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June 30, 2008
Promotion Saturday
Saturday was a big day for me and Don. We were testing for our promotions in Iaido and Jujutsu. We've been practicing pretty hard for about 6 weeks (or more) to prepare and I feel like I've been going like gangbusters.
I had to get up kind of early Saturday morning to get ready for the day. I had washed our iaido uniforms and had to iron the hakama (pants that look like a big skirt) to put the pleats back in. Then I had to fry up some chicken for the bbq afterwards (I made 3 batches) and wrap the gifts that all the students pitched in for to give to our teacher. We got him a really cool sword display that shows all the stages of how swords are made in the traditional Japanese way. We also got him a nice bottle of MaCallan Fine Oak 21 year-old single malt scotch and a plaque congratulating him for his 20th year doing Iaido and 40th year of practicing martial arts and also to celebrate our dojo's 2nd anniversary.
We had to perform a bunch of forms for the audience for both Iaido and Jujutsu. I think we did really well on the iaido forms and I was glad Paul (in front) remembered to slow down. He tends to speed up a bit, I suspect from being a little nervous--understandable though. Especially considering I got nervous during my jujutsu kata and made a few flubs, including one very obvious one. I got the order of the attacks mixed up, but Chris, my partner went right with it and we both managed to avoid making "Oh crap" expressions. So I'm sure no one knew I'd goofed until I did the last technique. Guess I was more nervous than I thought and moved the wrong direction before doing the throw. Oops! Oh well. The 3 videos are available here: http://www.youtube.com/user/priori2ude. Pat was kind enough to help me take video with my camera, since I was performing. Unfortunately, the battery crapped out in the middle of Don's kata. Urgh.
Afterwards, though, we had a great bbq and Peter brought a volleyball net. I hadn't played for YEARS and I wasn't going to play for fear I was too rusty. But people on the court were actually calling my name! As I started playing, I realized I really wasn't rusty at all--I couldn't believe it either. I was playing just like I always had. Great on bumps and sets, TERRIBLE on serves! HA!! And I also thought since it was bbq volleyball that no one would be able to play, but the majority of people playing actually could play well! I was so pleasantly surprised. There was Achim and his 3 German friends who were all very good, AJ and Dana from judo, and Bob and his wife Meghan. There was even Dana's 7 yr old son Lucas who was just a PISTOL and what a great little kid he is! He wasn't afraid of the ball at all, in fact he went for everything he could. But being only 7 yrs old and 3 foot high, couldn't play that well, but it was still great having him there. And he was doing some trash-talking too!! hahaha!! What a fun kid!! When Dana took him home, he ran around us giving us all goodbye high-fives. AWESOME!! I tell ya, I had totally forgotten how much FUN playing volleyball was! I miss it.
After the bbq was over, Don and I joined our sensei and Greg at the Quarter for drinks and some appetizers. We sat there talking and had some really good laughs and a little bit of trash talking. (I got Greg with a couple really good zingers--hehe!) But I must have been so tired because we left the bar and it felt like 1am when it was only 11pm. HA! I must be getting old! :P
Anyway, I'll be looking forward to a day or two off from martial arts. I need a break! I might have to pick up my glasses tonight. Then tomorrow is Greg's birthday (more drinks), and Wednesday I'm going to see Dr. Jay for my monthly adjustment. That leaves teaching Iaido on Thursday and the dojo's closed Friday for the 4th. Hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday!!
Posted by Amy at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Glasses & More Office Peeves
Lately, I've noticed my sight has been a little off-focus. About 95% of the time, I can see fine. The only time I really have trouble is reading very small print or seeing things very up close. For example, reading the microwave directions on my lunch container or seeing the screen of my camera when it's about 6 inches in front of my face. I think it has to do with my spending all day staring at a computer screen which I can see fine, but there are times when I can actually feel the muscles of my eyes working harder to focus.
So I went to Don's eye doctor and had my eyes checked. I didn't enjoy all the work he was putting me through, making me see double or work hard to focus on a chart, or even taking pictures of my eyeballs (I think I saw the surface of the sun in that polaroid flash!). As it turns out, he's going to give me glasses that he wants me to wear often while I work. It'll be a mild correction, but he says it'll help my eyes not to have to work so hard to focus and I should feel less strain at the end of the day, which I'll be happy with. Man, sucks getting older!
