and baby makes three

C and I went to a shower today for some friends of my son. They are due in about 10 days. The gifts were to be books as she is an English teacher. Of course, I did have to make a quilt but we also included a book. Here is the front and back of the quilt...

The book we gave is Mother Earth and Her Children - it is an old story that a quilter memorialized in an amazing and award winning quilt that she made in rememberance of her son.

Today was a VERY hot day. As I remember it, their wedding was on a VERY hot day. I do hope for her that the rest of her pregnancy days are not so hot.

Anyway, I would post pictures of her and the quilt, but she did not open her gifts at the shower. Must be a generational thing.

apropos of nothing in particular

This is a ridiculous picture

wallballs

are so much harder than they look.

Mom's Day

This is C & her daughter L.

This is O & her daughter N.

I gave these framed pictures to them for Mother's Day. The dresses were for Easter when C and O were in kindergarten and first grade. I had put them away in my hope chest. This year they fit the grands.

reefer art

At one time in my life, I sold tvs and appliances - I did not break any sales records, but I did learn that, in the biz, refrigerators were called reefers (a term I was already quite familiar with anyway but, of course, in a much different context, time and place). My reefer today...

Of course, the ubiquitous list,

with the always effective memory tool:

Put all together and it looks like this.....

shirt speak

a standard, but it works

I almost took this guy on, just to show him how tough a mom

(not to mention a grandmom) can be

only drug I take

I saw this guy work out,

the beer, green or otherwise, had absolutely NO ill effects...

Some days...

I don't get it?!?!?!?

My fav

CrossFit Qualifiers

Yesterday, I went to the CrossFit Qualifiers which are the preliminary heats to qualify for the CrossFit games that are in July. Two people from my gym entered. JD and Justin.

This is JD (after the first workout)

This is Justin (Before the first Workout)

Both are great athletes. JD works out with his fiance, Natty. Both JD and Natty are terrific people, fun to work out with and great team players.

Justin is one of the incredible trainers at CFV. More than that, he is such an awesome supporter. He is always there, teaching, coaching, urging, helping, caring and cheering. I could not have done some of the stuff that I do if it was not for Justin. It was an honor to be able to support and cheer for him for a change.

The workouts were tough. There were two workouts:

Workout A*For time (10 minute cap):

• Row 500m
• 30 Burpees
• 10 Shoulder-to-Overhead (Men: 165#, Women: 95#)

Workout B Max reps in 10 minutes of (must do 10 of each to qualify):

• Muscle-Up
• Ground-to-Shoulder (Male: 185#, Female: 105#)

Both JD and Justin represented CFV incredibly well - they both finished the first one in the time alloted. On the second, their individual strengths showed up - JD on the lifting and Justin on the Muscle-Ups. Here is a short video of Justin doing a few of the amazing number of muscle ups that he did.

Crossfit Vallejo came out in strength to support them both.

Congratulations Justin and JD!!!

choices - eat or spread swine

Goldie says it all...

http://itsjustgoldie.vox.com/library/posts/page/1/

clean and jerk

I cleanly and probably jerkily lifted 75 pounds today. that was about 20 pounds more than when I did it in January. I tried 78 pounds but could not do it. I hate it when I miss because I start to overthink the process. Then it feels like I miss it worse, if that is possible.

Anyway, to focus on the positives - 75 was a pr* for me.

On Saturday - going to go to the Crossfit qualifiers. Justin and JD from CFV are entered. Justin has been such an incredible support and coach for me that I feel this is one way I can give just a small part back to him.

*personal record

deadly lifting

Last night, I deadlifted 175 lbs.

goats and going to London

While errand running, we came upon this ...

a gaggle of working goats - doing their best to clear off the mountain side. Wonder how they got so many of them there?

We are going to London, baby. Booked the travel...staying away 17 days!!! So looking forward to it.

running

Ran the 400 m 4 times today ... times were:

1. 2:25
2. 2.32
3. 2.24
4. 2.20

A ways to go to 1.34 but better than earlier runs which were...

