Aikido Friday Night - 01/22/10

Aikidokas: Tim, and Trey.

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent most of the time watching over Doug and Heidi.

The Walk: None.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

Trey and I spent a long time working on the entry for the garumas in Owaza Ju Pon. It really does revolve around getting uke's arm down and across his body with good timing.

After that, Trey uke'd for me on:

1. Kote Mawashi

Getting decent

2. Uchi Tenkai Nage

Hit it on the first try, moved on.

3. Gyakugamae Ate

Played with the two timings

4. Kote Kajiki

Still playing with the entry. Getting right is still a hit or miss proposition.

5. Mae Otoshi

I need to think about pivoting just before kazushi

Aftermath: Achilles tendon is being weird.

Lunching out: Mom Alone's

A local Tex-Mex restaurant that seems to be quite popular with the local crowd. And it is pretty good.

Salsas: 3 delivered with the chips: red, green and queso. Queso and green were good, the red was just ok.

Chips: ok

Guac: good

The burrito I had was pretty good, the rice and beans the same. The prices seem to be a little higher than I would expect, but I got out of there for less than Frenchie's. $11 for burrito, rice, beans, guac and tea. Happy Hour margarita's are $3, $2 more than Durango's.

Waiter messed up my order and the plate had sour cream on it when it made it to my table.

Ambience: Too formal/fancy for my tastes for a Tex-Mex place. For an Italian joint it would be about right. Waiters were in white shirts and bow ties.

At the Movies: District 9

District 9: 3

I'm not certain what I was expecting for this movie, but I didn't get it. Other than a fun film, that is. It turned out to be the story of a man who is (slowly? quickly?) metamorphosing into an alien. Along the way we talk about segregation and internment camps. There are parts of the movie where the aliens are more human than the humans.

The one thing that puzzled me is the promise of the lead alien to return and, supposedly, reverse the lead human's transformation into an alien. I suppose if I believe that a squirt of some unknown liquid can turn a human into an alien, the reverse can happen just as easily.

I enjoyed the movie, but probably wouldn't seek out to see it again. I would watch it if it was on, though.

Welcome, Ella!

We adopted another kitten this past week. K. though Strider needed a playmate since Vlad is not interested in playing with him and is outside a good portion of the time. Our vet had a kitten in their "adoption" area that was about the same age as Strider and seemed pretty nice. So, when Strider went in for a booster shot, Kim put him in the adoption area to play with the potential adoptee. They got along.

So, when I got off work, I went over with K. to the vet and we sat in the adoption area with the kitten. I thought she was a good match, so we brought her home.

For the first 24 hours or so, Ella and Strider were constantly brawling or sleeping. No damage was done during the brawling, so we thought we'd wait it out. It has now reduced quite a bit and they are occasionally grooming each other.

Ella is still uncertain about the whole house, so we're trying to let her have some time on her own without any of the other animals around. I hope she'll adjust to the house quickly.

I hope to have pictures up soon, but my camera has trouble focusing on a solid black cat.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido
Slept in the library with the new kitten: Ella

Saturday:

Errands, completely ineffective though as the stores were closed or out of business
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's
D&D
Slept in the library with the new kitten: Ella

Sunday:

Played with the kittens
Football
Started doing taxes

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 01/16/10

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, and Will

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent most of the time watching over Will and Brad.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: I worked with Will. He's now worked on the first 4 releases.

Techniques:

We worked on Ushiro-ate, the Ju Nana Hon Kata version, to give everyone a break from Shomen-ate. It went fairly well.

Next up was the kneeling portion of Koryu Dai San, for me. My ankles got a big workout (it doesn't seem to muck with my knees too much).

1. Oshi Taoshi - Knee walk with left leg first and extend uke's arm over the left leg.

2. Gyakugamae Ate - Nothing new today.

3. Kote Gaeshi - Down-the-line for the first off-balance so that uke can recover. Almost 90 degrees to that line for the final off-balance.

4. Ryote Mochi Sukui Nage - Push up

5. Tentai Kote Hineri - Must get the proper grip for this to work well.

6. Shiho Nage - Left leg is the working one on the initial movement

7. Gedan Ate - Use uke's knee as a prop to rise up onto your knees with

8. Hiji Kime - Inside butterfly was the key light bulb on this one. It causes a balance break for uke.

Trey then did 1-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata on the left side. He did really well. A couple of missed techniques, but he flowed from those misses into other techniques.

Aftermath: Sore right ankle from so much time on my knees with the tops of my feet flat on the ground.

Aikido Friday Night - 01/15/10

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Sal. ( I think. Saturday was a tougher workout and washed Friday from my mind)

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent most of the time watching over Doug and Heidi.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: We did a round-robin on the releases: Trey uke'd for me, Sal uke'd for Trey, and I uke'd for Sal.

Techniques:

I know Trey and I spent a lot of time working on the garuma entry, playing with the off-balances, etc. I'm sure we did something else with Sal, probably Shomen-ate.

Aftermath: My right wrist is much better, I wonder if it was the extreme cold that made it angry. It's still a little sore, but I can flex it the usual amount without an issue.

Lunching out: Frenchie's

This was going to be my usual week at Franca's, however, it looks like they are not open for lunch for a while. I hope it's just while they deal with papa's medical issues.

So I drove just a bit further for Frenchie's and had my usual Meatball sandwich and Blueberry cheesecake. (My wife's favorite, when she can get there, is the Broccoli Rigatoni. )It's a lot of food, but for a fairly high price: $16. Still it's a good restaurant with lots of business from the local NASA folks.

I don't think I'll make this the replacement for Franca's on my regular schedule. I'll have to give that issue some thought.

Lunching out: Colosseum Italian Restaurant

A long-standing restaurant just a hop, skip and a jump away from work. I think they only do a buffet for lunch. I chose to have their chicken parmigiana, fettucini with meat sauce and chicken and green beans in a cream sauce.

The parmigiana was not as good as Franca's, but not bad. The meat sauce had an interesting wine/vinegar taste to it and the cream sauce was pretty good.

One of the workers walked by the tables saying it was "Free Cake Friday", but I did not take them up on their offer of dessert.

Weekend update (a little late)

Friday:

Brrrrrrr! Cold!
Aikido

Saturday:

Brrrrrrr! Cold!
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's with K.

Sunday

Brrrrrrr! Cold!

Recipe: Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake

I found this recipe on epicurious and relly liked it. I did alter it a bit before making it the frist time (something I *never* do) because, again, I wanted to use up some blood orange juice. I also cooked it in a springform pan instead of muffin tins.

Original source:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Streusel-Sour-Cream-Coffeecakes-106184

Ingredients

* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup packed light brown sugar
* 2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 1/2 cups (6 oz) pecans, toasted and chopped
* 1 cup sour cream
* 1 whole large egg
* 1 large egg yolk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh blood orange zest
* Juice of 1/2 blood orange

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir together granulated sugar, flour, salt, and 3/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl, then blend in 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-size butter lumps. Transfer 3/4 cup to a bowl and blend in cinnamon, remaining 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar with your fingertips or pastry blender until crumbly. Stir in pecans, then chill streusel topping 15 minutes.

Whisk together sour cream, whole egg, yolk, vanilla, baking soda, juice and zest, then stir into remaining flour mixture until just combined (batter will be stiff).

Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of the batter into an 8 inch springform pan. Spread 2/3 to 3/4 of the streusel mixture over the top of the batter. Pour the remaing batter on top of the streusel. Spread the rest of the streusel mixture on top of the batter, pressing it lightly into the batter. Bake coffeecake in middle of oven until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 70 to 90 minutes. Cool in pans on rack 30 minutes. Loosen cake with a thin metal spatula, then carefully remove cake from pan.

Recipe: Blood Orange Bundt Cake

I tried a recipe for this in order to make use of some of the blood oranges my tree produced this winter. It came out a little denser than I like, so I might try altering it on the next go around.

