Dan and I both agreed to cancel class due to our sinus conditions. We figured rest was the better choice for the night.
We played "Volleyball for Dummies" this week. We won the first two games fairly easily, even though we were undermanned. The thirds game was 14-16, I believe.
We had only 4 players for a bit of the first game, and finished the evening with 5.
Friday:
Lunch at Barnaby's
Aikido
Caught a cold/allergy on the way home
Saturday:
Banking
Aikido
Football
Dinner at El Centinela
Slept for 33 of the next 36 hour
Sunday:
Sleeping
A brief appearance for soup and a bit of football
Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Dan, Marvin, Gail, Mario, Damon, and John (Roderick was there but had to go to work before he could get on the mat)
Ukemi:
Got half of my warm-up set in. Worked with Gail as she tried to move from the thick mat to the thinner one. A number of mental stumbling blocks in the process.
The Walk:
Twice, per the usual routine
Releases:
Worked with Gail.
Techniques:
Trey and I spent "Black Belt Hour" working on the first 14 of Yon Kata. Trey has had some more insights into these techniques as he's been uke-ing them for long enough now. The most important thing of all of these is the first off-balance.
Worked with Gail on Aigamae-ate
Aftermath:
Felt horrible. Caught an allergy or something Friday night. Went home and slept for 33 of the next 36 hours.
Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Dan, Marvin, Gail, Mario, Damon, and John
Ukemi:
Got half of my warm-up set in. Watched John and Gail.
The Walk:
Twice, per the usual routine
Releases:
Oversaw Mavin and Dan working together. Made a substantial correction to Marvin's 4th release, changing the footwork.
Techniques:
Oversaw Mavin and Dan working on Waki gatame
Oversaw Gail and John working on Shomen-ate
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Dan
Well, we would have had class, but the guy who owns the building went out for his birthday celebration. He locked the door, and I don't have a key.
We played one of the newer teams this week, and one all three games. The third game was 15-11 or something like that.
Friday:
Lunch at Hubcap Grill
Aikido
Work on sourdough
Saturday:
Sourdough pancakes - I prefer buttermilk, I think
Work on sourdough loaves
Aikido
Sourdough
Football
Sunday:
Work on one of the hallway doors
Football
Sourdough loaves
Peach cobbler
Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Dan, Marvin, Mario, Julio, and John
Ukemi:
Got a couple of full set in and worked with John
The Walk:
Twice, per the usual routine
Releases:
Worked with Mario on the last four
Techniques:
Troy and I both worked through all 8 of the kneeling Koryu Dai San in the "Black Belt Hour"
Worked with John on "punching the dummy" and the beginnings of Shomen-ate. Did some general work on Gedan-ate for a number of folks.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Tim, Dan, Marvin, Gail, Mario, and Julio
Ukemi:
Got a couple of rolls in
The Walk:
Twice, per the usual routine
Releases:
Oversaw Mario and Julio working together
Techniques:
Oversaw Mario and Julio work on Shomen-ater
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Dan
Ukemi:
Got a couple of rolls in
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays
Releases:
Not on Thursdays
Techniques:
Worked with Dan on the first 3 of Ju Nana Hon Kata
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Tim, Dan, Marvin, Mario, Gail, and Julio
Ukemi:
Got a couple of rolls in
The Walk:
Twice, per the usual routine
Releases:
Worked with Gail
Techniques:
Worked with Gail on Shomen-ate
Aftermath:
None of note.
We played Frank's team last night, and it was as close at it usually was. We won the first game fairly easily. The second game we lost 21-23. The third we won 17-16.
I did not back my volleyball properly and ended up with only one shoe in it. So, I had to play in my hiking boots.
