Gentle Readers,

The problem with having a nice weekend is that getting back into the swing of things at work is always a bit of a let down.

This past weekend I was off at the Longpoint 2011 mid-atlantic HEMA gathering. I went down with the head instructor for our club as his assistant. He was going to share his point of view on I.33 and start to get better know. I'm thrilled with how serious he is taking this. I'm sure that it's only partly because I am not in the same situation so I have to live vicariously through him.

Anyway, his class went fantastically. It was very well received and he got a lot of positive feedback. Actually, I also got feedback to say I was a great assistant and made my intent very clear. My Aikido Sensei would be very pleased.

The 18+ hours of driving were just fine except for the expected blizzard just north of Syracuse. I suspect that Pulaski has a Hellmouth. We spent much of the ride there and back talking about his plans for the club and where to go with things. The plan is currently to become a fairly german centric school which means that I will be likely switching to teaching German style rappier. That should be very interesting and by interesting I mean new and scary.

It's almost too bad that the boys did so well with the Saviolo last night at class. They were able to flow through the first sequence and have it look like they were really fighting. That made up for a more disturbing afternoon. The disturbing aspects of the afternoon will be noted in another post.

Today it was back to Kick Boxing and it was pretty good. I wasn't dead at the end of the class, but that probably has more to do with having to push my partner rather than the other way around. He should really go more than 2 times a month. I'm not sure how things are going to go over the next little while. One of the uber-bosses has brokered a corporate plan with the dojo and so for about what I'm paying now, I can also add in some of the other stuff the school does. Given my available time, that means I'll be able to go to the lunch time BJJ classes should I so desire. I'm not sure what else I'd have access to.

I'm sure cortejo would appreciate it if I did the correct response and not the goofy response when she was trying to strangle me.

Gentle Readers,

Usually we listen to big 'A' Alternative stuff during the kickboxing class (Tool's Prison Sex is an excellent work out song BTW) but today, for some reason, it was on a dance channel. So, for the last bit of class while we were doing 100 Supercrunches we got to listen to this:



I guess it could have been worse and they could have played the South Park version:



Or the mash-up with the Dandy Warhols: Horny as a Dandy.



That last one appears to be some kind of Days of Our Lives fan vid about Steve and Kayla. Is it just me or does Steve look like a cross between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Snake Pliskin?

Oh Sweet Creeping Zombie Jesus! There's a chipmunks (or possibly chipettes) version of the Mash-up.

Gentle Readers,

Just got back from my first live MMA event. It was interesting. As with any event in ottawa the crowd was pretty sedate. It's possible that they were more lively before the fights started. It was fun how some of the fighters came in with entourage. The guys from cortejo's club even had an animal mascot. My Kickboxing teacher fought in the Co-Main event and unfortunately the ref called him out before he tapped. He was very unimpressed. Still, I thought his moves were great. He had this fantastic way of slipping from a hit that I want to learn.

Anyway, I'm home and craving salty snacks and drinking white wine.


Yay weekend.

Gentle Readers,

Good: The delicious applesauce made by Cortejo that I put into my lunch. Soooo good.

Evil: The Kickboxing class today which seemed to be focusing on stamina leaving me with wobbly arms. I was able to keep up though. That was nice, well until the weird clapping crunches at the end.