Here is where I got it:

http://myhusbandcooks.wordpress.com/2006/12/28/savor-a-slice-blood-orange-bundt-cake/

Here's the recipe:

Blood Orange Bundt Cake

Cake Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
2 blood oranges (zest & juice)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt

Glaze ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 cup confectioner’s sugar
juice from 2 blood oranges

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.

2. In a stand mixer, cream together the sugar and butter for about 3 min. or until smooth, pale and fluffy. (NOTE: Scrape down the sides regularly throughout this process.)

3. Add one egg at at time and continue until all eggs are intergrated.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. On low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and eggs in small increments, alternating with the milk, until both are intergrated. Don’t overmix. It does not need to be smooth, a few lumps are OK; they will cook out. If you overmix, the batter will form lots of gluten and make your cake more like a bread.

5. Using a spoon or spatula, hand fold in the juice and zest of the orange.

6. Grease/spray your bundt pan making sure to cover every ridge and crevice. Add the batter to the bundt pan; it should not be more than 3/4 full.

7. Place in oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 min. Check after 1 hour using a skewer or toothpick. Once it pulls out clean from the center of the cake, remove and let cool for 15 min. before turning out.

8. It’s glazing time! In a medium bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and blood orange juice and mix until smooth. Pour over warm bundt cake. Serve cake immediately or later. Enjoy!

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 01/09/10

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, Tom, Sal and Doug. A big crowd!

Ukemi: I got to the dojo early enough that I was able to get in a full complement of falls before anyone else arrived. ARMA left early, so the mat was open.

The Walk: Twice, as usual. I also spent some time with Doug running through the stones while Tim was working on Shomen-ate with the other guys.

Releases: I watched Brad/Tom and Trey/Sal go through the paces.

Techniques:

None today

Aftermath: My right wrist was quite troublesome and reduced my abilities quite a bit. I have no idea what happened to it.

Aikido Friday Night - 01/08/10

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Doug and Heidi (two new students). The new students had around 9 months of classes with an Aikikai organization before they moved away.

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent most of the time watching over Doug and Heidi.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: I served as uke for releases with which I attacked with my left hand.

Techniques:

Trey was tori for 1-15 of Ju Nana Han Kata (left-sided only) and did fairly well. He had bobbles on Ushiro-ate, Wakigatame, and Mae-otoshi.

Aftermath: My right wrist was quite troublesome and reduced my abilities quite a bit. I have no idea what happened to it.

Aikido Friday Afternoon - 01/01/10

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Sal, and Will.

This was our first session of the new year, so it was a short and light one, with a meal afterward.

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent some of the time watching over Will.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

Trey and I did some work together. We worked him on 1-16 on the right side.

I then worked on a couple of Owaza Ju Pon and some from the standing portion of Koryu Dai San.

Aftermath: Full stomach from the meal.

At the Movies: Avatar

Avatar: 4

The story may not have been much, but the visuals were stunning and I got absorbed into the world. I thought it neat that they brought Sigourney Weaver in for another alien movie.

At the Movies: Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes: 4

The first of what I expect will be numerous installments in the Sherlock Holmes franchise. Robert Downey, Jr. played a good version of the master detective and Jude Law was his companion Dr. John Watson. This was not a Holmes who was perfect, but a Holmes who had flaws, foibles and neuroses.

I'm looking forward to the continued adventures as Sherlock battles his nemesis, Prof. Moriarty.

At the Movies: Up in the Air

Up in the Air: 4

A fabulous effort by George Clooney and the rest of the cast. A story about a well-traveled "ax man" and his attempt at a personal transformation. It works very well and does not have a "happy" ending. The ending is appropriate, but not happy.

The only thing I didn't like was that Alex (played by Vera Farmiga) led Ryan (George Clooney) on in their relationship. The fact that she was willing to go with him on a weekend trip to his sister's wedding did not play well with a later revelation.

Lunching out: Boondoggles

A local bar & grill with a good selection of beers (foreign and domestic) available. I chose the Robusto pizza in the slightly larger than personal size. I should not have eaten the whole thing, but I did.

Good food, good service and, if I need a breather from the workday, good beers.

At the Movies: Doubt

Doubt: 3

An interesting movie starring Merryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. A nun and a parish priest clash over alleged sexual advances of the priest with an altar boy. Rumor, innuendo and assumptions play a big part in this movie.

I thought it was a well-acted movie and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 12/19/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, and Will.

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent most of the time watching over Will.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: With Brad.

Techniques:

I spent a good portion of the afternoon working with Will on The Walk, starting at the 8th stone and moving onwards.

At the end of the session, Tim had Trey go work on the left side of Hiki Otoshi. It's still a tough technique for him.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 12/18/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Tom, and Sal.

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent most of the time watching over Sal.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: With Sal.

Techniques:

I don't remember what the bulk of the session was concerning At the end of the session, Tim had Trey go through 1-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata, left side only. He did fairly well. He had troubles on Hiki otoshi.

I also got some time and worked on 1-8 standing of Koryu Dai San No Kata.

1. Kote Mawashi

Took me a bit to figure this one again

2. Uchi Tenkai Nage

This one went surpirsingly well.

3. Gyakugamae Ate

Pivot (rotate) at the end (for kake)

4. Kote Kajiki

Still having troubles getting into the proper position on the first try to make uke need to fall

5. Mae Otoshi

Still not smooth

6. Ushiro Waza Mae Otoshi

Still not smooth

7. Ushiro Waza Tentai Kote Hineri

Still not smooth

8. Mune Tori Kata Gatame

Not bad. Need to use the ankle more to get uke to turn over.

Aftermath: None of note.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Car inspection
Box purchases for shipping and storing wood craft stuff
Aikido
Corporate Holiday party

Sunday:

Cards and dinner with the in-laws.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 12/12/09

Aikidokas: Tim, and Trey.

Ukemi: Light warm-up. Tim wanted us to start working quickly.

The Walk: None.

Releases: None

Techniques:

I was the subject of work today. We started off with the kneeling portion of Koryu Dai San and then did some work on Owaza Ju Pon. No, it was the other way around: Owaza Ju Pon and then Koryu Dai San. Trey got some time on Owaza Ju Pon as well.

We started off working on the garumas: Kube, Ude, and Hiji. They all are started by getting uke's hand to tori's hip. If you don't accomplish that smoothly, it's not going to work.

After Trey and I did that, I went through Kata Otoshi, Aikinage, Shihonage, Ushiro-ate, Kote-gaeshi, Ushiro Kubi Gatame and Shizumi otoshi.

Next up was the kneeling portion of Koryu Dai San. We only managed to get through the first three: Oshi Taoshi, Gyakugamae Ate, and Kote Gaeshi. There were some tweaks to all three.

On Oshi taoshi, I need to knee walk with a purpose. There should just be two steps to get to the arm bar. The second one (with the right knee off the ground) should have uke's arm on top of the leg in order to keep him under control.

We did a major change on Gyakugamae Ate. Previously, as uke strikes, I've been moving my left knee into uke at a 45 degree angle. I would end up with my knee behind uke's knee. The change is for me to just open up my stance by moving my knee horizontally so that it ends up in the same line that it started out. Uke reports that this is a far softer techniques when done this way.

Kote gaeshi acquired a tweak to the initial off-balance and a reinforcement of the knee-walking at the end. For the initial off-balance, I had been taking uke at a 45 degree angle. According to Trey, this is tough to recover from and we want uke to be able to recover and pull back. So, I am now supposed to take uke down the line of the punch he throws.

For the knee-walking portion, Tim reiterated that that is what is turning uke over. I need to keep my hands in my center while knee-walking and make certain that the two steps are full knee walk steps.

At the end of the session, Trey and I both did some slow work on Aigamae-ate and managed to do ok.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 12/11/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, Sal, and Will.

Ukemi: Light warm-up, spent most of the time watching over Will.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: With Sal.