Friday:
Aikido
Saturday:
Up early to drive to Austin, picking up some passengers along the way, for the annual board meeting of ALAMO
Had the meeting
Ate some barbecue
Drove back, stopping at the Omni Hotel in south Austin
Also stopped at Berdoll's pecan store - created a few new customers I think
Football
Sunday:
Football
Did some work on one of the doors in the house
ArmadilloCon this year was a Relaxacon. Just a gathering of friends at a laid back location to talk, play games, eat, and SMOF.
I managed to rule the world in croquet.
K. and I took the boys (Jack and Tank, our dogs) with us for our first trip with them in a long time. The trip to the Hill Country was about 4 or 5 hours, with the various stops we made. The boys travelled very well. They also enjoyed the weekend. We took them on walks, they got to smell different wildlife and plants.
We drove up on Friday, and drove back on Monday. A nice long weekend.
Took a weekend and flew to Alabama for an ATAA seminar.
K. dropped me off at the airport. I had some issues with the metal detectors, but the TSA foud a knife I thought I'd lost. I had enough time to go back and check a ppiece of luggage so I did not end up losing the knife I thought I'd lost.
Got to Birmingham with no real issues, picked up a rental, and drove to Bessemer and to the hotel. When I pulled into the parking lot, my first reaction was "What a dump". My second reaction was "What a dump". My third was "They've got no power". I ended up staying there, but wrote a lengthy note to the national office to let them know how horrible it was.
We had aikido sessions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I got to work with J. W. Bode and Mike Whitlock. These two have promotion certificates signed by Tomiki. I don't know if they got to lay hands on the man himself, but it's still cool. We worked on hand randori and they showed me issues I had and made suggestions.
I got to work with a couple of folks on O Waza Ju Pon, before they included those techniques in their demonstration for Shodan. I also got to help Kegan work on Koryu Dai San for a bit. Cool stuff.
The flight back was unnoticeable.
We played "Way Out" last night and lost all three. The first game was 21-23, so, very close. The other two were not as close, but not blowouts.
None of us were doing well playing at 9 pm. I hate 9 o'clock games. We play another one next week.
Maybe we'll do better.
Friday:
Started work on some breads
Aikido
Saturday:
Work on coding sample for possible job, had to upgrade my machine's Perl environment
More work on Sourdough and Pumpkin Sourdough
Stop at Home Depot
Aikido
Football
Sunday:
More work on coding sample
Clean up house for an ApolloCon meeting
Football
ApolloCon meeting
Football
Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Marvin, Mario, Julio, Zach, and John
Ukemi:
Got a couple of rolls in
The Walk:
Twice, per the usual routing
Releases:
Worked with Zach on the first four releases.
Techniques:
I did some punch the dummy work with Zach, and then an intro to Shomen-ate. He did pretty well.
Trey and I worked on some Koryu Dai San techniques: Oshi Taoshi, Kote Mawashi, and Uchi Tenkai Nage.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Tim, Mario, Julio, John ( a new student )
Ukemi:
A couple of warm-up rolls in, helped John with his rolling
The Walk:
Twice, per the usual routine
Releases:
Worked with.......
Techniques:
I can't remember, dangit. I think I worked with Julio on Gyaku gama ate.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players: Dan
Ukemi:
None tonight
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Releases:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Techniques:
Dan and I worked on Oshi Taoshi and Hiki Taoshi. Once again, working with me after working with folks of normal height caused issues for Dan. We're working in the section of techniques that's nice to have an outside set of eyes to help correct armbars. I think we got through Oshi Taoshi fine. Working on Hiki, I was feeling something in the armbar that I could not place. He got the armbar, but there was something extra that I've not felt before. I need to try to figure out what it is.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Friday:
Up at 5:15 a.m. to finish packing and get on the road
On the road by 6:30
Stop at Buc-ee's in Madisonville
Stop at Sam's in Fairfield for breakfast
Stop at Russell Stover's in Corsicana for chocolate for the in-laws
Arrive in Addison for FenCon around noon
Check-in and head over to the Art Show, K heads off to Con Suite
Dinner in hotel restaurant with Renee, Kimm, Sara, and K.
