My Funny Valentine-- the Houston Open tournament recap....

Happy Valentine's Day everyone :) Hope you had a good weekend. I did! The tournament went really well. I didn't get many photos on my own camera because I was working as scorer, but our team represented well. Here's Rebecca, on the left, winning bronze in the light feather blue belt category (and our friend Lana, center, took gold; she used to train with our sister academy in San Antonio..)

Our other peeps did really well too. Vidush won men's featherweight blue belt; Travis took bronze in purple belt whateverweight. Courtney took bronze in her first tournament ever with only two months' training under her whitebelt! Woo! Shama and I both got default golds in our weightclasses but Shama got silver in purple belt ladies' absolute, too.

Here's a random scene (two purple belt matches) from the tournament which was small, space-wise, but well run and organized. It took place in the University of St Thomas gymnasium in Houston over Saturday and Sunday. I discovered I really like having your division on one day and absolute the next. Plenty of time to rest and get your mind in the right place.

I had 3 difficult matches in my absolute (the first absolute I've ever fought!) First against one of my favorite opponents, Tara Talanco from Rodrigo Pinheiro/Humaita in San Antonio. I dig Tara because we're the same size, we're both strong, and we both love judo and wrestling, so we never pull guard. It's always full-on war! I'll post footage asap, next couple days. I barely won on points.

Second match against fellow Austinite Kat Harrison, a tall slender gal with superhuman strength. (She's a massage therapist and used to live on a cattle ranch...amazing grip strength!) I battled to pass her guard, got points there, got sucked back into half guard, and ended up again barely winning on points.

Last match against Hana Fisher from Marcelo Garcia Memphis. (She trained off an on with Marcelo in NY for a few years and just moved to Memphis where she trains with Arika Winchester..) Hana's tough! Man, she gets a grip on your belt and you just know it's gonna be bad. I need a frequent flier number before my next match with Hana. I successfully resisted and grip fought for a bit before she launched me. Air under all four tires at once and I landed BOOM! The ref told me later that he jumped about a foot in the air when I landed. I felt like I was about a foot into the mat! Her side control was so tight, there was NO space between us, I think her molecules melted into the space between MY molecules! I was almost ready to tap from the side control. Fortunately she spared me that embarrassment by getting my arm out. Her americana got me up and out of there with a silver medal. Woo! Best part, she's super friendly and cool, and I can't wait to see her again at Pans!

And then dinner-- seared ahi (good) green tea soba noodles (meh) and a "shrimp cake" (meh.)

Good weekend. Back to the grindstone now! Have a lovely Valentines'!