Techniques:

We spent the evening on Shomen-ate. Improvements are coming as he gets the feel for the off-balance and how to let uke settle back slightly.

At the end of the session, Tim had Trey go through 1-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata, one try each side. He did fairly well.

Aftermath: None of note.

Citrus County Fair

Our local AgriLife Extension Agency held a citrus competition in conjunction with a brief presentation last night. There were all sorts of citrus in the contest: satsuma, lemon, lime, grapefruit, mandarins, blood oranges, etc.

The only thing I have that is currently fruiting is a Moro Blood Orange. At K.'s insistence, I chose three good luck specimens from the tree and submitted them to the judges. Unfortunately, I did not win. It looked like mine had the most red of any of the submitted fruit, though, so I was not completely disappointed.

The Blood Orange group was a little strange. They awarded a 3rd place and a 2nd place, but no 1st place.

There were several folks in the contest who entered multiple varieties in each fruit type. I think one farmer entered in about 20 different varieties throughout the various types. Some folks are very into the fruit.

Maybe next year I'll have some lemons to show off, too.

At the Movies: Monsters vs. Aliens

Monsters vs. Aliens : 2

I was really hoping to like this movie better than I did. I think it ended up being all frosting and no cake. There wasn't much substance to the movie.

It was visually pleasing, but the story lacked any attraction to me.

Sale in my ArtFire studio - with link

I keep forgetting that these posts appear in Blogger and in Facebook (where my studio is not a visible as it is on my blog).

Use the coupon code 10PERCENTOFF for 10% off any pen or bottle stopper from now until December 31, 2009.

I'm trying to generate my first sale(s). I did receive my very first sale over the weekend. If you're local to Houston, let me know and I might hand-deliver the item. If I can, I'll come up with a free shipping coupon.

My studio is here.

SMOFCon27 - Texas Hold 'Em tournament

When SMOFCon is held in a state that allows it, a Texas Hold 'Em Tournament is held. Texas allows private games, so this year's SMOFCon had a tournament.

I was one of 26 players in the field and was seated at one of the three tables. By random chance, all of the Texans in the field were seated at the same table.

I did not have very good hands throughout the tournament. I had "Big Slick" once. Other than that, my top hands were: pair of tens, pair of sevens, and pair of fours.

Weirdly, the most important hand I had was 5-4 off suit. When I was dealt this hand, I was down to 1 $1000 chip, barely more than the big blind, and I was the big blind for that hand. At the time there were just 6 players left in the field and everyone wanted a piece of me on that hand. So, they all bet what I had in my stack $1000. They knew I had to get into the hand and they figured my hand would probably suck. And it did.

But, the flop did not hurt me as it was ( 4, 2, 7, I think). That gave me a pair of 4s and nothing else looked threatening (no flushes).

More betting went on in the side pot, but I was really just a ship on the ocean. There was not much I could do.

The turn card comes and it's a 3. That gives me an open-ended straight draw to go with my pair.

More betting ensues on the side pot.

River card reveals an Ace. One of the other players remarks that it makes the 5 good. More betting ensues and then it's time to reveal the cards. A-2-3-4-5 straight for me.

I turns out to be the winning hand. The side pot is won with a pair of Aces, I believe. But I go from $1000 to $7000 in a hurry. I'm now able to play.

I go from playing so tight I can make a dollar bill squeak to much looser. I start being active the cards, while still nothing to speak of,allow me to increase my stack, until I'm down to a head-to-head matchup. I think we play 7 or hands before we get down to what turns out to be the final hand.

The final 5 players were of the following nationalities: Texas, Canada, Canada, Britain, Texas.

For the final hand, I was dealt J-10 off suit. I felt this to be a decent hand in head-to-head, so I did a decent bet ($5K). I get called.

The flop was 10-2-7, I think. I see top pair for me, with a good kicker, so I bet at it. I get called.

Turn reveals a Jack. I've got two pair, so I bet again. I think my opponent raises and we end up all-in.

He turns over his cards to reveal J 9, so I believe he had a straight possibility, but I had a good lead with my two pair to his one pair. I think the river card was a King or Queen, so there was no damage done to my lead.

I won the tournament! I'm still flabbergasted.

SMOFCon 27 - an encapsulation

I spent this past weekend at SMOFCon 27, since I run the Art Show at Armadillocon.

I made it to Austin at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, but wasn't able to really see the con until after dinner. I had to remotely oversee a software build that was happening back in Houston.

After dinner was the Icebreaker. This year's task was to prepare for a (fictional) WorldCon bid in under 2 hours. The members of the team of which I was a part chose the available London Underground location as our site. Our motto was "Get Ripped Underground." This lead to a theme of Zombies and Jack the Ripper for the convention.

I think I hit the Con Suite and the lounge for a bit after that, but turned in fairly soon.

Saturday, I was up at my usual time and headed off to breakfast at Annie's. Shortly after I arrived, the Division Heads meeting for Renovation showed up. As a crowd of 22 folks, they were about 80% of the patrons of the restaurant. At one point during their breakfast, most of the folks turned, as a group, to look at me. It turns out they were all boggled by the fact that someone from the convention would be up at that hour without a good, solid reason.

I went to the following panels on Saturday:

"Printed & Electronic Publications - How & When to Distribute Them"

"Managing Your Bid with Time and Money"

"Programming Timelines for Different Types of Conventions - WorldCon vs. Regionals"

"Artists - What They Need and Expect from Conventions"

I was the moderator of this panel in name only. It took on a life of its own and I was unable to do much to control it.

I expected the discussion to go in one direction, that of how to best serve the artists of the Art Show. It went in the direction of how to serve the interests of the artists who are attending the convention. Below are some snippets of items I noted during the lively discussion that occurred:

Artists have a product that is useful for advertising the convention. If you can afford it, look into using their art ( with permission ) for at-con and pre-con marketing material and signage.

If you GOH brings along a companion, make certain that you meet both of their needs, if possible. Pay special attention to the needs of the mobility-, visually-, etc. impaired.

Make the Art Show a fun place to be. Set up places to sit, places to draw

Artist's Alleys are debatable in their worth. you need to be able to drive extra traffic

Lighting = Sales. Improve your lighting. We need a standard to help art shows judge whether they've got enough lighting or not. Does one exist?

See about creating artists' workshops

"Hands on" tours of the Art Show for the visually-impaired. Can this be done for 2-D works?

Concept Art website

Awards for the artists. They're relatively simple to do and can provide egoboo for the artists.

I did mention some items that folks had suggested I throw out to the crowd in relation to art shows:

Make it easy to find the forms and rules
Get the Art back quickly
Give the artists numbers to determine if your show is right for them
Send an after show report with numbers
Help them meet the deadlines
Be polite
Let them know if their application has been accepted

Some numbers that folks were interested in receiving about a show:

Percentage of attendees that buy art
Avg & median sales/buyer
Avg & median price per original sold
Avg & median price per print sold
Avg & median revenue per artist
Percentage of art for sale that sold (i.e., exclude NFS)
Percentage of prints that actually sold
Total Sales
Avg sales per panel

Somewhere in there, I had a bit of a lunch break. I didn't go eat, but I did go with Chuck Siros to see the site for next year's Armadillocon. We're changing hotels and I wanted to see where we will be putting the Art Show. It's an interesting space and will be fun to fill with panels.

After all of the panels, I went to Threadgill's for dinner with a few friends.

When we got back, it was time for the "Fannish Inquisition" This is a part of the con when seated WorldCons and prospective WorldCon bids make their presentations in front of most of the SMOFs. It was interesting to see that 2012 ans 2013 are unopposed for their years. Chicago in 2012 made a statement during their presentation that the winner of that night's Statistics and Probability Seminar (aka Texas Hold 'Em Tournament) would become the Chicago bid's Treasurer.

After all of the WorldCon bids were done, the SMOFcon bids were presented.

