No Rest for the Wicked
Lifestyle inertia is hard to stop, almost as difficult is it is to start. The end of my busy week led me straight into a busy weekend...
Though I spent a night at home on Friday, it became a night of note mostly because it was the opener for the new season of shows on the Sci-Fi channel. Though the Stargate series is only remotely engaging (moreso now that they've cast Ben Browder into their cadre), the fact that Battlestar Galactica was on the move again got this little geeky heart a racing.
On top of which, I decided to bake. Normally the fish does not bake. For one, I do not have much of a sweet tooth. I am one of those contented to eat course after course of savory dishes and forego the dessert as opposed to trying to reserve room for a confectionary nightcap. Crazy I know, but it does have the side effect that I am much more adept at cooking meals than desserts (a much more diversified approach if I do say so myself).
However, I did pick up some interesting chocolate chips recently. These chips were part of a new launch and where the chocolate was swirled with caramel. An intriguing concept when I saw it, so I picked up a bag. Just as I finished dinner, the idea struck me and I had no choice but to put the chips to the test. They were indeed very yummy even though I felt the caramel was a bit overpowering at times.
As it turns out, my Saturday was also very full. At the last fencing tournament I went to, one of the folks approached me and promptly conscripted me to help direct a high school tournament in the new year. When we spoke, I could have sworn he said Sunday. When we finally followed up with each other, I found out that it was going down a day earlier.
It wouldn't be so bad normally, but I had just solidified plans to entertain in the evening. This meant that I had to cut my commitment short instead of being able to help out to the end. They were very forgiving of my predicament and said they would be grateful for any help I could muster.
So I got up around 7:00, dressed up in some work clothes and headed out. I also took the cookies along because it cut their survivability chances significantly. Besides, it couldn't hurt to placate them a little more for my early departure.
The tournament itself was pretty interesting. The high school meets are a far cry from anything I am used to. If anything, it is a little more organized than the tourneys I go to. I suppose that when you do enough of them over the course of a year, you streamline certain things. It probably helps that it was a little more informal than USFA meets.
The participants weren't as motivated though. Getting these kids to show up to a strip was a chore and it was also work to keep the bout progression moving along once you got started. Kids today. It's like herding cats. Lobotomized cats.
I also noticed it was a different caliber of fencing. I wouldn't go as to say that they were sloppy, but it was certainly undisciplined. It made it difficult to direct at times because I just wasn't sure what action those kids thought they were taking. It was one of the few times I've seen someone use a saber parry as a blade action in preparation for an attack... considering that I was directing foil, this seemed more than a little out of place.
I bugged out around 1:30 in order to have enough time to prepare dinner. Apparently the cookies were a big hit because there was nary a crumb on the plate when I went back to retrieve it. The tournament was moving at a good pace too so I wasn't so worried about leaving them in a lurch.
When I got back home I got to work on dinner. This was a command performance by a friend of mine and something I haven't made in ages. Pot roast. Now that I had a dutch oven from my baked ziti experiment a few weeks back, I was itching to give it the slow cooker treatment.
It is the little things that make the dish really. I found pearl onions to have them bite sized instead of chopped. I didn't mash the garlic so that they would be braised little candies as well. And swapping out a cup of broth with some red wine. I set that thing to cook for about three hours...
In addition to inviting Ron and Liz over, captain_squid and piratelemur were also to come over. Unfortunately, they had remembered a previous engagement they had made and had to take a rain check. I did try to contact a few people to come join us because there was going to be a lot of food, but it ended up being the three of us.
When they arrived, it became apparent that my cooking had a downside. They were completely overwhelmed by the smells of the pot roast with all of the Pavlovian responses that go along with such stimulii. I had long since tuned it out and couldn't help but feel a little jilted as a result. At least I could rest assure that I had succeeded even before we got the morsels on the plate.
In addition to the roast, I figured that it was time to attempt buttermilk biscuits from scratch. It seemed a fine compliment to the main course. And though we actually tucked into the roast before the biscuits were out of the oven, they too were fantastic.
We nearly destroyed the whole roast and compliment but thought better of it and kinda lingered at the table in a sort of food Nirvana. About twenty minutes later, against all better judgment from our stomachs, we dug into this apple caramel cobbler type dish that Liz made. Equally fantastic and became the launching point to the state of "ated too much pie."
Though still relatively early, we weren't any condition to do anything except digest food. We ended up chatting and routing through some of the old issues of Consumer Reports I had laying around. Exciting, no?
