Wednesday morning BJJ. 2/17/16

Worked on submissions from mount. Kimura from mount. Etc.


Planned on going to Wednesday night class as well but by the time 6PM rolled around I was beat. Jen hung out with Penny.

Not much else going on. Weather has been beautiful in the 70's for the last couple days. Crazy weather for February.

Still haven't talked to Justin since Christmas. Really fuck him. He's an emotional vampire and totally one sided if you want to deal with him. Which is ironic because he really brings so little to the table in most situations.

BJJ 2/15 - butterfly guard passing

we did conditioning work to begin class. 15ish minutes or so. 

we worked on passing butterfly guard with 3 variations. 

1. from both sitting postures, always crush down and use your body weight to stop his movement when he has butterfly and double underhooks. get a grip on far side pant leg. other arm grabs belt or collar. pull with arm that is opposite leg grip. use leg grip to spin him under you and land in side control or leg drag. 

2. from standing, grip collar as if trying to curl. use windshield wiper move to get leg past butterfly and baseball slide to pass. 

3. uki-goshi pass. basically use shoulder pressure from under hook to power sweep.

things i need to remember. work more butterfly / scissor sweep.

keep working anaconda. my triangle sucks, just don't use it. 

when i get de la riva, i have to remember to get far side arm control and feed it through or else immediately go for outside single or switch to butterfly/ x guard.

May 2015 Vacation Notes

Left Springdale on Thursday 5/21 and drove for about 6 hours to Clinton, OK. Jen fell asleep in the car and her head was hanging all funny. I am glad she didn't get a crick. We stayed at Econo-Lodge and it was fine. Clean rooms. However, the free breakfast was unappealing to say the least. The star of the show was what appeared to be a self-serve waffle bar but the waffles tasted like a slightly burnt marshmallow. I took one bite and trashed it.

Day 2. Jen took the wheel and we left Clinton and headed West at around 8. We stopped for lunch in Tucumcari, NM and ate at the Kix on 66 as recommended by Trip Advisor (hereafter known as TA.) I've yet to be let down by TA. Jen had a burrito and I had the tacos but everything looked damn tasty.
From Tucumcari we drove straight through to Chaco Canyon via Albuquerque the up 550 North. I took over driving in Cuba, NM when we stopped for gas and groceries.  Chaco is about 20 miles down dirt roads just which you access just South of Nagezzi. We finally got to Chaco about 530. A very long day on the road.

Day 3. We hiked Chaco in the morning then headed to Moab. We took the route through Durango then we took 184 West to 491. We arrived in Moab around 430.

Day 4. MOAB, UT. We explored the town and mingled around at the arts festival going on in the park for most of the day. We tried the Moab Brewery and then returned to Castle Valley Inn and went for a bike ride around Castle Valley. We then had dinner at Red Cliff Lodge overlooking the Colorado River.

Day 5. Moab. We hiked Negro Bill's Canyon in the morning which is about 4.5 miles roundtrip. Then we went to Arches National Park and toured through the park seeing several sights and making the hike up to Delicate Arch.

Moab, UT Travel Plans

Been doing a little planning for Moab.

Things to do/see:

1 night camp and next day explore in Chaco Canyon
Little Wild Horse Canyon - 2.5 hr drive + 3 hour or so trip up LWH and back down same path.
Lasalle Mtn Loop Drive
Fisher Towers
Dewey Suspension Bridge

1/2 Day Arches hike Devils Garden Trail to Landscape Arch. Also see Delicate Arch
1/2 Mtn biking in Dead Horse.

More TBD

Well, this little blogging project isn't going as smoothly as I thought it would. We went to Lafe this weekend for a visit. It was okay, same ole, same ole.

Did some fishing at the pond with Caden. We cleaned out the old 2 person fishing pontoon and paddled around a bit. It has a slow leak in the left pontoon so not too good for an extended float. We caught a 3ish pound catfish but struck out the rest of the day. I'm not interested in fishing for bream but there are a ton of those in the pond.

Caden and I also took the jeep out towards lake ashbaugh but chickened out when it started to sprinkle. It's been raining all weekend but supposed to clear out tomorrow just in time for work. Yay!

Mom, dad, Justin, and Mack are all down at the gulf. One of these days I'm going to get back to Orange Beach. Maggie sent a couple good pictures of them in Alexandria. She is very pregnant. I hope they have a boy because the girl name they have picked out is Winter. Hmmmm.

Also, going to drive a Miata tomorrow, might pick it up if I can get the right price.

Jen and I are getting excited about Moab. Looking forward to the trip.

