Monday, November 28, 2011
FREE!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Holiday traditions have officially started
Yesterday we started two of our holiday traditions. We actually completed one.
The first tradition that we started was making Jello for Thanksgiving. Now you might think I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but it is complicated Jello. First off, my family loves Jello. That is really an understatement. If any of you read any Terry Pratchett novels he often talks about how Dwarfs love gold, and finally one dwarf says, "No, we just say that to get it into bed." I kind of think my family has the same approach to Jello. If you go to my folks house on a Sunday night, and you just happen to be the first person there, you can eat the leftover Jello. If you aren't first, then you can complain that someone else ate it all. Especially if there is fruit in it, and by fruit I mean raspberries.
Holiday Jello is different. Some years ago, my mother came across an idea that involved multiple layers of Jello-y goodness. You mix half a pack, and pour it in a 9 x 13 baking dish. You let it set up. You then mix the other half, but instead of cold water, you add some evaporated milk. This makes it a nice opaque color. You then add this layer, and let it set up in the fridge. You repeat this process until the dish is full. This is typically one of the first dishes to disappear on Thanksgiving. It is my turn to make the Jello, so I'll post some picks after it is completed.
Last night we did our second Holiday tradition, letters to Santa. We've been doing this for a long time. Every year, we use the family home evening before Thanksgiving to write our letters to Santa. Everyone takes a turn reading theirs aloud, allowing Mom and Dad to take some notes, and then we "send" them to Santa. The traditional way to send them to Santa mimics the movie Marry Poppins. They are delivered up the chimney via fire. You see, Santa has a kind of symbiotic relationship with fireplaces. This is the quickest and most sure fire way to get your holiday list to the big man up North. There is a lovely picture of us posting our letters below.
Well, as we start more traditions, I'll let you know. Have a great Thanksgiving week!
The first tradition that we started was making Jello for Thanksgiving. Now you might think I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but it is complicated Jello. First off, my family loves Jello. That is really an understatement. If any of you read any Terry Pratchett novels he often talks about how Dwarfs love gold, and finally one dwarf says, "No, we just say that to get it into bed." I kind of think my family has the same approach to Jello. If you go to my folks house on a Sunday night, and you just happen to be the first person there, you can eat the leftover Jello. If you aren't first, then you can complain that someone else ate it all. Especially if there is fruit in it, and by fruit I mean raspberries.
Holiday Jello is different. Some years ago, my mother came across an idea that involved multiple layers of Jello-y goodness. You mix half a pack, and pour it in a 9 x 13 baking dish. You let it set up. You then mix the other half, but instead of cold water, you add some evaporated milk. This makes it a nice opaque color. You then add this layer, and let it set up in the fridge. You repeat this process until the dish is full. This is typically one of the first dishes to disappear on Thanksgiving. It is my turn to make the Jello, so I'll post some picks after it is completed.
Last night we did our second Holiday tradition, letters to Santa. We've been doing this for a long time. Every year, we use the family home evening before Thanksgiving to write our letters to Santa. Everyone takes a turn reading theirs aloud, allowing Mom and Dad to take some notes, and then we "send" them to Santa. The traditional way to send them to Santa mimics the movie Marry Poppins. They are delivered up the chimney via fire. You see, Santa has a kind of symbiotic relationship with fireplaces. This is the quickest and most sure fire way to get your holiday list to the big man up North. There is a lovely picture of us posting our letters below.
Well, as we start more traditions, I'll let you know. Have a great Thanksgiving week!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Uneventful Thursday
Thursday started out strong, with me waking up, looking at the clock, and then turning off the alarm and going back to sleep for another hour.
Following that I had to try and get the newest edition of our community newspaper, the Davis County Clipper, because my work's technical writer had an article being published. I zipped around to three stores, and no one had a copy. I finally ran over to their headquarters and put 50 cents into the machine. I then pulled out last weeks edition!
Well crap, there was no way that I could get one before work, so I headed over to the train station and caught a late train.
I got into work, and had a couple of meetings, and a webinar. Nothing too exciting. One of the meetings was a training on avoiding holiday related stress. This was put on by someone from Weber State University. The only problem I could see was that she started the holiday stress by giving us a test.
The important lesson I learned about holiday stress? If you don't want to do it, don't do it. That simple. If someone invites you out and you don't want to go, just tell them you're busy. They don't need to know that you are busy painting your toenails. That was the gist of the 45 minute meeting.
When I got home, my wife wanted to go to the gym. Since I had avoided it that morning, I opted in. The workout wasn't really that hard, when looked at as individual pieces. It was very tiring.
Firehouse Fitness has a main board where they post the exercises. This is broken down in five rotations to allow people to use the equipment more efficiently. Being a geek, I think of it like programming. We have a function, we'll call it the gym, that has a loop inside of it. We loop through the exercises on the board for as long as time allows. Definitely a Do While loop. You know, Do exercise While there is time left.
Thursday, we added some nested loops. For each rotation on the board, we did each set of exercises four times. This isn't that unusual, but usually we stick with doing all of the sets of one exercise, then move onto the next and complete all of the sets for that exercise, etc. Not Thursday, we did the exercises in a super-set. This means we did one set of the first exercise, then one set of the next exercise, then one set of the third exercise, then back to the beginning. I kind of think of this as a For loop. In this example it would be For(x<=1, x++, exercise).
The first rotation had you do 50 mountain climbers at one end of the gym. You then switched to frog jumps down to the other end of the gym. There you did 50 high-knees. You then frog jumped back to the mountain climbers. Do this times four. The frog jumps where the hardest part for me.
The next rotation was 50 jump ropes, followed by 20 round-house kicks with each leg, followed by 40 punches using the heavy bags. Repeat four times.
After that we moved to Five Hop-Touch-Reach, followed by ten burpees, followed by ten power-wheel extensions. Repeat four times.
Then onto 25 TRX jumping squats, moving your feet in and out. Then ten TRX Rip squat, and lat pull. Followed by climbing the ropes on the wall four times. Repeat four times.
