Picture of the Day - Aaron's Green Belt

My son just earned his Tae Kwon Do green belt this week, and today was his first intermediate level class.  We did some form work and a little sparring, and he got hit in the face.  Said "ouch", winced his eye a little, then kept going.  It was good to be in class with him again...he's definitely improving.

P.O.D. Jan 4 - Kickboxing

Today's picture of the day comes from my morning kickboxing class.  I teach 6 classes a week at Alpha Martial Arts studio, and I'm very lucky to be able to say truthfully that I love my job.  In the few years I've been teaching, I've seen many people achieve goals they never thought they could achieve, and those people's reactions to those achievements is what makes it all worthwhile for me.  The support that these students show for each other, both in class and especially outside of class, is truly an amazing thing.  Some of the most amazing people I've ever met are (or have been) students in my classes, and it both humbles me and energizes me to get to work with them.

Did I mention how much I love my job? 

P.O.D. Jan 3 - Kathy on Facebook?

Yes, this is Kathy.  Yes, that is Facebook.  Yes, that is HER Facebook account.  We had an issue awhile back when I told her I really wished she was on Facebook so I could publicly declare my undying affection for her like all the other spouses do, hopefully making everyone jealous.  She resisted for a very very long time, but finally decided I was being too much of a pain in the butt to make holding out worthwhile.  So she created an account.  In the year plus that followed, I think she might have checked it exactly...twice.  But hey, at least she had an account, right?  I've tried to convince her that if she kept up with her account, she wouldn't have to wade through the 90% of people in mine she didn't know, so checking facebook (which she still does all the time, just...not hers) would be so much quicker.

Anyway, I still don't think she is going to ever regularly use her own account, but I had to get a shot of her actually using it, since this picture opportunity may quite possibly never present itself again.

Hi dear!!! :)

Picture of the Day - Jan 2nd, 2012

Today is Kathy's last day home of about a two week vacation.  She is a master cook, and can take the most random ingredients and make some truly amazing dishes.  My experiments, while sometimes pretty decent, usually consist of throwing everything in a pot or baking dish and calling it _____ casserole.  Hardly creative at all, but usually edible.

Anyway, here are today's mystery ingredients:  Dijon mustard, a can of cranberry sauce, a tube of crescent rolls, and a pack of Little Smokies.  I can't wait to see how this turns out.....

Picture a Day - Jan 1, 2011, The Dog Park

I'm going to see if I can't post a picture a day every day this year, just for fun.  Yes, I hear you laughing..."no way will he post to his blog every single day for the entire year!  BWWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!"  But yes, i am going to at least give it a shot.  I may have to double up on some missed days sometimes, but I'm still going to try.  So prepare to see SOMETHING in my life, every day, that I thought made a pretty cool picture and hopefully story behind it.  Here goes day 1....

This is Becca running with our dog Bella to her right, and chasing Burke, who belongs to my friend Erika.  Burke and Bella have been playing at dog parks pretty much ever since we've each had them, about a year now.  We try to get them to run off some energy when either dog is driving its respective owner crazy, and today was one of those days.  Sunny day, but a little breezy and chilly.  Always a good time, though.

This is My Rifle, This is My Gun......

Is there anything you ever think to yourself sometimes that would be pretty cool to do, but not sure how you'd make it happen?  Well, I had one of those days today.

Going to a shooting range is generally not something that a man card-less guy could get away with, but that's exactly what I did today.  I saw some Facebook posts a few weeks ago between a couple of my friends at Alpha discussing shooting, and I mentioned to one of them that it would be cool to do, but I have no experience doing it.  If I ever went with anyone, they'd have to start our session with "see that hole at the end of that cylinder?  well, don't point it at anything or anyone that you wouldn't want to change the life of forever".  (I seem to recall "the talk" my parents gave me started the same way, but I digress).

I've never been to a range before, but my friend John frequents the one in Longmont about once a week.  I had to sign a waiver to use the range that said I was never diagnosed as mentally unstable, I've never been convicted of a felony (convicted?  never convicted), and that I wasn't illegally using drugs.  I guess I answered correctly, because they let me in, or they just knew John well enough to know that if I even looked at someone the wrong way with a weapon in my hand, he could disarm me and make my life pretty miserable before I was able to say "just kidding!". 

