The musings of a weary mind. Conversations on aikido, gardening, cooking, travel and, maybe, woodworking.
Aikido players:
Tim, Mario, Marvin, John, and Dan
Ukemi:
Watched over everyone else. Too bloody tired from work to do much else
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Marvin worked with Dan. Mario worked with John.
Techniques:
Marvin and Dan worked on 1-8.
Mario and John worked on 1-14.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Friday:
Jury Duty - judge ordered pizza from Mario's for us
Aikido
Saturday:
Banking
Haircut
Aikido
Lunch at Habanero's with the aikido crew
Belmont Stakes
Dinner at El Centinela with K
Sunday:
Blueberry picking, just K and I - 33 lbs
Breakfast at Cracker Barrel
Naps
NBA Finals
Aikido players:
Tim, Russell, Mario, John, and Dan
Ukemi:
None today
The Walk:
Not today
Releases:
Not today
Techniques:
Russell worked with us on his side-to-side balance drills and his front-to-back balance drills.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Tim, Trey, Mario, Kim, John, and Dan
Ukemi:
Watched over everyone else
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Kim worked with Dan. Mario worked with John.
Techniques:
Kim and Dan worked on 1-10.
John worked on 11-14.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Mario, Kim, Dan, and John
Techniques:
3 and 4 were the techniques for the evening.
Aftermath:
None of note
Thursday:
Lunch at Perbacco's
Hobby airport for flight to Spokane
Weather coming into Denver delayed us about 45 minutes
Arrived in Spokane about midnight 30, caught a cab to Montvale Hotel
Friday:
Breakfast at Frank's Diner
Lunch at ?????. Maybe I just grabbed a nap instead.
Tour of Davenport Grand
Dinner at Post St. Ale House
Saturday:
Breakfast at Jenny's Diner
Tour of Convention Center
Lunch at The Onion
Tour of Doubletree and Historic Devenport
Dinner at Steelhead Bar and Grill
Sunday:
Breakfast at Molly's Family Restaurant
Meeting
Caught cab from Montvale to airport
Arrived at Hobby
Friday:
Ate in the office
Aikido
Saturday:
Blueberry pancakes
Stayed home from aikido - allergies
Slept a good portion of the afternoon
Dinner at El Centinela with K
Rockets on TV
Sunday:
Lazed about due to allergies/cold?
Baked sourdough sandwich bread
Baked peach and blueberry cobblers for neighbors
Made peach ice cream
Monday:
Lazed about due to allergies/cold?
Rockets on TV
Massive storm came through Monday night - lost power 3 times (1 a.m., 4:30 a.m., 5:30 a.m.) 5 inches of rain
Aikido players:
Tim, Mario, Kim, John, and Dan
Ukemi:
Watched over everyone else
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Kim worked with Mario. Dan worked with John.
Techniques:
They worked on 1-10.
Aftermath:
Was not feeling 100%. Allergies, I think.
Aikido players:
Mario, Marvin, Kim, Dan, John, and Gail
Techniques:
Dan and Marvin worked on Hiki Otoshi
Marvin and John worked on Waki Gatamae
Kim and Gail worked on Shihonage
Marvin and Gail worked on Shihonage
Kim and John worked on Shihonage
Aftermath:
None of note
Friday:
Lunch at ?????
Aikido
Saturday:
Graduation at Rice for Carissa
Lunch at Val's
Sunday:
Packed for trip to Philly
Drove to IAH for flight
Dropped Carissa off at her house
Monday:
Up early to make it to LeHigh for graduation
Red Robin for lunch
Jules' house - got to meet the dogs and cats
Nectar for dinner
Tuesday:
Drove Val to train station for trip to Temple
Movie with Carissa, Kim, and Mom - Pitch Perfect 2
Back into Philly for flight home
Left 50 minutes late from Philly, arrived at IAH on time
Aikido players:
Tim, Mario, Marvin, Gail, Kim, and Dan
Ukemi:
Watched over everyone else
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
I worked with Mario. Kim worked with Marvin. Dan worked with Gail.
Techniques:
Monkey in the middle with Aigamae-ate as the goal. Initial off-balance for a number of reps and then we moved on to actually attempting the technique
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Mario, Marvin, Kim, Dan, and Gail
Techniques:
13 and 11 were the techniques for the evening.
I had folks rotate through as Gail's uke for the evening. The remaining folks rotated through each other as uke/tori.
