Lunching out - Brown Sugar's BBQ

I've driven by this place for what seems like an eternity.  Never gone in.  I've been put off by the fact that it's in a strip center near Almeda Mall.  Not an enticing location for BBQ.

Now I know that I never have to go back.

I ordered a two meat plate of sliced beef and links.  Beans and potato salad were my sides.  I also ordered a peach cobbler for dessert.

I was disappointed in everything.

The beef, while lean, was dry and flavorless, even though it had a nice smoke ring.  The links were a decent texture, but the flavor was *off* somehow.  Maybe a weird combination of meats used for the sausage?  The beans weren't too bad, but the potato salad was pretty flavorless.

The cobbler had a decent flavor for the filling, but the crust had a slightly off taste.

On the whole, the best thing of the meal was the cobbler.

On Saturday, K. and I went to Joe's BBQ in Alvin to wash the flavor of Brown Sugar's out of my mind.

Weekend update

Friday

Lunch at Brown Sugar's BBQ
Aikido

Saturday

Blueberry muffins
Haircut
Dropped a shirt off at the dry cleaners due to a potential photoshoot coming up
Aikido
Iced the knee
Dinner at Joe's in Alvin

Sunday

Repaired a pen a customer sent back.
Napped with ice on my knee
Watched the Pro Bowl while eating stew and cornbread.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 1/26/13

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Troy,  Dan the Elder, and Rob.  I stayed off the mat as much as I could today to rest the knee.

Ukemi:

Occasionally hopped on the mat to help make suggestions for DtE, at his request.

The Walk:

Twice as usual. 

Releases:

Trey and DtE ran through theirs.  I occasionally jumped in to hold a foam sword for DtE to reach for on the last four releases.

Techniques:

Troy and Trey did a run through of Koryu Dai San No Kata.  I brought my camera along and took some pictures.  About 18 turned out halfway decent.

Here's the flickr stream for them .  I took them in sepia as the walls of the dojo are just too wildly colored to make for a decent picture.

Aftermath:

Swelling's going down, slowly, on the knee.

Aikido Friday Night - 1/25/13

Aikido players: Tim, Troy,  Dennis, and Rob (a new student).  I stayed off the mat as much as I could tonight to rest the knee.

Ukemi:

Occasionally hopped on the mat to help Rob learn forward ukemi

The Walk:

Twice as usual.  I then watched Rob as he worked on the first eight stones of the Walk.  He did amazingly well remembering that much on his first night.

Releases:

Troy and Dennis worked on the first four

Techniques:

None tonight.

Aftermath:

Swelling's going down, slowly, on the knee.

Weekend update

Friday

Lunch at Gina's Italian
Aikido

Saturday

Blueberry muffins
Aikido
Swollen knee
Iced it in 30 minute intervals for about 5 hours
Watched the Barrett-Jackson car auction for the 5 hours I spent icing the knee

Sunday

Chilled on the couch with my knee propped for the entire day
Read
Watched football and various other shows during timeouts and haltimes

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 1/19/13

Aikido players: Tim,  Troy, Trey,  Dan (the Elder), and Dan (the Younger)

Ukemi:

Partial set. Helped DtY with his rolls.

The Walk:

Twice as usual.

We then went into a little exploration of the time to draw a weapon when someone else has a weapon drawn and is charging at you.  during said demonstration, I syumbled and landed on my knee.  It promptly swelled up.  I then sat out the rest of the afternoon.

Releases:

The second release was worked on for most of the afternoon.

Techniques:

None tonight.

Aftermath:

Swollen knee.  Dr. appointment in the offing, probably off the mat and off the volleyball court for a while.

Aikido Friday Night - 1/18/13

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Troy,  Marvin, Gale, Dan (the Elder), and Dan (the Younger), Dennis

Ukemi:

Helped DtY with his rolls.

The Walk:

Twice as usual.  I then spent a good portion of the evening with DtY on learning more of the Walk

Releases:

DtY and I worked on the first four releases.