And since I promised you more office peeves, why is it that some women who wear perfume feel the need to DRENCH themselves in it so that a bloodhound could smell them 30 miles away? Or that I know they're in the building as soon as I walk in the door? (Violetta!!) Do they even realize how much they're putting on? I mean, I don't mind perfume, but when it's so strong it curls the nose hairs and makes you want to vomit, come ON! And don't even get me started on having to ride the elevator with them...I'll take the next one, thanks. Oh and this goes for men drenching themselves in cologne too. Rule of thumb: Be like Don. Wear only enough that you can smell it when you're standing right next to the person. More than that is too much!
And why must people loiter RIGHT outside my cube and have entire conversations while I'm trying to concentrate? It's one thing if it's only for 5 minutes or so. But when it gets to be 20-30 minutes, that's out of hand. It's especially annoying when those chatting outside your cube have voices that are unusually loud or carry more than the average person, but I understand they can't really help that. But the point is, not only are you not doing any work while you're standing there chatting about whatever, but you're preventing me from getting any quality work done, thank you very much. If you have to talk for that long, go somewhere else. Go into someone's office or go back to your own cube. Even if your cube is only one row away and I can still hear you, at least you're not standing RIGHT next to me making me feel like I'm intruding on your conversation.
Posted by Amy at 09:54 AM | Comments (2)
June 13, 2008
4th Wedding Anniversary
Yay! Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary. What a sweetheart, Don bought me a dozen gorgeous roses and a beautiful sea turtle necklace that I wanted when we last visited Hawaii. He special ordered it from the lady he bought the pearl necklace & earrings for Valentine's Day when we were there.
I got Don some of his favorite scotch, a bottle that is somewhat hard to get. But I'm a pretty good customer of a guy who runs the wine & spirits store on Jackson and he'll get me anything I want. He's a real good guy.
The thing about the roses is kind of funny. I was at work and walking from one building to the other and actually saw the delivery guy walking in with them. I figured they were for me since it was our anniversary and Don had asked for my work address. I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. But I had to go to a meeting. Fortunately, when I got there, it was canceled, so when I walked back to my building, I saw them on the receptionist's desk. I said to her, "Ok, I gotta know if those are for me." Sure enough they were. Mmmm, they are so wonderfully fragrant!!
Tonight, we go to the Gandy Dancer for dinner. We haven't been there in a few years, so Don thought it would be something a bit different than our usual dining out and maybe a little more special. I really got incredibly lucky to have married the BEST husband in the whole world!!!
Posted by Amy at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2008
New Photos
So I've finally uploaded some of the photos I took recently. We went to the Bucks' for Amanda's high school graduation party and I got a lot of great pictures of Derek. He's looking so cute these days. Though he's been a little odd about being camera shy at times. You have to be really fast to catch him in a good pose...and I mean FAST!
Also, the other day, we were driving home when it was supposed to storm pretty bad. The humidity was so heavy and I could tell it was going to pour like cats and dogs. I managed to get some really interesting photos of the clouds as we were driving home. We pretty much missed driving through the rain. Actually, it had just started as we were pulling into the driveway. Just thought I'd share them.
Posted by Amy at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2008
Increasing Mileage Just by Driving Smoothly
I came across an interesting blog post about whether hypermiling is worth it. It's interesting what this guy says about driving smoothly; that by minimizing braking & acceleration helps increase mileage. In fact, Wikipedia actually considers it one of the techniques used in hypermiling. I've intuitively known this all along, and I've been able to increase my mileage by (what I think is) about 25% without doing any extreme hypermiling techniques. By simply driving slower on cruise, I don't have to hit the brakes too much because most people are already going faster than me. The only times I really have to brake & accelerate is when I get into the unavoidable traffic jam.
As far as hypermiling goes, even if you could double your mileage, there are some techniques that can potentially compromise safety. For example, some hypermilers shut off their engines while coasting (and later restart). The way people drive around here, you have to be ready for anything, so I wouldn't give up total control of the car for fear of not being able to avoid accidents.
Posted by Amy at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2008
A More Efficient Update
This week has been even better than last week's experiment. I actually got 100 miles more to my tank than I used to get. When I filled up this afternoon, the trip odometer read 476 miles driven. Oh, AND as I was keeping an eye on how many miles I'd driven added to how many miles the computer said I had left, it hovered around 530 and even peaked at about 550. The 476 was actual miles and I had just about driven the car dry, but the less I get stuck in bad traffic and the less I use my A/C, it could be even better. If I could drive purely on the highway without having to stop at all, I might just be able to get that 530 or more. Who knows?