1. 2:55
2. 2:58
3. 3:08
4. 2:59

So anything's possible.

This Week

seem interminably long
that was redundant
which is probably making the week longer

gustavo rosa

another artist - I have seen his work,

but it is now on my google home page so I looked for more...

here it is..

Crossfit Challenge - J and I

So here is the 6 week challenge for J and I - due date is 6/1:

Both read one month per week of articles in the CrossFit Journal and listen to CrossFit Radio

Jason:
10 handstand pushups
30 pullups - chin above the bar - can't come off the bar
2000 meter row - 7:30
10 one legged squats

Me:
10 pullups
400 m run - time 1:34
10 ring dips
perfect overhead squats - video taped

google art

If you have google as your browser,

set it so you have different themes each day -

a small thing to make life fun.

current artist - Carrie Chau

Wish you were here, Jay

CFV and CFS combined for a charity event yesterday. It made the paper...

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_12127323

the WOD was:
"Fallen Four" Tribute WOD, done in teams of 2 to 4 people:

400m Heavy Bag Team Run (80#)
20 pull ups
20 push ups
20 sit ups
20 squats
400m Heavy Bag Team Run
20 burpees
20 box jumps
20 walking lunges
20 Push Press (75#m/55#w)
400m Heavy Bag Team Run
Then repeat the first two.

a bra by any other name

A quilting group made these to promote breast cancer awareness...

Boobs in Bloom

Nursing Bra

More to see at http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm

lunch with the peeps

On Sunday, my bro, Joel, called to tell me he was getting married and moving to Tennessee. He had met someone online about a year ago, met her in person during that time, and took the leap. My sis, her huz, my niece, and another bro met them for lunch yesterday. Her name is Karen, is quite nice and seems to like him. She has two kids and lives next door to her parents in Tennessee.

He looked a bit weedy - prob from flying back to bring her here, trying to pack his apt as they were leaving that night to drive to Las Vegas to get married and then on to their final destination.

Somehow I feel Tennessee is a fit for him. The rest of us agreed afterwards that he will probably not be back.

Glad he found someone and I wish them all the happiness there is in life.

Dim Sum and City Lights

Yesterday we took a trip to SF. Thought we would take BART from Richmond, but no parking other than a shady looking lot across the street. Wonder what happens in a good economy. Parked in shady lot, got out of car and then realized it was $10 with all kinds of disclaimers re safety of possessions and self. Decided not so drove in.

Went to Chinatown to try Dim Sum. Gold Mountain on Broadway - based on say-so from neighbor/walking buddy par excellence. It was all that. Recommend baked bbq pork buns which we decided were neat sloppy joes (and, actually much better); fried (how can you go wrong) shrimp; broccoli, some other kind of shrimp in a wrapper not fried but still great. Stayed away from chicken feet, beef blood no matter how it was prepared, tripe, turtle head and some duck only because there was a picture on the wall of cooked duck with it's head still on...not sure why that is worse than headless but at the time it was. Maybe next time.

R said that, after he had said no to something on one of the carts, the cart pusher had the "I KNEW he wasn't gonna try this" look on her face.

Then walked down (or up - never knew how to differentiate) the street to City Lights booksellers. Neither one of us have ever been there and don't know why not. Bought 5 books between us and had to restrain myself at that. Bought and started reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Never read it, always wanted to, so now I am and glad.

AI Pix

Here is how I rank them after tonight's performance:

Adam Lambert
Matt Giraud
Allison Iraheta - I really like her but I am not sure that voters do
Anoop
Danny Gokey
Kris Allen
Lil Rounds
Scott MacIntyre

On vaca hey hey

Taking a week off - first one of the year and need it. Gonna hang around the house, get it in order, get finances in order, do a day trip or two with R, go to the city with the babies and their mamas, cross fit three times.

Jay - in answer to your two questions... quilt - wash very infrequently; time for Michael first time was 33.30 and this last time it was 31.20.

here is a pix I found and wish I had taken...

