Tattoo Envy / Jealousy

So last Friday the wife and I decided to go out and look at some different tattoo shops to determine where / who she wanted to do the cover up work on her oh so terrible tattoo that she got about 14 years ago in Hawaii while I was in the Army. I still have my horrible tattoo that needs to be covered or redone at some point. After looking around she settled on Saints and sinners tattoo shop in Carrolton, which was recommended by another shop in Lewisville.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture the tattoo that is getting covered, and even If I did Rene'e would likely shoot me for posting it... Let's just say for those that have never seen it, it BADLY needed to be covered :)

She discussed the generalities of what she was looking for with the artist and was happy when she left the shop on Saturday night and scheduled her work to begin on Tuesday of this week. The basics of what she told him was that she wanted some old school sailer jerry style tattoo. When Rene'e arrived at the shop to see what the artist came up with, she wasn't too happy with his initial design below.



Considering Rene'e had not even mentioned horses she wasn't really liking the first design... you'd really have to like horses to get something like that done, but I think the thought process was that the horses mane would do a good job of covering up some of her old tattoo.

After some further discussion with the artist and looking through some more books she found what she was looking for. It had several of the things she had been thinking about, a pinup, an anchor, and a sailboat. This picture is the tattoo she decided to get to cover her old one.



And here is liner work and some shading that was completed for her first session. You'll notice that beyond the flash work she's also got some stars and dots surrounding the main design and that it is almost a complete half sleeve at this point. man I'm jealous!



Rene'e seems to be quite pleased with the work so far and she is scheduled to go back in two weeks to hopefully get it finished... There is lots of shading and coloring yet to be done and I can't wait to see how the final cover up job turns out!

Political idiocy?

---

OK, i'm not going to go into my boring workout from yesterday or elaborate more on Mondays workout, todays topic is Political Idiocy....

From the spiegel online interview of Daniel Ellsberg.

"SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Ellsberg, you're a hero and an icon of the left. But we hear you're not too happy with President Obama anymore.

Daniel Ellsberg: I voted for him and I will probably vote for him again, as opposed to the Republicans. But I believe his administration in some key aspects is nothing other than the third term of the Bush administration. "

maybe i'm wrong in my thinking but, if you are not happy with the performance of your choice for the president, why would you even consider voting for him again for a second term just because he's affiliated to your party? That is some poor decision making if you ask me.

Ok, that one quote aside, here is another quote of him saying how Obama is doing worse then Bush, but he'll still vote for Obama...

"Ellsberg: For Obama to indict and prosecute Drake now, for acts undertaken and investigated during the Bush administration, is to do precisely what Obama said he did not mean to do -- "look backward." Of all the blatantly criminal acts committed under Bush, warrantless wiretapping by the NSA, aggression, torture, Obama now prosecutes only the revelation of massive waste by the NSA, a socially useful act which the Bush administration itself investigated but did not choose to indict or prosecute!

Bush brought no indictments against whistleblowers, though he suspended Drake's clearance. Obama, in this and other matters relating to secrecy and whistleblowing, is doing worse than Bush. His violation of civil liberties and the White House's excessive use of the executive secrecy privilege is inexcusable"

The entire article can be found here

---

Another Monday is Done

---

Yesterdays workout was short but good, a few new movements that I hadn't performed yet which I could tell did a decent job.

Nothing much else to report about for now other then the workout yesterday, so without further delay here it is.

20 KB swings
14 Dips
20 snatches
... more to come when I get home later

Another Week Done

---

So I did a quick small lower body workout today after dropping Daniel off at the beach to hang out with his buddies. I shortened the workout a bit because my lower back started tightening up like nothing else! In any case here was the short workout.

20 20 35 squats 10 rep, (held 2 20lb KB's in one hand and the 35lb in the other)
35 one leg rdl 10 rep each leg, (RDL = Russian Dead lift)

short break

35 tactical lunge under leg 20 rep alternate leg, This is where you lunge one leg backwards and pass the Kettle bell under the front leg of the lunge.
35 TKGU 5 rep

short break

20 20 35 squats 10 rep
35 one leg rdl russian deadlift 10 rep each leg

short break - Lower back is feeling it hard right now.

35 tactical lunge under leg 20 rep alternate leg

done, done, done... :(

---

Long Memorial Day weekend and Wednesdays workout

---

I took Monday off due to memorial day as well as two days of hot digging garden work on Sunday / Monday. Call me lazy but getting back into this is not easy...

Before I get into the workout portion of this post I'll share a couple photos of the flower beds that we rejuvenated. Thankfully everyone in the family helped out with all the weed pulling, planting, and tilling in some fashion or another.

In this first picture you can see Daniel and his buddy Garret working on hand tilling up one of the other flower beds, and getting ready to rid it of all the existing weeds.


Another angle


We have two more flower beds that I didn't take phone pictures of up against the house that were also done.


So on to what I did for today's workout.

20 KB swings, (10 each arm)
12 Dips
20 Snatches, (10 each arm)
10 pushups
20 KB bent over rows, (10 each arm)

4 Minutes and 6 Seconds total time

20 KB swings, (10 each arm)
10 Dips
20 Snatches, (10 each arm)
10 pushups
20 KB bent over rows, (10 each arm)

60 second break
8 Minutes 41 Seconds, 4:35 for the second set


20 KB swings, (10 each arm)
06 Dips
20 Snatches, (10 each arm)
10 pushups
20 KB bent over rows, (10 each arm)

Toasted, 14:13 Total time, the last set took me 5 minutes 32 seconds.

Overall my lower right back and right shoulder are not too happy with me at the moment. I think they are a combination of the garden work I did, and maybe not sleeping in a good position last night. In any case next time I do this workout I'm going to probably add another set of the same exercises, or add an extra exercise or two to each set, I haven't decided yet.

As you can see I don't really have a structured plan at this point, the reason for that is I'm just trying to get back into this and make it a habit again. I figure after a couple more weeks I'll start to put some more structure into my workouts so it's easier to track my overall progress.

As far as quantifiable / measureable progress I'm weighing in and taking body measurements every two weeks right now, maybe every week? This past holiday weekend and flowerbed work that were done I forgot it was Monday and didn't weigh in or take measurements.

see you in a day or two with more updates.

---

Day 5, The Beginning

---

So, I'm finally starting to get some rest, I feel good this morning but the fact that it's Friday might have something to do with it.

Tonight I need to pick up some groceries this evening, most likely after my workout when I get home from work. No more buying crappy Junk food like chips that call my name late in the evening, it's so hard to resist the call of the chips in the evening when I can't sleep.

Tomorrows Plan is to go buy some plants for the front garden beds, maybe even tonight if we have time.

Time to wrap this up to head off to work for the last day this week, woohoo!

Still Sweating, and again I HATE Cardio only workouts

---

Biked an all road route today 6.81 miles in 32:39 which is about a mile every 4.7 minutes or so... In any case, I really hate just doing cardio for a workout. you can super set resistance training and for some reason it the cardio doesn't bother me as much. Below is a map of the route I took on today's workout, not sure I'll ever do this one again at this point. I'm thinking I might just stick with super setting kettlebell / body resistance exercises everyday instead of doing a cardio only day.

All in all I got a longer workout then on Tuesday, the pace was close the same as my first ride so that was a plus. I'm soo looking forward to this weekend after my first week of getting back into exercising again.

---