5.31.2013

Aikido Thursday Night - 5/30/13

Aikido players:  Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

None tonight

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Releases:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Techniques:

We started the evening on Oshi-taoshi.  We got both right and left side reps in.

We spent the rest of the evening on Hiki taoshi.  I had Dan work on the footwork for a bit and then we got a couple of reps in.  No armbars, as I didn't want to have to many done to my arm in one night.


Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.30.2013

Wednesday workout

Weight machine still needs repairs at work, so I went home and walked the dogs.  1.5 miles according to google maps.  Jack determined the route for us.  The day was overcast, so it wasn't as tough for the boys as last week's walk was.  Still not many water puddles for Jack to drink from.

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5.29.2013

Volleyball, 3-0

We played Recreational Buffet last night.  We were tied with them in the rankings going in, and justifiably so.  The games were close and well-fought.  We won the games: 23-21, 21-19 and 15-6.

I was not at the top of my form: serving was ok, net play not so much.

Next week we play Bumpin' Uglies.

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5.28.2013

Weekend update

Friday

Lunch at Savannah Cafe
Aikido
Started work on sourdough

Saturday

Blueberry muffins
Work on sourdough
Work on Pane Siciliano
Stopped by HEB to pick up some flour
Aikido
Took Gandalf in for 45K checkup and oil change
Stopped by M's to check in on renovations
Went out to dinner with K, M, and M's mom at El Centinela
Basketball

Sunday

Baked sourdough
Worked on Pane Siciliano
Went to a laser cutting course at TX/RX Labs
Made Bruschetta
Dinner at our place with K's parents, and M's mom.  M was on a Search and Rescue run in Schertz
 Basketball

Monday

Nap
Mowed the yard
Baked Pane Siciliano
Finished one book and started and finished another
Basketball




Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 5/25/13

Aikido players: Tim and Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

Got in a full set

The Walk:

Not today

Releases:

Tim uked for Dan on the releases

Techniques:

We worked on Ude gaeshi for a while and then switched to hiki taoshi.

We then played a little with some of the Kogure double hand grabs.

Aftermath:

None of note. 

Aikido Friday Night - 5/24/13

Aikido players: Tim, Dan the Elder and Ramon

Ukemi:

Did not get any in.  Watched over Ramon

The Walk:

Twice as usual. 

Releases:

I spent a lot of time with Dan on the releases. 

Techniques:

Worked with Dan on Oshi Taoshi.  Did a bunch of work on the armbar.  Tim was able to make some tweaks that I could not see were needed

Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.27.2013

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5.26.2013

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5.25.2013

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5.24.2013

Aikido Thursday Night - 5/23/13

Aikido players:  Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

None tonight

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Releases:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Techniques:

We spent the evening on Oshi-taoshi.  We got both right and left side reps in.

It's interesting trying to tweak the arm bar without a third person to see things.  Correcting an armbar as the victim is all about feel, but I'm sure I'm missing some posture issues.


Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.23.2013

Wednesday workout

Weight machine still needs repairs at work, so I went home and walked the dogs.  It was probably about a mile or so.  The dogs were not prepared for a long walk, so my planned route was cut short.

It was warm and humid and there weren't many water puddles for the boys to drink from.

Volleyball, 3-0

We played "Volleyball for Dummies" this week.  We won fairly handily and played well.  21-11, 21-11, and 15-4.

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5.22.2013

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5.21.2013

Weekend recipes: Buttermilk and Honey Whole Wheat

Another recipe from thefreshloaf.com

Ingredients
Whole wheat flour : 500 grams or about 4 cups
Bread flour : 500 grams or about 4 cups
Salt: 20 grams
Instant yeast: 6 grams
Water: 370 grams
Buttermilk: 370 grams
Honey: 84 grams
Unsalted butter: 28 grams or 2 Tbs

Mixing
Add the salt to the flour. Mix them thoroughly and then add the yeast, also mixing. Melt the butter (or, if you like, work it in later while kneading) and add the water, buttermilk, melted butter and honey to the flour, mixing well until everything is hydrated.

