Fight Gone Bad

Pre (notice beige office park background).

I know I have blogged about Fight Gone Bad in the past. It's a fairly hardcore crossfit workout - three rounds of five exercises. Each exercise performed for a minute each. There is a minute rest between the five minute sets. Usually the first minute is pretty easy, but the next 16 (including the rest minutes) are pure pain. This was kind of a Fight Gone Bad event. Various crossfit affiliates around the country were having big FGB workouts to raise money for various causes. So I went to the eastside and experienced the pain with others in a beige industrial park . I thought you might enjoy some pictures of my pain. I do realize this is possible more pictures of my pain than anyone really wants, but whatever, my blog!

I guess the real question that one might ponder is 'why is this fun'? The entire 24 hours (maybe 48) before this event I was stressed out and couldn't sleep. Clearly, I was in pain the entire time. Yet when I finished, I was ready to go again. Hmm? In fact the motto for Crossfit Eastside is 'get some, go again', so clearly I'm not alone........

About to start the first round, looking very confident and serene.

Third exercise, first round.

Maybe the pain wasn't too bad at this point?

2nd or third round - too much arm, not enough hip.

It's easier with your eyes closed.

Usually I can box jump, that day I had no legs.

Somewhere deep in round two my shoelace came untied and left me very distracted!


The hard part with FGB is that you know if you rest, the time will
keep going and you'll have to do less work, but, of course, that's not the point.

Third round, god I look miserable.

This bar was not that heavy!

Food in a Ball

As regular readers may surmise from my blog, it's pretty quiet around here. So, we have to play up what excitement we do get. When I took Otto to dog training, my trainer said we should feed our dogs from a ball. So, I bought this orange ball with a hole in it. You put food in the hole and the dog rolls the ball to get the food. Supposedly it allows them to use some of their primal instincts, reducing their stress and increasing happiness or doggy satisfaction. I don't know about that, but he gets super excited when I pull the ball out. And really, watching this video, don't you just envision a dog out in the wild using his basic instincts to gather food for his survival!

If only true contentment were always this easy.

Ex Guilty Pleasure.

I used to have a guilty pleasure that I haven't admitted to yet. I used to obsessively read murder mysteries. I didn't watch tv. It was before I got netflix and learned I could watch tv without a tv. It was actually before you could watch a tv without a tv. Anyhow, I read murder mysteries and thrillers. And I'm not sure I really enjoyed most of them. I had my favorites - LesCroart, and Elizabeth George, Sue Grafton, Laura Lipman - but after you've read a few they all get a little painful. LesCroart is entertaining and my mom and I still get excited every time a new story comes out, but he does write the exact same essential story line each time. Elizabeth George writes well written books, but everyone in them is miserable. So they are a little tough. And then there are the not so good ones. The ones that you read because they are there, but really you get absolutely nothing from them. They're kind of like eating candy, bad candy, just because it's sweet.

Then about five years ago a took a trip to Europe. I traveled first with my mom and then with a friend. I had some stupid book - I think it was # 3 of the Bourne books. And it was long, formulaic and really not so good. I think you could say it was painful to read. Both my mom and friend were actually reading interesting, intelligent books and I felt like my brain was turning to mush. At the end of the trip I vowed to turn a new leaf.

Somewhere around that time I was listening to an NPR story with a New Yorker writer. A little light bulb went off in my brain and I realized I could read the New Yorker! And it worked, the New Yorker is awesome. The articles are interesting, well written. And I read about things I would never ever read (or possibly care) about otherwise. But now there is a new problem. The New Yorker comes once a week and I don't throw things out well. I have a really hard time getting rid of the ones I don't quite get through. I sure each one contains an amazing article and if I get rid of it before going back and reading it, I will be much less of a person. However, I'm sure all of you find me much more fascinating now that I'm reading the new yorker, so I'm sure the piles of crap are all worth it!

Recently uncovered in a house cleaning adventure.

The pile of books that I don't have time to read.

Bumbershoot

Someone is pretty excited about the Seattle Moscow Poster Show.

Grand Hallway, kickin' it live.

Seattlelites very appropriately dressed for the torrential downpours. (This was the youth gaggleless venue.)

Somehow Labor Day weekend saw me spending a good deal of time at Bumbershoot. I'm not sure what I think of the event. I have a few issues with it. First, It's very crowded. Even during a weekend of pouring rain this outdoor event managed to be crowded. It's also filled with lots of youth. In fact gaggles and gaggles of youth. They are fairly entertaining to watch and to listen to, but they do make the lines long. Finally, I'm not very cool, so while I have heard of the big bands (ie ones with really really long lines) like the Black Eyed Peas and De La Soul, most of the bands mean nothing to me. I saw some group named Matt and Nat - oh, wait that's a handbag. Matt and Kim? Something. Anyhow, they were poppy and smiley (very smiley) and a big fan with the kids. I also saw a group called gang gang dance. They had a star by their name and I was hoping they were going to be good and a dance act. Unfortunately, they were just an excuse for a fancy drum circle and lots of synthesizers (zero dancing). I tried to see some other people, but they were 'sold out'.

There were good things about Bumbershoot though. I got in for free!! I didn't get rained on. It was entertaining. I bought a super cool new hoody. There was an awesome poster show! And, I finally got to see my friend Jacqueline's band Grand Hallway.

All in all, not a bad way to spend Labor Day weekend.