Aftermath:
None of note
Friday:
Annual Dr. exam
Shoulder exam by sports medicine doc
Lunch with K. at Habanero's
Aikido
Saturday:
Blueberry pancakes
Aikido
Lunch at Habanero's
Baked some chocolate chip cookies
Sunday:
Very lazy day
Did some reading
Aikido players:
Tim, Mario, Marvin, Dan, John, Diego, Adrian, and Josh (the last two are potential new students who take other martial arts at our location)
Ukemi:
Got in none of my own, watched over everyone else.
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Marvin and Diego
Dan, Marvin, and John
Techniques:
Dan, Marvin, and John worked on Shomen-ate. John begged off early with shoulder issues.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Tim, Mario, Marvin, and John
Ukemi:
None for me, resting the shoulder after having a doc look at it.
The Walk:
Twice. One high speed, one low speed
Releases:
Mario, Marvin and John worked together
Techniques:
We started out with Aigamae-ate. then moved to just working on the initial off-balance, then did the same thing in a randori-like situation. It exposed some issues they have with some basic concepts.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Mario, Marvin, and John
Techniques:
3, 7, and 14 were the techniques for the evening
Aftermath:
None of note
Friday:
Lunch at Eats Mesquite Grill after attempting to find the Good Dogs food truck at City Hall
Aikido
Saturday:
Truck in for oil change and A/C check
Banking
Aikido
Work on local network setting up the camera
Dinner at El Centinela with K
NBA playoffs
Sunday:
Work on local network setting up the camera
Nap
ArmadilloCon work
Peach cobbler
Lunch with in-laws and their visitor
Work on fixing DVD player
Aikido players:
Tim, Trey, Mario, Marvin, Gail, Dan, and John
Ukemi:
Got in none of my own, watched over everyone else.
The Walk:
Not today.
Releases:
Not today.
Techniques:
Today was weird. During warm-up ukemi folks were attempting Sumi-otoshi and Kote gaeshi. We noticed all sorts of grabbing occurring. Trey found some sparring target gloves and made tori wear them while attempting the throw. They couldn't get the final "kata" form of the throw, but they did get appropriate roll-outs.
Trey and I worked on the first 4 knife defenses for an hour after the kyu grades left.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Tim, Trey, Mario, Marvin, Kim, and John
Ukemi:
Got in a full set
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
I worked with Marvin
Techniques:
14, 11, and 3 were the techniques for the evening
Mario and Kim worked together
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Mario, Marvin, Kim, Dan, and John
Techniques:
14, 15, and 3 were the techniques for the evening
Marvin and Dan
Kim and Mario
John worked with me. We had issues "casting out" at various points along the way on Shihonage.
A number of folks were sloppy on Gyaku gamae ate: not attempting to control uke's spine by acquiring control of the forehead after the eye flash.
Aftermath:
None of note
Friday:
Lunch at Andiamo
Aikido
Still no water at home
Saturday:
Storms, so no plumber
Blueberry pancakes
Aikido
Dinner at El Centinela with K and the in-laws
Half Price
Sunday:
Still no water at home
Read a Pern book picked up at Half Price
Lunch with the family at Killen's BBQ
Lost power
Aikido players:
Tim, Mario, Marvin, Gail, Dan, and John
Ukemi:
Got in none of my own, watched over everyone else.
The Walk:
Not today.
Releases:
Not today.
Techniques:
We did some playing with random techniques. Gail stressed out about not knowing what technique to do
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Tim, Mario, Marvin, Gail, and John
Ukemi:
Got in a full set
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Jon and Marvin, Gail and Mario
Techniques:
Mario, John and Marvin worked on 13, 5, and 4
Aftermath:
None of note.
Friday:
Lunch at Springbok, after trying Mocando and Honeymoon Cafe and Bar
No Aikido
Massive storm
Saturday:
Blueberry pancakes
Did some cleanup at the rental, post storm
Did some cleanup at the house, post storm
Loaded up stuff for Spring Sparkle
Aikido
Dinner at El Centinela with K
Storm - K kept Tank company
Sunday:
Banana bread
Storm - K kept Tank company
Aikido players:
Tim, Trey, Mario, and Dan
Ukemi:
Did not get any in.
The Walk:
Not today.
Releases:
Dan and Mario spent a lot of time on the 5th release
Techniques:
I worked with Dan on a bit of the stuff from the seminar. Mario and Dan worked on some techniques.
Dan wanted to uke for 17, so I did some work as tori. Got a fair amount of critique on my performance.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Big storms in the area, probably the biggest storm since Hurricane Ike, caused us to not hold class. 3" of rain, high winds, etc. did a good job of clearing out the weaker branches in the trees.
