All Things Rowdy

Tonight we had an activity planned that was kind of a open class pine wood derby for adults. Normally they are kind of a regimented thing with rules and such for kids who are Cub Scouts. If you're not familiar you take a rectangle of pine and carve saw or sand it into some sort of semi-automotive shape. Pound on some wheels with nails and then race them down a track, everything powered by gravity. The traditional rules limit what you can do, the size and weight of the car and so on. For our activity we limited the cars to 12" in length and 5.5oz and made out of the traditional pine wood block. Other than that, go for it! We had snacks, an electric starting gate, ribbons and a double elimination bracket so everyone got to race a few times. We had a few young kids and a handful of adults. There were people to race and everyone was into it. Now I spent about 3 hours making 3 different cars. And I also spent about 2 hours setting the track and such up. My friend AK showed up to ju...

This picture is my new wall paper. London in July.....gotta love it. (next year will be Rio in July!!) I also built three pine wood derby cars for the race this Saturday! And I had solid food for two meals in a row today!! Pizza for lunch and california burrito for dinner. Jiu jitsu class today went great, took two other purple belt's backs and was able to work my game. Today was really clicking for me, my game was on! Fabio said I could start teaching privates if I want now as well. I drove out to Dulzura to check out a potential new mountain bike trail and got skunked. No good. But it was fun to drive off road in the truck, sliding around with the throttle through the dirt. New grips were put on the supermoto as well, super cool looking white ones. Drove the Porsche around for my morning errands and doctor appointment. And I looked good. I gotta say, today was a good day!

overcast and cool here today in "sun diego"

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Back in 2008 I was big into trail running. I was a founding member of the San Diego Dirt Devils trail running club out of the San Diego Running Institute. I also ran a few races with the San Diego Track Club (SDTC) in their Dirt Dog Series. I was working on running a XC 5k in under 20 minutes. In my interval training I was able to run a 800m in 3:00. I was in over my head but I was really enjoying the competition and working to improve. Plus I just like playing in the dirt. This year the SDTC is running a strong 8 race trail running series, the Dirt Dog Series. It starts August 21st and all of the races are on Saturdays with the from 5k to 10k in distance with races in between. Lots of current college racers and people who are "runners"! Like I said, a tough time but fun for a quick recreational runner with no history as a runner. Depending on when this enevitable surgery for Crohns happens, I would like to run as many of these races as possible to take the place of not being...

I am going back to my first day of work in a month tomorrow.... Will I even remember what to do?? I'm surprised I still have a job, but I am thankful for it!! ps-that's me winning the trike race at Trek World Days in San Diego, 2009.

I went to high school to eat lunch and be with my friends. That was about it. But as soon as high school was over I stopped being friends with those people and moved away and NEVER went back or looked back. Doing a little facebook stalking this morning I learned my high school reunion was this past weekend. From looking at the pictures I am soo glad I did not go! Insipid, vapid, fat are just some of the first words that come to mind. Some people never change. Some do. I am glad I have changed and am gone! For those of you out there who think high school is/are/were the best years of your life, I feel sorry for you.

Well I may not have the big photo extravaganza up yet from my recent trip to Europe, but I did find a few pics on my cell phone. So here are some teasers pics. Tower Bridge, Kennsington Gardens, the Pantheon and others. Enjoy! And as soon as Jeweled Malicious Barbie mails me a couple photo CDs I will edit them down from 2,000 pictures to 40 and post them here. Deal?

Well, my GI doctor has finally said surgery is more of a chance than not now. We both feel that I am inexorably moving towards it. My flare ups are just happening more frequently and despite whatever medications I am on (Pentasa, Remicade, Prednisone). Of course the main concern is that I only have 220cm of small bowel left. When a person reaches less than 200cm of small bowel they have crossed the line into having a short bowel syndrome, then also crossing the line into being on total parenatal nutrition (TPN) for the rest of your "life". (remember how he said this would make me a "nutritional cripple"?) Chances are you will be seeing more pictures like this before the summer is out: But as my GI doctor and I were talking and thinking out loud he said, "You know you keep having this flare in the same spot. It's not really like this spot is doing you any good right now. From the images it looks to be only about 5cm. So if we did cut it out you probably woul...

I liked how I looked yesterday. So I took a pic. And now you're looking at it!

