Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The psychology of hitting

Kickboxing was a blast last night. I was the only one who showed up so I got an hour of private lessons and a harder workout than usual. Woot! SO MUCH FUN! Now it is getting more difficult. We're doing more complex sequences so more to remember. It's still very mechanical with occasional glimmers of "flow".

I find it interesting that it's quite difficult to overcome the "Don't hit people" idea, even for a non-girly girl like me. Even in a situation where we are practicing exactly that and are supposed to be doing it. I have no problem on the bag, and no problem sparring with the mitts that you hit into as targets. That's fine. Last night we practiced blocking and a switch attack sequence. The block is one where you flat hand 'pop' the other person's wrist away, bare hands, then do a block and a (fake) strike to the face. No pushing on the block, it is a fairly hard 'pop' to get the blocking hand quickly back and ready to strike. I was actually having trouble doing the 'pop'. It doesn't hurt either one of us, but it is definitely harder/sharper than just a play smack. He finally said, 'I KNOW you can hit harder than that. Do it." Right then I knew I was softening the block every time. Weird. Guess all that childhood ingraining of 'no hitting' really 'took'.

The guy that teaches the class is about 5'10" or so (a bit taller than me) and outweighs me by 100 pounds easy. He's a bit overweight, but is one of those guys that is built like a freakin' tank. He does hand to hand combat training for the military. It's not like I'll damage him. lol

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

De-cluttering.... again.

I'm on a cleaning/reorganizing/de-cluttering tear.

I have managed to clear off my big computer desk and we're getting rid of it and downsizing to a small antique one I've had since I was a kid. Harder to clutter up a small one, even for the Queen of Clutter. It has drawers which the big one doesn't, so that will be nice. I also got two chairs sent to the upholstery shop. One is a channel back armchair, and one is an armless 'side chair' from the 40's. They will be a teal colored velour when I get them back in a couple days. Can't wait. I got the best deal EVER on the fabric. I've also (finally) got bookshelves on order. We'll have to paint them when they get here. Trim color (cream) with the back being the dark green of the closet door. I'm thinking of painting the low stair wall that dark green too. We'll see. That little corner by my desk will look really good.

In order to have enough room on my shelves, I need to sort books and get rid of some things. Good thing I'm on a de-cluttering tear.

The mice lost. We got 9 and haven't had the traps snap in over a week. Maybe we won!

Oh, and the windows are all installed. They look nice enough. I wish that they were still wood. I just don't like vinyl. But I also didn't want to pay as much as the wood cost. It was close to $6000 just for our little house. Wood would have been $20K. Sigh. Still, they open and close and the house is much quieter. Hopefully the heat bill will go down as well.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Of Mice and Me

Mice. Hates them. Nasty little beggars have shat upon my lovely fabric and stinked up my basement. We are emptying out the basement, cleaning and tossing, and supporting Rubbermaid with excessive purchasing of bins.

I have wanted to do this but am now hugely motivated by the fact that the window installers must access the windows and it is quite disgusting down there. What has that cat been doing anyway?

It's pouring rain here today. I was waiting for the windows to be delivered. I think all delivery people are from India where time is relative. Relative to what, I have no idea. "They'll be delivered between 8:30 and 9am" apparently means 10:40... -ish.

I ended up havnig to clean the gutter above the back porch. You should have seen Kona. I went out onto the porch, and saw that the gutter was overflowing. It was kindof like being behind a small waterfall. Kona didn't notice at first but walked to the top step and had the most appalled set to her body/head/ears. It was funny. "I can't walk through that sheet of water to get to the yard!"

The gutter cleaning wasn't all that bad.No ladder needed for that one (good thing I'm tall). It wasn't that cold ~ the water or the air, and the leaves were fresh so not stinky or anything. I can just reach up and scoop it out. The big gush of rainwater right down my armpit though was quite the surprise - Yiii!!! I ran my pants in the dryer and changed shirts.

Later both Kona and Duncan went out. Kona went out in the yard, and Duncan got a drink on the porch (the porch water is better). He was then horrified that I booted his keister down the steps. What? Huh? Where? OH MY GAWD!!!!! I just kept saying "hurry-up" until he did. They both got done about the same time, and you should have seen them run for the house. LOL.

Drying Duncan with a towel makes him feisty.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I am a cyclist. Not one of the ride-to-work ones in street clothes. One of the spandex-clad, pace-line types who are in it for the speed. And the win. A roadie, in other words.

This summer has been a bit of a bust for various reasons, but last night Hubby and I got the bikes out and took a quick ride up Rocky Butte. It's always a good workout. There's some hill, a tunnel, more hill. a quick dip down and then hard up to the top.

We rode up to the dip-down a little quicker than we have been, then on the last bit, I pushed a little to keep ahead of him. He pushed back, and I had to up the ante again to stay a wheel ahead. We came around the curve to the last 100 feet and I pushed the pace up HARD. Just then the group of roadies (all guys) at the top saw us and started cheering. I'm not sure who they were cheering for, but it was great. I pulled it out and got him by a bike length. :) To clapping. It made my day.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

My New Blog

Welcome to the premier post. It's not wild. It's not even creative. But, hey! I've got to start somewhere, yes?