They eventually took there leave and I went to bed because it was going to be another early morning.
Yep, there was a local fencing tournament on Sunday. Epee was the first weapon, so I dragged my still logey ass out of bed even though I wasn't too keen on the idea of fencing and drove into St. Paul.
Normally, this first tournament of the year is pretty good because you have a number of folks looking to re-up their classifications quickly. Indeed there was a stiff playing field at the venue with two A-rated fencers and three or four B-rated fencers (myself included). However, there were only 12 of us present at the close of registration so this became one of the toughest E-rated tournaments I've ever fenced.
My pool was with Adam, Ward, Tomo and a couple of girls. I had Adam first and he still presented a difficult challenge to deal with the style he has been refining over the past few years. I lost to him 3-5.
I then fenced Tomo, a tall gentlemen who has been fencing for a while but really doesn't compete as regularly as the rest of the group. He moved a lot better this time around and I had to work a lot sharper this time around to overcome his actions. 5-2.
There were two women in my pool, though I'll confess that cannot recall their names at the moment. The first was roughly my height and though aggressive, her actions were very predictable. She managed to sneak in a touch when I misjudged the distance, but I won the bout 5-1.
The other woman was a more well-rounded fencer. She was making good decisions but I found that her feet weren't as fast as mine and when I got the timing right, I pretty much controlled the match from that point on. 5-2.
Ward was my last bout and being one of the two A fencers, you know it was going to be a good one. The man is a snake when it comes to attacking and a sense of timing that makes it difficult to get close to his tall, thin frame. Having only one night at the club since my holiday hiatus, I was even slower at picking up his cues. I felt myself starting to key into his actions right at the end, but the damage was done and I lost that one 2-5.
I still ended up around 5th place for the initial seeding. What I didn't expect was to meet up against Alyssa for my first DE bout. She's one of the B-rated fencers and somehow placed all the way at the bottom.
She certainly had snapped out of whatever slump she was in because she got to a pretty quick lead. It was my fault, of course. Any time I attacked her, I would miss and she would hit me. Any time I would draw her into an attack, I would catch her as she came into distance. It took me a while to figure this out and then I spent the rest of time trying to goad her into an attack.
Had she realized this and just took a defensive posture, she would have kept that lead she had. However, I slowly niggled away her margin until in the third period we tied it up. I passed her 14-13 and then did a pretty stupid thing to tie it up at 14-14. However, I regained my wits and found a way to pull out the last touch to win. It was a hard victory and she would have won it handily has she seen the larger picture. And what did I get for my efforts? A DE bout against Adam.
He is such a street fighter, a brawler. I'd probably do the same thing if I had that kind of strength. But the approach is so unimaginative that I had trouble believing that it is as effective as tends to be. What really gets under my skin is when he manages to manhandle me too. Grr...
Adam did maintain a lead of a couple of points but I never let him get too far ahead of me. I was finding a way to close his blade out from me and I did not go recklessly into an attack he might be waiting for. Again, in the third period I found myself pretty much tied with my opponent. This is where I decided to switch up my game and attack into his advances. He was completely unprepared for them and unable to adjust in time before I scored the last touch. 15-12.
Next up was the other A in the tournament, Bob. He is a coach at the club there and does not fence too many competitions these days. It does not make him a rusty fencer though. Of course, the man is very, very tall and has perfected its exploits.
I'd have been happy just getting a few touches on him because I know how refined his style is. However, I think I was more in tune with it than he had realized because he found that most of his high percentage attacks were not working. Though neither of us could develop any sort of point advantage, it was certainly not the bout Bob was expecting.
I kept my hand well protected and kept my feet moving. I didn't linger in a touch trying to make a failed attack work. I did, for the third time end up in the third period tied with my opponent at 10-10. This time, however, Bob was the one who started to click with some of his stuff. A couple of rapid touches and I soon found myself fencing from a deficit. Eventually, we doubled out and I lost the match 12-15. For someone who was out of practice and sorta indifferent to the idea of fencing that day, I did rather well... tied for third. Had there been three more people, I'd have gotten my B06. Such is life.
I hit the wall when I got back home. I had enough energy to take a nice hot shower to relieve me of some of the aches and shots from the tournament. After that, I turned on the TV and pretty much just passed out. Not until later did I suspect that I may have picked up a head cold from somewhere because I noticed that my nose had become pretty runny in the latter part of the afternoon. Nuts. I guess I should be be grateful my constitution held out this long.