Dough development


Traditional kneading: Let it rise 2 to 2.5 hours in the bulk rise at room temperature.  (I think that was too long.  It more than doubled)

If you’re not retarding the bread, deflate the dough after the first rise with a stretch and fold, and let the dough rise once more before shaping. It’ll take about 1.5 hours or so.  ( I completely missed this step)

Shaping

This dough makes a great sandwich loaf, and I usually bake it in a greased 8.5” by 4.5” bread pan.  Let rise for an hour or so.

Scoring and baking

I scored the dough with a single slash down the center, but it’s not necessary. I baked at 350 degrees F for about 55 minutes.

I might try this again.  The bread came out quite dense, and toasts well.  I might try to add the second rise, and make the first shorter, and see what happens:

Monday workout


Elliptical: 15 minutes, incline, level 4,  2.1 miles, 213 cal

Weight machine is broken :(

Weekend update

Friday:

Lunch at Seabrook Classic Cafe
Aikido
Start on sourdough

Saturday:

Blueberry muffins
Sourdough work
Trip to JK's restaurant supply (they were closed)
On to Ace Restaurant Mart (results as expected)
Aikido
More sourdough work
Nap
Preakness
Dinner with K at Franca's
Basketball

Sunday:

Bread work

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5.20.2013

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 5/18/13

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Marvin, Gail, Dan the Elder, and Mario

Ukemi:

I got a full set of warm-ups in.  Watched over Gail.  Made a training suggestion for Marvin, Dan and Mario: put a strip of tape on the mat for them to line their foot up and try to have their hand touch when falling.

The Walk:

Twice as usual. 

Releases:

I did a little work with Marvin and Mario on the releases. 

Techniques:

I worked with Marvin and Mario on the first couple of techniques.

After that, Trey and I got to work together for a bit.  I ran through the first 14 of Yon Kata, then the next to "come-alongs".  Trey then had me run through Aigamae-ate.  I then had us both run through Kata-Otoshi.

Aftermath:

None of note. 

Aikido Friday Night - 5/17/13

Aikido players: Tim, Marvin, Hossein, and Mario

Ukemi:

Did not get any in.  Watched over Mario

The Walk:

Twice as usual. 

Releases:

I spent a lot of time with Mario on the releases. 

Techniques:

We worked on the entry for shomen-ate for Mario

Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.19.2013

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5.18.2013

Tweet summary on 05-18-2013 for the past day

5.17.2013

Aikido Thursday Night - 5/16/13

Aikido players:  Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

None tonight

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Releases:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Techniques:

We spent half of the evening working on Dan's Ushiro-ate.  Still having the usual issues, but we did have a number of successful throws.  We had an extensive lack of success last night. 

After half of the class, we switched over to Oshi-taoshi and tweaked some stuff there.


Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.16.2013

Wednesday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 4,  2.0 miles, 202 cal

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@140 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@60 lbs

Standard chest straight motion: 2 x 15@110 lbs.

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5.15.2013

Volleyball, 2-1

We played Bazinga!, a new team in the league this season, last night.  We played pretty poorly throughout the night, but did stage a comeback in the third game.  We won the first game 21-16, lost the second 19-21, and won the third 15-2.

We should not have let them get as close as they did  the first two games.

Ugh.

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5.14.2013

Monday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 4,  2.0 miles, 198 cal

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@140 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs

Standard chest straight motion: 2 x 15@110 lbs.

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5.13.2013

Weekend update

Friday

Lunch at an almost deserted Frenchie's due to thunderstorms
Aikido
Refresh sourdough starter

Saturday

Start working on a batch of sourdough
Got cat food
Aikido
Sourdough work
Shopped at Fry's
Dessert at El Centinela
Basketball

Sunday

Sourdough work
Rosemary Potato rolls work
Blackberry cobbler
Apple pie
Grilled salmon and Steaks
Had mom and in-laws over for Mother's Day

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 5/11/13

Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Marvin, Dan the Elder, and Mario

Ukemi:

Watched over Mario.  Did not get my usual set in.  We did do some elevated falls: we brought out some of our foldable mats and left them folded up.  We then took falls from on top of those mats, about an extra foot higher than normal.  We then stacked another mat on top, to give us about 2 feet extra height.  I got a little panicked at the full two mat height, so I took one from 1.5 mats up.  Not a great fall, but I lived.