The last rotation was ten weighted touch and reach, ten exercise band touch and reach, and 25 weighted punches. Repeat four times.
I made it through six rotation on the board. I haven't sweat that much in quite some time.
After that I was able to get my local newspaper, but I had to drive back to their headquarters to get them.
When we got home, the kids were all whining that they were hungry. Luckily I had planned ahead and had the rice cooker delayed timer on, so the rice was cooking. We were having tacos, rice, and beans, which usually doesn't take long. I felt especially proud that we finished at the gym at 7:00 p.m. I had found my newspapers, and was able to have dinner on the table by 7:18 p.m.
After that I did some dishes, and got the garbage out. We read scriptures, and sent the kids to bed.
Following that I had to try and get the newest edition of our community newspaper, the Davis County Clipper, because my work's technical writer had an article being published. I zipped around to three stores, and no one had a copy. I finally ran over to their headquarters and put 50 cents into the machine. I then pulled out last weeks edition!
Well crap, there was no way that I could get one before work, so I headed over to the train station and caught a late train.
I got into work, and had a couple of meetings, and a webinar. Nothing too exciting. One of the meetings was a training on avoiding holiday related stress. This was put on by someone from Weber State University. The only problem I could see was that she started the holiday stress by giving us a test.
The important lesson I learned about holiday stress? If you don't want to do it, don't do it. That simple. If someone invites you out and you don't want to go, just tell them you're busy. They don't need to know that you are busy painting your toenails. That was the gist of the 45 minute meeting.
When I got home, my wife wanted to go to the gym. Since I had avoided it that morning, I opted in. The workout wasn't really that hard, when looked at as individual pieces. It was very tiring.
Firehouse Fitness has a main board where they post the exercises. This is broken down in five rotations to allow people to use the equipment more efficiently. Being a geek, I think of it like programming. We have a function, we'll call it the gym, that has a loop inside of it. We loop through the exercises on the board for as long as time allows. Definitely a Do While loop. You know, Do exercise While there is time left.
Thursday, we added some nested loops. For each rotation on the board, we did each set of exercises four times. This isn't that unusual, but usually we stick with doing all of the sets of one exercise, then move onto the next and complete all of the sets for that exercise, etc. Not Thursday, we did the exercises in a super-set. This means we did one set of the first exercise, then one set of the next exercise, then one set of the third exercise, then back to the beginning. I kind of think of this as a For loop. In this example it would be For(x<=1, x++, exercise).
The first rotation had you do 50 mountain climbers at one end of the gym. You then switched to frog jumps down to the other end of the gym. There you did 50 high-knees. You then frog jumped back to the mountain climbers. Do this times four. The frog jumps where the hardest part for me.
The next rotation was 50 jump ropes, followed by 20 round-house kicks with each leg, followed by 40 punches using the heavy bags. Repeat four times.
After that we moved to Five Hop-Touch-Reach, followed by ten burpees, followed by ten power-wheel extensions. Repeat four times.
Then onto 25 TRX jumping squats, moving your feet in and out. Then ten TRX Rip squat, and lat pull. Followed by climbing the ropes on the wall four times. Repeat four times.
The last rotation was ten weighted touch and reach, ten exercise band touch and reach, and 25 weighted punches. Repeat four times.
I made it through six rotation on the board. I haven't sweat that much in quite some time.
After that I was able to get my local newspaper, but I had to drive back to their headquarters to get them.
When we got home, the kids were all whining that they were hungry. Luckily I had planned ahead and had the rice cooker delayed timer on, so the rice was cooking. We were having tacos, rice, and beans, which usually doesn't take long. I felt especially proud that we finished at the gym at 7:00 p.m. I had found my newspapers, and was able to have dinner on the table by 7:18 p.m.
After that I did some dishes, and got the garbage out. We read scriptures, and sent the kids to bed.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Sexual Harassment and Wrestling Practice
How's that for a headline? By the way, they aren't related events.
Yesterday our youngest was sick, he still is. He is kind of croupy, and didn't sleep well. This means that when I finally got out of bed I was tired, I hadn't gone to the gym in an attempt to get more sleep, and I had a slight headache.
As the day progressed, I had to go to our bi-yearly sexual harassment training. We have the head of the U of U's Office of Equal Opportunity come in, and she's an ex-detective. She is fairly entertaining, but not nearly as entertaining as sitting by my colleagues from UHEAA. Now the entire training goes over more than just sexual harassment, we also discuss the American with Disabilities Act. At one point the presenter mentioned that there is some Supreme Court case law that would suggest that erectile dysfunction could be considered a disability. At which point someone piped up with, "What kind of job does he do for the University?" That got a good laugh. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent thinking about ways that we could be better at sexually harassing people.
I got a new computer at work, which is great. I got a computer with an Intel i7 3.4 GHz processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a graphics card with 512 MB of DDR3 dedicated RAM. This replaces my old Pentium 4 processor that sounded like a prop plane taking off every time I did anything. Sometimes just navigating to a new webpage would put such a strain on the system it would shut down. I was also updated to Windows 7 64 bit Enterprise edition. I like Windows 7.
By the time I got home, I had a headache. My wife commented to me that our mood-swings are offset. When she's in a good mood, I feel down. When I'm happy, she isn't. This proved prophetic. I took some medicine and helped make dinner (I put rice in the rice cooker.) I started to feel better, then my wife was made aware that one of our children had forgotten her homework at school, and another had left somewhere without telling anyone. She got upset. Weird.
I had to take the oldest to wrestling practice. It sounds weird, but there really isn't anything more manly than wrestling practice. On one hand, you have a bunch of guys basically hugging, and getting all sweaty. Doesn't sound to manly. On the other hand, these guys are trying to rip each other's heads off, and laughing about it. Very manly.
When we show up, the younger kids (K-4) are still practicing. I think there are roughly 8,000 of them in the Bountiful High Wrestling Room. At least that is how it sounds. I think that nuclear physicists should come study young child wrestling practice to get some ideas on how nuclear fission might work.