While filling out the waiver, I heard John talking to someone behind the counter about some of the merchandise they had for sale.  It was either that or he was speaking Chinese, because I understood exactly 0% of what they had said.  This was my first sign that I had a long way to go before I could even dream about saying I knew anything about guns.  The second sign came when the guy asked if I owned any guns, and I rolled up my sleeves and flexed and said "only two". 

When we were all signed in, we went to a small prep room to put on those cool glasses and hearing protection (I see why those are required now), then made our way to one of the lanes.  John actually competes in shooting events and is exceptionally knowledgeable about guns, and he was a great instructor.  He brought a .22 pistol, a 9mm pistol, and I believe an AR-15 rifle.  I asked him at least a dozen times what each gun was just so I could brag about shooting them later, and I'm pretty sure I'm still not correct on what they were.  Anyway, he showed me which way to point them, how to load them, how to shoot them.  Interestingly enough, people who visit shooting ranges aren't amused when you aim a gun down the range and start shouting "PEW PEW PEW!!!!"  Lesson learned I guess.

I generally hit the targets and even got in the vicinity of where I was aiming most of the time.  That rifle intimidated me, though.  I kept thinking back to videos I had seen of people shooting a rifle and the recoil slamming it back into their face or knocking them on the ground.  And since everyone there remained upright the entire time, I thought it would be best for me to remain that way as well.  And I did.  After one shot and seeing just how much kick each weapon had, I could relax a little more and just revel in the manliness of propelling metal projectiles into deserving sheets of paper.  It was cool.

Here is a pic of the carnage I wrought on my unsuspecting victim:

Those three shots grouped right in the center that I circled are where John showed me how it was done.  To my credit, I did at least hit the target with all but one shot (and that one shot I was aiming at the guy who would  have been standing over the target's left shoulder, so I guess that counts).  This target was 25 yards away, so if you ever feel like starting something with me, you better be at least 25.1 yards away or you'll have a 16 out of 17 chance of being my next victim.


So John, thanks for taking the time to educate me a little about one of your passions.  You really were a great instructor, and hopefully we'll have the chance to go to the range again sometime.   If I had a man card, it would have had a couple of transactions made on it today.

I'll Be Back.....

After a nagging chest cold for most of November and some of October, during which the extent of my workouts were lifting bottles of Advil and cough syrup, and also during which any semblance of endurance I had completely left the building, I have finally gotten back into workout mode.

Now, it is no secret that my man card has been nonexistent for quite some time now.  However, one part of it that has always been alive and well is that I am a complete wuss when I'm sick.  This cold I had was just annoying, but made it difficult to breathe completely, so instead of fighting through it, I decided to wait it out.  And wait.  And wait.  Annnnnnnd......back to square one.  I had a TKD belt test at the tail end of my bout with near death, and during it I had to spar for maybe 15 minutes off and on.  At the end, I could barely stand (no joke)...I was indeed completely back to where I started.  It is good to have a fire lit under you sometimes, and this was my fire.

So what's the plan?  I'm trying to run 2-3 days a week.  Since it is winter, and I'm a cold wuss, I'll have to do some of that on a treadmill.  I'm learning to accept that, and the TV down there helps, although there is only so much of "The View" and hearing Whoopi Goldberg talk about shaved pudendas that I can handle (true story).  I'm also cycling through various workouts from P90X, Insanity, and Infinite Intensity for added cardio and plyo training.  Finally, I'm doing some strength training a couple of times a week.  So far, this has been working well, and I'm still motivated every day to workout (which has been an issue for me in the past at times). 

Recently, an elementary school friend turned me on to a "burpee challenge", where you do one burpee the first day, two the second, three the third, and so on up to 100 on day 100.  Just so happened that I had done 100 burpees earlier that day, just to see if I could, so I figured I'd try to start at 100 and work up to 200.  Currently I'm at 107.  Yeah, the next 93 days looks a little daunting to me too.

So it is time again to put up or shut up, so that's what I intend to do.  Many of my kickboxing students have been so inspiring with their motivation and the effort they're putting in every class.  Those students are inspiring each other, and they also inspire me.  Let's do this......

(Awesome x-ray photo courtesy of Bobbie Turner Photography)