After that, it was time for the Statistics and Probability Seminar (aka Texas Hold 'Em Tournament). I'd been looking forward to that for quite some time. I ended up winning the tournament. I'll have a more detailed post in a bit.

Sunday:

Up early to find breakfast. Unfortunately, no non-hotel restaurant opens before 9 a.m. So, I wandered around downtown Austin in a light drizzle looking for food. I gave up a little before 9 and then went back out at the magical hour of 9 a.m. and dined at El Sol Y La Luna.

My only panel of the day was:

"How to Run a Remote Convention"

I thought about sticking around, but I wanted to get home. So I took off for Houston.

A good convention. I had a good time.

Weekend update

Friday:

Up at the crack of dawn to head to Austin for SMOFCon 27. I drove through bits of sleet and snow, but nothing too bad. Arrived at the hotel around 9:30 a.m. I spent the next 8+ hours getting a software build out to production.

Dinner at El Sol Y La Luna

More SMOFfing

Saturday:

Breakfast at Annie's (French toast and oatmeal)
SMOFfing
Dinner at Threadgill's
SMOFfing
Poker

Sunday:

Breakfast at El Sol Y La Luna
SMOFfing
Drive home in constant rain

Weekend update

Thursday:

Baking
Eating
Football

Friday:

Stringing Xmas lights
Aikido

Saturday:

Visit a craft show
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's
D&D

Sunday:

Football
Bathe the dogs

Sale in my ArtFire studio

Use the coupon code 10PERCENTOFF for 10% off any pen or bottle stopper from now until December 31, 2009.

I'm trying to generate my first sale.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/28/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did the usual warm-up no air falls. Led Trey through some air falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Uked for Tom

Techniques:

We tried to work Tom through 1-5 of Ju Nana. We made through number 3. Trey and I would alternate serving as uke. I think he made some great strides.

Treay and I then did some work on Owaza Ju Pon.

Kubi-garumu - this went fairly well

Kata-otoshi - we spent a lot of time on this with Trey. It is the most sensitive of the techniques of Owaza Ju Pon.

Aiki-nage - You must keep uke close and in an arm bar.

Shiho-nage - I can never remember the footwork for this one. I *may* have it down now though. Left back, right back, pivot, forward.

Ushiro-ate - No violence is needed: move your center

Kote-gaeshi - uke should end up pretty much on his original line of attack.

Ushiro-kubi-gatame - off hand must participate in making a beach ball out of uke, otherwise the choke does not sneak up on uke.

Aftermath: General soreness in the knees. I have no idea why.

We ran the session for about 2.5 hours, about 45 minutes longer than normal.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/27/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom..

Ukemi: Full warm-up with self-induced air falls. Those were a bit rough.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None

Techniques:

We spent the evening on aigamae-ate. It is currently the technique that drives Trey and me nuts. Tim wasn't very happy with our performance either.

I don't know why we do it so poorly so often. Possibly because we're too late or not late enough. You can do this only on a body rise, really, and if you are late on the first one you have to wait for the second one.

Aftermath: None of note.

Thanksgiving

Living in the same town with my mother and one of my sisters, Thanksgiving is always a family affair. We generally rotate duties from house to house. This year's Turkey was at my sister's and Christmas will be at my house.

I was up kind of early making pies and other desserts. I made a chocolate pecan and a pumpkin pie and then the first batch of pecan pralines of the holiday season.

The feast at my sister's was huge, plenty of food for everyone. My brother-in-law is a professor, so he invited several of his graduate students to join us as they were away from their families.

Good food, good fun.

Lunching out: Gabacho's

Lunching out on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving Week, I turned to Gabacho's. It's a small Mexican restaurant that has had severl a occupants over the years, but it looks like they're going to make it. They're doing some construction to expand.

I had no idea what I was interested in, but the specials on the whiteboard looked interesting. I tried the stuffed avacados. Two avacadoes, halved and stuffed with mushrooms and chicken, reassembled and lightly fried. Very good. The rice and charro beans as sides were quite good too. The chips were boring but the green salsa was ok. I did not try the red salsa.

I'd be willing to go back.

Strider update

Strider is continuing to improve. He is still breathing with a little difficulty, but less than previously. He is eating well, almost as much as his big brother Vlad.

We are continuing to pill him with antibiotics (3 pills a day), which he does not enjoy too much. We are also applying ointment for his ringworm.

I think he's turned a corner, but we're keeping an eye on his health.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Up to take Strider to the vet to get pilled and get the catheter taken out.
BAGS Christmass gathering to take pictures
JEMCO to get another set of Lindstrom pliers
Aikido
Dinner at Durango's with K and K

Sunday

Football
Keep an eye on Strider
Pecan pie
Grilled out for dinner

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/21/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad and Will.

Ukemi: I did a condensed warm-up and watched Will.

The Walk: Twice as usual.

Releases: Brad and I did some intensive work on the releases. We made it through number 6.

Techniques:

Brad and I did some work on Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate, really working on the initial off-balance. Tim had me change up my attack a bit for the afternoon.

At the very end, I had Brad try the initial off-balance for Oshi Taoshi. We need to get him onto his next set of techniques.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/20/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Sal, and Will. Will's a new student.

Ukemi: I did a condensed warm-up as I was watching Will.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Trey and I worked with Sal on his releases while Tim worked with Will on the Walk.

Techniques:

At the end of the evening, I uked for Trey on 1-17. He did a good job. There were a few minor stumbles, mainly in the usual places, but nothing major.

Aftermath: None of note.

Lunching out: Alamo Tamale and Taco

This report is a bit late, but at least it's being made.

Alamo is located within spitting distance of where my company's new offices will be, so I thought I'd give them a try. It's a small joint with no tables, but it does have some bar stools arranged around the outer wall. I got my meal to go, so I could get back to the office.

I ordered 2 pork and 1 chicken handmade tamale with a side of rice and a side of beans. The tamales were kind of bland, but not bad. the rice was okay, but the beans were the star of the meal. They tasted like they might have been cooked with bacon fat.

I think the meal cost me around $6 or $7 with a drink. Not a bad meal. If they're still in business when our office is up and running, I'll probably be dropping by often.

Strider's under the weather

Over the weekend, Strider lost some of his vim and vigor. He took to sleeping more and eating less. He was scheduled for his booster shots today, so we didn't rush a new appointment.

It turns out he has several ailments. Apparently his ringworm has not been cleared up. Sometime over the past few days he has managed to consume about 3 already used staples (no sharp pointy ends for his GI tract). And he's having issues breathing.

The breathing issue is of the most concern. The other two should pass without serious attention.

I'm waiting for the results of the bloodwork.

Weekend update

Friday

An evening out with K. - Dinner at Bira Porretti's and then Jewel in concert at the Verizon Wireless Theater

Saturday

3 craft shows in the area to check out: Webster, Kemah and Clear Lake Shores. Webster was all Christmas stuff. Kemah was a less themed and more hand crafted affair. Clear Lake Shores was a less formal, outdoor, handcrafted sale. I probably would have been most comfortable at CLS, then Kemah and finally Webster.

Aikido

Dinner with K. and the in-laws at Durango's. I wanted to try Dos Hernandos, but they've gone out of business and now La Familia is getting ready to open in its place.

Sunday

Key Lime Pie
Key Lime Cheesecake
Football
ArtFire inventory update - I think I've got all of my inventory on my artfire site now.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/14/09

Aikidokas: Tim and Trey.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up.

The Walk: Not today.

Releases: Not today.

Techniques:

Apparently it was my day for work. I worked on the first 5 kneeling of Koryu Dai San. I would have worked through all of them, but my left toe developed its usual blister after #5. I then also worked on all 8 of the standing Koryu Dai San.

I was, as usual, too tense. It can take me a while to relax if I haven't been tore for a while.