Though I spent a night at home on Friday, it became a night of note mostly because it was the opener for the new season of shows on the Sci-Fi channel. Though the Stargate series is only remotely engaging (moreso now that they've cast Ben Browder into their cadre), the fact that Battlestar Galactica was on the move again got this little geeky heart a racing.
On top of which, I decided to bake. Normally the fish does not bake. For one, I do not have much of a sweet tooth. I am one of those contented to eat course after course of savory dishes and forego the dessert as opposed to trying to reserve room for a confectionary nightcap. Crazy I know, but it does have the side effect that I am much more adept at cooking meals than desserts (a much more diversified approach if I do say so myself).
However, I did pick up some interesting chocolate chips recently. These chips were part of a new launch and where the chocolate was swirled with caramel. An intriguing concept when I saw it, so I picked up a bag. Just as I finished dinner, the idea struck me and I had no choice but to put the chips to the test. They were indeed very yummy even though I felt the caramel was a bit overpowering at times.
As it turns out, my Saturday was also very full. At the last fencing tournament I went to, one of the folks approached me and promptly conscripted me to help direct a high school tournament in the new year. When we spoke, I could have sworn he said Sunday. When we finally followed up with each other, I found out that it was going down a day earlier.
It wouldn't be so bad normally, but I had just solidified plans to entertain in the evening. This meant that I had to cut my commitment short instead of being able to help out to the end. They were very forgiving of my predicament and said they would be grateful for any help I could muster.
So I got up around 7:00, dressed up in some work clothes and headed out. I also took the cookies along because it cut their survivability chances significantly. Besides, it couldn't hurt to placate them a little more for my early departure.
The tournament itself was pretty interesting. The high school meets are a far cry from anything I am used to. If anything, it is a little more organized than the tourneys I go to. I suppose that when you do enough of them over the course of a year, you streamline certain things. It probably helps that it was a little more informal than USFA meets.
The participants weren't as motivated though. Getting these kids to show up to a strip was a chore and it was also work to keep the bout progression moving along once you got started. Kids today. It's like herding cats. Lobotomized cats.
I also noticed it was a different caliber of fencing. I wouldn't go as to say that they were sloppy, but it was certainly undisciplined. It made it difficult to direct at times because I just wasn't sure what action those kids thought they were taking. It was one of the few times I've seen someone use a saber parry as a blade action in preparation for an attack... considering that I was directing foil, this seemed more than a little out of place.
I bugged out around 1:30 in order to have enough time to prepare dinner. Apparently the cookies were a big hit because there was nary a crumb on the plate when I went back to retrieve it. The tournament was moving at a good pace too so I wasn't so worried about leaving them in a lurch.
When I got back home I got to work on dinner. This was a command performance by a friend of mine and something I haven't made in ages. Pot roast. Now that I had a dutch oven from my baked ziti experiment a few weeks back, I was itching to give it the slow cooker treatment.
It is the little things that make the dish really. I found pearl onions to have them bite sized instead of chopped. I didn't mash the garlic so that they would be braised little candies as well. And swapping out a cup of broth with some red wine. I set that thing to cook for about three hours...
In addition to inviting Ron and Liz over, captain_squid and piratelemur were also to come over. Unfortunately, they had remembered a previous engagement they had made and had to take a rain check. I did try to contact a few people to come join us because there was going to be a lot of food, but it ended up being the three of us.
When they arrived, it became apparent that my cooking had a downside. They were completely overwhelmed by the smells of the pot roast with all of the Pavlovian responses that go along with such stimulii. I had long since tuned it out and couldn't help but feel a little jilted as a result. At least I could rest assure that I had succeeded even before we got the morsels on the plate.
In addition to the roast, I figured that it was time to attempt buttermilk biscuits from scratch. It seemed a fine compliment to the main course. And though we actually tucked into the roast before the biscuits were out of the oven, they too were fantastic.
We nearly destroyed the whole roast and compliment but thought better of it and kinda lingered at the table in a sort of food Nirvana. About twenty minutes later, against all better judgment from our stomachs, we dug into this apple caramel cobbler type dish that Liz made. Equally fantastic and became the launching point to the state of "ated too much pie."
Though still relatively early, we weren't any condition to do anything except digest food. We ended up chatting and routing through some of the old issues of Consumer Reports I had laying around. Exciting, no?
