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September 28, 2005
Oh Mighty Isis!
Now HERE'S a show that's worth putting on DVD!! "Isis" appeared on TV back in 1975 and she was another character who I looked up to besides Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, it aired so long ago (ACK! 20 years!) that I barely remember much about it. Mostly, I remember that Isis could fly and run fast like the gazelles. Her transformation involved taking out her beautiful amulet necklace, raising her arms to the sky and proclaiming, "Oh, Mighty Isis!" I'm sure that because it was a 1970's tv show, it was campy, but I remember how much I loved her. Too bad it was only on for 1 or 2 short seasons and she did some cross-over episodes with Shazam. I'm sure it didn't get the ratings that Wonder Woman did. Unfortunately, it's unavailable on DVD and who knows if it ever will be? Here's a clip that I found that shows her transformation--not very clear, but you get the idea. Maybe if I'm lucky, they'll put reruns on TV Land or something.
Posted by Amy at 03:00 PM | Comments (5)
September 27, 2005
Get Smart
I don't want to start turning my blog into a tribute to dead actors, so this'll be short. Don Adams who played Maxwell Smart on the 1960's show Get Smart has passed away. I loved watching that show growing up. Always gave me a good laugh, especially the "booth of silence" (that wasn't really silent) and the shoe phone. OH! Remember that? I also used to mimic him saying, "Missed it by THAT much!" They really should bring that show back in a modern form. Wouldn't that be hilarious?!
Posted by Amy at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2005
Handy Woman
Sometimes, I'm so good I amaze even myself! I've been wanting to make a rack for all our martial arts weapons. After giving it a lot of thought as to how to do so, I finally got the materials. I bought the wood and a woodboring drill bit. I spent the entire afternoon constructing it. But first, I had to make a template for the angle of the holes where I needed to put the pegs; otherwise, they'd all be different angles and would look like crap. But once I had the template, it was easy-peasy!
I made one large one with 9 rows that will hold boken, jo, and shinai; and I made a small one that holds tonfa and sai. I think it took me about 3 hours or so, not including the time it took to hand-sand the whole thing. But it's worth it cause it looks really good, especially for my first time making something like this! Now, I need to make another small one cause Don has more pairs of sai and a pair of nun-chuku. After that, all that's needed is to mount them! I should sell these things! Who knows? I might make a bit of extra cash.
Posted by Amy at 11:54 PM | Comments (3)
September 21, 2005
New TV
Don finally bought our new LCD flatscreen TV. It's a Sony and I think it's 37". Last night, he set it up in the entertainment cabinet in the basement and it is GIANT!! The other night he was setting up the surround sound and it sounds REALLY good, especially with action movies!! Hoooo! He also bought this really cool remote that does everything: controls the tv, cable, stereo, dvd, you name it. It comes on when you pick it up and turns itself off so you don't waste the power. I got to play with it a little last night. Spiderman, Independence Day and The Last Samurai look really really good. But now we have to make sure to buy widescreen versions of any movie we want to get the full effect of the tv.
Up till now, I was more comfortable watching tv in the bedroom because during the summer when we have the A/C on, it's too cold for me downstairs, even though that's our main "family room". But I guess I'll be downstairs a LOT more often enjoying our home movie theater!
We'll be having some movie nights coming up soon, so stay tuned! (Pun intended.)
Posted by Amy at 09:45 AM | Comments (6)
September 20, 2005
Monkey Jibberish
There are days, days like today
Sanity shakes and wanes
Tension mounts and temper flares
Gotta chill, gotta stay aware
What's going on? I can't tell
Perhaps if everyone would go to hell,
Or at least settle the fuck down!
...don't ask!
Posted by Amy at 01:45 PM | Comments (2)
September 19, 2005
Wrist Injury
Actually, my wrist is starting to feel better. I'm starting to think it's just a muscle that was really tightened up. I've been rubbing it down the last day or two and it doesn't hurt as much. I didn't even need to wear my wrist brace yesterday. Though, we'll see how it goes through today, since I'll be typing pretty much all day at work. Perhaps I won't need to see Dr. Jay about it after all.