After the younger kids left, we started the boys running around the room to warm up. They did their stretching. Then we started on double-leg takedowns. This is a pretty easy technique, but one of the best. Basically you pull against your opponent, whether their arms, or shoulders, and when they try to back away you drop to your knees, drive your head to the side of your opponents side, and wrap your arms around both of their legs. Then you just drive with your legs, and take them to the ground. It is very much like a football tackle. We practiced singles and doubles for a while. When the coach tried to get the kids to gather up, my oldest and his training partner where in the middle of double-leg takedowns, and finished before running back in. Because they took so long, the kids had to do push-ups. My oldest looks horrible doing push-ups. His hands are way above his head, and it makes it too hard to do it from his feat, so he ends up on his knees with his but way up in the air.
Now we moved on to a request from one of the wrestlers, the Fireman's Throw. This is fun, because you shoot the leg, kind of like a single-leg takedown, but keep holding on to one of your opponent's arms. You then hook your other arm through their legs, sit on your feet, and throw your opponent to the side. Watch the video above, it's short, and a good throw. This one kind of confused many of the team.
It's fun to walk around and put different moves on the kids to show them how they work. My oldest was having a hard time throwing his training partner, who outweighs him by about 10 pounds, and is very good at defensive moves. So he adapted, and rolled him off of his head to get on top of him. The coach later showed them this as an alternative.
After this, we moved on to the Cross Face Cradle. This is pretty simple, but some of the boys had some problems. You lay your opponent out, and straighten their arm out. You then take your opposite hand, and put it across your opponents face and grab the arm you straightened out. You then basically pick their head up with the arm under their face (this doesn't feel great.) You bend them backwards until you can hook your other arm under their knee, and then grab the wrist that is under their face. Basically their head is touching their knee. This makes it easy to roll them onto their back for a pin.
We then practiced some counters to the Cross Face Cradle. One of which was when they had you on your back. Basically you would work your elbow free, and push against your opponents face with your elbow. You then put both of your hands on the knee in the cradle, and push to break their grip. Then you can escape. My oldest would get pushed in the cradle, and could just stretch his body out without having to use the technique. I had to explain that at sometime he would wrestle against someone who was stronger than himself, or had better technique, so he needed to learn it. His opponent on the other hand, usually couldn't get his elbow free because my son's grip was too tight. I think he has a natural talent for this.
We then had some actual wrestling. We did a minute of upright, then a minute with one kid starting on the bottom, a minute with the other kid starting on the bottom, then one more minute of upright. My oldest handled himself pretty well. He actually used a Fireman's Throw, and a Cross Face Cradle. By the last minute the other kid was wiped out, and just tried to run away from my son. This gave him an ideal time to use his Double-Leg takedown. It was cool to see him use the things he had just learned, and use them effectively.
We finished with a game of Sharks and Minnows, this is actual video from the game. For my family, this game will be familiar from the pool. The coach had everyone line up against the wall. He had them hold their hand above their heads, and hold up any number of fingers, as long as it was between 1 and 4. (Editorial comment: I'm not sure why I said the last sentence that way, but it seemed funny. Upon reflection it just seems kind of weird, but I still grin when I read it, so I'm leaving it.) He choose one group of kids, and they came out with him. They were the sharks. Everyone has to stay on their knees, and the goal for the minnows is to get by the sharks without them rolling them onto their backs. (When you play in the pool, the sharks have to touch the minnows when part of their body is above water.) This is pretty fun to watch, and is chaos.
My boy had a good time, even though he did complain about maybe bruising a rib or two, and having sore arms. His first statement was, "I'm going to go home, take an ibuprofen, take a shower, and go to bed." He then added, "Maybe I'll take my ibuprofen with the Dr. Pepper I bought earlier, then go to bed." I had to explain why drinking caffeine right before bed, especially for someone who rarely has it, was not a good idea. He then wanted to drink it for breakfast.
Oh to be young and dumb again.
Yesterday our youngest was sick, he still is. He is kind of croupy, and didn't sleep well. This means that when I finally got out of bed I was tired, I hadn't gone to the gym in an attempt to get more sleep, and I had a slight headache.
As the day progressed, I had to go to our bi-yearly sexual harassment training. We have the head of the U of U's Office of Equal Opportunity come in, and she's an ex-detective. She is fairly entertaining, but not nearly as entertaining as sitting by my colleagues from UHEAA. Now the entire training goes over more than just sexual harassment, we also discuss the American with Disabilities Act. At one point the presenter mentioned that there is some Supreme Court case law that would suggest that erectile dysfunction could be considered a disability. At which point someone piped up with, "What kind of job does he do for the University?" That got a good laugh. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent thinking about ways that we could be better at sexually harassing people.
I got a new computer at work, which is great. I got a computer with an Intel i7 3.4 GHz processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a graphics card with 512 MB of DDR3 dedicated RAM. This replaces my old Pentium 4 processor that sounded like a prop plane taking off every time I did anything. Sometimes just navigating to a new webpage would put such a strain on the system it would shut down. I was also updated to Windows 7 64 bit Enterprise edition. I like Windows 7.
By the time I got home, I had a headache. My wife commented to me that our mood-swings are offset. When she's in a good mood, I feel down. When I'm happy, she isn't. This proved prophetic. I took some medicine and helped make dinner (I put rice in the rice cooker.) I started to feel better, then my wife was made aware that one of our children had forgotten her homework at school, and another had left somewhere without telling anyone. She got upset. Weird.
I had to take the oldest to wrestling practice. It sounds weird, but there really isn't anything more manly than wrestling practice. On one hand, you have a bunch of guys basically hugging, and getting all sweaty. Doesn't sound to manly. On the other hand, these guys are trying to rip each other's heads off, and laughing about it. Very manly.
When we show up, the younger kids (K-4) are still practicing. I think there are roughly 8,000 of them in the Bountiful High Wrestling Room. At least that is how it sounds. I think that nuclear physicists should come study young child wrestling practice to get some ideas on how nuclear fission might work.