After that, Tim started to have Trey go through Ju Nan Hon Kata. We made it to #2 before Tom showed up. This was after about 2 hours of work for Trey and me, so Tim decided we were too tired and should uke from there on. So, we worked on Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate with Tom. He's a lot softer than he was just a couple of weeks ago.

Aftermath: Bandage on the toe.

Jewel, in concert

Thursday morning, I was glancing through the paper while waiting for reports to load in CCAP and I noticed a small blurb stating Jewel was in concert Friday night, downtown. I love her voice, so I was itching to go even if it meant missing aikido. K. had already mentioned that this was a week she would not be going to aikido, so we chatted and decided it would be worthwhile to check out tickets.

There were decent tickets available at reasonable prices, at least before the service charges were added, so we made it a date.

Friday evening, I got home, we fed the animals, and headed into town. Traffic was light and we made it downtown with 2 1/2 hours before the concert. We expected this and headed over to Bira Porretti's for dinner with a $10 coupon in hand. Dinner was decent. K. was disappointed in their "crepes" as they were wrapped in pasta instead of crepes.

After dinner we had about 1.5 hours until the concert, so we wandered aimlessly about downtown. We also people-watched for a while and noted the number of same-sex couples coming in for the concert were about the same as the number of mixed gender couples.

The concert started with Holly Williams, the daughter of Hank Williams, Jr. She did a short intro set that was quite nice.

After a short intermission, Jewel came out and started her set. She said she had no prepared set list, a tradition from working with her dad that she likes to keep up. I have not been able to, yet, find anyone on-line who has reported the list and I was not prepared to write it down. She opened with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and closed with her hallmark yodelling. In between, she sangs from a number of her albums and was constantly asking the crowd what she should sing next.

Jewel's set seemed a little short to me. We got out of the concert hall at 10:30 p.m. Her set ran 1.5 hours maybe less. I didn't check to see how long Holly's ran, nor how long the intermission was.

Nutcracker market

K. and I went to the Nutcracker Market at the Reliant Center in Houston. This is a money raising venture for the Houston Ballet and we'd never been.

I'd glanced through the paper yesterday morning, saw it was running yesterday and that we could get in for half price after 5 p.m. Given the fact that There was no way we could get there before 5, that was perfect. I thought it would be a good outing for us and her parents, but the parents declined.

We got there about 5:30 and shopped for a couple of hours.

Paul Michael took up about one third of the space used for imported Christmas decorations. There were a bunch of places with jellies, jams, and sauces. We bought 5 jars of marinara sauce made by a local Italian ladies' group. It's annually praised by a write for the Houston Chronicle, so I had to give it a try. Most of the jars are for gifts.

We bought a few other things and stumbled across some Tupelo Honey. After listening to the Van Morrison song over the years, I had to try some. It was great! We ended up getting the vendors small bottle. It's a very light colored honey with a mild flavor. I'm looking forward to a breakfast in which I can use it.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

I went to a couple of craft shows in the area. Shopping on the surface, for gifts, but really for places for me to sell my stuff in the future.

Aikido

Dinner at Durango's by myself.
Dungeons & Dragons at the usual spot.

Sunday:

Football.
Prepping for the arrival of the in-laws back from Colorado.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/07/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, with a big fall.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Watching Tom and Brad.

Techniques:

Tim gave me a light day after the intense Friday Garuma evening. I worked in from time-to-time while Brad and Tom were working on getting Aigamae-ate from the 4th release. I'd give a couple of initial attacks to tweak what I was feeling and then let the other guy in to take most of the falls.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/06/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Kim, Tom, and Sal.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, with a big fall.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None

Techniques:

I the evening working with Trey. We spent most of the evening working on the garuma throws from Owaza Ju Pon: Kube Garuma, Ude Garuma, and Hiji Garuma. We worked on the off-balances at first and once I got confident with his approach on the techniques, I was ready to take the big fall if he got everything right. We did about 5 big falls on each of the throws worked in around 30 to 40 of the off-balance falls.

Trey was then my uke to work on Kata Otoshi. My key points on this are the timing and getting far enough off-line that my arm will not collapse.


Aftermath: None, immediately, of note. I was sore Sunday from all of the falls.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Aikido

Dinner at Durango's with K. and K.

Sunday:

Yard work, shoveling sand, mowing, weed whacking

Trey's wedding

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 10/31/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, Tom, and Sal.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, with a big fall.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None

Techniques:

I spent the afternoon working with Brad. We were playing with a variation of the 4th release. I would trap Brad's hand on the release entry, and he would then move in while extending my balance. He worked on that quite a bit, playing with the off balance, finding it, losing it and seeing the results.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 10/30/09

Aikidokas: Just me.


Ukemi: None.


The Walk: Somewhere between 15 and 20 times.


Releases: None.


Techniques: None.


Aftermath: None of note.

Lunching out: Charley's Sandwiches

A very late lunch (3 p.m.) had me find something very close. Charley's fits the bill.

They're a small sandwich chain with a focus on cheese steaks. And they do a good job. I got there during a lull ;), so I got a fresh batch of fries to go with my made-to-order sandwich. The bill was about $12 for a large, deluxe cheese steak with fries and a drink.

I'd be happy to go back again when I'm looking for that meal.

Strider

Pictures of the newest addition to our family

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

I went looking to adopt a new kitten and came home with Strider (nee Traveler) from League City Animal Control.

Aikido

We ordered pizza in so we could spend time with the new resident

Sunday:

More time with the new resident

Grilling out with K. and my mom.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 10/24/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Round robin.

Techniques:

We played with a variation of the 4th release to generate a garuma fall.

Aftermath: None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 10/23/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Kim, and Sal. We had a visitor watching and considering joining us.


Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.


The Walk: Twice, as usual.


Releases: Watched Kim and Sal.


Techniques:

I don't remember what we worked with Sal on.

Kim worked on Kote hineri and tenkai kote hineri

I think I worked on kneeling kote gaeshi

Aftermath: None of note, except our visitor ran into my pickup when he was pulling into the parking lot. Luckily, there was no serious damage, just some paint transfer that should come out fairly easily.

In the shop - pictures of pens

6 new pens over the past couple of days......

Lunching out: Miller's Cafe

Another small, local chain location near the office.

Purchased: Burger with grilled onions, onion rings, and tea.

The burger was okay, the bun arrived flattened and the onion rings were worthless. Comparing it to Burger Tex, another recent lunch spot.......

Patties : about even, slight advantage to Miller's
Bun: advantage Burger Tex
Accessories: advantage BT (dress your own burger has an advantage)
Side: tough to compare, since I didn't buy the same thing, but the fries at BT were better fries than the onion rings at MC were onion rings.
Drink: I didn't really attempt to think about the tea

Summary: The local burger spots in order of preference: Fudd's, BT, MC

Missing pets

When I left the house this morning, Vlad had not returned from his Sunday afternoon saunter. I think the last time I saw him was when I went out to get the paper Sunday morning. I was not home most of the day, so he might have been around at other times.

He normally returns home around 10 p.m., although he's been returning more promptly since Mercuri went missing.

Saturday morning I went out to look at the local pet adoption agencies for someone to fill the hole that Mercuri left. I'm now concerned that I might have to fill two spots.

I found a couple of contenders: "Charcoal Charlie" at Bay Area SPCA and "Clancy" at Second Chance Pets. I think "Charcoal Charlie" is the name, but I'm not certain. There were 3 cats in the cage I checked out and all three were male. The label on the cage said 2 were female and 1 was male, so who knows who I held in my arms?

CC was a brave little kitten. He was quite comfortable riding around on my shoulders while I was at full height. He was also a terror running around the area.

I also held "Blue Grass" a Japanese Bobtail mix. He was happy to just lay in my lap and be scratched.

I was hoping to be able to get to know "Bill", "Notch", and "Whimpy", but I think they were off at a local Petsmart being shown.