Panel on making leather masks
Saturday:
K up early to go to Con Suite
Breakfast at hotel restaurant - going somewhere else for Sunday
Back to Art Show for the day
Make various purchase: con memberships, art, books
Changing our convention plans for next year
Pizza brought in for Art Auction prep
Art Auction - served as a runner, bought a Tuckerization and my first Whelan
Hit a couple of the parties, very, very briefly
Sunday:
K tried to go to Con Suite, but it wasn't open
We went down the road for breakfast instead.
Back to Art Show to help teardown
Got caught in a weak moment by Jeff Orth, agreed to worked KC, should they win. Did not commit to exactly what I'd work. Right now, I should probably not work it. I've got PTSD from San Antonio.
Left the con at 3:30 p.m.
Headed to Athens to visit Kat
Left Athens at 6:30
Stop at Buc-ee's in Madisonville for a bite to eat
Road down to one lane southbound in Huntsville
Arrive home at 11:30, dead tired, greet animals.
Aikido players: Troy and Dan
Ukemi:
None tonight
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Releases:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Techniques:
We spent the evening on the first 6 of Ju Nana Hon Kata for Dan, since we're still not letting him take falls. He looked pretty good. He was having footwork issues throughout most of the evening.
Troy and I did a couple of reps on the 4th kneeling technique from Koryu Dai San. I wanted to make sure it was fresh in his mind.
Aftermath:
Troy's schedule has just been changed for the drastically worse. He probably won't be able to make any classes for the next 6 months. We need to see if we can get some classroom rime on Mondays or Tuesday.
Found on thekitchn.com
I know I've tried this recipe with butter, Crisco, lard and coconut oil. This is closer to what I'm looking for than the other recipe I tried last night. It's crisper. While I'm not looking for a hard crisp, I want something stronger than what happened last night.
First alteration will be chilling the dough, not sure what else.
Crinkle Top Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
Makes about 60 cookies
2 cups (11 oz) dark raisins
2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour, divided
1 cup (7 oz) shortening
2 cups (17 oz) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups (8 oz) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
extra sugar for rolling
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
Toss the raisins with 1/4 cup of the flour. Grind in a food processor
with a blade attachment for 20-30 seconds until the raisins form a very
thick paste and come together into a ball (see photographs below). You
can also use a blender or a meat grinder to mash the raisins into a
paste.
(I tried the above step and did not like the result. I prefer my raisins whole)
Cream the shortening and sugar with an electric mixer until light and
fluffy. Beat in the eggs until the mixture resembles soft frosting.
Beat in the ground raisins.
In a separate bowl, combine the remaining 1 3/4 cups of flour,
oatmeal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Beat this slowly into the egg
mixture until a shaggy dough is formed and there is no more visible
flour.
Use your hands to pinch off pieces of the dough and roll them into
balls slightly smaller than ping-pong balls. Roll each ball in
granulated sugar and arrange them two inches apart on the baking sheets.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies are crinkly on top and just
starting to turn golden-brown around the edges.
This is the second attempt at the recipe I found at Lady Bean . This is the only recipe I have on my blog, so I thought it was close to what I wanted. Nope. I think I know what I searched for last time, and just have to find it again.
Preheat the oven to 350º
1/2 Cup of softened butter
1/4 Cup of brown sugar (previous 1/2 C)
1/2 Cup of white sugar (previous 1/4 C)
Mix
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.
Mix
1 Cup AP flour (previous 3/4C)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup milk (previously not in the recipe)
Mix
1-1/2 Cups of oats (quick or old-fashioned oats) (3/4 Cup finely chopped in food processor)
1/2 Cup of raisins.
Mix
Stir until combined.