After the younger kids left, we started the boys running around the room to warm up. They did their stretching. Then we started on double-leg takedowns. This is a pretty easy technique, but one of the best. Basically you pull against your opponent, whether their arms, or shoulders, and when they try to back away you drop to your knees, drive your head to the side of your opponents side, and wrap your arms around both of their legs. Then you just drive with your legs, and take them to the ground. It is very much like a football tackle. We practiced singles and doubles for a while. When the coach tried to get the kids to gather up, my oldest and his training partner where in the middle of double-leg takedowns, and finished before running back in. Because they took so long, the kids had to do push-ups. My oldest looks horrible doing push-ups. His hands are way above his head, and it makes it too hard to do it from his feat, so he ends up on his knees with his but way up in the air.
Now we moved on to a request from one of the wrestlers, the Fireman's Throw. This is fun, because you shoot the leg, kind of like a single-leg takedown, but keep holding on to one of your opponent's arms. You then hook your other arm through their legs, sit on your feet, and throw your opponent to the side. Watch the video above, it's short, and a good throw. This one kind of confused many of the team.
It's fun to walk around and put different moves on the kids to show them how they work. My oldest was having a hard time throwing his training partner, who outweighs him by about 10 pounds, and is very good at defensive moves. So he adapted, and rolled him off of his head to get on top of him. The coach later showed them this as an alternative.
After this, we moved on to the Cross Face Cradle. This is pretty simple, but some of the boys had some problems. You lay your opponent out, and straighten their arm out. You then take your opposite hand, and put it across your opponents face and grab the arm you straightened out. You then basically pick their head up with the arm under their face (this doesn't feel great.) You bend them backwards until you can hook your other arm under their knee, and then grab the wrist that is under their face. Basically their head is touching their knee. This makes it easy to roll them onto their back for a pin.
We then practiced some counters to the Cross Face Cradle. One of which was when they had you on your back. Basically you would work your elbow free, and push against your opponents face with your elbow. You then put both of your hands on the knee in the cradle, and push to break their grip. Then you can escape. My oldest would get pushed in the cradle, and could just stretch his body out without having to use the technique. I had to explain that at sometime he would wrestle against someone who was stronger than himself, or had better technique, so he needed to learn it. His opponent on the other hand, usually couldn't get his elbow free because my son's grip was too tight. I think he has a natural talent for this.
We then had some actual wrestling. We did a minute of upright, then a minute with one kid starting on the bottom, a minute with the other kid starting on the bottom, then one more minute of upright. My oldest handled himself pretty well. He actually used a Fireman's Throw, and a Cross Face Cradle. By the last minute the other kid was wiped out, and just tried to run away from my son. This gave him an ideal time to use his Double-Leg takedown. It was cool to see him use the things he had just learned, and use them effectively.
We finished with a game of Sharks and Minnows, this is actual video from the game. For my family, this game will be familiar from the pool. The coach had everyone line up against the wall. He had them hold their hand above their heads, and hold up any number of fingers, as long as it was between 1 and 4. (Editorial comment: I'm not sure why I said the last sentence that way, but it seemed funny. Upon reflection it just seems kind of weird, but I still grin when I read it, so I'm leaving it.) He choose one group of kids, and they came out with him. They were the sharks. Everyone has to stay on their knees, and the goal for the minnows is to get by the sharks without them rolling them onto their backs. (When you play in the pool, the sharks have to touch the minnows when part of their body is above water.) This is pretty fun to watch, and is chaos.
My boy had a good time, even though he did complain about maybe bruising a rib or two, and having sore arms. His first statement was, "I'm going to go home, take an ibuprofen, take a shower, and go to bed." He then added, "Maybe I'll take my ibuprofen with the Dr. Pepper I bought earlier, then go to bed." I had to explain why drinking caffeine right before bed, especially for someone who rarely has it, was not a good idea. He then wanted to drink it for breakfast.
Oh to be young and dumb again.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Back to the gym
So my son was sick yesterday, he actually had a fever, so we didn't go to wrestling. My wife had dinner ready when I got home, so we ate a little early, then she went to the gym. She had the excitement of hitting the 3,000 workout, and did more reps than I did.
When she came home she told me that Jason, our trainer, really needed my help, and I needed to hurry up and go back to the gym. I knew he was having some of the flooring redone, and figured he just needed help moving some Sports Court flooring. It turns out he was moving all of the flooring, both the sports court and rubber matting.
The flooring is pretty cool. It is individual 12 inch square tiles. They have two sides with loops, and two sides that click in. We were creative, and made some of the gym's logos in the flooring.
I'm glad I went, Jason seemed a little out of it. The biggest problem was that classes were still going on. I kept having to kick people out of my way. I ended up helping for a little over three hours. The floors look great. We didn't get the rubber flooring down, but that can wait until the weekend.
I did spend the three hours I was there bent over. So this morning when I woke up to go the gym, my lower back muscles where very tights, and they still are. So are my hamstrings. I think I'll try to hit the gym tonight, if I loosen up at all.
When she came home she told me that Jason, our trainer, really needed my help, and I needed to hurry up and go back to the gym. I knew he was having some of the flooring redone, and figured he just needed help moving some Sports Court flooring. It turns out he was moving all of the flooring, both the sports court and rubber matting.
The flooring is pretty cool. It is individual 12 inch square tiles. They have two sides with loops, and two sides that click in. We were creative, and made some of the gym's logos in the flooring.
I'm glad I went, Jason seemed a little out of it. The biggest problem was that classes were still going on. I kept having to kick people out of my way. I ended up helping for a little over three hours. The floors look great. We didn't get the rubber flooring down, but that can wait until the weekend.
I did spend the three hours I was there bent over. So this morning when I woke up to go the gym, my lower back muscles where very tights, and they still are. So are my hamstrings. I think I'll try to hit the gym tonight, if I loosen up at all.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
3,000
I thought about making the title of this post something witty about Sparta and the 300, but I'm too tired. (By the way if you are not familiar with that story, go and get "Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae" by Steven Pressfield instead of watching the Movie 300. Excellent book.)