Techniques:

None tonight.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Tweets for 01-19-2013

• Scott Zrubek: Taxas Artfire Guild - Adornments by VictoriaLynn - http://t.co/0V4zx5FW #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Saturday Jan 19 - 12:57pm


• Scott Zrubek: Artisans in Wood - Boatwright Woodworks - http://t.co/Ck3HX6xl #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Saturday Jan 19 - 10:56am


• Scott Zrubek: Cover Girl Beads - handmade lampwork glass beads, large hole beads and glass charms. http://t.co/FtQewu2I #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Saturday Jan 19 - 9:04am


• Scott Zrubek: Mad Moravian - http://t.co/vcG0cz7j - Fine handmade pens, bottle stoppers, chainmaille, stained glass and custom orders. #artfire #handmade
  
  tweeted at: Saturday Jan 19 - 8:50am


• Scott Zrubek: FORGET ME KNOT TREASURE http://t.co/9XQCZeY7 - Laptop Sleeves, iPad Cases, Kindle Covers, Place-mats, Table Runners #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Saturday Jan 19 - 8:43am

Tweets for 01-18-2013

• Scott Zrubek: Taxas Artfire Guild - Adornments by VictoriaLynn - http://t.co/0V4zx5FW #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Friday Jan 18 - 12:57pm


• Scott Zrubek: Artisans in Wood - Boatwright Woodworks - http://t.co/Ck3HX6xl #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Friday Jan 18 - 10:56am


• Scott Zrubek: Cover Girl Beads - handmade lampwork glass beads, large hole beads and glass charms. http://t.co/FtQewu2I #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Friday Jan 18 - 9:04am


• Scott Zrubek: Mad Moravian - http://t.co/vcG0cz7j - Fine handmade pens, bottle stoppers, chainmaille, stained glass and custom orders. #artfire #handmade
  
  tweeted at: Friday Jan 18 - 8:50am


• Scott Zrubek: FORGET ME KNOT TREASURE http://t.co/9XQCZeY7 - Laptop Sleeves, iPad Cases, Kindle Covers, Place-mats, Table Runners #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Friday Jan 18 - 8:43am

Aikido Thursday Night - 1/17/13

Aikido players: Troy

Ukemi:

Very light warm-up

The Walk:

Not tonight.

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

We spent the evening working on no. 17 Hiki-otoshi.  We tweaked: the footwork, the interception of uke's attacking hand, the joint lock to the elbow, maintaining center parallel to uke until the last moment, trowing uke away instead of down.

We then spent a bit off time just familiarizing ourselves with the footwork on the left side and working through the same stuff in a condensed form.

Aftermath:

I tried a little knee-walking tonight.  I supported myself with my hands, so that my knees weren't doing all of the work.  I think that this is going to be a good regimen for regaining the flexibility needed for the kneeling katas.

Tonight was the 7th anniversary of my first night on the mat for aikido.

Tweets for 01-17-2013

• Scott Zrubek: Taxas Artfire Guild - Adornments by VictoriaLynn - http://t.co/0V4zx5FW #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Thursday Jan 17 - 12:57pm


• Scott Zrubek: Artisans in Wood - Boatwright Woodworks - http://t.co/Ck3HX6xl #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Thursday Jan 17 - 10:56am


• Scott Zrubek: Cover Girl Beads - handmade lampwork glass beads, large hole beads and glass charms. http://t.co/FtQewu2I #handmade #artfire
  
  tweeted at: Thursday Jan 17 - 9:04am


• Scott Zrubek: Mad Moravian - http://t.co/vcG0cz7j - Fine handmade pens, bottle stoppers, chainmaille, stained glass and custom orders. #artfire #handmade
  
  tweeted at: Thursday Jan 17 - 8:50am


• Scott Zrubek: ILMARE http://t.co/fQzJoBEA - exquisite jewelry crafted from fine gemstones and quality metals. #artfire #handmade
  
  tweeted at: Thursday Jan 17 - 8:43am

Weekend update

Friday

Ate in as I ate out on Thursday
Aikido

Saturday

Blueberry muffins
Took Gandalf for an oil change.  Took longer than I thought and barely made it to aikido on time
Aikido
Started two batches of bread: Buttermilk cluster and Fuddrucker rolls
Football
Baked the two batches of bread

Sunday

Went to the store to get stuff to grill out hamburgers
Grilled burgers
Football

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 1/12/13

Aikido players: Tim,  and Troy

Ukemi:

Full set. 

