June 2012 – Well Deserved Downtime(ish)

June has been a very lovely month for me.  I had most of the month off from Tortuga work.  Just the usual day-job to keep me going.  As much as I enjoy performing on the weekend, I'll admit that it gets tiring working seven days a week for several months in a row.  So this month gave me some time to socialize with my friends, and get caught up on the rest of life that always seems to fall behind as you spend most of your time in airports.

I got to see another performance of Big Momma D's House of Burlesque.  One of the dancers is my housemate's girlfriend, I know most of the dancers, and a good portion of the crowd is comprised of local rennies and patrons.  So it's always a good time to make it back and see the show.  The girls always look amazing, Momma D's voice is killer, and Lefty & Johnny are always a treat.  You should check them out if you ever get a chance!

Of course I kept going to the gym.  Actually started a new program there.  I've started using Mike Burgener's 12-week strength program.  The power lifts and olympic lifts have been a weak point in my CrossFit performance, so I'm trying to get those numbers up.  I'm starting with a 270lb backsquat, 225lb clean, and 415lb deadlift.  If I get can to 300, 250, and 440 I'll be happy.  And then it will be back to my normally scheduled metcon workouts.  Really hoping that I'll see some good pay off from this.  Cuz man it takes a while.  Normally I can be in and out of the gym in an hour.  On this program, by myself I can get the workout done in about 75 minutes, add another half hour for setting up, cleaning up, etc.  If I'm pairing up with someone, figure two hours for the workout alone.  Ay yi yi.

A friend of mine let me know several weeks ago that they were running a mud obstacle race. So of course I signed up for the competitive heat.  I ran my heat, and then hung out originally to cheer her on.  But it was somewhat of a more relaxed atmosphere, so I ran it with her.  And was feeling good enough that I went on to run it another three times.  Man was it fun.  It kicked my ass.  And dear lord was my back sunburnt!!

Also got the chance to do some more work on my jeep.  If you recall it hasn't moved in over three years.  Last summer I pulled it apart and found that the throwout fork was broken.  Since then I had put the clutch and clutch housing back together, but was having problems with the transmission.  Turns out they sold me the wrong pilot bushing.  I replaced it with the correct one.  And I finally broke down and bought a transmission jack from Harbor Freight.  Made the job much easier.  I put the transmission back in and viola!  The Jeep moves!  I was feeling so good I also took apart the steering column to fix the horn which had never worked.

Can't forget HerosCon.  Got the call from Riki that he was in town and heading to it, and that he'd love to hang out with Jon and I (Jimmae being "stuck" in Europe on travel!).  So of course we had to send a Blended Team contingent to rub elbows with all the geeks.  Our people.  (Don't worry, it was just elbows... honest)  I was very good and only got a few small drawings for a few friends.  Gotta save the moolah for tickets!

So that's it.... right now we're negotiating with Michigan, so we're hoping that it will be our second year there.  So if you're in that area and you wanna see the Boys in Yellow, drop management a line!