At Second Chance Pets, "Clancy" was happy to be held in my arms and had a charming meow. He sounded a bit like he'd been smoking cigarettes, a nice gravelly sound. I was hoping to meet "Friskies", but they'd not brought him with them.

Here's hoping we only have one spot to fill.

In the shop - at a class

I spent most of Sunday in an "Introduction to Bowl Turning" class hosted by a local woodworking store and taught by Paul Kendall. Six hours of instruction, minus time for a few breaks, got us from green bowl blank to a semi-finished bowl. The bowl now needs time for drying and then final sanding and finishing. Apparently, our bowls will take between 6 and 12 weeks to dry to a state that's dry enough to work on.

I received some individual attention to improve the control of the tools while working. I hope I manage to remember it. I probably won't be turning any bowls for a while, but the instruction should prove useful in all my turning.

Weekend update

Friday

Aikido

Saturday

Helped my mom with some tax issues
Out to run some errands and visit some pet adoption places to fill the hole Mercuri left behind.
Aikido
Dinner with K. and K.
Shopping with K. and K.

Sunday

Bowl turning class on the other side of town
Football

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 10/17/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Tom, and Sal..

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

We spent a lot of time playing with initial off-balances for Shomen-ate. If tori continues to rotate his center while he's still attached to uke's lead hand, he can continue to keep uke off-balance. Eventually, this will cause a fall without any other interaction from tori.

Trey, at the end, wanted me to do some work on Aigamae-ate. My first attempt was a non-starter. On my second, I was late, so I turned it into Gyakugamae-ate. On the third, I managed an Agamae-ate although it was not pretty.

Tim then called for me to get gedan-ate. My mind became very unaikido-like in demeanor: I was determined I was going to get the technique. I think I had the off-balances nicely, but kake was rude. I had extended my leading leg further behind Trey than I normally do, so when our centers met, he had my nice tall knee that he had to fall over. He ended up in the right spot, but rotated about 90 degrees from his normal position. We were working on an extra layer of mats, so the fall wasn't too bad.

Aftermath: None of note. I think I may need to add big falls back to my warm-up routine soon.

Aikido Friday Night - 10/16/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Kim, and Tom.


Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.


The Walk: Twice, as usual.


Releases: With Tom.


Techniques:


Trey and I spent a lot of time on Kube Garuma, in both roles. The key to this, on this night, was the positioning of the lead hand. It has to make it to your hip in a smooth motion. If it's not smooth, or it's not to the hip, uke has no compunction to take the fall.

I also did some work, with Kim as uke, on 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the kneeling portion Koryu Dai San. We came home and discussed the attack that uke makes for Ryote Mochi Sukui Nage and I'm at a loss, at the moment, to find a fault with her thought that uke is trying to pull tori flat on his face. I think that the traditional situation would have a table involved, so that pulling tori onto his face would not be possible, but I'm not certain.

I also worked with Trey on that same technique, with a slight variation. Instead of inciting uke to take a roll-out, if you hold onto their lead hand you can generate a sumi-otoshi fall out of the technique. It really startled Trey on the first attempt. If I'd gotten it right, it really would have messed with his mind.

Aftermath: None of note, the suwari waza went ok.

In the shop - pictures

Folks have asked for pictures, so I'll post some.  Some of the items are listed at ArtFire, but they're all for sale.

Actually, I'll post them on my flickr account as it's unwieldy to post them all here.  The one posted is made out of Canarywood.

Here's my flickrstream

Weekend update

Friday

Filmed a Judo seminar

Saturday

More Judo Seminar filming
Dungeons & Dragons

Sunday

Delivered a trundle bed we sold via craigslist to the purchaser
Wandered around the Bayou City Art Festival (nee Westheimer Colony Arts festival). We only visited one of the two locations, but it took use several hours to wander around. We picked up some Xmas gifts for nieces and the business card for an artist I want to invite to Armadillocon.

In the shop

A bit of a summary from the past two days:

Monday: 5 bottle stoppers. 3 Tulipwood, one Canarywood and 1 Madrone Burl. I had to throw away a Sycamore as it did not get properly placed on the lathe.

Tuesday: 5 b/s. 3 Tulipwood, 2 Canarywood.

I've only got hardware for 3 more bottle stoppers, but I think I'll turn 5 more tonight. I've got enough Bubinga for 2 and one acrylic blank. I'd also like to try turning some Mesquite.

Then it's on to pens, ornaments and keyrings for a bit.

In the shop

Trying to turn some more bottle stoppers and use up all of the hardware I have for them.

So, I attempted two more English Walnut and one Sycamore. The Sycamore is the only one that made it off the lathe and onto the hardware.

The first EW I completed, polished and was ready to put on the hardware when I spotted something I didn't like. Back on to the lathe it went. Big mistake. What was a simple change expanded due to carelessness and a nice stopper got destroyed.

The second EW was 80% turned, but I thinned it down before completing the stressful turning. When I started the stressful turning, the thinned down section gave way and it blew out.

The Sycamore turned fairly well.

I also used a jig I purchased on Saturday to get a nice edge on my turning tools, I think it helped.

At the movies: Zombieland

Zombieland: 3

Another zombie movie, this one starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin with a cameo from Bill Murray.

I normally don't like horror movies, but the trailers for this one played up the comedic bit enough that I was interested. I was not disappointed. There were some good, funny bits. The scene with Bill Murray is something you can predict, up to a point.

They don't do a great job of dealing with the fact that 99.9% of the population is dead or zombied, but I'll let it slide.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 10/03/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Trey served as uke for Tom's right-sided releases, I served as uke for the left-sided ones.

Techniques:

I got to work on Shihonage and, I think, Shizumi-otoshi from Owza Ju Pon.

We also worked on Gedan-ate with Tom, using a circular entry to make it a little more flowing than our normal approach.

Aftermath: Sore rib, still. More pain-killers.

Aikido Friday Night - 10/02/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Kim, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did a full warm-up, minus the big falls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

Trey and I spent a lot of time on his Owaza Ju Pon, with him giving me roll-outs since the garuma falls are not a lot of fun. And, on the first one that Trey "got", he did not let me roll-out. And I was not prepared to not roll out and I landed hard. I think it's the 7th or 8th rib on the right side on the back that's not feeling perfect. I had to sit there for a second and regroup. Almost had the wind knocked out of me.

After that, there were no issues. He was, as everyone does, having troubles with Kata Otoshi. By the time we got to Aiki-nage, he was a bit worn out.

Aftermath: Sore rib. Definitely an Aleve night.

Lunching out: Burger Tex

A small, local chain of hamburger joints. The nearest one is occupying an old Pizza Hut, which has also been an "El Lago Burrito Company" in addition to its current incarnation.

They offer burgers, fried shrimp and other item. I didn't really check out the menu much. I ordered a 6 oz w/o cheese. They didn't ask how I wanted my burger cooked.

They serve it up plain and you doctor it up yourself at the vegetable bar. Tomatoes were not outstanding, but it was decent otherwise. They did have jalapenos, so that's a plus.

The bun was nice, they do grill them up before putting your patty on them. The fries are nothing to write home about, but overall it's a decent deal.

They will be considered when I'm thinking about a burger. The only current competition is Fuddrucker's. I need to try some more options.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Across town to a jewelry supply store to look at some pliers and to Woodcraft to take advantage of a sale.
A lady was supposed to come out to look at the trundle bed we're selling for a friend, but she was a no-show.
Aikido
Dinner and a movie with K. and K. (Zombieland)

Sunday:

Someone finally showed up to look at the trundle bed, but they had misgivings, so they didn't take it.
Had another inquiry on the trundle (this make about 8, I think), this one from Navasota. No way they'll be interested in it.
Aquarium cleanup
Our satellite DVR/receiver went out, so any TV we watch is over at the in-laws for the next week. We can't take the dogs in with us, so we won't be watching too much.
In the shop for a little work. Very frustrating.

In the shop

In the shop on Wednesday for more turning.