Today was 3,000 repetition day at good old Firehouse Fitness. I walked in, and there were only five exercises on the board. 1,000 Mountain Climbers. 500 Touch and Reach. 500 Push-ups. 1,000 Crunches and/or 1,000 Jump Ropes.
Have I ever mentioned how early 6:00 a.m. feels when you go to the gym? If not, it feels very early indeed.
We had more freedom to complete our exercises today. In fact, we do many variations of these exercises, and Jason let us choose our method and where we started in the rotation. Since they all looked unpleasant, I started at the beginning.
1,000 mountain climbers takes a little while to do. I did mine with my hands on a medicine ball, I like being up off the ground a little. I did them in batches of 100.
When that was over, I moved onto the Touch and Reach. This is a simple exercise that involves squatting down, and touching the floor between your legs. You then stand up, and extend your hands above your head. Think burpee without the push-up or jump. I've done many forms of this exercise, but kept it simple. I used a medicine ball in my hands. Some people got on the bosu, and used weights in their hands (for about 10 repetitions.) I saw some walk toward the exercise bands, but no one used them. No one used the small tires either.
At this time, it was getting toward the end of class. I usually have to leave 10-15 minutes early so that I can catch my train to work. I got down and did 50 push-ups, followed by 100 crunches. I kept this rotation up until I had to leave.
All-in-all, I did 1,900 repetitions this morning, and now want to sleep.
Today was 3,000 repetition day at good old Firehouse Fitness. I walked in, and there were only five exercises on the board. 1,000 Mountain Climbers. 500 Touch and Reach. 500 Push-ups. 1,000 Crunches and/or 1,000 Jump Ropes.
Have I ever mentioned how early 6:00 a.m. feels when you go to the gym? If not, it feels very early indeed.
We had more freedom to complete our exercises today. In fact, we do many variations of these exercises, and Jason let us choose our method and where we started in the rotation. Since they all looked unpleasant, I started at the beginning.
1,000 mountain climbers takes a little while to do. I did mine with my hands on a medicine ball, I like being up off the ground a little. I did them in batches of 100.
When that was over, I moved onto the Touch and Reach. This is a simple exercise that involves squatting down, and touching the floor between your legs. You then stand up, and extend your hands above your head. Think burpee without the push-up or jump. I've done many forms of this exercise, but kept it simple. I used a medicine ball in my hands. Some people got on the bosu, and used weights in their hands (for about 10 repetitions.) I saw some walk toward the exercise bands, but no one used them. No one used the small tires either.
At this time, it was getting toward the end of class. I usually have to leave 10-15 minutes early so that I can catch my train to work. I got down and did 50 push-ups, followed by 100 crunches. I kept this rotation up until I had to leave.
All-in-all, I did 1,900 repetitions this morning, and now want to sleep.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Everybody's working for the weekend.
So, I'm back at work, and thinking fondly of the weekend.
This weekend involved a Scout camp for my oldest, snow, and cold.
The oldest went camping on Friday. He didn't want to take a coat, he didn't think he needed too much winter gear, and he fought his mother every step of the way. When I got home, I didn't give him options, although while he was looking for his boots, he sat his backpack down, and we had to run out to catch them as they left. This would have deprived him of his change of clothing, and most of his supplies.
While he was out having fun, my wife decided we needed to go out to dinner. We don't do this often, so we packed the remaining children into the van and went out. It was a fairly mellow meal, with nothing too exciting to post about.
Saturday morning I got up to get a head start on the laundry. I also cleaned the laundry room. By the time I was done with that, we'll say about 8:30 a.m., I walked upstairs and saw the scouts out in front of our neighbors house.
From my experience, they usually are not home this early. I also knew that they planned to go shooting to finalize their rifle merit badge. When I asked the Scout Master what was up, he looked at me and said, "We had over a foot of snow, and your son collapsed the scouts' tent on their heads." It turns out that at about 6:30 in the morning, they woke up, and were concerned about the amount of snow on the top of the tent. Someone told my son to knock some of it off, and he hit the side of the tent. By doing this, he snapped one of the tent poles, and the part of the tent at the peak ripped, resulting in the tent collapsing on half the scouts. My son, and his buddy were on the side that didn't go down, so they enjoyed every second. After they got this sorted out, they decided they were wet and cold enough not to hang around, so they went and cooked breakfast at the Scout Masters house.
On Saturday we received an invitation for my youngest daughter to test for the "Spectrum" program with the school district. This is the advanced classes. I'm not sure what we'll do about that. When our oldest received the invitation we told him about it. When he heard he would have to change schools, he didn't want anything to do with it. He wanted to stay with his friends.
Saturday we just did our chores and shopping. My wife is going to make the youngest son a "sensory blanket" for church. Basically it is just a weighted blanket that they can lay over his lap when he feels anxious. We went and go the supplies, and I got some fabric to attempt to make some new work pants. It cost me all of $12. We'll see how they turn out.
Church was uneventful. We then went and had dinner with my in-laws. Enjoyable conversation and "Grandpa's stew". It did get chaotic, but one of my brother-in-laws started playing a patty cake like game with my youngest. To get any kind of focus out of him is great, so everyone had a good time watching them give each other high fives and yelling.
Eventually we found our way up to my parents' place. My oldest always feels ill right before going back to school for the week, or going to church. He started playing this game, and I know it's horrible, but I just don't believe he is ill anymore unless there is puke involved. And only if I witness it. He ended up falling asleep on my folks' couch (it was an hour later than usual thanks to changing the clocks.) I ended up taking over the patty cake game, and added in an additional overhead flip of my son. I would lay on my back, with him standing above my head. I would pick him up, flip him down onto my bent, raised legs, and he would role off onto his feet. He loved it. Shortly after that we headed home with the weekend over.
Now I'm back at work, just working for the weekend.
This weekend involved a Scout camp for my oldest, snow, and cold.
