Sometimes it's better to be lucky than skilled.

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 just watch but then decided to go home and get his kit he hadn't even started on and just race anyway. So he left it in the shape of a block. Added weight to the maximum, pounded on his wheels and WON THE WHOLE THING!! Beating my other friend GB who had made the most beautifully shaped derby car I have ever seen.

Though the turn out was a little lighter than I thought it would be and I kinda stressed over the preparation for it, things all turned out fun in the end. I think everyone who came when home happy. Or at least with a sugar buzz. And I have my plan for next year already.........

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!

Today's Look

overcast and cool here today in "sun diego"

Freebie!!!!

If you are interested in a free 30 minute introduction to Ginastica Natural, then please email me or leave a comment. I am offering this to the first 5 people who do!!

Check out the website and let me know! Weekdays during the day are normally when I can do this unique fitness service for you.

www.GinasticaNatural.com

It's a hope, but we will see......

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 able to race any mountain bike races this summer. But if I get surgery around the end of August or first of September I will probably not be able to run any of them. Just have to wait and see what happens.....................

(I also want to do the MCRD boot camp challenge the end of September)

Work? What's that?

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.

Hated it

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.

EU cell pics....

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?

Guts

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 wouldn't even notice a decrease in your quality of life afterward any way." This is a veiled way of saying we hope I wouldn't have to be on TPN after this surgery. Hope.

This was nice to hear. I felt much more at peace with this probable eventuality. I mean, something could go crazy and this flare up could go away and not come back but we both doubt that is what is going to happen. We will give it the chance one more time though, just in case.

We talk again Tuesday. I will tell him the surgeon I have picked so that I might consult with him, rather than forcing him to see me in an emergent setting. Get a good game plan and a relationship started ahead of time.

There you have it. You know as much as I do. (but I haven't blogged about the endocrinologist and my testosterone. that is a wwwwhhhooolllleee other medical story. ugh) My diet is still primarily liquids. I can have bites of what is considered "low residue" foods, and I have to admit to kind of pushing that lately.

Again, thank you all for your prayers and thoughts and considerations. I've signed up for the half marathon in December in Las Vegas to benefit the Crohns Foundation of America. (my goal is under 1:45) I've applied for a job that I am very favored for, though the timing of this surgery could throw a big wrench into it.... My jiu jitsu is getting better each time I roll. It has been decided I am going to Brazil next year to train for a few weeks and do the International Masters and Seniors World Championships. There are good things going on in life and rough things going on in life.

But I am still alive!!! And fighting!!!

Chillin'

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

My "Super Bowl" is this weekend

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 Rossi and Spies.

Roger Gracie Academy, London

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 training near the flats we rented in London and Rome. Well bjj is spreading around the world so I easily found schools within just minutes of looking.

The Rome school was a bust. Their hours posted on the website never matched what happened in real life and they never returned my emails. Forget them! Which sucks because I was all riled up that day and ready to throw down. Whereas in London I was a little intimidated and really not operating at my best.
Me walking along Via Aurelia after NOT getting to do bjj in Rome.

While staying in the Kennsington area of London the RGA was just a short cab ride away. The academy was easy to spot from the outside, unlike other places I have seen where it is a struggle to notice there is actually training. They have tons of mat space and a real locker room. The only thing that really threw me is they have NO drinking fountain. You have to bring your own or buy something from a vending machine. That of course only took pound coinage. In the US you always have a drinking fountain available everywhere so I didn't take any water with me. Big mistake. I ended up drinking out of the sink in the bathroom like some sort of homeless person.

In email communications with people in London I was warned of a steep drop in fee of 18 to 25 British pounds. That didn't seem that steep to me as a one day fee is almost always $15 to $25 USD here. Even though I am not in a Bara affiliated school they let me train for free! Woot! Which is cool. Fabio seems to have a good reputation through the community and dropping that I train with him has opened doors for me at many other schools.

The running in warm up was by belt ranking but the rolls and shrimps and such across the floor were all pell mell, which threw me for a loop. Then Roger showed us two techniques and we drilled them, starting out easy and progressively adding resistance.

