This would have been a cool post....

I had another post on costuming, well tooling leather for a couple of other projects I'm working on but took an epic fail and left my phone at home with the pictures...the words only do so much justice so check back in tomorrow for what would have been todays post.

This is why you should read more than just comic books as a kid.....

So, in the past I've had some pretty good success at playing matchmaker for friends and today I happened across a pair of people and I had the thought that they would be a good match.  Upon this revelation of thought I brought it up to Liz to get a second opinion....below is the wrap up of our conversation......

Ted:

They’re both single…..

They both live in Minneapolis!

Liz:

That has nothing to do with attraction

Lol

Ted:

I didn’t say it had to work!!!! They’re not friends on FB so I thought I’d try to set them up…

Liz:

Well you could suggest them to each other on Fb and let them take it from there… that way its not hey- you’re desperate and lonely – so is he/she!

Ted:

Its not like that, I guess that would work

They both like theatre….

Liz:

Fine, play Yenta

Ted:

Blink…gaddanggit…stupid fancy words

(bloggers note)

At this point I went to dictionary.com to determine exactly what Yenta was/is/means

(resume conversation)

I am not!!!!

“a person, especially a woman, who is a busybody or gossip.”

Liz:

LOL!!!

It’s the matchmaker’s name from Fiddler on the Roof

Well XXXXXXXXX is Jewish…..

Ted:

Omg….really….you’re going to play that card?

Liz:

LOL!!!

Ted:

I don’t expect him to catechize her about faith or require anyone to convert

Liz:

I meant that maybe she does need a Yenta….geeez

Ted:

I’m just trying to be adroit

Liz:

Ok….as long as you’re astute too

Ted:

Gaddanggit

I JUST CLOSED THE LINK!!!!!

Liz:

Hahahahahaha

Ted:

Sunofa..

Liz:

Or sagacious

Ted:

We’re done

Liz:

Check and mate

Ted:

I read comic books growing up

Not that Jane Austin crap

Liz:

Oh I’m sorry, let me put it in words you’d understand then…ahem….”zoinks!!” “Bam!!!” “Konk!!!!”

Renaissance costuming

So I’ve spent a good portion of this blog talking about food and exercise and healthy stuff.  I remember reading somewhere that one thing to add to that is hobbies.  One of my hobbies ties in perfectly with Renaissance festival is leather craft.  That is producing products with leather. Think “Steampunk” but no steam and less punk.  The first project that I did with the assistance of Good Mr. Robin Hood himself was leaf shaped Pauldrons (shoulder armor)

the beginning of tooling

tooling completed and shaping commenced



finishing touches



 Now there has been some misconception that the  Renaissance Festival provides the costumes for the workers, while that is true for some of the food workers those who are in the street or on the stage that is not the case.  We have to provide and make our own clothes.  Armed with this knowledge we learn to sew and become crafty or trade services of things we can do in exchange for things others can do better.  Unless you play Will Scarlet…then you pretty much just mooch off everyone and contribute a few laughing matters to the group…so yes, if you see an ad for auditions for Will Scarlet THAT is the role you want. (PS this is a test to see if Sean is reading this)

Now that the bruises from the beating have healed enough for me to continue this post I shall.  Each year I like to try to create something new for my character.  I do this for a few reasons,

·        It helps keep the “skill” honed

·        It provides backup costumes for something to happen to my favorite

·        It helps provide a creative outlet

The project I came up with this year was inspired by a character from Jane and the Dragon.  One of the nice things about Children is that they give you an excuse to watch cartoons even though you’d gladly do so as an adult regardless.  The concept is a Surcoat with armor on it.