The Walk:

Twice as usual. 

Releases:

Troy and I worked on releases together.  It was great.

Techniques:

Troy and I watched over Dan and Marvin working on shomen-ate at 3-step distance.  They then did some work on oshi taoshi.

After the regular session, Troy and I did some work.  Dan joined in on a couple of items.

I did work on Yon Kata, the first 14 and then a few of the come-alongs.  We explored opportunities on two-bouncer come alongs.

We then ran through some of Troy's Ju Nana Hon Kata and then spent a lot of time working on Kata Otoshi.

It ended up being a four hour class.

Aftermath:

Absolutely beat.  4 hours on the mat.  Painkillers in pill and liquid form. 

Aikido Friday Night - 5/10/13

Aikido players: Tim, Marvin, Dan the Elder, Hossein, Mario, Ramon

Ukemi:

Did not get any in.  Watched over Ramon and Mario

The Walk:

Twice as usual.  I then spent a bit of time working with Ramon and ran through the Walk several more times.

Releases:

I did a little work with Ramon and Mario on the releases.  That led into some ad lib exploration of following uke's energy flow.

Techniques:

Not tonight.

Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.12.2013

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5.11.2013

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5.10.2013

Aikido Thursday Night - 5/9/13

Aikido players:  Dan the Elder

Ukemi:

None tonight

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Releases:

Not on Thursdays, normally.

Techniques:

We spent the evening working on Dan's Ushiro-ate.  Still having the usual issues, but we did have a number of successful throws.  We stayed at 1-step distance to increase the reps and reduce the number of variables.


Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.09.2013

Lunching out - City Cafe

Drove out to South Houston this past Friday.  It'd received good reviews on urbanspoon, so I tough I'd try it out.

The restaurant is half smoking and half non-smoking.  I only spent a minute or two in the smoking portion paying for my lunch, but I got back to work and stunk of cigarette smoke.

I had the Chicken fried steak with corn and mashed potatoes, tea, and pecan pie for dessert.  According to the waitress, the CFS was available on the steam table, but I just wanted to work on my crossword.

The CFS was quite good.  Tender, but the batter could have been a little crisper.  The corn was nothing unusual, but the potatoes appeared to be locally mashed.  The rolls that came with the meal were nice, too.

The pecan pie was ok.  The filling was probably restaurant-made with native pecans, but the crust was not that interesting.

The food was good enough that I would go back, but the smoke is a non-starter.  I won't be back unless they go all non-smoking.  I don't expect that to happen.



City Cafe on Urbanspoon

Wednesday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 4,  2.0 miles, 201 cal

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@140 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs

Standard chest straight motion: 2 x 15@110 lbs.

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5.08.2013

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5.07.2013

Weekend recipe - Hawaiian Sweet Bread with Tangzhong

Another recipe from Floydm at thefreshloaf.com.  Pretty simple recipe, but I had some issues with it.  I think the issue was due to using cold from the refrigerator milk. 

The first rise was supposed to occur in an hour.  When I checked, after an hour, nothing had happened.  Nada.  No change at all.  So, wanting to try the recipe again, I went out and got more supplies.

I suspected the issue was the temperature, so I warmed everything up do a decent temp before mixing it in.  The dough behaved better and looked better than the previous batch.  I set this batch off to rise, too.  The first batch had not been discarded.

After an hour passed, I checked on the second batch, and it looked good.  I checked on the first batch and it had tripled in size.  It was still alive.  So, I now have two batches worth of loaves to bake, plus my two sourdough loaves.

Now I had between 6 and 8 loaves to bake.  Each one would take a solo baking cycle in the oven.  Each of about 45 minutes.  4.5 - 6 hours.  Ugh.

I finally turned off the oven at about 11:30 p.m.  At least basketball games were still on TV.