The oldest went camping on Friday. He didn't want to take a coat, he didn't think he needed too much winter gear, and he fought his mother every step of the way. When I got home, I didn't give him options, although while he was looking for his boots, he sat his backpack down, and we had to run out to catch them as they left. This would have deprived him of his change of clothing, and most of his supplies.
While he was out having fun, my wife decided we needed to go out to dinner. We don't do this often, so we packed the remaining children into the van and went out. It was a fairly mellow meal, with nothing too exciting to post about.
Saturday morning I got up to get a head start on the laundry. I also cleaned the laundry room. By the time I was done with that, we'll say about 8:30 a.m., I walked upstairs and saw the scouts out in front of our neighbors house.
From my experience, they usually are not home this early. I also knew that they planned to go shooting to finalize their rifle merit badge. When I asked the Scout Master what was up, he looked at me and said, "We had over a foot of snow, and your son collapsed the scouts' tent on their heads." It turns out that at about 6:30 in the morning, they woke up, and were concerned about the amount of snow on the top of the tent. Someone told my son to knock some of it off, and he hit the side of the tent. By doing this, he snapped one of the tent poles, and the part of the tent at the peak ripped, resulting in the tent collapsing on half the scouts. My son, and his buddy were on the side that didn't go down, so they enjoyed every second. After they got this sorted out, they decided they were wet and cold enough not to hang around, so they went and cooked breakfast at the Scout Masters house.
On Saturday we received an invitation for my youngest daughter to test for the "Spectrum" program with the school district. This is the advanced classes. I'm not sure what we'll do about that. When our oldest received the invitation we told him about it. When he heard he would have to change schools, he didn't want anything to do with it. He wanted to stay with his friends.
Saturday we just did our chores and shopping. My wife is going to make the youngest son a "sensory blanket" for church. Basically it is just a weighted blanket that they can lay over his lap when he feels anxious. We went and go the supplies, and I got some fabric to attempt to make some new work pants. It cost me all of $12. We'll see how they turn out.
Church was uneventful. We then went and had dinner with my in-laws. Enjoyable conversation and "Grandpa's stew". It did get chaotic, but one of my brother-in-laws started playing a patty cake like game with my youngest. To get any kind of focus out of him is great, so everyone had a good time watching them give each other high fives and yelling.
Eventually we found our way up to my parents' place. My oldest always feels ill right before going back to school for the week, or going to church. He started playing this game, and I know it's horrible, but I just don't believe he is ill anymore unless there is puke involved. And only if I witness it. He ended up falling asleep on my folks' couch (it was an hour later than usual thanks to changing the clocks.) I ended up taking over the patty cake game, and added in an additional overhead flip of my son. I would lay on my back, with him standing above my head. I would pick him up, flip him down onto my bent, raised legs, and he would role off onto his feet. He loved it. Shortly after that we headed home with the weekend over.
Now I'm back at work, just working for the weekend.
Friday, November 4, 2011
November 3rd
Not too much went on yesterday. Work, then home to cook dinner*, then a visit from the Primary presidency.
Work is going well, I cranked out most of the website changes that I need for next year. I'm still waiting on some information that I probably wont have until December, but it's nice to have a jump on it.
Came home, and my wife had baked some chicken and was going to make enchiladas. Since she still had some work to do, I volunteered to make the enchiladas. I used a trick that I learned about on Pinterest, which is a really random site where people can post things they find. Anyway, back to the trick. To get really well shredded chicken, you usually have to boil it. Baked chicken isn't the easiest thing to shred. The trick involves cooking your chicken like you normally would, then putting it into your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. You turn that on for a minute, and you have perfect "restaurant" shredded chicken. I made the enchiladas like I normally do, but my wife was so complimentary it was funny. Even when I was putting the leftovers away she wanted to have another bite.
The kids helped straighten our living room in anticipation of the Primary presidency's visit. They showed up, and I was sitting on a couch in the living room, trying to get our dog to come up to me so she wouldn't freak out our visitors. Instead she ran over to investigate, and (here is my sexist remark of the day) women being women, they stood in the open door exchanging pleasantries and let the dog out. So while they visited about how best to help our youngest child, I walked around in the cold and dark murmuring against them. (Not so much against them, more at them.) Our dog loves to explore once she gets out, so I walked after her towards her favorite places. She ducked into a friend's backyard that was pitch black. I followed her in, and she outmaneuvered me and ran off. At this point I had no idea where she was, so walked to some of her other haunts, all the while murmuring away. I finally found her when she scared a neighbor girl. She was just running away from me when the girl was getting out of her car. My dog didn't approach her or anything, just ran by. But a 60 pound animal running at you in the dark can be frightening. At this point I was really angry, walked out into the street light, called her name and told her to sit. This brought her up short, she trotted back to me, and sat down! I was so shocked that I was brought out of my anger, well mostly. Since I was half way around the block, I put her leash on her, and finished the walk, figuring that would help to calm her down.
When I got back, the Primary presidency was still there, and very apologetic. They had really finished their conversation, but replayed the highlights for me.
No exciting wrestling moves to talk about today, sorry. I will say I'm happy it's Friday.
Work is going well, I cranked out most of the website changes that I need for next year. I'm still waiting on some information that I probably wont have until December, but it's nice to have a jump on it.
Came home, and my wife had baked some chicken and was going to make enchiladas. Since she still had some work to do, I volunteered to make the enchiladas. I used a trick that I learned about on Pinterest, which is a really random site where people can post things they find. Anyway, back to the trick. To get really well shredded chicken, you usually have to boil it. Baked chicken isn't the easiest thing to shred. The trick involves cooking your chicken like you normally would, then putting it into your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. You turn that on for a minute, and you have perfect "restaurant" shredded chicken. I made the enchiladas like I normally do, but my wife was so complimentary it was funny. Even when I was putting the leftovers away she wanted to have another bite.