I've been keeping A/C use extremely limited which has been difficult with the weather being so hot and humid. Don says that wouldn't make much of a difference, but I don't know. At first I didn't think that slowing down like that would make that big of a difference and look how much it got me. I can save a whole tank of gas and $70 a month! Instead of having to fill up every 4 business days, I can go a whole week. Not to mention I'm getting between 29 and 30 miles to the gallon. Amazing!!
LOL, it occurs to me it's like the MasterCard commercial:
BMW: $35,000
Tank of gas: $68.00
Getting 29 miles to the gallon while having the Ultimate Driving Experience: Priceless
Posted by Amy at 09:59 PM | Comments (2)
June 03, 2008
A (Big) Lesson in Fuel Efficiency
I've been running an experiment this last week with my BMW to see just how much mileage I can reasonably squeeze out of it if I changed the way I drive. And by reasonable, I mean that the changes I'm making are enough to significantly improve fuel efficiency without compromising safety. I wanted to see if driving my car more gently and at slower speeds would increase my fuel efficiency. Whaddya know, it worked! I never thought that my usual driving was wasting that much gas. I always thought that slowing down would only give a marginal improvement. Boy, was I wrong.
I started with a full tank of gas (about 16 gallons of 89 octane, which at the time of this posting is about $4.19...I can't use regular 87 octane or the car starts having engine problems). Then I drove my regular commute for a week (about 45 miles one way to/from work or 500 miles per week), but slower than usual. I hate to admit that before, I would cruise between 75-80mph and got about 375 miles to the tank. That meant I would have to fill up about every 4 business days. I've now slowed it down to between 67-72mph and I've quit gunning the engine every time I need to accelerate.
At the end of my experiment, which ended last night, I got a solid 425 to the tank. I'm sure I could have gotten another 15-25 miles more had I driven the car near dry and not gotten stuck in unusually bad traffic yesterday. That means I'm saving between 50-75 miles per tank! I was only expecting to save about 45-50 miles per tank. So now I figure I might fill up one less time in a 5-week period (one tank is now approaching $70). I'm not sure if that math is exactly correct, but it's probably close enough.
It's nice that the BMW has an analog needle that tells you how efficient you're driving. When you gun it, it goes all the way to the bottom (which reads 12mpg, but I suspect if you gun it, it's less than that). Once you start coasting, it goes back up to between 29-32. More, if you let off the gas down a hill. So I've been keeping a close eye on that and try not to let it stay at the bottom too long whenever I accelerate.
It also has a read-out that tells you how many miles left you have on the gas you have. I believe it constantly recalculates, based on how you're driving because when I filled up last night, it said I had about 441 miles left, but as I drove to work this morning (at a constant 67mph on cruise), it kept increasing and peaked at 492 right before I pulled into work, even though I'd already driven about 45 miles. Incredible! I always suspected it had the potential to get about 500 miles to the tank, if you drove it more efficiently and did all highway driving.
And for those of you who know me, you know how much I complain about slow drivers. But don't call me a hypocrite just yet. I may be driving below the speed limit, but I'm not dawdling by going 60 in the left lane and not moving over. I'm staying in the right lane and I'm only going a few under the speed limit. I only move over when I need to avoid being hit by cars entering the freeway and only to pass people going much slower than me. After that, I immediately get back in the right lane. I will also still gun the engine, but only if and when I need to avoid an impending accident. And I'm still driving the speed limits on surface streets. If it's 45, that's what I'm doing, not 35 in a 45 zone like the people I complain about.
I've seen some news stories lately where people are resorting to riding their horses or their bikes to work, even when it's as far as 45 miles away. Just this morning, I saw a video about this guy who does what's known as "hypermiling." He can get about 50mpg on a non-hybrid, standard combustion-engine Honda Accord. That's TWICE what the manufacturer claims! But it's a lot of work and you have to do a lot of odd things like rolling the car in neutral before you start it up, then popping it into drive, going into turns without braking, turning off the engine at certain times, and actually shifting the car, even if it's an automatic. Here's the video if you're interested: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/06/03/obrien.hypermiling.cnn.
It feels really good to save money and gas and if I can keep it up, I won't ever have to worry about speeding tickets since I'm barely even driving the speed limit. Hopefully, Don won't take the Beemer back when his lease is up. He's threatening to buy me a Honda Civic Hybrid which is ok and his lease isn't up for a couple years, but I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to give up my Beemer!! Granted, the Civic Hybrid uses less gas, can run on 87 octane (instead of 89), and gets about the same number of miles per tank, but it isn't nearly as fun to drive!
Posted by Amy at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)