worked together trying to get Brad up through 8. We managed to make it through 7, skipping 4.
Brad and I brought up the slight footwork change we discovered in no. 8 to Sal. We'll see if he can incorporate it through the next few weeks.
Aftermath:
None of note.
The Manchurian Candidate: 4
The acting was iffy in spots, but Sinatra did better than I would have expected.
An interesting exploration of brainwashing by the Chinese to win an American election.
Puss in Boot: 3
A fun little story, with great animation of fur. It takes the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and adds a nice twist before and after.
Friday:
Lunch at Classic Cafe
Took me 45 minutes to get back to the office because of the traffic surrounding Shuttle-bration
Aikido
Saturday
Blueberry muffins
Artfire work
LSC3 work
Nap
Aikido
Drove in to Midtown to check out High Fashion Fabrics
Stopped at Adkins Architectural Antiques on the way back
Dinner at Durango's with K.
Walked the dogs
Sunday
Slept 'til 9!!
Artfire work
Mowed bits of the yard
French Open
"Puss in Boots"
"The Manchurian Candidate"
Peach Muffins and Coffee Cake
Aikido players: Tim, and Trey
Ukemi:
Full set.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Trey and I worked on the Tantoa section of Koryu Dai San. We (I) had all sorts of issues with Ushiro-ate. We finally came up with the conclusion that a good portion of it was uke not taking a step we were expecting.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Troy, and Brad
Ukemi:
Most of a set.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Troy uke'd for Brad on 8, 9, and 10
Brad uke'd for Troy on 14, 15, and a couple of reps of 16. I then stepped in for more of 16 and 17.
Aftermath:
None of note.
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