The concept



 

What I took away from the picture and used as my own idea is below.  I took a previous canvas piece that I had and trimmed it to fit.  I had leather scales in my workshop that I cut in half to use as the scales.  The scales I used are about 2 in. by 4.5 in.   I laid out the canvas surcoat and the leather on top of it to determine which pieces I will have to cut and shape to fit the upper chest and shoulders portion.  Mark the holes on the fabric and punch holes into the fabric which a rivet will pass through to secure the leather to the fabric.  This is the step I’ve just completed and am in the process of attaching all the pieces of leather to the fabric.



the blue is Carpet, the gray line is where the scale will go to,
the green is trim that was already on the material prior to starting this project.
(For some reason this is uploading rotated)



feeling the burn

Walk walk walk

Last night was my first night working one on one with my new client.  (As a second job I work with special needs/ developmentally disabled adults)  Last night found us walking, a lot.  We started out at Como Zoo to find that closed, so we headed to the local mall and walked both levels of the mall and the wings. (Which turns out upon research is .75 miles each floor)  After a quick dinner my client wanted to return to Como Lake and walk around the lake…not once…but twice which as the sign points out was 1.6 mile loop so when the dust settled last night it chalked up to 4.75 miles.  Now this wasn’t just any walking, that wouldn’t be anything to blog about…my client just happened to be a power walker, so I added some high steps to my walk and got a great fat burning workout last night to match the lifting session yesterday. Of the lifting session I managed to cut it down a half hour to fit my lunch and did a non-stop circuit session.   I’m ready to start chucking some Robin Hoods let me tell you...as soon as the burning and general soreness from the past 24 hours of activity wears off a little bit.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

With the first day of Spring here I am officially kicking off my search for an outdoor gym.  None of the fancy pants machines mind you but the good old fashioned tractor tires, sledge hammer, cement blocks, heavy rope, and homemade sandbag style of gym.  Sean and I had talked about this over the winter and it’s gotten my gears going on getting it completed on the cheap/free…..I just need to find some tractor tires and everything else sans the rope is pretty much set for a backyard outdoor country gym.  So if you have or know of anyone that has any tractor tires on the cheap/free please feel free to drop me a message or comment. 

Work incentives

A last note that is that my main work is also kicking off a fitness program.  There is a points system for each amount of time spent on an activity, 1 point for light walking, shopping, cleaning for every ½ hour, 2 points for swimming, cycling, jogging for every 20 mins, and 3 points for every lifting session (weights, p90x etc.) for every 15 mins.  My teammate is a former coworker that transferred down to another location within the company and each week we record our activity and are eligible for prizes for the most point and a random drawing for prizes for entering data.  The prizes are gift cards to various fitness related places.  This along with new client a couple days a week and my own improvised fitness plan from yesterday makes me hope there isn’t a burnout coming.

Sports and it's impact

I grew up playing sports, I think I played or at least tried to play just about every sport available on some level.  My calendar as a kid revolved around what sports were associated with what season, spring and summer was baseball, basketball, some soccer, fall was about football, winter was about skiing and skating and hockey.  Also as soon as the grass was visible until it got put away by Dad, my bicycle was out and a constant mode of transportation.  As I got older I narrowed down sports I played because I just was better at certain ones than the others and my competitive nature wouldn't let me lose out to someone because I wasn't as good as them.  The final sport I ended up playing is High School Football and I admit my main source of food by the time I was in High School usually involved fast food because it was on the way home from school and easy.  The winter before I quit football I had a pretty serious knee injury skiing and I decided to quit after another injury to the knee leading up to the start of the football season.  Unfortunately I didn't stop eating the McDonalds, Burger Kings or Taco Bells around town.  So with the lack of activity and the continued intake of food my weight went upwards.

This past Saturday marked the end of my 2 week trial at the gym.  While it was something that was nice I only ended up using it twice a week for my lifting days (read...I can't justify spending 30.00 a month for something it looks like I'll use 8 times  a month.)  The other lifting day I could get done during my lunch break at work and the other days were cardio just jogging outside.  Also Saturday was the first rehearsal of the upcoming Ren Fest season and I found myself fully remembering the fights and a majority of the lines of the script.  Looking back on the rehearsal I can credit the sports background to a good portion of the fights that are done during the show.  With the quarterstaff fight a lot of moves are basic motions that are found in most sports just modified the the quarterstaff or whatever weapon is being used for a particular fight.