Aikido players:
Mario, Marvin, and John
Ukemi:
Not on Thursdays
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays
Releases:
Not on Thursdays
Techniques:
We started the evening with the off-balance drill we explored at the seminar last weekend. Mario and John did not make it to the seminar, so it was at least kind of new to them.
11, and 12 for everyone. 5, 9, and 8 for the respective aikidokas
Aftermath:
None of note
Lost handily to the number one team in the league. On the only two hand block I put up, I took a hard hit on the right hand. The right shoulder complained quite a bit because of it. The nice thing is the right shoulder did not complain about the act of attempting to block, just the actual block itself. A slight improvement in behavior.
Friday:
Day off
Tried to start riding lawn mower. Failed.
Left at 10 a.m. for Killeen aikido seminar
Arrived at 3 p.m.
Dinner at Golden Corral
Seminar from 7:30 - 10:30
Saturday:
Breakfast at hotel
Seminar from 10:30 - 1:30
Lunch at Mexican joint
Seminar from 3 - 5:30
Sunday:
Breakfast at hotel
On the road home at 9 a.m.
Home around 1:30
Aikido players:
Mario, Kim, and John
Ukemi:
Not on Thursdays
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays
Releases:
Not on Thursdays
Techniques:
11-12, and 1 for everyone.
Aftermath:
None of note
Friday:
Lunch at Wimpy's
Aikido
Sourdough start
Saturday:
Up at 7
Flex in for oil change at McRee
Aikido
In to midtown to Houston Camera Exchange to get new tripods
Dinner at 59 Diner
Sourdough work
NCAA Final Four
Worked on switching my Mac over to the Mavericks O/S: upgrade app, replaced old favorites
Sourdough work
To bed at midnight
Sunday:
Up at 7
Worked on switching my Mac over to the Mavericks O/S: upgrade app, replaced old favorites
Nap
Golf
Grilled out steaks and chicken
Sourdough
Finally got caught up on American Pickers
Posted by Scott Zrubek at 8:42 AM 0 comments
Labels: aikido, automobiles, bread, computers, photography, weekend
Aikido players:
Tim, Trey, Mario, Marvin, Kim, Dan, and John
Ukemi:
Did not get any in.
The Walk:
Three times
Releases:
None today.
Techniques:
We worked on *intent* and *commitment* as ukes. Also did some work from judo distance. Shoulder grabs and lapel grabs: playing with balance breaks, creating distance, etc.
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Tim, Trey, Mario, Marvin,Kim, Dan, and John
Ukemi:
Got in a 1/6 of my now usual set
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
I worked with Marvin. After tweaking, his nicest set in a while
Techniques:
Mario and Dan worked on 6-10
Trey and Marvin worked on 6-8
Kim and John worked on 6-10
Aftermath:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Mario, Marvin, Dan, and John
Ukemi:
Not on Thursdays
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays
Releases:
Not on Thursdays
Techniques:
11-14 for everyone. Everyone was having the same issue: driving through uke in the wrong direction.
Aftermath:
None of note
Friday:
Up at 4:15 am
Out of the house by 5 a.m.
In Anderson Texas by 7 to take pictures of the Grimes County Courthouse
Leave via FM149
FM 3090
FM 105 West
FM 390
Independence, Tx.
FM 390
Gay Hill, Tx.
FM 390
Longpoint Rd (passed by a place we stayed at as a B&B a long time ago.
FM 1948
LBJ Drive
????
Caldwell, Tx : picked up some kolaches that turned out to be horrible
Not certain of the roads taken from here
College Station
Hullabaloo Diner for lunch
Hilton
Check in at AggieCon
A couple of panels
Pictures on campus
Dinner at a Mexican joint on Villa Maria
Saturday:
Breakfast in Iola, Tx, about 30 minutes from College Station
A couple of panels at the con
Dinner at Burger House in Bryan. Disappointing.
Sunday:
Up for early departure
Breakfast in Navasota : Filling Station Diner and Cafe
Drive on home
Electrical work at the rental
Mowed the lawn
Posted by Scott Zrubek at 7:45 AM 0 comments
Labels: aggiecon, conventions, photography, rental, travel, weekend
Aikido players:
Mario, Kim, and Dan
Ukemi:
Not on Thursdays
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays
Releases:
Not on Thursdays
Techniques:
1-9 for everyone.
Aftermath:
None of note
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