Posted by Amy at 10:30 AM | Comments (4)
September 17, 2005
Minor Injury
It's been a week now that I've been feeling some pain in my forearm just above my right wrist. It's a very odd thing too. There's a small bulge in that spot and it feels like a bruise. The more I use my right hand throughout the day, the more it hurts. For several days, it wasn't that bad. I could do stuff and it just felt like a bruise that wouldn't go away. But the last couple of days after I come home, that's when it starts to get painful. So I've started wearing a wrist/forearm brace. It seems to be helping since it hurts when my hand rotates at the wrist. Wearing it keeps my wrist straight and there's much less pain. I was even able to get through both my karate classes today without much problem. Though it's kind of interesting since I have to use my left hand a bit more. Makes me realize just how uncoordinated I can be. Ha!
I'm not sure what's wrong with my arm. I suspect that I overdid it during the Iaido seminar since it started hurting the day we got back. I thought maybe I had carpel tunnel syndrome, but now I think it's more like what my dad had. Something weird happened to him years ago when he was playing lots of golf. His bicep muscle somehow became detached at the point near his elbow. When he bent his arm, (prepare yourself--this is kind of gross) you could see the bicep muscle contract and bulge way at the top of his arm, out of place. I'm not sure how he fixed that problem--I should call him and ask. But I'm planning on seeing Dr. Jay about this as soon as I can get in. At least the muscle I'm dealing with is a smaller one. For now, it's ok as long as I use the brace. I'll update you guys once I find out what's wrong.
Posted by Amy at 08:30 PM | Comments (1)
September 15, 2005
Budding Supermodel
I just had to put this picture of my niece Tessie up on my blog. I found this picture on my sister's family photo gallery and couldn't get over how cute it was! She's got her Catholic school uniform on and I imagine she's on the school playground. She looks to me like she's modeling uniforms for some catalog. This picture totally depicts her entire personality. Adorable!!!
From the mouths of babes: One day, my parents took Tessie to the shopping mall. She kept pointing at things saying, "Can I buy that? ...Can I buy that?" Dad kept saying no until finally, she pointed to a box of candy and asked the same question, "Can I buy that?" Dad asked her, "Do you have any money?" She pointed to him and promptly replied with all her sassy-ness, "No, but YOU do!"
Posted by Amy at 12:00 PM | Comments (2)
September 13, 2005
iPod Nano
This is the iPod Nano. It's very small, very sleek, very cool and I want one! The only thing is that it only has about 4GB of memory, which is only about 1,000 songs; compare that to the 20GB iPod that I have which translates to about 5,000 songs. Still, it's extremely cool and I'd love to have one anyway. Hmmmm, my birthday is coming up, then Christmas. Maybe I'll put it on my Amazon wishlist and see what happens. It couldn't hurt, could it? *wink* Amazing what they can shrink these days!!
Posted by Amy at 05:00 PM | Comments (3)
September 11, 2005
Indy Iaido Seminar
Click on this image to view video.
Don and I just got back from the Iaido seminar in Indianapolis. It was really helpful. There were many small things about my form that I was able to correct, mainly my sword grip. Improving that made a huge difference in my cutting form and power. Plus I learned a few new things, but whether I can remember them for the next time I have a lesson is another question.
It was surely interesting, not just because of what I was able to learn, but also because of the people. Particularly, there was this goofy kid that showed up for the seminar. He looked like the cartoon guy from the Mad Magazines with glasses and what a sad sack he was! Poor as a church mouse, very socially inept and very dorky--the kind that tries way too hard at everything, especially in trying to make you like him. In fact, I could go as far as to appoint him the "Samurai Dork". I think he'd been watching too much Anime and too many Bruce Lee movies. But as annoying as he could be, you really had to feel sorry for the guy. Seems to me he's probably had a hard life. Poor guy!
