One of my favorites...

Did I mention that I've found my fight name? Ameacinha Vermelha (the Little Red Menace, in Brazilian Portuguese....) The "c" should have a little tail on the bottom but I couldn't figure out how to make that happen in blogger. I'd love to have that embroidered on my gis. Even better, on a RED gi.

Which reminds me, time to start thinking about dyeing some gis. I feel a peach, a mint, a yellow, and a red coming.

Note no blue! weird...

Anyway here's one of my favorite grapplers, Marcelo Garcia. Anything to procrastinate.

Jacare highlights...

Watch some fun highlights of Jacare's grappling goodness here.

HOLY CRIPES!!!! look at these throws....

I love YouTube. Which one of these ten throws is your favorite?

Personally I'm liking #9.

Weekend with the girls in Vegas...

Janet took many more pictures than I did so hopefully she sends me hers soon. We had a great time... took in a Cirque du Soleil show (Ka), the requisite gambling, pigged out at the Wynn's champagne brunch buffet, shopped at Fashion Show Mall (and watched a fashion show on the catwalk of course), and enjoyed some pampering at the spa. We ordered room service almost every day. Best of all, we reconnected and gabbed the whole time.

Shelley-


The before picture-- she invested $100 and her net winnings were $350! not bad for a first-time gambler at the blackjack tables! Her dealer was Frank Patton who has appeared in 43 movies. (He encouraged us to look him up on imdb.com)



Penny slots and poker machines didn't treat any of us too well; here's Janet smiling bravely in the face of her losses..



At the fancy buffet...

Christmas party pictures...

I'm sorry for the incredible delay in posting these. And, to all the guys who thought it funny to put pictures of their privates and nipple-squeezing and such onto my camera... you're lucky I'm not posting them here.

Frank and Carole...





Bill Swaim, long-time mentor from my baby prosecutor days, and his friend...



Pals from my office- Leslie, Fredericka, Carole and Tealithia...



Me and Jack...



Frank gets taken down and RNC'd (rear naked choked) by Scott...







Kirk, a jiu jitsu buddy, and his wife Carrie...



I have no idea why people were so fascinated by my photographs on the wall...



Scott demonstrates a victor's grimace..



Leila, my favorite training partner...



Closeup of my first (and hopefully only) cauliflower ear... pre-draining...



Leslie and Catherine in the library with a candlestick...



Ulises, who singlehandedly coached me to my first tournament match win (what's your favorite sub? go for that!)



My friend Bill, the clean-up champ...



Richard, Leila, my husband Mitch, and Frank's head...



Mitch created some havoc with his "there's only an inch left in the bottle" encouragement, however, we only had one overnight guest.



A good time was had by all.

Yay rib!

Rib's better... not 100% by a long shot, but somewhere around 50%, so I've been rolling a few times since coming back from Vegas with the girls. I visited my f-i-l while there and he's out of the hospital now, fortunately. I will upload pictures from the trip soon.

Not any better...

Stupid rib. Hate.

Our school cleaned out the tournament this weekend... Scott, Shama, Joe all won their divisions; Celest and Ian took third, and Jason took 4th... Ulises bumped up into the next weight class unfortunately and threw his first match opponent so hard he was knocked unconscious; when the guy came to, he forfeited. Smart opponent from match 2 forfeited before they even began grappling. Overall a great showing.

Ian--


Scott, my "wing"--


Celest


Shama--


The gang, sans me :(




I'm eating at Estancia tonight-- Brazilian churrascaria :) yum. And Friday I leave for a weekend with my girlfriends in Vegas.

Dang this rib...

I got hurt last Thursday morning in class and what I believe is a strained muscle in my ribcage is not healing. I do technique in class, but roll only lightly if at all. I am careful not to do anything that causes it to hurt-- but I'm irked at the process and the patience it requires. It's sitting me out of the no-gi tournament this weekend, and I worry that I won't be fighting at the gi tournament in Houston the weekend of Feb 21. (With my crazy workload, it is probably a good thing for me to spend some extra time slaving away in the office... but still.)

Also-- I got a loveseat for my office! Mitch helped me pick it up at Ikea.. also we hit a vintage store and he found this perfect side table of iron and glass, and a fantastic crazy feather lamp... then I added 3 vintage fern prints I bought at an antique store in north Texas when we visited his college buddy and his wife...





Anyway, off to happy hour for cheap gourmet pizza. It has been an interesting week. Wish my rib luck... have a good weekend :)

My first nap...

Shama, a purple, put me to sleep tonight in class. My first! We were doing guard passing drills, and I really didn't think her choke had me in danger. I was working on my stuff, and felt a little lightheaded, but didn't think anything of it. Then I noticed she had this really weird look on her face-- I asked her if she was okay, and she asked me if I was okay! Later in class she told me I'd started snoring, or gurgling... lol...

Today was pretty tiring. Class this morning was good, but my rib is still bugging me so I didn't roll, just flowed some takedown stuff with Kirk who also has a hurt rib. Then I did Robert's crossfit class, then 25 min of no-gi with Tom... then tonight's class. I got home around 8:30, folded laundry, washed dishes, and made dinner... 3 veggie tamales and a big spinach salad. I also made a cinnamon crumb cake for class tomorrow morning.

Off to bed. zzzzzzz.....

Gi review, part two...

So here's the skittle-suit... it's from a different manufacturer, Hsu. Mark sent me a size 4, but it's a little too big. I'm 5'2" and next time I'll ask for a size 3.

Anyway.



These pictures were taken prior to me attempting to shrink it. I don't think washing in hot and drying on hot made much difference though, so I think I'll be ordering a 3 next.

The fabric is very light, soft and comfortable- this would be lovely as a summer gi. The pants are quite loose and definitely give the feel of pajamas. There is only one belt loop, positioned front and center, but the fabric gathers easily and adjusts easily. Edit: while wearing this gi for class this morning, I realized that it DOES have knee lining-- from midthigh all the way down to the ankle. It's just so soft and fluid, you don't hardly notice till you look for it.

The top is likewise very soft and fluid-feeling. Overall for me the highlight of the gi is obviously the color, but sadly I don't think I'd use it for a competition because it's so easy to grip for an opponent. I think a better-fitting (smaller) gi would be better because my wrists and calves/ankles positively swim in the openings, but in the current size I think it would be too easy to get good grips on me.

I am totally jamming on the color (was called a skittle, a frog, and a leprechaun in class Saturday) and can't wait to mix and match with my pink gi. (I think you'll agree the blue belt looks nice against the green!)

You can get a green gi like this from my sponsor, Mark Severtson and Badgerland Jiu Jitsu.