Here's the recipe:

Tangzhong

2/3 cup pineapple juice
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup all purpose flour
Final dough

800g (around 5 C) all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
50g (1/2 C) milk powder
1/2 C half and half
3/4 C milk
2 eggs
4 T butter
4 t instant yeast
1 t salt
1 t vanilla extract (optional)
1 t lemon extract or some lemon zest (optional)
1 t orange extract or some orange zest (optional)
all of the tangzhong
1 more egg, beaten, for the eggwash

Tangzhong preparation
1 cup of liquid (milk or water or juice) to 1/3 cup flour, or a 5 to 1 liquid to solid ratio (so 250g liquid to 50g flour) and mix it together in a pan.  Heat the pan while stirring constantly.  Initially it will remain a liquid, but as you approach 65C it will undergo a change and thicken to an almost pudding like consistency. 

Main bread:

I mixed the tangzhong with the milk, (I just realized I left out the half and half from both attempts!), half and half, and butter to get everything to a decent temp.
I then mixed that in with everything else.  Mixing for about 15 minutes.
Greased a bowl, formed the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl, covered, to rise for an hour.
I then divided one batch into 3 pieces and the other into two, and let them rise for an hour.
Glazed them with an egg wash, put them in a 350 oven on my baking stone.  Covered them for 10 minutes, then let them cook uncovered for 35 minutes more.
I got no puckering of the loaves as they cooled.  Maybe I'll try them again and not leave out the half and half and see what happens.

No pictures.  Bummer.

Monday workout


Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 4,  1.9 miles, 194 cal

Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs

Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs

Standard chest straight motion: 2 x 15@110 lbs.

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5.06.2013

Weekend update

Friday:

Lunch at City diner in South Houston
Aikido
Basketball on TV

Saturday:

Dewberry muffins
Refreshed sourdough starter
Artfire work
Artshow work
Aikido
Stopped by JK's restaurant supply but they were already closed
Drove by a structure that looked interesting for a dojo.  Wrote down a number.
More sourdough work
Dinner with K.
Basketball on TV
More sourdough work

Sunday:

2 hr nap
Hawaiian Sweet Bread work
Did some mowing
Spent a couple of hours getting 2 trash trees dug out of the ground
More bread work
Stayed up until 11:30 doing bread work because a batch I had written off as dead, was just slow.  I had 7 loaves to bake, one at a time.

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5.05.2013

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 5/4/13

Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Marvin,  and Mario

Ukemi:

Got in a full set.  Watched over Mario

The Walk:

Twice as usual.

Releases:

I worked with Mario on the releases.  We got through all of them.

Techniques:

I did some work on Shomen-ate with Mario.

Troy and I, after the regular session ended, ran through his Ju Nana Hon Kata.  We got through all 17.  Then we spent some time on aikinage.

Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.04.2013

Aikido Friday Night - 5/3/13

Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Marvin, Gail, Dan the Elder, Hossein, Mario, Ramon

Ukemi:

Did not get any in.  Watched over Ramon and Mario

The Walk:

Twice as usual.

Releases:

I worked with Marvin and Hossein on the releases.  We got through all of them.

Techniques:

We worked on Shomen-ate.

Aftermath:

None of note. 

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5.03.2013

Thursday Concert - Jewel

Had a great time at the show last night.  Attempted to remember the set list, but that just lasted a few songs.  I'm looking for the set list, if anyone has it.

She entered the venue to boxing themed music and pretending to be a boxer on her way up to the stage.

Her brother was her opening act.  He told us they'd just done the Austin show and that their dad had sung yodel harmony with Jewel in the concert.  I was hoping the same thing would happen in Houston.  Alas, it did not.

The usual yodel encore (at least that's been the encore at both of the concerts I've been to).  She seemed to be doing mostly requests, but toward the end she noted it was a "Greatest Hits" tour and did a couple to finish out.

In the middle, she did covers of "Ring of Fire" and "Take the Ribbon from Your Hair".

I tried to get her to sing "Amazing Grace", but I don't think she heard me.