Getting new posts going

So, I've decided I'm going to start doing some blogging again. I'm out of the social media game, frankly I can't stand it at all. However, I'd like to have something to catalogue my experience for posterity. Maybe some day someone will find what I have written here to be of interest.

Had a great weekend so far. Saturday, 3/14/15, I met Justin and Jon Mulligan bright and early at Kyle's to do some kayaking. The weather was grey and drizzly all day. We originally planned to put onto the river at Ponca around 10 but Justin somehow managed to get his truck stuck on the mountain. Dad also got his truck stuck trying to pull him out. As a result we didn't get on the water till closer to Noon.

What a great day for floating though. I borrowed Jon's 10 ft dagger, Justin had his Jackson, and Jon paddled his 6 ft white water boat. Ponca to Steel Creek was probably a 30 minute float, water was really moving.

We stopped after Jim's Bluff to hike up to Hemmed In Falls. It was absolutely rushing. The spray alone would soak you from 30 feet away. I got a bunch of pictures with a crappy little disposable camera that I'll need to upload.

Also ran into Jared Watts out on the river. Good guy. He was out messing around with some other folks.

I bought this new tent to take with me, I really wanted a 2 person technical tent because our big tent is  a hassle to set-up and break down just for a quick trip. I bought what I though was a No Limits 2 person tent but it turns out they put more than one kind of tent in the same box. I wound up with the smallest 1 person tent I've ever seen. My sleeping pad and sleeping bag exactly fit in the tent. Oh well, I going to keep it for me and get one of the Bear Grylls quick up dome tents for Jen and I to use on short trips. You can't ever have too much camping gear right. Right????

We played a few tunes on Sat night before getting shut down by the Rangers at 830. Getting ridiculous down there but it is what it is. As more and more people visit every year they have to enforce the rules very strictly and I would rather they keep it that way as opposed to letting a bunch of drunks win the day.

Got home just in time to watch Arkansas lose to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament Championship game.

Perfect Fall Day

Well today was the nicest fall day we have had yet. High 50's, sunny, and slightly breezy. Jen and I decided to take a trip to Prairie Grove and check out the Civil War battlefield there. Mostly, we just wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the sunshine. We circled back through Lake Wedington and walked around there a bit as well. Overall, it was lovely.

Pics:

Yours truly


Jen in front of a cool chimney that used to be part of a mill. It's 55 ft tall and weight 200,000 lbs.


View of the battlefield. The ridgeline in the background is typical of the Ozark landscape. The colors this year haven't reached their vibrant peak due to an over-abundance of rain.


One more of Jen:


Bye!

What the HAIL??

What the hell, hail, whatever?!? August 5, 2009, the day the craziest hail storm I have ever seen descended on our little neighborhood. That's $4700 in damage to the Honda E, $6600 in damage to the Mazda 6, and a new roof on the house. You might ask why the cars aren't in the garage. And that would be a reasonable question. We just had new flooring put in our house and our garage was full of furniture and other crap. Nice timing.




The glass-like material composing the table top is impervious to your puny munitions.













This is the closest of the bigger pieces I could reach. One of our neighbors tried to run out and cover his truck and took a couple icy shots to the head. It was amusing if nothing else.

Also, it should be noted that my hands are very large and manly, some might even say ape-like. Just to give some extra context to the size of the hailstone.









Seriously it looked like snow ---------->
I took a shot of my neighbor's yard but it didn't turn out too well.











Too bad this guy wasn't there. We could have just had a party.

Cancun, Life, et al

So, Jen and I just got back from a lovely week in Cancun. It was much needed, especially for Jen who has been working like a...well...really busy attorney I guess. Me,it seems that I have an uncanny knack to work a 40 hour week no matter how much crap gets piled on me. Either that or I'm going to get fired. Just kidding, I'm just that good.

Anyway, we got into Cancun on 8/22 after a very, very early 6AM flight out of XNA. Overall the trip down wasn't bad. Going through immigration and customs in Cancun is pure torture and takes forever, especially when you've been up since 3AM.

Once we arrived at the resort it was all worth it. We stayed at Secrets Silversands; which is fantastic. 24 hour room service, fantastic restaurants, and top-shelf liquors in all the bars. Needless to say, we barely ventured out of the resort and the most stressful part of the day was deciding which pool to post up at for the day; or, possibly, the mentally taxing exercise of deciding between "drink of the day" or ad hoc'in'it, <-I just made up a new word, I think. We did venture into Cancun for a shopping excursion which ended in sprawling mall. Yay! A mall! But I did pick up some really nice tequila for cheap. Enough gibberish, how bout some pics!!