As I mentioned a month ago (wow how time flies) at the end of the 2 month period I will post pictures for better or worse on the changes that have occurred.  The pictures are coming this week, just not today. The stats for the weekly measurements are stomach down .5 inches and hips down .5 inches as well, arms and legs remained basically the same.  As of last Friday the official total weight loss has reached 33.7 pounds.  I'm also noticing some definition in the muscles in my arms from the two weeks of lifting and cardio.  With the gym close to the house now out of the question and returning to second job two nights a week starting this week I'm going to change around the exercise plan just a little bit as follows:

Monday - Chest lifting previously listed (during lunch)
                Jogging (evenings)

Tuesday - 1x Kettle bell session (75 reps)
                 Jogging (evenings)

Wednesday - Shoulders Lifting previously listed (during Lunch)
                      Jogging (evenings)

Thursday - 1x Kettle bell session (75 reps)
                  Jogging (evenings) 

Friday - Bicep & Triceps lifting previously listed (during lunch)
              Jogging (evenings)

Saturday - 1x Kettle bell session (75 reps)

Sunday - Rest

While looking at it does seem daunting I want to ramp up the physical activity and the evening jogging during the days of lifting is going to be light (approximately a mile) and heavier on the other days, I'm giving myself an easier Saturday and a full day on Sunday to rest as I usually am active enough on the weekends to not have to have a set schedule.

The orgin of the John-onball

Growing up I remember sitting in front of the TV (like five feet from the front of it) with my bowl of cereal and watching wrestling every Saturday morning.  I would watch the interviews of these elaborate characters and then go stand in front of the mirror and give my best go at their impressions.  The fakery (it's a word, I don't care spellcheck!!) and staging of the “sport” came later in life and I was oblivious and blissfully ignorant of the fact.

As I grew older I continued to follow wrestling in some scope.  If you’ve ever seen our Show out at the Renaissance festival you’ll recall seeing an unarmed fight that a good portion of those moves were borrowed from those countless years of viewership.  That borrowing was enhanced by the fact that when I moved to California I took up a 6 week workshop that taught you the falls and some of the moves.  Trust me, while it may be labeled as fake, the bumps and bruises that accumulate are very real. 

As a kid I grew up idolizing Hulk Hogan….the matches he fought in were always captivating to me, mainly because of the showmanship and connection he had with his audience.  Seeing the breaking news of a leaked sex tape from Hogan shocked me to my core a bit, because that’s not the connection with his audience I had always pictured.  If this makes it to the list of leaked tapes for distribution or not time will tell, but I will always hold a special place in my memory of hearing how to be like hulk…”Train, say your prayers, take your vitamins and believe in yourself.”

When we first started working the unarmed fight for the show I took heavily from that past experience and we put in my top five favorite wrestling moves that I had seen time and time again growing up.  Yes, for those of you wondering….....the John-onball is a tribute to the late Randy “Macho Man” Savage  

This is all back story for the upcoming weekend where we are starting to get geared up and into rehearsal for a few new changes coming up to the Robin Hood Show for this upcoming season. 

Eventually the fights are going to start coming together and we’ll determine what will be kept and what will be added and removed this year.  Until then, train, say your prayers and take your vitamins.

Heading into week #8 and a update/recap of the progress

Last night was the start of week 2 of the exercise regime. I was sleepy and had no ambition to do anything at 7pm last night and then “Once upon a time” came on TV and I had less ambition….seriously I’m finding myself enjoying that show.

I forced myself away from watching the episode about ½ way through and started the cooking breakfast and lunches for the week (read egg bake and Chili).  This consumed a chunk of my night up until about 9:30.  This is when I decided the heck with tired…I’m going to the gym.  The act of getting shoes on and changed into workout clothes along with a glass of water helped do the trick and by the time I got to the gym I was ready to get going.