She was going to sing "Nicotine Love", but could not find the lyrics to it in her stack of lyrics she brought with her onstage.  She handed the stack off to a fan to look through to see if it was in there.  the fan did not find it, either.  Later on, another fan produced 3 popcorn boxes on which she'd written the lyrics to "Nicotine Love" and handed them to Jewel.  Jewel sang the song, signed the popcorn boxes and handed them back to the fan.

A nice, 2 hours concert.



Set list:

Near You Always    
Little Sister       
-monologue: shoplifting / 9-11 
Hands             
Life Uncommon             
Stronger Woman
-monologue: barroom singing with Dad
Rosey And Mick
-monologue: June Carter Cash
Ring Of Fire (includes intro)
Help Me Make It Through The Night
Satisfied
Goodbye Alice In Wonderland
-monologue: Bob Dylan
Stephenville
-monologue: Kilcher Family
My Father's Daughter 
Shape Of You
Standing Still
Intuition
Foolish Games                   
You Were Meant For Me             
Two Heart Breaking
Nicotine Love
-monologue: tuition/Dad/Wizard of Oz/Kermit/thank you
Who Will Save Your Soul                
Chime Bells

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5.02.2013

Weekend recipes - Struan

The second of this past weekend's breads was a Struan from Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice".  Someone'd mentioned it on thefreshloaf.com, so I thought I'd give it a try.  It is a multigrain bread in a normal loaf form.

It uses a soaker as a pre-ferment.

It was well-received by the wife and works well toasted.

The quantities below are for two loaves.

Soaker

6 TB polenta
6 TB rolled oats
4 TB wheat bran
1/2 Cup water, at room temp

Mix the soaker the day before you want to bake.  Combine the ingredients in a bowl until everything is hydrated.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight.

Dough
 
6 Cups bread flour
6 TB brown sugar
3 tsp salt
2 TB instant yeast
6 TB cooked brown rice
3 TB honey
1 Cup buttermilk
1-1/2 Water

Mix the flour, brown sugar, salt, and yeast in a bowl.  Add the soaker, rice, honey, buttermilk and water.  Mix until they form a ball.  I had to add quite a bit of flour to get to that state.

Knead for about 10 minutes.  The dough will smooth out and pass the windowpane test.

Oil a bowl and transfer the dough to it, rolling to coat with oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment at room temp for about 90 minutes

Rmove the dough from teh bowl, split it into two halves.  Press each half into a rectangle.  Form it into a loaf to fit your loaf pans.  Place the laoves into the oiled pans.  Mist the top of the dough with water.  Sprinkle with poppy seeds.  Mist again with oil, cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap or a towel.

Proof for about 90 minutes

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Bake for about 20 minutes.  Rotate 180 degrees and bake for another 20 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Cool 2 hours before slicing.

Weekend recipes: Irish Soda Bread

I made an Irish Soda Bread this past weekend.  I think it turned out ok, but I'm not sure I like soda breads when compared to yeast breads.  The folks at work did not prefer it over the Struan alternative.

This recipe comes from "Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads".  It's his Royal Hibernian Brown Loaf.

2-1/2 Cups whole wheat flour
1 Cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
1-1/4 Cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400F

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Work the butter in until you get something that looks like breadcrumbs.

In a well in the center of the mixture, pour in a mixture of the egg and buttermilk.  Mix until you get a stiff dough.

Lift the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured work surface.  Mix with hands and dough knife until thoroughly blended.  Do not knead.

Shape into a plump round ball.  Pat the top down slightly and with a knife or razor blade, cut a 1/2" deep cross on the top.

Please the loaf on a greased baking sheet and bake until brown, about 45 minutes.



Wednesday workout - MIA

Forgot my workout stuff, so no exercise.

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5.01.2013

Volleyball, 1-2

We played Poundcake last night.  They are a team that usually plays in the competitive league, but are playing the Rec league while some of their team members heal from injuries.  They won the Rec league that we finished last week.

We won the first game 21-19.  The next two games were not very close.

I did ok.  I'm feeling comfortable with the knees these days.  That probably started a month or two ago, so about 8 months after my knee issues from sand volleyball.

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