This is a picture of a bed, with a loveseat in background, and also a sliding door leading out to the balcony.


This picture is from our room's balcony. This pool was pretty laid back and never had more than about 10 or 15 people in it. It wrapped all the way around the spa is a giant horseshoe shape.The little pool just above is the aqua therapy pool that is part of the spa.







Main inside bar area taken from the lobby. This was pretty early in the morning. Also, the other half of the room is on the right and it was too big to get it all in the picture.









Jen and I going out for dinner. I think we went to Portofino that night. 5 course Italian restaurant. Jen had a rack of lamb and I had osso buco.











Photo of the main pool area where my boy Daniel kept the mojitos coming. Even though gratuities are included in the resort price, a few extra bucks here and there really helps with the quick drink service. Also, he kept finding "extra" drinks at the bar. Surely just a coincidence.

Overall, the poolside staff was really good considering the amount of ground they covered and someone was around every 10-15 minutes to see if we needed anything.

The little cabana on the left is the main beach bar. You can't tell from the pic but there is a swim up bar on both sided of the pool. The structure above the pool houses two outdoor restaurants.

Also, I appreciate the complementary robes, but I wish they came in adult sizes. There may or may not have been some tape involved in this photograph.
















My Baby, looking cute. We went to Himitsu. Excellent Japanese food, definitely my favorite.


















We took a tour of a replica of a tequila factory. As the saying goes, when in Rome, act like a moron. So, we did. At least the plastic donkey got a brief reprieve from his lifetime as a simulacra representative of man's struggle against nature.

And also there were free samples. Many free samples.





Post samples. I have no idea what this gentleman's name was or what we talked about but he was really nice and knew a lot about tequila. And he was pretty funny too.

Too bad I had to squish his head!! <- Does anyone else remember Kids in the Hall?

I could think of at least 3 or 4 hilarious subtitles to this picture but I'll leave it to the peanut gallery...And seriously he's not very tall.









That's all for now. Can't wait to go back!!

beer brewing debacle #1

http://jackson-angus.blogspot.com/2009/05/brewhouseharrisducharm.html

Brad's wife Christal stole my thunder and put the story on their blog first. And she spelled my name wrong.

Anyway, read the post in the link and you can see a bunch of grown men with college degrees and professional jobs act like 8 year olds. The blood was mine as a carboy basically exploded in my hands. No stitches or anything, my hand were really pruny (and my blood was likely significantly thinned by the alcohol content) so I did bleed quite a bit. Luckily Brad's wife is a registered nurse so she patched me up quickly so I could get back to work.

Don't be alarmed if you don't know what the hell she is talking about from time to time. She's Austraylyarn, or something like that based on the phonetic spelling of how she pronounces it. They just recently moved back to the US after living in Aussie / Tasmania for about 7 years.

updates and stuff

So, I realize I probably owe some people a bunch of pictures.

Since my last post (the ice one) we've had quite a few adventures and hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get into some details.

In the meantime, I've been to 2 bachelor parties, 3 weddings (participated in 2), still working on the house, and trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up.

My hetero-life mate Brad and I are considering opening a micro-brewery / self-brew establishment here in Fayetteville. Only problem is that we don't know how to brew beer!!! But, we're learning.

Jen is working really hard right now and has over 270 clients, she's my retirement policy.

Last weekend we spent the day on Beaver Lake with our friends that have a really nice 32' party boat. We plan on doing a lot of that this summer and bringing a tan with us when we go to Mexico in August.

Here's a link to my flickr page for some pictures of Dave and Courtney's rehearsal dinner / church and some other random pictures around Eureka Springs plus a whole lot of other pictures of events and friends. If you can't access it I may have to add you because I have the security enabled. Just email me. http://www.flickr.com/photos/26372516@N08/

In the meantime, here's a picture of me (left) the aforementioned Brad (blue shirt) and his brother Matt partying in Matt's ski boat on last Friday, June 19. Yeah, I know, who parties in a boat in a driveway? Well, I guess the answer is obvious plus we were slammed on some Belgian Tripple that we had just finished brewing and the boat has Sirius so we were listening to Hair Nation. Hopefully, I'll be doing some wakeboarding and tubing with Matt / Brad this summer as well. Enjoy!

Working from home. I could get used to this

Pajamas. Unshaven. Unshowered. Laptops X 2, ipod w/ beastie boys-- > High Plains Drifter
gettin' my numberz on dawg.

All this snow weather has me depressed so here's some happier, sunny pictures:

Steel Creek in 2006.


The Clinton Library July of 2007. Hot as balls that day. @100 degrees.