Men are dumb

So I’m at the gym last night and I just get there and do my warm-up and I go to the bench press to start my chess workout….lo and behold the one other person is on it.  He’s got it up to 225 (4x45’s plus bbell.) and I can kind of see he’s not exactly confident in himself with this weight.  It’s the same type of set up that I have at my work where it’s got its own safety latch (turn the bar to lock it into place)…but it’s him and his girlfriend (didn’t know it at the time) and me there at 10pm on Sunday night….

 So I ask him… “you need anyone to spot you on this or anything?” he replies  “NO NO NO I got this…I do this weight all the time……” to which I reply “…okay, you sure?” and he reassures me “ YEAH YEAH I’m fine…”

 Allright….so I went and grabbed dumbbells because it didn’t look like he was going to be done anytime soon (there is only one bench press station at the gym) and I can do the workout either way…..so I get started on my reps and about ½ way through I hear… ”Pop!!.... AAAArrrrrgghhh!!” 

I drop the weights and look over at the guy, 10 feet-ish away, and he’s got the bar on his chest while holding his chess squirming…. I Lift up the bar enough to lock it so it’s not on him and he’s still clutching his right armpit/chest area. 

90% sure he blew out his pectoral muscle…cause it wasn’t a dislocation, he could move the arm….but couldn’t push anything and it was starting to swell and bruise up only on the front and side of that pec….so his girly took him to the hospital I think..….and I took over his bench-press machine. 

The take away….spotters are good for you, telling Sean the story this morning he summarized it beautifully with a reply of “If I am ever iffy on a lift I always ask for a spot from whoever I can.  If there is no one to spot, then I lower the weight.  It's called lifting smart.”

Measurements and other numbers

Saturday was the weekly measurements and I also had to work.  The measurements for the week were kind of a bummer but they were as follows:

Navel: remained the same

Hips: down 1 inch

Biceps: remained the same

Thighs: remained the same

I said before the measurements were kind of a bummer but I honestly think that the stomach has gotten smaller at least from the pelvis to the chest measurement wise…I never bothered to measure this so I can’t honestly say if that’s true or not.  This would mean that my stomach is getting “rounder” and less spherical.  Going from a football shape to a volleyball shape.  If that is the case is still to be seen, for all I know I could be saying that as a motivational tool to keep to this.  The other number is I stepped on the scale for the first real time since I was off with my daughter and have dropped 28.7 pounds heading into week #8 so that gives me something to look forward too.

Tonight is cardio and I know the dog is looking forward to getting out there, so that’s my motivation tonight.

Coins...making choices that much easer

This marks Day 4 of the intense workout and I woke up at about 4:40 this morning and had a thought that I could head to the gym quickly this morning and be done with it for the day…that thought was rather fleeting as the bed was warm and sleep is an evil mistress.

With plans this evening with Sean on his birthday I don’t want to say I’ll hit the gym after that because it just leaves me open to pushing it off for the day, so I will be doing my Bicep & triceps workout today during my lunch break at my work. 

Theory or that’s what HE said!

Yesterday I recalled that it had been said previously that the third days pain is…unpleasant to say the least and that is holding true, this morning (Jog last night 2.1 miles for cardio) there was maybe one spot on the inside of each forearm that didn’t hurt or was sore from the past 4 days, I’m holding out hope that after today things will become a bit easier (read...less pain / sore).  I did notice an interesting thing yesterday while cooking my chili for lunch.  I am now able to balance on one leg and bring the other leg back in a controlled motion to my butt and forward as in a kicking motion.  I’d been able to do this before on my left leg as it was my stronger leg, but not on my right (weaker leg) 

Birthday boy

So with Sean’s birthdays today, make sure you head over and check out his blog… I spent my cheat day last Saturday at MOA looking for gifts for him and I narrowed it down to a few things….



He's always talking about eating healthy....



For when he wants to keep his calves warm wearing his Daisy Dukes....

 I'm going to head off to find a quarter because I can't decide between the two.....head over to visit Sean and wish him a Happy Birthday in his commet or FB page!!