Chill dough for 1 hour
Drop a tablespoon of batter onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for about 16 minutes
Friday:
Day off as I'd put in my 80 hours already
Refreshed sourdough starter
Mowed most of the yard
Trip into town to find sprouted grain flours. No real luck
Lunch with K at Gringo's (King's Bier Garten was prepping for Oktoberfest, so they were closed)
Art Show Helper work
Aikido
Saturday:
Blueberry muffins
More sourdough work
Aikido
Aggie Football
Sunday:
Met up with Bill P. to get some stuff for transport and talk fannish politics
More work on two types of bread
Made some cornbread with polenta instead of corn meal
Attempted to hang new interior door, just a bit too wide
Big midday meal
Football
No students, no class. Apparently, Julio showed up after we'd left.
If no students show up by about 10-15 minutes after scheduled start time, class is cancelled.
Aikido players: Tim, Mario, and Julio
Ukemi:
Light set
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
Oversaw Mario and Julio working on releases. It actually went pretty well.
Techniques:
Did some work on shomen-ate on both side for both of them. That went pretty well, also.
Aftermath:
None of note
I finally got some time to update my daily tweet summary tool to work with twitter's v1.1 api. My tool was out of commission for a couple of months after they updated their API and while I was dealing with the LoneStarCon3 Art Show stuff.
The Art Show is in a waiting mode, so I spent some time finding the problems. Now I need to do some work on making it more robust. I'll be alternating between that and working on my Art Show Helper, adding features and fixing issues that came up at WorldCon.
Now I just need to do some more tweeting. I'll be prepping some tweets this weekend. And I need to start boosting my ArtFire store some more.
We played the first round of playoffs versus "Way Out" last night. We played pretty well. The first game, we led, then trailed, then led again. It wasn't a neck-and-neck game, but not a blowout, either. The second game, I think we led from the beginning, or close to it. We had a fairly comfortable margin.
My serve was not spectacular, but it was okay. I felt my play was pretty good last night.
Next week: the rest of the playoffs
Tried a place in old League City on Friday: Main Street Bistro. Pretty decent place. It felt almost like a tea room, probably because of the numerous all-female tables. But, the decor was far more masculine than I would expect from a tea room. There was also a table of male League City cops on their lunch break.
They've apparently (according to a blurb on the chalkboard for specials) been in business for about a year. They do seem to be doing a good business.
My choice for the day was fish tacos, with a side order of their green beans. I was hoping they had not run out of tortillas.
The food came out quickly and was quite good. The green beans were perfectly cooked, and were more than just green beans. It had a variety of beans, with some onions and mushrooms. The fish tacos were good, and I got both of them.
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Friday:
Lunch at Main Street Bistro
Aikido
Worked on Banana Bread
Worked on Sourdough
Saturday:
Work on LSC3 Art Show stuff
Worked on Sourdough
Aikido
Stopped by mom's
Work on LSC3 Art Show stuff
Aggie football
Sunday:
Work on LSC3 Art Show stuff
Worked on Sourdough
Did a little yardwork
Football
Work on LSC3 Art Show stuff
Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Dan, Mario, Julio, and Zach
Ukemi:
Full set
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
Did some work with Zach, we got into the first release before the class went into discussion mode.
Techniques:
Not today
Aftermath:
None of note
Aikido players: Tim, Dan, Marvin, Mario, and Julio
Ukemi:
Light set
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
Worked with Mario on the releases all evening. He was having real issues learning, and I was having issues teaching. We did make it through all 8, finally.
Techniques:
Not tonight.
Aftermath:
None of note
Aikido players: Troy
Ukemi:
None tonight
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Releases:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Techniques:
We spent the evening on the first 4 of the kneeling portion of Koryu Dai San. It went really well.
Worked on the "footwork" for Oshi Taoshi, relaxing and extending uke on the takedown, and not applying the armbar until the arm is on the ground.
Gyakugamae Ate: We played with this how it's supposed to be done, and the Gedan-ate variant. The Gedan-ate variant is a lot more fun, but Gyaku can be a way to show uke you don't consider him worth your time.