The kids helped straighten our living room in anticipation of the Primary presidency's visit. They showed up, and I was sitting on a couch in the living room, trying to get our dog to come up to me so she wouldn't freak out our visitors. Instead she ran over to investigate, and (here is my sexist remark of the day) women being women, they stood in the open door exchanging pleasantries and let the dog out. So while they visited about how best to help our youngest child, I walked around in the cold and dark murmuring against them. (Not so much against them, more at them.) Our dog loves to explore once she gets out, so I walked after her towards her favorite places. She ducked into a friend's backyard that was pitch black. I followed her in, and she outmaneuvered me and ran off. At this point I had no idea where she was, so walked to some of her other haunts, all the while murmuring away. I finally found her when she scared a neighbor girl. She was just running away from me when the girl was getting out of her car. My dog didn't approach her or anything, just ran by. But a 60 pound animal running at you in the dark can be frightening. At this point I was really angry, walked out into the street light, called her name and told her to sit. This brought her up short, she trotted back to me, and sat down! I was so shocked that I was brought out of my anger, well mostly. Since I was half way around the block, I put her leash on her, and finished the walk, figuring that would help to calm her down.
When I got back, the Primary presidency was still there, and very apologetic. They had really finished their conversation, but replayed the highlights for me.
No exciting wrestling moves to talk about today, sorry. I will say I'm happy it's Friday.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wrestling Night Two
We had wrestling practice night two. It was a good time. We started with a game of knee tag, you just have to touch your partner's knee, then they're it. The kid my son had practiced with wasn't there yet, he has football before wrestling, so my son got with another kid his size. It turns out the new training partner has been wrestling for 10 years. I could tell that my son was a bit nervous when they started playing knee tag, this kid was good.
We started the actual practice with a review of the things we had learned the night before. My son did okay, but it was great because this new partner took the time to explain everything to him, and exactly why the little things were important. The picture above is my son practicing his sprawl. The kid must of thought that my son was okay, he would let him try the moves a couple of times with no pressure, then started actually wrestling him.
We finally started some new moves. First we started with talking about the referee positions. This took all of two minutes. Basically the lower position is kneeling on top of your feet, with both hands on the ground. It is a very solid position to be in. To get in the upper position, you walk up behind your opponent, and place one foot perpendicular to his feet (one of the coaches said you could actually stand on their feet.) You kneel with your other leg to the side of your opponents body, and on that side you hold his elbow with your hand. The other hand is wrapped around, and placed on your opponents waist. You then lay your head down on his back.
We then moved onto our first escape from the lower referee position, the sit out. This looks complicated, but it's not to bad. First you kick your feet out from under you. At the same time, you bend your elbow that is being held, and grab the had around your waist with your other hand. Now the trickery. You throw your knee across your body as far as you can, toward the elbow that is being held. You roll on your shoulder and knee, then to your other knee and throw your trailing hand between you and your opponent to make sure they don't follow you. You'll have to watch the video if you haven't wrestled.
My son's new partner patiently walked him through it, although it only took a few times. By this time, his former partner has showed up, and doesn't have anybody to work with, so my son and his training partner started taking turns. This kid was great, very patient and smart. After a little while, one of the high school wrestlers showed up, and helped with the other kid. My son was very proud that the experienced kid let him do it a few times, then focused on the other kid as he was having trouble picturing it.
I went and helped a few other kids, one who had played on our soccer team for a few years. I would listen to my son's training partner for the little tips, and pass them on. It was fun, because I had to actually show the kids how to do the move, then let them try it on me. Then they would try it on each other.
Next we moved to a simple move to hold your opponent down if you are in the upper position. I don't know the name of it, but you switch the hand on the elbow onto your opponents waist. The hand already on the waist grabs your opponents ankle, and pulls. You lean into your opponent, and drive with your feet until he is flat on his stomach.
This led to the first pin technique, the arm bar. Although the way we learned it was slightly different. Once you get on your opponents back, you thread an arm over the top of your opponents arm, then drag it back and put your hand on his back. It looks like your opponent has a chicken wing. On the other side, you slide your hand under their arm, and grab their wrist. You then swing your hips over to the side, and walk towards your opponents head. This twists them around, and flips them. In the video above the coach lets go of the under hook, but we were taught to hold on, and sit by there head. This results in them being halfway through a somersault. Their shoulders are pinned. Again, my son ran through it a couple of times, then they focused on his partner. When the coaches asked if someone would demonstrate what they had learned, the experienced guy told my son to volunteer. He did a great job.
This practice went so fast, it was great. As I was getting my shoes back on, my son's original training partner was close to me getting his stuff. His dad walked in, and asked him which coach had been helping him the night before, and he pointed to me. His dad introduced himself to me, and told me how much his son had enjoyed working with me, because he had been a bit nervous about starting out. I felt pretty good about that.
My son seems to really be enjoying this, and I think he'll do well.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wrestling
So the oldest started wrestling last night. He has not wrestled in the past, so this is a first. I'm pretty sure that his desire to wrestle goes back to his karate days. When he was in karate, we would watch some UFC together. I mentioned that the heavy-weight champion got his start by being a wrestler in college. He asked if it would make him a better martial artist, and I told him yes.
We showed up, and it's not the school season yet just a camp. His coaches had asked some of the parents to help, so I'm there even though I have virtually no experience.
The oldest looked pretty lonely for a few minutes, but during the warm-up run he saw one of the kids from our neighborhood who is a little younger than he is. We started off just practicing their stance. He has never been really good at being in a "ready" stance from soccer, and his wrestling stance is still too upright, but he is getting the idea.
They then moved on to the single-leg shot/take down. Basically you try to grab one of your opponents legs, then lift it up and trip them. We worked on this in two sections, the setup, and then the take down. The two kids I was helping, my oldest and another seventh grader, both latched onto the wrong part of the setup. Our coach likes to put his hand behind his opponents neck, and use that to pull him off balance to help get the leg. My two boys thought that was the most important, and spent five minutes trying to grab each others head. Once they did, they just danced around in a circle. I actually had to ask them if we were dancing or wrestling, mainly because that sounds like something a coach would say. I had to explain that this part didn't matter, and you needed to stay down. The key was to get the leg.