London Quilt

Here is a pix of the quilt I made for J and T while they were here. It is on an earlier post, but this one shows it on their actual London bed!!!

This past week....

major busy week at work... but pretty satisfying!!!

pretty busy fitness week as well...

Crossfitted 4 times - and the highlight was yesterday when I attacked Michael again and bested my time by 1 minute 20 seconds! To remind those interested...

Michael

3 rounds for time of

800 m run

50 back extensions

50 sit ups

It is one of the few WODs I can do in the prescribed way. So I am still on the board and proud of it!!!

checkitout

Here is my team crossfittin'

http://www.crossfitvallejo.com/

I took my work team to CrossFit for a team build. Li and Phil at CF gave us a private lesson and developed a WOD for us. It was great fun and everyone was a good sport about it although some kept up better than others. We went to lunch after and then we all called it a day.

I did get worried later in the day ... thinking that I may have wiped out my team in just two hours...so I called them all. I couldn't reach one in particular and got really worried as he was struggling a bit after the WOD. Anyway, he finally called me back - he had gone home and taken a nap!

They recovered and some are even interested in joining! Passin on the CF cheer.

to keep you seeing what is real

love this...

I have this rotating theme on my Google page - I would highly urge you to do this. Everytime I open it, I get something different. Today it was this one.

then and now

shoulder press...
then 44

now 53 (but coulda done more)

back squat

then 65

now 93

deadlift

then 115

now 163

like it or not

I like...

a clean car
sewing on Sunday morning
watching a good movie with my husband



I don't like...

BK commercials (so tasteless - in more ways than one - and racist)
not feeling well - not necessarily connected with the prior list item
those chas schwab cartoony people commercials

mano mano

It has been a long time since I posted...as Goldie has been quick to point out...not that she is hot and heavy with the postings either but I am accountable.

February - bit of a hectic month but not a hecka lot to show for it. I was crossfittin at a regular clip until I hit a week of travel. First week I missed since October so actually not bad at all. Back at it this past week - and last night did a grueling WOD of 5 rounds of up n back lunges while holding a 9 lb bar bell and 21 burpees. Did it in about 24 minutes which beat some of those that did it the same way. hurting tho. doesn't help that I am a bit under the weather.

I have a big week coming up... going to interviews that will get me into a program that could eventually get me into a different job (District Manager - better bonus - better pay - fewer stores -more direct leadership). That happens on Wednesday. Then Wed night I go to a dinner and Thurs to a meeting with a diversity group that I am on. At the dinner and meeting are some of the folks that will have interviewed me so if I bomb, that will be a bit uncomfortable. I am thinking it would be better not to bomb so as to avoid the uncomfortableness altogether.

will let you know.

Olivia and I at Crossfit

Saturday Olivia and I went to Crossfit -

here is what we did....
jumproap for 5 min
then in a team of three, we did
100 push presses
100 push jerks
100 burpees
for time.
we did it in a bit over 20 minutes.

we are sore today.

ran

a 5 K ..
took me 40 minutes
but I did it

a recent meeting...

me taking a break from it....

more valentines

I was looking for old fashioned valentines that were a bit more diverse ... but most were like this...

or this...

silly me, if they do exist, google has a hard time finding them. So, I thought, racy might apply...

and, while I could not satisfy everyone,

I thought this one might work for in a pinch to represent sexual orientation diversity

A bummer V day card...

Petit Chaperon Rouge

and heeeeeeeeere's Nyia...

haiku by nancy

trip is cancelled
how happy
that has made me

not looking forward to this week

too much travel
too many deadlines
too much stress
too many reports about
too much stuff

by the way, J

I made the big board with my "Michael" time!!!

someone said use of quotes signifies a lazy mind...

(a quote in and of itself)
nonetheless, I still love them...

A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--

as attempts to find out something.

Success and failure are for him answers above all.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Hey J -

I did....

Michael

Three rounds for time of:

Run 800 meters

50 Back Extensions

50 Sit-ups

in 33:30!!!