I rescued an English Wlanut stopper and turned two Box Elder Burl and one Spalted Maple. I tried to turn a second Spalted Maple, but apparently the pilot hole I drill was wonky and it would not stay on the lathe. It's possible, I suppose, that the blank had a fault in the middle somewhere.

So, 4 more stoppers. I need to spruce up the EW one, as the efforts I expended to get it off the chuck dulled the finish.

I had some energy at the end and managed to put up 4 more clamp holders on one wall of the shop. With the light table gone, there's more room and some accessible wall space.

Volleyball, 0-3

The final match of the season, and probably the year. 0-3. We had a good time and played decently, but got skunked.

Oh, well, there's always next time.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Cragislist provided a potential buyer for my light table. He came out and looked and said he'd be back Sunday with a truck and money.
Aikido
50th wedding anniversary party for our neighbors.

Sunday:

Loaded up the light table for the new owner and watched it drive away
Football

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 9/26/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Jeff, Gail, Trey, and Sal.

Ukemi: I did a little warm-up of my own and watched over Sal.

The Walk: None.

Releases: Sensei had Trey and I get our releases in while he worked with Sal while we waited for Jeff and Gail to arrive

Techniques:

We did some work on Koryu Dai Yon No Kata for J & G. I can't tell the technique names right now. I'll double-check my books at home.

Richard wanted to play with the various approaches to kote-gaeshi he sees us work with, so we played with that for a while.

Treay and I worked on the first five of Owaza Ju Pon with Jeff as an uke and then Sensei chased us off the mat as we'd been active for 4 1/2 hours.

Aftermath: No unusal ailments.

Aikido Friday Night - 9/25/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, and Tom. We also had a visitor, a previous student of Karl Geis, who is looking to get back into aikido after 20 years.

Ukemi: I did a little warm-up of my own and spent a lot of time working with Brad.

The Walk: Twice, as usual. Once in Japanese and once in Czech.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

We spent most of the evening on gedan-ate as a continuation of last week. The timing, the fitting-in, etc. This, in my opinion, is the toughest of the Ju Nana Hon Kata to be able to break down into its constituent parts. The initial off-balance and the eye-flash can be broken out easily, but the fitting-in and kake are a tough nut to crack.

After a while working on this, Sensei wanted Trey and I to do some stuff for the visitor. So, Trey ran through 1-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata. I ran through some of Owaza Ju Pon and a couple of Koryu Dai San.

Aftermath: Nothing's been cleared and nothing new has been added to the ailment list.

In the shop

Got into the shop last night for a couple of hours. We've had a bit of a cool front come through the area and it's really quite comfortable out there now.

I managed to get 4 stoppers turned last night. One of Box Elder Burl, one of Sycamore and two of Madrone Burl. It's interesting in that some of the species have been "stabilized" and they seem to have a distinctive aroma when I turn them.

Ranking them by the attractiveness of the wood itself, from most to least:
Box Elder
Madrone
Sycamore

Ranking them by ease of working, easiest to hardest:
Madrone
Box Elder
Sycamore

The weather's pleasant, temperature-wise, today, so I hope to be able to get back out into the shop tonight. Maybe get 6 more turned?

I've also been thinking about packaging and presentation for the stoppers, pens and wands. I've tried to find pre-made boxes for the wands, but have had no luck. I think an appropriate size would be the size of rolls for player pianos, but I don't know if purchasing those would make sense. I could come up with a design for my own cardboard boxes, but I've been tossing around a design for a wooden box for both the wands and the stoppers instead.

I'm also thinking about a laser-engraved design for the lid of the box, but don't know about the economic feasibility of that, either. Using a nicely printed label just would not look good on a wooden box.

I also need to make stands for the stoppers when they're on display. Do I add in a little slot in front of each stopper spot to have little tag with information on the wood used, etc.? Would that be too much of a hassle? Would the stoppers get placed back in their correct spot? Would it make a difference if it's on display at a convention art show as compared to a craft show?

If Peri catches this, I'm wondering about the ratio you mentioned (1/3 or 3x). At shows, did you expect to sell about 1/3 of your stock on hand? Or did you always have enough stock to do 3 shows at one time? Or am I misremembering your comment?

Volleyball, 0-3

Next-to-last match for the season, against Fandango. They're, traditionally, the powerhouse in the league, although this year they have lost more games than normal.

They had 6 players, we had 5. As usual, our line-up was different than last week's and that takes w while to get used to. Overall, we played decently but were outclassed.

It would be possible for us to end the season tied for last instead of in last all by ourselves, but it's not very likely.

In the shop

There's a craft show coming up this weekend that's essentially no cost to the vendors. K., however, says I need more stock before going to a show. And she's right. I need more pens, stoppers, wands and chainmaille before trying to sell stuff.

I've got a full day of aikido this coming Saturday besides, so I really can't fit the show into my schedule.

But, I still need more inventory. So, back in the shop to do a little more turning.

I recently purchased a bunch of blanks for stoppers and a few blanks for pens, so I've got a selection to choose from. Last night I chose blanks of English Walnut and Spalted Maple to turn.

The EW was first on the lathe, and it turned out well. However, I could not get it off the chuck. I even tried chilling the chuck to get it to shrink: no dice. So, I had to destroy the stopper. :(

Next up was Spalted Maple and it turned out nicely, too. It really is quite pretty when turned and polished.

I had some issues getting it assembled. I had to drill the hole a bit deeper and use a vise grip to help me get the threaded insert into the wood.

Working through that issue inspired me to go back to a Tulipwood stopper I'd made a while back. I'd had the same issues with it that I'd just had with the Maple. With the Maple, I was bound and determined that it was going to get assembled, it was too pretty to send it to the trash. The Tulipwood, I was not as inspired, originally, as I have a number of blanks laying around. The new approach to assembling stubborn stoppers worked on the Tulipwood, so I ended the evening with two new stoppers.

Tonight is volleyball, so it won't be convenient to turn. Instead, I'll work on getting my Tormek set up again. It's been sitting idle, but since I'm doing more turning I need to be able to sharpen my tools.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido
Started prepping for the garage sale

Saturday:

Up early for the garage sale: first customer at 6:30 a.m.
Closed down the garage sale around 1 p.m. We had fairly good business, but my light table did not sell. Took the leftovers to Goodwill.
Aikido
Pizza for dinner
Fell asleep watching football

Sunday:

Football
Mercuri is still missing

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 9/19/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Brad, Tom, and Sal.

Ukemi: I did a little warm-up of my own and watched over Sal.

The Walk: None.

Releases: Sensei had Trey and I get our Releases in and then move straight on to Owaza Ju Pon.

Techniques:

Trey and I worked on Owaza Ju Pon in the teim we had before Trey went off to the Aggie football game.

Aikinage, Kata Otoshi, Shihonage, Ushiro Kubi Gatama and the off-balances for the Gurumas.

We spent most of Trey's time on Kata Otoshi. It's an interesting technique on uke's side of things. I noticed that when Trey nailed the timing, I'd just find myself taking the rollout and not really thinking about getting out of it. If the timing was off, and most of the time it was early, I would sort of stumble out of the technique. Occasionally, when he was early, I would notice my foot compensating for the technique he was trying to apply: it would move off-lie to catch my balance.

We also worked on aikinage for him, and he is catching on quite well.

For me, we worked in a few reps of Shihonage, Aikinage, Ushiro Kubi Gatame, and Ushiro Ate. they went far better than either of us expected.

Trey disappeared and I then served as uke for the other guys on Aigamae-ate, Gyaku Gamae Ate and Gedan ate. We got some good work in, and I made progress on my next 10,000 falls.

Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play. Nothing affected the right elbow or right middle finger tonight.

Aikido Friday Night - 9/18/09

Aikidokas: Tim, and Trey.

Ukemi: I did a little warm-up of my own.

The Walk: None.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

Trey and I worked on Owaza Ju Pon all night, since we were the only folks around.

