Christmas List

Better late than never.


Game of Thrones Graphic Novel Vol: 1
Game of Thrones Graphic Novel Vol: 2
Spartacus: Vengeance
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
Teva's - or something similar, size 11.
Eolian Shirt, size L.


More generally work shirts.  Not button down shirts.  Depending on the shirt either size M, or L.


I'll try to update it as I think of new things to add.

Instructor Demo

For this years Tournament we did an instructor Demo.  I performed in the first, and you can also see me get my butt kicked in the third segment.  I hope you enjoy.

Potomac Kempo Capital Tournament Fall 2012

So as promised I have some pictures from the Fall tournament for kempo.  Sadly there were not too many good pictures of me.  But I believe some of the awesome ones from Rachel more than make up for it!

This picture makes my forarms look large.

The chairs were really tall?

I just love the expression on Rachel's face here.

Aaaaandd...... Fight!

In one hand, death, the other, peace.

Sadly the one picture they caught from my sword form. 

Not much to add here... More of Rachel with a sword.

She also kicks.

Sometimes flies.

But this is how she rolls.

Me starting a 2 person form with Kate.

2 man bo kata.

I can also jump.

And we won the cup!

So hopefully everyone liked the pictures!  Thanks to Megan, Marnie, and Aunt Karen who managed to stop by for a bit!  And congratulate Rachel on the 415 burpees she did for charity!

As always if you like any of these pictures please consider buying them from our good friends at Cascades Photography.

Engagement

As many people know, Rachel and I are now engaged!  This post is mainly to show off her ring.  Perhaps this weekend when I have more time I'll share the story of how I proposed to her.

Hurricane Sandy

Thanks everyone for their thoughts and concerns last week while Hurricane Sandy came by.  Rachel and I were quite safe.  Really the hurricane wasn't that bad in DC.  The worse was probably Monday night, but even that wasn't too bad as we were able to go to karate even so!

That being said, on the way back from Karate, we noticed that the power was out!  Next up I thought, dang it the power is out and I live on the 20th floor!  So yes, I contemplated climbing up 19 flights of stairs!  The good news is that our apartment had a backup generator that they use to power 1 elevator, as well as emergency lights.  So thankfully no excess stairs.  We finally got power back on Wednesday, so that means nearly two days without power.  Ah well.  The tough part was that along with our power being out, we didn't have water.  Probably a downside to being on the 20th floor.

Anyways, upcoming this afternoon I am going to introduce the wonders of Settlers of Catan to Marnie and Megan.  Then tomorrow Rachel and I will be at the tournament!  Wish us luck!

As a side note Rachel will be doing burpees for 1 hour straight for charity.  I think she is crazy, but hopefully she will do well!

Vacation and finally a new update

2 months is a long time.  I'd like to say that nothing of note has happened since my last update, but that is far from the truth!  Got everything moved in, all art work up.  Had my first visitors in the form of Sara, the Kids and Mom, not to mention Elvis!  He broke the apartment in in a different way....  That trip was particularly fun as we went to Ocean City Maryland with the kids, and introduced Colby and Mason to the ocean.  I entered the next phase of my signatory program at work.  If all goes well I will get a promotion and a pay grade increase, in and around January/Early February.

I've read lots of books, in particular found two fabulous new authors Danial Abraham and Joe Abercrombie.

And of course there was Vacation!  Vacation was a blast, and I was super happy that Rachel was able to come.  Her and I both had an excellent time.  Below are some pictures!

Me showing some leg while skiing.

Rachel Showing some promise.

In case you were curious this one did not end well....

Beginning of the Hike, notice the lack of sweat.

Somehow Rachel always manages to have her eyes closed in pictures.

Mason tells me it was changed to "HI" later that day.

And end of the hike, on Lake Michigan.

Rachel is actually taller, she is just on the down slope.

Beauty on many levels.

I forgot to tell Caleb to zoom.

Thats all I got for now,  later space cowboys.

New apartment

Here are some photo's of the new apartment that Rachel managed to take.  Appreciate it now while it is clean!  No guarantees with how long it will stay that way....

Living room with the only painted wall

View out the window, looking south/south east

Kitchen

Walk in closet

Den

Mom and a baby

I have been meaning to post these for a while.  When Mom came down we were able to meet up with Jim and his new family!  So below are some pictures of his wife Laila and their brand new daughter Maryam.  At the time of the pictures I believe she was just three weeks old or so....  Enjoy!

Potomac Kempo Spring Tournament

On April 29 we had our Potomac Kempo Kempo Spring Tournament.  As usual the pictures below are from the wonderful Cascades Photography and if you like any of the pictures below that is where you can go to buy some!  Which I recommend.  I might get one myself this year, maybe two.  

This year I got the joy of judging!  It was fun, but is very difficult.  

Rachel I think did a better job at judging people than me.  I had problems judging my own students.  Because I wanted them all to win, and they by default are taught to do their techniques the way I like them.  But I persevered!

No Stephen this is not me surrendering.  Neve does not accept surrenders.

Random picture of a beautiful woman.  Cutting fresh baked bread.

Sparring was even more fun to judge.  I got the low belts as you see.  I want to point out I got some complements for how well I did!

Rachel got some higher ranks, and had some more problems with them controlling their power sadly.  

Here is Sensei Cassie on the right, the chief instructor of my dojo, and in the middle is Carlos one of my students since he was a white belt!  He always goes home with a fist full of trophies, and this year was no different!

I just thought this was a good picture of Rachel.

I swear the only reason they have board breaking as an event is to get pictures of us making some funny faces.

This is quite possibly one of the coolest pictures ever, and I might just buy it.  Yup, that's my girlfriend!

I can't get enough pictures of Rachel with a Katana.  It is a good look for her.

This is a sweep.  Get close to the opponent, right arm goes across shoulders and pulls across to your left, right foot is like a pendulum upwards, and then backwards to sweep out their front leg.

When done correctly they end on the ground like this, totally at your mercy! hahaha!

This is just a picture of me doing one of my techniques.  

Rachel chilling with one of our friends, Dianne.

Some black belt sparring!  He wasn't calling anything as points unless the strikes had the potential to bruise a rib.....

Evidently Carson, my opponent for these two pictures was a fan of upper cuts.

I like the look on Kevin's face on this one, as I introduce him to my foot.  In the end though I did lose to him, to take 2nd place in black belt sparring!

This is Rachel sparring!  She did well, but sadly lost.  But then come to think of it, we both ended up with 2nd place trophies.

At the end of the day my dojo took home the tournament cup!  This is most exciting as this was the first year that my dojo has ever won it.  

Anyways I hope everyone likes the pictures!  It was a long but very fun day!  I am very glad that Mom was able to come and see it!  Next tournament is in November!  In case anyone is interested.....

UPDATE:  If you go to Cascades Photography and like any of the pictures, you can now get the digital versions for 50 cents by entering in the code "firefly" upon checkout.  I'll probably get a couple myself in the next day or two.