Pops at the "Shablet" (Shack / Cabin / Chalet)


Fishing at Kyle's Landing on the Buffalo, getting my usual luck on this river. CRAP!



Opening day at Reynolds Razorback Stadium Fall 2008. Over 70,000 on hand to watch us squeak by Western Illinois. That's okay, brighter days are ahead in the Bobby Petrino era.



Mmmm, Pat's smoked chicken at the tailgate. He can smoke some mean meat.



Hey Ladies! Courtney, Elizabeth (our very own CA transplant), Jen, and Jenn.


Justin and Dave, locked into a mean game of washers.

What's its all about in the South in the fall. SEC football, tailgates, cold beer, and good friends.



Here you go. Enjoy.

Ice Storm 2009

So, I haven't been exactly diligent in updating the ole' blog but that's just because I'm on a computer all day 5 days a week. As it happens, right now we are in the middle of the biggest ice storm here in a decade and the plant where I work is on day 3 without power so I don't really have anything else going on. Fortunately, Jen and I do have power where we live. Right now in Northwest Arkansas there are over 100,000 homes without electricity. David, Courtney, their 3 dogs, and our friend Sam stayed here last night and we made a big pot of chili and just lazed around.

The top left picture is a view of our street on Tuesday. The picture directly left is about a block away on Wednesday, notice that the streets are actually pretty clear. Up top is our front yard, and our tree that eventually lost about half of its larger branches. We are really sad about that because the ornamental cherries make really pretty flowers in the spring. Hopefully it will survive. What's amazing is that the icing really could have been much worse had the temperature been about 5 degrees colder on Monday & Tuesday.

David and Courtney live right on the edge of one of the historic districts in Fayetteville and their neighborhood suffered extensive damage due to the abundance of really large and beautiful hardwoods (also very old) in the area. I'll try to remember to get some of Courtney's pictures and post them on here as well. They were lucky that their house didn't sustain any damage but Courtney car had limb fall on it and their backyard (about 1/2 acre) looks like a bomb went off.

The below picture is a weeping willow.



One of my neighbor's very pretty oak trees, splintered like twigs.



On the road to Embassy Suites in Rogers where Jen's boss set up a temporary office / living quarters for the firms employees that lost power. Hard to tell in the picture, but every tree is broken in some place or on the ground.



Jen left her briefcase in her trunk and I had to beat the ice off with a hammer handle to get it out.



One more shot a couple blocks away!!!




Bye!

Madeira Chicken: Courtesy of Uncle Mark!!

<--- Marc, in an Ozark Cafe apron no less.

This recipe is awesome. Not for the calorie conscious, come on you losers! Live a little!

Also, if you want off the "auto notification of new post list" just email and I'll consider your request in the order received before summarily denying your right not to be spammed by my stream of consciousness blogging/intarwebz grafitteezz. Ha Ha! I win, you lose!

MADEIRA CHICKEN

3-4 SHALLOTS

1 LB CRIMINI MUSHROOMS

4 LARGE HALF CHICKEN BREASTS

KOSHER SALT

BLACK PEPPER

1.5 CUPS MADEIRA WINE

BUTTER (OR BUTTER AND OLIVE OIL MIX)

HEAVY CREAM (1 PT.)

FRESH PARSLEY

IN A LARGE SKILLET SAUTE FINELY CHOPPED SHALLOTS TILL TRANSLUCENT AND ADD SLICED MUSHROOMS

TAKE CHICKEN BREASTS, CLEAN AND DRY AND PLACE IN FLOUR WITH SALT AND PEPPER AND SHAKE TILL DUSTED.

WHEN MUSHROOMS ARE WELL ALONG ADD CHICKEN BREASTS TO SKILLET AND SAUTE TO BROWN THEM. YOU MAY NEED TO ADD MORE BUTTER OR OIL, KEEP HEAT MEDIUM TO MEDIUM LOW TO KEEP THE CHICKEN FROM STICKING TO THE PAN. WHEN BROWNED ON BOTH SIDES MIXTURE SHOULD BE HOT AND BUBBLY.

NOW POUR IN MADEIRA WINE TO FLAMBE AND IGNITE WITH A BUTANE LIGHTER OR LARGE MATCH BEING CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOURSELF!

WHEN THE FLAME IS OUT ADD YOUR HEAVY CREAM AND ALLOW TO HEAT UP AGAIN.