Aikinage, Kata Otoshi, Shihonage, Ushiro Kubi Gatama and the off-balances for the Gurumas.

We spent a large amount of time on the off-balances for the Gurumas and Trey made marked improvements as the night wore on. You need to direct uke out and around to get the otoshi and the guruma. The otoshi is very similar to the entry for a blown shomen-ate if you extend uke too far.

We also spent a large amount of time on aikinage. At the end of the work I made a bit of an improvement in my approach by getting the non-working hand much further over uke's shoulder. This allows me to get aikinage and Ushiro Kubi Gatame more reliably. A nice light bulb moment.

I spent a bit of time on Shihonage. It seems my problem with this technique stems from the third off-balance, or lack thereof. If my timing and distance are cool, it is the "up" off-balance that, if it fails, destroys my technique.

I don't remember much of our work on Kata Otoshi.

Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play. Nothing affected the right elbow or right middle finger tonight.

Volleyball, 1-2

We played well on each point, but we just didn't win enough points. We had 5 players, as did our opponents. My theory still holds: we need to have the same 6 team members over a period of at least 2 weeks to be playing at our best. We've not had the situation for some time.

An opponent landed under the net on top of my foot. When I attempted to move, I slightly aggravated a tendon or ligament, as my foot was still trapped. It seems ok now.

Also, after 6 hours of painting with a long extension on Sunday, my shoulder was a mess. Volleyball aggravated it and now an injury that I thought I'd managed to get rid of has come back. Aleve, "Heat" and specific sleeping positions are the order of the day.

Mercuri still missing

We let Mercuri out, as has been our ritual for the past few years, around 6 p.m. Thursday night. We called for her around 10 p.m., when she is usually nearby and ready to come in, but she was not around. This didn't worry us greatly, as she occasionally spends the night outside.

When we woke up Friday morning and she was not waiting at the door, that concerned us.

As of now, Monday afternoon, she is still missing. I'm hoping for the best, but preparing to not see her again.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido
Wandered the neighborhood looking for Mercuri

Saturday:

Went to look at an estate sale in League City
Got caught up to date with my book database
Aikido
Dinner with M., K., and K. at Durango's

Sunday:

Painting M. and K.'s house
Dinner at Joe's with M., K., and K.
Collapsed from weariness (6 hours of painting will cause that)

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 9/12/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Brad, Tom, and Sal.

Ukemi: Watched Sal and then demonstrated why it's not a great idea to have your leading arm go across your body on front rolls.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: With Sal.

Techniques:

Monkey in the middle with outside the arm off-balances. I did a little work as uke and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching and making suggestions. They started to get it fairly well by the end of the session.

Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play. Right elbow and right middle finger are minor concerns.

Aikido Friday Night - 9/11/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, and Tom.

Ukemi: I did a little warm-up of my own. Tested to see how the left hip is doing.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

Trey and I worked on Kata Otoshi and Aikinage all night. Kata Otoshi is a bugbear of technique for me. I did manage to nail it four times in a row and then three times in a row. I think I need more reps. The determining factor seems to be my timing: I tend to be in a hurry. I need to slow down.

I did manage a left-sided Aikinage, though. Go me!


Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play. Right elbow and right middle finger are minor concerns.

Lunching out: Tony's Seafood House

I'm reporting this a week late, but at least I remembered.

This week, I tried a relatively new place: Tony's Seafood House. I could walk there from work on a nice day with plenty of time to kill.

I ordered a 6 shrimp and 2 pieces of catfish plate, iced tea and their pecan pie. I was underwhelmed. The shrimp was ok, but the catfish was spiceless. And don't even mention the pecan pie, it was pretty bad.

There was a mix-up with my bill and I could have walked out of there for around $6, but I returned the extra $10 bill.

What the future holds:

If I have to have seafood and it has to be close, ok. Otherwise, no.

Volleyball, 1-2

Another week with not a full team. We started off with 4 players and ended up with 5.

I got a number of good sets in the first game, but they soared off court when I hit them. I improved a bit in the second and third games.

We won the second game and came close to winning the third, so it was a decent night.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Up early to go mattress shopping.
Also stopped by Bay Area Aquariums to look at their fish and corals
Aikido
In the shop to turn two pens
Dinner at Durango's
Made baklava. Awesome.
Started work on a batch of bread

Sunday

More work on the bread
Grilled out for dinner with my mom and aunt

Monday

Off to an early showing of G-Force. Disappointing.
Waited around for mattress delivery
Hand and foot with the in-laws.

At the Movies: G-Force

G-Force: 2

An animated feature about a group of Guinea Pigs, a fly, and a mole who form a spy team. They attempt to save the world from the greed of an appliance manufacturer. Bill Nighy (Davy Jones from POTC 3) stars as the CEO of the appliance company.

It was not as bad as I was afraid it might be, but not as good as I hoped.

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 9/05/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Brad, and Sal.

Ukemi: I watched Sal during his warm-ups and did a little warm-up of my own. I actually took a self-imposed big fall as part of a demonstration for Brad, iirc. the landing wasn't great, but I walked away from it.

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

Releases: Watched Brad and Sal work on them

Techniques:

We tried another drill for working on Shomen-ate. Uke stands in front of tori and goes up on his toes, tori attempts to strike uke just when uke's heels touch the ground. Sal did ok. I did poorly. Weird.

It seems like there should have been something else, but I can't remember it.

Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play.

Aikido Friday Night - 9/4/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Tom and Sal.

Ukemi: I watched Sal during his warm-ups and did a little warm-up of my own

The Walk: Twice, as usual.

I worked with Sal on his releases for most of the evening.

At the end of the session, Sensei had Trey and I attempt to execute iriminage on Tom and Sal. It was quite a change from working with Trey. I could feel a huge difference, mainly in their reactions. Trey did a better job figuring out what the difference was, I think.

I also attempted a left-sided iriminage on Trey once or twice. My footwork was confused, so it did not go well.

Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play. I think I've finally figured out how to fold my hakama properly. I've started a tradition of wearing it on Friday nights and finally managed what I thought was a good fold. This week it also helped a slightly sore back as it provides more back support than a gi does.

At the Movies: 3:10 to Yuma

3:10 to Yuma : 3

A western starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, and Alan Tudyk. The story of a man trying to make it in Arizona as a rancher. Beset by all sorts of trouble, his only hope of saving his ranch is by hiring out to escort Russell Crowe's character to a train to send him to prison. Both characters grow through the movie and it's a fun little jaunt.

Weekend update

Friday:

Aikido

Saturday:

Slept late
Aikido
Started working on a pot of ranch style beans, from scratch

Sunday:

Ranch-style beans
2 Peach pies
Fuddrucker's hamburger buns
Burgers for grilling out
Grilled out

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 8/29/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Jeff, Gail, Trey, Brad, and Paul. Three folks from Killeen in to see the demonstration.

Ukemi: I did a light workout of ukemi, both sides.

Trey and I ran through the techniques once and decided any more work would be detrimental.

Shortly thereafter, we were called up for his demonstration and the the Walk, Releases and 1-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata. He did a great job and was awarded his Ikkyu.

Brad was called up afterwards and was awarded his Yonkyu. We had a stealth demonstration for him a week ago.

I then helped Brad work with Paul on his releases and some other basics.

Aftermath: I was beat. Six of us went out for Mexican afterward and had a good time, as is tradition when folks from Killeen come to town.

Aikido Friday Night - 8/28/09

Aikidokas: Tim, Trey, Tom and Sal.

Ukemi: I watched Sal during his warm-ups and did a little warm-up of my own

The Walk: Twice, as usual. Tom got to count once.

Trey and I worked on the stuff for his demonstration. We went through 1-17 and spent some time on problems that popped up. Problems always pop up the night before a demonstration, it's just the way things work. There were no show-stoppers, though.

Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play. Still trouble for suwari waza and some of the big falls.