Kote gaeshi: we did not do a complete technique tonight. I just wasn't interested in taking that fall at the end of a workday. As uke, I was having issues. I wanted to raise my right knee off of the mat as I was making my attack. That changes the response from a kote to a takedown.
After resolving that issue, things went well.
Ryote Mochi Sukui Nage: The issue on this is that tori needs to let uke have control of tori's arms until they reach tori's shoulder level. Until that point, tori should just be trying to keep his arms pushing out, but without an "active" push.
Troy got to experience the fall when tori ends up with his hands close together. It's a big fall, not unpleasant, but a bit unnerving.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Friday:
Lunch at Pelican Grill
AikidoStarted refreshing my sourdough starter
Saturday:
Blueberry muffins
Run by Home Depot and Frys on the way to my mom's
Aikido
Football
Dropped by my mom's to spend the night
Sunday:
LoneStarCon3 stuff
Football
Grilled out salmon
Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Dan, Mario, Julio, and Zach
Ukemi:
Full set
The Walk:
Twice, as usual. Then went through some more reps with Dan and Zach
Releases:
Watched over Troy and Julio
Techniques:
Worked with Troy and Julio on shomen-ate
At the end of class. Troy and I got some work in. We worked on 1, 2, and 4 of the kneeling Koryu Dai San. I was not up for Kote Gaeshi, kneeling. We tried the variants of #2: Gedan-ate and Gyauk gamae -ate. Tim's now liking the Gyaku variant.
I then ran through the first 14 of Koryu Dai Yon.
Aftermath:
Felt much better after the session than I did last week.
Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Dan, Marvin, Mario, and Julio
Ukemi:
Light set
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
Did some work with Julio. We got up through the 4th release.
Techniques:
Did some "punch the dummy" work with Julio. Then did some intro work on Shomen-ate.
Aftermath:
None of note
A friend who runs my favorite pizza joint mentioned that he was taking over the Pelican Grill several weeks ago. I figured the deal was done by now, so trotted over to see how things had improved.
Unfortunately, the change in ownership has not taken place. I don't know if the deal fell through, or it's still to come. I need to check with the party involved to see what's going on.
This visit did not impress me. The waiter lack a full knowledge of the menu. He got confused when I said I wanted the fish in my fish taco grilled. He though I wanted the taco grilled, not realizing that there are three choices of preparation for the fish in the fish taco.
When my tacos appeared, they'd run out of tortillas?!? So, I only got one taco. I managed to time it so they had one tortilla, but not two. Amazing! The taco I had was good, and the fries were decent.
The waiter brought out a free bread pudding, completely unprompted. Luckily, I like bread pudding, so I consider it a fair exchange. And it was decent, if not memorable.
Off to the side, I heard the owner talking to one of his staff about inventory. I don't think the owner knows enough to be giving lessons.
I won't be back until a change in ownership occurs.
Finally, an opponent we could handle. A relatively new team, and we did pretty well.
If they take 6 teams to playoffs, we're in. Otherwise, we sit at home.
Friday:
Still off from work
Working on LoneStarCon3 Art Show stuff, shipping packages out
Checking on mom, recovering from broken hip
Aikido
Saturday:
Aikido
Football
LoneStarCon3 stuff
Sunday:
LoneStarCon3 stuff
Football
Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Marvin, Gail, Mario, Zach, and Julio
Ukemi:
Light set.
The Walk:
Twice, as usual. The worked with Zach some one-on-one
Releases:
Worked with Marvin on his set.
Techniques:
Worked with Marvin on 1-3 of Ju Nana Hon Kata
Aftermath:
Was light-headed at the end of normal class. Light concussion at some point? Not drinking enough water? Too long off the mat?
Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Troy, Marvin, Gail, Mario, and Julio
Ukemi:
Light set
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
Worked with Marvin on his set.
Techniques:
Oversaw Marvin and Mario work on 1-3 of Ju Nana Hon Kata
Aftermath:
None of note