The Walk:

Not today

Releases:

Not today

Techniques:

We ran through 1-17 with Troy, both sides.  That took us about 2 hours.  Things went well overall.  We played with sumi-otoshi for a bit.  If I did not attempt to recover and try to take a big fall, the technique went well.  If I attempted the recovery, the angle changed and we did not have a successful attempt.

I'm going to get Trey in to watch and see what's happening.  I'm giving conflicting recommendations as uke to Troy at the moment.

I then ran through the first 14 of Yon Kata.  We ran through it once at regular speed, and then once as fast as we could do it.  1 minute and 10 seconds.  I'd heard rumors of it being done in 30 seconds, but that's just bloody well impossible.  We finished the first 7 techniques in 25 seconds.

I was on the mat for several minutes recovering from the exertion.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 1/11/13

Aikido players: Tim,  Trey,  Marvin, Dan (the Elder), and Dan (the Younger)

Ukemi:

Full set.  Helped Dan with his rolls.

The Walk:

Twice as usual.  I then spent a good portion of the evening with DtY on learning more of the Walk

Releases:

DtY and I worked on the first release

Techniques:

None tonight.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Thursday Night - 1/10/2013

Aikido players: Sal

Ukemi:

None tonight.

The Walk:

Once

Releases:

Sal did his releases tonight.  We had some issues with: 2, 5, 6, and 8.

Techniques:

We worked through the first two of Ju Nana Han Kata to knock off some rust since it'd been a while since Sal had been to class.Sal was not taking me out far enough for an off-balance for no. 2, particularly on the left side.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Movies ranking from 2012

Movies seen in the theatre in 2012, or released in 2012 and seen on DVD

Wreck-it-Ralph : 4
Django Unchained : 4
Skyfall : 2
Argo : 4
Brave : 4
The Avengers : 3
Dark Shadows : 3

8 new release movies seen in the theatres.  Far fewer than I would like.  There are probably that many out right now that I would like to see.  Oh well.

So, between the 4 films I rated as 4s ( "Wreck-it-Ralph", "Django Unchained", "Argo", and "Brave"), I think the order would come down to:

4: Django Unchained
3. Wreck-it-Ralph
2. Brave
1. Argo

It was a tough choice between Argo and Brave, but Argo made me concerned that thinks would work out in the end, even though I knew they did.

Volleyball 2-1, 0-2

This week was the last week of this session of volleyball.  It was the championship tournament.  We won the first match, against a team that we'd beaten twice already, with our usual score.  We lost the first game and won the last two.

The next match, we got manhandled.  Our play, in both matches, was not that great.  My serves were ineffective and my net play was nothing of note.

Another season is around the corner.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 1/5/2013

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Troy, Dan (the Elder), and Dan (the Younger)

Ukemi:

Full set.

The Walk:

Twice.  I then spent a good portion of the afternoon working with Dan (the Younger) on getting through the Walk completely

Releases:

Not today

Techniques:

I ran through some "Punch the Dummy" with DtY.

We then ran through the standing portions of Koryu Dai San with Trey and I as tori.  It went fairly well.   I did not bend down low enough for Kote Kajiki.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 1/4/2013

Aikido players: Tim,  Troy, Marvin, and Dan (the Younger)

Ukemi:

Full set.  Helped Dan with his rolls.

The Walk:

Twice as usual.

Releases:

I watched over Troy and Marvin do their sets.  Troy was having issues with Marvin as an uke

Techniques:

We ran through 6 and 8 with Marvin and Troy taking turns as uke.  Marvin worked on 8 for the first time and did fairly well.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Thursday Night - 1/3/2013

Aikido players: No students showed up, so I went home.

Aikido Friday Night - 12/28/2012

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, and Troy

Ukemi:

Full set.

The Walk:

Not tonight

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

We ran through 2, 7, and 14 with Trey.  He was struggling with the difference between Trey and I as uke.

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Thursday Night - 12/29/2012

Aikido players: No students showed up, so I went home.