Seeing as Lord of the Rings is my favorite movie (yes, the whole trilogy counts as one single giant, epic film), it's fitting that my very first collage wallpapers back in the day were for Jackson's beautiful masterpiece.

Great day with the family. Nice gifts (new Heroes of Olympus book!!), WAY too much food and now I'm watching Christmas shows and designing 3D versions of the characters from my book. Happy holidays everyone!

Gingerbread, peppermint magic bars, hot apple cider and rainbow knit hats...dreidels and Christmas trees, Hanukkah songs and Christmas carols...lights in the windows and bells on the doors...I really love this time of year.

Been watching this for years and it's still one of the cutest and most fascinating things I've ever seen. I've seen cats talk before but this is, like, an in-depth discussion. Personally, I think the one on the right was negotiating a bath / massage but whatever they're saying, it's incredible to watch the back-and-forth. The range of tone and sound types is really something else!

The holidays are upon us! And in the midst of shopping for gifts and spending time with family, I'm wondering how it all affects my gym schedule. Clearly, I've got a handle on my priorities...

More newbies showed up last Thursday and I ended up with one of them. The focus was wrestling, so we pummeled and yanked each other back and forth for a while. The poor guy and his friend seemed so amazingly lost, it's funny to think that I had that same OMG WTF? HELP! expression only 2.5 months ago, and now feel like I've been there forever. I think they were a little unsure of the whole grappling girl thing at first but I was in a helpful mood so I kept yanking their arms tighter and talking them through the moves until they figured out that I was not, in fact, going to sue them if they went for a harness grip.

I stayed for gi class afterwards and Yanitza had fun practicing all sorts of painful moves on me in preparation for her first competition. I eventually got tired and meandered around with my cell phone, taking pictures and getting some great shots of Yanitza and Curly after she challenged him with some freakin' funny smack talk. He very much enjoyed getting her back for that, and C-Bear multitasked as coach, referee and commentator, which made the whole thing even more hilarious. If I had it all on video, it would be a great example of why I love my gym so much.

Seduff's stunning TV-style promo is still my favorite - not to mention the best edited - Doctor Who tribute out there. In fact, a far better promo for the series than I ever saw the BBC put out. They should have hired her and made it an official trailer.

This is one of many reasons why cats are so adorable and funny.

Thursday night was awesome. The frustration that I felt on Tuesday when I struggled with bigger partners went away and I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy again. I nailed it today, a complete 180 from earlier in the week. Confidence soars (at least until next class when my bubble of self-satisfaction gets shattered, but we'll deal with that later).

I was feeling tired and defeated after Rascal's hour of puke-worthy conditioning work, during which I had trouble with just about everything, from pushups to pyramid kick drills. As always, the young Obi Wan was very encouraging and supportive, but it doesn't change the fact that I still feel pretty ridiculous when it comes to kickboxing. I know I just need to be patient...very patient, and committed. Patience is not my strong point but at least I've got the commitment part down. I've practically moved into this place.

After much badgering from Liz and Yanitza, I went to the NYC women's open mat at Clockwork BJJ on Sunday and, although I essentially got my ass handed to me by every female grappler in the Tri-State area, including a few very tiny girls who were probably half my weight, I also landed my first genuine, well executed submissions by way of stepover armbar and americana. So I came out of the whole thing feeling quite abused but equally satisfied. Rolling with total strangers at a different venue is a great way to gauge personal progress, and considering I was the least experienced person there by a few months, I'm pretty happy with how I did, even if it was essentially 2 hours of getting knocked around. What else is new? By the way, that's me in the picture...in the back, in blue...about to get swept...yep.