ALLOW TO REDUCE SLOWLY TO FINISH CHICKEN. TASTE PERIODICALLY AND ADD SALT, PEPPER OR EVEN MORE MADEIRA TO TASTE. ALLOW SAUCE TO THICKEN WITHOUT BREAKING AND IF NECESSARY ADD SOME HALF AND HALF TO EXPAND IF GETTING TO THICK. SAUCE WILL HAVE A SWEET SMOKEY FLAVOR MUCH LIKE THE WINE ITSELF.

WHEN CHICKEN IS DONE ALLOW TO REST BRIEFLY AND SERVE ON EITHER ANGEL HAIR PASTA, RICE OR MASHED POTATOES. SPRINKLE CHOPPED PARSLEY ON TOP BEFORE SERVING.

APARAGUS IS THE PERFECT VEGETABLE FOR THIS MEAL

PARBOIL ASPARAGUS TILL BARELY COOKED, WATCH FOR COLOR CHANGE IN THE WATER AND THEN QUICKLY REMOVE AS IT SHOULD STILL HAVE A CRUNCH TO IT. NOW IN A SAUTE PAN ADD ABOUT A TBLS OR SO OF BUTTER AND MELT. ADD DRAINED PAR-BOILED ASPARAGUS AND SAUTE ON HIGH HEAT BY ROLLING THE ASPARAGUS IN THE MELTED BUTTER, ADD SALT AND BLACK PEPPER AND CONTINUE TO ROLL ASPARAGUS NO MORE THAN ABOUT 45 SECONDS, REMOVE AND SERVE IMMEDIATELY AS A SIDE DISH.

Funny pictures and funny people.

So, what's been going on lately? Que paso...?

Well, Jen and I have been working on the home improvement project that never ends in an effort to sell our house and move. We've already bumped the list date twice and it just seems like we'll never be done. Weekend after weekend of this crap....I've missed so many opportunities to get on the river or lake that I can scarcely keep track of them all. Next summer, I resolve, to be outside every other weekend. Weather permitting.

Resolution 2. I need a scanner, pronto.

Okay, now on to some funny pics of funny people:

We'll start with this picture of Jen from our honeymoon, which, is funny to me because she is trying to back-out of going up in the seaplane in the background for a glacier tour. Sissy. We went, it was cool, the pilots were slightly wacko.















Next:
I have no idea who this is, but he looks like a cool guy to hang out with.















This picture probably deserves a blog entry of its very own, but I'm just glad no one died or went to jail that night. Yes, it is in fact, a chevy cavalier made into a racecar.
















Mitch + Beer = Violence. I'm pretty sure John Nash has an unfinished theorem on the matter. I guess if I had to live in Denver and freeze my "boyz" off 8.5 months a year, I'd be more prone to violence as well.















Mix Master, Mix Faster.
Dave, from Justin and Jenny's wedding reception:















Yeah, get some, I just took a whiz on a civil war battlefield in Missouri.















and STFU about my beer gut or your lawn is next.

The night before my wedding, partying at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs. I don't know how we didn't get kicked out.



The End, for now:

White River, Elkins to Goshen

Paddled the White on Saturday. It was a pretty nice float, the water is still high. In a couple months it may not be passable unless you want to portage half of it. No thanks.

Saw tons of fish, caught none as usual. I did catch a pretty good buzz though. The new kayak was not too bad, need to remember to raise the skeg in the rapids as that causes the ass end to spin around coming out of the rapids. Watson dumped the kayak once thanks to his smooth paddling skills as he turned us right in front of the canoe and we got t-boned by Pat and Randy.

Apparently we weren't the first group to take that float as someone had built a rock formation on an island and scrawled "Welcome to Penis Island" on a big flat rock.

The whole trip was about 5 hours. Lots of wide, deep pools to paddle through and not a lot of current.

I'd like to do it again and take a whole day to try to catch some fish.

Orange Beach, AL: August 2007

I love the Gulf. I love the white sand beaches. I love the salty-ass water because I can float without a raft. I love the food, shout out to Joe Patti's. I love Pina Colada's. I love dumb beach people that have skin like leather. Mostly, I love that it's not Mexico. That's a story for another time and assuming I ever get the pics put on disk, I'll cover MexSucko as well.

The condo:


Dad doing what he does best. Not catching shit! I think his favorite hobby was to get out to the beach earlier than everyone else, get drunk before everyone else, and then go back to the condo and leave all his crap for me to carry. Actually, he only did it like half-a-dozen times so maybe I'm not being completely fair by calling it a "hobby."


Courtney spent at least half a day on this sand castle.

Burn baby burn! We were all cooked by the end of the week.


I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a tourist picture. These shark heads were at the entrance to some overpriced, crappy market.


I can't wait to go back!