Long before jiu jitsu, even before mountain biking, I was in love with motorcycles. And Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Motorcycle road racing has been the one sport I have followed and loved to watch as a fan for longer than any other in my life. I love it. This weekend is the USGP up at Laguna Seca. Later the last weekend of August in the Indy round of MotoGP. Throw in the Miller round of WSBK in Utah and I get to enjoy the "super bowl" as it were three times in a year! How great is that? Oh yeah, and I have been to each of these races, Laguna, Indy and Miller! Along with a special trip to Sepang in Malaysia last year for a MotoGP race. I have got to say I am just giddy. I absolutely can not wait till Sunday and am going crazy between like 5 different websites each day trying to get the absolute latest rumors and information. And to join in the fun and merriment here is Yamaha's ad for this weekend. Love it! ps- my dream podium for the MotoGP race would include both Ros...

In my whole life I have only trained jiu jitsu in the US, and in that time only in 4 different states. I started at a traditional Japanese ju jutsu school in Oregon then discovered Brazilian jiu jitsu and started going to a Gracie Training Association up in Salem Oregon. From there I started training with some guys in a garage in Yuma Arizona who were affiliated with Fabio Santos. Once in a while I would also train at an off shoot from Pedro Sauer in Utah when visiting family. And now I train at Fabio's main academy near my home in San Diego California. But I think like everyone who is in love with bjj I dream of training in Brazil for a month or two. Especially now that I am a purple belt and can appreciate all of what I would learn. I may be the crappiest purple belt in the world, but I would still like to get better at bjj and maybe be the second crappiest purple belt in the world. So in preparing for this last vacation I got on the webz and looked around to see where there was...

Went to the hospital yesterday for a regular treatment and ended up staying a little extra due to how I am feeling. I had emailed my GI doctor earlier in the day and he was aware of how I felt and suggested doing the same things we have done already this year in a bid to what now sounds like delay surgery, rather than out and out prevent it. After a quick history of how I've been feeling and a physical exam I was given an IV does of corticosteroids and a 1 liter bolus of fluids. I had been tapering off the prednisone at home, down to 5mg per day but that has now been bumped up to 40mg per day. We both agree that long term usage of prednisone is not the way to go. Especially as I already have a big of bone mass loss because of it. And some of the other side effects as well. And since I am already taking Remicade and Pentasa there really isn't much more I can do pharmacologically. Now I am home, told to rest, only have clear liquids, continue all my regular medications but increa...

San Pietro's or St. Peter's was completed in 1626 or so. Notice the tile on the floor? The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber was shown to the public in 1997, over 300 years later. Notice its shape? What other secrets are they hiding? Hmmmmm. I think Dan Brown and Dale Brown have some explaining to do......

Salt Lake City, Utah. July 3,4,5,16,17 -amazing dinner -SLC Bee's baseball game with super fireworks -very windy -getting skunked on an African Ice, twice! -amazing collection of homemade desserts, all red white and blue -forgetting my drivers license and credit card at my parent's, but realizing it in time to have them deliver it to me at the airport -swimming and hot tubbing London, England. July 6,7,8,9,15 -running, yes running, at 430am to an ATM to get pounds to pay for the car service -Hyde and Kennsington Parks -Buckingham Palace -riding the London Eye, the tallest "Ferris wheel" in the world -English 'food' -training at Roger Gracie Academy -Tower of London. And getting chosen to work the catapult thingy during a demonstration of medieval arms -'hop on-hop off' style bus tour of London -watching the weird stuff on BBC and Sky -Victoria and Albert everything -National Museum of Natural History -Tower Bridge -realizing I have fashion sense -Trafa...

So long for a while my blog world. I am off to Europe!!!!!! See ya again July 20th.

Meerkatsu gets the nod for having the most expensive BJJ belt in the world but I am going to fight for second. Getting my purple belt this year was something I didn't think would happen. So being somewhat of a secret show off, I felt like celebrating with a fancy belt. This is a Lucky Gi belt, size A1, that I took to an embroidery shop near the academy. It was $25 at the OTM store in PB. The shop then charged me $18 for my name on one end and the initials of my BJJ motto on the end where the stripes go. It may be a little showy, but I like it! And it forces me to back it up. And $50 is a small price to pay to be unique!

Delicious!! And the one in Kennsington area is only 5 minutes away. www.burgerlounge.com Stadium Pizza in Temecula is pretty dang good post mnt bike ride food as well!