We then moved onto the important defensive move, the sprawl. Basically, when someone is trying to get your leg, you jump backwards with your feet, and put all of your weight on their back/head. Watch the video above for a good example of this. I picked up a few more kids at this time, and most of them got it. My oldest and his partner both wanted to wait until their opponent had their leg before they sprawled, I'm still working on getting them to do it early. After practicing each move, the coach would ask for volunteers to demonstrate what they had learned. My oldest volunteered, even though his partner didn't want to. My son shot the leg, and got it. His partner tried to sprawl, and kick his leg free. My son wouldn't let go, and ended up rolling the kid over onto his back. The coach laughed and told him that he had a super strong grip, which made him proud.
We then moved onto the finishing move for the sprawl. This is the famous half nelson. When you sprawl, you put a move called the whizzer on your opponent. This basically means that you put your arm over your opponent's shoulder, then move it under their armpit, then put your hand on the back of their head. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. You put your other hand on the back of their head, then grab that wrist with the arm that is in the whizzer. You then move your body away from their extended arm, and it rolls your opponent over onto their back for a point. I let the boys do this on me for practice, and my oldest could actually roll me. I was impressed.
The coach had everyone line up by height, and separate into groups of three. They then wrestled until someone had a take down. At that point, the winner would start wrestling the other person. Winner stands. My two boys where up against a ninth grader who has been wrestling. They got worked. My oldest held his own, he was stronger than the ninth grader, but that kid was fast and experienced. Finally he got my son's arm, and my son panicked. He stood straight up, and pulled to free his hand. When he let off pressure, the ninth grader threw him to the ground onto his shoulder, and it hurt. My son teared up, but recovered. After this game was over, they moved onto a game of knee tag. There was only two grouped together, and they just had to shoot the leg, and touch the knee, then the other person was it. This is meant to help them learn to sprawl and shoot a leg. This progressed to ankle tag, same game, you just had to touch the ankle.
We finished off with some ladder runs. As we went to the car, my son kept telling me his shoulders hurt, and he was exhausted. He actually said, "That was harder than I thought it'd be." I think he enjoyed it, and I think he'll be good at it. We'll see how tonight's practice goes.
We showed up, and it's not the school season yet just a camp. His coaches had asked some of the parents to help, so I'm there even though I have virtually no experience.
The oldest looked pretty lonely for a few minutes, but during the warm-up run he saw one of the kids from our neighborhood who is a little younger than he is. We started off just practicing their stance. He has never been really good at being in a "ready" stance from soccer, and his wrestling stance is still too upright, but he is getting the idea.
They then moved on to the single-leg shot/take down. Basically you try to grab one of your opponents legs, then lift it up and trip them. We worked on this in two sections, the setup, and then the take down. The two kids I was helping, my oldest and another seventh grader, both latched onto the wrong part of the setup. Our coach likes to put his hand behind his opponents neck, and use that to pull him off balance to help get the leg. My two boys thought that was the most important, and spent five minutes trying to grab each others head. Once they did, they just danced around in a circle. I actually had to ask them if we were dancing or wrestling, mainly because that sounds like something a coach would say. I had to explain that this part didn't matter, and you needed to stay down. The key was to get the leg.
We then moved onto the important defensive move, the sprawl. Basically, when someone is trying to get your leg, you jump backwards with your feet, and put all of your weight on their back/head. Watch the video above for a good example of this. I picked up a few more kids at this time, and most of them got it. My oldest and his partner both wanted to wait until their opponent had their leg before they sprawled, I'm still working on getting them to do it early. After practicing each move, the coach would ask for volunteers to demonstrate what they had learned. My oldest volunteered, even though his partner didn't want to. My son shot the leg, and got it. His partner tried to sprawl, and kick his leg free. My son wouldn't let go, and ended up rolling the kid over onto his back. The coach laughed and told him that he had a super strong grip, which made him proud.
We then moved onto the finishing move for the sprawl. This is the famous half nelson. When you sprawl, you put a move called the whizzer on your opponent. This basically means that you put your arm over your opponent's shoulder, then move it under their armpit, then put your hand on the back of their head. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. You put your other hand on the back of their head, then grab that wrist with the arm that is in the whizzer. You then move your body away from their extended arm, and it rolls your opponent over onto their back for a point. I let the boys do this on me for practice, and my oldest could actually roll me. I was impressed.
The coach had everyone line up by height, and separate into groups of three. They then wrestled until someone had a take down. At that point, the winner would start wrestling the other person. Winner stands. My two boys where up against a ninth grader who has been wrestling. They got worked. My oldest held his own, he was stronger than the ninth grader, but that kid was fast and experienced. Finally he got my son's arm, and my son panicked. He stood straight up, and pulled to free his hand. When he let off pressure, the ninth grader threw him to the ground onto his shoulder, and it hurt. My son teared up, but recovered. After this game was over, they moved onto a game of knee tag. There was only two grouped together, and they just had to shoot the leg, and touch the knee, then the other person was it. This is meant to help them learn to sprawl and shoot a leg. This progressed to ankle tag, same game, you just had to touch the ankle.
We finished off with some ladder runs. As we went to the car, my son kept telling me his shoulders hurt, and he was exhausted. He actually said, "That was harder than I thought it'd be." I think he enjoyed it, and I think he'll be good at it. We'll see how tonight's practice goes.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
New calling
So the wife and I just received new callings at church. She is in charge of singing for the senior primary kids, and I'm teaching the 12 year-old kids in primary.
My oldest son is in my class, and we are finishing a year long study of the New Testament. We had the class read from the book of Acts, chapter 10. One of the boys in the class read verse 36, which states:
My oldest immediately followed the reading with, "Smiley face!"
Oh, what has texting done to our children?
My oldest son is in my class, and we are finishing a year long study of the New Testament. We had the class read from the book of Acts, chapter 10. One of the boys in the class read verse 36, which states:
"The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)"
My oldest immediately followed the reading with, "Smiley face!"
Oh, what has texting done to our children?
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