I was totally the odd man out. I felt like the fat girl at the nude beach, no one wanted to look at me. So I ended up getting paired with someone totally not my size, which didn't really bother me. At our school we are super encouraged to engage people from other schools but here I felt like I was getting dodged or something. Though just in talking everyone was really nice. They just didn't want to roll with the new guy is all I guess.

After one of his black belts watched us doing the positions and answering questions it was time for an hour of rolling. Rolling was done from the knees and in 5 minute rounds. A difference here too seemed to be that who you rolled with was sort of determined by belt rank. Like it started with blacks picking who they would roll with, then browns and so on all down the order. Being a purple belt meant I was normally picked up by browns or other purples for the most part. This didn't bother me at all, just different.

The brown belts I rolled with had an open, dynamic technical game. So I rolled well with them. My last roll was with Oliver Geddes and was excellent. I would loe to have him as a constant training partner. The purples I rolled with were very aggressive and applied lots of pressure, so I got worked by them. Tap! One of them gave me the Roger special, by choking me from the mount. I felt like I was back at the Mundials! The blue belts I rolled with all ended in a draw. Which is nice because I am older than all of them and smaller than all of them. They also all seemed awed that I had a purple belt with barely 3 years of training in. Maybe I did get mine a little early, but it is forcing me to grow into it quickly.

Everyone was super nice. Roger was very nice and humble, but definitely a 'presence' in the room. His black belts there were very helpful and totally considerate. You can tell this is a quality school and is going to create excellent practitioners of bjj. If you are into BJJ and in London, I would totally recommend you stop by and do it!

You can't know sweet without tasting bitter.

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 increase my does of prednisone to 40mg. And wait. And watch. And see what happens. This is where I now am at.

When I was texting in sick to work at the bike shop from the hospital my boss said something back about how sucky this all is. In that moment I fully agreed, my life does totally suck. Then I realized though how many times he and others have told me how awesome of a life they think I lead. So which is it?

It is both. I happen to think on the line of horrible to amazing, if graphed would look like an inverse bell curve for my life. Whereas I think the general population has more events in the middle and less at either end.

I realize though this is needed. You can't have good without bad, light without dark, sweet without bitter. Life should be balanced and there has to be opposition in all things. Not opposition defined as someone or something actively opposing you trying to defeat your goals but opposition in the yin and yang sense.

This has to be. It is what it is. Do I wish I never had to deal with my Crohns disease again? Totally!! For my life, dealing with it happens to be a requirement. While it may bring some temporary darkness to my mood and thoughts, it also helps sharpen my appreciation of the good things. The great things. Things in this case being the people in my life and the experiences I have living.

So reader, don't fret or worry about me. Appreciate the great things in you life. Use what is bitter to focus on the better. That is what I am doing. And it is good, so try it!

Secrets of the Vatican

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......

And this is what I did for my summer vacation...

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
-Trafalgar Square
-eating and shopping at Harrod's
-drinking the nastiest 'soda' in the world, burdock and dandelion
-hearing "yah" at the end of every freaking sentence
-dealing with an annoying Sky Marshall on one flight

Rome and Naples, Italy. July 9,10,11,12,13,14,15
-Ferrari shoes and 3 euro oversize sunglasses
-no AC, no TV, no internet, no hot water, no shower curtain. no matter!!
-Colosseo
-Pantheon
-San Pietro's
-two different catacombs
-Vatican City
-realizing I have no fashion sense
-pizza, everyday
-getting lost walking
-spending 80 minutes to get to church and getting there as it ends
-going to BJJ in Rome but having it be closed
-the stunning Vatican Museo and Sistine chappel
-drinking water from an aquaduct
-Circus Maximus
-finding Space Invader street art
-Pompeii
-getting proficient at the train and metro system
-Spanish steps
-Trevi fountain
-innumerable ancient buildings and churches
-Carmelite icon being removed and paraded around to much music and fanfare
-listening to Italian and answering in Spanish
-getting my hair cut in Rome
-my awesome traveling companions providing humor when one of us was tired, cranky and needed a boost
-"parkour" and "chicken bake" and "muchacho!" and "plus one for Italy"

* 2,000, yes two thousand pictures were taken this trip so you will just have to wait a week for them to be all sorted out and then posted.

Bon chance mes amis, buena suerte mis amigos!!

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

The 2nd Most Expensive BJJ Belt In The World

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!

Burger Lounge & etc

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!