Running a 5k without a Zombie apocalypse

Apparently neglect has been my blog theme the past few days.  So let’s get right into it.  The measurements came back in on Saturday and as I didn’t measure from the previous week this was two weeks’ worth of measurements.  Since I’ve started I’ve dropped 6 inches from my stomach and 5 ½ from my hips. While my arms and thighs have basically remained the same.  This is definitely noticeable to me as I can fit into a pair of pants that a few weeks ago were becoming a bit too tight.  It’s all about the baby steps.

Workout

 As I said on the previous blog I went ahead and signed up for a two week pass at anytime fitness to not allow myself any excuse….One goal for this week is to hit the gym every day.  Sunday I got some lifting and light cardio in and last night I decided to do a 5k.  There’s a program out there that my buddy Sean mentions in his post called couch to 5K.  I decided to skip the middle man and just go with the 5k.  Now this isn’t to say that I have been sitting on the couch and haven’t jogged/ran in eons, I have.  I wanted to give it a whirl and give myself an idea on where I was at for a baseline comparison.  I think I’ve gotten the food portion down to knowing what works and what I need to do, now I want to really start getting the exercise in and combining the two of them into a full blown lifestyle change.

5K!!!

I had joked that if I’m not back in 45 minutes to send an ambulance.  The fastest I have ever done a mile is just over 7 minutes.  I started out and got to where the map had said was about a mile without having to stop and walk.  It took me until the mile and ¾ mark to finally come to a walk, and I power walked for a short block to regain a regular breathing pattern and then jogged until about the 2.25 mile mark, power walked another block and RAN another .5 mile and used the remaining distance to cool down so I didn’t return to the house looking like I was about to keel over.  I woke up this morning expecting to be stiff and sore but to my surprise I actually was just more tired than anything.

To the gym!!

I have no desire to be a "runner," while I admit I did feel  a sense of pride in being ABLE to do the 5k I still have no desire to do anything further than that.  My meat and taters has always been strength and lifting...I lift things up and put things down...If you haven't seen the commercial stating that check it out here, I find it hilarious each time. I see it.  Today I’m going to go back to my kettlebells before lunches at our work gym and the Wednesday lifting plan I had outlined in a previous post tonight at anytime.  While I should probably give myself a couple days away from weight training between sessions I can always adjust the intensity of them to prevent myself from burning out.  The key right now for me is to listen to my body and not push myself too hard, which surprisingly has been an issue in the past.

My inner designer and how time flies

So it dawned on me that I haven't posted to the blog in a few days here.  To be honest I've been working on finishing the last wall framing of the basement and a few other fun projects around the house.  It just so happened the past three days my daughter has woke up from her morning nap at the same time as the Nate Berkus Show. 

My inner designer
Now I've seen this show a few times before on various days that I've had off and have came to enjoy it.  I like to think I have a little bit of a interior designer in me and I saw an episode that he suggested painting the walls except for a square sections and hanging something inside the square.  I took it upon myself to add one more element to that and taking a picture frame and adding that to the object to give it a 3-D type of illusion.  Before our walls were simple white with the candle holders on them.....throw in a little blue paint and some 5.00 picture frames with the glass and backing removed and you have.....

Otherwise I've been working on cleaning the refrigerator out (no exciting pictures there....it's a fridge) and as I said the basement.  I managed to Hulk in the last section of the wall by myself and get it level, square, and sitting just right.

Pocket door and the last part of framing.

Then I added the door to the frame so I have the bare bones of the basement in place.  The next step will be the wiring and power and onto the sheet rocking.


Weight, measurements and upcoming cheat day
Tomorrow is my cheat day and I'm interested to see what has happened in the past couple of weeks with the measurements as I didn't measure myself last week on account of the start of the basement project.

I will admit I have let the exercise go this week and I do feel slightly guilty on that but I've also spent the week lifting and moving around wood for the basement and using the boy as a stand in kettlebell (which he loved)

Also, during the week I received an email to try Anytime fitness free for two weeks.  Turns out there's one a little over two miles from my house.  I figure with this and being able to use the gym at work I won't have any excuses (or be able to blame the weather and snow for not having a jogging route)