They eventually took there leave and I went to bed because it was going to be another early morning.
Yep, there was a local fencing tournament on Sunday. Epee was the first weapon, so I dragged my still logey ass out of bed even though I wasn't too keen on the idea of fencing and drove into St. Paul.
Normally, this first tournament of the year is pretty good because you have a number of folks looking to re-up their classifications quickly. Indeed there was a stiff playing field at the venue with two A-rated fencers and three or four B-rated fencers (myself included). However, there were only 12 of us present at the close of registration so this became one of the toughest E-rated tournaments I've ever fenced.
My pool was with Adam, Ward, Tomo and a couple of girls. I had Adam first and he still presented a difficult challenge to deal with the style he has been refining over the past few years. I lost to him 3-5.
I then fenced Tomo, a tall gentlemen who has been fencing for a while but really doesn't compete as regularly as the rest of the group. He moved a lot better this time around and I had to work a lot sharper this time around to overcome his actions. 5-2.
There were two women in my pool, though I'll confess that cannot recall their names at the moment. The first was roughly my height and though aggressive, her actions were very predictable. She managed to sneak in a touch when I misjudged the distance, but I won the bout 5-1.
The other woman was a more well-rounded fencer. She was making good decisions but I found that her feet weren't as fast as mine and when I got the timing right, I pretty much controlled the match from that point on. 5-2.
Ward was my last bout and being one of the two A fencers, you know it was going to be a good one. The man is a snake when it comes to attacking and a sense of timing that makes it difficult to get close to his tall, thin frame. Having only one night at the club since my holiday hiatus, I was even slower at picking up his cues. I felt myself starting to key into his actions right at the end, but the damage was done and I lost that one 2-5.
I still ended up around 5th place for the initial seeding. What I didn't expect was to meet up against Alyssa for my first DE bout. She's one of the B-rated fencers and somehow placed all the way at the bottom.
She certainly had snapped out of whatever slump she was in because she got to a pretty quick lead. It was my fault, of course. Any time I attacked her, I would miss and she would hit me. Any time I would draw her into an attack, I would catch her as she came into distance. It took me a while to figure this out and then I spent the rest of time trying to goad her into an attack.
Had she realized this and just took a defensive posture, she would have kept that lead she had. However, I slowly niggled away her margin until in the third period we tied it up. I passed her 14-13 and then did a pretty stupid thing to tie it up at 14-14. However, I regained my wits and found a way to pull out the last touch to win. It was a hard victory and she would have won it handily has she seen the larger picture. And what did I get for my efforts? A DE bout against Adam.
He is such a street fighter, a brawler. I'd probably do the same thing if I had that kind of strength. But the approach is so unimaginative that I had trouble believing that it is as effective as tends to be. What really gets under my skin is when he manages to manhandle me too. Grr...
Adam did maintain a lead of a couple of points but I never let him get too far ahead of me. I was finding a way to close his blade out from me and I did not go recklessly into an attack he might be waiting for. Again, in the third period I found myself pretty much tied with my opponent. This is where I decided to switch up my game and attack into his advances. He was completely unprepared for them and unable to adjust in time before I scored the last touch. 15-12.
Next up was the other A in the tournament, Bob. He is a coach at the club there and does not fence too many competitions these days. It does not make him a rusty fencer though. Of course, the man is very, very tall and has perfected its exploits.
I'd have been happy just getting a few touches on him because I know how refined his style is. However, I think I was more in tune with it than he had realized because he found that most of his high percentage attacks were not working. Though neither of us could develop any sort of point advantage, it was certainly not the bout Bob was expecting.
I kept my hand well protected and kept my feet moving. I didn't linger in a touch trying to make a failed attack work. I did, for the third time end up in the third period tied with my opponent at 10-10. This time, however, Bob was the one who started to click with some of his stuff. A couple of rapid touches and I soon found myself fencing from a deficit. Eventually, we doubled out and I lost the match 12-15. For someone who was out of practice and sorta indifferent to the idea of fencing that day, I did rather well... tied for third. Had there been three more people, I'd have gotten my B06. Such is life.
I hit the wall when I got back home. I had enough energy to take a nice hot shower to relieve me of some of the aches and shots from the tournament. After that, I turned on the TV and pretty much just passed out. Not until later did I suspect that I may have picked up a head cold from somewhere because I noticed that my nose had become pretty runny in the latter part of the afternoon. Nuts. I guess I should be be grateful my constitution held out this long.