But it was a great weekend, for the most part. The only thing that kind of sucked was the first night we got there, we went to this restaurant that turned out to be kind of fancy, like the Chop House in Ann Arbor. They looked at us with our jeans, t-shirts and shorts and said that the wait would be an hour. Well, we were very hungry, so they called another nice place to make a reservation for us. But even when we got there, we had to wait an AWFUL long time for our food, good as it was.
We trained all day Saturday and I got to cut for the first time! (Click on the picture above to see that video--sorry, doesn't really work in Firefox, please use IE.) You take these bamboo mats from Japan, soak them in water overnight, drain them for a few hours and then you can cut them with a sword. I used this expensive sword that belonged to the instructor that sponsored the seminar. BOY! Was that a cool sword--cut beautifully! That was the most fun part. In fact, I saved the three stumps from the mats I cut. You can see by looking at them how good my cutting technique was.
We also had lunch at a really good sushi place, then dinner at an Irish pub. Then Sunday, Don and a few other guys trained in Nihon Jujitsu, which is similar to Aikido, but the forms are more straightforward. I wish I could take that too. I really think that would compliment my Karate, but there's falling and joint locks involved. I can't fall and the joint locks hurt...guess I'm not tough enough. So I just watched the others and took pictures and video. Afterwards, we headed home and surprisingly, we made it home in 3 1/2 hours! If you ask me, I think Don was driving pretty fast. But better him than me.
Tell you what, I can't wait for the next time Nick Suino Sensei comes down from Traverse City to teach again! He's an amazing teacher and I learn so well with him. Come to think of it, I'm extremely lucky to be surrounded by the martial artists that I am!
Posted by Amy at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2005
Kung Fu Dork Update
We drove by the Kung Fu Dork's house the other day on our way to the U-M football game (Wolverines crushed Northern Illinois). He was out there with a friend whom I happened to recognize as someone who used to work out at our dojo. We stopped to say hello and the guy from our dojo invited us to practice with them sometime. I, of course, laughed internally to myself. I'm sure Don did too, though he played it diplomatically. Found out the Kung Fu Dork's real name is Chad. "Is it the Chad?" "Yes! It's the Chad!" (Sorry, obscure line from the Charlie's Angels movie.)
He was out there again a day later with more friends. They were trying to practice with Chinese chain weapons, again, looking dorky. Didn't have a chance to get any video, though. Sorry, fans! But I'm sure that won't be the last time he'll be out there. After that, I'll release the sequel to Kung Fu Dork entitled, "The Kung Fu Dork Strikes Back".
Posted by Amy at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2005
On Fire!!
Wow, I think I'm on fire these last couple of days! Yesterday, I went to the motorcycle dealer to talk to someone about a motorcycle safety course. I spoke to Mike who showed me a few bikes I never would have considered because I thought they'd be too high, too heavy or too powerful. He showed me a Kawasaki Vulcan 850 that seemed to feel JUST right, as Goldilocks would say. Though, I'm not ready to buy right now and the Vulcan was too expensive. But he also gave me some information about a safety course at Washtenaw Community College.
I gave him my business card and told him that if he saw anything I might like. He seemed impressed that I work at Quicken Loans. I jokingly said, "Need a home loan? I'm your contact!" He said he actually might! I started telling him about our old house on Shady Lane. He seemed very interested and said he'd probably want to look at it. So, we've got a prospective buyer and loan client!
Not only that, but today at work, I organized a sign-up for anyone on our Marketing Team who wants to carpool. I'm totally OUTRAGED that gas prices have gone well above $3 per gallon overnight! I figure if I can get 3 other people to carpool with me and each of us drives one week out of the month, I could save between $150-$200 per month in gas! Not to mention that I can't get any tickets if I'm not driving! Eventually, I'm going to get this plan implemented to the entire company. But we have to see how well it works for our team first.
Ssssssssss! Yowch!
Posted by Amy at 05:00 PM | Comments (3)