Dirt and Pen Pals

February 23, 2008 by Black Belt Mama · 2 Comments
Filed under: Guest Post

My plans for the weekend are to do something fun with the girls, and go pick a pile of dirt to call our own in the development where we might build in advance of our meeting on Tuesday. Exciting stuff, but since I’m betting you’d rather hear another silly BBM flashback story, check out my guest post at Adam’s Cerebral Spillage today. I know how much you all love my ridiculous junior high stories so don’t miss this one!

Also, it seems I’ve jumped the gun a bit with the Carnival of Martial Arts books post that was actually supposed to go live on Monday. So, if you still want to submit something, go right ahead. I’ll add it.

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Carnival of Great Martial Arts Books

February 22, 2008 by Black Belt Mama · 2 Comments
Filed under: Just for Fun

Scroll down for new entries.

When you are unable to train for months at a time, you need as much good reading material as you can get! It is with great pleasure that I bring you the Carnival of Great Martial Arts Books.

Amanda from Amanda Takes Off presents Martial Arts Book Review posted at Amanda Takes Off….

John Vesia presents Martial Arts Madness posted at Martial Views.

Patrick Parker presents Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s Warrior Spirit posted at Mokuren Dojo.

Marks presents Great Karate Biography posted at Marks Chat.

Black Belt Mama presents My Journey with the Grandmaster posted at The BBM Review.

Dave Shevitz presents Stepping Off the Mat in Angry White Pyjamas, all In Search of the Warrior Spirit posted at AikiThoughts, No Blog of Significance: Book Review: Ultimate Jujutsu: Principles & Practice posted at No Blog of Significance, No Blog of Significance: Book Review: Okinawan Karate: the Secret Art of Tuite posted at No Blog of Significance, No Blog of Significance: Book Review: The Secrets of Okinawan Karate: Essence and Techniques posted at No Blog of Significance, No Blog of Significance: Book Review: The Way of Sanchin Kata: The Application of Power posted at No Blog of Significance, and No Blog of Significance: Book Review: Bokken: Art of the Japanese Sword posted at No Blog of Significance.

Jason Couch presents The Cane as a Weapon posted at Martial History Magazine.

Obsess Much?

February 21, 2008 by Black Belt Mama · 6 Comments
Filed under: On the Move

Things I did this week to prepare for our first showing tomorrow:

Removed every single thing from my refrigerator, removed and cleaned all shelves and drawers, and then put it all back together with the precision of that dude from the creepy Julia Roberts movie from long ago.
Cleaned underneath the drawer in my freezer, because yeah, I know every house I’ve gone into? I’ve looked under the drawer in the freezer. . . NOT. I just felt it had to be done.
Painted the molding in two of my bathrooms, making sure to paint with precision behind the toilets because, you know, everyone will notice back there.
Painted the molding in my hallway.
Touched up the paint on my bathroom cabinets from where my ACL brace chipped it off.
Washed the slipcovers on my sofa (Lil C decided to choke on a chip and then spit all the contents onto my sofa).
Yelled at the girls "Don’t Touch The WALLS!" every five minutes.
Bought a new rug for our entranceway. $149.99 on sale for $39.99, yeah baby!
Bought two new pillows for the sofa because that will totally make someone buy my house.
Scrubbed the stove until all the dried spaghetti sauce specks and all the skin on my hands was gone.
Washed all the rugs from the bathrooms.
Swept the kitchen floor like 4000 times.
Silently cursed my neighbor who has decided it’s perfectly acceptable to still have Christmas decorations out, and also boxes she doesn’t want anymore, and some box she thinks will magically get shipped back to the store without her telling anyone (like FedEx or the company where it came from) that she needs to return it.
Folded and put away many huge loads of laundry.
Bought yellow flowers because it’s supposed to invoke the desire to buy.
Wiped the toothpaste out of the girls’ bathroom 200 times minimum.
Made an appointment with my Realtor and the builder next week to discuss creating the house we lost from scratch.

***There are new reviews up at The BBM Review. Sometime within the next week or two, there will be a give-away that martial artists enthusiasts will love.

***Are you a lurker here? Do you want to start a blog but don’t know how to start or what to write about? I have a new gig teaching an online course called "Black Belt Blogger." To find out more about it, you can go here. And maybe YOU will be awarded an Honorary Black Belt Blogger badge. . .

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Quirks

February 20, 2008 by Black Belt Mama · 5 Comments
Filed under: Just for Fun

You make your friend start a blog and then she tags you. . .

Sigh.

I’m just kidding of course. I’ve been tagged by Renovation Girl and here are the rules:

The rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules.
3) Share six non-important things / habits / quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least three people.
5) Make sure the people you tagged KNOW you tagged them by commenting that you did.

Six non-important things about me:

1. I can drink iced tea or soda out of any type of cup or glass. However, give me milk in a plastic cup and I could seriously gag. I have to drink milk out of a glass or it just makes me nauseous. My Mom is the same way. Nature or nurture?

2. My feet are claustrophobic. I can not ever sleep with socks on my feet. Once I tried to slather my feet in emollient lotion and wear special socks to make sure it soaks in. When I woke up in the morning, my socks were on the other side of the bedroom. Apparently I ripped them off and threw them in my sleep.

3. When I get nervous, I pick at the skin on my thumb by my fingernails. You can totally tell how stressed out I am by the condition of my hands. Let’s just say that this week, my thumb started to bleed.

4. It doesn’t matter what type of hairstyle I have. It is almost always tucked behind my ears. It drives my stylist crazy!

5. I get extremely grossed out by poor table manners. People who lick their fingers, double dip and shove food in their mouths make me physically sick. I also get this from my Mom. We could both gag over any of these or other related issues.

6. When I find a house I like, I arrange my furniture in it in my mind while I’m falling asleep at night. I also grieve over losing a house I want like I lost a close relative. (No, I’m not over it and I’m not feeling any better about it or my stupid virus.)

Tagged are:

Adam

Karl

Sizzle

If you’re interested in submitting a post for the Martial Arts Carnival that will appear here on Friday, please get it in NOW! If you don’t, I will totally cough on you. See the left sidebar for the link. I’m too sick and lazy to link it here for you.

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And then there was nothing but germs

February 19, 2008 by Black Belt Mama · 6 Comments
Filed under: Mental Strain for Mama

The house is gone. Some out-of-town buyer came in and gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse. We couldn’t and didn’t want to compete. I feel like I’m grieving. I didn’t realize how badly I wanted it and I’m upset. We went to see another house tonight with high expectations and it was horrible. Pink and green nastiness, orange walls with green carpet. . . just awful. Plus, they totally lied about there being a 4th bedroom. There were only three and if that house was the square footage it says it was, well then my square footage is 4000.

Speaking of horrible, Lil C’s virus has turned into an ear infection and she has finally succeeded (after coughing in my face all week) to pass along her lovely flu-ish virus to me. Even Airborne couldn’t hold off this stupid virus. I want to crawl in bed, get under the covers, and just stay there all week long.

Back to square one.