Today was round two of the Great Remodeling Project. With the help of my good buddies and I was able to hang the valence that has been sitting for months (Tasha helped pick it out so I know she’ll like it) and re-hang the curtains with the decorative brass curtain rod that we also bought […]

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My lovely wife is away to her Longaberger Basket Convention (heretoafter referred as The Bee) and I have been planning a surprise. Without realizing it, she actually planted the seeds for this surprise herself with an off the cuff remark about our bedroom one Saturday afternoon. We were in the car driving to Wal-Mart and […]

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I almost ditched on this mornings workout. My Dad called to tell me he wasn’t going to be there, is still in Texas, and Sensei Brewer is in Chicago. The only reason I went is that Tasha was already awake and was already in his gi when I called. Garls-san and Raleigh were the only […]

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I guess the “seek and ye shall find” adage is alive and well… tonights workout was kata for the first class and more kata for the second class. Oedewaldt-san broke us out into groups to help teach kata, and I got the two purple belts (my Dad and Dobbleaire-san). That left Jerry-san left over, so […]

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As previously mentioned, I had formulated a class based on the “deep dive” concept that Sensei Brewer had put forth to McCabe-san and Garls-san last night. I took one of my favorite techniques, side thrust kick, and decided to put my own personal slant on it. My end goal was twofold… improve the general quality […]

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Tuesday night’s class was taught by the gruesome twosome of Garls-san and McCabe-san. They did a fantastic job, even though poor Garls-san got kind’ve tongue tied and turned a little purplish before McCabe-san ponied up the leg/hip pain. We’ve all been there, it is really unnerving to teach and know that Sensei’s watching and all […]

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My basement is no longer partially underwater, thanks to the friendly neighborhood RooterMan (da daaaa!) and the fine folks at Prestige Home Warranties. The RooterMan’s visit was quite short and to the point. He went down there, thanked me for warning him of the pool of toxins that I had poured in there, and proceeded […]

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Tonight we went to Wal-Mart in search of a quick fix to our basement drain problem. We asked the wizened old toothless man that was working at Wal-Mart for something to unstop a basement drain. He took me to the industrial chemicals aisle. The bottle we settled on was “Main Line Cleaner” and was in […]

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Come ’round, friends… for I have a story to tell. It begins with my lovely wife’s frustration at our newly acquired dishwasher. It seems that nothing we could do would affect the compentency of the dishwasher. Not the soap, the load size, the settings… so Tasha did what any man could not: consulted the manual. […]

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This Saturday brought much goodness in the fact that Sensei Brewer decided to join us. We did some kata, basics, Sochin (several times, w00t!), and topped it all off with some sparring. Matt and I sparred a bit earlier in the day, each of us proceeded to do several 1d2 points of damage to each […]

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