November-December

Hello Everybody, yes I suck at updating our blog, but I get to it when I get to it. Hopefully everybody had a yummy Turkey day. We had lots of ongoings as usual in the past month.

We started November by going to another Jose Bueno seminar in Ashland...that was fun! One of our black belts, Caty Mooney who lives in Ashland came over to the seminar with us. It was great to see her and we went to dinner with her and her boyfriend! We got to workout with a lot of other black belts from other systems. We did a lot of ju-jitsu, weapons/joint locks, fun stuff. Threw each other around a little, it was fun, good to see those guys and network a bit! Then we went and sat in the hot spring pools. Yea!

So touching...it choked us up

Vince had black belt club the following weekend and he went over control dramas with the students. They all absorbed the info like sponges...the kids, the younger ones we thought it would go over their heads, are even learning to call'em as they see'em--and their own control dramas also. It was pretty cool to hear them really getting the pysche stuff at young ages, rather than taking things other people say/do personally all the time, understanding that many times other people are just trying to get their way however they have learned works best for them. Boy if we all could learn that one at age 10!

Vince's 56th birthday was in November, 11/24, and it seems that the more our "old" students go off to college, the longer his birthday lasts...for like a week. In the old days it was one party and BANG--done. I think we had something like 3 birthday parties for him. We had one small birthday at the house where he and Monica decided to make dolmas (stuffed grape leaves--traditional Lebanese dish his grandma made decades ago), and ya know there is something about rice, olive oil wrapped in grape leaves...it should be simple ya think?, but well, they flopped. Badly. It wasn't great, but it wasn't exactly something one would want to eat. I was humored and for once, I stayed out of the kitchen (maybe that was the problem), and they used my grape seed oil instead of olive oil...that didn't help matters either, but it probably wouldn't have mattered. Anyways we had two huge pots of them...thankfully Monica's mom liked them (I still think she was just being kind). I made the organic tropical carrot cake that is Vince's favorite, so at least we had cake to eat. At least I don't use sugar for less of a sugar buzz!

Then there was party at the studio. I avoided the mass of kids/cleanup/having to buy cake for that group, because well...30 some kids and their parents...yea, cleanup...I didn't want to go there, neither did Amanda or Monica. So we pigged out on banana cake after adults class...at least some of the calories got burned off prior.

We had a dandy adults class workout Tuesday after cake-day, in preparation for Thanksgiving gluttony, it was deservedly brutal. Vince gave a good talk about exercise and diet and worked the snot out of us.

We were lazy on Thanksgiving also, as nobody confirmed if they were coming to our house. Monica showed up though and we just wandered next door to Jerry and Leah's for Turkey and yea...lots of pie on Turkey day. They are always taking us in. Did I mention, Leah and her mom bake like 12 different pies for thanksgiving. Yea baby, we know where the pie is at! More slovenly gorging! Oh, previously I had scored a free turkey from Fred Meyer by spending $150 in groceries, so we decided to save our buzzard until Christmas.

The King Wah restaurant work is coming along...I finally finished the estimate sans electrical (cuz those guys will have a tough intricate job with this one)...only yesterday. We worked on it all week of thanksgiving. The cost is brutally high, so we'll see what goes with that. The asbestos subcontractor started last week, so it is wonderful to see something going on. However, I am ready to pound the next person or perhaps brutalize the next massage client, that razzes me about "when is our chinese restaurant going to re-open", by now just about everybody and their mother knows we are working on it. Speaking of that...we took Jonny and Jenny Chan out for Mexican food after Vince had a meeting with them one day.... they have never had mexican food! Yep I know most of us mutt-food US born folks find that hard to believe, but apparently Jack and Jessica (their kids/our students) never tortured them with it either. Jonny wanted vegetables and chicken and beans. Jenny didn't know, so Vince and I ordered them fajitas...calling it mexican stir fry. It worked. Jonny rolled up the goods in a tortilla like nobody's business, held it up and called it "egg roll". That about made us all fall our out of our seats laughing. So then another big step...every year for the past 13 years we have had Vince's birthday at the restaurant...it has always been a "surprise-but not really party". Well no restaurant this year so we invited Chans to come to our house---FIRST time in 13 years (obviously not for Jack and Jessica though) and probably the first time they ever went to somebody else's house for dinner! (Chan's work 24/7 at the restaurant their whole lives...seriously--they do) The pressure was on...the chef is coming to dinner...AHHH! We grilled up a tri-tip and salad and mashed taters...all was good. And they brought...another birthday cake...good grief! Just because Jack and Jessica weren't back from work and college for the other two parties.

We avoided Black Friday like the plague. Not much else to say on that one! We spent some time with Jack and Jessica, as they won't be here much for Christmas because Jack doesn't get time off from work so they are going to Portland. Then Sunday I was getting stir-crazy having not left the house...so we grabbed Monica and drove to the redwoods. It was fun, great one day getaway. We took lots of silly pictures, I don't have a lot of them yet, so more to come.

Me, well massage is going great as usual, I'm pretty booked up and catch grief about that all the time. I can't complain, my clients rock! The week off helped my fingers (overuse) a bit. I will open up a few more hours for my clients per week now that the majority of the paperwork is sent off to the powers that be, and we wait for decisions and approvals from building, planning, health departments and also insurance adjustors... craziness. My home office looks like the planning department for the entire county blew up in it though, papers everywhere.

I decorated our indoor tree again this year...it is our short indoor evergreen, but it did grow about a foot this year! We have my Back to Health work buddies coming up for a Christmas party this weekend, so that should be fun, and I think that catches us up to date so far.